A man with golden eyes took a breath as he slowly walked towards a figure sitting on a log in the distance. Conlan was finally going to talk to her. He had been avoiding any contact with Adrianna in case she became hostile towards him, but he decided to finally approach her to make a request, and finally begin causing some changes compared to his past.

He watched as she cast, shattered, and recast small mana-circles repeatedly with a very slight frown on her face. She didn’t look up as he approached, not that he expected her to. After a couple of minutes of staying silent, he finally spoke.

“I’ve heard that for keeping spell matrices of that size stable, you need to link all the frames to the central node, rather than just a few.”

She slowly raised her head and looked at him with a faintly dubious expression. “You know magic theory?”

“Oh, no. This is just something I heard by coincidence,” he replied with a smile.

She frowned but looked back down at the incomplete mana-circle hovering over her palm. Then it lit up with a glow as the runes linked and it slowly started spinning.

She held her chin and observed it. “It seems the mana density required for this circle is higher than estimated, but not a conclusion I would’ve spent a long time reaching. This will advance my progress by a few days,” she muttered.

His smile became a bit awkward.

Only a few days? Well, whatever. That’s not why I’m here.

He blinked as she stood up and crossed her arms, gazing at him expressionlessly.

“Okay then. What do you want?” she asked indifferently.

“….do I have to want something?” he responded, caught slightly off guard by her question.

“We’ve had no interaction besides in combat for the last few weeks, but decided to approach me today,” she said coldly. “Unless you want something, you have no reason to talk to me. Say what you want.”

He inwardly grimaced, annoyed he had been so obvious, but sighed. “Could I ask you some other time?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “I detest people thinking I owe them favours,” she stated icily.

This isn’t going how I expected, but to be honest, it’s not out of character for her. I guess I’ll just ask.

“I would like to ask that you put me on your team for the team combat battles,” he requested.

She watched him silently with those icy eyes of hers and then shook her head. She turned away and began walking off. “Impossible. Ask something else.”

Conlan scowled and clenched his fists. “Could I know why?” he replied with a strained voice.

She glanced back at him over her shoulder. “I’ve been told not to tell anyone by the head instructor. If I tell you, then that will be how I repay my ‘debt’.”

“….then please tell me,” he said in a low voice.

She regarded him and then gave a slight sigh. “Because just like the team leaders, the people on my team have been chosen by the instructors as well. We only pretend to ‘select’ members because of their orders.”

And with that, she walked off, leaving him stunned as a hidden fact not revealed the first time around became known to him that day.

----------------------------------------

End of week 3 of October at White Squall Fortress.

“Sherwood, take another step to the left. Deirvetch’s spell is going to hit you if you don’t.”

“Zhang, you need to begin the footwork of that speed technique. Do it within three seconds or you’ll lose your advantage.”

“Baxtimer, I said the right, not the left. Mason’s now unguarded. Get back into position.”

Adrianna frowned as she directed the assortment of cadets that had been placed under her command to fight against the team on the other side. The camp was beginning to contain only the future members of her crew as the numbers thinned, harsher limits having been imposed on them by the instructors. She was facing Ruel Deirvetch, Wilden Leutia, Palin Zoc’uraghets, Zhang Meng, and Griffin, all being directed by Liao Tengfei.

Her expression twitched as she registered Liao making a mocking gesture to Noirel Arventiel on her team. “Arventiel, stay put. Don’t fly after him. He’s obviously trying to bait you.”

The ashy-haired half-fae scowled but slowly flew back from the other team’s side of the battle zone.

She inwardly sighed, but then her eyes flew open as she turned to stare at a red-haired man. “Baxtimer. The. Right.”

The chain-wielding battle maniac clicked his tongue but moved in front of the slightly nervous Liliana. He had been trying to get over to Ruel so he could fight him.

She felt a headache beginning to emerge, starting to remember just what dealing with her old crew had been like, but continued combatting Leutia’s undead while the other fighters dealt with their opponents. The first five years of her career at the Navy had definitely been the most stressful time there. And she didn’t even have the other members under her yet.

