René Dago patiently waited in his office for his student to appear. Truth be told, he was shaken by the recent events.

  “Her growth is far too fast,” he muttered under his breath. “Fourth Stratum in the second year… I know she only has a single agate and can focus all her effort in that one, but… some miners do not reach further than Seventh Stratum, and even if her growth slows down, she is bound to make it before the end of her instruction…”

  He had no way of knowing how far the villager would reach, but that might factor into his plans. For better or worse, he was well aware that Agatha of Malachite would never enter Cristos’ sight. The Shining Knight put too much weight on quantity for him to ever bother with the single-agate lithorist.

  “I should have played around tha-“ His thoughts and voice were cut off as someone knocked on the door. Using his highest Strata agate, René Dago used the Summon command and manifested his agate outside of the office – more than a handful of meters away – and looked through it with Control Watch. It was his student. “The door is open, come in.”

  The knob moved and the door opened to let him see Agatha, though now with his two eyes.

  “You said that you wanted to see me after the duel?” The petite student said softly, already expecting the worst.

  René hadn’t been a teacher for long, but he couldn’t deny that he took a bit of pleasure in the sheer intimidation he imparted to people by virtue of being their teacher, rather than being a miner candidate, a captain, or the Reaper of Aneolopolis. It was a… warming type of intimidation.

  “Indeed,” he nodded to the girl’s words. “Please take a seat, Miss Malachite.”

  His student gingerly walked forward and sat on the wooden chair he had ready. Her guard is up, something you usually wouldn’t do when in front of your teacher. Has she grown paranoid or strong?

  “Is this about… er, the series I showed?” Malachite broke the silence as he had stood in silence for a bit too long.

  “Partially, yes,” René nodded again. “But some celebration is also in order. You are now a Fourth Stratum lithorist, Miss Malachite. A lofty goal, for most soldiers stop growing once they reach it.”

  “Really?” The blonde raised a brow in suspicion. “But there are still many years of instruction.”

  “I believe I have told you before that most soldiers – or even scholars – stop growing once their instruction is over. And if I have not, at least Terráquea has certainly told you so.”

  “How do you know that?” A mixture of suspicion and dread crept into her tone.

  René snorted. “She might be the one who summoned you to the academy, but I am your teacher. She is forced by academy rules to inform me of your meetings.”

  “I do not believe that,” the girl crossed her arms.

  “You do not believe that Terráquea would fulfill her duty to the academy?”

  “I do not believe that Terráquea would work, much less write a report.”

  The grey-eyed teacher now chuckled. “Alright, that was a good one. I admit Terráquea is a bit… lithic,” he said using the negative connotation of the word, “with her efforts, but she does follow through. And now I believe we have digressed too much. As I was saying, even though instruction is not everything and people do not stop growing and progressing, once they are no longer pressured to grow, they simply stop doing so.”

  “Is that not a lack of discipline?”

  “Not necessarily, Miss Malachite.” René smiled at her student. “Soldiers have duties, and focusing on cultivating one’s agates takes a lot of effort, even if a solid part of that is passive. Perhaps making the rest of your agates catch up with your spearhead is not as time-intensive as pushing into a new Stratum, but still. Most soldiers do not have the instruction you are getting, and even those who have a good one, it is only half as long as yours. Ninety percent of soldiers – if not more – have their education ended by eighteen. And even if they make an effort to continue growing, a lithorist can only expect to grow their Strata by one or two tiers once their growth period is over.”

  The teacher could see the gears in her student’s mind moving. It was clear, particularly as she pressed a hand against her chin, deep in thought. That brought a smile to his face. Regardless of any of his personal beliefs, it was always heartwarming seeing one of his student think, especially when most people didn’t tend to do so by default.

  “So that means I am currently as good as the average soldier?” Agatha voiced out after a moment.

  “Not quite, I am afraid. The average soldier would have undergone drilling – actual harsh drilling – and would have more agates in their possession, without even taking into account the possibility of lapiloquia. But most lapiloquia is weak, so you do not have to worry about that.”

  “Cristobal’s lapiloquia did not look weak,” the girl complained.

