Owen, who hadn’t been picked up after the audience with Frumentum, tugged at Teacher’s sleeve. “Teacher, is this the good news you mentioned?” He asked with a hopeful face.

Teacher clicked his tongue. “You’re too greedy lad. Be happy that you’re even allowed into Frumentum again. This took no small amount of effort on my part. If it hadn’t been for the special circumstances-“

The ominous feeling in the pit of my stomach reappeared.

Just what could be dangerous enough to let us walk around in Frumentum?

“You wouldn’t have been let anywhere near the Academy. In fact, I was instructed to keep an eye on you at all times.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat and turned towards Teacher’s wife. “Miss, what are the special circumstances Teacher talks about?”

“I guess you’d find out anyway, so there shouldn’t be a problem with telling you now.”

The old woman took a deep breath. “The ants, yes, the ones you fought, are known for being extremely aggressive and territorial. They attack anything in a range of hundreds of kilometres and kill every single entity that opposes them. In the far past, they’ve destroyed an uncountable number of tribes. Thankfully, they disappeared after that.”

She sighed, scratching her head. “Until now, that is. They’re on the move, and I fear that a great war is coming. You’re to be prepared as soldiers in the future clashes against them.”

“That’s why you are going to the Academy. Your whole batch is going to become a single unit. It’s standard procedure before any great threat to the city’s safety, really. And you’re probably only going to be sent to fight against the weakest of their troops, anyway, so there’s no real reason to worry.” Teacher added.

A shiver ran down my spine. We’re going to become soldiers?

“Do you even fucking know what a war is like? It’s HELL! To you, it may be just some battlefield on a faraway planet, the soldiers a random assortment of numbers, but you know what? WE’RE NOT NUMBERS! Every single fucking soldier who lets his life there does it for his home, their family and their important ones! Every single one has a history, someone waiting at them back at home, can you understand that? Fuck, why am I even talking about this with you? Of course cowards like you won’t be able to.”

A hand shook my shoulder. “John, are you alright?” Frank said.

I blinked my eyes. “Uh, yeah. Yeah I am. I was just thinking about some stuff.”

Owen looked at me with doubt clearly visible on his face. “You sure?”

Rolling my eyes, I replied, “Of course I am.”

“Anyway.” Teacher spoke up. “We have a few things to discuss before you can properly return to your group.”

He pointed a finger into the air. “First of all, they barely remember you. That means that you’ll have to integrate yourself into the group again. C’mon, don’t give me that look. I know just as well as you do that you have serious problems with talking to other kids around your age.”

He gave us a smug smile. “You think I didn’t see that you rejected everyone who wanted to join your little group?”

I looked down, shifting the weight from my left onto my right leg. “We didn’t reject them. It was them who couldn’t fit in.” Owen murmured.

Teacher laughed. “Of course they did. Anyway, this time you’ll have to seriously integrate yourselves. If not…” He shook his head. “You don’t know how you’ll have died. Everything is possible on the battlefield.”

The second finger went up. “Secondly, don’t and I mean it, don’t pick fights with the upper class men.”

Frank opened his mouth, but Teacher shot him a glare that shut him up. “No matter how strong you are for your age, they’re most likely stronger. Just think about how much stronger you’ve gotten in the past year.”

The third finger. “Lastly, remember that every single warrior is incomparably precious. Even if you are hating someone to the bone, DON’T kill them.”

“That would be all. Let’s go.” Teacher said and continued walking as if nothing had happened.

He seriously thinks we’re capable of killing another human being?

I looked down on my hands. Scars and calluses were covering them, giving them a rough appearance. I have used them to kill countless beasts, the feelings of disgust welling up only the first few times.

Am I?

Despite my knowledge that humans are just animals, I can’t imagine ever killing one over a feud.

A hand nudged me. “He can’t be serious, right?” Owen asked.

I shook my head. “I…don’t know.”

Owen’s eyes widened. “No way. I couldn’t possibly kill a human.” He looked down, stretching his pair of trembling arms out. “Right?”

Frank slapped the back of his head. “Of course not. Teacher’s just joking. Didn’t you notice how fast he turned around? I’m sure that was only to hide his smile. In fact, I bet he’s giggling about how naïve we are right now!”