She decided to stop thinking about it for her own mental wellbeing’s sake and focus her attention on the battle. The opposition was unlikely to win, but a drawn-out fight would increase the risk of that happening. She narrowed her eyes and glanced at Liliana as an idea came to mind.

She flicked her wrist and her illusory construct abruptly smashed through all Leutia’s skeletons, the long-haired man becoming startled as he was left defenceless.

Her team members' eyes widened as she stepped forward with a slight frown on her face. “This is ridiculous. If you guys can’t keep to your positions, then I’ll do it myself. Don’t get in my way.”

Her team had dark expressions as more illusion mana gushed out of her, and more of her Core Illusory Construct’s form appeared. But she also sent a spiritual transmission to Liliana.

‘I need you to do something. Try not to react as I give you the details.’

The girl’s eyes widened as she received the information, and she almost nodded but managed to stop herself from doing so. The intensity of her shots slowly decreased as the archer conserved her mana.

Her own construct’s full form appeared and she began dealing with the entire opposite team on her own. Liao Tengfei became flustered as he didn’t know how to direct them to respond to her, while his team became angry and started aiming all their attacks at her.

Her own team’s reactions were mixed. Arventiel was looking pale, and Baxtimer was staring at her with narrowed eyes. Catherine looked angry at her insulting words, and Zhang Mingxia was gazing at her with a strange expression. She knew the Sect heir was likely confused as her actions didn’t match up with her behaviour up until now, but she didn’t really care what the cultivator thought. Liliana only looked awkward and uncomfortable by their reactions.

She attacked Leutia first, Officer Stanhope disqualifying him when he was pushed out of the battle. He didn’t have the mana to continue summoning more undead.

As he was the first ‘casualty’ of the fight, Liao’s team increased the speed and strength of their attacks. She took it upon herself to fight against them as Liao tried to order them to battle her with some semblance of a plan.

With a Blast Shock, she removed Ruel Deirvetch from the fight, and her opposition’s numbers went down to four, Zoc’uraghets, Griffin, Zhang Meng, and Liao. Then Catherine Sherwood spoke up.

“If she thinks she doesn’t need us, even after she picked us for her team, then she won’t get our help. I say we leave her to it,” she announced angrily. She crossed her arms as she looked at Zhang Mingxia. “What do you say?”

“I….” the Sect heir hesitated as she glanced between the redhead and Adrianna.

Drew Baxtimer yawned and then nodded. “May as well. It’s become boring now.”

Zhang Mingxia grimaced and then copied the other two to walk over to the sidelines as the fight continued. Noirel Arventiel slowly glided over as well, her face still pale as she watched Adrianna cautiously.

“Hey, Liliana, come over here. No reason for you to keep fighting if we’re not,” Catherine called out to the archer.

Liliana looked at Adrianna with a complicated expression but eventually moved over. She stood to the side as Adrianna kept fighting the other team.

Adrianna narrowed her eyes as Griffin once again willingly received an attack to be disqualified, but ignored him, as the opposite team was now down to three. Zhang Meng and Palin Zoc’uraghets continued attacking her, and her team members remained on the sidelines, not interested in helping. Except for one.

Officer Stanhope stepped forward to halt the fight. “Riftmire’s team wins.”

Her team blinked, and looked over to find the opposite team’s leader, Liao Tengfei, knocked out. Zhang Meng and Palin Zoc’uraghets also stared, unaware that their team leader had been attacked.

“Wait, how?” Catherine exclaimed, before she paused, and looked behind her. “Liliana? Why did you help her?”

Liliana glanced at Adrianna, who was withdrawing her illusions, with an awkward expression. The archer held her bow in her hands. “She asked me to earlier.”

“… But for what reason did she act as a distraction?” Zhang Mingxia asked, confused, and appearing slightly uncomfortable after she realised what Adrianna had done.

“Riftmire, explain yourself to them,” Officer Stanhope ordered, looking at her with annoyance.

