The following months flew by. Nobody tried to kill me or my students, Evelisse barely showed signs of life, Astur treated me like royalty, and Byrne continued acting unaware of my Runeweaver Class. Once a week, I got a stack of letters from Elincia and the orphans. Lyra Jorn had made significant advances in the literacy of the youngest ones, so I got to see how things were going at the orphanage from the kids' perspective. Shu had strong complaints about the hygiene of the new orphans. Her wings had been rapidly growing, and she had a flea infestation in the middle of the spring. Virdian and Nokti were worried—for the third year in a row—about the orc settlers' ability to harvest potatoes. They argued that the average orc was so strong, they'd crush the potatoes when pulling them out of the ground, even though they had done fine in the previous seasons. The other orphans wrote more impersonal letters, commenting on the weather, the food, and Captain Kiln's training.

Surprisingly enough, Ash also decided to write. Our relationship was way better than when I had arrived at the orphanage, but he had a reserved personality, and his desire not to be a burden to others made him a bit uncommunicative at times. Ash wrote to ask me about his career path. His fourteenth birthday was coming soon, and he was troubled about the class he'd choose next year. In the letter, he told me about all the classes he thought the System would offer him. He pondered the strengths and disadvantages of each Class, but he wasn't sure which was the best fit for him.

"When did he become so introspective?" I asked myself, holding the letter under the light of the windows.

Ash had a clear bias towards Wind Fencer, which wasn't surprising considering how much he respected Firana, but he knew it was rare to get an Advanced Class right from the start. I continued reading. Not two lines afterward, I felt like I was walking on air when he said he'd be fine getting Wind Mage and mastering fencing in parallel. It was too close to my Swordsmanship Scholar's build to be pure coincidence. Down on his list, I found Fire Fencer, Duelist, regular Fencer, Thief, and Ranger.

"He's into fast, offensive Classes," I said, noting the absence of Brawler, Sentinel, and Knight. "I guess I will have Firana write him."

I put the letter back in my magically locked desk, next to the inert shard of Red Corrupted Crystal. So far, the crystal hadn't reacted to anything I had thrown at it. Byrne hadn't had better luck with it. I sighed and locked the drawer.

The enchanted lock was a novelty at best. Anyone could access its contents if they broke the wood. At least servants were bound by hexes, so it wasn't like they'd steal things. That didn't prevent them from speaking about any enchanted item they found in my room, so I had to be smart with my runeweaving. Any enchanted item not locked in my safe at the Farcrest Alchemists Guild had to be one that was easily bought at the market. I missed the privacy of Lowell's Manor.

Deciding it wasn't time to think about home, I threw the capelet over my shoulders, tied my good sheath to my belt, and locked the door. Today was a strategy meeting. I climbed down the stairs into the teacher's lounge.

"Hey! Are you free today?" Ghila jumped from her seat by the window before I could use [Mirage] on myself.

Ever since the royals spread word that I claimed Janus was the real deal, she's been dead set on fighting me. Ghila was the kind of person who couldn't take no for an answer, but luckily, each time I had a good excuse to flee from her. My regular meetings with Byrne seemed to work better than the other excuses.

"I'm busy," I replied, heading to the exit.

Even in a building full of high-level combatants, Ghila had a larger-than-life presence. I heard her heavy footsteps behind me. She was wearing yellow boots with bells and a tabard that combined teal, yellow, and pink. She was a Lv.49 Champion and had been stuck at that level for half a decade since she decided to take a break at the Academy. I wondered if her flashy outfit was designed to maximize the chance of her enemies spotting her. It could be her strategy to level up quickly, but I was probably reading too much into it.

"Busy? Holst told me your squad only had theory this morning," Ghila said.

My next best excuse vanished before my eyes. The only thing Ghila truly feared was Lord Astur, so she didn't dare to interrupt my lessons. Lately, she had been more relentless than usual.

"I'm meeting someone at the Egg," I replied, thinking about what to say. I was meeting with Firana and the others, but that didn't sound like something that would make Ghila turn around. A mentorship session? She could offer her help. A father-daughter bonding day? She could offer herself as Firana's new mother. Ghila used to be Firana's instructor, and she believed Firana was nothing short of a genius.

"The Egg? If they arrive late, we can get a quick sparring session. I wonder if the bubbles can hold up to my sword," Ghila smiled.

