“Clint? Where are you?” Shiina shouted across the lab whole holding her daughter, Clara.

“Mommy?” The two year old boy asked as he entered the room.

She smiled and patted the boy’s head, “I’m done with work, and you wanted to go to the town, right?”

“The town! Yaaaayyy!” He shouted and held his mother’s hand. At that moment, Dusk walked into the room, stretching his arms.

“The town? Sounds fun.” Dusk smiled and sat down on a stool, and sighed.

Shiina smiled at Dusk, he had been working for Elanor on various projects regarding magical circuits, and while they got quite a number of successes, he had exhausted himself. “You should get some rest.”

“Yeah… Sorry.” He said, and wandered to his room.

“Let’s go prepare all the things now, okay?”

She changed into a light blue one-piece, and let her hair fall loose. She had let her hair grow, and it now reached her waist. Also, she had grown taller since 5 years ago, now standing at a solid 160 (a 10 cm increase in 5 years)

‘You are still barely more than a kid’ Dusk had commented, when she boasted about her increase in height. Causing one of the few arguments she had with Dusk, and eventually, Clara.

She put on a bracelet Dusk had made, and a necklace. It was a protection device he had made using magical arrays, the improved version of Magical circles. She made Clint wear the necklace and a smaller bracelet as well, telling him not to lose them. He then activated the illusion device, which changed her face and hair into something else. It had been improved a few times, and it doesn’t work on Clint or Clara, hence they would be able to see their mother normally.

As she left for the warp room, Alferdo came over.

“Dusk told me to follow you.” He said, with a light bow. Shiina raised an eyebrow, but accepted him as well.

Alferdo had since a few years ago, gone through multiple upgrades, including a English speaking program. Now he had a shiny steel body, and is much slimmer, like a human. When he is in public, he would be wearing a hat with a trench coat, although in the lab he would wear a casual T-shirt with shorts.

Actually, before Clint got used to Alferdo, whenever he saw the shiny golem in clothes he would cry.

It was scarier than him being fully naked.

“Well, let’s go now. Vertby Town!” And the surroundings distorted for a little. As it reformed, they were in an empty alley.

“Clint, don’t go too far, okay?” Shiina said as she told her son, who nodded energetically, as they got to the main streets. Clara, on the other hand, was sleeping peacefully in her mother’s arms.

“Uwaaaa.” Clint looked in awe. It was his first time in a place with other people. Ever since he was born, he had always been in the lab, or with his father outside. Everything here, from the tall buildings to the people were new to him.

He had read about these stuff, and his father occasionally told him about these, but it was the first time he seen it in person. Especially that knight in armor in front of him.

The knight noticed the gaze, and waved back, slightly embarrassed.

She led Clint through the main street, where he often stopped to look at various things.

“Mommy! What is this?”

“Mommy, what is that?”

“Mommy? Who are they?”

He pointed at everything and asked relentlessly, while Shiina could only patiently answer all his questions. Clara woke up at one point, and looked around for a bit, but she went back to sleep quickly.

Alferdo walked silently behind her. Inside the coat, he had all his weapons ready, in case someone decided to do something stupid.

Actually it always seems to be a good idea, and then you realize that it isn’t.

Eventually, they reached the park, and Clint went to the playground to play with other kids. As she sat down on a bench, watching Clint, someone else sat beside her.

“So, how are you nowadays?” He asked as he leaned back against the bench.

She smiled at the person, she never met him before, but Dusk had told her many times about a teenager that always appears and disappears casually.

The Royal Spymaster.

“How did you even find me?”

“You underestimate me. I’m so awesome that I don’t need unique techniques to find you.” He said, and laughed.

“The truth?” Shiina asked as she continued watching Clint.

He laughed at the question, “I got lucky and saw you, I’m sure Dusk never told you my name, but I go by John in terms of name.”

“Shiina. But you already know.” She smiled warmly at John, who nodded. A friend of Dusk would be a friend of hers. Then she exclaimed, “What did Dusk teach to my boy?”

He turned to look at Clint, who was doing monkey bars dangerously, and fast, causing John to whistle, which earned himself a glare from Shiina. Even so, she herself did not go to stop Clint. If it was Dusk who thought him, there wouldn’t be any mistakes by this point.

Although she will have a nice talk with her husband tonight.

“By the way, did Dusk tell you about the Academy?”

“Academy?” Shiina asked, “What are you talking about?”

He laughed, “Figured. He probably forgot to tell you. Well, it’s an academy, founded by me, although official records said that it was founded by Eiden.”

