Chapter 153: Show Them Their Wrongs

“If my mother asks any weird questions, or says anything strange,” Encio said hurriedly, “you can ignore it. You don’t have to answer.”

“Now don’t say that Encio!” his mother protested, no longer able to wait and trotting over. “I don’t bite!”

That was probably not true, Nara judged, because any essence user worth their salt would bite if they thought it’d win them a fight. Not to pat herself on the back or anything.

Encio’s mother was tall, beautiful, and powerful; the quintessential adventurer. Since almost every essence user had those three traits, she understood Erras’s ambivalence towards beauty, at least, between essence users. Aliyah was rather…notorious…in their team of her preference of other traits instead. Beauty was baseline. Saying you were attracted to beautiful people was like saying you like vanilla ice cream. Have a goddam preference!

“I’m Adelina. Just call me Adel.”

Her husband made his way there, smooth and elegant, his graceful movements hiding his own excitement from seeing his son again. He was a man that could be described as beautiful rather than handsome—Glimmering silver hair and eyes against olive skin created an otherworldly beauty, a celestine. Encio had clearly inherited his grace and slighter body type, although a Might Essence would have changed things, like it had bulked up Sen.

“I am Valer,” he introduced, his voice pleasant and smooth, an elegant timbre like a cello. “I’m glad to finally meet your teammates, Encio.”

He pulled his son into a hug, which Encio reciprocated. Despite being a rich scion, he was rather well adjusted and had never been afraid or ashamed of hugs. Because any sort of imperfection would’ve been a stain on his perfection, Nara thought, rolling her eyes to herself. He couldn’t have been touch adverse, or instantly attracted to the first pretty poppet that spoke back to him? Some son of a Duke! How else was some impoverished backtalking street-smart woman caring for a sick sibling supposed to marry upwards??

“It’s good to see you again, mother, father,” he said.

Of course, he was too posh to use ‘mom’ and ‘dad’. But perhaps she spoke too soon, as Adelina immediately teased him for it.

“Hm? Too adult now to say you’ve missed us and ‘I love you’?” Adelina teased, ruffling her son’s hair. “A big and mighty bronze ranker that doesn’t need to sent letters about important events in his life?” Her grip tightened a fraction, and Encio’s smile strained. The ruffling was perhaps closer to a noogie, and Encio may on his way to early onset male pattern baldness.

She was a very physically affectionate person, pulling her son into hugs, touching his hair, patting his shoulders and cheek, which Encio let her do without complaint—complaining only looked more childish, and he had grown up under his mother’s touchy affection. He didn’t resist, like a cat that tolerated their owner’s overbearing love, although secretly enjoying it. After a while, Valer pulled her hand into his, freeing Encio from his begrudging torment.

“I wasn’t done yet,” she whined, but threaded her fingers through her husband’s. “I haven’t seen my baby in so long. He’s bronze rank now and didn’t even come back home and let me look at the changes! He’s even more pretty now, Valer, he’s going to be such a lady- and man-killer, what are we going to do? He’s calamitous.”

Encio’s complexion had notably reddened, although he kept admirably straight-faced against embarrassment. Eufemia had a sharp and wide snake grin, one upon seeing a juicy rat. This would fuel her for decades.

“Spare our son a little face in front of his friends, dear,” said Valer amicably, patting her hand.

She pouted. “It’s late, so we’ll show you around the academy tomorrow. We’ll grab dinner back at the estate, and settle all of you in,” Adel said, relenting with Valer’s encouragement, and reverting to something of a more respectable hostess.

“Thank you for the hospitality, miss Aciano.” Sen said, pretending he hadn’t seen her shameless crooning and praise over her son. Nara heard Eufemia snicker quietly ‘my baby’. Encio closed his eyes in pain and pretended not to notice.

“Oh just Adel. I insist.”

