Chapter 289: Principal?

"Principal?" Haru asked as he saw the old man sitting behind the desk. He didn't recognise him at first, but as he looked up from the desk, Haru noticed that it was the principal of the royal institute for military arts. He knew that all of the teachers from the school were either soldiers or former soldiers, but he never expected that the principal would be the one overseeing the signing of documents.

"You're the young man who was left in China all those years ago. Haru, wasn't it? You look a little different after all this time, but your eyes remained the same." The principal said with a smile as he recognised Haru.

"You know General Ainsworth too?" Colonel Ika asked with his eyebrows slightly raised.

"Yes, Haru here used to be one of the students at the school I was in charge of. Although he didn't stay for long." General Ainsworth said with a smile as he looked up at Haru.

"So you have come back? I heard that you were pretty advanced in magic for your age back then and even stirred up some trouble with the student council. But your parents never told me why you decided to drop out. They just said it was due to family reasons. I thought that you didn't want to join the army after graduation or something. So what brings you here?" He asked as he recalled what Haru's parents told him while curious about Haru's intentions.

"Well, it's kind of personal. But I took some time to think about what I wanted from life, and I'm here to join the army. Like everyone else." Haru smiled as he looked behind him to see a few familiar faces from the waiting room sitting in the cubicles.

"Is that so? And you passed the test that we set up outside?" General Ainsworth asked and then looked up at Colonel Ika.

"Well, that's why I brought him directly to you, sir. He passed the test with flying colours. In a dark room, he managed to avoid the ambush and capture one of the soldiers running the test. I figured that he had a good attitude, and when I heard that he was the son of the flame-haired sorceress, I thought that I had better bring him straight to you." Colonel Ika said with a smile.

"I see. Well, that is certainly an interesting turn of events. Do you care to explain how you knew that they were trying to attack you?" General Ainsworth asked. He was interested to hear just how he had worked out what they were planning and countered it.

"Well, that was easy. When I entered the room, I saw that it was dark, so I decided to amplify my senses with magic. I could see faint movement, and I could hear their footsteps as they surrounded me. It wasn't hard to pinpoint their locations." Haru made up a believable story while deciding to leave the fact that he was a cultivator out of it.

If he openly said that he was, then they would be likely to beg him to train soldiers and pay him to spill his secrets of cultivating.

That was the whole reason why China had banned cultivators from leaving. Because they knew that other countries would pay millions to strengthen their armies with cultivators, but the Chinese government wanted to keep it as just a tradition and not use it for military strength even though some of their high ranking soldiers were cultivators.

Haru always thought that it contradicted their beliefs, but he wasn't one to judge. He contradicted his own beliefs on many occasions for the sake of sparing other people's feelings, so he tried not to judge them too much for it.

"You amplified your senses? That's it? And you managed to detect their exact positions? It looks like you have a deeper understanding of amplification magic than anyone I know. You should be proud of that. Is there any other magic that you specialise in?" General Ainsworth asked while writing something down on a sheet of paper.

Haru looked at him for a few seconds before realising that he was writing down what kind of skills he had. He knew that if he exposed his strength right now, they would ask him to prove it and then likely put him in some advanced military program or make him an officer.

And he had neither the time nor energy to deal with something like that. Instead, he felt better knowing that his strength was unknown to them. Because once he found out who was responsible for his death, he would take revenge.

And if it ended up being someone high ranking in the military, then they would already be keeping an eye on him since the type of strength Haru had was something that the Japanese army would never have seen before, even when he was known as the great mage. His power back then didn't even compare to a fraction of his current strength.

"No, I only specialised in amplification magic. I can do some basic earth and fire spells, but nothing too extreme." Haru said in a calm and steady tone so they wouldn't see through his lie.

"Hm, only amplification? Well, that's still plenty for the infantry. You will be mainly fighting with a lux, so it's fine if you aren't that skilled in other magic." General Ainsworth said and then held up the sheet of paper that he was writing on to get a better look at it.

"Hm, well, all that's left is signing. I need you to write your name, phone number, signature and date of birth in the corresponding boxes, and then I will have Colonel Ika here submit it himself." General Ainsworth said with a smile before holding out his hand to Haru and giving him the paper.

"But sir-" Colonel Ika interrupted but was quickly shut down.

"That's your punishment for interrupting me. Did you really need to come to me to get this signed? I get the fact that he is stronger than the regular recruits, but you can just have one of the many officers do it. I'm here as a General, not an office worker. My job is to make sure that all of you guys behave.

I don't have the time to deal with this stuff. Can't you just let an old man rest a little?" General Ainsworth asked as Haru took the paper and then signed it with a pen that was on the edge of the table.

"Done." Haru interrupted their quarrel and notified them that he had done everything that was required of him.

"No hesitation at all. You will make an excellent soldier. Now, Colonel Ika, I can trust you to deliver his form to headquarters, right?" General Ainsworth asked with a smile as he knew that no matter what, he couldn't refuse an order from someone of a higher rank.

"Yes, sir," Colonel Ika exclaimed after bringing his hand to the right side of his head and aligned his fingers against his brow.

"Good, now fall out. Oh, and show this young man the way out while you eat it." General Ainsworth smiled once more, but this time it was more friendly as if he was saying goodbye to them both as Haru once again followed Colonel Ika.

They walked through the corridors once again before ending up at a back exit to the building, which was lined with dozens of cars.

"Well, this is the exit. If you don't mind me, I will make my way to headquarters and submit your application. They will probably contact you within three to four days by phone so make sure you don't miss it." Colonel Ika said before making his way over to his car.

'Well, that was over quickly, I thought they would quiz me with a hundred questions, but it seemed like I got lucky since the principal was there. He read my school file once, so I guess he doesn't need to ask me much. However, that was almost five years ago. I wonder how he remembers?' Haru thought it seemed like a strange coincidence that he had bumped into his school principal well signing up to the army.

'I guess it's time to find somewhere to be alone for a while.' Haru thought once again as he knew that he couldn't go back home after the way he spoke to his mother. It would only lead to more lecturing, and he didn't have the energy to deal with something like that.

So instead, he decided to find a hotel to go to.

'It's too bad that Tokyo is just a huge city. I would like some alone time in the wilderness about now.' He thought as he remembered that Tokyo had expanded a lot and now took all of the space that was reserved for nature and turned them into skyscrapers or apartment complexes.

"It really is unfortunate that I'm not in China anymore", Haru whispered before walking out into the busy streets and finding a place to rest for the night.