“Eiden…”

“That pretty boy sniper you met while searching for Dusk.”

“Ah. He specialized into a sniper?” She called one of her 3 short term friends.

“Yep. Gwen and Mel are now teachers there too. Well, in fact, now that we have free time, wanna go there to find them now?” He suggested, “And perhaps you could consider enrolling both of them when they are 9.”

She considered his words, and weighed the options, but since she had free time as well, and that she was slightly interested, she decided to follow John to the academy, “Let’s go take a look for now. Clint!”

“Mommy?” He ran over almost instantly. Shiina smiled at him, and asked, “Wanna go to the Adventure’s Academy?”

“Can I join?” He asked, slightly shocked. But Shiina shook her head, “I mean to visit. To take a look inside. Erm… Just to look. You have to grow up nicely before you could join.” She explained, and Clint nodded with a smile.

“Well, let’s go now! [Teleport]!” Join activated a card that was similar, although cruder, than the cards Dusk often use, and the space distorted.

“Master?”

As the surroundings stabilized, they found themselves in a room filled with paper in almost every corner. In front of her was a corpse, behind a desk, and the corpse was doing slave work as they came in.

“Yo, Eiden, how are you.”

The corpse, also known as Eiden, laid on the table and started crying, telling them about all the paperwork he had to do ever since he became the principal.

By the time he finished, Clint was looking outside from the window, and Shiina had a troubled look on her face, but John simply laughed, “Wow, this is the first time since quite a long time that I heard of such a problem. He then stepped out of the room, “Hey! Miss Secretary, come over a moment.”

After a bit, a beautiful woman entered the room. As she did, John pointed at the pile of paper. “That’s your job, clear all of it!”

“Understood.” She left the room, and all the paperwork flew up together.

Eiden looked at John with disbelief, and then broke down.

After some time, when he recovered, again. John finally told him the reason he appeared. “Eiden, remember Shiina?”

“Yes, why? No way… is this…?”

Shiina removed the illusion and smiled at the principal in front of her, “Hello Eiden.”

“Shiina! Are you okay all along?”

“Yeah, I was with Dusk all the time.” She admitted, slightly embarrassed.

“You were… Dusk… and kids… Ah…” He nodded, “So why are you here?”

As Shiina was busy recovering herself from blushing, John answered, “I found her at Vertby, and invited her to take a look here. That’s your job, my free time had been over since some time ago.”

“Yes master!” He saluted, and John left the room. “Shiina, and?”

She gestured towards Alferdo, “Alferdo. My son Clint, and my daughter Clara.”

“Okay…” He pulled out 4 visitor passes, two in the form of tags, and two in the form of tiny rings. The rings are put on Clint and Clara, while Shiina and Alferdo kept the tags in the pockets. “Now follow me. Allow me to give the basic introduction of the Academy.”

As they left the administrative building, he opened his hands as he walked backwards, “This is Altea’s Adventurer’s Academy! Also known as AAA. We are the only academy for young adventurers like how we used to be.” And then he said in a quiet tone, “To prevent that crap from happening again.” He reverted to his original loud tone, and continued, “We accept everyone, no matter if they want to be adenturers or not! We have normal language classes, crafting classes, and even art classes! But! We also have weapon classes, magic classes, engineering classes, tactic classes and even a battle class!”

He led them to the main school building, and continued, “In fact! Let me show you the most exciting and popular class, the battle class! There should be 3rd and 4th year students there now.” Clint was slightly confused as he couldn’t fully grasp the words, but he understood that something unique was going to come. And then they entered the arena.

There were multiple battle grounds in the arena, and there were multiple battles commencing now. They were fighting using wooden weapons and harmless spells, and there were multiple healers around the field. In the middle of the dome was a familiar red haired girl, who was casting a spell as they entered the arena. She held the spell, until all the battles ended, which she then finally activated the spell.

A warm light shone through everyone. Shiina felt healthier instantly, and a few students that were down got up as their pain was removed.

“Above and Beyond. A spell that increases maximum health and heals the affected by a decent amount. That’s why Mel is here.” He waved his hand as Mel started walking over.

“Clint? And this is…?” She looked at Shiina for a bit, and sniffed the air around her, before her face brightened, “Shiina! You’re safe!”

She was about to hug Shiina, before noticing the baby she was holding.

“That’s… you did it with Dusk?” She asked, as her eyes gleamed. “I’m so envious though…” She then muttered, her expression rapidly changing. “Even the person younger than me did it, while I…”

And then she saw Clint.

