Chapter 376 - 27 - 31

Chapter 27

Final Preparations

"Thanks brother. Just let him work as your personal assistant and teach him some swordsmanship whenever you're free. While that kid is wild and stubborn, he's not that bad and gives it his best when he works. I'll feel more assured if he's by your side and not causing me any more worry," said Els with a face filled with gratitude.

Lorist waved his hand and said, "Hehe, no worries. It's not like we're strangers. Not to mention, I have just moved into the Gold ranked instructor residential area recently. Given the size of my new home, I could really use some extra help. It's thanks to you I won't have to hire anyone else."

"Oh, I feel like I'm forgetting something else..." Having thanked Lorist for agreeing to take that kid in, Els seemed like he was trying hard to recall something else.

"Hmm... When I was walking past here with Jindoz, Uncle Girald told me that you've returned. That's when I decided to come over. What did Jindoz say when he heard about your coming back? I think it was about brother Laude... The next district... Representative Wombart... Could it be about that perverted old freak!? Ah! I finally remember!" exclaimed Els.

"Hehe, my dear brother Locke, did you bring the goods I asked for back from your Relic Islands expedition?" said Els with a wide grin as he stretched out both his hands.

"Oh, you mean the Terrence-donkey Whip? I went through great lengths to get that for you... But that uncle of yours confiscated it. He said that you often neglect your training and play with women all day long and was quite pissed that you even dared to attempt to consume aphrodisiac... That's why he took that with him and asked you to go get it from him yourself," said Lorist as he repeated what Charlando had said to him.

"What? My uncle has the goods?" said Els as he started in shock. "Nonsense! My sexual prowess is still robust and well! That meddling old man... Causing trouble for me all the time... I actually got that for that lewd old man Representative Wombart! Now that the other two districts' boss, Isidor, is retiring, I have negotiated with him to take over the management of the districts. I only need to satisfy the council representatives' regulations to get things going."

Seeing Els freak out like that, Lorist laughed for a while and continued, "Sigh, Els... Didn't the city management set a rule that one syndicate cannot be in charge of more than three districts? You already have three under your wing, now you're thinking of taking up another two? Why would the city council agree to that?"

"This was all Jindoz's idea. He suggested that we have brother Laude take action and have half of our crew and Isidor's crew to form another syndicate to manage the extra districts. On the surface, it will be managed by two different syndicates. However, it will actually operate as one," explained Els all in one go. "That Wombart fellow is really hard to handle... Even though I've given him a hundred gold coins, he still won't promise me anything and only said that he'll give it a try. Later, after I heard about the miraculous effects of the Terrence-dokey Whip from one of my subordinates, I asked you to bring one back from the Relic Islands. I had really hoped that after consuming that medicine, Wombart would die after playing around with more women than he can handle."

While Els casually cursed Wombart to death, he naturally didn't mean it literally. If that were to happen, it would only cause more trouble to him and force him to bribe some other council representative instead.

Lorist thought for a bit and came up with an idea. When he purchased the Terrence-donkey Whip from the Relic Islands, he had heard that only a small, thin piece was enough for a man to get it up throughout the whole night. The amount he brought back was enough for 200 such slices. Lorist planned to cut them up into pieces, pack ten or so slices inside nice glass jars and pickle them with some other medicinal wines to make it a premium and expensive looking novelty that would also serve as an excellent as a gift. The most important part was only putting enough of the donkey whip in each jar, unlike Els, who had planned to give the whole thing to Wombart. The whole thing was enough to last a person for three whole years! It would be extremely hard to ask favors from Wombart anymore if his expectations rise from that extravagant gift.

"Wow, why didn't I think of that? I didn't know that you're quite the schemer yourself," said Els happily. Lorist's suggestion opened up a whole window of opportunity for him. He instantly came up with an even grander plan, "Maybe we can start a whole business out of this... Next time, we'll send people to the Relic Islands to buy up all of these Terrence-donkey Whips, even if they're at three times market price, slice them up, and package them nicely before selling it out! It would definitely be a money-making business. Only, procuring glass jars would be a little troublesome."

Lorist nodded at Els's concern. Only two kinds of glass could be found on the Grindia Continent. The first type was green glass: it was a murky green-colored glass that doesn't have good transparency and was commonly used for making windows due to its low price point. The other type, oil glass, was far clearer and transparent and was usually picked to make glassware such as wine glasses and bowls. Though, the price of that material was far more expensive in comparison.

These two types of glass were products produced only by the Forde Trade Union's southern neighbor, the Teribo Kingdom, because the material required to make the glass could only be found at the largest quartz mountain within the kingdom. The production method of either glass was a national secret and was tightly guarded to prevent leakage. According to the legends, back in the magic civilization, the magi used their mystical powers to produce glass which far exceeds glass today in terms of quality. It was a shame that the techniques used in the past had vanished in the end days of the civilization.

One magus, however, had managed to devise a method to produce green glass and oil glass without magical formations and passed the secrets of its creation to his descendants. When the Teribo Kingdom was formed, the descendants of the magus gave the production method to the king and had their family status elevated to that of a duke's. The Teribo Kingdom had been exporting their glass products to the rest of the continent ever since.

After inspecting the two types of glass, Lorist thought that the reason green glass had such a high opacity was due to the impurities that were not removed during the production process. Why then, had the glass production techniques of green glass not improved over the years to get rid of that problem? The fact that the quality of green glass had remained unchanging all these years was an intriguing mystery.

As for oil glass, it was something that Lorist had never seen before even in his past life. It looked a lot like the common, clear glass in his previous world, but it had a 'slippery' quality that caused nothing to be able to stick on it. It was said that the 'slipperiness' of the glass made it the ideal material to make laboratory apparatus for the magi given that it was easy to wash and clean. The see through quality of the glass also made it easy for the magi to observe the changes going on within the apparatus.

In one of the experiments Lorist did, he tried to coat an oil glass test tube with a strong adhesive. After it dried up, he picked the test tube up and gave it a light shake or two. It only took a while before the dried adhesive fell off the test tube like crumpled old paper.

This peculiar quality also caused Lorist quite a headache when he was deliberating between the two types of glass to use for the windows of the boutique. Green glass couldn't display their clothes with their full glory while oil glass couldn't be easily made into flat sheets. Lorist only managed to solve the problem by asking a few craftsmen to carve up a piece of large crystal into a flat sheet to be used as the window and used the crystal shards as decorations for the chandeliers inside the shop, spending more than ten gold coins in the process.

"Currently, oil glass test tubes usually cost around one large silver each while oil glass tea sets can go up to one gold coin per set. Maybe you can go ask someone to make a jar prototype and ask for a price quotation from the producers in the Teribo Kingdom? As long as it's lower than 1 gold coin each, it will be fine. You can just consider that part of the production cost. In marketing, the most important part is the packaging. As long as it looks expensive, people will be willing to pay a high price for it," said Lorist.

"Hm, now that you said it, it does seem like it will sell well. Alright, I'll be heading straight to the inn just in case that old guy uses up that medicine!" Els said impatiently and prepared to rush over to the inn to demand that item from Charlando.

Lorist laughed as he called out, "Come on, Charlando won't need something like that! While he may be quite harsh on you at times, he's actually looking out for you in his own way. Oh, and don't forget to hand 18 gold coins over to him when you take it. I'll get it from him later."

"Oh, there's one thing that you might have not heard about yet. Last month, that old uncle of mine actually proposed to Louise, and she agreed! In another two months, she'll be the female owner of the Red Grace Inn. To think that 60 year old man would decide to settle down, the fact that Louise agreed despite their age difference was surprising too. That's why I was so worried about leaving the aphrodisiac with him!" exposed Els.

"Is that true?" Lorist instantly sat straight.

"Of course. Everyone already knows since a month ago. Maybe they just forgot to bring it up while you were there," said Els.

Lorist sincerely felt happy for Louise when he heard that she was going to settle down. While Charlando was already rather old, he was a pretty good man who was still in decent physical shape given his abilities as a Gold ranked swordsman. Maybe Els would have another younger cousin brother or sister in the years to come.

"It seems that I'll have to go look for a congratulatory gift for the two of them," muttered Lorist.

