Capítulo 212: Teaching is hard

Melinda reappeared between the buildings of the knight training facility in Emeraldios Empire amongst the general state of emergency and, interestingly enough, in front of a small group of young trainees who shouldn't really be idly waiting there at the time.

"Teacher's back!"

"See?! We told you!"

While the gold-haired girl looked around, trying to figure out whether the chaos had occurred because of her disappearance or some completely unrelated emergency, two of the trainees called out towards the others, moving to Melinda's sides and showing her off like some sort of attraction.

"Thank Perseverance…!"

"Quick! Someone contact His Majesty!"

The commotion began to die down - at least the running around part of it - but it also appeared that the urgency of the calls increased…

"I'm gone for a moment, and you all immediately bothered His Majesty…?"

Melinda raised her brow and asked the youngsters.

"Someone saw you getting grabbed by a large blue-haired man, and we decided to tell His Majesty, teacher."

One of the trainees pointed out while shrugging his shoulders.

"It appears His Highness and Lord Hugin both decided it must have been Young Lord Em'raldio, and they went to Jade Academy to check."

Another trainee had more details that he didn't keep to himself.

"Curious. If I were in their spot, Lord Magnus wouldn't be the first suspect of mine."

Melinda raised her brows and pondered, tilting her head to the side.

"Oh well, since someone else will contact His Highness, we might as well begin the bonus training. Start running laps, and I'll join you after turning in the…"

The gold-haired girl nodded her head and declared, raising the hand she held the papers with before the teleportation. She then realized that what she was holding onto was an incredibly compact piece of solid paper shaped like the inside of her fist.

Back when she punched Lazurii, the unfortunate documents didn't have the same protection as her equipment - that being clothes - and got torn to shreds, with the remaining pieces getting crushed in her palm.

"...hm… let's just go, shall we?"

"Yes, teacher!"

She let out a tired sigh before tossing the paper scrap to the side and nodding at the trainees, who cheered back in unison.

—------

Friendly squabbles and other forms of competitive in-fighting were rather common within the trainee groups. It was not only expected but, to some degree, even encouraged as long as things followed a few certain unspoken rules.

Let's not get things wrong here, though.

Spontaneous outbursts of violence were not tolerated within the knight training facility.

"..."

…and it just so happened that Melinda was sitting in front of the instructor's office exactly because of such an accident…

"...you still got nothing to say, Gabi?"

The gold-haired girl breathed out and leaned back into her seat to then look down at the swollen-faced young boy.

He was amongst the youngest trainees of the batch and had light-brown hair and deep, somehow beady gray eyes that had a permanent glare to them. And the swollen face wasn't just a matter of speech. His face was swollen, his lip was cut, and he had a black eye. All of that was just the damage done to his face. Who knows what else happened to his body? The only other visible injury was his bloodied knuckles scraped almost to the bare bone.

"I mean, for some reason, I was called in to await a lecture about improperly guiding you instead of your actual instructor. I do want some explanation so that I could at least prepare an actual line of defense."

Melinda rolled her eyes and added, crossing her legs and tilting her head, somehow making those simple movements appear overbearingly threatening.

"....my fiance hates me…"

"...?"

The boy mumbled, making the gold-haired girl raise her brow with suspicion.

"She hates me because I act like a brat."

"And you attacked someone because… you thought that's how adults are…?"

The boy added, making Melinda lean away so that she could look at him properly.

Well… she wasn't innocent in that very same regard, but it wasn't something necessary to disclose at the time.

"It's not like that, teacher. People here know that I am engaged and that my fiance and I aren't on good terms with each other. During lunch, one guy from the neighboring territory thought it would be funny to badmouth her in front of his friends. Specifically for not breaking off our engagement."

The boy shook his head and declared, straightening his back and looking at Melinda with a determined expression.

"From the neighboring territory… hold on, the only boy fitting that description would be that guy related to the headmaster of the Jade Academy?!"

"Lucas Vendro'in. Yes."

Melinda's eyes suddenly widened, and she gasped, staring in shock at the young boy nodding and revealing the full name of the person with whom he picked up the fight.

"Gabi! That guy's, like, eighteen! How old are you, again?"

The gold-haired girl shook her head in disbelief before asking.

"Nine."

The boy answered, lowering his head and staring at his knees.

"...and…?"

"...what do you mean by and, teacher…?"

Melinda nodded and asked, making Gabriel mutter quietly.

"Well, at your age, I was fully expecting that you would be counting months too."

"...it doesn't matter though… Whether I'm nine and a day or nine and eleven months and thirty days. I'm still nine until my next birthday."

Melinda pointed out with an encouraging smile, but the boy ended up slouching even more before shrugging his shoulders and declaring.

"I didn't mean it as a jab or anything, Gabi. Back to the main topic. Do you understand that you charged someone not only twice your age but almost three times - if not more - your size?! What did you think would happen? You're lucky, and that's how you ended up. It could be so much worse!"

"...I know… I have to train more…"

The gold-haired girl raised her hand apologetically only to wave it dismissively and point out, making the boy admit in a solemn voice.