“Alright,” Sam said while rubbing his hands once Felix and Yvessa joined them for breakfast, “big week, big week. Are you excited?”
“The second round of the tournament doesn’t start until Tuesday…” Felix said.
“I wasn’t talking about that! I was talking to Yvessa about her scheduled call tomorrow. I don’t know if you guys know this or not, but she promised to tell her best friend some juicy gossip about yours truly.”
“Please tell me Sam is the only one who’s making an occasion out of that.” Felix turned to Yvessa.
She nodded. “I just asked him for permission to tell Erianna a little about him, same thing as I did with you guys—”
“Still really weird that you asked that, but go on.”
She frowned at Felix. “That’s it. Neither I nor Erianna are interested in gossiping about you guys behind your back.”
“Really?” Sam asked. “We gossip about her all the time. Does she know that? That she ranks in the top ten most mentioned people who we don’t see every day?”
“I hadn’t mentioned it to her…”
“Seems like a wasted opportunity to give her a bad impression of us without even needing to meet us.”
“I think that if she doesn’t have a bad impression of you by the time she eventually meets you, then Yvessa has done a bad job telling her about you,” Felix said.
“Hm… Very true. Or her uncle. Which reminds me, he sent me a message yesterday, well today, technically, with an appointment for Saturday. So it seems like Yvessa isn’t the only one who’s going to be speaking to royalty back on Maynil this week. He did tell me to come alone this time, so I’m afraid we can’t isolate Felix and make fun of him for being the only one who isn’t.”
“What? You were going to pick Sarah over me? Not even leave it to a coin toss?”
“No… Also, I want to make this clear that this was a joke, yeah? I wasn’t really going to bring anyone with me to the call unless they or Farris wanted me to. But if I had to choose, I would’ve definitely picked Sarah over you.”
“Don’t I get a say in the matter?” Sarah asked.
“Sure. But we all know what you were going to say. I also know what you are going to ask, and yes, the appointment does technically take place during my free time on Saturday. And no, I haven’t made plans to adjust the schedule for that. It’s more of a social interaction than a pedagogic one, so it should be counted as leisure rather than work.”
“I wasn’t going to ask anything. You’re just arguing against yourself at this point. Just remember that if Felix or Yvessa win on Friday that we’re going to have a celebration for them on Saturday. So plan accordingly.”
“Oh right, I forgot about that. What was your guys’ rationale for having it in the case—most likely according to you—that you have to fight each other for the number one spot?”
“That if I win,” Yvessa said, “Felix will have to clean his room and we’ll have the celebration in his place. And that if he wins, we’ll celebrate in mine.”
“Right… yeah… that’s not a rationale. That’s just the two possible circumstances of how the illogical event will take place. You realize that in order to have the celebration in the scenario you’ve just described, one of you is going to have to feel bad for at least two different reasons? How is that conductive for celebrating in happiness and joy?”
“The joy I get from winning and beating Yvessa and then getting to make a mess in her room will more than make up for the pain that she suffers in comparison,” Felix said. “Also, the real cause for celebration is beating everyone else and getting first and second place.”
“What happens if you don’t end up first and second place?”
“Well, that’ll be up to Yvessa, I guess. Whether she’s still willing to celebrate despite not making it to the last match. I’d be all in, of course, as is my due as a champion.”
“OK… You’ve convinced me. I’m cheering for Yvessa to win.” He turned to her with a solemn face. “I’ll dedicate you a whole minute of silent contemplation during lunch on Friday… If I remember. And if I’m not too busy thinking about the stuff from the lesson or doing something else.”
“Like practicing your tracing?” Sarah asked in an accusing tone.
“Hey, I only did it while waiting for you!”
“I was like one minute behind you.”
“And it was one minute that I wanted to put to good use. I wasn’t going to start eating before you. That’s rude.”
“More rude than ignoring me because you were focused on tracing?”
“I wasn’t ignoring you because I was focused on tracing. I was ignoring you because I just finishing the tracing and wanted to find out if I succeeded.”
