Ilya looked at me with disgust.

"I'm telling the truth. The baby isn't mine!" I said for the tenth time since the caravan with the first-year cadets had merged with the squads that were sent ahead to clean the area of mid-level monsters. After months trapped inside the invisible walls of Cadria, the change of ambiance was appreciated, if not for Ilya's intransigence.

"Then whose is it?" she asked, pulling the reins of her black, curly-haired horse to cut into my path.

Bucko stopped short and snorted.

"That's not for me to disclose."

"So it's yours." Her voice cracked like a whip.

Firana, Zaon, and Wolf hovered nervously around us, without daring to interfere. Firana tugged at her braid. Zaon shifted uncomfortably in his saddle, the shaft of his spear tapping against the stirrup. Wolf kept on diverting his eyes towards the treeline, as if hoping for a monstrous bear to jump on us.

Ilya's horse blocked my path. Her eyes were fixed on mine, like she had cast [Hunter's Mark] on me. "You were the only one in the entire Academy who treated Instructor Mistwood kindly, and a few months later, she's pregnant. Do you expect me to believe it isn't yours?"

I clenched the reins so hard my knuckles whitened.

"I expect you to believe whatever comes out of my mouth," I grunted.

It had taken me days and sleepless nights to convince Talindra that her pregnancy was a joyous event. She was scared beyond words, in a way I couldn't really relate to, and the identity of the father was a problem in itself. The least I expected from my kids was support.

Ebrosian Rob stirred under the surface as my patience grew thin. The early midterm exam, Byrne's uncertain plans, and the lack of information about the Energy Boost potions had me on edge already. Talindra's pregnancy almost was the straw that broke the camel's back. No. Talindra's pregnancy was a blessing. What almost broke me was Ilya's distrust.

"Mister Clarke has not given us reason to doubt him, ever," Firana pointed out.

"You are letting your feelings blind you," Ilya replied.

I took a deep breath.

"You are right to be cautious," I said, forcing my voice to sound conciliatory. "But caution doesn't give you the right to accuse anyone without proof."

Ebrosian Rob wasn't all that satisfied with my words. A high-level Sage didn't have to endure the mad ramblings of a gnome. I shoved those thoughts to the back of my mind. A good teacher was humble and charitable.

I cleared my throat.

"Talindra and the baby are under my protection, and I will pose as the father if necessary. That is what matters right now. Speculation about parentage can wait until I say so. Understood?"

Ilya's eyes narrowed.

"You owe Elincia sincerity."

I clenched my jaw, wondering if I had failed to set my own boundaries.

"Elincia is the best thing that has ever happened to me, so think well before doing anything stupid," I coldly said. "Elincia will get the truth if she asks me. Now leave me, the four of you. I have students to prepare."

As if he understood me, Bucko nipped the flank of Ilya's horse, making it rear up and trot to the edge of the road. Ilya's nostrils flared, but she didn't press the matter. Instead, she turned around and spurred her horse to catch up with the scouts. Zaon and Wolf followed her, leaving me alone with Firana.

"I said, 'leave me, the four of you'. You are the fourth."

Firana ignored me.

"Ilya is the one who put you on a pedestal, so she expects nothing but perfection from you. Don't be harsh with her. Okay?" she said, making her horse keep up Bucko's pace.

"Don't get me wrong, I can see how people would think I'm the father."

Still, I expected some more trust from Ilya.

"Well, Talindra is well-endowed, and she gives mighty wifey vibes. I bet she can bake a killer pumpkin pie. Herbalists are the second-best cooks after actual Cooks," Firana pointed out, giving me a dirty look from her high horse. "But I know you aren't the father. You like more modest proportions, so if Archivist Evelisse's daughter shows up next with a bloated belly, I'm getting suspicious."

I rolled my eyes. It was hard to be in a bad mood around Firana.

"How is Talindra doing, anyway?" she asked after a moment of silence.

"To be honest, she has a lot on her plate right now. Having a baby is a huge responsibility, and she's far from home, surrounded by people who don't like her much. She… she doesn't want the father to know he's the father."

Firana gasped.

"That's… tricky."