"There's no rush, the ceremony's in another two months. Help me pick one out for them too. I'm too busy to be bothered with stuff like that," Els said. "I'm going to the inn now. Will you be tagging along?"

"Nope, I'll spend one last night in this room. Do send 2 coachmen here tomorrow to help me move my stuff back to the academy and get that kid who wants to learn swordsmanship to come along too."

"Alright, I'll take my leave now then." Els slipped into the shadows silently and the room returned to its former tranquility, as if no one else other than Lorist had been here all along.

...

The sky slowly brightened as the city dwellers woke from their slumber one by one. The streets slowly filled with people and horses as Morante City started the day with renewed vigor.

Lorist slept on the table throughout the night. He let out a smile after seeing the moonlight recede from the room as the twin moons disappeared in the sky whilst the bright morning rays shone through the horizon.

It was a new day for a fresh start.

The voice of servants talking could be heard downstairs. After a while, a knock resounded on Lorist's door.

Lina came in with another female servant. The two of them served Lorist a large helping of breakfast just like they did for the past three years.

Lina seemed like she cried for the whole night given her puffy eyes.

The other servant exited the room and left Lina and Lorist in the room together.

Lorist looked at those puffy eyes and resisted the urge to laugh. "Why didn't you rub your eyes with some eggs? It helps with the puffiness."

"I'm alright. I was just too busy that I forgot," said Lina as she turned away, not wanting Lorist to look at her face.

"Sigh..." Lorist stood up, went to his bookshelf and took out a thick book that was wrapped in a dust jacket. The book was titled 'The Fantastical Adventures of Knight Mingorak'. It seemed to be a fictional adventure tale.

Placing the book on the table in front of Lina, Lorist said, "Here, it's for you."

Seeing Lina's confused expression, Lorist explained as he laughed, "I know that you don't like to read novels like these just like your mistress. Just open the book up and you'll be surprised."

Carefully prying the book open, Lina clasped her mouth in surprise. Within it was pages and pages filled with designs for women's clothing.

"All of these were drawn by me during the past year. The mistress wanted to put all of these to production, but she was stopped by me. That's because if all of them were to be released to the market at once, it would cause lots of confusion and we'll lose the ability to control the fashion trends, which will ultimately lead to a decrease in profit. That's why for the past few years, I only allowed a little over than a hundred designs to be released, some of which that had undergone the creative changes that you lot have made. Within this book is 300 or so designs which haven't seen the light of day yet. I'm giving them to you, Lina."

"Does... does the mistress know about this?" said Lina as she hugged the book in her chest as if she was afraid that it would be taken from her.

"She knows, but she'll never expect that I've drawn so many. Do you see the mess in the room? That was all created by the mistress when she tried to search for the designs while I was away. Little did she know that they were hidden on the bookshelf, right under her nose. She didn't ask me for them last night though... Maybe she thinks that I still hate her," said Lorist with a hint of bitter pain as he let out a light laugh.

"What I will tell you later should not be made known to anyone aside from your father. Do you understand?" said Lorist as he looked deeply into Lina's eyes.

"I... I swear..." said Lina as she stuttered.

"Tell your father, Knight Somm, that I think that depending on the Lorf house is not a wise move. The mistress was willing to marry into the house because she thought they would be able to protect the Windsor house. If the Lorf house's intention is to take advantage of the Windsor house, however, then there will be nothing else for the Windsor house to rely on. This was especially the case given how your mistress sold away the businesses she had in Morante City. At this point, we can only hope that the Lorf Marquis truly loves her and doesn't have any hidden agendas.

"Your mistress told me yesterday that the marquis had a method of taking over the dominions of the four houses that were the enemies of the Windsors and would give the them half of the dominion that they have obtained. If that succeeds, then you might even become a noble yourself one day. Tell your father that he can agree to cooperate with the Lorf house on everything but these two factors.

"First, never let the 11-year-old Windsor young master accept knight education and training from the Lorf house just in case they plan to harm him under the pretense of an accident. Always let the young master be by your father's side and send him to Morante City for his studies when he matures. Second, when the young master grows up, the Lorf house might suggest a political marriage between the two families. To prevent that from happening, tell your father to prepare a suitable partner for the young master early on so that the Lorf house can't take advantage of that.

"The last thing is about you, Lina. Don't let anyone know that I've given you those designs, not even Suzy or the young mistress. This time, the young mistress plans to restart her business in the Jigda Kingdom with the aid of the Lorf house. I'm worried that they are targeting the young mistress's apparel business as well. Should that happen one day, these designs will help you and her start over from scratch. I'm afraid that you'll be in danger if word about you having the designs get out. That's why, don't tell anyone else, alright?"

Lina nodded fervently with her face flushed red as tears welled up in her eyes.

"If the Lorf house truly doesn't have any bad intentions towards the Windsors, then you can give the young mistress one or two designs once a month and tell her that you drew them yourself. It's okay. I've seen how talented you can be when you made the creative alterations here and there. When designing something, the most important thing is to have originality and individuality. As long as you can make your name as a talented fashion designer, it wouldn't be suspicious for you to release more of the designs gradually in the future."

Looking outside the window, Lorist said, "Oh, the horse carts are already here. It's time I bid you goodbye. Did you understand what I said just now?"

"Yes, I have, master Locke. I will do as you say."

Selling Books And Requesting Help

The three horse carts quickly arrived at the Dawn Academy Gold ranked instructor residential area. Lorist stood waiting at the gate of house no. 35. It seems that Kelly has awoken and already started cleaning the place up. I better not give her any extra trouble. Lorist instructed the three coachmen to move the books and some other stuff to the stables in the yard.

Giving each coachman three small silvers and thanking them before they left, Lorist looked at the two stables stacked full with books and laughed. It seemed that he would have to spend quite some time to organize all that. Lorist has been using a lot of the money he earned from mercenary missions to purchase books. Before he noticed, his collection had already numbered more than a thousand and was enough for him to start his own mini library.

However, these books were unlike those that were published on a large scale in his previous life. There was no such thing as paper in Grindia and any kind of reading material was made with sheepskin or some other kind of beast skin while the contents were almost always copied by hand. That's why the prices of books were rather rare in the market and often quite expensive. For example, each of the volumes of "The War of the Gods" trilogy that he had collected weighed more than 2.5 kg. He had spent his hard-earned 3 gold coins to purchase them as he really wanted to understand more about the magic civilization.

There was a small study on the second floor of his new house, but the room wasn't as big as the one at Wenna's place. Lorist sorted his book into several categories: history, geography, culture, and general knowledge, which he would later move into the room. The remaining ones about legends, fiction and poems would be placed at the two big bookshelves in the lounge. He made a mental note to pay more attention to the books he would buy in the future. It wasn't uncommon for merchants to give the same book a new title and cover and resell it as another book. Lorist himself had fallen for this trick before a number of times in the past and only found out when he read the book at home.

Having greeted Kelly, who was busy cleaning up the furniture, he carried the books up to the second floor. Just as he was about to enter the study, he saw the door to his bedroom ajar with a fatty laying on his bed fast asleep.

Sol, that fatty had already beaten me to my new bed… Having been given a kick by Lorist, Charade drowsily got up and said, "What's wrong with you, Locke? Why would you kick me awake?"

Lorist said, "You should know best. What are you doing sleeping in my room during the day? Don't you have more important matters to handle at the Enforcement Division?"

Charade only just noticed that he had been sleeping on Lorist's brand new bed and chuckled. "Even I would be worn out, you know? These days affairs of the academy has left me so busy that I just couldn't resist trying out your new bed here. Little did I know I would fall asleep just like that."

"What business do you have with me?" asked Lorist.

"Sigh, what else could it be but the matter about the Swordsmanship Society? Brother, you really have to help me out here. The Enforcement Division has been so busy that two of its members even fell asleep in the middle of patrolling the academy yesterday! At first, we thought it was some kind of enemy attack until we noticed that they were only asleep… Surely from that you can see how tired I am, can't you?"

"What about the society? How can I help with that?"

"Siiigh…" Charade took out a deep breath and said, "Brother, don't tell me you forgot about the plan that you have devised yourself. Just before you left for the Relic Islands, I gave it my all and finally convinced the higher-ups of the academy to permit the formation of the Swordsmanship Society, and that the Enforcement Division would be allowed to use the elites in the society as backup members in case we need more help. I'm super short on staff right now, so why haven't you settled the matters of the society and quickly send someone over to help?"