  “Lapiloquia is a polarizing field. Virtually everyone is capable of performing it, but you either have powerful control or little to none. Master Echevarria is the former, and he is only starting. He will likely grow into a wrecking force, able to uproot a whole field with a single command,” René stopped and smiled. “But do not tell him I said that. We would not want the pride to get to his head, would we?”

  “No, we definitely would not,” Agatha smiled back.

  “So there we have it, as things stand, you are currently nearly the average soldier. You have a considerable handicap, but in all my years as a soldier and teacher, you are probably the person with the best fighting instinct I have seen.”

  “Really?” Her eyes shone as if commanded by Light. Weak to praise, noted.

  “Indeed,” he nodded. “Not that many people can throw themselves at the face of danger and prevail. And I am not just talking of your feats against your fellow classmates, but also your exploits with the behemoth.”

  “That was all Christie…” The petite blonde blushed, her gaze avoiding his.

  “Miss Valasela might have slain the monster, but you got his attention and distracted him for valuable minutes. The role of the bait is always denigrated and often despised, but no one can deny its importance. Just like an army does not move without scouts or logisticians, you were key in the subjugation of the behemoth and the well-being of other students.”

  “I…” His student blushed and became sheepish. “Thank you.”

  René smirked. “That is praise enough. You have the potential of becoming more than the average soldier, but that is the bare minimum expected of a Skyscraper student. I would like to now talk about something related to the aforementioned Miss Valasela, or more correctly, her father.”

  “Ah,” Agatha grunted in realization.

  “Quite indeed, ah,” the black-uniformed teacher reiterated the sound in mockery. “You are not going to tell me that you discovered that series through your own trial and error. Are you, young lady?”

  “Uhm…” She had the audacity to even think about it for a second, but she quickly gave in. “N-no, sir.”

  “So, Hasel Valasela taught you about the Invert command and its applications,” the teacher crossed his arms. He preferred coming off as her mentor rather than her superior.

  “N-not all of them, if that is what you are implying,” his student twirled her fingers and fidgeted around. “He taught me what the command might do, and how to apply it to Summon and Speed. Plus the Range command to actually make them useful.”

  “Yes,” René sighed. “Invert Summon is one of the most useless series, but Invert Summon Range is one of the most useful ones. From erasing one of your agates to halving the amount of commands on the battlefield.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  He raised a brow at Agatha’s question, she was being lectured and yet she had the gall to ask questions. Or the curiosity, René realized. Eh, I’ll bite. I’m her teacher, after all. “Remember about we talked about the limit of command slots of the average soldier?”

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  “Ah,” she grunted in realization yet again. He couldn’t help but smile at her grunts; he found them endearing.

  “Two commands to protect against three. Yet only one agate is needed for those three, whilst every other agate in the battlefield will need those two. In a way, we must thank the Invert Summon Range series; otherwise, the battlefield would be far bloodier than it is already,” René chuckled. “Two commands lead to standardization instead of creativity, and unfortunately, human creativity is most of the time directed toward the myriad of ways to kill each other.”

  His student paled a bit, not appreciating his attempt at humor in the slightest.

  “Now,” he clapped and got her attention. “Hasel should not have done that, but I can imagine what went through his head when he did so. You are bound to be an asset to this country, one way or another, so it makes little difference if you learn these series a bit ahead of time. I should have expected him to groom his daughter’s best friend to be a miner, and it is not like I could have done anything to stop him.”

  “He is grooming me to be a miner?” She asked with a mixture of bewilderment and distraught.

  “At least that is what I think, but yet again, we are digressing. Miss Malachite, I highly encourage you not to divulge Hasel’s teaching to anyone. If someone asks, you learned them on your own. It would not be that surprising considering your record, as you somehow performed the Anchor command on your first try without prior knowledge and held your ground against a behemoth spawn in your first year. Having said so, I would like to give you some private homework.”

  “Homework?” Agatha squinted with a hint of repulsion.

  “Nothing too egregious,” the grey-eyed teacher snorted. “Your efforts with lapiloquia have been commendable, and whilst your body certainly supports it, I fear you will not get close to unlocking it just yet. As your teacher, I recommend putting your efforts into lithorica and growing your Stratum as much as possible before your growth period is over. Unlike lithorica, lapiloquia does not suffer from a time strain.”

  “I… Why do you put so much emphasis on this ‘growth period’? Is lithorica limited to an age range?”

