Aftermath

"YO!

Wake up!

Kaiya is here, and she is upset that you called your scabbard a sheath!

ASS JOCKEY!

PINCUSHION!

KILLER!

Wake the HELL up!"

Light started to pour through cracks in my eyelids.

"Ned!!?" I shouted.

"What the heck, no one told me you would stay knocked out for soooo long!" Ned shouted back.

I fully opened my eyes and sunlight was shining upon me.

There was a sting as my pupils started to slowly shrink.

"Are you guys alright??!" I coughed.

"You moron!

The question is, are you okay??!

We had to keep watch on you ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT.

You had some kind of internal bleeding or something.

I am no expert but chances are, you were going to die."

"No one really cares!

I am alive anyways so let's just ignore that okay??!"

"You looked like a damned murderer with all that blood all over you.

I had to take off your cloak and change your tunic!!"

"I ain't dying from some stupid side affect from over-abusing timelapse."

A knock on the door.

"What the hell is going on??!!" Kaiya shouted from the other side of the door.

I prop myself up with my right arm and sat up.

"Come in Kaiya."

Ned turned around and performed the Atomus solute.

Kaiya walked in and gave the solute back.

"So did you drop the "pretty face" crap?"

"I did, not Ned though…"

"Hold on, what the he-" Ned said.

Thonk!

"-Oww…" Ned crumpled and fell like a rock.

"Heheh…"I nervously laughed.

"Ha, that was easier than I thought." Kaiya laughed.

I know what the hell this officer is capable of.

She is 1 year younger than I am and literally already a 5 star.

"So 'recruit', are you doing okay?" Kaiya asked me.

"As long as I am alive, count me as okay."

All of this action that has happened in the last few days have been pretty tiring.

It almost feels like life escalated from 0-100 extremely quickly.

This was an interesting experience.

The last time this place down south got attacked by a ghoul was 32 years ago, according to "legend".

"Seriously, did you call a scabbard a sheath?" Kaiya asked.

"Yeah, just roll off the tongue better." I responded.

"Understandable.

We were supposed to discuss matters in the event yesterday evening, like yesterday."

She sat down in the chair Ned was sitting in.

"You were knocked out for the night.

We were set to discuss things immediately with everyone involved in the fight.

Mainly because our superior is shady and does not like waiting."

"Oh crap, did I screw up your schedule?" I asked.

"Yep, but nope." She said,

"So your superior doesn't mind?"

"Well I will be transferred to 1st group soon after this period of graduation from the Aphelion military academy anyways."

"But I guess your superior cannot mind.

So if, say I get in then I will have to undergo training to move up the ranks to get to 1st group?"

"They accept any rank, as long as you have Soul And Weapon as well as a few good assets, you will likely be allowed in."

SNOOREE…

"I think you may have hit him too hard." I laughed.

"WAKE UP!" Kaiya shouted.

"Alright I will leave you to it, I need to go get my cloak and my weapons."

Kaiya jammed her combat boots into Ned's forehead.

I started to get out of bed.

"Oof!"

My chest still aches a little bit.

"OWW stop!!!

I surrender!!!

I don't WANNA die!!!

Owwww…

How… long was I out for?" Ned asked Kaiya.

"For YOUR MOM!

You literally passed out from a downward chop to the forehead!"

"Come on lighten up!" Ned shouted.

"COME on TOUGHEN up, Soldier!!" Kaiya shouted back.

I snickered while I was picking up my gear and putting it on.

I twirled my blade and sheathed it.

I also clipped my push daggers to my side.

"I am out of this military owned hospital.

I am not going to let you waste your good surgeons and solutions on me." I stated.

Ahh the sun looks beautiful as ever.

As soon as I set foot outside, the light very nearly killed my eyes.

"Well I will head back to camp; you all are required to participate." Kaiya announced, exiting the door.

"You will be asking us questions about our sword styles, our team combo, and various other things about us, correct?" I responded.

"Yeah, how…?"

"After knowing people even for a little bit of time, especially the military who is seeking good soldiers, I can figure out quite a few things."

"Well anyways I need to get back to camp to cut my hair, prep my weapons, and stuff like that.

In the meantime, Luki wants answers."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Yes, ma'am."

We exited the front gate town.

The sun just finished rising near the eastern sky.

"For the time being I will take command until we reach the military camp.

We will have to part ways after this in order for luki to catch the exams where all 8 military academies have testing, ranking, and assigning people to different instructors.

In fact, I will be one of the instructors, though it is my first ever time."

"So what are your requirements?"

"You already meet the requirements.

Your movement style is the type that can be multi-purpose, and you have proven to be able to fend off a ghoul.

Lastly, all you need is to learn how to be undetected.

That is it."

"…okay?…" I shrugged.

"I will be promoted to 6 star tomorrow because the empire really wants me to go into a special operations group or maybe as a solo spy."

"So you will try to have a secondary group?"

"Yep, if you have a lot of stars, you can join more and more groups.

Also the secondary group you have is the counterintelligence currently.

Counterintelligence offers the most freedom, and every mission is optional.

However you will rise in ranks if you partake in more missions.

They let you go wherever you want, even beyond our borders for your own personal missions.

They are however strict about what incidents you cause."

"Of course all military branches will chew you out for that."

"You understand that of course.

We all know during your time at the military academy, it is very rare for students to be trained on campus.

Instead they are sent on missions for peacekeeping or sent on missions that support the wars that we are in.