Adrianna glanced at him, and let out a short sigh. “In a few hours, you will all have to fight me again. I wanted to end this battle early so you wouldn’t tire yourselves out too much.”

They all gazed at her strangely. Officer Stanhope scowled. “Riftmire.”

She bent down to lace up her boots. “Also, the odds would be too uneven if you faced me after a drawn-out battle. It would be meaningless if you couldn’t learn anything from fighting me.” She straightened up.

“Thank you, Riftmire. Now you may go,” he replied, frowning at her.

She nodded and walked away.

The Officer sighed and faced the others. “Go take a break and wash up. She’s not wrong that you’ll have to fight her soon. But what she didn’t mention is that both of us could see none of you were willing to take this battle seriously.” He glared at them. “After this week, you will not be fighting each other. You’ll be getting some actual practice on real ships with other Officers. What are you going to do when they order you to do something?”

He pointed behind him. “Are you going to react like today? You’ve all been under her command at some point this week. What if there’s someone with a worse attitude who’s your superior?” He shook his head and turned away. “Get going.”

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They awkwardly shifted where they stood, silent for a while, before slowly separating to leave the training grounds. Catherine frowned at the ground. “Does the Officer not care about her comments? He’s told us off for mocking people while fighting, but not her.” She gave a bitter laugh. “I guess it’s just because she’s the Commander’s precious little prodigy.”

Zhang Mingxia gazed after the man with a complicated expression. “That is not….” She paused, grimaced, and then started walking away. “Excuse me. I need to go talk to someone for a moment.”

“Huh? Wait, where are you…”

She didn’t hear the rest of the redhead’s words as she sped up her pace to go find Adrianna. Adrianna didn’t look behind her when the girl finally caught up.

“Why did you do that?” she asked, following the taller woman from behind.

“‘That’ is a very vague term,” Adrianna muttered, not speeding up but not slowing down either.

Zhang Mingxia quickened to walk beside her. “I mean refrain from revealing your plan to us. It conflicts with your actions these last few days.”

Adrianna glanced at her with a slight frown but kept moving. “I’ve already explained myself.”

“No, you have not!” the Sect heir suddenly exclaimed, dashing in front of Adrianna to block her path. “So far, your orders and actions have been clear cut and with sufficient explanation. But not then. You abruptly decided to take it upon yourself to do everything, instead of delegating the responsibility, and making the other team members feel redundant.”

She clenched her fists as she gazed at Adrianna. “Only for you to reveal you were just doing it as a distraction. You could have revealed your plan to us beforehand so we did not believe we were useless to you like you did with Liliana.”

Adrianna crossed her arms as she looked at the girl, but Zhang Mingxia didn’t move. She suppressed a sigh as she spoke, “Then tell me, Zhang Mingxia.” The heir blinked when she used her full name, but she continued with her words. “When I said I would do it alone, did any of you once think I was lying? That maybe I had a different motive?”

Zhang Mingxia stared at her as she gestured to the training grounds behind her. “You saw how the opposite team and even our own team members reacted. You said my actions didn’t match up with my actions over the last week. Why then, did they instantly believe what I was saying?” She gazed at the girl with no emotion on her face. “And why then, are you saying you saw things differently if you didn’t reveal this to them?”

The long-haired girl’s eyes widened as she realised what she was implying. She watched as Zhang Mingxia’s expression became hesitant, uncomfortable, and guilty. The girl hugged herself. “I- but, you have acted this way intentionally! I know your comments were only so they would attack you….” she replied in a quiet voice.

“I only took what was already there and made it obvious,” Adrianna stated coldly. She uncrossed her arms and walked around the still Sect heir. “It doesn’t matter anyway. It’s not like I cared what they thought.”

Zhang Mingxia whipped around to look at her. “Why wouldn’t you care?! These people are going to be fighting life-or-death battles with you after this! Shouldn’t you make an effort so that they wouldn’t dislike you as much?!”

Adrianna paused and looked back at her. “Ruel Deirvetch is here because he’s a member of the vassal family of Drew Baxtimer’s clan. He’ll leave when Baxtimer does.”