“Did you?” Felix asked.
“Nope,” Sarah answered.
“Did I find out, or did I succeed?” Sam asked.
“Don’t be glib,” Sarah chastised him.
“I didn’t succeed no. And I’m willing to blame my general skill rather than the momentary lapse in concentration. But, I’m sure that you’ll all be glad to know that I’m definitely getting better. Both in general skill and in my ability to trace Posterior Physical. In fact, I’ll probably start Prior Physical tomorrow or on Tuesday. Now that’s good progress.”
“It is.” Sarah nodded. “And you should be proud about it. But please, try to avoid practicing while we’re together, alright? You need to rest throughout the day in order to cleanse your mind, otherwise, your overall performance will be hurt. You can’t always be training every waking moment without losing efficiency. Besides, it’s really rude.”
“Alright, I’ll keep it to a minimum. I’ll only practice when the wait is guaranteed to be long—more than five minutes.”
“And we thank you for that great sacrifice.” Felix mocked bowed from across the table. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to capitalize on the one-on-one time you’ve arranged for me yesterday, so I’m heading there early. See you guys.”
“Wow…” Sam said once he was gone. “I think this is the first time that Felix was the first to finish eating.”
Yvessa nodded. “It definitely is. I knew something was wrong when he finished picking breakfast before me. So what’s this one-on-one time you’ve arranged for him?”
“It’s really nothing. A half-hour session with Lin before your classes start. He asked me to ask Lin about that on Friday evening. I’m guessing he thought that Lin would be more receptive to giving a positive answer if the question came from me.”
“Seems like he was right.”
“Meh… I don’t know. I think Lin would’ve agreed to help him even without me being in the picture.”
“Really? What about his whole anti-tournament mentality?”
“Well, it’s just that he didn’t put up much of a fuss about not wanting to help him, if any. I guess it’s because this kind of help falls under training in general, even if it’s for the tournament. That is the one aspect, after all, that he conceded is positive about tournaments. But if you ask me, Lin is perfectly aware that he’s walking back somewhat on his dogmatic statement, and he’s alright with that. Not because he’s a hypocrite, or that he doesn’t believe in what he says; I’m assuming he does. But simply because he’s the kind of person—or teacher, I should say—who doesn’t let his beliefs interfere with the best way to do his job. In this case, he thinks that the tournament won’t help Felix become a better fighter one whit, but helping him during a half-hour private session is.”
“If that’s the case, then there really isn’t any reasoning that he could use to prevent you from joining the end of the year tournament.”
“Eh, that’s a bit different. There’s Lin’s whole shtick about me already training as hard as I can or should be or whatever. Not to mention the gap in ability between me and Felix. Plus, it’s not like I actually want to join the tournament. So if the academy’s willing to let it slide for me, I’m more than happy to comply.”
Yvessa chuckled. “We’ll see how you’ll feel about it in half a year. You’d be surprised how big the part of you that is looking forward to proving yourself in front of other people actually is. Even if proving yourself is done by beating other people.”
“Oh, if we’re counting beating other people in the not-physical sense, then I am perfectly aware of that part of me and it is indeed quite large. But you’re right, I would be surprised if it also assimilated itself over combat and fighting other people. What do you think, Sarah? I know you don’t enjoy combat as much as these two freaks. But you still take to it more than I do—for now, at least—not to mention that it’s a lot of physical exertion and we all know how much you love that.”
“Are you trying to ask me whether a part of me really wants to show I’m better than other people by beating them to the ground in a combat competition or whether I think you’ll become someone like that?” Sarah asked.
“The former. I mean, you didn’t make the final match during the tournament last year, but you don’t seem to care about it half as much as Felix or Yvessa presumably will, if it happened to them.” He leaned to whisper in her ear, “I assume there’ll be a lot of crying.”
“Well I didn’t cry,” Sarah said with half a laugh while Yvessa rolled her eyes. “But you’re right, I didn’t care half as much about that competition as they do. Also, my training was obviously sub-optimal if I my goal was to win that tournament. I’m training in two close-quarters methods. And honestly? I just don’t care about the physical components of fighting all that much. All I care about is that it’s good enough for me to carry the day with magic.”
