All the cadets felt as if they had been injected with a shot of adrenaline as they heard the Golden Sages words. The future seemed so promising, so full of adventure and potential, but it was equally dangerous. However, they were not so easily intimidated by danger.
The Golden Sage continued his speech, informing the new cadets about everything that they were going to face, and how the academy was going to prepare them for it.
Once the Sage was done speaking, all the cadets standing on stage were allowed to go back down as a different professor came up, and started to talk about a joint training that was going to be held between KMA and Nova regarding their advanced technology, but that had nothing to do with Nero. Almost all new changes inside the academy affected only the more senior cadets.
The assembly continued for a long time, and a few more cadets received Anchors in the form of rewards for various achievements and accomplishments. By noon, the assembly was completed, and the Golden Sage returned to the stone coffin from which he emerged.
Once he lay back inside it, several of the professors had to work together to return the coffin lid to its original position, indicating just how heavy it was.
The cadets were given the rest of the day off in a rare display of leniency, though even that was strategic. They needed time to absorb the information, and consider their future. While a lot of it was not in their hands, their preferences would always be taken into account.
Nero, however, was not included among these cadets. To be more specific, he was only given two hours to have lunch, rest, and chat with his fellow cadets to share news of what he had been up to, and discuss the details of the assembly.
After that, he had a meeting with Eleanor, his counsellor. Ever since Isabella had started his training, the frequency of his visits with his counsellor, as well as with Dr. Iris had increased. They needed to make sure that nothing went amiss with his mind and body, for the kind of pressure he was under was not normal, especially for someone his age. While he appeared to be handling it well, they needed to be thorough.
While Nero himself had not detected anything, the necessity for such checkups proved itself when Eleanor picked up on something within the first few minutes of the session.
"Can you elaborate on that?" she asked as she scribbled something in her notes. "Focus specifically on your memorisation techniques and habits."
Nero paused, and then nodded.
"It’s nothing special. Owing to the sheer amount of knowledge I’m taught during lessons, I have taken to repeating everything I learn and taking brief but precise notes of key points of each lesson. I was just stating that while last week, spending five to ten minutes on revising each lesson seemed sufficient, this week that time has been slowly increasing.
"However, since I’m on a strict schedule, I don’t usually have enough time between classes to properly and thoroughly memorise everything. I estimate that if I had more time, it would take me around twenty minutes to revise everything properly and sufficiently. But spending twenty minutes per subject would end up taking over two hours of my time."
This was an issue that he had been facing lately. While he was not mentally exhausted from studying so much, he was not able to retain all that he learned as easily as he did in the beginning.
Nero understood that this was a key issue, and being unable to learn the content he was being taught would make taking so many classes moot. He was not taking all these classes just to say that he did it - he wanted to retain all the knowledge given to him to be able to use freely and when required.
Eleanor asked him a few more specific questions before confirming her suspicions, and wrote down her advice for Isabella. She also explained his own situation to Nero, so that he was aware of his limits.
"Although theoretically your mind and body are operating fine, you’re hitting the biological limits of your mind," she explained. "Concentrated study for so many hours throughout the day is, inevitably, not sustainable for humans even after they become Initiates. Arcanists have a higher tolerance, but ultimately even they have certain limits.
"In short, your brain is exhausting itself, and the longer you maintain such an exaggerated schedule without providing it sufficient rest, the worse it’s going to get. In your current situation, there are two possible solutions. The first, more obvious solution is to reduce your work load and allow your brain sufficient rest so that it can recover. The second option is to use certain cards that can enhance your learning and memorisation ability.
"The second solution is merely treating the symptom, not the issue itself, but it <i>can</i> allow you to continue on this way for a while longer. However, make no mistake, this is not a cure, and you <i>cannot</i> continue on this way. Continuing to force yourself may lead to permanent damage, or at the very least long term impairment.
"Currently, you are far from reaching any such outcome, but if you do not make any changes, that is most certainly the direction you’re going to go in. I’ve already written down my advice to Isabella, which is to restrict you to a maximum of fifteen hours of classes during the day, with short breaks every three hours at the very least."
Nero nodded, not attempting to defy expectations or shock anyone. His goal was to become the best, and ignoring his counsellor’s advice would not really be the best way of going about that.
Moreover, he already knew that changes to his routine were inevitable, and for more than one reason. One of the simplest reasons was that he needed to increase his drill time. No matter what, an army was not a one man show, and he needed to participate in drills with others to get used to how they were expected to behave in certain situations.
Another reason he needed to reduce his classes was because the professors could not be dedicated to him alone. After the assembly, they would end up taking on more classes for more senior cadets, limiting their free time in which he could be instructed.
Besides that one issue, he was fine, and showed no other problems. In fact, he seemed to be doing better than normal, which was highly unusual considering the kind of routine he had been maintaining.
That evening, Vilhelm challenged Nero to another fight, and this time managed to get permission for them to use academy provided weapons. There were five referees for the match, to ensure they didn’t accidentally harm each other. There was also a bit of a crowd.
After all, while everyone was curious about how Nero fought with his spear, Vilhelm had his own following, especially since his weapons of choice were a sword and shield.
Compared to a spear, it seemed far safer, actually, not that Nero cared.
In this fight, Vilhelm expected either another draw, or a tough victory for himself. He’d heard of Nero’s prowess with a spear, but he was no pushover either.
That is not how things played out. From start to end, Vilhelm had been on the defensive, unable to contain Nero’s assault. In fact, Vilhelm slightly felt that Nero could have won, but lacked a certain ruthlessness he had come to expect from him. Almost immediately, he linked it to his routine.
That... left him with a bitter taste in his mouth, followed by frustration. He couldn’t believe Nero’s insistence of that ridiculous schedule had come in the way of them having a memorable fight.
The worst part was, Nero himself hadn’t seemed to notice the drop in performance. This was not how he envisioned his rivalry to go. Nero didn’t even have the energy, or perhaps the presence of mind, to be properly dismissive of Vilhelm like he usually was.
While some would think of that as a good thing, Vilhelm did not. One could argue that his inability to win even in such a state made him ineligible to comment on Nero. The argument would fail because Vilhelm didn’t care. Unfortunately, this was not in his hands.
That night, Nero finally got his very own private room within the Enlil lines, and immediately went to sleep, not wasting a second. He had a long day ahead. Meanwhile, Isabella looked at the results of her little experiment.
It seemed that, contrary to what she expected, Nero was not about to quit on his own. That could only mean she would need to change her plan. She never accounted for the fact that Nero could survive for so long like this.
While she was thinking of a solution on her own, some other people were also beginning to take notice of Nero, and feel threatened by his existence.