"I'd rather not be tired for the meeting."

"I can give you a Stamina Potion."

"Or sweaty."

"An aide must be able to cool you down and dry you off."

A gnome had dried my boots after a sudden spring rain last week, so I knew for a fact that minor utility elemental spells were a thing. They even had an instant-ironing spell that left behind a soft, chamomile aroma.

"I'm meeting Firana and Wolf, so I want to look good," I said.

Ghila tripped over her pointy boots.

"Oh, family business. I understand. It wasn't my intention to intrude," she said, suddenly flustered. She patted my back a bit too forcefully, and I felt like my lungs bounced inside my ribcage. "You have to treasure those moments while you can. You'd think being an Imperial Knight is a safe job, but when the really big monsters strike, we are the ones on the frontlines."

Ghila gave me a nod and turned around. I wasn't expecting to meet so much understanding from her. A hint of guilt pulled at my chest, but I had too much on my plate to fight a battle junkie on top of it all.

I exited the main building and crossed the gardens to enter the Egg. The glass building was as magnificent as the first time I saw it, and the blue dome shone under the sun like a massive sapphire. As soon as I entered, an aide came to meet me. This time, it was a girl from the Magicians Circle.

"May I serve you, Lord Clarke?"

"Someone is waiting for me," I replied.

The adept bowed and returned to her station.

Dozens of magic bubbles covered the main floor. Cadets and librarians of the Magicians Circle sparred and practiced their combat magic, the sound of the duels and the spells muffled by the magic barriers. I made a mental note to ask Evelisse to introduce me to the leader of the Magicians Circle. Given Leonie and Rup's skill set, I would need a specialist to train their magic spells. The Magicians Circle was the best place to find magical combatants with real-world experience. Mixing swordsmanship with magic was no trivial task, and my fighting style wasn't really akin to theirs.

Inside a lonely bubble by the corner of the Egg, Aardvark violently poked Wolf's chest. I couldn't see Wolf's face from this angle, only Aardvark's. The whole Wolfpack was inside the bubble with Zaon and Ilya. The third-year cadets exchanged uncomfortable glances.

I pushed mana into [Foresight] just as Aardvark spoke again.

Months, Wolf! How much long are we going to play errand boys for the nobles? The anti-nobility rallies? They aren't even real! I'd bet the nobles made them up just to cut into our training time.

Wolf replied something, and Aardvark's face turned red.

He could have been a commoner before, but he sold his soul when he became a Thane. Your daddy is one of them! You are just too blind to see it! We formed the Wolfpack to watch each other's backs, not to be a nobleman's pawn. Not to police our own!

Firana jumped to her feet and pushed one of Aardvark's shoulders, hard.

One more word about Mister Clarke and I will make you swallow your teeth, Aardvark. You are warned.

Aardvark opened his mouth but closed it again without saying anything. Instead, he shoved Wolf aside and exited the magic bubble. The group followed him with their eyes and noticed my presence. The bubble opened, and Wolf's voice carried outside.

"Meeting is over. You are dismissed."

The members of the Wolfpack nodded and followed Aardvark. The young man gave me a murderous glance and disappeared behind a magic bubble filled to the brim with flames. Most of the members of the Wolfpack greeted me, but I could tell the discussion had fractured the group. Those weren't just Aardvark's words but the general feeling of the squad.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Who does he think he is? He doesn't know an orc's snot about Mister Clarke!" Firana said, fuming.

"It's good to see you addressing me properly," I greeted, entering the bubble.

"Don't get used to it. She's just too embarrassed to call you 'dad' in public," Ilya pointed out.

"No, I'm not!"

Firana's high-pitched scream told me everything I had to know.

"Are you okay, Wolfie?" I asked.

"Any healthy squad needs a watchdog to keep the leadership in line," he replied with a tired sigh.

I could tell he was upset, even if he didn't show it.

The quartet wore plain civilian clothes. I assumed they had been prowling the Eastern Ward for clues of the anti-nobility rally. "No new leads?" I asked.