*****

The next day, the team got their tour of the academy by Adelina. Adelina and Valer were silver rank, further along than Miranda and Anders, past the silver wall. She and Valer had been slowed down by other matters, such as raising a family and running an academy. For silver rank, that was normal. They were powerful enough to make a difference within their families and had a long enough lifespan to take their time. If they weren’t recklessly pushing gold rank, silver rankers rarely died to monsters. Silver to gold took ten years if pushed hard and fast. With external responsibilities and other interests, it often took decades.

The De Luca Academy was more like a traditional private school than Sanshi. It was a project of the De Lucas; all noble families with a solid foundation usually ran a few businesses aside from just adventuring—pushing gold for ten or more years was no way to live. The Arlangs were unusual in their strong focus in adventuring, but they also had side businesses, such as spirit coin and quintessence farms, and general presence and skill in administration. A lack of a business interest was a quick way to have a family fall from the sustained costs, like the Jagar, as non-combat family members swelled and deadweight bloated, eating up once rich reserves of wealth. Running the family businesses was also an option for relatives that were competent but didn’t want to be adventurers, or for those that had reached silver rank and slowed their pace, like Valer and Adelina.

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The academy had all the necessary amenities, and other specialty ones; There was a cafeteria, sparring fields, mirage chambers, classrooms, ritual rooms, specialty rooms, meeting rooms, and dorms. The teachers taught specific classes at specific times, and students attended classes according to a schedule that was mostly chosen for them. This academy was far smaller than the Sanshi Academy, with fewer teachers and fewer students.

Some things everyone needed to learn—sparring, monster identification, basic ritual magic, language, basic mathematics, local languages. As with skill book abilities, why waste an ability on what you could learn? Eufemia was well aware of the tradeoffs of having such a power.

Other classes were optional but strongly encouraged, such as etiquette, financial management, astral magic theory, advanced ritual magic, healing magic theory, artifice, forging, tailoring, and alchemy, among others. The De Luca Academy offered a comprehensive education for all aspects a competent essence user may need. The Sanshi Academy had a self-chosen curriculum based on current needs, while the De Luca Academy focused on the future. The difference was a result of the class of those attending each academy, with the De Luca catering to those who could afford it while also offering many scholarships, while the Sanshi Academy was relatively inexpensive for all. A collaboration between the two academies would elevate Sanshi’s education and generate more income for the De Lucas, as well as assisting in their weaker areas of independent combat.

While the De Luca Academy had some crafting classes, it was intended as a sub profession. Other Academies in Saggia specialized in crafting, with adventuring as the sub profession.

Some things could not be taught in classes and had to be learned in the field, where higher ranked chaperons kept an eye on them to prevent the physically flimsy iron rankers from getting themselves killed. This was a great advantage that traditional academies provided that Sanshi did not, which was more independent in nature.

Death was less likely. In contrast, traditional academy iron rankers did not develop the honed danger-sense that Sanshi-taught and independent adventurers learned. They learned it later, both a boon and a detriment. At bronze rank, they were less likely to die from it. But, if something that came along that would kill them before they had it, they would die to it.

The De Luca Academy also helped curate awakening stones. Generally, the adventuring world agreed that there was no issue picking stones with some degree of randomness. Randomness and stones of circumstance provided unique aspects a fully curated ability set may not have. Nara had the crafting compound picking stones out for her, so she had mostly gotten hers done all at once, except for the ones she got from the Celestial Book Trial. The rest she had chosen randomly but worked out well for her. That was usually the case, as essence abilities filled in gaps and inherently chose synergistic abilities.

Abilities were strongly influenced by the first few stones. Nara, who used an awakening stone of the sword early, had abilities that revolved around melee combat, avoiding and returning damage.

Encio’s evolved essence gift into projectile speed was the greatest influence on his ability set, and his early Magus and Void Awakening Stones awakening Sword Wave and Vorpal Slash respectively influenced the rest of his set. This combined leaned Encio away from typical melee combat with a sword, and into a hybrid range ability set. If anyone thought Encio was a close combat due to his sword, they were in for a fatal surprise.

