“Young Questingtank, I do not hear good things about you.”

  Ioha looked around him from where he stood. It was a large office. A large and dark office. Heavy furniture dampened all light coming in from the windows, and the luxury of heavy curtains did a disservice to the room.

  “I’m told you’re being obstinate.” This close, their principal looked strangely normal. A middle-aged woman climbing her career ladder just a tad too slowly to feel it counted. She really ought to be satisfied with her new position, but then some people simply lacked the ability to be happy with what they already had.

  He placed his hands behind his back and waited for the tirade to go on. It was, after all, part of the plan and one he didn’t have the clout to interfere with.

  “Your headmaster says you’re disrupting the lessons.” She put her hands on her desk. It smelled lightly of dried herbs, and small stains on the wood told a tale of her taking her meals in her office together with what passed for tea in this world. In that sense, he guessed, she was a hard-working woman. All in all, in her own way, she probably wanted what was best for the school. Too easy calling her an evil woman just because he got on her bad side, because Ioha genuinely believed that somewhere between the machinations of the Clevasti family and the more underhanded side of Isekai’s expansion of influence spearheaded by Yoshida Akira, the principal tried to run the premium military academy this side of the capital to the best of her ability.

  “There are reports of unauthorised use of school resources.”

  That was, Ioha admitted, technically true. They were supposed to apply for the use of training fields outside of school hours. No one did, but they were still supposed to.

  “As well as the unauthorised use of the third and fourth years’ store.”

  He didn’t know he needed permission for that, but since none of his fellow freshmen spoke of it, he might truly be in the wrong here. He heard the rumours of high-quality items for sale on school grounds in the mess hall and just assumed anyone could buy from there.

  “And thirdly, the destruction of school equipment.”

  Ioha frowned. As far as he knew, he never used training equipment incorrectly. Sure, wooden parrying swords broke quite often, but that was because they were used for training students how to parry with them. Protesting wouldn’t do him any good, though. If they decided he had destroyed something, then proof of his deeds must have been manufactured as well. Oh, the dummy, when I hurt Canadena.

  “Lastly, I’ve been told you disregard instructions from your teachers. This is what I find the hardest to accept. This is a school where you learn how to use combat techniques. You’re endangering your fellow students.”

  Once again, Ioha frowned. As far as he knew, he followed instructions as well as he understood them. He attended this school to learn, after all. Whoever cooked this up must have some of his teachers deep under their thumb, one way or another. The headmaster? He would if he could, but from the look of his office, he simply didn’t have the means. So someone from the outside, which meant Lord Clevasti.

  “I’ll have a meeting with the staff where we decide on the best course of action. Until then, you’re confined to school grounds. That will be all.”

  Ioha bowed and left. This time he did close the door.

  With nothing to do, he eventually gravitated to the temple where he made a contract with Heimdall. No one was there, but the doors were unlocked, and Ioha stepped inside. One of the doors to the prayer rooms stood ajar, and he chose it. When he came inside, the ceiling showered the room with a mild light, just as he remembered.

  He sat down with the altar as a backrest, just like the last time.

  What a mess!

  He stretched out his legs.

  “Worried?”

  Ioha expected the voice in his head. He had picked the temple as his destination after all.

  “A little.”

  “What will happen, will happen. Bend, but do not break. You must grow stronger.”

  Even his god told him to face whatever happened and just suck it up.

  “My bad. Just unhappy with what’s happening. You wouldn’t have a small reward for me for motivation?”

  “Did you deserve one?”

  I was joking, dammit. “Sure, I do.” Cause sometimes you’re just a pain, Heimdall.

  “I agree. You do.”

  Ioha’s status display flared alive.

  “You made the right choice a while ago. This is your reward.”

  Ioha opened his display. More points for his battle standard, but not a lot. A rather large jump in his ability to handle his partisan. Even enough to use it if there wasn’t too much danger involved.

  “Why now?” he asked. “Why the spear?”

  “You do know what your battle standard represents?”

  He did. Spear and shield. “Thank you.” He meant it.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Tired feet took him to the mess hall, and he had a meal long overdue.

  Half a day later, he was called to a large meeting room in the administrative building he had left earlier the same morning. Where there had been sun by breakfast, lunch offered him wind and overcast skies. He entered and climbed the stairs one floor, turned left and walked halfway through a wide corridor. It was his first time here. The principal held court on the top floor, where the corridors were shorter and some of the offices substantially larger. The meeting room he walked into turned out to be smaller than the principal’s office.

  Five adults waited for him inside. The principal sat at the short end of a large conference table that looked too modern in design for the building. At her direct left his headmaster from the combat division, and to her right a woman, maybe forty years old. Ioha had no memories of ever having seen her before, but that didn’t mean much. Spellsword Academy had quite a large staff, and if someone didn’t teach him, chances were he never saw them. Closest to the door, Lord Clevasti and another stranger faced each other. The stranger, maybe not a total one; Ioha had a feeling he’d seen her occasionally in the mess hall. Staff and students shared it, even though the teachers sat separately.

