Chapter 29: Neron

Neron stood at the front of the room for several long seconds without speaking.

His golden eyes remained half-lidded.

When he finally opened his mouth, his voice was mild and slightly distant, as though part of his attention was still elsewhere.

"Practical Projection Application," he mumbled. "That is the name of this class. The goal is simple. You will learn how to use Historical Projections in actual combat situations rather than simply summoning them and hoping for the best."

A few students straightened in their seats, notebooks already open.

Neron rubbed one eye with the back of his hand and continued.

"The most important thing... is timing. No. Wait." He paused, frowning faintly. "Timing is important, but it is not the most important. The most important thing is... knowledge of your Projection’s capabilities. Yes. That comes first. If you do not know what your Projection can actually do, then timing becomes irrelevant."

He drifted a few steps to the side of the lectern, then drifted back.

"After that comes positioning. You must consider the environment. A Projection that is strong in open space may be useless in a narrow corridor. Or the opposite. Some Projections prefer confined areas. You should... experiment. Find out. That is part of the point of this class."

Lazarus watched in silence. The delivery was already beginning to fray.

Neron lifted the pocket watch, stared at it for a moment as though it might supply the next sentence, then set it down again.

"Another point. Do not leave your Projection active longer than necessary. Corruption risk increases with time. Everyone knows this. Miss Anastasia already covered it this morning, I believe. Or was that yesterday?" He shrugged. "It does not matter. The principle is the same. Summon, use, dismiss. Clean and efficient."

A student in the second row raised a hand.

Neron blinked at him. "Yes?"

"Instructor, what about coordination with other Historians? If we are in a group—"

"Group coordination." Neron nodded slowly. "That is... also important. You should practice it. Later. For now, focus on individual control. Groups come after individuals. Or at the same time. It depends."

The student lowered his hand, looking only partially satisfied.

Neron continued in the same loose, wandering manner.

He mentioned the importance of understanding a Projection’s personality, then immediately undercut the point by saying that most Echoes did not have strong personalities worth worrying about.

He spoke about the value of mobility, then admitted he could not remember the specific drill he had intended to demonstrate.

He advised students to study the historical context of their summons, then waved the advice away with a comment that most of them would not have access to deep records yet anyway.

The class listened with growing uncertainty.

Some students still took notes. Others had stopped writing and were simply watching the instructor with polite but confused expressions.

A few exchanged quiet glances.

Lazarus remained still, crimson eyes fixed on Neron.

The man was not entirely wrong.

The individual points he raised were valid. Timing, knowledge of capabilities, environmental awareness, corruption risk, personality, coordination—all of these mattered.

The problem was the structure. Or rather, the complete lack of it.

Neron was scattering useful observations like loose pages from a book and making no effort to bind them into a coherent lesson.

A first-year Squire listening to this would leave with a collection of half-formed ideas and no clear foundation.

Worse, the lax tone invited carelessness.

If the instructor treated the subject as something that could be approached in a half-asleep haze, the students would eventually do the same.

Lazarus waited until Neron paused to consult the pocket watch once more.

Then he spoke.

"Instructor."

The single word cut cleanly through the mild atmosphere of the room.

Several heads turned.

Neron looked up, golden eyes focusing with mild surprise.

"Yes?"

"With respect," Lazarus said, his voice calm and even, "the way this material is being presented will not help most of the students here. You are listing correct principles, but you are not organizing them. A Squire who has never used a Projection in combat needs a clear sequence of priorities, not a collection of loosely connected observations. If the foundation is unclear, the later points become useless information."

Silence fell across the classroom.

A few students stared at Lazarus with open disbelief.

Challenging an instructor on the first day—especially in this manner—was almost unheard of.

Others looked toward Neron, clearly expecting a sharp reprimand.

Neron regarded Lazarus for several seconds. The half-lidded quality of his gaze sharpened slightly. The faint air of distant amusement did not disappear, but something more attentive moved beneath it.

"You are saying my teaching method is inadequate," Neron said.

It was not quite a question.

"I am saying it is incomplete," Lazarus replied. "The content is not wrong. The delivery fails to give the students a usable framework. If the goal of this class is practical application, then the first session should establish a clear hierarchy of considerations before moving to examples or drills."

Another stretch of silence.

Someone in the back shifted in their seat. The sound was loud in the quiet room.

Neron’s mouth curved in a small, unexpected smile.

"You are correct," he said simply.

Several students blinked.

Neron straightened a little, the slumped posture easing.

He picked up the pocket watch, turned it over once in his fingers, and then set it down with a soft click.

"I have been teaching this material for some time," he continued, "and I have grown... comfortable. Comfort leads to shortcuts. Shortcuts lead to the kind of lecture you just witnessed. You pointed out the flaw cleanly. That is useful."

He gestured toward the front of the room with an open hand.

"Since you understand the problem so clearly, you should be the one to correct it. Come up here. Teach the class for the remainder of this period. Show them the framework you believe is missing."

A low ripple of shock passed through the students.

A few looked at Lazarus with something approaching pity. Others seemed almost eager to watch him fail.

No first-year Squire in living memory had been handed the lectern on the first day after publicly criticizing an instructor.

Even if they had, they would undoubtedly fail miserably.

Most people would have found a polite way to decline.

Lazarus did not.

"Alright."

He rose from his seat without hesitation.

The scrape of his chair was the only sound in the room as he walked down the aisle and stepped onto the slightly raised platform at the front.

Neron moved aside, giving him the lectern and the full attention of the class without further comment.

Lazarus rested one hand lightly on the edge of the wooden surface and looked out at the rows of faces.

Some were skeptical.

Others were more curious.

A few still carried the residual tension of the earlier confrontation.

Regardless, all of them were watching.

Lazarus smiled.

It was a small, confident expression, entirely free of arrogance or nerves.

"Since Instructor Neron has given me the opportunity," Lazarus announced, his voice clear and steady, "I will use it. Today I am going to teach all of you a secret about Historical Projections."