Eufemia’s abilities had been shaped by her early Mirror Essence and awakening stone of illusion. Her Adept Essence abilities took on aspects of copying other abilities, rather than boosting the efficacy of her own.

Those that entered traditional academies early had the benefit of seasoned adventurers and instructors to help tailor a direction for an essence set, then adapt as abilities awakened. This process took many years, with traditional academies taking longer than the self-service education of Sanshi. Three to five years was the norm for iron rank in academies, on account of the development of brand new skills, imparting important life lessons, granting hidden knowledge about later rank ups that would apply later in their life, and ability stone selection which extended time if they waited for a rare stone. For Sanshi, what took longest was the Prep Academy, where students competed or worked to acquire essences.

In Sanshi, they encouraged using whatever awakening stone or essences an essence user could get their hands on. It awakened non-traditional abilities, which made Sanshi adventurers so unpredictable and versatile, but also difficult and non-standard, like Lee Hu and Ranshi Haihu, which required higher skills in teaming up.

Nara bubbled with excitement over the different adventuring culture. She reminisced over her own brief academy life, meeting Vallis, Nolan, Sen, and others at the academy she had studied with in classes or sparred with on the fields.

As they passed through the halls, students peeked with curiosity, running up to greet their headmaster just to get a better look at her guests.

“New students?”

“Don’t be stupid. They’re bronze rank.”

“Her family then? That must be her son. They look so similar!”

“Wow! The young Duke of the Aciano!”

“Heh,” Nara said, elbowing Encio in the side. “Young Duke.”

“Do I look Ducal to you?” Encio said, lowering his eyes in a sultry gaze.

“You’re going to make the students swoon. Look, a female student and a male student are collapsing, over there.”

“Iron rankers can’t collapse from beauty. But if they could, I would be the one to cause it.”

“Wow. I can’t believe you just said.”

“I won’t pretend to be ignorant. Not like Sen.”

“I’m not a part of this.” Sen said curtly.

“Try winking, Sen, at anyone.”

“I will not.”

Eufemia, however, was more than willing to cause chaos. Winking and flipping her hair at students and backing up one against to wall for them to devolve into an unthinking mass of stammering and red flush.

The tour ended at the mirage chambers, a standard facility for any adventure academy in Erras, no matter the cost. The De Luca Academy had two.

“How about fighting some of our iron rankers?” Adelina suddenly proposed, although Nara had a feeling the thought itself was not so sudden.

“At bronze rank? We’re going to crush them,” Eufemia pointed out.

“Multiple of them versus one of you,” Adelina clarified.

“That poses a challenge,” said Sen. “What numbers are we talking about?”

“As many as you want.” Adelina said. “And as many of you that want to fight. Preferably all.” She leaned in, her grin widening. “I want you to crush them. Grind their pride into dust. Show them the tyranny of rank.”

“Woah there mama Aciano,” Nara said. “That’s brutal. You want your little chicks to be made into chicken nuggies? If you’re asking them to get pasted, I think this team can deliver.”

Adelina chuckled, “Our students are good, but they unfortunately develop a sense of pride.”

“This is a reputable academy,” agreed Sen, a neutral deflection of the weakness she had exposed.

“World famous even,” said Encio, rolling his eyes at Sen’s geniality.

“Pride is worthless for iron and bronze rankers,” Adelina said, intent. “That’s just how it is. For all of these ordinary adventurers, with no political backing or generational power, if they talk big, stick their face where it doesn’t belong, or underestimate their opponent, they’ll be the next Society funeral we all attend. Another badge in the tower. That’s why the higher the odds the better. Make them feel as if they have no chance of failure. Then, show them how wrong they are. But you need to win. What do you think, can you do that for me?”

Sen’s political politeness gave way to something sharper and challenging, a flex of muscle and the glint of a blade. “It’d be our pleasure to assist, Lady Aciano.”