Idarin was sitting in his room and tapping to table with his finger. It was a large and spacious room, books strewn on the table. This room was the highest point in the academy, so it was possible to see everything easily from its all-glass walls. Idarin kept sighing as if something was bothering him. Then a cat jumped on the table and looked at him blankly.

“Can you believe it?!”

He shouted to the cat.

“Can you believe how bad this year’s students were!”

Then he picked up some paper on the table and showed them to the cat.

“Look! Look! There is not even a single group that even dared to challenge any difficult missions! And they are here because they want to be an adventurer? Pft, please, they are just spoiled, little wusses.”

He slammed his hand on the table in anger.

“Thanks to Aaron’s call, most of the adventurers around the world came back, and even some of them accepted to teach here, but you know what? After seeing this year’s spoiled brats, almost half of them left.”

Then he leaned closer to the cat.

“What am I going to do?”

After staring at him for a while, the black cat yawned and went to sleep. Idarin shook his head and kept talking to himself.

“What am I doing? At 66 years old, sitting in an office, this wasn’t the job in my mind… I’m training some wannabe adventurers that can hunt a few goblins with their friends.”

This year’s students were particularly bad. Usually, a few students would appear every year and exceed everyone’s expectations. But this wasn’t one of those years. This was deplorable, given that they were in a situation where they could go to war at any time.

“Putting the hope on the next generation? Here is your next generation.”

As he continued to talk to himself without stopping and fiddling around the room, the door opened. A young-looking woman walked in with casual clothes, wearing black tights and a tank top. She was holding a pile of paper under her arm.

“What are you blabbering to yourself? Have you finally gone senile?”

She said with a playful smile and put the papers on the table. Her black hair was tied back to bun style; it was messy and revealing her green eyes.

“Ahh, I wish I was. It would be less painful.”

Idarin shook his head.

“Why are you here? Are you going to leave too, Cassandra?”

She put the paper pile on the table.

“No, here is this year’s brilliant adventurers list.”

Cassandra said with a sarcastic tone, then continued.

“I was going to leave actually, but then I saw that Aaron’s daughter is coming this year. She can use ice magic and a swordswoman. She looked promising. I hope I can mentor her.”

Idarin raised an eyebrow.

‘Aaron’s daughter, then that means his son is coming too. Hmm, maybe we won’t be that desperate this year.’

“What about his son?”

He was meddling with the papers Cassandra left on the table.

“Oh yeah, he is coming too, but he uses katana. I don’t know how good he will be.”

Idarin stopped and raised his head with a confused expression.

“You see? That is most of our problem. The system was good years ago. Everybody followed their father’s or mother’s footsteps and became good on the weapon’s path, but now look at the situation. Aaron is a brilliant glaive user, but what is his son doing? Playing around with a katana. Is there even a katana master on the empire? Like maybe 2? Uggghhh!”

He became furious again and raised his hands while clenching hard. Cassandra just stood there silently until he finished.

“Are you done throwing a tantrum? It would be best if you calmed down. That wasn’t our fault. This empire remained quiet and peaceful for a very long time, until 16 years ago, so people inevitably let their guard down.”

Idarin sighed. His black eyes looked tired, as if he hadn’t slept for days. Then he sat down.

“Let’s hope his son is at least has good magical prowess.”

“Yea, let’s hope. It looks like this is all we are doing these days anyway. I’m going now, and you should check your student’s list, Byee~.”

Idarin was alone again and reluctantly began to check the papers. It took him a few hours to finish, and surprisingly this year’s students looked more promising. That gave him some relief.

‘Interesting, right after the worst year, this year’s students might be the best generation in the last ten years. Of course, I can’t say that without actually seeing them, but this year we have some pretty interesting kids.’

He felt tired, put his head on the table, and closed his eyes for a moment.

‘But of course, between almost 300 students, there are just 30 mages, and none of them has any significant talent. I’m jealous of the others. I wish I could find someone to mentor.’

He was about to fall asleep while thinking, but he felt a weird vibration in the air. It was rare for someone to contact him, and the fact that this happened while he was about to sleep made him irritated. Then he raised his head, and a sphere appeared on the table. It was vibrating inconsistently, like receiving energy from somewhere. After meeting with Idarin’s mana, it stopped vibrating, and Idarin shouted angrily.

“WHAT?”

Then a face began to appear on the sphere. It was blurry at first but gradually became more apparent.

“Geez, still the same, huh?”

A man with a stubble beard and long dark hair that tied from the back asked with a smile. Idarin didn’t recognize him at first and squinted his eyes, but then his eyes widened, and he leaned to the sphere.

“What the fuck?!”

Idarin got excited for a second but managed to calm himself down quickly.

“Ahem… So you finally crawling out of your cave, you bastard.”

He said with a grin.

“Yes, but not Victor anymore. I go by Wilbert now.”

“Whatever. Come on, tell me everything, starting from your disappearance.”

Idarin excitedly waited for an explanation.

“Hmm, okay.”

Wilbert stroked his chin.

“Soo, after the war, I settled in the outskirts of Tedian Kingdom and raised my son.”

Idarin was blankly staring at the sphere.

“Or should I say, my sons? I don’t know, anyways what’s up with you?”

Idarin sighed and rubbed his eyes.

“Is that all?”

“Yeah, that is what happened afterward.”

Idarin shook his head in disappointment.

“I see you’re still the same dimwit as alw-”

He suddenly stopped to look at Wilbert.

“You said you have sons? What do you mean, sons?”

“Yeah, actually, that is why I’m calling you. I want them to enroll in Blernian Academy.”

“Damn, I totally forgot that your son would come here, but sons?”

