Lunesday, 27th of Augustus, 470th Year of the Fifth Era

Lorenz heaved a deep sigh as he put down his pen on his desk. He had just finished signing the last of the letters of admission. There were hundreds of those damned papers and his wrist was already aching. Deskwork was no task for a warrior, yet as of late that seemed to be the only thing keeping him busy.

Being out on the field of battle was far preferable to administrative duties. It was far less stressful for him anyways. Now he had to contend with the dreary tasks of management and politics. Especially politics.

It was only his first official day as rector of the military faculty of the Imperial academy, but he'd already started to regret taking the job. He had felt tricked by His Majesty's commission. Even if it was actually his own desire to aid his family by becoming superintendent, it was still more convenient to blame the king and parliament.

All he could think of then was to drink some good tea to relax himself. Unfortunately, he only trusted his aide Robert with that task, and Robert was left to manage affairs in his estate. As was the job of a steward. He should really be looking for a secretary to aid him in his obligations as superintendent of the military faculty.

He groaned as he laid himself back on his chair. The ticking clock upon his desk had shown it was already half an hour to evening. He should've been home hours ago. His wife must be worried sick. Thinking on that, he decided now was as good a time as any to take his leave. There was still a week or so before the opening ceremony, meaning there was still plenty of time. Now he needed to rest.

Just as Lorenz was preparing to leave, his eyes caught sight on another document, put on his desk by the faculty's financial officer. It was about the projected budgeting of the new semester as well as reviews on the list of academy donors.

He was supposed to review the report hours ago, but dealing with all the other letters and documents, it had completely escaped his mind.

"Verdammt." Lorenz sat back down on his desk as he began going through the document, mostly skimming it. It wasn't too thick so he was hopeful he could give it a cursory view for the day and properly review it tomorrow.

As he was going over the contents of the document, Lorenz was startled when he saw his office door opened without prior warning. Luckily, he didn't let out an embarrassing yelp this time, but still. Just who on earth had that kind of audacity?

"Dear God, man. Don't you know what time it is? Talk about devotion to your job!" A boisterous voice coming from an appropriately rotund-looking man around his age. Lorenz rolled his eyes as he tried to focus back on the document in his hands.

"I'm just giving this financial document a quick look." Lorenz said in a subtly annoyed tone "I was just about to take my leave. Also, you know decent people knock before barging into other people's rooms."

"Oh stifle your nonsense, Lorie." The large man waved away Lorenz's complaint as he pulled up his own chair to sit on his opposite side.

The Baron Henry Rolfe was never one for formalities, manners, or even etiquette one would expect of a nobleman of his status. Perhaps it was because of his position as Guildmaster of the Adventurer's Association. Dealing with all manners of adventurers throughout your career would have some of their crassness rub off on you.

But it was most probably due to his status as one of the few blademasters in the kingdom. The baron couldn't care less about empty frivolities because he didn't need to.

"The better question, Lord Baron, is what are you doing in my office this late after work? Have you no duties to attend to at the association?"

"Hahahaha! Do you think I'm as insipid as you? Lorie, look at my face. Do you think I give a single rat's arse about all this administrative nonsense? I have secretaries and clerks for that horseshit. Get your man Robert on the job, he'll figure things out for you."

Lorenz shook his head as he chose to ignore the man's nonsense, but he cracked a small smile. It was difficult to maintain a disinterested demeanour with Henry's insufferably abrasive yet heartwarming jolly.

"I would, but that would leave him split between his duties here and to my estate. I'd rather leave the chaos at work than have to return home in a mess." Lorenz answered.

"Ah, yes. Wouldn't want the missus to miss her afternoon tea, after all." Lord Henry nodded half-heartedly as his attention was then drawn somewhere else. "Speaking of which… If you'll excuse me…"

"Oy, what do you think you're doing?"

"It should be somewhere around here…" Lord Henry had started placing his hands on the desk, feeling and touching around like he was looking for something. His hand then latched onto a seemingly nondescript sculpture of a griffon.

It was a trinket left behind by the previous superintendent before he retired. Lorenz hadn't yet gotten to rearranging the office so he had started working leaving most things as it was given to him. He honestly didn't think much of it.

"Ah, here it is." The guildmaster turned the head of the griffin statue sideways. Lorenz didn't know he could do that. The next moment, a hidden compartment of the desk seemingly opened up next to it. It revealed two uncorked bottles of brandy, a few shot glasses, and a note.

Lord Henry took the note and handed it over to Lorenz. When Lorenz opened it, he smirked and shook his head. It read, 'Thanks for taking the job, Lord Lawrence. Please enjoy the gift. Signed, Edward Osgiling, 35th Duke of Ardunon, Lord Royal High Marshal'.

"Damned whippersnapper." Lorenz crumpled the note before throwing it away. "There's a special place in hell for men who like to play around with their seniors like that."

