Nero joined the group of Enlil battalion cadets who were all whispering to one another, trying to understand the situation. Clearly, all of them were still influenced by the lesson they had learned outside. The cadets who had gone in first, and had missed out the speech by Drill Sergeant Renald, were clearly informed of it after the fact, and had been scared into caution even by only the story.
"Hey, do you know why they’re making us wait here?" asked a cadet as soon as Nero arrived.
The cadet was blonde with blue eyes, so clearly his innate ability was not an elemental one. He was slightly shorter than Nero, but had a good build, indicating that he had also undergone some training before. .
"Probably so that we all gather together so they can lead us to our battalions all at once," Nero answered with the most likely reason. "I’m Nero by the way."
"Oh, right, sorry. Nice to meet you Nero, the name is Fane Black. I’m just a little nervous - I heard from my older sister that all fresh cadets go through some ragging from their seniors. There’s no telling when that’ll happen, so I’m just on my toes."
Nero nodded, well aware of that tradition.
"Just clench your teeth and deal with it," said Nero while patting Fane’s back encouragingly.
He was well aware of this tradition, and honestly couldn’t care less about it. Back when he and Patrick had told their dad that they wanted to go to KMA, their dad had warned them about this tradition. Well, he had not as much warned them as made them experience first hand the kinds of pranks soldiers pull on one another.
Ranging from running in the cold in undergarments, to running errands or doing extra training, he’d seen it all. The tradition of senior suppressing the junior was something the army tacitly allowed for various reasons.
"Yeah, I know. But I heard from my sister that some guy in her batch had his arse waxed by another cadet in the same batch - all while the seniors watched. I don’t mind some harmless fun, but I don’t
Nero froze. Well, it seemed that his father had not taught him all the ways in which new cadets get picked on.
"Don’t jinx it buddy," said Nero. "And don’t give anyone any ideas either. I would rather stick to the regular stuff - you know, like disarming a stench bomb with my teeth."
Nero and Fane chatted amongst themselves while they waited, getting to know one another. It turned out, Fane was specially recruited in advance. Despite his somewhat meek personality, he had tested incredibly well in his high school military tactics class, to the point where it drew attention. While he currently did not seem like he was suitable for front line deployment, an officer did not always need to go fight. He would be incredibly well suited for an office role.
After a while, another, a few senior cadets showed up in front of the four groups. Their seniority was easily identified because on their uniform, alongside the symbol for their battalion was a number which indicated what year they were in. These seniors were all from the third year.
Fane went pale at the sight of the seniors, but Nero doubted that they were here to pick on them. Indeed, the seniors all came to lead the groups to the designated areas belonging to their own battalions.
"As a special honour to welcome the new additions to our battalions, we have gained permission from the drill sergeant to give up today’s training for you guys. Instead, the seniors from your battalion have prepared a special activity to get you all acquainted with what it means to be a soldier," said one of the cadets.
At that point, Nero started to feel something amiss. Soldiers being allowed to go without training? On the first day? How could that be? Not unless something even worse had been prepared for them.
He looked at poor Fane, and shook his head. Could he really have jinxed things?
The senior from the Enlil battalion, a tall, tanned woman who looked incredibly happy for some reason, happily led their group while introducing them to the details of their battalion some more.
"I’m sure you guys already know, but Enlil has a really strong reputation throughout Kolar," she said proudly. "Due to the reputation of general Enlil, many people mistakenly think that we excel mainly in defensive assignments, but that is far from the truth. I’ll have you know, we even made contributions within Lumina last year, and since then we have completed many actual external missions relating to increased appearances of curses.
"Within the academy itself, the Enlil battalion has two members within the top 10 of the Crucible List and four in the top 10 of the Exemplars Index. The higher our members rank in the lists, the more benefits each battalion gets.
"By the way, don’t bother asking any dumb questions like which battalion is the best or strongest? While the army does not make changes once allocations are done, they take particular care to ensure that the standard and ranking of all battalions stays similar. Only with a worthy challenge can cadets grow. Although, there was an anomaly in the last semester, that’s not the kind of thing that can be predicted or guarded against, nor does anyone expect such a thing to happen again. That’s why it’s called an anomaly.
"For you, fresh cadets, all four battalions have joined together to provide you with a taste of the benefits we battalions get. I have to say, you guys are really lucky to have such kind and caring seniors like us. We never got anything like this."
The more their senior emphasised how lucky they were, the worse that Nero knew the situation was going to be. With every bit of information she provided, he tried to guess what the details of their trial would be. If it was something that all four battalions joined together to host, then it was going to be a big deal. At the same time, it would not be easy.
Although it was not said, or even implied, Nero quickly honed in on the seniors mention of an anomaly last year - one that could not be replicated or guarded against. The chances were high that one reason that the academy might agree to do something out of the ordinary was because they might want to be on the look out for any more cadets who can cause an anomaly.
Of course, at this point, it was mere conjecture with almost no evidence to back it up.
So instead of focusing on that, Nero diverted his focus towards the academy. As they moved deeper into the academy, it became less and less like what might be considered a nature reserve and more like a small town.
More and more buildings could be spotted, all of them showing signs of age and maintenance, yet all of them impressive with history. One could practically feel the history in this place.
The buildings, one and all, were made from red, uniform bricks with large windows, making the place seem cozy and welcoming, entirely unlike the architecture Nero had grown up with. It almost didn’t make sense. It was as if this place feared no Curseflare, and was some kind of sanctuary from the hardships of this world.
Such a thing should have been impossible. But... was that really the case? Nero clearly had a lot to learn about this world, as he still suffered from a fragmented view of everything.
Up, right in the center of the academy - as far as Nero could tell - the ground was once again that of the familiar concrete, with buildings in a slightly familiar structure. However, the center of the academy would remain a mystery to Nero for now, since they took a turn towards the right. Notably, the other battalions all took distinctly different turns from that point.
A quick glance at the sun revealed that they were heading to the east, so the other academies must have been placed at the south, west and north portions of the academy.
"Up ahead is the Enlil Lines, which contains the barracks, quarters, mess and other facilities given to our barracks. All new cadets live in the barracks, so let me take you to where you’ll be living. Once there, you can all get changed into your uniforms and leave your personal belongings behind - including all your cards. You’re not going to need them where we’re going after this."