"You look like you have something you want to say," said Isabella as she looked at him with amusement in her eyes. Seeing how seriously Nero took everything made her want to tease him just a bit. Between the two of them, he was the teenager so why was he so uptight?
"I want to ask about what’s next," said Nero, suppressing the urge to call Isabella out. Yet his attempts at restraint only made Isabella laugh.
"Enjoy yourself a little, young man. You need to learn to enjoy the little things, or you’re going to get burnt out. I’ve checked the status of your application, and though you have been referred you are far from being selected for the position.
"KMA often goes without selecting a candidate for the legion rather than picking someone unsuitable. While you have a strong resume so far, you are not the only candidate that KMA is keeping an eye on."
Nero raised an eyebrow. He did not need to be told who the other candidate was, he could already guess.
"Vilhelm?" he asked, more to satisfy Isabella’s desire for suspense than anything else.
"Yes, Vilhelm," responded Isabella. "Although you beat him in a fight, that does not exclude him from being a candidate at all. They are going to review his, yours, and any other applications for another eighteen months, and that’s when the final decision will be made.
"What you need to do, within that time, is build up a strong application during that time. You need to cover for any advantages he has over you, and gain your own unique advantages as well. That basically means that within the next three semesters, you not only need to prove yourself, you have to make up for the one semester’s worth of classes Vilhelm has already taken ahead of you. It won’t be easy."
Nero did not seem daunted by the news at all. If anything, now that he knew what he needed to do, he felt slightly relaxed. He was already taking one additional class. All he needed to do was take one more additional class per semester, and within three semesters he could make up for any classes Vilhelm had taken that he hadn’t, putting them on par with each other.
Besides that, he would need to do his best to stand out. He was no prodigy, and he wasn’t exactly sure what qualities Vilhelm had besides passing tests and fighting that qualified him to be one. To surpass him, he would need to put in the work, but that seemed almost impossible.
After all, almost every minute of his day was already filled with classes, drills or other facets of the academy. The only way he could take out even more time was if he cut down his sleep even more.
Considering that he was actually sleeping comfortably these days, cutting down his schedule by a couple of hours should not be a problem. However, the obstacle was that if this was done over a long period of time, it would begin to have a negative impact on his health and cognitive functions.
He would not be able to compete with Vilhelm if his mind was dulled from lack of sleep over days, weeks or months. He needed to find a solution to this problem.
"Do you have any suggestions for how I can do that?" Nero asked Isabella instead of coming up with his own plan first. Since she had mentioned all this, she must have a solution, even if it was a bad one. Not to mention, she was a Dean, which not only gave her tremendous authority, it also gave her much more insight about what Nero should expect in his future training.
Any plan she made would be much more comprehensive than anything he could conjure up. If the price to pay for her help was to be pranked and teased by her from time to time, then he was more than willing to pay it.
"I do have a few things in mind, but the way I see it, just training won’t be enough. Don’t think that I was bringing up your family history just to play with you. It is definitely something that will affect whether or not you are selected in the end.
"That means, in eighteen months you not only have to overcome Vilhelm, you also have to overcome the many roadblocks your family history has created for you. I do have a couple of ideas in mind about how you can do that. The question is... can you take it? And how much exactly you can take, and for how long."
Nero paused. A few different plans? Nero looked at Isabella, and his mind began to race. This was a test - it had to be. She was observing what he would pick, and why. He had not forgotten that right at the start of the semester he was told that he would be observed to decide his final placement. Well, if anything, that would only be increased if he was being considered for something like the Valkan legion.
If that was the case...
Nero smirked.
"You don’t need to give me any options. Tell me the plan that will make me the best soldier - the best officer," Nero said without any hint of hesitation or doubt.
Now it was Isabella’s turn to pause, and raise an eyebrow in curiosity.
"Are you sure? You don’t even want to hear the other options? This will not be easy. In fact, the chances of you burning out before you can even complete your eighteen months is very high. Not only that, it would only be the beginning, for the training in the legion is no joke. If you’re burnt out before you even join the legion, then you won’t gain much from it even if you are selected for it.
"Moreover, being selected is not everything. If your performance during training is not up to par, you won’t be able to graduate as a member of the legion. At most, you’ll just graduate as a normal academy cadet."
Nero was not surprised by the heavy requirements of the legion. He expected nothing less, if it really lived up to what everyone was claiming it would be like.
"If you guys can really cause me to burn out, I’ll be impressed," Nero said with a casual confidence. "I do not get tired of training, I don’t get exhausted from it. I have been training for as long back as I can remember. I do not get weary from training, instead I crave the strength that it grants me, the way you crave oxygen. Tell me, have you ever burnt out from constantly breathing?"
Isabella could see right through Nero, which is why she could see that he was not exaggerating, or making things up. He was truly sincere in what he said. He really... craved the strength training gave him. She could not help but pause and wonder what kind of childhood he’d even had.
She’d, of course, read the reports, but the reports on him and his family only mentioned relevant matters - why would it record his upbringing?
"Take your time to think about this Nero," Isabella said with a hint of seriousness in her voice. She was no longer playing around. "If you select this option, and fail halfway through, then you can automatically consider your qualification for the legion gone. The legion will not take someone who overestimates their own capabilities."
Nero did not respond. He just continued to look at her, as if waiting for her to elaborate on the plan that could help him improve his chances of joining the legion.
Isabella sighed, and then smirked. Well, she also wanted to see if Nero could live up to his claims. He’d already proved himself once, and he had proved himself with actions.
"There’s a strategy the army uses for special operatives during critical missions to train and brief them in a short period of time. It involves using cards to eliminate the physical need for sleep, replenishing your physical state artificially. That way, you can get by with half an hour to one hour of sleep every day without any significant drawback," she said, her voice heavy as she spoke.
"Although these cards can restore the body’s physical condition, they cannot substitute for the mental restoration that sleep provides. Over the long term, the chances of you burning out are high if you cannot handle it. However, this way, you can follow the most intense training program that I can conjure up.
"We’ll replace your typical physical drills with some highly specific, intense physical training. In fact, Reynolds has been wanting to do just that anyway, but has been held back by regulation. At the same time, you will make up for the course Vilhelm has already taken, as well as undertake targeting counseling and training. But all of that... will just be the beginning."
Nero did not flinch, nor did he show any signs of doubt or hesitation. Instead, he began to smile softly. Yes, this is exactly what he wanted.