The Sect heir blinked in confusion.

“Noirel Arventiel is here to develop her fae-magic skills. When she feels she has reached a sufficient level, she will leave as well. Zoc’uraghets wishes to gain power that would enable him to be recognised as a core member of his noble family. Leutia is here to collect the bodies of strong monsters for his class.” She continued walking. “Griffin, Sherwood, and Mason are here to gain strength and resources. And your company will leave when your Sect requires you to.”

Zhang Mingxia scowled at her. “So, you don’t believe it is worth forming relationships with those who will only be here temporarily? Even if such relationships could continue on afterwards?”

Adrianna turned to face her and gazed at her expressionlessly. “I’m not sure why you care. Are you acting like this because you think I’m hurt by their attitudes?” She shook her head and turned back around, walking away. “You don’t know me well enough for that.”

Then she left, leaving Zhang Mingxia in silence, and feeling a little lost at how she was supposed to interact with the cold woman.

…

“You, cadet, are going to be the death of me. Seriously, if I had a rose crown for all the headaches you’ve given me this week, I’d own a city by now!”

She stared wordlessly at the dark-haired man who was running a hand through his hair, complaining about her. Ross Stanhope always did have a habit of readily complaining about anything and anyone in her presence, which she had still never discovered the reason why till the present. It wasn’t like she had ever made for great conversation with her personality. The Officer narrowed his eyes when he received her lack of response.

“Hey, I can tell you’re not even focusing on my words.”

And he was as intuitive as always. She looked away, making him scowl.

“Look here. Cadet, could you not at least try to interact with the others somewhat? At least to make them more willing to listen to you. How you’re acting right now is too much,” he said, sighing.

“I remember you said you’d be taking me to the Commander,” she stated blandly. She gestured to their surroundings. “This isn’t it.”

They were standing outside of the training camp’s buildings, the fortress’s goings on plain for them to see. The Navy members were transporting and carting monsters, while others were going in and out of different buildings.

Officer Stanhope glared at her. “Oh, yes, certainly, after you answer my question!” he hissed.

She frowned slightly and crossed her arms. “They’re immature.”

The man stared at her, before facepalming. “Immature she says. Of course they’re immature, they’re a bunch of high-strung young people!” He jabbed a finger at her. “You’re the abnormal one here! If you were the slightest bit more normal like them, I wouldn’t be dealing with all these issues you caused!”

“I don’t want to be normal,” she retorted. “Being normal would mean being like them, and that would mean I would be immature too.”

The Officer buried his head in his hands. “Oh, may the Death Monarch and his ninety-nine find me sinless before his court when they take me because I am this close to kicking you off our layer onto the ground below,” he threatened, indicating the small gap between his fingers. “Do not test me today, Riftmire.”

She remained silent as he sighed again and planted his hands on his hips. He looked up at the sky for a while and then lowered his eyes to narrow them at her. “Now, how come you only seem to talk back to your superiors rather than show this facet of your personality to your peers? Maybe I wouldn’t get so much grief from them if you did so….” he muttered.

“What time did the Commander want us?” she asked, not caring how obviously she was showing she was trying to avoid the topic.

He glared at her, pulled back his uniform’s sleeve to check his wristwatch, and then glared at her again. “Fine. I’ll let you have your way this time. But I will come back to this conversation later.” He marched off to head towards the wide ramp that led to the third tier, where the main command building of the White Squall Fortress was.

They entered the main building and navigated a few corners, the dark-haired man grumbling the entire way.

“Now, if you would just explain yourself, then I wouldn’t get their complaints every time it’s time for you to command them! Do I need to go up to each cadet personally and explain your intentions myself, when that should be something you do?”

She didn’t look at him as she walked beside him. “It’s not like they would believe me.”

“And that is your fault!” he yelled, drawing attention from the other Navy Officials in the corridor. “You should’ve said you were just trying to get them familiar with your abilities from the start, instead of making them all either hate or fear you! Neither are good options, I’m telling you,” he said exasperatedly.