"Well, if you don't want it, then that means more for me!" Lord Henry didn't even wait for Lorenz's approval before he took out the cork with his mouth. He immediately took two shot glasses and poured the brandy into them.

Lorenz sighed out before he closed the financial document and put it inside the drawer. He took the other bottle and poured himself a shot of the brandy as well. Lord Henry had raised his glass towards Lorenz and toasted, "To the new superintendent! May his tenure be long and may he die a belated death in his office!"

"Tch." Lorenz scoffed and rolled his eyes, but all the same he raised his shot glass as well. The two men then downed their shot at the same time, with Lord Henry downing two shots simultaneously.

"Aggghh…" Lorenz sighed out in contentment as he felt the burning sensation rush down his throat. It was followed by the sweet, fruity flavour of the drink itself.

"Bahahahahah! That's the good stuff! Leave it to Eddie to get the expensive stuff ready for us." Lord Henry said as he quickly poured in two more shots.

"The Lord Marshall should've been the one chosen for this job, not me." Lorenz said. "He's far younger than me, stronger, more active…"

"Also a hell of a lot busier than any of us old codgers." Henry cut him off without a second thought. "He already has his plate full with the king's charter of military reorganisation. Not to mention the king also directly appointing him to oversee the restructuring of the various military orders in the realm. If you add on to that, this job of playing headmaster, you'll be driving the man to an early grave."

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"Oh, so it's fine if I were the one to be driven to an early death?"

"Ostensibly? No. You're far too useful to the king as you are for anyone to wish you dead. You're simply the best candidate for the job. You've been teaching here since the faculty's inception, you don't have deep roots with any of the political factions of the kingdom, and you're upright, almost to a fault. Who else could've we picked but you?"

"You could've kept Lord Spearwin from retiring, you know."

"What was that about a 'special place in hell for men who vex their seniors'? The man is over a century old. He has great-great-great grandchildren running about. Let him retire in peace."

There wasn't much more Lorenz could say to that. His immediate predecessor was already a veteran even before Lorenz had defected to Feldonia. Lord Richard Spearwin, Earl of Fellspear. One of the kingdom's few swordsaints. A good and honest man, he was one of the original founders of the military faculty. The old man undoubtedly left substantial shoes to fill.

"Sometimes I get the feeling that the king is purposefully torturing us with how much work he puts on our shoulders. It's as if he intends to work us like slaves." Lorenz complained.

"You speak as if the king's been keeping that secret. He intends for all his subjects to work just as hard as he does." Lord Henry shrugged his shoulders before downing another shot.

"Not everyone is a workaholic like him. And even so, not everyone has His Majesty's talents in administration. I was bred and trained for war, not paperwork."

Lorenz couldn't remember a single time he had visited King Albert's office and seen it not flooded with mountains of papers and documents. But even still, the king worked like he had eight arms and four heads.

"What choice did he even have? He inherited a country still recovering from the damned war with the Germans – no offense to you –, an official split from the papists in Sanctum, and the aftermath of several major secessions. Secessions that, I remind you, he's actively working on mending. And he damn well might even do it."

Lord Henry's praise for the king was damn-near endless but it was far from misplaced. Even Lorenz – who defected during the reign of the king's grandfather, Richard Ironfist the Last Emperor – had to admit he had not seen a harder working monarch. Not in Feldonia, nor the Empire of Loweria.

"Also, you say you're bred for war, but when was the last time you even agreed to spar with me, you craven bastard?" Lord Henry scoffed.

"When you became a blademaster, that's when." Lorenz didn't bother sugar-coating his reasoning. Lord Henry was far more skilled than him, by leaps and bounds. His unconventional – some would say ungentlemanly – methods of fighting were something Lorenz didn't have the patience to deal with anyways.

"Oh come on, Lorie! We can duel without using our auras."

"It's amazing how you're able to confidently lie through your teeth. Each time you say that, you pull a fast one on me and make me look like an idiot."

"Yeah, well, didn't the old man always say, 'never trust an adventurer?'"

"Pfft…"

"Hahahahahah!! And he's not wrong!"

Lorenz could never get used to how absurd the jovial guildmaster was. The two continued to laugh and drink before Lord Henry finally decided to take on a more serious tone.

"But truly, Earl Lawrence, despite all that I've said, I'm actually still very surprised." Lord Henry said as he put away his shot glasses and crossed his arms. His eyes were locked straight at Lorenz. "I half-expected you to simply ignore the king's commission and decline. What got you to accept? Lord knows you haven't been yourself since your boy died."

It was a sensitive topic and looked somewhat tactless, but Lorenz knew Lord Henry was far more sympathetic than he'd let on. The same dungeon raid that took his son's life was also the place where Lord Henry's daughter met her end.