  “Not… quite… It is more of a manner of… speech.” René clicked his tongue. “Can I tell you a secret, Miss Malachite?” The girl nodded instantly and eagerly. “Can you keep that secret safe?” He added with a tired gaze.

  “I… yes. Yes, you can.” That hesitation didn’t bring much confidence, but it wasn’t that much of a secret to begin with. Or rather, it shouldn’t be to put his plan into action.

  “For starters, no. There is no age range where learning about lithorica is more effective. But there is a range. Once you start learning in earnest, once you stop, that growth is gone. You could interpret it as restarting physical activity after months of inactivity. Only that this time your muscles do not kick back in. That is why real education is outlawed before fifteen. Children fail to stay in the right learning mentality for long – whether they are commoners or noble scions – so if they were taught beforehand, their chances at increasing Strata would be greatly sabotaged if not outright blocked.”

  “That does not sound much like a secret.”

  “That was only the set up leading up to the secret, Miss Malachite,” he smiled.

  “Oh,” she had the decency to blush after interrupting him.

  “The actual secret is that the growth is severely affected by the environment. The reason why students of the Skyscraper Academy are more successful is not because the students are of a higher pedigree or because we offer better instruction, but because of the cultivated atmosphere. People progress here more because they think this is the best there is.”

  “That…” Agatha hesitated before speaking, “still does not sound much like a secret.”

  If you fail to understand the magnitude of this statement, maybe you are not what I was looking for. Can’t blame a man for trying.

  “I see,” he added softly. “I apologize if I got your hopes up for an earthshattering secret,” then smiled warmly at her.

  They stood silent for a moment.

  “Would that… be all?” His student broke the silence with a modicum of hesitation.

  “I believe so, yes,” René nodded. “We went over your lessons with Hasel and your recent increase in Stratum, so yes, that would be all. Of course, I would still ask you to keep this secret hidden.”

  “Understood,” she promised without thinking twice. Without the hesitation from before, Agatha stood up from her chair, ready to walk away.

  “Before you go, however,” the soldier arched his back forward, “I would like to ask you a question, Agatha of Malachite.” The petite student became petrified at the stern tone. “Do you bear any ill will against the Kingdom of Crocheta?”

  René Dago could see it in the lithorist’s eyes. ‘Is this a test?’ they shouted. But the complete thoughts in her mind were a mystery to him. Agatecraft could do a lot of things, but reading minds wasn’t one of them.

  “I… I cannot say I do, sir.” A diplomatic answer. Hesitating, but because she was scared instead of actually being at odds with the crown.

  “Has the crown ever wronged you?” He asked again.

  “I cannot say it ever has,” she regained her composure a bit.

  “One final question. Are you loyal to it?”

  Until now, Agatha had been looking at him, but now she looked away. “I am grateful for the opportunities this country has offered me.”

  A non-answer. Completely avoiding the subject. Good, good, yet this didn’t incommode the soldier. Perhaps not fitting for the role, but not antagonistic either.

  “Sorry for the inconvenience and the unease,” René suddenly brightened up and smiled at her. “This is just a personal thing I do; it has no effect on your standing or your scores.”

  “R-right…” His words seemed to make the girl relax but they weren’t enough to stop seeing him as a threat. “I will get going now.”

  “Be my guest,” he pointed at the door with his open palm.

  As the blonde student rushed for the door, René Dago couldn’t help but think of something. She has reacted playfully, bashfully, and more, yet her guard hasn’t gone down during the whole conversation. Agatha of Malachite, your fighting instinct is truly unparalleled. His student was ignorant of the fact that this had been a battle – one of words instead of agates – and yet she had fought stupendously.

  René stretched his arms and allowed himself a small grunt. There were more and more duties on his plate every passing day, and it didn’t help that to assist with lapiloquia classes, he had to perform the discipline in demonstrations too.

  “How can Cristos still perform lapiloquia at his age when I feel short of breath at my own?” He chuckled and let his arms rest on the armchair’s armrests. “I should try to diversi-“ His thoughts and words were cut as someone knocked on his door. “Déjà vu,” the soldier muttered under his breath and cleared his throat. “The door is open.”

  He had already seen who had knocked, as he had never recalled the agate he had used to spy on his door before. The door opened to reveal another student, one he hadn’t called yet but expected to come at some point.