"It is. If I were going to father a kid, I'd want to know."

Talindra's standing at the Academy had improved after Evelisse and her entourage observed our lessons. The fact that Holst and Talindra were my sole two apprentices had shifted the social dynamics within the Academy. Suddenly, many people, including Astur and the royals, started treating them both with special deference. Nobody called Talindra 'Cabbage' anymore.

"Well, when the baby is born, tell her I volunteer to be her nanny," Firana said.

"You should focus on your cadet duties."

A smug smile appeared on her face.

"Robert, please. Astur already told me he wants me as an Instructor after I graduate, half of the royals want me in their little cronies groups, and I've gotten a dozen letters from Imperial Knights across the kingdom requesting me as their partner. I can probably kick my feet up and graduate anyway," she said, looking into the distance. She turned to me just to find my raised eyebrows. "That said… If a monster hurts one of the cadets during this selection exam, I will feel bad, so I'd better go scout ahead. See you at the campsite!"

Firana spurred her horse and shot like an arrow down the dusty road.

The road went in a straight line from east to west, around a hilly area north of Cadria and near the path I used to cross from the Vedras Dukedom into royal territory. This time, there were no petty highway bandits around. To the north, a few days of travel away, was the mountain range that separated the kingdom from the Farlands. It was the continuation of the range that protected Farcrest, but in this area, the peaks were higher and the valleys were narrow, so high-level monsters rarely reached the area.

I guided Bucko to the roadside and dismounted. The main caravan was a few hundred meters behind us. I had pressed the pace to meet the kids and ask questions about the surroundings, but the conversation had turned sour extremely quickly.

I drank from my waterskin while Bucko grazed.

Even with the shielding of the mountain range, the area was known to host mid and low-level monsters. Third-year cadets were usually sent around here on cleansing missions to get their first few levels. It was conveniently close to Cadria, and the lack of big towns favored the appearance of monsters and wild animals.

This time around, all third-year squads had been tasked to prepare the grounds for a bunch of Lv.5 to Lv.10s to roam the nearby valleys.

The details of the selection exam hadn't yet been revealed, but considering what had happened in the past years, a survival test wasn't out of the question. During Zaon and the kids' first year, they had to travel a rather long and difficult trail through monster-infested, steep hills.

"Alright, Bucko. Let's go," I said as the caravan caught up to us.

Sir Rhovan rode on the front of the caravan with a group of Imperial Knights and a handful of adventurous Librarians. Right behind came a camper-size carriage drawn by four black Skeeths. The reptiles were as tall as an adult man, with shoulders wide as a bull, and jaws like sharks. Inside the carriage sat Astur, Evelisse, and her two daughters.

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The royals seemed especially interested in this selection exam.

I mounted Bucko and joined the caravan at a slow pace. The supply carts passed by my side, guarded on both sides by third-year cadets who once were Astur's students. The Golden Dragon Squad. The rear of the procession consisted of the open-roof carts crammed with first-year cadets. The eleven Cabbage cadets shared a cart with Rhovan's Hawkdrake cadets. The atmosphere was tense.

Despite our success in the last exam, we were still a dump squad, and we didn't adhere to tradition as much as others would have liked.

The caravan advanced until we arrived at the entrance of a valley surrounded by steep hills. A wide circle had been cleared of vegetation, and beige tents with the crest of the Imperial Academy formed a small citadel. Across the camp, the Wolfpack was sitting around a bonfire, having lunch, while other squads raised more of those huge square tents and guarded the perimeter.

I looked around, trying to find any clues about the selection exam, but everything around me seemed like a regular campsite.

The caravan stopped, and the cadets descended from the carts. A group of aides guided each squad to its designated tent. The cadets' faces broke down as they realized the accommodations were shoddy at best, nothing more than a cloth ceiling over hard soil. In comparison, the accommodations of third-year squads were luxurious.

Rhovan and the Imperial Knights seemed satisfied with the cadet's reaction.

Like clockwork, the Imperial Knights dismounted and claimed a space for their tents. They raised a campsite in the same style as the Wolfpack and the other third-year cadet squads, but a dash of Geomancy was enough to clean the area of clumps of grass and protruding stones. More functional than comfortable.