Currently we have no wars that are playing out."

I turned my head and looked forward.

The tree line of the forest was not far ahead.

"They sent us out like cannon fodder and whoever survives graduates."

"Pretty much.

Reed sent me out early to get into the academy.

I graduated when I was 13 after my 7th assassination and 21st recon missions were finished."

"Reed worked as an instructor for nearly 4 years.

Afterwards he picked you to be his personal apprentice."

"He trained me harder than any other person.

But why did he not train you as much?"

"He told me: 'Go develop your own method.

If you copy mine, you cannot choose your own path.

The only people that get my training are the ones that are certain to want to become the same type of person as me.'

No shit, you act decently similar to my brother."

"Huh, I think he wants you to make your own training regimen.

What that tells me is that he is confident that you will have people following your footsteps."

"well...

NED!"

"Yeah?" Ned responded.

"Do you remember our training regimen?"

"Oh yeah, we organized it into parts."

"Keep explaining…"

"I will begin with part 1 then."

→←

"I wonder how the hell your trainees will live to tell the tale of your training?" Kaiya asks.

"Yeah I will even force them to learn to write incantations even if they cannot use magic." Ned jokes.

"Well the only trick I know is to materialize arrows from mid air.

But a nifty trick nonetheless." Kaiya shrugged.

"I heard it requires you to write many lines of enchantments, probably not a very efficient method." I said.

We walked down the trail nearing the camp.

"Well Luki is gonna screw around with you guys a little longer, I heard enough.

Bye." Kaiya sighed.

She performed the solute and broke off to a nearby tent.

"So… did she tell you where to find Luki?" Ned asked.

"...Crap…"

Fwoomp…

I pushed aside the covering to get into the tent.

"What took you so long?"

"Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." I facepalmed.

"Please don't ask." Ned solutes.

"Straight down to business." Luki solutes back.

"As usual." I said.

"First off, you guys seem to know each other pretty well.

I witnessed that team combo, did you practice that a lot?"

"Not really, I just decided that was a good idea on the spot because I trusted that Ivan could probably use an acceleration boost." Ned shrugged

"I knew why Ned did it, so I just followed along to do the attack.

No questions asked." I said.

"Ass-kicking decisions and reaction speeds huh…" Luki shut his eyes.

"I suppose now that that is over, you are back to being our superior?" Ned asked.

"Yep, but I am laid back on formalities anyways."

"Okay what is it?" He asked.

"I have many questions, a lot of them are for Ivan because he is the biggest mystery here." He blinked.

"Alright, But why?" I responded.

"I am just curious; what you did there was pretty amazing to watch."

"Hmm…"

"First, how did you both not get an adrenaline rush when you were fighting?

It almost is like you are both calm and rational throughout the whole ordeal.

Not only that, it looked almost like it was your second nature."

"No military training, but all the combat training in the world." I said.

"Okay.

Were you both teammates before somewhere?"

"-Training partners and we fight summons quite a lot.

Also if you are wondering, the high speed combat maneuvers are what I use to take down tougher opponents.

I only use it when necessary.

Ned has a more traditional style, but he can land a lot more strikes than me in a shorter period of time."

"I have a lot of questions, like that white flash of light from your blades.

I saw it for a split second, then suddenly both your blades were drawn before I could see it."

"I forgot that I had quickdraw."

"Yeah, is that an ability or an engraving?"

"Engraving."

"So your brother had that quickdraw thing too.

I have also never seen anyone use Timelapse in person before."

"Now that you have seen it, you can probably tell why it is that powerful.

In fact it was way too powerful."

"Has Kaiya told you yet?"

"What?"

"Your brother uses that ability, but he claims to make it so that he does not speed up more than his limits."

"That means the reason I almost freaking died was because when I hit the on switch it goes way too far."

"I had to use that god damned potion on you." Ned butt in.

"Now that you see it, only use it when necessary." He continued.

"Ass jockey- I mean Ivan, how about that craptastic blood activated ghoul flame blade?"

"Secret only to the counterintelligence right now.

So I won't tell you." I said

"Fair enough." Luki said.

"Anything else?" I asked.

"Yeah, I got specialists to be able to paint a small ghoul marking on the blade that killed the ghoul.

This is how the military can tell how many ghouls you have taken down.

Ivan, can I see your blade?"

"Yeah definitely." I said.

Slowly I unsheathed the blade from behind my hip.

I handed over the blade carefully.

"Wow, surprisingly light!

It is pretty thin but strong…" Luki scanned the blade.

A specialist enters the room with a type of hair brush.

"A weapon's brush made for putting marks on a blade." I mumbled.

"Yep, he will be done in one second."

The specialist hands the blade back.

The mark was clearly visible.

A line crossing through an eye.

"That means you killed a spy, the normal soldiers are marked with small circles.

Here, take a look."

Luki stood up and picked up his sword propped up against a wall.

Shiiinggg!

"Damnnn…" Ned gasped.

"Whoa, so many marks!" I said.

"Yes, see I killed plenty, from spies to commanders." Luki continued.

He sheathed his sword back into his sheath.

"Anything else sir?" I asked.

"No, you may leave whenever you want."

"Well I will need to go to train for the first part of the exams." Ned sighed.

"Yes, same." I said.

"Well then farewell, both of you.

We will meet for the exams."

"Alright, thank you for inviting us here." I said.

"Goodbye."

"Until next time!"