Oh, I did say something like that. Scratching his head apologetically, Lorist recalled the scene when he drank with Charade when he complained about how the stingy academy higher-ups were, unwilling to assign more staff to the Enforcement Division that only numbered a measly number of 80 and was in charge of managing the discipline of the student body as well as patrol the academy grounds.

Citing the number of students in the academy to be more than 5000 people, Charade said that his division didn't even have one-fiftieth the number of people of the student body and stressed that if he did not have enough members in a time of urgency, then all hell would break lose.

Lorist had rebuked Charade for not being aware of the happenings in the academy. He mentioned that there was a group of students who wanted to form a society that researched sword techniques, but the formation of the society was rejected out of consideration that a training venue, club funds as well as support for unexpected situations would need to be provided. The students stirred up quite some trouble and it was rumored that they were gathering quite a lot of support. There was a policy in the academy that stated if there was a demand for a society to be formed from more than one-tenth of the student body, the academy administration must agree to give their cooperation.

Lorist suggested Charade to go negotiate with the academy. Since the society was going to be formed either way given the growth of the numbers of prospective members, why don't the academy administration strike first and make the Swordsmanship Society a subordinate organization of the Enforcement Division? This way, it would solve the problem of the lack of staff members for the Enforcement Division.

Charade was elated and praised Lorist for his wit for thinking up such a scheme in almost no time and started working on that plan just as Lorist left for the Relic Islands.

However, Lorist could never have expected that Charade would really get the administration's approval with the plan that he himself had thought up on a whim. To appease the administration, Charade had to change something — the selection of the society chairman was entirely at the academy's discretion — which essentially handed the management of the society to the administration. Nonetheless, the chairman also had to be someone with the necessary skills to be recognized and accepted by the members of the society itself. Charade brought the train of thought to its logical conclusion and nominated Lorist to be the chairman.

Wait, I am the chairman?! Lorist just recalled Academy Head Levins saying something about drafting out the regulations of the Swordsmanship Society at the meeting yesterday. Sol, are they trying to work me to death…

Lorist waved his hands and said, "Fatty, it isn't that I don't want to help you. It's that I have just recently got back from the trip and had to move my stuff over here from the young mistress's house. That's why I didn't have any time for the matters of the society. Additionally, I would need another few days to settle in and finish moving and focus on the dueling that is to come within the near future! I hardly have any free time! Why don't you just delay that for a bit…"

Charade was almost at the point of tears, "Locke, you can't do this to me… You're essentially burning me on a stake here! In a few days, I would look so barely human that you might mistake me for a zombie… That is especially with the case after we posted the duel notices all over the place. The incidents in the academy has risen so much and further added to my burden. The members of the Enforcement Division are already slaving away like dogs. You can't just ignore us and let us be!"

"You reap what you sow. Who asked you to push the position of the chairman onto me? Also, weren't you the one who was so enthusiastically putting up those notices all over the place? You really deserve nothing short of a death from overworking."

Having heard that, Charade came to a realization that he himself was the one who was responsible for Lorist's troubles and tried to butter him up. "Oh, okay… It's all my fault. I didn't think that you would be overwhelmed like this. But you still have to understand my woes. If you don't become the chairman, then there's no way the administration will allow the society to be formed! The students wouldn't be satisfied with anyone else as the chairman either! Only you can help our Enforcement Division solve our staffing crisis! As for the notices, you really can't blame me for that. It's all that old fox's fault. If he were serious, he could easily grasp my weaknesses and make me suffer for them! As much as I'd like to spare you trouble, it really is beyond me…"

Lorist said, "Don't give me that crying look. Sigh, let me think…"

Charade's expression instantly changed. "Okay. Take your time to think up something that'll get me out of this mess." As he said that, he took out a book and used it to fan Lorist. "Tell me if you ever need anything. If you need someone to help, I'll send some over to you. If you need money… Even I can't help you with that."

Lorist mulled for a while before saying, "How about this, let's get Terman to help out. He's a loyal and helpful friend who has a clear head. I shall appoint him as the vice-chairman of the society and assign the management tasks to him. Note this down. Let Terman form a committee for the Swordsmanship Society and get Yuriy and Steve to join it, followed by another three committee members of your choice. And isn't there seven student leaders among the student body? Get them to join the committee as well and ask them to pick another 3 members. Including Terman and I, we would have a total of 17 committee members.

"Tell them that I will be the one to pick the committee members for this term and say that they will be allowed to nominate their own candidates three years later and let 12 with the most votes ones take over the positions at the committee. The Enforcement Division also gets to pick three people for the position of a committee member who will manage the events and activities of the society as well as the patrols and other tasks. After notifying the members I've appointed, get them to come up with a set of standards and regulations the society will operate by and don't let them out of the discussion room until they have this settled.

"Other than that, tell Terman that he only has to oversee the proceedings and don't have to engage in the discussion. Let the other 15 committee members discuss among themselves. You can make your demands known to your nominees so that they can fight for them in your interests. When they come up with a draft, tell them that each of the members have to suggest five elite students and fifty of them will be selected to become the reserve members of the Enforcement Division.

"Also, since the Swordsmanship Society's authority is technically in the hands of the academy administration, the academy has the obligation to provide funds, helpers, as well as allowance to make up for the members' time and effort. The chairman, vice-chairman as well as the 15 committee members should each get a remuneration of 3 gold coins for their service. The main office for the society would also need twelve people manning it. Pick the staff from the members of the Swordsmanship Society and give them a monthly salary of one gold coin each. It would probably cost around 10 gold coins to run the society per month, and get the vice-chairman to be the person in charge. Don't forget to pay the reserve members of the Enforcement Division one gold coin per month as well for their services. The rest of the bonuses will be given according to individual contribution and performance.

"Additionally, every probationary member of the Swordsmanship Society have to pay a small silver for the membership fee every month while full-fledged members have to pay one large silver. The elite members don't have to pay any fee. Probationary members will be allowed to spar when swordsmanship lessons are in session as well as participate in other affiliated activities. Official members can join the parties lead by elite members to participate in mercenary missions and other adventurer activity and half of the reward must be handed to the society. These funds will be used to run the society and its events as well as award outstanding members every year.

"Well, that's basically it. Let me reiterate, first get some people to join the committee and have them discuss the regulations of the society. Don't forget to ask them to bring up the suggestions I mentioned earlier and let me see the draft for the regulations before submitting it. I'm sure you'll have 50 reserve members by the time you finish all that within the day," concluded Lorist.

"Tsktsk," Charade clicked his tongue as he looked at the notes he had taken on the sheepskin in his hand. "Locke, you really are quite something to be able to think up such a complete plan within such a short time. I didn't even know where to start after brainstorming for three days. I'll do all that according to your instructions."

Lorist asked, "What's the schedule for my duels like?"

"It's not finalized yet. Currently, it is suggested for one dueling day to be held every two days and have each academy send twenty Silver ranked instructors during those days from the next month. We'll let them decide which academy gets to challenge first. If there are some Silver ranked instructors that weren't picked to represent the academy, they may come to challenge you on the non-dueling days, which is when we will open the challenge to any Silver ranked combatant. We're still waiting for the academies' reply," explained Charade.

"Sol, that means I won't have any rest days at all! Do you take me to be a machine?!" complained Lorist.

"About that… Haha, Brother Locke, this house is great, isn't it? The scenery is so beautiful around here. I'm so envious, Gold ranked instructors are really treated pretty well," said Charade.

"You're envious? Work that fat off your body and train hard for two years and break through to the Gold rank. Then, you will get your very own house like this one," reprimanded Lorist.

The fatty merely kept quiet and thought to himself, so much talk even though you're just an Iron rank… It doesn't make sense!

As the two of them went downstairs, Lorist said, "Els might pay you a visit in a day or two."

"What business does he have with me?"

"He wants to make a haul off the duels and said that you'll get a 10% cut off the earnings." Lorist subsequently explained the details of the plan Els suggested.

"That's great! I'm definitely up for it. I've already had enough of letting that old bastard profit from all our hard work. Needless to say, I will make sure Els's operation will run without any issues." Charade's eyes instantly brightened when it came to earning money.