There were outliers. Astur's tent was as big as a house, with half a dozen aides carrying anything from pelts and cushions to a dining table and silverware. Ghila, on the other hand, sat by the edge of the camp and smoked from a pipe while watching the mouth of the valley. Maybe the Imperial Knights who stayed at the Academy as instructors were a special breed. They seemed more like a military unit than a bunch of noble men and women.

As no one came to tell me what to do, I grabbed Bucko's reins and walked to the edge of the camp, to a less crowded area. I wasn't a stranger to camping. During the past two years, I had spent several weeks in the Farlands among orcs or on herb-gathering trips with Elincia. However, my camping philosophy was a bit different than the rest.

I channeled mana and used [Minor Geokinesis]. Almost like I had developed a new sense, I felt the bedrock underneath my feet, conveniently close to the surface. Heads turned as two broad slabs pushed upward, leaning into each other to form a sharp peak with no gap in between. Like a triangular pyramid with a missing side. The floor came next. Dust and loose gravel were pushed away, leaving a flat, rough surface. At the back of the shelter, I raised a platform that would serve as a bedframe.

Although nobody was expecting summer rain, I raised the structure a palm over the ground level just in case. If nothing else, it would help to fend off insects and snakes. Then, I dug a circular fire pit near the entrance and opened small crevices leading under the bedframe to create a huge heat bank. The heat of the fire would slip inside, warming the shelter during the night without smoke or ash.

When I showed Elincia that trick, she totally fell in love with me for a second time.

I stepped back, examining my work. The entrance was two meters tall, about three meters deep, and had enough space for the few things I had brought with me.

Bucko snorted by my side, offended.

"My bad," I said.

Using [Minor Geokinesis] again, I extended the overlapping slabs, creating a small overhang to the side of the shelter. Bucko was a mountain horse born in the cold weather of the Jorn Dukedom, so the summer night wasn't going to be a problem for him. His problem was the heat. Bucko trotted into the shadow and leaned over the cold stone slab.

After hanging a cloth to cover the entrance, I tried to take Bucko to the creek, but the horse was too comfortable in his sunshelter and didn't move.

"Aight, you do you. I'm not tying you down, but don't go around annoying the cadets, okay?" I said, looking around and wondering if I was supposed to make my own lunch.

My shelter had caught the attention of the other campers, and the first-year cadets cast glances full of envy at me.

"That's one of the nicest shelters I've ever seen," Fenwick's voice brought me out of my reverie. I hadn't noticed him wandering over.

If Kili or Rup had complimented my hideout, I might have folded.

"A squad that suffers together, stays together, Fenwick," I replied.

The boy gave me a wounded look.

"I don't know who you take me for, but I would rather spend the night with my fellow cadets than inside a solid and luxurious little stone house!" he said, loud enough for the nearby first-year girls to hear him.

We both knew that wasn't the truth, but Fenwick kept his poker face.

"We were going to have lunch, so we were wondering if you'd join us," he finally said.

"Let's go, before Lady Evelisse invites me to eat with her and her daughters," I replied, not wanting to test the limits of my diminishing patience.

Fenwick nodded and guided me to one of the communal tents. There were around three hundred people in the camp, but the place was surprisingly quiet. The first-year cadets were almost catatonic.

"Not a camping crowd?" I asked.

"Lord Astur said he will reveal the test after lunch; they are scared," Fenwick explained, grabbing a wooden bowl from a pile and getting into the line.

The aide in charge of the food almost fumbled his ladle as I appeared before him. The pleasant smell of spices got to my nose. The aide dipped her ladle in the soup cauldron and filled our bowls to the rim. The soup was thick with huge chunks of meat and potato floating on the surface. I couldn't say if it would be to the liking of the cadets with noble backgrounds, but at least Fenwick seemed thrilled.

The boy guided me to the corner where the Cabbage Squad had gathered. They were sitting on their backpacks. Seeing that there was no seat for me, I used [Minor Geokinesis] to create a small stool.

I examined my class. They were only slightly less nervous than the other cadets.