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“Yeah,” Yvessa said, “ask her how much she cares about winning the graduation tournament and you’ll hear a totally different answer and about expectations that will lead to crying if end up unmet.”
“That goes without saying. I might be trying my hands in all sorts of different disciplines while at the academy, but I’m still aiming to leave it as a combatant. And as a combatant, there isn’t any reason for me not to aim for being the best fighter in my year. That’s totally different from just being the best at physical combat. Need I remind you that without magic, hand-to-hand fighting is at a great disadvantage compared to fighting with a weapon?”
“Need I remind you that if you dropped your ranged combat classes completely, you could’ve used that time for sword training instead? I understand wanting to be proficient enough with a sword until you reach a higher level where it’ll be much safer to switch to just hand-to-hand. But really, what do you get from training in ranged combat, and with two weapons at the same time?”
“How did this suddenly become a conversation about my classes again? Besides, you’ll be happy to know that since it’s been half-a-year since I’ve begun training in ranged combat. That I’ve decided to drop the bow in favor of the sling. And once the year ends, I’ll stop attending those classes completely. Only going to the range sometimes to keep my skills from getting rusty.”
“Damn…” Sam nodded approvingly. “That’s a big decision, and a good one, if I’m allowed to add my—still unfounded, but getting there—opinion to the mix. I particularly like the fact that you obviously weren’t planning on telling it us about it because you were, presumably, saving that reveal to score a point at some future argument.”
“That wasn’t my intention in the least. I was simply saving that information to myself because I knew you guys will see that as me proving your point and that you’ll use it to reopen the stupid argument that I should drop some of my electives.”
“That’s a good point. I was just thinking of doing that. How about you, Yvessa?”
“I was going to say that I’m glad you’ve made that choice and that it’s the correct one,” she told Sarah. “Take that as you will…” She then opened her mouth but closed it after a moment’s thought, leaving the rest of the table to guess what she probably wanted to say.
“Smart…” Sam winked at her. “Always leave them wanting more.”
“Shut up. I didn’t say anything.”
“Indeed. And speaking of not saying anything, did you and Dan square up your inquires over mail or would you like to tag along with me and get it cleared right now?”
“Thanks for the offer, but it’s not necessary. We talked yesterday. He suggested leaving my nourishment patterns as they are, pretty much agreeing with Sarah, and for me to wait to take the two specialized self-healing courses until next year.”
“So what elective are you going to take at the next trimester instead?” Sarah asked. “Or did you drop the plan of taking another elective?”
“I didn’t, for now. Dan gave me a couple of suggestions, but I want to go over each one more in-depth. I honestly don’t really want to take an elective, but I want to use that block of time for something useful—And I don’t want to spend all of it cultivating.” She turned to Sam with an unjust, accusatory tone.
“Now I’m the one who didn’t say anything,” Sam said. “Anyway, you do you. I trust you to best out of the four of us to make the correct choices when it comes to your own education. Just make sure to keep me updated about what your choices end up being and your reasoning for then so that I could use that information for my own decision-making.”
“I thought you were just going to let Dan choose all your electives for you?” Sarah said.
“That was never really the plan. Dan just said that he’ll limit my choices, but that I’ll still need to pick from those. If I really can’t do that, then yeah, obviously, he’ll pick for me, but I don’t want that. I want my choices to be completely my own. The final choice I mean. You know, after the array of possible choices has been whittled down by Dan’s limitations, your guys’ input and the as yet unseen but ever present influence of my dear mentor. Because I don’t know how much time I’ll even have time for electives with my Thread-Weaver lessons.”
“Do those lessons count as electives for students at the Royal Academy?” Sarah asked Yvessa.
“I don’t think so. But I only have the information Erianna told me to make that conclusion. So I don’t actually know. But the Royal Academy’s curriculum is pretty different from ours. I wouldn’t try and compare the two.”
