Clint's PoV

“AAA, founded by the current Principal named Eiden. Using earth magic, they had built the whole school in under a month, and now serves as a place to prepare kids for training.” The guide said as she led us. Actually, we heard this multiple times already, but today, we had appeared in somewhere unfamiliar. Usually, we would appear directly in a room near the principal’s office, but they moved the portal to an alley in the town.

Actually, last year, there was no town. All the buildings in the town are relatively new too, and there are many students around.

“Ah! That’s the principal!” The guide said, while Eiden, the principal, walked forwards to greed dad (in disguise). “Hawk! It’s nice to see you! Sorry I had to force you into such troubles.” He had dark green hair, tied in a short ponytail. He also had a bow with him, which didn’t suit the formal suit he was wearing. On a side note, Hawk is dad’s alias, which he uses when he is in the public, and since the guide was still here, Eiden had opted to it. It seemed that dad is still wanted.

From what I can see, they had been waiting here for us for some time already.

There were 2 other people, one which I had met a long time before. She had red hair… and she was… ah… mom…

“Mel! Stop it!”

The teacher/healer of AAA ran towards mom and buried her face in mom’s breasts. Dad had causally hugged Carla while covering her ears, as she muttered, “I can’t see…”

“So, young Clint, is it?” The principal asked, as he looked at me. He nodded to himself for a bit, before continuing, “Welcome to AAA! We wish you have a nice time in our academy!”

I smiled at the principal and gave a light bow, “Thanks!” Although he had the serious outfit, and spoke in serious words, his tone was far from serious. At the moment, he had a grin on his face as he looked at me.

“I will meet you, actually, I will meet all the first years, tomorrow morning, for now…” The other teacher, who was a dark elf with black hair, walked forwards at that point, “Eiden. May I?”

“Indeed, it is time! Take him away!” Eiden said, pointing towards the academy. The other teacher nodded, unamused, and led me towards the school building, telling me that my other stuff will be brought separately to my room, leaving me with my clothes and weapons, a steel short sword my father gave me, and the basic mana pistol from my mom. I turned back, and waved back to a smiling dad and a crying Carla.

Mel was still holding mom down. I feel sorry for mom.

Shiina's PoV

After dismissing the tour guide, Eiden pulled Mel off me. She pouted as she was held down by Eiden, who smiled at me with an awkward expression, “Hi, Shiina. It’s been some time.”

I smiled back awkwardly at him. Indeed, unlike Dusk, who comes over to do missions with them about once every month, I never participated in any of John’s missions. I was too busy researching and taking care of Clint and Carla. Sometimes I visited the engineers at Elanor’s workshop, but I never came here with Dusk and Clint to visit Eiden, Mel and Gwen.

Sadly, even after 9 years, their missions barely achieved anything. Even now they had no clue where the Mastermind resides. Luckily, or if Dusk was to say it, unluckily, there was no movements from the Mastermind. The nobles simply did what they wanted in Saint Haven and the surrounding area.

Dusk speculated that they would probably attack AAA at one point. Especially since AAA is raising a group of loyal students that will come back to help if there is trouble. The longer they leave AAA alive, the larger the advantage we would have.

AAA was an idea that John worked on for some time with the Devil. It exists to train adventurers so that they wouldn’t die to the culling events that even he was unable to stop. Luckily, he managed to get the students to register under adventurers-in-training, and they won’t be able to accept such forced missions. Not even they could force the adventurer’s guild to bend that rule.

Or at least that’s what John hopes. AAA wouldn’t survive an all-out attack by the nobles of Saint Haven. That’s why he has a personal force in Saint Haven to prepare to strike if they ever move out towards AAA.

With such a stalemate, in the recent culling events, none of the students has been chosen. Although some graduates were. The survival rate for the graduates are at a ‘low 75%’, as John said. He wanted a 100%, but it was far from possible.

“I was busy, Eiden. Sorry.”

“Nah, no worries. You aren’t bound to John like us.” Eiden said with a tired smile. Honestly, Dusk isn’t as well, though. He just helps just because he can.

I feel a little guilty about it, but Dusk simply put his hand over my shoulder and smiled, “So, Eiden, how’s your love life?” He instantly made Eiden depressed. Mel, who was also caught on the AOE attack, also had a cloud of gloom over her.

“Dusk. Don’t be so rude…” I sighed at him. It was a successful topic diversion… but he didn’t need to do that.

Normally, he would be silent and cold to almost everyone, and it was evident when I brought him to Elanor’s workshop. He would just ignore almost everyone. But here, suddenly, he was so friendly to people other than me, Carla and Clint.

Carla was still silently standing and watching the students and their parents entering the academy with sparkling eyes. “Mama! Can I come here when I’m nine?” She asked with her cute voice, causing some parents to smile while looking at us.

I smiled at her, “Of course you can, my little baby~” Truthfully, I felt slightly guilty for passing my slow growth genes to her. Even at 7 years old, she was as small as a 5 year old kid. I remember how I used to be during 20 years old, I looked barely 16 by then, Dusk told me. And now at an age of 30, I looked barely 18, while Mel already looked like an old maid.