And she fell into despair.

“I can’t believe it… You’ve been doing it for so long already…”

Shiina could only scratch her cheek awkwardly. But Eiden interjected, “They’re going to be done in a minute, you should start your spell.”

“Ah, right. It was nice to meet you, Shiina! You should visit more often.” And she ran off.

They then continued the tour. Alferdo had the drag Clint away from the battles, and he finally followed them when Alferdo allowed Clint to sit on top of him.

“The engineering classes. There isn’t class at the moment though. And if they actually want to do some of their own work, they would go to the better workshop. I’ll show it to you later.” Eiden muttered as they passed through the labs.

They continued walking through the corridor, before stopping at a room with a large door. [Student Council]

Inside was an office with multiple tables. Only one of the tables was occupied by a student, who went ‘Principal-sama’ before continuing her work. Shiina saw an open door to the side, and she glanced into it.

There was a huge room, with a large round table with 12 chairs, although they were all empty. From the stairs and the doors at the side, it seems that the room is much larger than it seems.

“Each side with 3 doors, and with 2 floors. The 12 doors lead to 12 rooms of the student council. The student council seat can only be taken if you are nominated by a seat holder, or if nobody was nominated, a poll will commence. Of course, I have the final say on who gets a seat, and while they have partial control over the students, we monitor them really well.”

“Student council members basically decide on all the events among themselves, and we just approve them. Sometimes I personally add a few events, if it’s getting boring.”

“I just remembered, the basics of this academy. Your ranks.” He said, and turned towards the only council member, “Elise, could you lend me your student card for a bit?”

The student complied and handed over a Silver card. The card shows the name, address, and student number, as well as a ‘SS’ on the card.

“Like you see, Elise here is a SS rank student. There are multiple ways to get a higher rank, and the most common, although not actually easiest, is by increasing your adventurer's rank. Your adventurer's rank, if higher than your student rank, will be your student rank.” He turned the card, and shows me the back of the card. Guild: C was written in the back of the card.

“The second way is by leadership and charisma. If you are liked by the students, and you can lead them well, your rank will increase.” There was a column, stating [Leadership: +3].”Hence, her C rank is increased 3 times, to reach an S rank. The third is crafting, Elise here is not a crafting student, so naturally she has a 0 here.” He pointed at the third column, which shows [Crafting: 0], “Finally, likes from me. If I like you, I can increase your rank.” [Attitude: +1] was at the last column. “Usually though, I reward them for competitions and stuff, but you could understand. I could also decrease your rank as punishment.”

“And ranks decide?”

“Everything, from your allowance, to your leniency. A SSS rank student could skip all classes except for homeroom once a week, and use all our facilities for free as long as they don’t defame us. And they get better allowance, and a better room, and just about better everything.”

“And it’s regulated by you as well.”

“Naturally.” He said with a smile. He returned the card back to Elise, who was speaking to Clint, who was sitting on her lap. And then she noticed both Shiina and Eiden looking at her.

Her face was steaming red by the time they left the room.

It was nighttime already, and Alferdo was carrying the sleeping Clint. After running around so much, he had exhausted himself. They were in an alley at the town outside the academy, with 2 Shadows, possibly more, and on the wall was a familiar card.

“Thanks for showing me around, Eiden.”

“My pleasure.” He said, waving his hand, “Stay safe, you know. I plan to see young Clint here in 7 years.”

She smiled, and the baby she was holding, who was somehow awake, waved her hand towards Eiden as they walked into the portal, and disappeared.

“Well, let’s go back. Cover the area for now, just in case.”

The shadows nodded and disappeared to the night.

Author notes

Well, that revealed what is going to happen at the first arc!

I'm sure some of you expected Dusk and Shii retaining their MC, sorry to disappoint you, it was never in my plans.

But no worries, they will regain their MC status at one point!

What had led to the academy idea?

It was from JoyJoy415 from the Cherry Credits forum, in fact, even the name of the academy is the same, although there are huge changes to the system and the academy in general compared to JoyJoy415's version.

I wanted some place where Clint and - can grow, alone, and the original idea was for Dusk and Shii to be caught up in a long mission, but I remembered the academy, and decided to use it instead.

Arc 1 is in fact mapped out, while the sequel has only the basic ideas of what is going to happen. This story is nowhere near ending, and I hope that you all will support me in this.

Arc 1, in 6 days from now, unless if i get impatient.