Just when they were about to leave the house, Charade suddenly said, "It's okay, Brother Locke. You don't have to escort me out, I'll take my leave myself.."

Lorist retorted, "Who's escorting you out? I'm going outside to move the books that are still in the stable!"

Charade's interest was roused and he followed Lorist to the wooden shed. Seeing the mountain of books on the ground, he said, "Locke, why did you spend so much money on all these books? Why don't you start a book-renting service in the academy? I'm sure you'll earn quite a bit of cash from that."

Lorist shook his head and said, "I won't be renting out my books out just to have them ruined when they're returned to me. These books are part of my precious collection."

Charade looked downcast and said, "That's such a shame… All these books… Why don't you lend some of them to me?"

"I'm not lending them out either, especially to people who don't return things they borrow," said Lorist.

"Then surely you can sell me a couple, right?" Charade was quite pissed as Lorist wasn't even willing to give him some face over a few books.

"Do you have the time to read them?" Lorist looked at Charade with a suspicious gaze.

Charade's face reddened with frustration. "Can't I at least use them as pillows even if I don't read them?"

"Alright, just pick any you like from that pile."

Lorist pointed at the pile of books that were extra copies he had mistakenly purchased.

Having taken his time to pick out several books, Charade finally selected seven of them and said, "How much for these?"

"Why do I feel like you're not buying them to read but for some other purpose?" questioned Lorist.

"Well, the bookshelf in my office is pretty empty, so it helps to have a few books up there to show how much of a cultured and learned person I am." Charade revealed his true intentions frankly without a shred of embarrassment.

Shaking his head in abandon, Lorist looked at those books and came up with a fair price. "It'll be three gold coins and eight large silvers, no negotiation. I'm already selling these at a loss."

Charade understood that the price was indeed pretty reasonable, as it would normally cost seven gold coins in the market for the books he had picked. "Alright, that price will do."

Stretching his hand into his pouch for quite some time, Charade placed eight large silvers in Lorist's hand. "Alright, I've already paid you eight coins out of eleven. I'm sure you won't be so desperate to ask me to pay the remaining three. See you, brother."

Charade quickly ran off with the stack of books in his arms.

Lorist only stared with a dumbfounded face…

Settling Bills at The Inn

It was dawn and Lorist was training with his upper body bared at the yard. At the moment, he was practicing one of the core foundational teachings of the Aquametal Technique, the 18 Stances of the Savage Tiger. While the name sounded pretty traditional and awkward, it was a set of highly fatal unarmed fighting moves. While learning the basics was easy, actually training in the moves were hard. The style attempted to condense the essence of a tiger's movements into 18 stances, such as when a tiger descends from the mountains, stalks its prey, engages in combat and goes in for the kill.

Aside from that, the Aquaheart School's other two core basics were the 18 Stances of the Aquametal Sword and the 18 Moves of Wave-walking. The former was a set of 18 foundational sword movements while the latter was a set of movement techniques that enhanced one's footwork that emphasized on the coordination of one's perception, mind and body.

According to his grandfather in his past life, the Aquametal School originated from the Five Phases School of the dynasty of the Southern Song. One of their ancestors had found the teachings of the school to be overly complicated and had created a new set of simplified techniques with its main inspiration from the water and metal phases, thus forming the new Aquametal School. The principle behind the teachings of the Aquametal School was for the practitioner to be sharp as a metal blade, have unbeatable force, as well as be unstoppable and incessant as the flow of water. It remained that way until the post-revolutionary era in China during the 1910s, when firearms and cannons were starting to gain popularity in the country, when the elders of the Aquametal School decided to invert those principles and made the style an art that was as sturdy as a mountain that even lightning couldn't faze and strike explosively like the force of the waterfall.

Engrossed in his training, Lorist repeatedly executed the 18 forms in sequence for three times to the point when his body was almost letting out steam before he returned to a neutral position to wipe off his sweat. Training in the martial art really served as a great warm up activity in the morning; his skin was flushed red with the improved circulation while his bones clacked and loosened as he prepared to go wash himself up.

A sound rang out from the backyard door. Lorist turned to look and saw Els clapping away as he walked closer.

"Why have you come?" Lorist asked while he looked around to see if anyone else came along with him.

Els knew why he had turned his head around to look like that and said grumpily, "That damned kid didn't want to come along. After hearing that you were only an Iron rank, he said that he wasn't willing to learn swordsmanship from you. He even bragged that he would be able to beat you down when he gets to the Iron rank himself within two years. That little rascal really doesn't what's good for him…"

"Hehe," laughed Lorist. He, on the other hand, didn't care about how the others saw him. He had only accepted Els's request to take on a disciple because he owed Els a favor. In actuality, he was delighted that the other party had saved him quite some trouble.

"This new place of yours is pretty nice, if only a little too quiet. Why don't I send two serving girls here to attend to you? They can take care of the house during the day and warm your bed during the night. I'll definitely make sure they serve you however you want! Don't worry, they'll definitely be beauties, I assure you," said Els as he walked around the lounge, checking out Lorist's new home.

"Call it off. I need it to be quiet and calm whenever I train in the sword. I can't afford to have two women yapping away at me when I'm preparing for the duels. Don't blame me for losing during the duels when the time comes," said Lorist as he refused Els's offer.

"Then we'll leave this for another day. The duels are your priority now. Oh, what were you training in just now in the yard? I think I saw a magical beast before my eyes for a moment there," asked Els, intrigued.

"Oh, that was a body training method of my family. My ancestors analyzed the ways in which magical beasts fought and came up with a set of movements that mimicked their forms to raise the body's coordination and reaction ability, further increasing the practitioner's skills in unarmed combat."

"Oh," Els stopped asking as he understood that training methods like these were usually hereditary family secrets that could not simply be told to others.

"Do you have anything to do here at the academy this early in the morning?" asked Lorist.

"Sigh, let's not talk about that already… How is it still early? Yesterday, I brought some ale and meat to see the fatty but he put my ale away and brought a barrel of fruit wine that he said he had just brewed. That wine really tasted really strong and thick… With him recommending it to me so enthusiastically, I couldn't exactly let him down and not drink any either, so I downed several cups before I got myself drunk. I woke up this morning with a serious hangover and only managed to properly get rid of the drowsiness after drinking tons of water. Even now I still feel worn out… Charade had already gone out first thing in the morning and left me a memo that asked us to go to the Red Grace Inn later tonight to talk about the betting operation," recalled Els with a hint of frustration.

Lorist tried his best to hold back his laughter as he had heard Charade say that he had discovered a number of berry plants at a corner of the newly-acquired Yellow Ribbon Academy that tasted strong and sour, they were left alone from the preying hands of the students of the academy. However, he was like a man who came upon a treasure chest and picked all of them to try to brew them into alcohol. It's a shame that his brewing skills were poor and the liquor he had produced tasted rather poor; Lorist instantly spat it out upon taking a sip. Who would've expected Els to manage to drink a few cups of it… Lorist really respected him for his gut.

"Well, I originally wanted to invite you to come have a drink with us, but Charade said that you have been quite busy moving your stuff around these two days and wanted to let you rest…" complained Els.

Sol, the reason he didn't invite me was because he was afraid that I'd go collect the rest of the gold coins he owes me! For the past two days, in fear of being asked to pay the rest of the money for the books, Charade had strived to avoid meeting Lorist face to face and had somebody else inform Lorist on certain matters in his place. Lorist decided to go to Charade's office and reclaim the books the day after.

"Oh, and Louise asked me yesterday if you would still want to have the room at the inn reserved for you. And, you better go collect the reward money for the requests you have completed during your expedition to the Relic Islands. She has also collected your clothes from the laundry and has packed them away from you and also asked me to tell you to not forget your promise to her," reminded Els as he recalled his visit to the inn the day before.

Lorist thought for a bit but still couldn't remember what he promised Louise. Turning around, he asked, "A promise? Why don't I remember anything like that? Do you know what it's about?"

"How would I know? You just have to go there to find out. I really can't think of anything else right now, the headache is killing me. Locke, let me sleep on your couch for a bit…" Unable to hold on, Els collapsed on the couch and instantly fell into the embrace of sleep.

...

At night, the Red Grace Inn was filled with a merry atmosphere thanks to all the customers who were gathered there to enjoy a good time and savor delicious meals.