I was glad that I’m still so young, honestly. But I’m worried of Carla.

Maybe I should make a power suit for her. Or at least gloves and boots.

“Let’s not stand here already. Come on, we can go to the maid café to chat.” Eiden said with his smile returning, “Little Carla, follow uncle, okay?”

“Okay~” She happily said and followed the strange and suspicious uncle.

Dusk. Why do you have your swords out?

Clint's PoV

The teacher, who introduced herself as Professor Gwen, brought me through the gates, and we immediately saw the huge building, the main academy block at the end of the path we were at. Although it was huge, it couldn’t be seen from beyond the gate. In front of us was a fountain, which is the center of a round square. There were paths leading to the left and right as well. There are multiple students walking from the left, which Prof. Gwen told me was the locations of the dorms, to the right, which most of the important shops, as well as the Adventurer’s guild branch, as well as the church, is located at.

I was led straight to the administrative office, located at the ground floor of the main academy block, where there was quite a line of students with their parents. While I expected to join the line, I was brought straight into the office by the Prof. Gwen. Inside, she helped me register directly as she told me the single, most important rule.

No intentionally hurting or killing people without their consent.

So with their consent, we can kill them?

That’s scary.

In fact, when I asked her about it, she confirmed my suspicions. If you challenge someone in a duel to the death, and the enemy accepts, you are allowed to kill each other.

Nobody tried that though. At least, not yet.

I guess this IS an adventurer’s school after all.

There were other rules, but we are expected to read through them ourselves from the student’s guidebook.

While asking a few more questions and jotting them down on the form, she told me about the ranks. It is the school ranks, and at the moment, all first years are F ranked in the beginning, and the maximum rank is SSS. It could increase with multiple ways and they had their privileges, but she told me that it will be briefed in homeroom.

After finishing, with me taking the subjects Swordsmanship, Combat, which is all purpose fighting, Basic engineering and Battle tactics.

She was seemingly disappointed that I didn’t take any magic subjects, but when I told her that my sister is going to go all out magic, her face cheered up. I suppose I could understand, since she was the head of magic in the school. She probably wanted to see how good I was in magic. Sadly, I sucked a lot in magic.

Well, after that she gave me a map of the campus, and told me to go and get my uniform at the school shop, which is located near the cafeterias. Since it was a suggestion from a teacher, I decided to take it, and I went directly to the shops. It wasn’t a bad idea too, as while most of the students are still enrolling, I could skip quite a line if I go now.

Of course, thinking that triggered an event flag.

While looking at the map and thinking about my uniform, I bumped into someone else and fell down. The one I bumped into simply staggered for a little, but regained her balance in just a few moments.

“Ah, sorry.” The person in front of me was a woman. The black long haired woman had no shirt, instead, having bandages covering her breasts. Her long black trousers which had an emblem of AAA with a single red stripe, but the most prominent thing was the two swords hanging on her waist. One, a long sword, and the other, a long and thin but slightly curved sword. “Hm. A first year?”

“Eh? Ah. Yes.” I replied quickly. I was confused for a bit that I couldn’t comprehend the question instantly. “Sorry for that.” I said as she pulled me up.

“You. You’re a swordsman, right?” She said, pointing at my weapons.

I felt trouble incoming, and considered lying, but she was already convinced that I was one. Why, you might ask, am I convinced that she is convinced, well, the fact that my hand was held tight as I was pulled to the direction of the domes might be one reason.

“Wait, Wait! What are you doing?” I shouted at the woman in front of me, but she simple turned back, and looked at me with a matter-of-factly face. “You seem interesting. I want to fight you.”

“But I’m just a weak first year!”

She nodded, but didn’t release me, “But you seem to be used to having those weapons. I’m curious.”

She ignored all my protests as she brought me to the domes. I feel totally weak for being dragged so easily away. So that’s what mom feels with Mel…

She tossed me a wooden sword, while she held one herself. “Get ready, you can use your other weapon too.”

I sighed internally. Since there was no escape, I might as well fight. I flicked a switch in my handgun, changing it from ‘Murder’ mode to ‘Safe’ mode, then picked up the wooden sword. It was balanced, although it wasn’t the weight I was used to. With a sigh, I readied my stance.

After fighting monsters with my father for the last 2 years, I had developed a unique stance. I held my gun behind me, with my sword to the front, horizontally, ready to defend. The usual tactics include blocking the initial attacks while learning the enemy’s movements, before counterattacking.

The woman smiled while I took my stance. “3.”

I crouched a little, and prepared to guard. “2”

First, I would block, and then I’ll counter. This is just an oversized goblin. “1”

And then I saw the flashback of my life.

I jumped to the side instantly. My enemy, who was standing a few meters away, suddenly appeared in front of where I was standing, her sword already swung down. The speed was like my father’s without any hastes, which is, even without hastes or slows, horrifying. While I was still rolling in the air, I shot towards the wall once, and towards the ground once. The two shots flew, and hit the points I aimed. As I rolled up from the ground, the shot fired on the ground bounced, and she blocked it easily with her sword.

