A full night passed since Cassandra had her conversation with the principal and Mirai. Both adults who now used all their free time to get information out of anyone involved with the current mess.
It was now morning. The sun was barely up when a knock was heard on the principal’s office.
“Come in.” The principal said. Not soon after Klaws entered the room and sat on one of the sofas.
“We weren’t expecting anyone this early in the morning. How are you doing?” Mirai said as she sat on the other sofa.
“I need help. I almost did something very wrong…” Klaws said somewhat angrily but also with a hint of fear.
“What did you almost do, young man?” The principal asked.
“Attack Moon…”
“Why would you do that?” Mirai asked.
“Because I am very angry with him. It was him that put the idea on everyone’s head that we had to sacrifice Mia to survive. If it wasn’t for him maybe Mia would be in a better state!” Klaws said, this time visibly angry. He was physically holding himself back from doing anything.
“What do you mean?” Mirai asked.
“It’s what I said. Before those strong people did anything it was him that said that we should just give Mia to them while she was knocked out, from saving his life nonetheless!”
“...Like I said to all the others before you. I am extremely sad that it came to that but we can’t judge them for doing what they thought would keep them alive.” The principal said in a very neutral tone.
“I know, I know… Even though she would understand that and just forgive them, I am still angry. Not only at Moon for bringing all of this up but also at Narissa. I trusted her and she almost killed Mia…”
Mirai and the principal just looked at Klaws in a way that indicated that they would listen to him. Then Klaws continued.
“When we were put inside that strange chess game, at the very end, all we had to do was for me to survive a single attack from the queen and we would win. I know I could do it, I said I could do it. I trusted her to tell me where to go and what to do but she used that to move me out of the way so the enemy could just kill Mia… If she hadn’t woke up I don’t know what I would have done…”
“So she forced you to move?” Mirai asked.
“Yes! She could force us to do stuff and used that to pretty much kill Mia instead of putting those pricks to work! They did nothing after a while.”
“She might have saved your life, you know?” Mirai said, trying to calm Klaws a little.
“It is my life! It wasn’t for her to choose who I would die for!” Klaws angrily shouted as he standed up.
“Sit down!” The Principal said with a very commanding tone that scared even Mirai a little. Still, it was enough to completely calm Klaws, even if the young man was now a little shaken.
“...Sorry.” He said as he sat down again.
“Don’t be. I am happy that you truly embody what it means to have honor in a way but don’t be so eager to throw your life away.”
They all stayed there, silent, for a few minutes, after that.
“Can I get as strong as her? Get stronger than you?” Klaws asked as he broke the silence.
“Why do you desire power?” The principal asked.
“Because if I had power, I could do whatever I wanted!”
“And what do you want to do?”
“...Pay her back. Pay Mia back.”
“Pay what?”
“She saved my life! I need to pay that back somehow!” Klaws said passionately.
“Didn’t you guard and help her while she was unconscious after her last fight? She wouldn’t have been alive if all of you didn’t at least help her at that moment, right? You already saved her life so I think you already paid it back. I know she would agree with me.” The principal said dismissively, almost as if mocking Klaws
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“That’s different!” Klaws shouted angrily.
“So what? You are going to wait until someone that can kill her appears and deal with him yourself?”
“If that happens, yes!” Klaws shouted as he stood up.
“And after what? Next time someone attacks her you are just going to let her deal with it, even if it is someone that can kill her?”
“What!? No! I would help again!”
“So she would have to pay you back one day?”
“NO! She doesn’t need to pay me back!”
“Then why do you need to pay her back if she doesn’t need to do the same for you? Isn’t that how transactions work?”
“...” Klaws couldn’t respond.
Mirai looked like she was going to say something but the principal cut her off.
“Klaws. Do you want to protect Mia?” He asked very seriously.
“...Yes!”
“Protect her from what exactly?”
“Everything!”
“Boy, you can’t protect someone from everything. A tree that has never felt a strong wind will inevitably fall. Also, everything also means the good things in life.”
“Then I will protect her from everything that wants to hurt her!”
