"The match is a draw due to the time running out," the referee announced as he separated Nero and Vilhelm, looking at them oddly. A draw was a rare occurrence, especially one due to reaching the time limit.
On one side, Vilhelm panted heavily as he looked at Nero with confusion, unable to understand how the fight had ended up like this. In the last few minutes, sensing the match coming towards an end, he had begun to attack with everything he had. Naturally, such attacks also increased the chances of him suffering from Nero’s attacks but it was a risk he had to take.
Yet the end result was still a draw, which confused him. It... almost didn’t make sense. Even those few who were watching the fight seemed confused by the outcome.
"Did you... lead to a draw on purpose?" Vilhelm asked, looking at Nero unbelievably. He couldn’t believe someone who proclaimed himself to be constantly at war would avoid pushing for a victory. But that only showed how immature his understanding of Nero was.
"No, I wasn’t aiming for a draw," Nero answered calmly, not strained in the least. "I was aiming to use you for training against faster opponents. I feel like this was a very successful training session. Feel free to come to me any time you want to challenge me, I won’t reject it."
Vilhelm felt dumbfounded, and somewhat insulted by Nero’s casual and cavalier attitude. Here he was, taking the man as a rival, and yet Nero was only treating him as a practice partner at best. The most frustrating thing was that he did not seem bothered by the draw, for he felt that he had gained much from the match.
On the contrary, Vilhelm felt like he had failed. Coming out in a draw felt even worse than losing the match altogether.
Seeing that Vilhelm had nothing else to say, Nero simply waved at him and left for the professors office. Vilhelm, meanwhile, struggled with an emotion of frustration he’d never felt before. He was being looked down on by the one person he was actually looking forward to forming a rivalry with, and it felt pathetic.
That’s not how things went in the books. In the books, he was supposed to gain the others’ respect and acknowledgment, and form a relationship of mutual understanding. They were supposed to help each other grow stronger. Instead, Nero saw his actions as if he was playing a game.
"That’s not a look I’ve seen before," said Helena as she stepped up to Vilhelm, watching Nero leave.
Vilhelm looked at Helena with surprise, not expecting her to show up to watch his fight. He hadn’t spotted her near the arena either.
"Yeah. I don’t know if I’m building a habit, or if it’s just a coincidence. Nero would be the second person I’ve wanted to befriend, but he thinks I’m childish or something. He seems to think I’m treating life like a game," he said, shaking his head with disappointment.
Helena seemed entirely unsympathetic to his grievance.
"No, you simply resonate more with highly ambitious and skilled people," she said, providing him a direct answer. "Not everyone is like you. Our skills don’t just fall from the sky. For anyone to be able to meet you on the same level as you, they have to have had incredible ambition, or else they would not have had what it took to train until they became so skilled. Nero is no different, and neither am I."
Her words were somewhat cold, and her expression stern, but Vilhelm didn’t mind. If she were actually as cold or indifferent as she appeared, she would not have come to console him.
Unfortunately, he misunderstood her as well. She did not come to console him. Instead, she came to make him realise the importance of ambition - the importance of a goal. He was too skilled for him to waste his talents drifting through life. But that was something he did not realise. He seemed to feel like getting the perfect results in all his tests was good enough.
In truth, by doing so he was training to become nothing more than a tool to be used by the army, which was a shame.
Nero, who was used to surveying his surroundings, had noticed Helena watching from the back, but thought nothing of it. It most likely didn’t have anything to do with him anyway.
He quickly made his way to Dean Isabella’s office, ready to learn about the next steps.
When he reached her office, Nero was surprised to find that Isabella was, once again, going over the paper she had shared in class. Was there something in the paper that deserved further study?
Honestly, Nero couldn’t be sure since most of the terms mentioned in the paper were far beyond his current knowledge. It was like asking a high school student to assess a report from someone who had completed the highest levels of specialised education.
"Ah, Nero, you’re finally here," Isabella said, putting down the paper. "Take a seat, this will be a lengthy discussion."
Nero did not stand on ceremony and took a seat right opposite to her desk.
"I’m not sure how familiar you are with the Valkan legion, so I will elaborate on it in detail. Back when the academy started, the legion did not officially exist, even as an idea. However, there were a number of highly skilled cadets that the acting Dean of the academy took to training personally.
"Back then, the academy was not as thorough as it is now so to avoid wasting the potential of worthy cadets, a system of apprenticeship was adopted where highly skilled professors took on specific apprentices to train. This practice was eventually dropped as it seemed to foster the growth of internal factions, which was not a good thing, however the concept of training skilled and worthy cadets remained, for more than one reason.
"You see, typically, the army operates under the premise of using vast numbers. Quantity is easier to attain than quality, and more often than not, more practical as well. After all, the power of an individual is ultimately limited, especially in the face of many enemies. However, the army must also be prepared to face all kinds of situations, thus raising the need for independent, holistically trained, highly skilled and extremely competent soldiers to tackle unique obstacles. The Valkan legion... is one of the ways that the army acquires such soldiers."