With a large cup of blackcurrant ale in his hand, Lorist sat at the counter and chatted along with old man Charlando.

"Nineteen requests fulfilled with the total reward going up to 139 gold Fordes, 13 large silvers and 4 small silvers. The inn will be collecting a 5% fee of 7 gold Fordes as well as 5 large silvers and 3 small silvers for your expenses and the room rent, which leaves you with 132 gold Fordes, 8 large silvers and 1 small silver. Oh, and, I almost forgot about the 18 gold coins Els owes you for the Terrence Donkey-whip. Will you leave it here on your tab or do you want to collect it right now?"

"I'll just leave it with you for now. Seeing them drinking away so merrily, I might have to pay for their rooms if they're too drunk to go back. Just count the expenses for the night on my tab, lest Els causes more trouble for you by skipping out on the payment," Lorist said as he pointed towards three tables at the corner of the inn where Els and the others from the academy were seated. Charade drank away with abandon after hearing that he wouldn't have to pay a single coin for the night.

"Well, that's okay by me. How's the operation going?" asked Charlando.

"For now, it has been decided that I will be getting a 20% cut with another 10% going to Charade and the others from the academy. Deducting the costs and bribes for the other inn owners and syndicate bosses, Els would gain about 30% of the profit as well. I really hope that I will be able to make quite a bit this time so that I can buy myself some property in the city just in case. Honestly, old Char, you know that I don't have any lofty ambitions or anything. However, I really have no say in this matter as it was all the fault of that old bastard academy head. Who knows how else he would exploit me in the future… I better start saving up and plan to leave the academy. After all, I've already graduated from there long ago. At least, I can make a decent living by collecting rent if I own some real estate in the city…" Lorist sounded like he was a little drunk, given how he had casually talked about the hidden desire in his heart.

"If you really think that staying at the academy is a pain, you might as well get out of there. Locke, given your abilities, you're much better off as a full time mercenary, living freely without being subjected to the whims of others. Just look at the earnings you've got from the trip to the Relic Islands. That alone should amount to more than 60 gold Fordes after deducting your costs. As long as you do something like that once a year, that'll be more than enough. Or, you could always get a few close friends and form a mercenary troupe." Charlando was of the same opinion that the academy was going a little too far by having Lorist fight all those duels without first discussing it with him.

Lorist laughed heartily at how Charlando was still hung up on the notion of reforming his band of mercenaries and unconsciously pushed his hopes onto him. "Hehe, old man, things aren't as simple as they seem. While being a mercenary certainly allowed one to live freely, it wouldn't be an easy life either, having to camp out in the wilds and what not. Plus, it's much riskier to go on such expeditions compared to those that are organized by the academy. Additionally, do you know that I'm a dual Gold ranked instructor at the academy? I get paid 30 gold Fordes a month there while Instructor Klaude, whose salary is the second highest in the academy, only gets 20. I can only force myself to go along with that old bastard's plans given the benefits that I enjoy by being an instructor of the academy. Do you think that I will be so willing to part with a 30-gold-coin monthly salary?"

"The heck! Your annual earnings exceed the yearly profit of my inn! The academy really is spoiling you! It makes me want to get a position at the academy as well," said Charlando as he swore. Before, he was under the impression that 60 gold Fordes was quite a big haul for Lorist. But after hearing about how he could earn that kind of money within two months, it seemed that he wouldn't be so willing to resign from his position at the academy and become a full time mercenary.

"Oh, that's right, I heard that you've proposed to Louise while I was away? I haven't congratulated the two of you yet. I'll definitely get a nice gift for you during the ceremony. Then again, why did you want to settle down all of the sudden? I thought you had resolved to live out the rest of your life single," said Lorist to Charlando.

"Well, it's nothing big. I just suddenly felt that it would be very lonely living out my older years alone. Also, Louise has already been working at the inn for more than ten years… To think that the 18-year-old lass from that time had already turned 28… Given that her parents had already passed away and how she isn't willing to go back to live with her brother's family, she plans to continue working at the inn. It was then when I decided that we might as well get married, so I proposed to her and she accepted right away. Oh, I remember that she said that she said that she had some business with you and is waiting for you at the room you rented upstairs. Go on, it's definitely gonna be something good," said Charlando as he winked at Lorist a few times with a weird expression.

"What the heck is with the look on your face?" Lorist finished the rest of his ale and headed for the stairs.

Then again, old Char doesn't know that this trip to the Relic Islands didn't cost me much either. The beast skins that I brought back wasn't purchased from someone else but was something I had hunted and collected myself. I bet he doesn't know that I can easily handle those high-ranked magical beasts… Hmm, which room was it again? What did Louise need to see me for? I really can't remember… Lorist mulled about these thoughts as he climbed up the stairs and examined the hallway.

It's this one, Lorist thought as he rubbed his face awake before knocking on the door.

Upon entering the room, he discovered that there was another voluptuous young woman in the room apart from Louise.

Seeing Lorist come in, Louise exclaimed joyfully, "Locke, she's the girl from my village that I told you about the other day. Molly here is going to be a serving girl for the inn from today onwards. It's actually her first time so go easy on her, alright?"

Lorist was suddenly struck with realization as he recalled the conversation he had with Louise the other day. It seemed that he didn't reject the offer outright and Louise had taken the silence as a yes. Almost fainting, Lorist thought that it couldn't be helped now that they were this far into it. Otherwise Louise would berate him for being stingy about paying two measly gold coins.

"Um, nice to meet you…" greeted Lorist to the girl with a slighty blushing face. The girl checked Lorist out from top to bottom boldly before smiling and nodding timidly, obviously satisfied at the man who was going to be her first.

Louise clapped her hands and said, "Alright, I won't be bothering you lot now. The bath water is already prepared. Molly, make sure you give Locke a good time and don't forget what you have learned at the shrine. Use all the techniques to please him and he'll reward you for it."

After Louise left, the round-faced Molly graciously invited Lorist to go into the tub as she stripped every article of clothing off him. Just as Lorist was about to enter the bath, she suddenly remembered something and took out a vial from her clothes that contained a mysterious red liquid and drank all of it up.

"What did you just drink?" asked Lorist, curious.

"It's the Elixir of Mishla," replied Molly.

"Oh," answered Lorist, already knowing what that liquid was for.

Mishla, the Goddess of Desire and Pleasure, was the youngest daughter of the Solar War God Singwa and the Bloodmoon Goddess Sufanna who was infamous for her capricious temperament. Legend says that she resided in a haven that was filled with handsome men and beautiful women that lived their lives to the fullest there without any worry or care. It was believed that those who prayed to Mishla would enter that very paradise and gain an eternal life of bliss upon their deaths.

To allow the believers of Mishla to revel in their carnal desires without worry, the goddess herself created an elixir that allowed a woman to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh without getting pregnant. Should a person who has used the elixir wish to give birth once again, a different potion could be purchased from the shrine to restore fertility to one's body three months after consuming it.

However, the Elixir of Mishla didn't have any effect on those who have already given birth before. This potion has helped Mishla gain a large following of believers and profited the goddess's shrine immensely to the point where it became one of the richest shrines on the continent of Grindia.

��Why have you decided to become a serving girl?" asked Lorist, lying on the bed with both his hands supporting his head on the pillow, looking at the girl take the his hardness into the midst of her own soft being.

"Ouch, it hurts…" The girl let out a soft cry as she sat there, stiffened. She started to move after resting for a few moments.

"I…. I want to earn… 20 gold coins to… buy ten acres of farmland… in my village… That will, b-be my dowry…" replied the girl, stammering as she struggled to move. The pain slowly faded and the pleasure soon took over, causing her to let out involuntary cries of gratification.

Lorist also gradually lost himself in the pleasure as he had not touched any other woman ever since the last time he had spent a night with the young mistress approximately one year ago. Having been aroused by the young woman's movements, he got up to push her down and engaged in rough, passionate intercouse…

The morning of the next day, Lorist woke up refreshed and energized and went downstairs to order a hearty serving of breakfast. Having spent much of the night doing that vigorous activity, he was prepared to eat up and recover his stamina. It was then when Charlando brought him yesterday's bil…

Sol… Els, you better watch out… Lorist thought as he grinded his teeth.