"If you put all your effort in during the lessons, you have nothing to fear," I repeated the same line I had told every single one of my previous classrooms before exams.

As usual, my words brought little comfort.

"Any last-minute advice?" Leonie asked.

The cadets dropped their spoons and focused on me.

Lowering their anxiety levels was the most important thing right now.

"Although it may appear that way, the test doesn't have a single correct answer. The answer you seek will come from your own skillset. Don't try to copy others. Play to your advantages," I said, wondering what Astur had in store for us this time. Probably something worse than the first selection exam. "And above all, trust yourselves. You know your skillset more than anyone else, so do what you believe is best. Use your tools wisely. Understood?"

The cadets nodded.

My gut told me Astur had prepared a test that prevented cooperation, but I didn't voice my worries. If that was the case, Malkah was the weakest link of the chain, as his powers only appeared after getting hurt.

"Malkah," I said. "Save your powers for last. If the field exam is going to last as long as previous years, you can't go around wounded for days. Okay? Avoid combat as much as possible."

"Yes, Instructor," he said.

Odo was about to complain, but Harwin covered his mouth.

I wondered if he also realized that teamwork might be restricted.

"Do you have advice for me?" Fenwick jumped up.

This time, I knew what to say.

"Don't run out of mana. You might not have companions ready to drag you to the finish line," I replied, eliciting laughter from the other cadets. During the lessons where we experimented with full powers, Fenwick usually ended up bricked after using Dolore's area spells.

"I'll try," he said. "I bet Dolores can drag me if she wants, though."

"What about me!" Genivra asked before anyone else could ask.

As I offered personalized advice—something I had already provided at the lessons last week—I realized my soup had gone cold. I looked around. Holst was the only other instructor who was having lunch with their cadets. I wondered if he was also giving last-minute instructions. I hoped that his influence soothed the cadets rather than burdened them even further.

Suddenly, the ring of a bell silenced the conversations, and the aides called the cadets to the central area in front of Astur's tent.

"It's time," I said, standing from my stone stool and making it disappear into the ground. "Don't be afraid. You have plenty of skills to solve anything they throw at you."

The Cabbage squad followed me.

We gathered in the opening in the middle of the camp, before Astur's tent. The instructors formed next to the entrance. I assumed I should go there, so I left my cadets with a few last encouraging words and stood by Ghila's side. When everyone was in position, Astur exited his tent. The fabric waved dramatically. His curly blond hair shone like gold, his silver eyes scanned the assembled cadets, and the silence was absolute.

I counted how many of the cadets were infatuated with him, even without [Foresight]'s help. It was more than half. I signaled Aeliana to nudge Leonie. The girl was on cloud nine.

"Welcome, everyone, to the second selection exam. I will be brief today. If you survive this, you will have a good chance to become an Imperial Knight. If you fail, then you were never meant to become one," Astur said without ceremony, channeling his mana and summoning a huge map of the surrounding valleys above his head.

No wonder he seemingly ignored the first-year cadets during the first selection exam; most of them would end up failing. This time, it was the same.

"The selection exam will last seventy-two hours. If you don't complete your assigned task in that timeframe, you fail."

Even the birds and the insects quieted down.

Ten red spots appeared on the map, scattered seemingly at random.

"Your task is to visit four spots and deliver a totem while you fight monsters and environmental threats. This is a test of spirit and endurance. The spots you will have to visit will be determined by a badge you will be handed by the aides. You will not gain anything from taking badges or totems from other cadets," he said, raising a small carved bronze plaque.

The aides walked through the ranks of the cadets, handing circular badge pins with four numbers on them. Malkah had gotten one that read '0164'. I checked on the map, calculating the distance. If Malkah used the most efficient route, he would have just enough time to deliver the four totems, and that wasn't counting any fighting he'd have to do.

"One more thing before you start planning your routes. This year, we have special guests," Astur said. "Your badges come in pairs. One is yours, the other is inside the test area, in the hands of dropouts from last year. The dropouts' mission is to collect both badges. If they steal your badge, you will be expelled, and they will be reinstated into the program. That's all. The test will start tomorrow at daybreak."

Astur returned to his tent, and the discussion erupted.

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