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An Otherworldly Scholar - 210
🕑 Added 2025-03-12 02:50:46 +0000 UTC“I’m a Cat Spirit Beastfolk, Puppeteer Lv.5,” the girl said, pulling her hood back and revealing two cat ears: white and orange. “My name is Rup. Rup the Second, from Neskarath. My grandmother was a Puppeteer before me.”
Although physical span wasn’t a telltale of a person’s strength, I couldn’t imagine how Rup had entered the Imperial Academy. The girl was small. Slightly taller than Ilya but much more thin. The fencing uniform was too big for her, and she had to wear her sleeves rolled up so her hands poked through the holes. Her arms were like noodles, and her sleepy eyes didn’t help her make a better impression. The girl seemed sleep-deprived, and I wondered if the thick book under her arm was to blame.
If being an Imperial Knight were a vibe check, Rup failed.
Ilya has always been a menace. There’s no reason to think this is any different.
Fenwick looked down on Rup, seemingly trying to figure out how useful she would be in combat. He wasn’t hopeful. However, appearances were deceitful.
“A Beastmaster and a Puppeteer,” I said. “I assume you two will have helpers assisting your fight?”
Fenwick’s pets rested in the hands of the cadets. Genivra cuddled the squirrel, Leonie the two hamsters, and Aeliana the gray mouse. Fenwick’s toad had found his place on Yvain’s lap. The boy wasn’t thrilled.
“Hey! Any of you guys want to help me?” Fenwick asked.
The mammals were sleeping, and the toad let out a long ‘eek’ and turned away.
“Okay, that was rude, even for you,” Fenwick said, grabbing a spear from the rack.
After another long and angry ‘eek’, Fenwick turned away from the frog.
“I think I’m on my own,” he said.
“What did he say?” Rup asked.
“She. And it's better if you don't know,” Fenwick replied.
Rup pouted and pulled an almost invisible mana string attached to her finger. The box at the back of the room opened, and a wooden puppet emerged. The puppet was a crude, full-sized copy of Rup, with a round wooden head, glued-on paper ears, and a face drawn with black crayon. I focused my mana sense on the scene. Nine more strings connected Rup’s fingers to a different spot of the puppet’s body.
Rup sat on the ground, eyes closed, and the mana strings disappeared. The puppet, however, walked across the platform and grabbed a spear. The puppet moved almost like a living being, although its wooden feet knocked against the platform.
“Why is she naked?” Fenwick asked.
The puppet fumbled the spear.
“It’s not naked! It’s a puppet made from the finest ironwood!” Rup replied, flustered. “Focus!”
Fenwick grinned, proud of himself.
“Can I ask why you two enrolled in the Academy?” I asked. A Puppeteer seemed more akin to the Magician's Circle in the library, and a Beastmaster was out of place inside the biggest city in the kingdom.
Fenwick rubbed his fingers and grinned. Money.
“Prestige to my brood…” Rup said, dead serious. Not a second passed and her expression showed some cracks. “...and buy some books.”
Both were, in essence, the same answer. Money and prestige were different currencies used to buy the same commodity: safety. Beastfolk were rare outside the closed communities along Herran territory, and it wasn’t strange they needed prestige to leverage their social position in less diverse settlements. On the other hand, life in poor towns was hard.
Fenwick approached Rup’s puppet with less than pure intent, but the girl pulled the strings, making the puppet walk away.
Upon second thought, maybe Fenwick didn't do it for his nameless town.
“What are you going to do with the money, Fenwick?” I asked.
The boy looked to the side, deep in thought.
“I will build the biggest sanctuary for spirit amphibians in Ebros… and I will not invite you, you hear that, Dolores?”
The toad didn’t sound particularly happy.
College hadn’t prepared me to arbitrate fights between cadets and toads. At best, I could solve Harpy on Snakefolk violence and vice versa. Elincia was still twice as good when dealing with little kids.
“Alright, let’s finish with this,” I said.
My body was starting to get sore, and my forearm was numb. The System's endurance enhancement was anything but negligible. Back home, I could spend hours sparring with Risha and Izabeka, even after a day of hard work under Lyra’s attentive eyes. Now, a bunch of brats were pushing me to my limit.
