Time passed.
Weeks turned into months, and soon two and a half months had gone by.
During this time, Cassidy went back and forth between checking up on Jack at his apartment and managing Quarath.
Luckily, she wasn’t the only one doing either of these things.
Rachel, Thomas, and Samuel helped by visiting Jack, who was now fully recovered, at least physically, and tried to strike up small conversations.
But no matter how much they tried, Jack would simply smile it away and spend the whole day strolling around the village.
Ever since the day he found out about Amelia, he had never set foot in the training room.
It was so worrying that Erevan took it upon himself to visit him every few days, trying to talk him out of his current state, but it was all in vain.
The date to enter the Lesser Orange portal was fast approaching, and Erevan didn’t want, and couldn’t have, a team member in this condition. If Jack, in his current state, set foot inside the portal, he’d just be throwing his life away.
Alas, as much as everyone tried, there was no way to make him change his mind about training.
As for the latter, Cassidy had the various generals help her with Quarath’s matters.
Alaric, Darius, Adira, Nox, Malachi, Hector, and Shira.
They could all see that her mind was somewhere else and did their best to help whenever possible.
The absence of Nova, who had only come back a few months prior, wasn’t helping at all either.
It was only a month ago that Cassidy, who had been getting the same question over and over, finally told them that Nova had suddenly left, saying he would come back after a month, but that obviously didn’t happen.
Used to his disappearance, none of the generals complained, but morale certainly wasn’t as high as before.
Overall, after the fifteen Grade 1s were killed, the skirmishes against the Federation continued, but they had gone back to what they were in the past: normal soldiers against normal soldiers.
Beast attacks hadn’t ceased either. As time passed, more and more of them advanced, becoming both a threat and a boon to the population. Their bodies were treasure troves, but alive, they were deadly machines.
Still, none of them managed to get past Quarath’s walls.
And today, all the generals, along with Cassidy and Ysara, the Quarath Academy’s dean and Jasmine’s mother, were seated in the meeting room at Nemesis HQ.
The topic…
“What are the chances we have of winning first place this year?” Malachi asked casually, at no one in particular. But there was only one person in the room who could answer.
The Birth of Deities would take place in three days.
Ysara didn’t answer him. Instead, she turned toward Nox and asked, “I’ve heard of the series of assassinations that took place at the other three academies, but the Federation is keeping a tight hold on the details. Do you know if any of their top 10s died?”
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“None,” Nox said curtly.
Top 10s were the core of any academy. If even one of them died, it meant the loss of a future pillar of any organization. Naturally, the teachers of the academies would do anything to protect them.
As soon as the assassinations began, the academies of Univara, Altura, and Tritus immediately prioritized the safety of their top 10 students, only thinking about the rest once they were sure all of them were safe.
Thus, even for Last View, Nox’s organization, it was hard to take out a single one of them.
Ysara nodded, unsurprised by the answer. As the dean of one of the four main academies, she knew full well just how difficult it would be to kill any student when they were placed under the highest level of protection.
“In that case, we have three students who can compete for the top five. Any of them has a chance to win the tournament, but… it’s getting harder and harder to guarantee first place,” she sighed.
“While in the past we had better resources than the Federation and an untapped talent pool, over the years they’ve slowly caught up to us. In a way, they’ve always had the advantage with the large population at their disposal.”
Cassidy nodded, fully aware of this. In the beginning, thanks to the rapid growth of Nemesis’ higher-ups, they had the advantage in knowledge and strong personnel, but now, that advantage barely existed.
The Federation had both money and population to make up for it, and it showed.
At first, winning the Birth of Deities wasn’t a problem, in fact, it almost seemed certain.
But as time passed, the Federation began consistently placing in the top five and, a few years ago, even claimed first place.
Since then, winning the tournament had become a struggle, one that only the strong-willed and most dedicated students could hope to achieve.
“Can we help in any way? If you already have ideas, don’t hesitate to state them,” Cassidy said clearly, leaving no words unspoken.
Winning the Birth of Deities wasn’t just a matter of gaining resources.
It was prestige.
And with it came a series of benefits. The most important one was, of course, the free advertisement of how Quarath was superior to the rest of the world, in this case, the Federation.
With a small pool of talents to choose from, any new, gifted young person who took the risk of being discovered by the Federation and enrolled in Quarath Academy was nothing short of a blessing.
Ysara, having already prepared extensively for this moment, smiled.
“There’s more than one thing that will greatly help our academy in winning the tournament,” she said.
She looked at the various generals, her eyes twinkling, and pointed a finger downward on the table.
“For one, we could let our best students have some time in the elemental rooms in the basement…”
You had to bring that up now of all times… Cassidy’s eye twitched.
“Or,” she continued, nudging her head toward the generals, “we could have our beloved generals guide them and let them witness Force firsthand. That way, if, by some miracle, we have a diamond in the rough in our academy, there’s a chance for them to learn Force and use it to wipe out all the competition.”
By the end of her words, her smile had turned into a grin. “What do you think about my two ideas?”
Malachi, knowing full well just how much it cost to run the training rooms in the basement, immediately retorted, “Do you even know the cost of what you’re asking?”
“Forget the rooms that not even some of the captains who’ve slaved for years have entered, you want us to teach some kids Force?”
He chuckled. “Which one of us has the spare time to do that when all we do is train and manage our respective organizations?”
“If that’s a joke, then it’s not funny.”
Having expected this sort of reaction, Ysara shrugged and said, “There are seven of you. Can’t you take turns? It’s only going to be a few hours a week, maybe less. And look at the positives, the stronger the students are, the more resources they can obtain from better portals, and, in turn, the better resources you and your subordinates can get. It’s a win-win for all of us.”
Malachi was about to speak up again when Darius chimed in.
“Us? You don’t want any of those resources?”
“Bingo,” Ysara smiled. “The academy’s current resources are enough for the number of students we have, so you can keep everything that’s in surplus.”
Darius squinted. “Then why are you doing this? Asking for either a mountain of gold or our time, knowing full well how valuable each of them is… It can’t just be because of the academy, am I right? While winning the tournament is certainly good, getting second place isn’t so bad as to go this far.”
“He’s right. To us, top one, two, or even three doesn’t make much of a difference. So… just what’s going on?” Adira asked curiously, as every head in the room turned toward Ysara.
The dean’s lips twitched slightly, a movement easily caught by both the generals and Cassidy.
The staredown between her and the rest lasted a few seconds before Ysara sighed in defeat.
“Fine. I admit my requests weren’t entirely for the academy’s benefit, but…”
Her eyes drifted away, toward the window as her voice dropped to a mutter.
“What can I do when an old crook is lusting after this swan?”
No one could believe their ears.
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