After hearing that Lorist would be paying the night before, the gang stopped drinking blackcurrant ale and instead ordered two bottles of fruit wine each!

Sheesh, that fatty really is going too far…

Charade even took a barrel of ale as well as two bottles of fruit wine home with him after breakfast…

It can't be… I'm sure Terman isn't that kind of person…

Lorist couldn't imagine a person like Terman asking to spend a night with two girls after he got a little drunk.

That's it. I'm not covering anybody else's bills anymore…

Battle Force Awakening Course

Lorist took out the Morante Daily News and the Falik Merchant Times from his post box and discovered that there was another letter within in. It was sent to him by the academy to notify him that the yearly Battle Force awakening course was going to begin soon and that he was appointed the head instructor of the course. It also contained the details of the venue and the time the class is held.

Head instructor? What kind of position is that? It's not like I get paid extra for it… I guess it's gonna be roughly the same as the last time when they sent a few other instructors to help me out. Lorist shook his head and didn't take the notice to heart. He went back to his room and looked at the calendar. The next month was coming in several days and the duels were his priority now. Although he was confident in remaining victorious, he couldn't slack off either as he had to make sure his body was in peak condition for the duels.

Tomorrow's the 15th of the 2nd month and there's still twenty days to the 3rd month. I should do my best to tell the other assistant instructors what to do within the next ten days and rest up after that to prepare for the duels, thought Lorist as he looked at the ornate bronze calendar he had on the wall.

When he had just arrived at Grindia, Lorist was quite unaccustomed to the date system of this world. Just like Earth, Grindia had 12 months within a year and every day was 24 hours. The difference was, each year was 423 days long and this had caused Lorist to mess up the dates very often when he was taking his accounting course at the academy, often resulting in him being screamed angrily at by his accounting professor. "Where has the other five days gone? Huh? Were they eaten by your dog?"

The most frustrating part of the date system in Grindia for Lorist was the existence of two different calendars.The first one was said to be used by the fairies tens of thousands of years ago which had 35 days in each month, with a total of 420 days and the other three were festival days that did not have a date. The first festival day was the day between the 35th day of the 12th month and the 1st day of the 1st month and was called the Day of Rest, or, more colloquially known as the 36th day of the 12th month. The second festival day was on the 36th of the 5th month and it was called the Day of Bathing. Everyone on Grindia was obligated to take a bath during that day. The third festival day was the 36th day of the 9th month, the Day of Harvest. These three days were holidays on every part of Grindia.

The elegant and refined fairies naturally didn't use numbers and instead named each month after a flower. In the order from the 1st month to the 12th, they were called respectively the Redbud Month, Camellia Month, Crabapple Month, Lotus Month, Peony Month, Magnolia Month, Jasmine Month, Osmanthus Month, Yucca Month, Hibiscus Month, Chrysanthemum Month, and Plum-Blossom Month.

The idealistic fairies really caused Lorist a lot of pain and suffering; on top of the misaligned number of days, there was the name of all those months to remember! Lorist was particularly vexed with the fact until he came to a realization one day: if the Earth took 365 days to orbit the Sun, then it wouldn't be that weird if Grindia orbited its Sun at 423 days because it had a larger orbital path. From that day onwards, Lorist never got the dates of Grindia wrong again.

The second calendar was the Magi Calendar and it was used by the Magi who regarded accuracy as paragon. All the dates described with the Magi Calendar were cold, hard numbers; that was the case with the months as well. However, it was even more troublesome as each month had a different number of days. For example, the 1st month had 34 days, the 2nd had the fewest: 31 days, the 3rd had 36 days and the month with most days was the 9th month at a count of 39 days.

The humans on Grindia didn't appreciate the romantic ideals of the fairies nor were they as meticulous as the now extinct Magi, therefore it had become convention to fuse the two different systems into one which had twelve numbered months with 35 days each and adding the festival days without a date onto the month it directly came after, making a 36th day for the 5th, 9th and 12th months.

From the memories of the original owner of the body, the day he was exiled from the northern lands was the 21st day of the 6th month. He had arrived at Morante City on the 8th day of the 8th month and enrolled in the academy that day. That whole journey took more than 50 days; his hometown really was quite far from Morante City. On another note, that meant that Lorist had left his hometown for more than ten years and it has been seven years since they last contacted him. I wonder how it is like there nowadays… Maybe I should go there during this holiday season? I think the Blackmud Marsh was near that area and a rare magical beast, the Ironspine Crocodile, lives around there. Its leather fetches a rather good price on the market. Should I form a team of mercenaries under an alias to go there for a visit?

A sudden strong desire to return to his homeland suddenly gripped his heart. Sigh, let's think about that after the 8th day of the 8th month. Having taken over the body, Lorist had inherited the remnant feelings and sentiments left behind by the original owner as well. Oh well, since it has already been ten years, I might as well take a leave from the academy before the holiday season to go back to the north. There should be enough time that way.

Lorist stood in front of the calendar and touched the box that had the date of the 8th day of the 8th month with his finger as he made his decision.

...

"Morning, Instructor Anfya. It's a pleasure to work with you once again. I'm sure that with your help it'll be much easier for me to organize this year's awakening course." The day after, Lorist went to the instructor's office that was situated behind the great hall of the now defunct Yellow Ribbon Academy, which was used as a teaching venue for the Battle Force awakening course, ten minutes early. Upon entering the room. he saw Anfya, who was also known as the academy's most beautiful instructor, correcting a large stack of documents at her table.

Instructor Anfya, aged 37, looked like a person who was only in her mid-twenties because of how well she took care of her body and was heralded to be the goddess of the academy by many of the male students there. Her husband was Instructor Claude, a Gold ranked instructor. Last year, Instructor Anfya had helped Lorist quite a lot as the vice head instructor of the Battle Force awakening course.

"Hey, Locke you twerp… Has your eyes been glued to the beauty over there? You didn't even notice me standing over here."

Lorist raised his head and said with surprise, "Brother Marlin, why are you here?"

Standing in front of Lorist was a large and burly man who lived at house no. 34 of the Gold ranked instructor residential area, Instructor Marlin. Lorist had gone to greet him once before on the day he moved in.

"I'm here too, Instructor Locke. It's a pleasure to meet again," a deep and low voice interjected.

Lorist turned his head to look and hastily returned the greeting, "Good to see you, Senior Hughes. Why have you come here?"

Hughes Pottermick, a Two Star Gold ranked combatant, has already been teaching in the academy for more than 30 years. Being a righteous and open-minded fellow, he was well received by most of the students at the academy.

Instructor Hughes nodded and said, "Instructor Locke, Marlin and I have been assigned by the administration to be the vice instructors of the course this year to assist you. Please don't hesitate to inform me should you require anything done. Instructor Anfya will be the vice head instructor for the course as well."

Lorist suddenly felt something was amiss. Turning back to look at Anfya, he asked, "Can you tell me how many people have enrolled for the course this time around?"

Instructor Anfya let out a bitter smile and pointed at the door, "Over there is a small doorway that's connected to the platform of the great hall. Instructor Locke, feel free to go take a look."

Sol, I've been taken advantage of by the academy head again… Didn't he mention that the applicants have only risen by a small number? This is no small class… It is already a damned assembly!

Seeing the large hall packed full of students who were standing so close to each other because of the lack of space, Lorist understood that the Gold ranked instructors had been sent by the academy to accommodate for the greatly increased number of students.

Lorist rushed back to the office with a face full of sweat before asking with a troubled expression, "How many in total are there?!"

Instructor Anfya held out a stack of documents in her hand and said, "There are 879 people in total. Here's the name list."

Waving around the stack that was the name list, Lorist looked at Hughes and Marlin with a bitter smile. "Isn't the academy going a little too far? In a normal Battle Force awakening course, there would be 40 students at maximum. 879 people can easily be fit into 22 of those classes! If one class required two instructors, we would need at least 44 of them! Even with you guys on board, there's no way that we would be able to handle all the workload ourselves! The academy really is going too far. I think I better just resign."

