*Adam POV*
"No."
Ajax refused before I could even finish my sentence.
"Why not? A better weapon will help you as a mercenary right?"
He paused for a moment, there was no denying that.
"There's no point buying a weapon I can't properly use."
Damn this kid was stubborn.
"Who cares? You can use it properly later on and you're getting it for free." I argued.
"Why do you keep offering to help me?" Ajax asked.
"Because you keep refusing help."
'"..."
"You think a few thousand credits is enough to repay you for my life? I know you don't want handouts so I won't push it, but if there's an opportunity to help you, I will."
The only noise was the gentle hum of the mana engine of the car.
I sighed before saying "Well anyway, if you don't want me to buy a weapon for you I won't."
I gave him back the weapon case, as he sealed it and put it to the side.
"So, how have you been for the past few days? Did you try out the combat manuals I gave you?"
"Yes."
"How did you like them?" I asked.
"The dagger training was useful for learning the basics quickly, it helped a lot with my first fight. The other-"
"Wait, what?"
I interrupted him as he was speaking because I had trouble believing what I had heard.
"First fight? Like with a training dummy or practice partner?"
I asked hoping he would say yes.
"Yes." He said after little hesitation.
I wasn't sure if I believed him but signaled him to go on.
"The unarmed combat technique helps with footwork, but I have trouble understanding it sometimes." He said with confusion.
"What do you mean?"
"The striking methods are odd and most of the fighting style focuses on evasion, instead of wearing down the enemy with consistent strikes, it tries to finish the fight with one good strike."
What he was saying made sense, I was surprised he knew so much about it already, but this was the reason I had given him the manual, his agility was incredible from the start but his strength was lacking, just like Edna Kane.
"Hm, so what do you think about it? Do you think it suits you?"
He paused for a moment before saying.
"Yes, it suits my stats, I need more practice before I can say anything else about it."
I nodded that was a good answer.
"Mr. Kane, we've arrived." An elderly voice said from the front of the car.
"Thanks Alfred." I said with a smile as I opened the door for Ajax.
"Alfred will take care of your belongings, let's go."
Despite me saying that he took a small bag with him but I was used to this by now and walked to the academy entrance silently.
"Halt! The show has-" A guard said before one of the others smacked him over the head.
"Idiot! That's Adam Kane!"
The guards' eyes grew wide as he cleared his throat.
"Apologies sir! Right this way!"
I smiled as I waved my hand at the guard to dismiss him, I knew where to go.
The cheers of the crowd and the voice of the announcer got louder as we approached the main campus of the academy.
I looked over at Ajax, he had the same expression as always but his eyes had a hint of awe as he looked around.
'Right.'
I chuckled as I realized that while the academy campus was familiar to me, he was seeing it for the first time.
He looked at the large brick pathways with mana lanterns to the side and the luscious gardens that were surrounding us.
The large structures such as the medieval looking magic tower and the modern dorm buildings seemed to catch his attention.
However, he was most interested in the main building of the academy which was a large palace built in the era of gold.
He tilted his head all the way up as he tried to measure the scale of the building and seemed to be in awe of its size.
I couldn't help but laugh out loud, most people were surprised when they saw it up close, but his reaction was even funnier due to his usual impassiveness.
He looked at me as he heard me laugh before lowering his head in embarrassment as he tried to cover his face.
This only made me laugh louder before I had a souring realization.
He could have studied here, he deserved to but because of his circumstances, he couldn't and I couldn't convince that old bastard to let him study here either.
I sighed as we reached the entrance of the colosseum, there stood two guards who I knew personally and one of them even smiled as I approached.
"Adam! Nice to see you again man."
"Good to see you, Jake." I said with a smile.
"Is it now? Mr. Brilliant Blade here seems too famous to visit his old academy friends." He said teasingly.
"Shut up bastard." I said trying to hit him.
He laughed as he avoided the strike and said pointing to Ajax.