From the corner of my vision I could see Greta nodding. “Frank’s right, you know? I mean none of us are bad people, and only the really evil ones kill humans.”

If they only knew…

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I sighed, suddenly feeling strange at the sight of a huge amount of former acquaintances standing in orderly rows. They were staring at us with curious looks, probably not recognizing us one bit.

It can’t be helped though; five years are a hell of a period of time. I myself am barely able to recognize one or two.

Teacher held his hand into the air, causing the noise to gradually die down. “Do you still remember them? They used to be your comrades, but a series of unfortunate circumstances forced them to undergo special training.”

What an interesting excuse they made up. I just hope that it’ll hold once we start comparing our strengths.

“Now, however, has the time come for them to return. I expect you to treat them like you would your other comrades, nothing more and nothing less.” His eyes that had begun to squint due to the sunlight turned into slits. “Understood?”

They almost simultaneously straightened up. “Yes Teacher!”

I rubbed my eyes. Is this really the same unorderly mob of children from 5 years ago?

Teacher smirked at us. “Hey, I didn’t slack off in training them. In contrast to a certain group of children who just ran off when their home was relocated…”

I could literally feel the curious gazes of the surrounding children drill into my back as soon as they heard what Teacher said.

Before I could retort, I heard heavy footsteps approaching us, forcing me to turn into the direction they came from.

A burly boy with unkempt black hair was walking towards us with a confident stride, a small group of other children following him with the exact same rhythm.

He stopped two meters in front of us, examining us with a curious gaze before he finally looked me in the eyes. “Hello. My name is Frederick and I’m the leader of this batch.”

He turned to the side, waving one lanky but tall and another, far more average one, over. “These guys are Bosh and Larry, my best friends and co-leaders.”

Bosh, the lanky one, punched Frederick on the sides. “You never learn, huh? Never stopping with your leader this leader that. Gimme a break.”

Frederick, who had buckled over from the sudden impact, was about to reply when Larry’s arm wrapped around his neck in a headlock. “Who are your co-leaders? Didn’t we agree that we were equal?”

He balled his hand into fist and rubbed it on Frederick’s head furiously, causing Frederick to beg for mercy.

No matter how hard I tried to remember, I couldn't seem to find a single trace of them in my memory. It looks like a lot happened in the time we were gone.

“Pffffff” Owen burst out into a hearty laugh. He nudged me, saying, “It seems like we won’t have too many problems, right?”

I raised an eyebrow at their antics, but decided that it was actually better this way. At least they weren’t some arrogant bastards who wanted to put us into our supposed rightful place.

Frank let out a sigh, slapping Owen on the back. “Yeah, I think so too. But you’re pretty carefree, huh? Have you already forgotten Teacher’s warnings?” He whispered so quietly that only us could barely hear it over the commotion the three in front were causing.

Frederick finally managed to free himself, stumbling towards us as soon as he did so. “Anyway, we named our batch the Sun Legion in honour of your achievements! Cool, right?”

He sent a beaming smile towards us that I couldn’t help but return in kind. Really, why should I be suspicious towards some kids? If anything it should be the other way ‘round.

“Hey, we aren’t done yet mate!” Larry shouted and punched Frederick, launching him towards us at an incredible speed.

“What the-“ I managed to get out before I had to jump out of the way, barely avoiding Frederick’s body.

When I looked back, I saw that he had ploughed deep into the ground, coating his whole outfit with a dark brown layer of mud and grass.

“YOU BASTARD!” He shouted, grabbing a pile of mud from his pants and throwing it at Larry.

It hit him squarely in the face, slowly sliding off it.

“You fucktard!” Larry retaliated, but Frederick managed to dodge it.

The mudball hit someone behind him, who proceeded to return the favour.

What should have been a friendly greeting became a mudslinging fight within a matter of seconds as more and more people started to join in, in the end even my companions joined the fray.

Soon, the whole field was engulfed in chaos, only three people having not been hit: Me, Teacher and his wife.

The only reason I managed to stay clean was due to me quickly dodging every single speck of dust thrown at me, but it was slowly getting harder as more people joined in.

I looked over at Teacher, but when I saw the smiles on his face I realized that this was a normal scene.

Looks like the next months are going to be interesting.