“There are worse monsters than my construct,” she replied tonelessly.

“Sure, but most cadets don’t fight a kraken as their first monster in the Navy,” he muttered sourly. “Even if it was a small one. I’m shocked they’re not traumatised yet.”

“Its size is because I don’t have enough mana at my level. Once I’m over Level 150 I’ll likely have enough to manifest it fully,” she informed him.

He froze, halted on the spot, and turned to stare at her with wide eyes. “Excuse me? Did you just say that is not its full form?”

She calmly nodded as he looked at her incredulously, before he groaned and pinched his nose bridge. “How could you even have the ability to create something so big without having the stats to support it yet? The System doesn’t give a User a class with unavailable abilities, you know.”

“Origin Skill,” was all she stated.

He glowered at her. “Is that your way of telling me to shut up and stop asking?” He sighed when she didn’t answer, and just rubbed the back of his neck. “Anyway, I don’t get you,” he said with a frown.

He gestured behind them towards the direction of the building’s entrance. “You avoid talking to them outside of fighting, spend most of your time either casting magic or reading and then treat them like that when you do fight.” He crossed his arms. “Yet you cater your attacks directly to their condition that day, place them in positions best suited to developing their skills, and manage to ensure not one of them goes without their abilities being used in some way during your team fights. Do you care about them or not?”

She gazed silently at the ground, making him frown heavier. “Riftmire-”

“Very few of them are going to be here in a few years,” she interrupted, looking up. “For most of them, all they need to do is gain sufficient strength whether that be in combat skills or levels, and then they can leave. The sooner they know how to fight, the sooner that can happen. How they feel about me is irrelevant. My job will only be to make sure they’re alive by the end of it.”

He tilted his head as he regarded her for a long while, and then a bitter smile appeared on his lips. “You’re saying that you believe they shouldn’t waste their lives here by dying.” She didn’t respond, and he shook his head with a sigh and began moving again. “Well, I thought it was something like that. That’s why I’ve let you deal with them however you want. Only time will tell whether your actions will get the result you desire though.”

They walked in silence for a bit, before Officer Stanhope slowly turned his head to narrow his eyes at her. “But, how come I’ve found out that the self-repair magic array is not a detail that a mere cadet is supposed to know about?”

I should’ve known taking pity on him would come back to bite me. Oh well. I have an excuse.

“…… Magic array?” she replied.

He glared. “Yes, the magic array! Don’t play dumb with me! How did you find out about it?!”

She blinked. “I’ve seen it activating at night.”

The dark-haired man nodded. “Oh, yeah, sure- Are you kidding me?!” he shouted at her, his glare intensifying. “You think I’m an idiot?! ‘Self-repair’ are two very specific terms, cadet. Terms that just so happen to be exactly the name of the magic array I’m talking about!”

She kept walking and just glanced at him. “Is this really that important?”

He mimicked her words with mocking gestures. “‘Is this really that important’.” His expression became stormy. “We’re looking at an extreme security breach here, cadet. The Commander told me it’s connected to the mainframe array. You know, the very thing entirely responsible for all the operations of the fortress!”

She looked away and clicked her tongue.

Officer Stanhope’s eyes widened in anger. “Did you just click your tongue at me? Seriously?” He threw his hands up in the air. “These are the kinds of problems I have to deal with! I get non-stop whinging from the others, attitude from you, and a sadistic Commander who has no hesitancy dumping all of this on me! Why am I still stuck in this stupid Navy in the first-”

“Do I hear someone complaining about me?”

They both looked up to see Commander Arkenast sticking his head into the corridor with an eyebrow raised, watching the Officer with a mildly amused expression. The dark-haired man stiffened as he stared at the Commander, and then slowly turned to look at Adrianna.

“I remember you telling me your perception occupies half the training grounds, cadet,” he hissed at her. “Just when were you going to tell me he was there?”

She glanced at him, then at the Commander, and then back at him. She shrugged.