Sam shrugged. “Guess that’s something to ask Farris about. If I’ll remember to. And if that bastard will tell me without doing his stupid bit about asking questions I’m not ‘ready for.’ And on that note of ridiculing one of the most powerful people in the Web, I’m going to bid you farewell. I trust that I’ve made up for my previous transgression by accompanying you today for some extra time?” he asked Sarah while getting up.
“Not leaving early doesn’t count as staying longer. But, you’re free to go. Consider yourself in indulgence for before.” She waved him off.
Sam spent the walk over to Dan’s practicing his tracing. Just a little bit. Simple drawing and moving exercises, the same stuff he and Dan were doing every day, even with the addition of actual tracings into the equation. Of course, now that they started on applied tracing, the necessity of the purposeless exercises was greatly lessened, so their share of the lesson was reduced to only three increments of ten minutes a day. But tracing a tracing was still more than Sam could readily do while being focused on other tasks, especially while walking in public, so he forwent any more complex practice in times such as these.
Not that there were all that many times, despite what Sarah might claim. Sam wasn’t habituated to using every waking moment of his day for practice. It was just a matter of chance and circumstance. If he ended up spending time without an activity to focus on and the thought happened to occur to him, then Sam might decide to use that time for tracing practice. Just like now, when he realized that he left his headphones in his room and then immediately decided that he might as well use the lack of noise for another purpose. But there were plenty of opportunities to practice tracing in between activities that Sam had let pass without a moment’s consideration. And how would I know if there were actually any? He chuckled. That’s confirmation bias if I’ve ever seen one.
Or maybe it wasn’t, as Sam spent lunch without sneaking any tracing practice in. To be fair, he was still reeling from a very involved session of gathering practice that ended up running an hour late, which might void today’s lunch as an applicable data point. The change in their gathering practice wasn’t as a result of any new information being brought forward, but rather Dan deciding that it should be a little more intensive on Sundays from today and going forward. Which, as far as he was concerned, was wholly Dan’s decision to make, as most, if not all, of the extra intensity of the lesson came as a result of Dan taking an almost inhumanly active part in directing and correcting Sam’s seeking and excavating.
All in all, it was a good thing that his lesson with Dan turned out to be so hectic today because that managed to keep Sam focused on them, and not worry about what came after. Unfortunately, it all came crashing down at dinner. When Sam suddenly remembered something that he was somehow able to repress for the entire day. “Say… aren’t you starting me on a new routine today?” he asked Sarah, who nodded in response.
Felix laughed. “There’s no way that you forgot about that.”
“No… but for some reason, I didn’t think about that for the whole day. That’s what surprised me.”
“Maybe that means your consciousness realized that there really isn’t anything for you to be worried about,” Sarah suggested.
“Or,” Felix said, “maybe it was trying to protect you.”
Sam shook his head. “I’d have to go with Sarah’s version of the joke. I’m afraid that I had already managed to make one similar to your immediately after realization struck.”
“Mine wasn’t a joke, though.” Sarah pouted.
“Really? I thought it was. Being even more detached from reality than Felix’s claim that my brain might do something to my benefit.”
“Hmm… What you just said must also be a joke, then. Seeing as there is no way you’d want to make me angry right now…”
“You wouldn’t. Would you?”
“Wouldn’t I? And how would you know whether I would? After all, you wouldn’t even be able to know for sure whether I would have.”
Sam started back at her, eyes narrowed. “Nah, you wouldn’t. But you’re right. I apologize for saying that your attempt at uplifting my spirits was a joke. Now if we all could just finish eating so we could get this day over with. Right now, the anticipation is what’s hurting me most.”
“Well, you’ll just have to stomach it,” Felix said. “I’ve barely eaten all day and I’m not leaving here until my plate’s empty.”
“Ugh! Curse you and your gluttony. Oh, I forgot to ask, how was your private lesson with Lin?”
“It was alright. We pretty much just sparred nonstop for most of it until he gave me some pointers in the last two minutes. Nothing as methodical as he’s doing with you.”