"This the kid?"
I nodded.
"Hey bud, if this guy gets too creepy for you, make sure to let me know I'll handle him."
Ajax nodded awkwardly to which Jake laughed.
After some back and forth, I began heading to the side of the colosseum.
"Shouldn't we take the entrance?" Ajax asked.
"We aren't going to just any regular seat my friend."
I climbed up a heavily guarded staircase and arrived in front of a leather upholstered door with my family's insignia on it.
"We get the best seats in the whole place."
I said as I opened the door to reveal a luxurious interior with polished black marble floors and walls adorned with expensive paintings and air conditioners.
There were plenty of comfortable sofas facing a glass plane that had a perfect view of the center of the coliseum.
There was even food and drinks laid out on tables but Ajax was a bit too young for most of those drinks.
He wordlessly inspected the room, seemingly a bit uncomfortable and put off by how luxurious it seemed.
I didn't know the kids past, but I knew enough about him to know that he thought he didn't belong in a place like this.
"Relax. I invited you here, just calm down and enjoy the facilities, ok?"
His multicolored eyes seemed conflicted, but he nodded slowly as he went towards the clear glass pane overlooking the colosseum.
This sight even I wouldn't get used to, a large circular theatre with a massive square stage where performances would take place.
The amount of people in the place was unbelievable, a sea of them sat on the thousands of rows as the colosseum had reached capacity.
There must have been at least a million people present all here to commemorate the beginning of the career of multiple heroes.
I felt pride surge as my sister was one of the people starting her journey today, and I was certain she would be just as strong as me, if not stronger.
"I have been at this institution for well over 100 years of my life now, and I am always delighted to see the support that our community provides to these courageous young men and women."
A man in traditional wizard robes with long white hair and beard covering his face and blue eyes that seemed to radiate wisdom.
"Especially in light of recent tragedies, I am happy to see that your faith in us remains strong, and we promise to deliver."
The old man continued rambling on.
So, who was this derelict old man?
Merlin, the headmaster of the academy and the strongest non corrupt mage in the entire world.
One of the only beings to reach the A tier as an awakened and also a founder of the academy.
Usually someone like him would be dead being over 350 years old, but his magic granted him some form of immortality.
He was also someone who I had a lot of personal feuds with.
He always dismissed the opinion of those he didn't agree with simply because he believed that his wisdom was infallible.
He was wrong, being so isolated in his old-fashioned ways he fails to see the modern developments of the world.
However, no one had the strength to disagree with him.
He continued rambling, putting most of the crowd to sleep with his unnecessarily long speech.
This is why I always came late to the festival despite how rude it may seem.
Looking over Ajax seemed to be having trouble staying awake as his eyes were on the verge of closing.
I laughed at the sight, he looked like a student trying to stay awake in a boring lecture but then I realized just how tired he looked.
He was hiding it before, but his movements were sluggish, and his eyes seemed dull.
Usually, he was quite alert, so I found this pretty odd and used mana to reinforce my eyes as I looked at him.
'.!'
His mana circuits were completely fried, and the flow was sluggish, as the body tried its best to recover.
'No doubt about it, he's had a mana overload and recently too.'
There's something he wasn't telling me.
In fact, now that I had my perception focused on him, I realized that my battle instincts were far more wary of him than before.
His battle strength had skyrocketed!
He seemingly noticed my gaze as he looked over at me confused.
That's odd as well a G rank shouldn't have been able to notice.
"Ajax, what have you really been doing the past few days?"
His expression changed from one of lethargy to one of guilt.
He looked like a child who had been caught in a lie by his parents.
"That's enough from me, it's time to welcome onto stage the young men and women we're all really here for."
The headmasters voice rang through the room as Ajax looked back down on stage.
I sighed as I looked down as well, if he doesn't want to tell me, he doesn't have to, but I'll have to advise him about not taking it too far afterwards.
'Really, he's too much.'