“Let’s finish this quickly, Zaon,” I said.
I only needed a snapshot of the cadet’s skills.
Rup closed her eyes again. The weaknesses of her combat style were apparent: her body was defenseless, the mana strings were a huge weak point, and she could only control one puppet unless the catfolk had hidden fingers.
It remained to be seen how good puppeteer Rup was.
“Guards up!” Talindra said. “Fight!”
Rup’s puppet shot like a missile directly for my neck. It was a good start. So far, Leonie, Kili, and Cedrinor had been the only ones who had really tried to get me. I couldn’t help but smile. It was exciting, not only from a teacher’s perspective but from a Monster Surge survivor. A part of me wanted a taste of every class and skill in the kingdom.
I blocked the first attack, and Rup’s puppet aimed its spear at my eye sockets. I dodged the spear's tip by millimeters. I pushed the offensive. The mana strings were invisible to my underpowered mana sense, but I guessed that severing the puppet's limbs would render it unusable. I pushed the spear aside and aimed at the neck, but the puppet raised an arm and blocked my sword. My sword bounced against the gleaming surface. White sparks scattered across the floor. An invisible mana barrier protected the puppet.
Rup protested as a mana wave abandoned her body to refill the puppet’s mana barrier. I knew how she felt. It had happened to me many times back at the Farlands.
The sudden mana drain interrupted Rup’s focus, which was enough for me to slip through the puppet’s defense. I aimed for the girl. However, before I could reach her, a shadow appeared in the corner of my eye. I raised my sword just in time to block the hard body of a second wooden puppet.
I raised my guard, my eyes jumping from puppet to puppet, but none moved. Mana strings emerged from Rup’s feet, and her face was covered in sweat. She didn’t have enough mana.
Rup’s ears pressed against her head when I lightly tapped it with my training sword.
“Rup is out!” Talindra announced.
“This is all your fault Dolores!” Fenwick grunted as he blocked Zaon’s attacks.
Zaon pushed Fenwick to the edge of the platform as Dolores croaked out some uncharitable noises.
I examined the exchange.
Fenwick’s polearm skills were enough to keep a Lv.1 Zaon at bay. Barely. I couldn’t forget that Fenwick was also fighting with a handicap. He was a Beastmaster without the support of his beasts, but good enough to keep himself alive. Fenwick thrust, parried, and swept as his life depended on it. Unlike Yvain, Fenwick didn’t have a formal education; however, I noticed he had experience fighting stronger opponents.
I helped Rup back to her feet.
“You can control two puppets?” I asked.
“I will. Eventually,” she replied. “I need more mana… and get better with spears.”
Her big green eyes focused on Fenwick’s spearplay, absorbing every single piece of information.
“The puppet mimics your passives,” I said.
It wasn’t much of a question but an affirmation.
Rup nodded, flexing her hands.
“My body is weak, but that doesn’t mean I can’t learn.”
“Well said, you already got the first lesson.”
Rup gave me a quizzical look.
“Really?”
“Yes. With that mentality, you are a step ahead of the rest of the kingdom.”
Zaon hit Fenwick’s mask, and the combat was over. Unlike Genivra, by the end of the fight against Zaon, Fenwick was covered in sweat. It was a good sign. Joker or not, he tried his best.
I congratulated them and sent them back with the other cadets.
I gave [Classroom Overlord] a quick glance. Thirteen students had jumped ship on the first day. Class Cabbage had a total of eleven students.
“It could’ve been worse.” I thought.
Yvain took Dolores the Toad from his lap and passed it back to Fenwick. They didn’t look at each other.
Once again, I clapped my hands and faced the cadets.
“Do you think the System is a crutch now, Mister Osgiria?” I asked, circling back to the start of the lesson.
Yvain looked away, his face a mixture of emotions. My mana starved [Foresight] wasn’t enough to interpret his expression. He was stuck in a dilemma. I was putting into doubt everything he believed to be true, and on top of that, I was a Knight Killer.
The death of his father must’ve been still fresh in his mind.
Still, I had made my point.
“There are three things you need to learn every skill and art. Belief, knowledge, and technique,” I said, raising my fingers.