I quickly steadied myself as the second shot forced her to block again, and then I fired 2 more shots, one straight and one towards the ground to her left. She dodged the first shot by sidestepping to the right, and seemed to dodge the second shot.

But it was within prediction, as the other shot bounced on the small groove on the ground I made when I jumped away, and flew towards where she was standing. She blocked the shot with her sword, which gave me time to shoot straight twice, and dash forwards. The two shots will give me a chance no matter if she dodges or tries to counter from belo-

I flew.

She jumped over the shots, and grabbed my shirt with her arm, and threw me upwards as she landed gracefully behind me. I crashed into the ground, groaning, but she had a smile on her face.

“As I expected. You are interesting! Well, I hereby state that I will teach you!”

I groaned painfully at the words.

“My name is Kuro! Call me Kuro-senpai! I’m a 4th year student here!”

Wait, there’s something weird there.

“How old are you?”

“Hm. 14 this year.” She said uncaring, and pulled me up.

She looks far older and mature than that though. In fact, she seemed older than my mom.

I don’t know if it’s my mom being small or her being large for her age. In fact, I feel that it’s both.

“Fine, Kuro-senpai. But I need to get my uniform now.” I said while patting the dust from my clothes.

Upon hearing that, she pulled out a group card from her pocket, and spoke into it. “Rigel. Get the uniform of a person called… What’s your name?” She said, and then suddenly turned towards me and asked for my name.

“…Clint.”

“Okay, Clint, first year. Just deliver it to the dorm head whoever he is.” After that, she returned the card into her pocket and smiled at me, giving me a thumbs up.

It was an evil smile.

Mom, dad, what did I do in my previous life?

A few hours later, I was in the cafeteria. There are many parts of the cafeteria, split into ranks. Kuro-senpai was an A ranked student, and thanks to her, I was allowed to enter. It seemed that as long as you have a friend in a higher rank, you could enter the cafeteria of that rank, how nice. The A ranked cafeteria was the best and largest one, while the F ranked was tiny. Students with ranks above S shared the same cafeteria with A ranked students, but they had something else to make it up for them.

At the moment, she was feeding me. My body hurt so much that I could barely move my arms. She told me, after beating me up, that for my fighting style, my speed was too low, and in a fight between people, my stance was horrible. It was good against monsters in the forest, but not against other people in a duel.

I barely absorbed that as she fed me. She was somewhat happy when she fed me though. I don’t understand… Was all the fighting for this? I think it is just a side achievement or something though, she genuinely seemed interested in fighting.

Well, it didn’t matter after that

It was too tiring.

I fell asleep.

Good night.

Kuro's PoV

I smiled at the collapsed boy. After finishing my meal, I carried him to the male’s dorm. Along the way, I met Rigel, who had 3 sets of the academy’s uniform on him. Rigel was an Artillery in my group, and he mainly acts as a scout, since he runs really fast and nimbly.

Of course, his talent isn’t wasted. He does really well as a gofer.

He sighed as he saw the boy. The first words that came out of his mouth was naturally an insult. “Leader(in Japanese, “所長”), so you finally got a little brother material?”

I took the uniform from him.

Then stomped him into the ground, “Leader! I am wrong! Forgive me!”

I ignored his cries and stomped him for a few more seconds, before letting him rise from death.

“Ah… ahh…. Remind me not to say those when you are in your uniform… You are so much cuter if you aren’t in your uniform…” He muttered, then noticed that I was smiling, and instantly kowtowed. “I’M SORRY!”

Why are my teammates all jackasses?

I pushed the uniforms back to him, and led the way to the male’s dorm.

“So, how was he?” Rigel asked behind me. I considered the question for a little, “Not bad, I suppose. He would be really good against monsters, but horrible against other people.”

But he really reminds me of the very strong swordsman I had seen just recently.

In fact, it was last week, when I was still at my village. There was a monster attack, and someone with dark blue hair and a black, really worn out coat, appeared from nowhere, and destroyed the monsters singlehandedly. He refused payment, and instead, paid us, and took one of our trees and disappeared. Clint’s sword fighting techniques were really similar to the man that time. In fact, he had pushed me into few hard points.

Were they related?

When we arrived, I handed the boy over to the dorm head, and Rigel followed him to Clint’s room. With that done, I returned to the dome for more training.

[Extra info]

Clint is a Gladiator

Kuro is a Sword master

Rigel is an Artillery

Little Japan exists in the world of Legendia! Just because I wanted a japanese like character! Kuro will be one of the possibly 2 (haven't decided if i want to include the 2nd character) japanese characters in the story!

Honestly, I don't know if I did well in this chapter. I tried to fill in what had happened in the past few years through Shiina's pov, but I doubt it was good enough. Or good at all.

Also, the part where I tried to make a short description of the main square of AAA was hugely lacking. I think I should make a map of AAA just because of that.

I'm still learning how to change the thoughts of the various characters under the first person view. Now I have respect for the people who could change their PoVs naturally. You guys are awesome.

Credits of AAA goes to JoyJoy415 and her friends.

I do not own the world being used in the story! The world belongs to Dragon Nest!