  There were over half a dozen free seats, but none of them seemed prepared for anyone’s immediate use. What documents they had, all lay in front of the five. No cups or mugs, so whatever they had to say shouldn’t take too long.

  “Young Questingtank, we have deliberated over how to handle the situation,” the principal began. "With the security of the other students taking priority, as well as having considered your documented problematic behaviour during your time here, we have come to a decision.” She looked at the other four; they nodded back at her, and one after another, they signed a document. “Effective immediately, you are expelled from Spellsword Academy. You have until tomorrow evening to evacuate the premises.”

  With a lump in his stomach, Ioha knew he was staring at yet another ending.

  ***

  “Expelled?”

  “Seems so.” Ioha filled his backpack with everything that he wouldn’t wear.

  After receiving his expulsion the day before, he had a meal, trained a little with his spear and went to bed without telling anyone what had happened. In the end, his being absent from class couldn’t be kept a secret, and Canadena stormed into his room together with Karaki, whom she needed to get inside.

  “They can’t…”

  “They can, and you know it.” They all promised to keep to their course of action, or rather inaction. “Harvali warned us.”

  “You certain about this?” She fumed. He could imagine her brain boiling over and steam coming out of her ears.

  “I’ll miss you,” Karaki said. Things might have become awkward between them after Ioha blew up the training dummy, but the merc was still one of his two best friends. “For real. It’ll be empty.”

  Ioha grinned and stuffed his school uniform into the backpack. It might come in handy one day, as fabric, if nothing else. “You won’t need to chase me out any more.”

  “Never did. You left of your own every time.” There had been less fleeing ever since Karaki’s harem shrank as well.

  Canadena sat down on Karaki’s bed with a thump. “I hate it. Now I can’t ask Ai if you’re improving in bed.” Her voice carried a joke, but her face didn't. Maybe she was so frank with what she said because she couldn’t give words to what was really hard to talk about.

  “You can always speak with Ai, you know,” Ioha tried.

  “It won’t be the same.”

  “She’ll need you. Please stay friends with her.”

  Canadena nodded slowly.

  “Maybe we should change school,” Karaki said.

  Ioha shook his head. “You know how much pressure Harvali and Derina put on Anthony to make sure you could finish your education here without a problem. So don’t. Spellsword Academy is a good school.” He got into his gambeson and clasped it shut. “Karaki, just promise me that you won’t do anything stupid!” The brigandine came next, and after that, he belted his sword, shouldered his backpack and slung the shield over it. “You’re the best friends I’ve ever had.” It might technically not be entirely true, but they were definitely the best friends he ever had this side of the gate, and the few from the other side had grown distant by now. He put his helmet on his head and grabbed the partisan in one hand. “Tell the others I said hi, will you?”

  The door closed behind him. He needed to leave the two of them alone. Canadena had tried so hard not to break down in tears while he was still there, and Ioha wanted her to keep her dignity more than having a few extra minutes of company while he left school. He walked down the stairs just to meet the Bergerauss girl at the entrance.

  “Good riddance,” she greeted him.

  He didn’t bother with a reply and went outside. Going through the administrative building didn’t sit too well with him, so he opted for the route via the mess hall. He almost made it around the building to the avenue when Ai caught up with him. Her eyes were red.

  “Were you just sneaking out?” she said and fell into his arms.

  “Thought you had classes.”

  “I’d skip.”

  “I love you.”

  “I love you as well.” She wiped tears from her face. “No way you can stay?”

  He shook his head. “I’m officially expelled.” Her eyes met his. “You?”

  “I need this Ioha. I really do.”

  He knew her feelings. He shared her desperation to learn something new, to become someone new, and to learn who he really was. It wasn’t something he could take away from her.

  “Three years.”

  She nodded. “Yeah.”

  “I can’t tie you down for that long.”

  She nodded again. “I know.”

  “You do know I love you so much it hurts?”

  She nodded a third time, and they shared a long and desperate kiss.

  “Let’s break up.”

  “Uncool. Yeah, let’s.”

  They kissed again, and he let her go. Looking back would only make her see the tears streaming down his own face, and she wanted him to be cool, and he didn’t want to hurt like this.

  Spring flowers still covered the trees, but the ground was already white with petals. The air filled with late spring, and it got warmer. Without the signature spellsword ability to regulate temperature, the armour he wore would have become unbearably hot.

  Gravel crunched under his feet like it had done once before when he walked this avenue in the opposite direction. It was empty now, not filled with starry-eyed kids in gaudy uniforms, wondering what the future held in wait for them.

  The line of trees brought him further and further away from the misguided architectural monster that was the administrative building, and this time the air promised a summer coming rather than one gone.

  A red iron gate marked the border between an outside and an inside, and passing it he left one small world for a larger one.

  The End of Book One

  Wergaist Lessons.

  Purse and Shield.