Officer Stanhope pulled at his hair with a groan of frustration, while the Commander just chuckled. The battle-scarred man gestured for them to come in. “I see you’ve finally brought Cadet Riftmire, Stanhope.” He smirked at Adrianna. “But you really should stop messing with the poor man. He might go bald if he pulls out any more hair.”

The object of his words glowered at his superior as they walked into his office. The Commander sat down on his chair and propped his chin up against the armrest of his chair as they stood in front of his desk.

“I’d hardly call it messing with him when I just didn’t want to have to repeat myself,” she calmly replied, hands behind her back.

The dark-haired man whipped his head to the side to stare at her, and the Commander grinned. “Well, if that’s how you think. But cadet, since we’re on this topic.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “Tell me exactly how you discovered the existence of the magic array. This is an order.”

She suppressed a sigh as she resigned herself to explaining. “I was in the fortress five days before the training camp began. I explored it to familiarise myself with the place, and happened to find the entrance to the mainframe level.”

They both stared at her. “The mainframe level. The one that has very harsh punishments for all unauthorised personnel who have entered,” the Commander stated blandly.

“Section Five Paragraph 23 Line Eight of the White Squall Fortress’s Code of Regulations states that all Officers of all ranks must have signed permission from the highest authority within the fortress before they are authorised to enter the mainframe level. I wasn’t an Officer,” she explained coolly.

They continued staring at her in silence for a while, the seconds dragging into minutes. Then both of the men made eye contact, and the Commander leaned down to open a drawer in his desk. He pulled out a very thick, heavy book, and dropped it onto his desk with a thud, kicking up dust from its pages. He flicked through it to find the section she was talking about. Slowly, the Officer moved next to his superior and also read the paragraph.

“Huh,” Commander Arkenast said after a few minutes. “Well, what do you know? And I thought this ridiculously thick book covered everything.”

“But, sir, it does,” Officer Stanhope replied, looking up to scowl at her. “It’s illegal to hand out the passcodes for the level’s entrances. Those caught doing so, or illegally knowing them, are charged under military law with criminal offences.”

She looked away. “I took an alternate route.”

That made the man clench his fists and glare at her even more. “Details, cadet. Details.”

She sighed and brushed aside some hair from her face. “You both know my perception is large. I noticed a magic engineer on the first layer take a weird route to a disguised entrance. It didn’t require passcodes, so I followed them. It seems the mainframe level has a shortcut the engineers like to take.”

“….a shortcut?” Officer Stanhope muttered.

Commander Arkenast frowned, flicking through the book. Then he looked up from it and rubbed his chin as he glanced to the side with a pensive expression. After some time, he returned his gaze to her. “Did you see what they were using it for?”

His eyes narrowed as her expression changed to become slightly hesitant as she struggled with how to phrase it nicely. Eventually, she gave up. “I’m guessing normally it would be for bringing down their apprentices…. but this time was alcohol. Alcohol and…. women. They were throwing parties down there.”

They returned to staring at her again, incredulous. Then they both scowled, and the air surrounding the Commander rippled with his aura, distorting as his Rank-5 presence was partially unleashed. The weight of the air in the room intensified as gravity started to multiply. “I think some people need to be taught exactly who their superior is, and why I have been the Commander for over three centuries,” he growled.

Officer Stanhope and her didn’t say anything, and after a while, he sighed and withdrew his aura. She and the dark-haired man both drew slight breaths of relief as Commander Arkenast waved his hand.

“I’ll deal with this later. I’d say thank you for drawing this to my attention….” He narrowed his eyes at her. “However, we both know you only avoided punishment because you skirted around the law. That isn’t something to be commended.”

He sighed again and then reclined back in his chair with a grin. “But this comes as a slight surprise to me, Riftmire,” he said. “I thought you might be the type to be a stickler for the rules, but it seems you can be rather flexible when you want to be. Don’t ever try something like this again though,” he added with a stern voice and look.

She nodded, and his grin returned. “Unless Main Navy politics come to us and I want you to stir up a little trouble for them. Then you have my permission to try something after you tell me what you’ll do.” He looked at the Officer next to him. “Right, well, while this conversation has been enlightening, it wasn’t actually what I wanted to discuss with you.”