He asked again because Wilbert only had one son as far as he knows.

“Good, when is the entrance exam.”

Wilbert ignored the question again.

“Pfft, we don’t do that kind of useless stuff anymore.”

“Why?”

“Last year, 500 students attended the entrance exam, and only 10 of them succeeded. So, I decided to give them a second chance and made another test, but only 15 people passed this time. So, I decided to abolish the entrance exams. It was getting worse every year anyway, and last year was the final straw.”

“Wow, that sounds depressing.”

Idarin nodded.

“Yeah, want to come and teach something to the new useless generation?”

“Pass, sending my son is already enough.”

“Wait, a son or sons?!”

Idarin shouted.

“Long story. We found a kid nearly dead and disowned by his family, so we took him, and my son insisted that he take our last name. So here we are. Also, he is from the assassin’s clan, so all I could give him was physical training.”

Idarin gave a suspicious look to Wilbert.

‘Son of someone like him shouldn’t be weak, right?’

But he still had doubts. So many nobles’ children did disappoint him in the past, so his faith was almost at the bottom.

“What kind of person is your son?”

“He is a good kid, but…”

He paused for a moment.

“He can be a little weird sometimes. I think this is the effect of overtraining him. And he is a mage just like you.”

“Really?”

Idarin began to smirk, but then he suddenly stopped.

“Wait, what kind of overtraining might have you given a mage?”

“Well, that is the weird part. You’ll understand when you meet him. I’m thinking about sending them in a week.”

‘After all, this year could actually be fun.’

He thought to himself and asked Wilbert.

“Tell me their names. I’ll write that down.”

“Elius Clay is my son’s name, and Ian Clay is my adoptive son.”

“Okay, I can’t wait to meet them. I’ll send a cart.”

“Do you even know where are we?”

Idarin smirked after hearing that.

“What do you think.”

They both paused for a second.

“You actually went with the name she wants.”

Wilbert nodded and quickly changed the subject.

“I trust you, and I should probably add that Elius can become excited quickly, didn’t aware of what his actions can cause, but not always. He is kind of addicted to battle, so he might try to attack everyone at school. Okay, see you.”

He quickly said, and his image on the sphere disappeared. Idarin couldn’t care if Elius knocked down the walls of the academy. He was smiling, and his whole body shook with excitement.

“A battle addict mage and a kid who trained under Victor is coming here. Hahahaha. I can’t wait. I can’t wait.”

He didn’t have to sleep anymore. He was wide awake and stood up.

“I should do some preparations. This year is going to be crazy. Just one more year. If I get disappointed this year too, I’ll blow this academy up myself and turn back to the tower.”

He kept laughing while leaving his room. He didn’t know yet, but in a few years, not just the students that were coming to his academy this year, but this generation all over the world would go down in history as the ‘Mad Generation.’

* * *

On a high cliff, where the whole village was visible, Elius was spinning his staff like crazy, and it was very fluent. It was as if it was a part of his body now. With every spin of the bo staff, he also spun around and slowly approached the edge of the cliff. When there was no place to take a step forward, he saw Wilbert and Ian resting down next to their house below the cliff and threw his staff into the air, which instantly shrunk and disappeared from view. Then Elius jumped off the cliff. Jumping from such heights was no longer a problem for him. He desperately wanted to fly, but it wasn’t something he was capable of yet. A few seconds later, he landed calmly next to Wilbert and Ian as if he was jumping out of bed.

They were all half-naked. Elius has been like this since childhood. Unless it was winter, he never wore any t-shirts. That was a habit he got from his father. In his first year with them, Ian resisted Elius, but eventually, he also joined them.

Wilbert had long hair now, and he was tying it from the back. His physique improved noticeably over the years, and he definitely didn’t look like 44 years old. Actually, all of their physiques improved quite well. Elius’ and Ian’s bodies almost looked the same since they had undergone the same physical training for six years.

“What you guys are talking about?”

Elius approached them and asked.

“Nice timing. I was giving Ian the good news. We are leaving tomorrow.”

“Ooh, so we are finally leaving this hell pit?”

It was becoming harder and harder every passing year to stay here for Elius.

“I knew we were going to the academy, but where are you going? Are you coming with us?”

“No, I got some unfinished business, and also, I can’t stand to stay here anymore.”

Elius was overexcited and couldn’t sleep at night. With the first light of the morning, a cart was already waiting for them at the village entrance. Neither too luxurious nor too shabby. It had a symbol on it, a sun and a sword in its middle, which was the Blernian Academy’s symbol.

“Ooo, they even send a cart for us?”

Elius ran towards it with excitement. His eyes were bloodshed since he couldn’t sleep, yet he was full of energy. When Wilbert and Ian following him from behind slowly, Wilbert stopped Ian.

“Ian.”

“Huh?”

Ian turned around with sleepy eyes.

“Can you keep an eye on him? You know how clueless he can sometimes be. And you also know he sees you as his brother and listens to you.”

Ian smiled genuinely.

“Don’t worry, Uncle Wilbert. I also see him as my brother. You two gave me a new life, and I’ll always feel gratitude towards you.”

Before Wilbert could say anything more, Elius shouted from inside the cart.

“Hey, Ian! Are you coming?! Come on!”

Thus, the two got into the cart and said their farewell to Wilbert. Then, the cart began to move. Elius stuck his head out of the cart and shouted at Wilbert one last time.

“Hey, dad! Don’t forget to visit us!”

Wilbert nodded and waved. After waiting for the cart to disappear, he took action as well. He was grinning like a complete madman.

“Now, now. Where should I start first?”

Finally, they parted ways and set off on their own journeys.