Reducing the learning process to only three elements was a gross oversimplification, but the kids followed my fingers like they contained the secret of eternal life. Even if it was an oversimplification, in my experience, those were three of the most powerful ideas about teaching.
“Belief,” I said, my voice filling the room. “The belief you can develop your abilities through effort, learning, and perseverance. There are a lot of skills that aren’t written in your Personal Sheet, skills I used to defeat every single one of you. The good news is, you can learn them, but you have to stop believing blindly in the System.”
I summoned my Character Sheet, with all those big [SEALED] marks by the side of my skills and passives, and turned it around. The cadets glanced at it, exchanging hushed comments.
“Knowledge,” I continued. “Knowledge of your current ability; the things you can do, the things that are within your reach, and the things beyond your current capabilities. If you try to learn something beyond your reach, you will fall flat, but if you decide to push yourself a little further, you’ll be able to take a step in the right direction.”
All new knowledge was built upon previous understanding. As painfully obvious as it sounded, many teachers forced students with knowledge gaps to bash their heads against tasks they weren’t prepared to achieve. It wasn’t surprising students continued to fail. It was like learning calculus without knowing how to do addition and multiplication.
“Technique,” I said. “Break the problem into simple tasks. Don’t try to learn everything simultaneously because the problem will overwhelm you, and you will fail. Set small goals. Try, fail, adjust, and try again until you achieve it.”
The cadets nodded in silence as I revealed a hidden creed. They had experienced the results of my training, albeit indirectly through Zaon’s performance, and they liked the taste. It was a good start.
“With those three precepts in mind, you can learn everything, even if you don’t have a teacher guiding you.”
Leonie’s hand shot up.
“Yes?”
“Shall we keep those precepts a secret?”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
Out of all possible questions, I wasn’t expecting that one.
Leonie gave me a confused look.
“So… it’s a secret?”
“No. It’s not a secret. You are free to share it with everyone you like. Crafting classes practice many of the principles I told you already,” I said.
For Crafting classes, repetition was paramount, except they failed to push themselves out of their comfort zone. They just performed the same recipes until the System recognized their mastery. They still learned a lot during the process.
“I don’t get it. If we reveal your techniques, others can use them for their benefit,” Leonie said.
“Well, yes… that’s what education is about. The people’s benefit, personal and social,” I said, closing the topic. “I already took up enough class time. Instructor Mistwood, would you like to introduce your part of the course?”
Talindra nodded.
The cadets seemed more receptive, so I walked to the sideline and sat by the teacher’s desk with Zaon by my side. For the next hour, Talindra gave an in-depth explanation of [Mana Manipulation] and the mastery over every single one of their skills. She told the cadets that before leveling up and cluttering their Personal Sheets with dozens of skills, they had to internalize and master those they already had. It was what I had already discovered. Skills could be fed and used in a certain way to improve their efficiency.
I grinned. The course's magical and martial aspects could be unified in a single set of exercises, which would save us a lot of time. It was perfect, considering how little we had before the selection exam.
“How was your first selection exam, Zaon?” I whispered as Talindra illustrated a series of exercises to improve mana control.
“We called it the Puppet Gauntlet,” Zaon said with a bitter smile. “Each of us was put on a bubble at the Egg. We were set to fight puppets, and we had to survive until the bell rang.”
I scratched my chin, expecting something more creative.
“How many puppets did you have to defeat? Six? Eight?”
Zaon raised an eyebrow.
“Twenty-four hours,” he said. “I had a small waterskin and a few hardtack biscuits. The puppets came one after another, sometimes more than one simultaneously. Sometimes, there were a few minutes between waves, hours, or no pause at all. About a third of the cadets failed. The Puppet Gauntlet set a record of expulsions.”
I could tell he hadn’t had a good time.
The words my mentor told me once back at the uni appeared in my mind.
“The axe forgets, but the tree remembers.”
He was talking about physical punishment in the context of education to illustrate that some things teachers did would haunt the students for years to come.
I squeezed the Zaon’s shoulder, but he continued.
