Chapter 104: Meeting II

Leon considered it for a moment, it was the same with his own reasoning, maybe falling short even a little bit.

"I understand your concerns, Headmaster. Am I still free to make the final decision?"

"Yes, Leon. It is your decision."

"Then if I wished to participate, the academy would still consider me?"

"We would. We would need to discuss the risks and make suitable preparations, but my recommendation would remain the same."

He didn’t need to hear more, he knew his decision already.

"Can I make a request, sir?" Leon asked.

"Of course, as long as it’s within my power."

"Then, would it be possible to arrange personal combat training?"

"What would you want to work on?"

"Everything, particularly movement and evasion."

"Interesting choice? That can be arranged," the Headmaster said. "But an instructor can only guide you. You’ll need to make time for the practice."

"Yes, sir. I’m prepared to put in the work."

Joseph made a brief note while Leon returned to the tournament document.

"About the people approaching me, sir. What sort of help could I ask the academy for?"

"We can protect your timetable, verify requests that come through us, and help you examine any offers you’re considering," the Headmaster said. "The same applies if someone approaches you through anyother means. If anything seems suspicious, let us know. You aren’t expected to deal with it by yourself."

"And if it happens outside the academy?"

"If there’s something concrete to report, we can coordinate with the relevant authorities. But there are limits to what we can do. We can’t prevent every conversation, stop people from following your public activities, or guarantee that every offer will be welcome."

Joseph closed his notebook. "The recordings will still be online whether you compete or not. What you would avoid is giving a large number of interested people a set time and place where they know they can find you."

Leon nodded. That was a reasonable distinction.

"Then I would like to withdraw from consideration, Headmaster."

The Headmaster studied him briefly. "Very well. You made a good choice."

"Yes, sir. Thanl you, sir."

"Very well." The Headmaster passed the document to Joseph. "Please remove Leon’s name from consideration."

Joseph recorded the decision, then set the selection document aside.

"That needn’t prevent you from entering another competition later," the Headmaster added.

Leon nodded in agreement. If a future tournament offered something he wanted badly enough, he could weigh it then.

Joseph separated the tournament papers from the folder of inquiries.

"I’ll send you the contact details to use when you want a request checked," he said. "If you’re uncertain about a message, you can refer it to us before answering."

"Thank you, sir. That would be helpful."

"I’ll speak with the instructors about your training," the Headmaster said.

"Thank you, sir."

"No problem, no problem."

They finished with a few practical details, including when Joseph could reach him without interrupting a class. By the time Leon picked up his bag, the light through the office windows had begun to fade as evening turned to night.

Leon stood once the meeting had concluded. "Thank you for making time to speak with me, Headmaster. I appreciate you bringing this to my attention."

He turned slightly towards Joseph. "And thank you for your help, sir."

"You’re welcome, Leon," Joseph replied.

"I wanted you to have the information before deciding," the Headmaster said. "If anything else concerns you, come and speak to us."

"I will, sir."

Without lingering, he left after picking his bag, and headed back towards the residence building.

...

Chapter 70 — Personal Protection

The following day, Leon about his day pretty much the same, until around afternoon.

Unknown to him, the instructor assigned to him from the Headmaster, normally worked with third-year students. He came to find him near the end of practical class and stopped for a bit to watch him in his element and see what he’s like.

Surprisingly enough, Leon was sitting against the wall with one leg stretched out in front of him. Inside the practice ring, his Great Swordsman moved around Dustin’s Golem while Dustin tried to stop the heavy summon from turning too far whenever it attacked.

The instructor watched through several exchanges without hearing Leon give a single order.

’Does he always train like this?’ He wondered to himself. Seeing his so relaxed to the side was already quite the sight to behold.

From where he stood, Leon looked like he had found a comfortable place to wait for the lesson to end. The instructor could understand why some people might mistake him for lazy. If the Headmaster hadn’t explained the situation beforehand, he might have thought the same thing.

Still, a student couldn’t get a summon to fight that well without doing something right.

Well, that wasn’t his focus. He was more interested in seeing what Leon could do once he actually stood up.

"Leon Carter?" he called after the Golem stopped.

"Yes, sir." Leon got to his feet.

"The Headmaster asked me to help with your personal training. Have you got some time after class? I’d like to see what you can do before we decide where to start."

"Yes, sir. I can stay." Leon aswered without delay.

Just as said, once the class ended, they moved to a smaller practice room. Mats covered most of the floor, while weights, pads and several foam weapons filled a rack beside the wall.

The instructor placed two light weights on the mat.

"Are you still carrying any injuries?"

"No, sir."

"All right, good. Tell me if anything starts to hurt. If I say stop, put down whatever you’re holding. Once we get to the contact drills, you can call a stop yourself."

Leon nodded in agreement, moving into position.

They started with the weights. The first pair was light enough, so the instructor gave him something heavier and watched his footing, how he held his shoulders and whether his posture changed whenever he lowered them.

Once he had seen enough, he had him put them down and handed him a padded stick.

"Show me how you’d use Unification with that in your hand."

"I’m afraid I can’t use Unification, sir."

"Are you having trouble holding it?"

"I’ve never managed to Unify in the first place."

The instructor looked up from the weights.

"I see. I’d expected you to have picked it up by now."

He remained quiet for a moment. With the number of summons Leon controlled and how well he used them, he had expected the boy to be well ahead with something as important as Unification.

"I thought I would have by now too, sir," Leon said.

He had tried with several of his undead without making any progress.

’If my real bond is with the Door, how am I supposed to Unify with one of them? Even worse, with it? Do I become a door and inherit the ability to open and close?’

That explanation made the most sense to him, but it didn’t solve the problem. He had no idea how he was supposed to Unify with a door, or if such a thing was even possible.

"Then we’ll work with what you can do on your own," the instructor said. "We can make you stronger, but if something can get past your better summons, there’s only so much strength training will do for you."

"I understand, sir. I just want to stay out of its reach until one of my summons can get to me."

"That gives us something to work towards." The instructor held out his hand for the stick. "But not able to use unification, that comes almost like a added packagae sometimes. When your quicker summons fights at full speed, can you see what it’s doing?"

"Yes, easily. I can keep track of the Skirmishers too, they’re the fastest, even when they’re moving faster. It’s harder when several of them are fighting at once, though."

’Well, that’s strange.’ The instructor thought to himself without voicing out.

"If you can see them moving at that speed, let’s find out how quickly you can act on what you see."