Here in Yutis Royal Academy, all pupils are called after their courses and aptitudes. Those under the magic department are called 'students'. The ones in the arms department are called 'squires'. Those few that enrolled in both are called 'cadets'.
Excerpt from Yutis Royal Academy pupil guide.
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It was well past midnight when Aidan and Dawn finished the Soul Restoration Ritual on Kamak and his clone. They didn't go for the full-length version otherwise it would end only in the next morning. Instead they went on until both bodies stabilized. The clone, the one that emerged from the crystal coffin was sent back to the stockades to be executed first thing in the morning, leaving the cut-and-regenerated Kamak at the Academy.
"I'll train him to be a guard here at the academy," Astromelicus declared after the harpy-catkin hybrid was placed back in his holding cell. "If he can be reasoned with. There is not much chance for him out there, he'd slip back into a life of crime."
"Maybe if he reacts well to his new position, we can fully restore him," Aidan answered. Even if the Kamak that remained behind had no memories of his criminal past, he could slip back into his murderous self.
"Good. Good. Off you go now, students. Rest those weary bodies."
They arrived at the dormitory and Pamela, Lory and Nancy were waiting for them. A steaming pot of soup set on the table.
"Welcome back,Lumina, Lord Aidan. Miss Deb warned us of your predicament, we took the liberty of getting chicken soup for you. Her Royal Highness Pearl and ladies Sora and Cythrel have already retired." Nancy, the eldest greeted them. They had mere months of difference between one another though.
"You shouldn't stay up waiting for us." Dawn attempted to chide them, but Pamela shook her head. "You didn't?"
"No, Lumina. Lady Sora told us when the ritual was supposed to end, we went to sleep earlier. We are grateful for your concern." Lory answered.
Aidan and Dawn were exhausted and hungry. She lost all appetite because of the gruesome procedure, but the trio of noble girls forced her to eat the chicken soup.
"We'll see each other tomorrow." He said. Aidan noticed that his male body was not as indisposed as Dawn. He kissed the princess' hand and said goodbye. The three ladies-in-waiting were watching, eager to service the princess once he was gone.
After Aidan left, the girls swarmed Dawn.
"Aren't you two very close, Lumina?" Pamela, the youngest of the three, asked.
"Sorry, girls. I'm not Lumina." She had no energy, not even to get annoyed. Lory gave her a suspicious look, and Dawn decided to show just a card from her hand. "But yes, this is Lumina's body. Just not Lumina in charge. I'm Dawn."
They looked away, clearly thinking the princess was away with the fairies. In a way they were right.
After that Dawn let them do whatever they wanted with her. Take off her uniform, wash her body, brush her hair and tuck her in bed. Aidan crashed on the couch of his room in his uniform and she joined him moments after hitting the pillow.
They woke up late but everyone was exempted from classes that day anyway. Too little time and too much danger. Today they had a war council. A couch was ready to take all of them to the castle.
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"I want each one of you to have an amulet like this one. If Kazuya comes for you, please give it to him before even thinking of running away or talking. Then you tell him that if he wants more, he can come to me peacefully. Don't open them."
Aidan handed small embroidered cloth beanbags with the Japanese 友情 characters on them, meaning "Friendship". He gave them to everyone that traveled from Gohar and also to Claire and Lumina's three ladies-in-waiting. Astromelicus, Lucien, and Helios received theirs beforehand.
"It smells of coffee." Pointed Pearl after checking her beanbag. All the other girls and Gurf also took their bags close to the nose.
"Indeed. Inside there are some whole roasted coffee beans of low quality and also a sample of 'outworlder bait'. Cythrel! Please don't open the bags".
The curious elf was already fiddling with the ribbon closing the mouth of the bag. It had a strap to hang the bag around the neck. Hopes were that even if one of them was unable to give the bag to Kazuya he would notice it.
"Even if they are of low quality, one of these bags is worth at least ten gold." Lory, the daughter of the minister of trade pointed out. "How did you obtain this much coffee, milord?"
"Unfortunately, that is a secret, Lady Lory. We had to go through hundreds of monsters to get these." Aidan added a little misdirection. Saying 'we probably have a metric ton of those back home' wouldn't help.
"Perchance was it in some ancient forgotten vault deep underground?" She probed, curious.
"You can say that. Our trip north was aimed at obtaining these." The 'forgotten' part was more to 'neglected' but he wouldn't hang on mere technicalities.
