Nero resisted the urge to shake his head. Many senior cadets had quite a few admirable qualities, but some of them were too easy to see through. He had no idea what they had planned, but based on just a few things he could guess with somewhat decent accuracy.
One of the first things he did when he arrived at the Enlil Lines was learn its entire layout. That naturally included all the areas they would be visiting regularly, but also the areas that he may not have any reason to go to. Knowing the area where he would spend the next few years seemed like the most basic thing to do.
Thus, Nero could tell that they were heading towards the private quarter for the cadets. More specifically, they seemed to be heading towards the female private quarters. During the day, there was no restriction and all areas of the Lines were accessible. It made sense - the cadets across five years would all be doing different things, and while some were in training, there would inevitably be some who had free time during odd hours, or maybe they had special tasks or assignments.
At night, however, regardless of any assignments, certain areas became restricted. The female quarters and barracks became a restricted area for the males, and vice versa. There was no need to use any imagination for why these areas were restricted - it was to prevent any inappropriate behaviour, which is exactly what one would expect when locking hundreds of teenagers together in a single academy.
Now, though, based on the direction they were heading in, and the wide grins on the seniors’ faces, Nero could basically surmise that their goal would be to break into the girls quarters and possibly carry out some embarrassing acts.
Nero looked at the ground underneath, and the trail of footprints he was leaving behind. He wasn’t the only one doing so, due to the additional weights they were wearing, but his were the most prominent.
His focus returned to Ben, who had attracted the most attention from Nero. The way his demeanour changed back in the barracks told Nero that something was definitely up.
"Alright, we’re here," said Roland, stopping just before a series of houses built in rows.
"Listen up cadets. In front of you are the houses for all your senior cadets, starting from second year all the way up until the fifth. Since you’ve been avoiding all the seniors, you’re lacking in developing a proper relationship with them. Now we’ve brought you all here to properly get acquainted with them - isn’t that nice?"
Nero looked from Roland, to Ben, and then the rest of his barrack-mates and resisted the urge to rub his eyes. Was this all really necessary? They were wasting precious minutes of sleep!
"What do we need to do?" Nero asked, interrupting the grand speech. To be honest, being surrounded by twenty seniors put no pressure on him. He didn’t feel forced at all. He was only going along with this to go through the grand tradition of hazing. He didn’t know why KMA allowed it, but he certainly wasn’t going to attempt to change their system on his own time.
All eyes fell onto Nero once more, and his entirely unimpressed expression somewhat dampened the mood for the seniors. A few of them even thought of roughing him up a little, but at the end of the day they were from the same battalion so they let it be.
"Oh someone’s eager to make amends," said Ben with a smile, making sure no one else spoke before him. "All you need to do is take a letter and deliver it to the address written on it. You have to make sure to deliver the letter inside the house, placing it on the table in the seating area. Don’t you worry, we’ve already prepared the letters for you all."
At the same time, one of the senior cadets stepped forward and opened up a bag showing letters. There was no way of knowing what the content of the letters were, and at this point it was useless even if he knew. Since he had gone along this far with this, then he might as well go all the way.
Nero glanced at the others, and after giving them a nod, stepped forward and grabbed a letter from the bag. Roland and Ben were slightly surprised at seeing how cooperative Nero was being. Wasn’t he supposed to be a fierce fighter? Why was he so meek now?
Nero looked at the letter and saw that it was addressed to House No. 42. Finding it should not be much of a problem, though delivering it might be a slight issue.
He stepped out of the circle towards the houses, seeming like he was going to deliver the letters. It was only when he had taken a few steps away from them, and put a small distance between them, that Nero suddenly turned around and looked at the group with a mischievous smile of his own.
"Getting to know other seniors is all well and good," Nero said, his voice both energetic and provocative. "But seniors Roland and Ben, I look forward to getting to know you better as well once I gain the qualifications to issue Crucible challenges to you guys."
Before anyone had a chance to respond to Nero, he rushed forward. With the weights on his body, his speed was naturally slowed so the seniors could catch him if they wanted to, but they didn’t. Since he was running towards the houses, they let him be.
The seniors exchanged glances, unsure of what to make of the situation. Ultimately, their gazes turned towards the remaining cadets.
"Well, what are you all waiting for?" one of the cadets asked forcefully, prompting them to grab their letters as well. Since even Nero had taken the letter, there was no point in trying to avoid it.
One by one they all took their letters and ventured off, looking back once in a while to see that the seniors were still standing there, waiting for them to return.
It was only after the last of the juniors disappeared from view that the seniors began to snicker, unable to hold back their laughter anymore.
"Shut up guys! Let’s quickly get out of here before things get out of hand," said Ben as he did his best to suppress his own laughter. He quickly turned around and began running at full speed, showing no desire to stay and watch the results of their actions unfold.
The others were close behind them as well. If Ben was running like this, they knew it wouldn’t be long before things blew up. After all, everyone knew just how terrifying his intuition was.
None knew the exact details of what his innate ability was or how it affected his intuition. All they knew was that it was special enough that he had been accepted as son-in-law into the Kade family, married to the great-granddaughter of Morphius Kade.
He was not even accepted into the Kade family, instead allowed to retain his origins surname and start a family of his own if he wished. Thus, this cadet without any prominent background, became one of Kolar’s rising stars!
However, very few actually in the public knew about all of this. Most of his batchmates know of this, for it was fairly big news when it happened, and besides that some relevant personnel.
In short, when Ben ran they would run, and when he ran at full speed then they would run as if their lives depended on it. However, even as they ran, they could not help but laugh as they thought of the fate of their poor junior cadets.
Nero knew none of this. The houses that the letters were addressed to had been specifically chosen so that all the cadets would have to go deeper into the housing area and lose sight of the entrance.
The fairly straightforward format of the houses, as well as the identical structures of the buildings, made it pretty easy to locate house no. 42. The houses were all built in an ’L’ shape, divided into three sections. There was the entrance, which then led to the sitting area alongside a small kitchen, and a bedroom alongside a bathroom. The first obstacle would be to enter the house.
Just to be safe, Nero used the Muted Self card on himself to eliminate all sounds he made, and tried to open the door on the off chance that it was unlocked. Surprisingly, the door opened easily, which caused Nero to become even more cautious. This seemed like it had been prearranged.
Silently and slowly, he opened the door and peeked inside the house. A faint yellow light kept the house from descending into complete darkness which is why Nero was able to easily see inside, and discovered nothing amiss.
He knew he could probably turn back now, but he was actually slightly curious as to what his seniors had planned. This might be his last time able to participate in impromptu events like this, since his training would start soon. He wanted to make the most of it.