  “Master Librar, I had the feeling I would be seeing you soon.”

  “I… I have been thinking about what you have told me before,” the auburn-orange-hair boy said gingerly as he remained on the doorframe, clutching the door as if he required the door to stand.

  “First come in,” he invited the scholarite forward. “The walls have eyes and ears, and one can never be sure enough.”

  That seemed to infuse some fear into his student as he hastily closed the door behind him, but still took his time to make it to the chair, and then a bit more hesitation before he sat down. René took the chance to cover the hollowed walls of his office with Shape Invert Sound Range and Shape Invert Watch Range, just in case the ears and the eyes actually paid them attention. Unlike with Miss Malachite before, this could no longer be considered an act of loyalty testing.

  “So,” René Dago clapped cordially, “what are your thoughts on the subject?”

  “T-that secret you told me… I have been ruminating on it. Only now, after beholding the tourney, have I truly grasped the magnitude.”

  At least someone has, the soldier smiled, but he didn’t utter those words. “And what you make out of it?”

  “This academy… No. This whole system is a perfect machine. It works exactly as intended and produces the desired results. And that… that is not right.”

  “It is scary, is it not? When the system is not flawed but instead performs as planned.” He had felt the consequences of that system in his flesh and blood.

  “Yes,” Mateo nodded, confidence creeping on him like a parasite. “The tourney has shown me the effects of the system, but also how it is wholly unneeded. The three students of my class that have been able to unlock lapiloquia so far have all been boys and nobles, of heightened wealth, agates, and instruction, yet Agatha has been able to defeat them with none of that. Creating a system where you believe that you are getting the best results, but not for creating the best, only for culling the worst. Everyone who thinks that they are getting subpar education is limited in their mindset to get subpar results, regardless of the quality of said education or their talent.”

  René Dago couldn’t help but smile. He had only told the boy in front of him the same thing he had told Agatha of Malachite, yet Mateo Librar had been able to expertly recognize the true essence of the silent machinery behind this world. Not only Crocheta’s, but also all neighboring countries and further out. An unspoken agreement, a mental feudalism of sorts that kept the nobility stimulated for knowledge yet the commoners actively thinking they cannot grow stronger, so they won’t.

  “The Skyscraper Academy does not exist to create the best,” Mateo Librar said confidently, “but to keep the vast majority on the bottom. Unable to rise, unable to revolt, unable to progress.”

  The boy’s gaze turned sharp, adult-like. René’s decision to plant a seed of doubt in a scholarite now felt well justified. For better or worse, Terráquea didn’t enter that definition.

  “Agatecraft can be dangerous, I do not deny it, but keeping lapiloquia limited to the military is a net loss for everyone, let us not even mention limiting Strata. It only works to keep the status quo. And as awful as this is, the worst part is that this goes against the teaching of The Preserver. Blocking the flow of information. That is the true sin.”

  Faith unrelenting, one of the most powerful weapons out there. Unlike other religions out there, the cult of The Preserver didn’t proselytize on the following of a divinity, but on their beliefs. The Preserver was just a scholarite like the rest of them. And even if René didn’t share their beliefs, he couldn’t deny that their objectives were intertwined.

  One shared and beautiful goal.

  “It is breathtaking how you have been able to piece together all of this on your own, and to this, Master Librar, I have to ask you a handful of questions. Do you bear any ill will against the Kingdom of Crocheta?”

  “I bear ill will against all who block progress and freedom of knowledge,” the scholarite answered, his gaze and tone sharp.

  “Has the crown ever wronged you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you loyal to it?”

  “I am only loyal to my faith.”

  René Dago smiled; smiled veritably. There were few occasions where he could recall doing so, especially directing his smiles at someone. Hasel was one. Sandra, too, had made him smile a lot once upon a time. Christina had too. He saw Cordellia on her, and that marvelous woman had also made him smile like that. And now another person. Not out of happiness, however, but sharedness.

  “One last question then,” he said in a lithic manner. Not like René Dago, teacher of the Skyscraper Academy, nor as the Reaper of Aneolopolis, but as René, orphan of war, adopted by Hasel Dago. “Do you accept my offer?”

  “Yes.”

  One word sealed the deal. Revolution would come.

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