Their children were betrothed, in love, and were joined at the hip. Wherever his son went, Henry's daughter would follow. The same applied the other way around. The other nobles described the love between Louis Rappmeister and Henrietta Rolfe as one for the ages.

Lorenz poured another shot of Brandy as he sighed.

"This is the only thing I could think of to help what little family I have left." Lorenz felt no need to hide the truth from the old guildmaster "My younger brother's only daughter is making her way here as we speak. Her and her husband along with a good number of their retainers."

"Your brother, the archbishop of those savage lands in Neacordis? The land of the, uh, 'Hal-lack' peoples was it? Last I heard, those lands are the domain of the Swordsaint king your brother serves."

"Indeed. But I'm sure the news has already started to spread that the old Swordsaint has unfortunately passed on."

"Truly?" The Guildmaster had made the sign of the cross when he heard it. "I am woefully under-informed when it comes to news from outside of Terradome."

"That's part of the reason why my brother had decided to send them here. The political situation of those lands aren't looking too great and so he has entrusted their care upon me. Seeing how I myself am without heirs, Serena is my apparent successor. My brother also informed me that his son-in-law and his retainers are all cream of the crop when it comes to talent. Did you know my niece's husband is also the grandson of the late swordsaint?"

"Colour me naked, man!" Lord Henry's surprise looked genuine to Lorenz as he exclaimed. "I knew your brother was doing God's work spreading the good news to the orient, but to think he's even playing politics?"

"My brother has always had his ways. Regardless, do you know what surprised me the most from his report? It seems my niece's husband is already a full aura warrior. A fourth star at eighteen."

"You're fucking with me, now, you old codger." The rotund guildmaster straightened his back when he heard it. He didn't look like he believed him, but Lorenz looked at him adamantly. "That can't be real. It's unheard of! Not even the first guildmaster was that talented when he was young!"

"Well that's something we'll just have to see for ourselves. My younger brother is intent on having the young Prince Josias enroll within the academy along with his retainers. That's one of the main reasons I finally relented to the king's commission."

Lord Henry nodded his head to Lorenz's explanation, but he wasn't done yet.

"Regardless of whether or not his talent is the real deal, today has been stressful because of all the prospective students." Lorenz took the pile of admission letters on his desk and laid it out for the guildmaster to see. "Just when I thought I was able to have a peaceful tenure, paying special attention to my family in the academy, guess who else decided to enroll."

"Dear God. I had gotten tipped off on some of these names, the Crown Prince particularly, but the rest?" Even Lord Henry shook his head as his eyes scanned through the dozens of letters. "Crown Prince Andrew of Caomaed, the Crown-Princess Elizabeth Sybille of the Southerlands, Crown Prince Harald Olafsson von Ildregn av Saltborg, Lord Samus Dunbrigant, Prince of Brigitte, Prince Otto von Drachenland… Fuck me sideways, there's more! The entire protestant world is sending their sons and daughters to the damned academy."

"And that's just the military faculty. Based on my last meeting with the other rectors – which you conveniently decided to not attend – even more nobles will be enrolling to the other departments. I don't know how he did it, but our king has managed to position himself as the champion of all protestants. All of this is part of his efforts to foster a, 'united brotherhood against the errors of Sanctum'. How am I supposed to keep an eye on my family when I'm also charged with the well-being of Half the bloody nobles on the continent?! Don't even get me started on how to balance their treatment of the commoners His Majesty has also allowed to enroll."

Without him noticing, Lorenz's heartbeat had sped up and his breathing became unsteady. He had given himself a panic attack just thinking of all the hardships and international politics he had to weave through. Lorenz finally broke down as he held his head in frustration, slicking his silver hair back on his head.

"...What am I supposed to do, Harry?" Lorenz had given up all pretense of formality due to his stress. "How am I supposed to intervene if-no-when the heir of nations decide to have a spat with each other? Or if they start making ridiculous demands and threaten to start an international incident on my watch?"

"Yeah, you can't beat them up like you would usually do to our own noble brats… This one's a doozy." Lord Henry had moved to pour in more brandy into his glass, but it would seem their drinks were finished. Lorenz's own bottle was empty. He hadn't noticed that he had directly started drinking from it when he was venting.

"Damn. That's our liquor spent…" Lord Henry lamented.

Lorenz gave a final sigh as he looked at the guildmaster. "I have more at my estate. Would you be willing to drink with me-..."

"I thought you'd never ask!" The old guildmaster got up from his chair as he walked towards the door. "Don't worry, I'll invite the other boys as well. We'll say it's a congratulatory party on your promotion as Superintendent!"

"Of course you will…"

Lorenz heaved out a deep breath as he got up and put his cloak back on. It would seem his usually empty house was about to host a few old men like him. But in times like these, any form of accompaniment was appreciated.

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