Chapter 128: Practicality

"...Professor, where are Tanya and Ashlyn? Are we starting class without the two of them?" Eirwen asks in confusion as she points toward the place where the two of them usually sit. Only four students came to class today, so her question makes sense.

"Ashlyn had to take the day off, and Tanya appears to be dealing with some family matters, so it’ll just be the four of you today...since we’re at the end of the year and there isn’t much more I can teach all of you as a group, I thought we’d do something different today."

"Something different like what, Professor?" Charlotte asks with interest. My tail lightly pushes my phone across the desk toward me. I pick it up and send all of them a few files.

"I wanted to help you choose where you’ll end up. I’m betting the army has already told you about your positions, but not necessarily where you’ll be stationed. I was thinking of putting you in Nadir’s session." They look confused.

"Professor, how does that work? We’ve already been given positions, so what you just said doesn’t make sense, right?" Rouge asks, her ears standing straight up with interest.

"It’s different. This has nothing to do with your positions...there are several sessions for different commanders. I thought I’d put you in a session where I know someone is in charge and that won’t cause you as many problems." I gesture toward them as I draw four squares on the board.

"That doesn’t mean you’ll be working alongside Nadir. There are about four different commanders in this session besides the Vice Commanders, but this session is the second one to take on missions."

"Basically, there are several sessions, each session has several people, and you have to choose one. That choice determines what kind of missions you do and what your duties are in an emergency." I write numbers one through four inside the squares.

"The second session, which is the one I recommend, means you won’t get the riskiest missions, but you won’t get the easiest ones either. It’s a good place to grow. It’s up to you whether you accept it. You’ll probably have a choice of which session you go to." The army doesn’t usually choose this because of several practical reasons.

"But there’s a catch, because the army wouldn’t let someone choose if they didn’t end up with an advantage!!"

"Sessions that are too low are bad. They may seem safe, but when something goes wrong, you’re practically thrown straight into immediate danger, and there are only people there who will get in your way."

"And those who choose one for safety end up regretting it. It’s a way of finding out who’s skilled and prefers choosing the least amount of work. In the end, they actually get even more work, and it’s more dangerous when something goes wrong. But the highest session is the most dangerous because they’re mainly responsible for indiscriminate monster extermination."

"That means twenty-hour fights every day, with breaks of three minutes at most. It means fighting nonstop. Nadir’s session is the second one. It’s also very difficult and full of fights, but there are a lot of gathering missions, while Session One stays outside the ruins fighting to keep monsters from getting too close, preventing monsters from outside the ruins from piling up with the ones already inside." I make that very clear to them.

"Then why not Session Three, big girl? If the last session is one of the worst and the first one is extremely difficult, why not choose the third one, which would technically be very good and safe?" Edith asks, confused by my proposal.

"Because in Session Three, your chances of promotion drop a lot. I’m trying to balance the chances and opportunities for promotion with risk and reward."

"If it’s only about promotion, Session One gives you the highest chances of promotion, but it also has the highest mortality rate. Session Three isn’t even that safe, the chances of promotion drop, and the work is exhausting. In short, it’s a bad choice."

"I can say that from experience. I spent three months in Session One and five months in Session Three. I also spent two months in Session Four, and then I chose to formalize my position in Session Two."

"There’s also the matter of making your position official. You stay in sessions temporarily unless you make your position in that session official. If you do, your chances of being promoted to commander increase, but you won’t be able to switch sessions anymore. I recommend trying all of them before deciding which ones you want." It’s up to them to choose.

"And of course, you don’t really have a choice about where you stay if they decide to move you. The army can often send you on missions in another session. It’s their choice whether you stay there or not. At least you have the advantage of returning to your own session after it’s over."

"..." They fall silent as they pick up their phones and look through what I sent them.

"The files I sent you contain the strengths and weaknesses of each session, as well as the names of some important people in each session, so you can get a general idea of how things work."

"Professor, then we’re going to work with that man who’s your...uh...partner?" Eirwen asks as I nod.

"To an extent. Choosing Session Two doesn’t mean you’ll work directly with Nadir. It only means you’ll have a chance to work with him. I’d say there’s about a one-in-four chance you’ll work with him. Like I said, there are other commanders. The session is just an informal term we use for certain sections of the army."

"It’s not even an official classification, although the army acknowledges that it exists, and it’s organized almost randomly because it’s not something that’s literally supervised. On top of that, the numbers change from one place to another, so if you choose ’Session Two,’ you won’t necessarily see Nadir, and it won’t necessarily even be called Session Two."

"Actually, Maya is from Session Two. She’s currently Top 1, but she isn’t officially a member of Session Two, so she moves between Session Two and Session One based on what each side needs and what she wants. She’s currently in Session One, but she should be coming back to help Session Two soon."

"Anyway, take your time to learn more about it. Read everything I sent you carefully. I plan to spend this month just helping you with this." They pay more attention to what they received than to what I’m saying.

I simply sit in my chair, waiting for them to finish so I can answer their questions. Honestly, I feel strange.

I’m not sure why I’m trying so hard for them. It’s kind of strange. They’re just girls I’ve been teaching for a while.

’I still haven’t completely adjusted to living in a society with ordinary people, and I don’t think that will ever get much better...but I think I’m actually starting to enjoy the life I’m living here...’ Maybe I really did need this forced retirement.

’Who would’ve thought that idiot Nadir was completely right...haaa...’ I wonder what that idiot is doing right now.

...

...

...

"Commander Nadir!! Help over here!!" Cecilia says nervously as I shoot at a monster covered in crab-like legs that attacks her. The bullets quickly pierce its eyes, making it recoil.

"Sorry for getting in your way, Commander Nadir! Who would’ve thought an attack would happen right now?" Cecilia says with an uncomfortable smile on her face.

"It’s normal. It’s a pretty big ruin, so of course they’d be drawn here once they noticed there were people around. And what about that monster? Is someone already dealing with it?" I ask her as she looks at the screen on her watch.

"Yes, it’s an intelligent monster, capable of speaking, too, but there’s a commander dealing with it, and he’s pretty far from here. He said our priority should be protecting the collection facility." She speaks quickly as I nod.

"All right. Tell him we’ll take care of things here." I fire at a distant monster that was about to hit a soldier. He finishes firing and kills the monster while Cecilia shoots the monster attacking her, taking it down.

"Commander Nadir, these new weapons are a beauty. Their bullets are so powerful. This prototype is incredible. It’s gotten so much easier to kill tough monsters with it," Cecilia says with a little confidence.

"Agreed. I like it too, but I found one flaw. The safety lock cracks if we fire too many shots in a short period of time, destroying the safety mechanism. It’s a prototype, after all. We’ll need to file reports on the defects later." I adjust the weapon’s aim and fire at a monster advancing toward us.

"Yes! I’ll activate the sonar and see if there’s anything underground so we don’t get caught off guard."

"Do that. I’ll cover you." She crouches down, taking a small box out of her clothes and placing it on the ground. She starts activating it while I watch some soldiers handling the monsters that attacked us without much trouble.

"Did the other commander say anything?"

"Yes. He said we’ll be going back to Aurora Island in a week. This ruin doesn’t have as much useful stuff as it seemed, and Aurora Island found another ruin that’s better. Unfortunately, that means more work for us."

"...Haaa...what a pain."

"Done. I found three signatures underground. Nothing major. It looks like only one monster is a real threat in this ruin. What should I do?"

"We’ll keep defending this place. Tell the other commander that if he needs help, I’ll go to him." I use my power to strengthen all the allies in the area, making them stronger.

"Understood, Commander." She gets up, grabs her weapon, and runs toward the monsters as I follow her to help.