"But you said you have more!" She tried one more time before Nancy shot her down.
"Don't bother Lord Aidan for his secrets. You are being improper."
Nobody could blame Lory. She knew through her father that the realm was under duress. Unless Lumina marries into Heath's royal family, the treaty for free passage to the northern countries won't be enacted. There is little hope for the connection to Gohar as crossing that rocky nation is not exactly easy.
"I'm not bothered," Aidan replied to the girls before moving on. "All of you are to stay safe. I talked to Lucien, we are doubling the guard around the castle and the academy, and every one of you will have a female knight for an escort. Except for Sir Gurf, of course."
"I'll be her Royal Highness' faithful shield." The gentle giant hunter turned knight claimed with pride.
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Kazuya was beyond salvation. He murdered too much. What Aidan wanted to accomplish with the bait beanbags was to dissuade Kazuya to murder more and get straight to the showdown with the summoned hero. Yes, because apparently, it was his job to clean up that mess now.
Aidan closed his eyes for a moment and remembered the unpleasant conversation he had with Astromelicus while they waited for Kamak's clone body to finish knitting.
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"Kazuya is coming, Aidan. He is coming here, to the capital." Said the archmage, with great concern. He sat on a chair and he suddenly looked like a man his age. "Probably after student Pearl."
Aidan sighed. He knew Kazuya would cross their paths sooner or later. He was really betting on later. Like 'get-rid-of-Lumina later'. "How do you know he is coming?" He finally asked.
"We have means to know when and where otherworlders are in the Kingdom. However, given his stealth skills, a precise location is improbable."
"What will we do when he gets here?" Aidan had a really bad feeling about the answer, but he had to ask anyway.
"You will defeat him, or we will all perish," Astromelicus spoke with certainty and gravitas. He coughed and corrected himself, "or most of us will perish."
"He is a summoned hero!" Aidan shouted. It felt like he was telling him to go slay an elder wyrm.
"Indeed he is." Astromelicus only nodded.
"He got incomprehensible and powerful skills! And I have not even a year of academy training!" In his outrage, he downplayed his own education. Even though he spent little time at the academy, he received pesonal arms lessons from his father and the adventurers living at his fief, and magic lessons from his mother since a young age.
"That he does." The Headmaster nodded again.
It was infuriating. He had to defeat Kazuya? As if it was his fate altogether? The way the old mage just nodded at his retorts grated his nerves. Dump the problem entirely on him? It was unfair.
"Then why don't you, the great Life Archmage, go after him?" He shouted raising unspoken accusations of cowardice.
This time was Astromelicus' turn to sigh. "I see a great deal of explaining is in order. First things first, do you know of the war triangle?" Aidan shook his head. "There is one law all otherworlders follow. They are divided into three types, and they are stronger against one of the other two types and weak against the other."
"Let me guess, are they the physical power, magical power, and the stealth types?"
"We call them Prowess, Magic and Agility. But yes, regardless of semantics, those are the three types. Their abilities grant them a great deal of resistance against one type, their 'prey' and weakness against the other type, their 'predator'."
"And Kazuya is an Agility-type, from your reluctance into taking matters into your own hands his 'prey' are Magic-types."
"That is so."
"And if you face off against him, you'll lose because of that bull...? I'm sorry for my outburst."
"Worse than losing. I'll make him stronger. He'll get a lot of what they call EXP and level up."
"Well, we're fucked then. I'm a mage too."
Astromelicus laughed. "You undersell you, cadet Aidan. First and foremost, you are not a mage. You are two mages. I know my exercises in tandem casting were well-practiced."
Yes, they were. There was a little loss on casting time, but he was able to construct two different spells at the same time with Dawn. Aidan just crossed his arms and glared at his magical mentor. He nudged his head up, urging him to go on.
"Second, you are a cadet. You are taking both magic and swordsmanship courses." Astromelicus rose and went to brew coffee.
"Were. I hadn't even a whole year of instruction. Not too much time to swing a sword around." Aidan crossed his arms, on the defensive.
"Yet you beheaded a third-evolution Orc Leader..."
Aidan shrugged. "With a lot of support and planning."
"...Unscathed."
"Point taken. Still throwing me and Dawn at him is asking us to die. Even if we don't use magic against him."