“Will you stop everyone from ever saying bad things to her? Because those things can hurt? Will you feed every stray animal on the street? Did you know that it really saddens her that people just abandon their pets and she doesn’t have enough money to just take them herself? Will you not allow anyone to ever tell her that she is wrong? Sometimes the truth hurts, you know?”
“I…I…I…AHHHH!” Klaws suddenly shouted as he slammed his fists into the table between the sofas. If it was a normal table it would have broken into a million pieces. Klaws suddenly fell to his knees and began to cry.
“Klaws!?” Mirai asked in panic as she ran towards him.
“I don’t want to be weak. When I am weak, everyone around me gets hurt! My mom cried because she had to abandon me in the forest because I wasn’t strong enough to hold my hunger at bay! My village almost went hungry because I couldn’t deal with the monsters in the forest eating everything and now Mia almost died because I couldn’t even run away!” Klaws said angrily as his tears continued to fall.
“Then get stronger. Easy enough, right? Then you can run away when needed.”
“No! I want to do things with her! I don’t want to be a burden on my friend.” Klaws said as he slammed his hand on the table.
“Boy, you have too much of an opinion of yourself if you think you will be a weight on Mia in the future.” The principal said, clearly mocking Klaws. Even Mirai was taken aback by what he said.
“What do you mean?” Klaws asked angrily.
“You are very unique and can get incredibly strong but you can’t use almost all magic currently known. It won’t take long for Mia to be as physically strong as you and with magic she will be able to be exponentially stronger than any one of her metrics might show. In a few years Mia will be so overwhelmingly stronger than you overall that you will feel like an ant compared to her if you continue going like you are now.”
“Then train me harder! Isn’t that why I am here!?”
“Just training you wouldn’t be enough. If you ever want to be relevant enough to be near her you will have to train dozens, no, hundreds of times harder than you are now. Mia will make anything that nullifies magic and psychic attacks a must in any battlefield that she might appear. Unless you reach that level yourself, with just your body, you will never amount to much. You would have to literally walk through hell to reach that point and my academy is not somewhere I would allow something like that to occur.”
“Then I will leave and train by myself!”
“And who is going to feed you? You are going to have to abandon the city too if you do that. Besides, you also work here, don’t you?”
“I will not work for her anymore! I refuse to work for someone who would sell someone like that! I will make her cancel that contract by any means and if I find someone else to train me after classes it is no problem, right?” Klaws asked, almost challenging the principal.
“No need to get violent. I will talk with Cassandra for you.” Mirai interjected.
“Whatever you do in your free time is not our problem as long it doesn’t affect the academy negatively. Not that I think you will be able to find someone.”
“I will find someone to train me and I will be stronger than Mia! You will see! I will protect her! And tell that dwarf that I am not working for her anymore!” Klaws said as he angrily left the room.
A minute or so later, after he left, Mirai sat astonished and began to talk with the principal.
“What was all that about?”
“That was what being an educator is all about. Taking the chaotic energy of the youth and putting it to good use so they can grow.”
“I still can’t process all of this. Why did you have to be so confrontational?”
“Lady Mirai, are you married? Do you have kids?”
“...No and No.” She said somewhat embarrassed.
“If you ever have kids, especially boys, you will understand.”
“...Wait, you don’t think he, with her…”
“No quite yet. He didn’t exactly have a normal childhood, did he? He doesn’t really know it himself. Let’s just hope my little push at least gave him a chance.”
“What do you mean?”
“You have to swear to me you will never tell this to anyone.”
“...Alright.”
“Do you know why she is so hellbent on getting stronger?”
“Her family?”
“That too, but she once told me that she really loves someone but she was told that she needs to be really, really strong to even be near that person and I am not talking about a white lie, she swore that as long as she got strong enough she could stay with this person she loves forever.”
“How strong are we talking?”
“The highest of the peaks. Overwhelming strength, the kind that makes us ants. At least that was how she said to me.”
“If that is so, then it really is only hell that awaits that boy.”
“The important part is at least giving him the chance to try.”
“...Let’s hope so.”