"Whaaaaaaaaat?!"

The crowd was baffled by the announcement. His rank was never publicized ever since he got that special rank. And in less than a year, he already had a star on his shoulder? Normally, it required at least a decade of service. Yet, it was only one year from him.

No wonder the crown couldn't believe it.

Suddenly, many vehicles stopped by the school.

With just a single look, Kai already recognized them. It was his worst enemy at the moment.

He grabbed Ria's collar and summoned a magic circle underneath his feet. He leaped to the sky, dragging her to the top of the school building.

"What? He escapes?"

"NO!"

"We need an explanation for this."

The crowd didn't like it and demanded him to return so that they could ask him a few questions.

It wasn't like they came for nothing. Ria didn't forget to shout something to them.

"I will be delivering my speech after lunch. Make sure you go there." Ria Ross waved her hand while being dragged by Kai.

He didn't waste a single second and dragged her to the room where he usually met his teammate and pushed her to the chair, having her sit and waiting to be judged.

The group was bewildered by the appearance of Ria Ross.

"What is the meaning of this?" Michelle asked while furrowing his eyebrows.

"I am just visiting you guys while giving a speech for Kai's achievement. I have even invited the media to spread the news." Ria Ross explained with a nonchalant expression.

"What the heck are you doing, Teacher?" Kai twitched his eyebrows. Although he didn't really mind having his teacher doing all the things she wanted, this one was too random. He couldn't understand what she wanted.

"Why are you raising your voice against me, Kai? I am just trying to help you?" She pouted while playing with her dress. "Look, I even dress up a bit."

"…" Kai indeed found that Ria put more effort into this. "Well, I do admit that you have finally dressed up like a normal human being."

"Oi, oi. Is bullying your own teacher the norm here? I don't remember raising you that way." Ria shrugged while complaining.

"Are you not aware how you usually dressed up?" Kai glared at her, feeling a bit angry. Her usual dress was just a normal pajama or something that was easy to move on like a shirt and short pants. As long as there was a white lab coat, she would be fine for anything.

However, Ria wore a white shirt followed by a brown colored skirt. Luckily, she didn't wear her lab coat.

"Anyway, we can discuss it another time. But why are you here?" Kai suddenly remembered what she said earlier and asked. "Help me? What kind of help?"

"Here…" Ria gave the documents she brought with her. "This is your next mission. The defensive battle."

Kai frowned and took a look at the document.

Meanwhile, Ria continued explaining her real motive. "It's true that I am delivering this, but I also have another purpose. It's to inform the world about your promotion.

"I told you a few days ago that you would become the target of envy because of this promotion, so we need to give the world proof to show. First of all, I will provide a brief explanation about what you have accomplished so far and why we agreed to push your promotion a bit faster than a normal student.

"After that, you are going to use this mission to prove that you are worthy. That's all. However, we have a problem. That is the mission." She let out a long sigh.

"What's the problem, Professor?" Ayaka asked while frowning.

"Your mission will be defending Yukon Territory's Military Base from a magical beast horde due to the volcanic eruption. Because this will be your chance to shine, the military won't send a four-star general, which is supposed to be the only rank higher than Brad Matthew at the moment.

"They will only send one hundred thousand soldiers and let you and Brad Matthew deal with it. That's why you will fight in a tough battle in a normal sense, considering you are fighting against one million magical beasts… That's the rough calculation, but it might be more." She explained.

"I see. Ten to one ratio…This is a terrible ratio. How many soldiers inside the Yukon Military Base right now?" Ayaka narrowed her eyes.

"Seventy thousand. So, it's around a seven to one ratio. It's not that bad, but it's not that good either." Ria answered.

"Indeed. The perfect ratio will be five to one, especially since we need to split up at least five groups to defend the base." Michelle nodded in agreement.

"That's right. And one of the worst things that can happen is seeing how adamant Brad Matthew is in leading the operation. He said he couldn't let the youngling ruin this base because he doesn't have enough experience. If I am the one negotiating with him, he will already have a few broken ribs." Ria flared up, wanting to beat that Brad Matthew as soon as possible.

"What are we going to do then? Doesn't it mean that Kai can't do anything during this mission?" Ayaka asked. "Won't this be bad because it will make Kai look bad?"

"True enough." Michelle nodded in agreement.

"Not necessarily so…" Ria mysteriously smiled as if she had a plan to deal with the situation.

Suddenly, Kai called his teacher, stopping all talks in the room. "Teacher."

They turned to Kai with a serious expression as if he grasped something from reading the documents.

"What is it?" Ria's expression also turned serious.

"I have several questions, but I think the one question that I want to ask the most is… The little stunt you did earlier…Is that a part of your plan?"

Ria smirked when she heard that question. Kai seemed to have understood what she planned to do.

"As I said, I came to help you. If you think that I am doing random things by calling the media over here, standing in front of the school gate, delivering the speech about your achievement, and announcing your promotion, then do you think I am fit to be your teacher?"

"I see." Kai let out a long sigh. "You are serious about this?"

"Of course. You seem to have understood my real intention." She made a sinister smile. "No wonder you are my student."

"Hmph. No wonder people don't like to mess with you. You always did something like this!" Kai shook his head helplessly.

The group glanced at them back and forth, hoping for an explanation.

Kai sighed and put the document on the table before pointing his finger to two clauses.

They gathered and looked closely at the things he pointed at.

"Kai Carter may bring his friends or even groups from the school to help him during this mission to compensate for all the terms above."

"Kai Carter has the right for an army of thirty-five thousand soldiers and the right to be an independent army. He may move freely in the battlefield with that army as long as he makes sure that everything is under control."

They took a closer look at the two clauses but still couldn't understand the meaning. They asked Kai for an explanation.

Kai let out a long sigh while Ria was making a big smile.

…

Four hours later, all students in the academy had gathered in the gym where Ria Ross would be delivering her speech.

The student council and a few volunteers must have seen hell because Ria's unnotified speech forced them to prepare everything as soon as possible.

The work that usually required a few days was done in a few hours.

The light in the gym went out before the president appeared in the middle of the stage, with one light illuminating her.

"I am sure that all of you here have heard about what will come for this sudden event. Even we, the student council, don't know anything about this, so we are just as confused as you. Still, I believe no one in this base doesn't know her name.

"She has shaken this base from the very bottom because she has shown that ranking won't determine your achievement. She is also my role model other than my grandfather, who taught me everything.

"She, who is an A Rank Magician, manages to climb the rank to the very top and defeat all S Rank Magicians in the country. At the same time, she is the first to kill an S Rank Magical Beast without being an S Rank Magician.

"She has indeed shown the world that we shouldn't give up and can become whoever we want to be. I believe I shouldn't talk for too long, and let's invite one of our alumnus, General Ria Ross, to take the stage." She delivered her brief speech, asking Ria Ross to come to the stage.

Applause filled the gym as they looked at the stage with great expectation, wanting to see the woman who changed the US Base as a whole.

Ria Ross slowly walked toward the podium, shook the student council president's hand, and smiled at the audience.

The uproar became a frenzy. The students were in euphoria.

However, Ria Ross only closed her eyes, faced the students, and opened her eyes again. There was this weird feeling when one looked at her. It was a kind of a unique aura that only she possessed.

That aura mysteriously shut them up until not even a single sound could be heard in the gym. It was indeed amazing to see a frenzy turned into complete silence with just a blink of an eye.

Ria Ross then opened her mouth.

"Thank you for the warm welcome. I am… Ria Ross."