Marlin and Anfya were both dumbfounded at Lorist's declaration that he would resign. If he really did so and left the Battle Force awakening course to fare for itself, then the reputation of the academy would definitely be ruined. Just as the both of them wanted to try to convince him otherwise, Instructor Hughes took out a document unhurriedly and said, "Instructor Locke, this is what the academy head wanted me to pass to you. It is the contract that you have signed yourself half a year ago. It states that should you cause the academy to incur any loss as a result of going against orders, you will have to reimburse the academy two times the amount. If you retire, you'll have to pay back two times the amount of the money the students here paid, roughly tens of thousands of gold coins…"

Sol, I didn't know that the agreement I signed before going to the Relic Islands would tie me down here! Lorist was infuriated, but Instructor Hughes actually handed the contract to Lorist and said, "The academy head said that the contract that time was just a joke. Here, you can have it back."

Marlin and Anfya were anxious again. What if Lorist ran off with the contract?

Lorist was stunned to receive the agreement. What is the old bastard's intention in handing this to me? Is he going to let me off that easily?

Instructor Hughes took out another sheepskin parchment and said, "This is the name list of all the Silver and Iron ranked instructors. The academy head said that you can select 24 of them to join the instructor team for this Battle Force awakening course. You will be responsible for assigning tasks to them and anyone who does not obey will be sacked by the academy. Also, given that the amount of instructors available in the academy itself is insufficient, you have the authority to choose 24 outstanding students to serve as assistant instructors."

Instructors Marlin and Anfya both secretly clicked their tongues upon hearing that Lorist had been given so much authority. It cannot be understated how much the students want a position as one of the 24 assistant instructors. Even though the payment was only one gold coin a month, it was enough for one to live quite a lavish life. If they perform well and get appointed as official instructors, they will be able to earn three gold coins per month. That was a stable and high paying position for anyone to have.

Given the benefits of being an instructor, it could be said Lorist now held quite an amount of power and the students of the academy who would do anything for the positions would do anything he says.

It seems that the academy head really trusts Instructor Locke, thought Instructor Anfya.

Does the academy head have some sort of family relation with Instructor Locke? Or is he actually the academy head's illegitimate… That was Instructor Marlin's wild guess.

"Now that's much better…" said Lorist, having turned that frown on his face into a bright smile. Taking the name list, he started scribbling and marking it.

"Additionally…" Hughes handed another document over. "Due to the unexpected amount of applicants that has caused you quite some trouble, to make up for it, the academy head has allocated a budget of 150 gold coins for you to distribute to the instructor team as an added bonus. You only have to sign here."

"Hehe…" It was apparent that Lorist was in a rather good mood as he signed the document gleefully. However, he still let out a long sigh, "It really is pretty rare for the academy to be so generous…"

Instructor Anfya whispered, "I know the reason for their generosity. Ever since news got out about Instructor Locke's Battle Force awakening course boasting a 100% success rate several times in a row, the applicants this time around specified that they wanted to enter Locke's class. The academy head said that those who wanted to pick their instructor had to pay double the usual fee. All those students you see in the hall had paid two times the normal fee so that they can get a 100% assurance to awaken their Battle Force."

Ugh… Lorist was really speechless. It's no wonder that the academy head was so generous with the funding given the double fee the students paid. He even let Lorist manage the funding and staffing of the course to make sure he gives it his best to make sure everyone passes! The normal price for this course was 5 gold coins. With 879 students paying 10 gold coins each, the academy had already received an extra 4395 gold coins! With a monthly bonus of 150 gold coins, it would only amount to 900 gold coins after six months when the course ends. The academy would still earn well over 3000 gold coins. Sol, this old bastard really has it all thought out…

Lorist handed the name list back to Instructor Hughes and said, "I've already picked 9 instructors out of the 24. I'll let the three of you pick five as well. As for the assistant instructors, leave 9 slots for me to pick and you guys can choose the rest. Instructor Anfya, please try to select as many female instructors and student instructors as possible for this course as there is a lot of female students this time around. It would be better if we let female instructors be in charge of them.

"As for the bonus, Instructor Marlin, Instructor Hughes and I will each be receiving 5 gold coins, Instructor Anfya and the other managing instructors will be receiving 3, the rest of the academy instructors will get 2 gold coins and the student assistant instructors will get 1 each. The remainder of the bonus will be distributed among everyone after the course ends."

Hughes, Marlin and Anfya were all moved as they did not expect Lorist to relinquish his authority so willingly. Hughes even whispered, "The academy head was right. Instructor Locke really is someone who doesn't have much greed or ambition."

Lorist clapped his hands and continued, "Later, I will go greet the students at the hall and Instructor Anfya will explain the rules and regulations of the course to them. Just like last year, the course will officially start in another 3 days and the students will have to follow a strict diet and sleeping schedule that will be set by us. Those who aren't willing to do so should go to the administration for a refund or they will not be entertained after the course starts.

"For the next two days, Instructor Marlin, please help Instructor Anfya inspect and prepare the training grounds as well as the dorms these students will be living in. Instructor Hughes, I'll let you handle the other members of the instructor team. When the class starts in three days, we will have to inspect the conditions of every one of the students before assigning them to different classes with different regimens. That's it for now. I'll be heading on the stage."

Pulse Reading (1)

"Group 1."

"Group 3."

"Group 4." Lorist looked at a very well dressed noble youth before shaking his head in resignation. That youth's eyes contained no trace of energy and his face looked pale as a ghost. Another spoiled brat… Due to engaging in lustful coital activities, although his body looked youthful and strong, the internal energy of the body had been damaged. Without proper rest and recuperation, there's no way he would be able to awaken his Battle Force. It's no wonder he failed his first Battle Force awakening course.

"Go finish up the procedure. Your body has been greatly damaged, I'm sure you yourself constantly feel a pressing feeling in your chest and sweat lots as well as tire easily when you exert strength. You'll also tire out quickly with only a little exercise and don't have much appetite to eat, right? Do you have nightmares often too?"

"Ah? How did you know?" asked the noble youth with a face full of astonishment. It really was too wondrous. He did not think that the rumors about Instructor Locke being able to understand his body condition by using only three fingers to read his pulse on his wrist! He even knew about the nightmares he was having — something that he had kept even from his own family!

That youth stood up, looked at Lorist with a moved expression and left after respectfully bowing.

"Next."

"Group 1."

"Group 1."

"Group 2."

...

Within the vast hall, there were four tables lined up next to each other in the left corner. Lorist sat at the first table and small pillows could be seen on top of the table. Instructing each student to put their hands on a pillow with their wrist up, Lorist read their pulse one by one. If he put on a white coat, there's no doubt he would look like a doctor giving a diagnosis.

At the three tables beside sat Instructors Anfya, Marlin and Hughes. Lorist often had them reread the pulses of the students whose pulses had been read by him. The three of them tried to mimic the way Lorist did it. Among them, Instructor Anfya looked like she knew what she was doing, Instructor Hughes seemed like he was getting an idea and Instructor Marlin could only scratch his head in confusion.

Behind the four of them were ten or so Silver and Iron ranked instructors. One of the female Iron ranked instructors wrote the names of the students according to their respective groups as decided by Lorist while the others around her looked at the pulse reading instructors with interest and started chatting away. Another ten or so instructors were distributing uniforms and other necessities at the right side of the hall to the students. The 24 other newly-appointed assistant instructors were the busiest. Not only did they have to maintain the order in the hall, they also had to guide the students to their respective dorms according to their groups, often having to respond politely to any questions they have on the way.

The school bell rang and signaled the time for recess. Lorist stood up and stretched himself before saying to the rest of the students, "Alright, that's it for the morning session. We'll start again at 2 in the afternoon. Remember your numbers and don't be late."

The students who were already in queue could only leave with frustration. Some of them even voiced it out, obviously disappointed at having to wait even longer even though their turn was so close.

"How many more are there left, Instructor Grisha?" Lorist asked the female Iron rank instructor who helped register the student names.

"Another 106," she replied.

"Gah, we're finally finishing up. I'm so tired… The schedule later will be a little tighter, we'll have to assign the instructors to manage the different groups as well as decide on the regimens for each group of students." Lorist turned his head and asked Anfya, Marlin and Hughes, "What about you three? Have you learned anything today?"

"I really can't tell. I don't feel anything when I touch their wrist," said Instructor Marlin.