“The mid-term selection exam took place in the Lothern Forest. We had to cross the forest from north to south in three days. Only the first hundred would pass,” Zaon said. “I only survived because I teamed with Ilya and the others. We were lucky enough to dodge most of the saboteur teams. After all, we were fighting for limited spots, and there were no rules against collaborating or obstructing other cadets.”
Zaon’s expression suddenly changed. It wasn’t just the bittersweet memory of the challenges conquered. He was deeply disturbed.
“Zaon?”
“Word is… some cadets died,” he said, covering his mouth with his hand. [Awareness] and similar skills make it trivial to read lips. “I don’t know. There are rumors like those every year. You know, probably older cadets trying to scare the new recruits.”
“What do you believe?” I asked.
“I’d say there’s a chance it happened,” Zaon said, lowering his voice. “Dozens of instructors oversee exercises to keep everyone safe, and among cadets, there are several sons and daughters of important nobles… but things don’t always go as planned. Monsters, malfunctioning equipment, even natural disasters… everything can happen out there.”
I nodded in silence, a new weight upon my shoulders.
Life or death, all over again.
Worst of all was to know the same weight rested on Zaon’s shoulders.
“Thanks for telling me, Zaon,” I said.
I saw in his eyes that he had more to say, so I let him continue.
“The world isn’t as different as in Farcrest… lumberjacks eaten by monsters, kids kidnapped by flyers, a landslide opening a sealed cave full of Flesh-eating Scarabs and…”
“...and nobody is careful enough,” I finished his sentence.
Zaon recoiled, blushing, and something clicked in my mind despite [Foresight]’s weakened state. He wasn’t worried about my students or even his squad. He was concerned about my reaction to the cadet’s failure, protecting me from my own ambitions.
“I know a thing or two about you, kiddo,” I jokingly said. “If you want, you can oversee our training, and you will tell me if I’m pushing them hard enough.”
Zaon smiled.
“That’d be nice.”
Only one question remained unanswered: how to make the most of the month before the selection exam. One month, however, seemed too short to teach them anything meaningful. We had six months of preparation at the orphanage before the Stephaniss Cup, and even that amount of time seemed too short. Conversely, the cadets already had a solid understanding of their combat skills. I just had to turn them into high-performance athletes—or at least take the first steps in that direction.
“...as Imperial Knights, you are expected to have a perfect mastery of your Skills and continually strive for excellence. Your dedication during this first year will reflect not only upon your honor but also on the pride of the Academy,” Talindra said.
In the end, she wasn't such a bad speaker.
The folds of her robe fluttered gracefully as she gesticulated. I wondered if she knew Astur’s point of view regarding the Imperial Knights. If I were going to work with her for a whole year, I would have to get to know her better.
“Any last considerations, Instructor Clarke?” Talindra said.
I nodded.
Traditional classes may not be sufficient.
“Back in my homeland, we have ways of improving in short periods, and I was wondering if you would like to try it,” I said. “I can’t ensure it would work, but I think it might be worth the shot.”
“A blood pact with the ancient spirits of the forest?” Fenwick asked.
The other cadets rolled their eyes, although Aeliana seemed alarmed.
“Not quite. Your souls will be intact by the end of the period, I assure you,” I replied. “I’m talking about adopting the structure of a training camp.”
Rup raised her hand.
“Should I buy anti-flea potions?”
“No, Rup. We are not going camping.” I grinned. “For the next month, the outside world will not exist.”
Comments
G
Only thing that stands out is; if the instructors use older cadets as classroom aides, and they can tell the professors what their exams were. Why don't the professors know the exams? Only solution is that the exams change every year.
Ben Bass
TYFTC! I am glad Robert is bringing Zaon in to help with the kids. He will really be able to show them and help them make connections of ideas based on how Robert teaches. I also like the ‘boot camp’ idea, they will need as much work in this month to survive the first test. I think he is going to turn them into a nice unit to work with each other. Let’s see how this goes!
Andrew Lechner
Boot camp. Works even when not camping. Hope the cadets like regimented 16 hour days.
Matthew
"Welcome to boot camp maggots! I hope you brought your big boy and girl pants, you're gonna need them!"
Wyatt
Great chapter again! Excited for more Zaon screentime
I Dare Korval
Boot camp time. Drill Sargent Clark will break them down and build them back up.
