Sharp

We were at the general assembly the next morning, and rumours were flying around that Roland Remore was here and would address us. He might also come to some sword training sessions. The students were buzzing with excitement and speculation.

Eventually, everyone quieted down as the top people walked on stage. The acting principal from last semester was there—I can’t remember his name. Following him were Professor Prefiti and Professor Haoran, who interviewed me. Then, Healer Arabelle Remore was followed by a tall man who also resembled Rufus, but he had hair. I assume he was Rufus’s Dad, Gabriel. Following him was a gentleman who looked like the man in front of him and Rufus, and he was bald like Rufus. Either he was Rufus’ grandfather, Roland, or I had him and Gabriel mixed up. One was the Dad, and one was the Granddad.

A couple of other professors followed, and then they sat, and the acting principal started introducing everybody. The one with hair was Rufus's Dad, and the bald one was the grandad. The Diamond ranker did not look any different from anybody else. He was dressed in a fashionable suit, but Rufus’s dad was more flamboyant in his dress, and when introduced, he let off a small bout of flames. I could tell Arabelle was displeased by that.

The new students were welcomed, and general stuff was mentioned that I vaguely recall from last year.

“Now, I will hand over to our Principal Emeritus. Please welcome our Diamond Rank founder, Lord Roland Remore.”

The students cheered, and the bald dude stepped to the front.

“Thank you, everyone. It is good to be back on Pallimustus, and it is good to be here today. Today, we have a special treat. Last semester, we had one group of first-semester students succeed in the end-of-semester assessment in the bronze-rank astral space. This has not happened for twelve years. We have special awards to present. Would Theodore Narelli, Nassor Markus, Saskia Kaing, Akemi Chu, and Melor Blyth come up on the stage along with their Bronze Rank student leader, Jaha?”

That is the end of the rumours fading into the background. I reluctantly got up and walked to the aisle and then up to the stage. Everybody was looking at the six of us, five of us coming from the second-semester seating and Jaha’s bulk from the graduate seating. I tried to hide behind the others, but they pushed me in front.

“This institute is about bringing out excellence in our students, and that excellence is demonstrated in these students who succeeded by thinking and preparation rather than by combat prowess. They certainly bested a number of bronze-rank monsters but kept the objectives in mind rather than getting caught up in the need to kill monsters. Intelligent thinking and teamwork meant they succeeded above what pure combat potential would indicate. Theodore Narelli, please step forward.”

I stepped forward beside him.

“Theo. I watched the recording, and your leadership shows incredible promise. As an award for your success, this is a voucher for an iron-ranked weapon of your choice, and in the next week, we will arrange for a private training season where I will train you for an hour one-on-one.”

That got a lot of surprise responses from the other students and a lot of jealous looks.

“Thank you, Sir,” I responded and stepped back as he called Saskia up. Each of us got a voucher for an item that was useful to us and an hour of private training with the diamond ranker. Jaha got a bronze-ranked weapon rather than iron.

We threaded our way back to our seats. I could tell the others were excited about the training opportunity. I sat back down next to Val, who was almost spitting tacks at the opportunity we got, and she missed out on. She is a swordswoman, and I guess the baldy is supposed to be the greatest swordsman on the planet. He has probably been her hero since birth. When you think about it, none of us except Jaha use a sword. He must have some other skills he can teach us.

“You lied to me!” I had an angry prince in my face.

“Not at all. You made your own assumptions,” I replied.

“That is true,” Val said, “I saw the whole thing.”

The Prince growled. “You will tell me how you did it,” he demanded.

“Not likely. I am just a barely clothed, vegetable-eating peasant. A great noble such as yourself can work it out. Or.. are you not so great?”

The Prince growled again, “Come.” he said to his wives and turned and marched off.

The left-hand wife, I still have not learned their names, not that I tried, paused and said, “You should not make an enemy of him.”

“He should learn some manners,” was my reply. She growled and turned and followed her husband.

“I think it might be you,” Val said, “He is polite enough with everybody else.”

“Any idea why I might offend them so much?” I asked.

Val shrugged.

Akemi said, “Is it a Leonid thing? They were fine with Ife, but she was really respectful to them when she spoke to them.”

“If it is a Leonid thing, it must be particular to their culture,” I said, “I have no idea. Where are they from again?”

“Kekie,” said Val.

“I don’t even know where that is,” I said.

“I think it is on the continent south and west. There is some huge desert and then a really low mana area.” Val shrugged, “I don’t know much else.”

“So, a whole different continent?” I clarified.

She nodded.

“Whatever. I prefer we ignore each other,” I said.

“Good luck with that,” Val said, “so, what are you going to ask for training in?”

“I don’t know. I use an axe, spear, and shield, so I guess in those areas. I had thought I might ask for some aura training,” I replied.

Val screwed up her nose at that.

“I don’t know either,” Akemi said. “I might ask him what he thinks I need to learn.”

“That’s wise,” I said. “He has been around for several centuries and spent at least a couple of them training people like us. He must have a huge knowledge base to draw from.”

Akemi nodded.

“I am so jealous,” Val said.

Academy life settled back down into a routine. I figured I would not cash in my voucher until after I had my lesson with Baldy, as he might have some recommendations for me.

I knocked on the door of the private training room.

“Come in, Theo,” was the reply.

I entered, and Roland Remore was there alone.

“Afternoon, sir,” I said.

“Nice to meet you, Theo. I must say I was very impressed with your performance.”

“Thank you sir.”

“I understand you met my grandson, Rufus.”

“Yes, sir. He and his team helped me a lot and recommended that I come here.”

That got a big smile from him, “Good to hear. Good to hear. He is a chip of the old block. Now, how can I help you?”

“I am open to suggestions, but there is one thing I was interested in that I saw Rufus do.”

“Go on,”

“He had this meditative sword dance that he used to do, and I spend a lot of time meditating and would be interested in something similar, but I don’t use a sword.”

“What weapons do you use?”

“Axe and shield, or spear and shield. Sometimes just a spear.”

“I know several meditative dances for the spear, but I only know one for the axe, which can be done with or without the shield. Which would you prefer?”

“The axe and shield, I think. It was a small hand axe I used to kill my first monster and the weapon I used to kill my first undead.”

“Very well. Get out your axe and shield. The axe is a much more aggressive weapon than the sword, and this is reflected in the meditation. It is called the Tranquil Axe, or it is sometimes known as the Serene Chop Meditation, depending on what part of the world you are in. The first part has eight basic steps, which can be modified to include the shield. Follow my steps and I will guide you through it.”

The hour went very fast.

“You what?” exploded Val.

“I asked him to teach me the Tranquil Axe Meditation.”

“You had the greatest Swordsman on the planet alone for an hour, and you …. Meditated?”

“Yeah, it was nice.”

“I… I… You… Oh, I can’t deal with this,” Val said, stomping into her room and slamming the door.

“You might have broken her,” Akemi said.

“Yeah, maybe. I am not sure I understand why. What did you learn?”

“He taught me how to defend against sword attacks, the common attacks and skills, and how to move and defend with a staff and my different skills.”

“Oh. That sounds useful.”

Akemi nodded. “It was very useful. You know Val has idolised Roland Remore since she was young. I visited her home during the break and she has a picture of him on the wall with a common saying of his. It is the opposite of the picture of the Steel Balls team.”

“OK,” I said hesitantly, not understanding why she was saying this.

“Roland Remore is her idol, and that is the whole reason she became a swordswoman. She does not understand why you wouldn’t at least ask him questions about sword fighting.”

“I am still not sure I understand,” I said.

Akemi shook her head, “And I am not sure you ever will. Just don’t worry about it.”

“OK.”