Wolf shook his head. It had been over two months since the corruption incident at the Imperial Library, and the Grand Archivist managed to keep it under wraps. In the same fashion, any clue about the anti-nobility rally had disappeared without a trace. No matter how much the Wolfpack trash-talked the Academy at the taverns of the outer wards, no agent had approached them. I suspected the anti-nobility movement had a mole inside the high ranks of the Library; there was no other explanation for their sudden disappearance. However, Evelisse told me she hadn't been able to find anything suspicious, other than a worrying number of teacher-student relationships. She had thrown the full weight of the royal family and the Zealots of the Church of the System into the investigation only to find nothing.

I put my arm around Wolf's shoulders, and he lowered slightly. "Let's abort the mission. Either they saw the bait or they got scared and ceased operations."

"What if—"

"I'll think of something else. You should focus on passing the exams, not chasing shadows," I said, patting the half-orc's chest.

"We are third-year cadets. Exams are a formality at this point," Zaon pointed out.

I didn't expect the day to come when Zaon's candidness turned against me.

"Let adults worry about adult things," Ilya said mockingly. "That's your next line."

I ignored her and shook Wolf's shoulders. "As long as the anti-nobility movement isn't active, no more purple potions will hit the market. It's a stalemate, but we have more important things to attend to right now."

Firana clapped her hands, and I let Wolf go.

"I hereby begin the fourth strategy meeting of the Rosebud Fencing Academy Alumni!"

The first strategy meeting took place a few months ago, just after the corruption incident. After informing them about the purple potions, I asked Wolf to lend me the Wolfpack to establish an intelligence cell in the Eastern Ward. The second and third strategy meetings were tea parties at fancy bakeries near the library district.

"Wait!" I said, moving my hand and turning the bubble opaque.

It was one of the benefits I had as an Instructor.

"So… are we finally killing Byrne?" Ilya asked with a serious face.

"We are not killing anyone unless they pose a danger to the innocent," I replied.

Ilya closed her eyes and massaged her temples. "I already told you this, but as far as I know, his portal could be a concealed meatgrinder. Maybe he wants to feed us to the Lions and Tigers and Bears, to appease them. I've been thinking about it. He doesn't strike me as an altruistic person. He was a smuggler! I bet he wants to sell gnomes, a million dollars a pop. All the rich folk in Connecticut will have a fashionable gnome wandering in their gardens."

I scratched my chin, envisioning Ilya, dressed in a blue shirt and a red cone cap, making rounds in the front garden of a suburban house.

"Have you seen his teleportation machine?" Wolf asked, unfazed at the fact that Ilya called for the murder of his biological father.

"I've seen small demonstrations, but I think I met a man who was part of the latest large-scale testing. He survived, of course," I said, remembering my conversation with Fox-face, months ago. He had complained about being teleported hundreds of meters high in the sky. That couldn't be anything but Byrne's teleportation machine.

The existence of Byrne's teleportation capabilities wasn't up for debate. He possessed the teleportation gift thanks to his natural magic, and he knew Runeweaving. For the past decade, he had been under royal patronage to reestablish an old teleportation network and had even become the leader of the Arcane Circle.

"Maybe he's lying and wants to save himself. Maybe his teleportation machine is a single-seater thingy… not that I can blame him for wanting to survive," Zaon said.

"He can go alone. We are saving the world, one way or another," Firana replied with a confidence I desired for myself.

With the System Avatar's silence and Byrne's doubts about the realism of fixing the System code, the path to survival became blurry. On a logical level, I knew that stopping a natural cycle was nearly impossible. The Fountain was destined to die, and the era of Corruption was destined to happen like the year's seasons.

Implementing industrialization at a large scale in a few decades was only marginally more viable than Byrne's teleportation, not counting all the holes in my knowledge. Basic machinery was useful, and guns were great against monsters, but if the System failed, my runeweaving might also fail.

There had to be a more elegant solution to make Corruption a non-issue, but I couldn't see it yet. Despite the urgency of the matter, we still had decades before the Corruption grew uncontrollable. In the meantime, I was going to steal as much information about Runeweaving as possible.

"My point stands. Byrne is a potential threat. We should eliminate him," Ilya said.

I wasn't expecting Wolf to stifle a laugh.

"Ilya is turning evil," Zaon said.

"Yeah, but I'm cute, so it doesn't matter," she replied.

The only thing that prevented me from scolding Ilya was the fact that deep inside, I also wanted Byrne out of the picture. Still, I couldn't act on pure instinct.

"Byrne has to live. I need a Runeweaving teacher, so as long as I can squeeze a drop of information about him, we will keep him alive," I said, settling the issue for now.