At this point, Aidan was reacting like a caged animal. Upstairs, even Pearl stopped her wizardry exercises to calm Dawn down. Astromelicus looked tenderly at the pupil he liked like a nephew and smiled.
"Aidan, sit down. Relax your arms." His voice was sweet, fatherly. Aidan tried to suppress his anger. "It is time I tell you one of the abilities of your bloodline."
The reveal made him curious, but he was too disturbed to really calm down.
"Besides being able to kill gods?" The young man asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Perhaps, perhaps not. It is still unproven if anyone else could kill gods, given that it only happened once in known history."
"What is it then?"
"Did you ask yourself how could you defend against Lucien's assault? Or how you suddenly dodged a deathblow and kill a knight captain that had just bested you in a duel? Or how you were able to create an original fifth circle healing spell of the Underworld element in under a week? Or how you were able to control the ridiculous spontaneous soul magic that saved your lives during the assault?"
"Luck?" He asked, unsure. When put that way, it really sounded like bullshit.
"Do you think it was luck? On all five counts and several others we didn't even register?"
"Is it because I'm a genius with awesome skills?" He tried, half-assed. Bragging about himself never came naturally for him, and he knew he shouldn't. Too much hubris never served his family well.
Astromelicus glared. "You are skilled and intelligent, but you are still a cadet, in your own words, 'without even a whole year of instruction', if memory serves."
"Then what is it?" He was about to give up there.
"This is something that killed several of your ancestors. Because power without skill just brings ruin." It reminded him of the Keeper. Aidan remained silent and Astromelicus continued. "Your bloodline has a special ability called 'Rise to the Challenge'. It belonged to the original God-Slayer."
Aidan was unable to process everything. So he clung to small tidbits. "A special ability. Like the otherworlders have?"
"Yes. I'm afraid I'm taking your father's place in saying this, but necessity demands that I do. The original God-Slayer was an otherworlder."
Otherworlders can and did have children, but these children never inherit their cheat abilities. They might be a little stronger or smarter, but that can be accounted to their upbringing or good bloodline.
"Was my ancestor a summoned hero?"
"A hero, yes. Summoned, no. He was a transmigrator person. He or she was physically brought here, not a magical creature harboring the soul of a person with a magically-created body like a Kazuya, for example."
"From the same world as they?"
"I think so. That is why the tenets of your creed sound so off to the people of this world."
Aidan ran a hand through his hair. He stood up, walked one or two laps around the room and settled back on his chair. "What is this ability? Rise and Challenge?"
"It is called 'Rise to the Challenge'. It boosts your natural capacity and skills by a certain amount depending on the level of the challenge. However, it is not without limitations."
"I'm all ears."
"Many of your ancestors died shortly after learning of this ability because they didn't understand what it means. The ability boosts your natural capacity, it doesn't allow you to do the impossible. For example, if you try to hit the eye of an elder wyrm bent on torching the town, you'd fail."
"Because I don't know archery?" He tried to guess.
"Yes. Now, review all those five accomplishments we mentioned. You had the skill. You know spellcraft. You have great Underworld affinity even before merging. You have a modicum of dodging skill, able to at least turn a fatal strike into a close call."
Aidan ran a finger through his cheek, the scar gone after too many regrowth spells and his right forearm where a bone was severed. "Close call."
"Yes. And here lies the biggest problem. In all cases, your ability will always rise the skills only enough to turn the situation into a close call. And only so far as compared to the original skill."
To him it made sense. It must be also the reason his father insisted so much in training. Not only forcing Aidan to train sword and magic but also training himself and his disciples back at the fief. The adventurers responsible for keeping that corner of Yutis the safest of the nation.
"A zero will still be a zero even with a multiplier, as in the case of me shooting an arrow at a dragon."
Astromelicus sipped his steaming coffee and hummed. With a smile, he continued.
"Yes. Not enough natural skill and you will fail just like any other talentless person. And this is the reason you must always play to your strengths."
"That is why you want me to take on Kazuya."
"Fate will find you, I'm afraid. While you have the favor of several powers, there are twice as many plotting the downfall of your House. We can't even be sure all this problem with the otherworlders summoned by student Pearl wasn't an elaborate ruse."
"And you think I have what it takes to defeat him."
"Yes. And the fact you are pretty much unkillable with the right preparation, Mister trampled-by-rhinorses. Do you want some coffee, son?"