"That noble youth's pulse from just now was quite weak and didn't feel stable enough. The other students who were assigned to Group 1's pulses were much stronger in comparison and could be clearly felt. Even though that noble youth looked quite well built and healthy, his pulse was hard to feel and I even had to press harder to only detect the slightest pulse," described Instructor Anfya clearly. It seemed that Lorist wasn't wrong about how Anfya was the most adept at pulse reading.

"You are correct. That kid has been fooling around with women since a young age and that has harmed the harmony of his internal energy, causing a disparity between his outer healthy state and his inner weak constitution, which was reflected in the feeling you got from feeling his pulse. The thirty or so students just now were mostly children of noble families and usually had quite a number of problems with their internal state. Many of them have engaged in carnal activities and have detrimental living habits, causing them to have a weak pulse and circulation which will cause them to have a low chance at awakening their Battle Force. That's why, their meals and living habits will have to be strictly planned and monitored," said Lorist as he praised Anfya's appraisal.

"Instructor Locke, I can already feel the minute differences of the students' pulses, but I can't distinguish the small details like Anfya can," said Instructor Hughes.

"Actually, Instructor Hughes, for you to be able to feel that within only three days is already quite an impressive feat. The reason Anfya is so good at it is because I've started teaching her this since the last course. As long as you train hard and feel the pulse with a calm mind, you'll naturally be able to do it better with more experience. This time, the amount of students are rather high so you should try to take the pulses of 100 students each day to try to feel the differences of each one. You can even compare theirs to your own. By the time the course ends, you might even be able to surpass Instructor Anfya in this," said Lorist with a smile.

"As for you guys, try it out if you're interested and ask me if you have any questions. As long as you master pulse reading, then you will be able to easily tell the conditions of the students' bodies and understand when the circulation of the blood is the strongest in each one. Only then can one successfully awaken their Battle Force with a hundred percent. This is the secret to how I managed to successfully help every one of my students awaken their Battle Force," said Lorist towards the Silver and Iron ranked instructors standing nearby.

A few of them were really enthusiastic in trying it out while some others hesitated and didn't bother trying. The failure of Marlin, a Gold ranked instructor, to grasp pulse reading only showed that it wasn't as easy as it seemed.

That year when Lorist was put in charge of his first Battle Force awakening course, there were only 17 students from commoner families. Due to the theory that Battle Force had a higher chance of being awakened if one's magical beast factors in the blood was higher, it was believed that the descendants of nobles, and by extension, the descendants of Sword Saints, had a much higher chance to awaken their Battle Force.

Lorist didn't agree to that theory in the slightest. From his experience in training in the Blazing Battle Force, he understood that its key lay in the circulation of the blood and felt that Battle Force awakening definitely had something to do with it as well. As long as every one tried to awaken their Battle Force at the time when their circulation was at its peak, the chances of succeeding would undoubtedly rise. And, the key to good circulation was a good diet and healthy living habits.

The reason why more noble descendants manage to awaken their Battle Force was probably related to their better living conditions. Given that they had more access to food than other commoners, they naturally had taken in more nutrition than the others, hence boosting the chances of their success. From his observations, Lorist discovered that the reason those noble students who didn't manage to awaken their Battle Force was not the low amount of magical beast factors in their blood but their tendency to live an unhealthy life of debauchery as every one of them were either sex maniacs or alcoholics. This was the main reason Lorist rejected the common theory about Battle Force awakening.

As for the reason why commoner students tended to fail in Battle Force awakening, that was because they had to live frugally and cannot afford to eat sufficient nutritious food on a daily basis, causing their circulation to weaken in the long run. Lorist at that time made a bold hypothesis and used the 17 students in his class as the guinea pigs to test his theories on.

But how would he be able to ascertain the status of the students' circulations? Having been born into a family with a long line of traditional Chinese healers, even though Lorist did not personally receive instruction from his healer grandfather, he still knew about the basic principles of pulse reading. While he couldn't diagnose individual diseases in the body, he could still use it to identify the strength of a person's circulation and he employed this technique on his students.

Just like Lorist predicted, all of the students in his class were malnourished. Lorist thought back to his days at the army. The new recruits he had trained for three months had all transformed from sickly baby-faced fellows into healthy, able-bodied men. However, there was a small problem. How would he be able to provide these students with appropriate nutrition, given that they didn't have sufficient money to buy good food in the first place?

It was then when he decided to let the students work part time to earn the money they needed. While they hadn't awakened their Battle Force, there would be no problem for them to handle simple jobs like sweeping trash, watering flowers, washing clothes etc. Reaching out to the manager of the janitors at the academy, he had the students work under him and collected the money they earned and used it to prepare nutritious meals for them.

The equivalent profession to doctors in Grindia were herbalists, who were highly-skilled in creating herbal recipe combinations to heal various diseases. While most medicines could be created with herbs alone, quite a number required ingredients from magical beasts as well. Even though he was forced to remember all those Chinese herbal recipes in his previous life, he couldn't find those ingredients on Grindia at all. Lorist could only rely on the knowledge he gained from the herbalism and magical beast biology courses he had attended to come up with the appropriate menu for his students.

After three months of arduous physical training and eating well, all 17 commoner students managed to awaken their Battle Force successfully, much to the shock and surprise of the academy. That resulted in Lorist being selected to be the instructor for a Battle Force awakening course once again the next year with a class of 31 students of different ages and family backgrounds who had not been picked by the other instructors. Once again using his pulse reading skills, he tailor made a regimen for each of his students and had all of them successfully awaken their Battle Force within a semester as well.

This time the academy administration was really astonished. They even suspected whether Lorist held some kind of secret technique that could help with Battle Force awakening. That was why on the third year, Lorist's class had up to 59 students with 10 of them being nobles who specifically nominated him, 3 of which had failed once before in Battle Force awakening. The administration had also sent Instructor Anfya to be Lorist's aide and hoped that she would be able to figure out how Lorist was able to be so successful.

The conditions of these 59 students were even worse than those of Lorist's class in the previous year, especially those of noble descent. Half of them had weak constitutions. The three who had failed previously were even worse; they already couldn't take it after running around the school field for two laps. Lorist was quite impressed that they even dared to try to awaken their Battle Force.

Adequate nutrition wasn't enough to heal the bodies of the noble students as the damage was quite severe. Given that the nobles would naturally have quite an amount of money, he collected a fee from each of them and worked together with the herbalist researchers in the academy to put together a concoction made with several types of magical beast blood and some expensive herbs to boost their circulation. The noble students had to consume the concoction on a regular basis along with adequate physical training. Coupled with pulse reading, Lorist had every one of them successfully awaken their Battle Force when their circulation was in peak condition.

Throughout the whole process, Lorist made no attempt to hide the secrets of pulse reading and even generously demonstrated it to Instructor Anfya and enthusiastically explained every single detail of the method to her.

Lorist wasn't expecting Anfya to be able to pick up the art that swiftly either because while pulse reading may look easy, he wouldn't have been able to comprehend it had he not spent several years in his past life helping out and looking at his grandfather perform the technique himself. Even those university students who learned the art in theory or those foreign researchers who had studied the theories couldn't actually put it into practice without actual guidance from a proper master.

Having grown up by the side of his grandfather in his previous life, Lorist only managed to learn but a small part of the complicated technique by observing his grandfather work. He himself didn't dare to claim that he had a good understanding of pulse reading. The following things happened just as he had predicted. The other four instructors, including his good friend Instructor Yuriy who had recently been promoted to a horsemanship instructor for attaining the Silver rank, gave up learning rather quickly.

As for Anfya, she persevered and believed Lorist's words and gradually came to be able to distinguish the more obvious differences in the pulses of the students. It was rumored that she even practiced it on her husband and children so often to the point where they ran away the moment she entered their sights.

Naturally, all the students in Lorist's third Battle Force awakening course had passed as well, resulting in him being awarded the Gold ranked instructor medal for Battle Force awakening. Along with his Gold swordsmanship medal, he became the academy's famed dual Gold ranked instructor.

Having gone to the Relic Islands for the expedition last year, Lorist wasn't able to hold a class at that time. Presently, it was his fourth time as the head Battle Force awakening instructor and his students numbered up to a staggering 879 people, all of whom had specified Lorist to be their instructor for his fame as a Gold ranked Battle Force instructor and were even willing to pay two times the price.