His subordinate nodded, stepping out from behind the desk. “First, we wanted to discuss your Superior illusion affinity. Over 90% affinity for a mid-ranked element.” The dark-haired man raised an eyebrow. “That’s not something you put on your application form.”

“The Captains there all had access to my information,” she replied calmly. “If I had done so, the attempts to draw me to their Battalions would’ve increased, and when I eventually joined the Navy, it’s possible the order from the Main Navy or even General Battalion might’ve arrived to transfer me to them or the Magecraft Battalion. If I wanted to join those Battalions, I would’ve applied to them.”

Commander Arkenast laughed. “Yes, I can definitely see that happening. Even I couldn’t have held them off for long. Well, as soon as you become an Elite Officer, they can’t transfer you without your permission, so you’re safe now, as nobody else can leak this. Not safe from their offers of recruitment though.” He smirked. “As for the revelation that you have such a high affinity for the element…. I guess the glowing hair should’ve made it obvious,” he said, gesturing to her.

“That was definitely not intentional,” she said through gritted teeth.

The two men blinked. “Does that mean you had a choice over your affinity?” Officer Stanhope asked curiously.

She crossed her arms with a small frown. “I had no elemental affinity. My body is abnormally receptive to mana, and so when I came in contact with a high amount of it by accident… it changed my entire affinity.”

“How long ago was this?” the dark-haired man questioned.

“I entered the Tutorial at eighteen,” she answered. “It was a month afterwards.”

The two men glanced at each other with wide eyes. “And you developed a completely unique magic in under three years using an affinity you barely even knew?” the Commander said, looking bemused. “If you want to join the Academy, I could write a referral. I’m not sure your talent belongs here.”

“If I entered the Academy, the Illusion Order would abduct me and force me to parade myself as the little student of some great Archmage of theirs, pretending my skill was a result of their teachings,” she stated coldly. “My magic is my magic. Not theirs.”

They gazed silently at her with strange expressions, and then the battle-scarred man chuckled with a wry shake of his head. “It seems you know what you’re doing. All right then. I’ll move on from this topic.” He crossed his arms as he looked at her with a smile. “Cadet Riftmire, you’re going to be a Squad Leader.”

She stayed silent as they watched for her reaction. When she didn’t respond, the Commander clicked his tongue and looked at his subordinate. “You were right. She definitely overheard you.” He turned back to her and leaned forward. “But cadet, next year’s going to be a little different. The members of your training camp aren’t going to be split up into different squads. You’re all going to stay together.”

“….is this that special force I’ve heard about?” she said, ensuring she looked slightly surprised and hesitant.

“So you know about it. But do you know what it does?” he asked. She chose to shake her head, so he nodded and reclined back in his chair. “The special force is the crew of the M.W.S. Dawnlight. It’s a special warship that uses some of the best ship-building technology but is also manned by only a small crew. A crew that is never any larger than twenty people. If you become Captain, that’ll be your ship.”

“What will be my tasks?”

“Many different things,” he replied. “The special force doesn’t have a fixed role. But it’s known for only having a crew with high combat power. Your crew will need to be able to survive the central zone of the Distorted Depths using few people rather than many like the normal warships, and will fight independent monsters most of the time.”

He gestured to the window behind him, which showed the dark grey choppy seas of the region. “That includes the rare monsters which are valuable, to the more dangerous monsters that can’t be dealt with normally. Sometimes you’ll receive an order to collect a very specific material from the higher-ups of the other Battalions.”

“Most of the cadets are only going to be here temporarily though,” she replied.

He smiled. “The special force never lasts long. You could say it’s a test of sorts that gets done every half-century. And the longer the force stays together, the more talented the leader.”

He opened a drawer in his desk and withdrew a folder, then held it out to her. “This contains everything about your position as the leader of the Dawnlight’s crew. Read that in your own time, but for now, I’ll explain the basics of your position here today.” He smirked at her. “You’re going to have your work cut out for you, I’ll tell you that right now.”