“Are you complaining? Didn’t you say that the way he was teaching me was bullshit?”
“Nah, I’m not complaining. I’m just saying that it wasn’t much of a lesson. There’s a different between breaking down everything a person does good and bad in a fight, that’s the methodical I’m talking about, and breaking down fighting itself to millions of different components, that’s bullshit. I wouldn’t even call that methodical anymore. It’s like a couple of unnecessary steps further down the road.”
“OK, let’s say I understand what you meant about the differences. What does the methodical you’re talking look like?”
“He’s basically talking about analyzing the fight after the fact,” Yvessa explained. “Going over every detail if possible and seeing what you could’ve done better and what you couldn’t have. Once Lin starts you on free-sparring, you’ll see it for yourself. There’s even a topic-by-topic form of sorts that the academy wants us to follow as we analyze each other. In other words, Felix is just complaining that all he got out of his lesson with Lin was sparring and a couple of pointers afterwards, instead of sparring and a thorough review of his efforts.”
“Pretty much.” Felix nodded. “Only I wasn’t complaining. Lin is probably the best physical fighter I ever fought against, so I have to say his reputation is well deserved.”
“You’ve never sparred with him before?” Sam asked.
“Oh, I’ve sparred with him. But with a limited frame, for training purposes. He’s not one for going all out with students. We have exchanged mock blows before, training routines, but this was the first time I really fought with him.”
Sam stared back at him incredulously. “What the hell does a ‘real fight’ mean when you’re both sparring with training weapons?”
“Fine. Forget my wording then. I never sparred with him for longer than a couple of minutes before.”
“Really? I’d have thought that with your guys’ skills and promising future that the academy would’ve treated you to plenty of private lessons when applicable.”
“Private lessons really aren’t a thing in the academy,” Sarah said. “It’s a military institution, after all. Technically, we should all be treated the same for good and for bad. Of course, if there’s a really promising cadet in a specialized field, then a teacher might choose to spend some of their own time to help the cadet advance faster. Like Maurice does, for example. But it’s pretty rare overall.”
Felix hummed in agreement. “Don’t forget that the reason you’re getting private instruction isn’t because you have great potential and they don’t trust their general curriculum to help you fully utilize it. But because you’re far behind the general curriculum. Help in order to catch up rather than leap ahead.”
Yvessa chuckled. “Don’t let them fool you, Sam. New Point Academy is as egalitarian an educational institution as they come in the Web. But in its struggle between egalitarianism and meritocracy, meritocracy still comes out ahead. All three of us are definitely getting special treatment because of our potential. Lin didn’t agree to help Felix because of you, or not just because of you, but also because Felix is Felix. Most of our combat instructors definitely pay us more attention that they do for anyone else. Also, the reason you’re getting private help is not just because you’re behind, but because of your potential as well. If, say, me or Felix had a subject we struggled with, I’m willing to bet we would’ve been able to get private help without much of a hassle.”
“Yeah, I suppose that’s fair.” Felix shrugged. “As long as the subject we were struggling with wasn’t something as esoteric as Sarah’s dwarven patterns, though.”
“That goes without saying.”
“There wasn’t any reason for it to be said.” Sarah frowned.
Felix finally finished eating soon after and Sam spent most of the walk over to their usual Sunday evening haunting grounds in inward contemplation. Or in less positive words, in an anxious self-obsessive internal monologue. It wasn’t that bad, mostly just worrying about the physical after-effects of the upcoming challenge. But Sam could’ve gladly done without it. Hopefully, the next time Sarah instituted a change in his workout, he’ll be able to start it without any mental complaint (and maybe eventually, without any major physical complaint).
But as it turned out, most of his worries proved unfounded. For while the increase in difficulty was along the same lines as it was during the previous two times, the accompanying physical displeasure (and thus, and more importantly, mental woe) was greatly reduced. Not by a whole lot, but enough for Sam to not even bother wondering whether today was really easier than the last time.
A very good start to the week, Sam concluded once he was back in his room, not hating stairs anywhere close to how much he hated them a couple of weeks ago.