01.41 - Summoned to Officer School for a Second Time

No reaction, huh?

Tough crowd.

“Well,” I said as I looked at my second resurrected target, “if fire doesn’t work, maybe we should slowly freeze you to death next? What do you think?”

“No! Please! Wait!" the second bloke begged. “Pick someone else!”

“Oh?” I asked. “We thought you ‘don’t fear death.’”

“I don’t,” he countered. “But ‘death’ and ‘dying’ are different.”

“Huh?!” I said. "Guess someone had some sense burned into him.”

“What about the rest of you?” I asked. “We’ll make the next one extra painful. Any volunteers?”

Silence.

This evening, thanks to the figure of ‘K’, the hierarchy of Lichtheim's underworld changed radically.

Overthrowing the whole structure at once could have maybe been almost possible, it was easier to keep the established structure and slowly nod things in the right directions.

Afterall, I wasn’t a god who could change entire societies without as much as a fingersnap.

At least not yet.

Managing those fools would be a handful, especially if I intended to excel at officer’s school at the same time.

Luckily, my allies could just take over the role of ‘K’ using their Shapeshifter Class’ ‘Transform’ Skill.

—

The Orientation week for officer school started soon after.

Students were usually expected to live in the dorms, in groups of four.

The prospect of sharing my room with three pubescent boys was… unappealing at best. Plus, I had Tia in tow.

Luckily, I was offered one of the few single rooms as part of the stipend, the influence of my ‘father’, and the results of my evaluation ceremony.

The campus was huge. Humongous even. It was partially spread out over the center, northern, and western parts of town.

There were the dorms and main lecture halls in the center, with various other utility buildings, and a training area on the outskirts of town, near the harbour. This was the place exercises were held. It also featured hangars for the general purpose Standard Knights. Semi giant robots, piloted by Knight Riders, mostly older students that had earned the right through exceptional performance.

Standard Knights were water and vacuum proof, used in combat both on ground and space, with some training exercises held in the shallower part of the bay, with specialized equipment.

On the late noon of the last day of the orientation week, I returned to the main lecture hall, for the last part of the official welcome ceremony.

The school director held a rather long and dry speech.

I was almost dozing off in between, when a spotlight suddenly focused on me.

That ‘almost’ saved my hide.

I hardly knew what was going on, but they invited me to take the center stage alongside the top of the class student of the final year. After ascending to the stage, I was greeted by a somewhat familiar face. Truth be told, I had almost forgotten about her, but there weren’t many Elden around, especially not those of high standing.

Before me was Lucy Morgenstern, the girl I had met while escorting Isabella in the old timeline. The one I supported in her fight against the Greater Bone Fiend. My self proclaimed great-grandniece.

She bowed in a very formal fashion.

I reciprocated, still not knowing what was going on.

“So, shall we go then?” she asked.

“Go where?” I asked.

She looked at me with surprise. “We can’t have the exhibition match right here and now, can we?”

“Right, right,” I said.

What the hell had I gotten into now?

Apparently the tradition called for the top ranking candidate of the freshman to have an exhibition match against the top student of the seniors, which just so happened to be me and Lucy.

After a long, almost silent walk to the training grounds, one of the instructors handed a pair of real swords to us.

“Wait,” I said. “Shouldn’t we use wooden training swords?”

“Already getting cold feet?” Lucy asked. “Don’t worry, I am going to go easy on you. It's an exhibition match after all.”

“Ah, yes,” I said. “So will I.”

The change on her face was telling.

I probably shouldn’t have said that last line.

“You think you can match me?” she asked with barely concealed laughter. “You're getting a bit too full of yourself. Maybe I should teach you a lesson not to underestimate you seniors!”

Guess that hit her in the wrong spot.

Well, better save than sorry.

She immediately charged at me, once the signal for the start of the match was given.

She opened with a basic strike near my vitals. I countered with parry and a slash of my own.

She imbued her weapon with a fire element and unleashed another flurry of slashes at me, almost burning parts of my uniform.

I countered with a guard stance, then used parry against the last parts of her offence before closing in on her and aiming at the hilt of her sword, trying to disarm her.

She barely managed to hold on to her blade, but staggered backwards, almost tripping and falling backwards.

I couldn’t possibly have refrained from using that giant opening.

She tried to evade once more, but finally lost her balance and fell down.

The next thing she saw was my outstretched left hand to help her back up on her feet.

She just looked at me in silence for a moment.

“Want a rematch?” I asked with a smile.

Lucy just shook her head.

I sheathed my sword and offered her my right hand to stand up again.

This time, she took it, almost throwing me down to the ground as she pulled herself back up.

“I don’t think a rematch would be a good idea,” she whispered. “Let’s just say I was nice enough to offer you a chance at victory and you took it.”

Not quite the truth, but she had to save face somehow, I guess…

The next thing out of her mouth came from left field:

“Say, do you have a girlfriend?”