"Have you even learned anything useful yet? Something that justifies keeping Byrne alive?" Ilya asked.

I did. I have learned that my runeweaving was crap, and my security system back at the orphanage was a joke. My meager thirty-something runes barely scratched the surface of the pond. Not counting Byrne's theories about language and perception, I had learned how to read complex enchantments properly and the underlying grammar that made them work efficiently. It wasn't just 'feel' like I had theorized initially. Most of my new knowledge was theoretical, though. I still hadn't found time or enough privacy to embark on a big project. Besides, most of my recent problems were solved with my other skills. This far from Farcrest, my Runeweaving wasn't as in demand.

"I know how your Cooldown Bow works," I said, instantly catching the kid's attention. "Momentum traps are fairly simple. The hard part is not to hurt yourself. If the Cooldown Bow were a sword, it would rip your humerus out of your shoulder in a single strike."

The reunion had taken an unexpected turn. My initial idea was to plan the mid-term selection exam, which Ghila said would be a field exercise. Leaving a bunch of fifteen and sixteen-year-olds unsupervised in the wilderness didn't fly with me, so I wanted backup. However, talking about the continent's future was also on my list.

"Alright. This is the scenario. The monster presence on the continent will soar to an all-time high and remain there for decades. What should we do?" I asked.

Zaon raised his hand.

"Fix the System?"

"Even with the System fixed, magic follows a natural cycle, so it's unlikely that fixing the System would stop the trend in corruption. What else?"

"Amass hundreds of thousands of enchanted rifles, food, and potions, create a defensive perimeter with safe, fertile land, and hunker down until things blow over," Ilya said.

"There is a chance the System would shut down, and I can't ensure my runes will continue working afterward. I don't think runes are completely System-powered, but my Runeweaving is heavily mediated by the System. Mixing technology and magic will also be difficult. Healers, farmers, and crafters might also lose their powers, so we can't ensure the same efficiency levels as today."

Ilya sighed, defeated.

"Even without the System, magic is still there. The power of potions and salves comes from their ingredients, not the Alchemist. We can produce potions, although without the same purity. Orcs do it all the time," Wolf pointed out.

Harvesting enough magical ingredients for a huge population would be challenging, but it might be possible. Brewing was an excellent substitute for modern chemistry, and chemistry opened several new tech trees: medicine, farming, industry, and military.

"I should've majored in chemistry," I sighed, cracking my knuckles. "I want to be clear. This is a backup plan just in case we can't stop the Corruption surge. Alright? There is still so much we must learn about Corruption and the System, and I'm sure we will find more solutions down the road. For now, let's focus on what we must do to create a place to survive a Monster Surge without access to System magic."

The kids nodded.

Ilya cleared her throat and gave me a mischievous smile. "We will need lots of money, land, technicians, infrastructure, and most importantly, public support for the new technology, even if it is less efficient than magic. Kinda easy, actually. Well-presented ideas always overshadow the rest."

"Do you want us to convince the world to drop the System?" Firana asked.

Ilya shook her head.

"I want Mister Clarke to show the world how cool his technological toys are. Just a hint, to plant the idea of automated machines in their minds. With time, those ideas will germinate, and they will be more open to accepting non-System solutions for magical problems."

My jaw dropped. I didn't expect Ilya to discover social engineering on her own. Maybe she was actually turning evil. My position as cult leader was in peril.

"Ilya has a point. The inhabitants of Ebros aren't like the tribes. They will not accept new ideas just because they are ordered to," Wolf pointed out.

Firana jumped to her feet.

"I know a couple of Adepts of the Artisans Circle that can't stop talking about the flying machine you showed during the feast at Farcrest two years ago! I bet I can organize a demonstration!"

Running a social engineering op wasn't on my to-do list this morning, but if everything else failed, it might be our final hope.

I clapped my hands.

"Moving on to more pressing topics. Word is that the midterm selection exam will be a field operation, and I want your help to keep an eye on my Cabbages."

Firana shouted and jumped two meters into the air.

"Comms! We need comms! Like in that movie!"

Zaon had told me everything about the forest selection exam when we first met at the Academy. The chance of getting separated by long distances in the forest or the mountain was high, so a communication device made perfect sense. I smiled. Maybe I should start putting what Byrne had taught me to work.

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