"What do you mean I can’t enter? No authority? What do you mean no authority? I’m here to pick up my son!" Marilyn argued with the soldiers in front of Fordham base.
"Ma’am, unless you have a pass, you cannot enter. This is not a public base, there is no room for guests to wait while they pick up people, nor are you allowed to contact anyone inside. If your son is meant to be picked up by you at this time, I’m sure he will be sent out duly," responded a soldier, not at all caring about her status of Mystic. This was Fordham base, since when were they intimidated by others.
"If you don’t send in word, how will my son know I’m here to pick him up?" Marilyn asked furiously. "I’m here to pick up Nero Grant. Ask your superiors, I’m sure someone has to know something."
"Ma’am, like I said-" began the soldier, but was interrupted by another one who was standing nearby.
"Oh, hey, are you Nero’s mother?" the other soldier asked, looking at her oddly. "Nero was discharged four days ago. He’s already gone. Have you tried calling him?"
"Calling him? He was supposed to be serving time in a base. Why would I call him when he wouldn’t even have his phone?" she demanded, even as she quickly pulled out her phone and called Nero.
Half a second later, Nero picked up.
"Hey mom, what’s up?" Nero asked from the other end. His tone and demeanour were casual, but if he could have seen Marilyn’s livid expression, he would not have been so relaxed.
"Not much," she responded in a casual tone. "I’m surprised you picked up. Weren’t you supposed to be at Fordham?"
"Haha, yeah, busy. So busy," Marilyn said in the sweetest voice she could muster as she crushed her phone in her hand. She had taken unpaid time off to come pick up that ungrateful son of hers, and it had ’ slipped his mind ’ to give her a call and let her know he’d already left.
Marilyn glared at the soldiers in front of her, and then turned around, pondering the morality or murdering her son.
Meanwhile, in Abboton, Nero suddenly got shivers when he heard his mothers sweet voice. That was the fake polite voice she used either when she was talking to someone she hated, or when she was furious but couldn’t show it in public.
He had a feeling that he had messed up somehow, but he wasn’t sure how exactly. Was he supposed to have told her when he got free?
Now that he thought about it, it was only right to keep his parents updated about completing his court mandated service. But compared to fighting berserkers, curses, exarchs, and the like, Nero didn’t think something like completing his service was something too important.
Maybe she wanted him to visit her first before heading towards Abboton? It would have made sense, actually.
Once he arrived here, and he went up to register at KMA, he was informed that the new intake was still three weeks away, so he would need to wait after completing his registration. Technically speaking, he could still go visit her, but he was beginning to feel like that was a bad idea.
The wait was actually quite anticlimactic. Here he was, ready to begin his journey in KMA, only to be met with an unexpected wait.
After talking to the registration officers, Nero now knew exactly what to expect. Once the intake period started, everyone who had registered would have to report. For a lot of people, they would have needed to pass academic and physical exams to reach this far, but Nero and all other Neophytes who served in Lumina had been exempt from these exams if they wished.
They could report directly to KMA and they would be taken in. Still, the process was not so straightforward. There would be orientation, medical examination, proper registration and such before they would be assigned a specific batch number. Only then would they get a chance to enter the academy itself.
During the past few days, Nero had actually fully explored Abboton and also scoped out the periphery of the academy. For some reason, in Nero’s mind, the academy was huge. In reality, it was no larger than Abboton itself. Though, due to the tall fences that were visible even from afar, Nero couldn’t actually see what the interior of the academy looked like.
He could only imagine what the next few years of his life would look like, though at least the environment wouldn’t be too foreign to him.
Abboton, and thus KMA, were west of Aetherpeak, past a small stretch of hills that jutted out from within the Aether Mountain Range. It was still close to the southern border of Kolar, meaning that fog, mountains and forest of pine were still quite abundant, making Nero feel right at home.
A little further west was Lake Owel, the largest fresh water lake in all of Kolar, fed by various streams coming down from the mountains. Up north, there were vast apple and plum orchards, and to the immediate east were some of the aether and metal mines that Kolar was so famous for. .
Relatively speaking, this was one of the most important areas of Kolar, yet the population in this area was sparse, probably for exactly that reason. There were fewer civilians here, and more military outposts.
Thus, it also made more sense for the academy to be here. It was easier to give the soldiers exposure during their training. Speaking of, Nero still didn’t know what to expect from it, yet he knew what he wanted to get out of it.
During the past three days, Nero had forgotten to message his mother, but he hadn’t forgotten to contact Gabriel and Silas. He wanted to know their situation, and get any updates if possible. Unfortunately, neither of them could be contacted, probably since they were in the academy.
That left Nero with too much time on his hands, and too few things to do. Since he couldn’t exactly explore the wilderness, and there wasn’t much to do in town, it left him with only two things.
First, he would get in contact with Flintlock once more. Second, he would perfect his recipe for Virtuous Moonlight. Both those things would help him tremendously. So, Nero used Flickering Lantern once, and put the card away, not at all worrying about how Flintlock always found him so easily.
Instead, he spent the day acquiring ingredients from a local artisan store, and spent the day experimenting. Finding the right ingredients to make a card that could hold the moonlight was hard, but not impossible, of that he was sure.
Eventually, after hours of practice, Nero went to sleep. He had rented a room in a local inn for three weeks, so food and accommodation were taken care of.
Much like he expected, that night, Nero had a visitor in his dreams. Flintlock appeared, once again wearing a mask, yet still choosing to sit in the shadows.
"Nero Grant. Finally, we meet again," Flintlock said casually. "After our last meeting, I wasn’t so sure I’d be seeing you again. It’s good to see that your murderous intentions towards me haven’t waned in the months we haven’t seen each other."
Nero tested his aether within the dream, as he always did. He had a feeling that he should be able to actually control his aether now, instead of merely feeling like he could. It was hard to tell, though.
"Yet I was certain we would be meeting again," Nero responded calmly. "It seems you must have found the information I have to offer valuable."
"Not just valuable," Flintlock said with a chuckle. "I’m a man who likes to get straight to business, and I’m sure that this time there shouldn’t be anything to distract us. So, shall we get right to it?"
"Of course," responded Nero. "Let’s go through the process of having me join Unity first, and then we can discuss the merit of the information I have to provide. While we’re at it, why don’t you introduce the merit system in Unity so I can judge whether the award matches the worth of the info, and so that I can see for myself what I can acquire with the merits I gain."
Flintlock stared at Nero in silence, and then sighed. Why could things never be easy with Nero? But then again, after getting to know him somewhat, he had already anticipated this.
"Alright then, let’s get you set up as a Unity affiliate. First, you will need an alias."