"Would you like to be my first student young man?"

This statement left Artillian gob smacked. He was surprised because the so called general in front of him looked no more than 20, just 4 years older than Artillian.

Yet this boy general was actually asking such a question. Artillian fell to the floor laughing, he did not know whether to laugh or cry at this question.

As he laughed he answered Eden in a rather mocking tone. "Hahahaha, who do you think you are to be asking such a question? You are nothing but a boy, just a few years older than me. How can you teach me anything? Ah my stomach, it hurts!"

Just like how Artillian was surprised by Eden's question, Eden was just as flabbergasted by Artillian's reaction. He was the youngest ever general in the Kingdom's history.

This alone made him one of the most respected people in the Kingdom. Even the King himself had offered his youngest daughter, who was his only child from the queen to make sure that he would have close relations to the Royal Family.

Him being a general and with potential to be the next ruler of the Kingdom; most people would dream, wish and beg to be taken as a disciple by him.

Yet in front of him was someone who did not seem to care at all about the offer, in fact he laughed at it. This made Eden speechless.

"Just please tell me how to get to the academy. Or did you lie about the entry chance to just to boost morale? Last time I checked I was more than qualified." The conditions to join were: one had to be 18 or below, one had to have killed a hundred enemy soldiers and last but not least one had to be compatible with a spirit. Bastian was young enough, the spirit inside him had massacred far more than a hundred soldiers, and...Well...he had a spirit.

Artillian had said the last sentence whilst wearing a rather ruthless expression on his face. It was an expression that would stop babies from crying out of fear, but to Eden it was quite odd.

When he saw how Artillian was looking at him, he couldn't help but laugh because to him, he was a full grown tiger whereas Artillian was just a cub.

"You do realize that in order to enter the academy you need a little bit of strength? With just a glance one can tell that you've barely cultivated any Qi, your body is weak. You would not survive a day in that academy. Believe me I almost died in that place. And even with that said I can still stop you from going to the academy. You see I am a representative of the academy in Atley. I am former elite in that school, so if I tell them you aren't good enough then you won't be good enough."

"..."

Artillian froze as he heard these words. He never thought that this guy was actually someone who was at the academy. These words gave him chills and he thought that his dream was over.

He would have no choice but to train with Hestia. This was something he didn't want, but he'd rather get trained by Hestia than get trained by a person who looked like he hadn't even tasted the forbidden fruit yet. But the next sentences he heard gave him hope.

"I'll make you a deal young man. In 9 months there is going to be a deciding battle between our Kingdom and the enemy. I will train you in these 9 months and if you participate and get a good result I will send you to the Academy, so long as you don't make me look bad. How is that?"

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Artillian was confused by these words. It seemed as if this boy general was actually confident in winning this war. The level of confidence left Artillian baffled, he had witnessed the enemy attack and to him they were far from being pushovers, so for Eden to talk like this was quite strange as far as Artillian was concerned.

"You seem to have confidence in winning this war."

Eden had the most confident smile on his face when he heard Artillian's words. "Of course I do. I have been in situations far more complicated than this, this is naught more than child's play. It's funny because to my father and father in law this is a war. To me it's nothing but just flexing my muscles"

'Father in law? This Bastard is already married? What the hell is this? Is he not a few years older than me? Yet... yet...'

"So what do you say, want to train under me? I promise I will personally escort you to the academy when it's all over." Eden stopped speaking when he saw that Artillian was not paying attention. A man of his stature would normally not be patient, but he had seen what Artillian had done, or rather the damage he was capable of. Eden could not forget the charred ground left behind by the fire spell. Soldiers from the battlefield had brought back samples of the soil because they held 'felt' something was off. The soldiers knew nothing but Eden knew what it was the moment the soil touched his hands.

'A Divine spirit. A spirit that has the Divine attribute. I have no doubt about it.'

He did not even bother asking the boy who he learned that spell from. All he cared about was the potential and the spirit inside. Spirits were fussy creatures that chose their hosts in a stringent manner.

'Divine spirits are even more picky. This boy probably doesn't even know what the spirit did. If he did he would have felt the energy I was giving off and reacted.'

The residual energy from the soil left a warm endearing feeling in hands that Eden liked.

'A fire type Divine Spirit, I must have this boy!'

There were plenty of situations in the history of this world where by spirits of an extremely high quality showed bursts of strength when their hosts were in danger. Eden assumed that was how Artillian killed all those soldiers.

As to the specifics, such as how Artillian had obtained such a spirit, or what spirit it was, Eden was confident that with time he would know everything, after all, when you meet someone with potential, better to be their friend rather than their enemy.

So for now Eden had no choice but to stomach Artillian's blatant disregard for authority.

Artillian was lost in thought at this moment. He really wanted to go to the academy, and he himself had to admit that he was still rather weak. So with this thought Artillian agreed. "I will agree, but I will not want to be called your student. Rather let's just say that you are giving me pointers. Is that ok with you Eden?"

"I have no problem with that, but you know most people call me General Cattermole, even I prefer it like this." Eden had said these words with a wide grin on his face that exposed his sharp teeth. He looked like a hungry wolf that had just caught a rather large animal. "Fine then, names don't really matter at the moment. I will have a tent set up for you so that you may rest. We are heading to the Kingdom tomorrow."

After these words were said Artillian was escorted to a tent by a sturdy looking soldier who couldn't help but look at Artillian whilst wearing an expression full of envy. When Artillian noticed this soldier's expression all he could do was smile wryly as he himself had nothing to say to the man.

When he got to the tent he couldn't help but be amazed as this tent was huge and had a lot of food and drinks inside. When the soldier saw all this the only thing he could do was grunt and walk away.

As he looked around he saw a makeshift bed made of a large stone-like material. It had a lot of blankets covering it to make it look comfortable. Without taking a second look at the food, Artillian headed straight for the bed in order to lie down and sleep. It had been a long day and Artillian was quite tired and as soon as he got on the bed he began to doze off slowly.

'What a life...'

And with this thought Artillian fell asleep