The Academy - Side B

Monsoon Military Academy

"All of you here call yourselves warriors, soldiers, fighters." Kazu paused as he looked at his class of one hundred students - some barely out of their teens. "But you cannot call yourself a true solider unless you have cultivated certain habits aside from fighting with or without weapons. How many of you have attended the War School?"

Three students - two boys and a girl - raised their hands. Kazu wasn't surprised at all. Few students from that school joined military academies.

"Well, those of you who have attended, or know someone who has, would know that the War School not only teaches its students various forms of combat, but also makes them study texts on politics, ethics, and the like." Hearing a groan from the students, he smiled. Nobody wanted to attend a class not related to what they'd actually joined the institution for. "While this module will not be as rigorous given that it's the only course you have that is not related to combat, I will ensure that by the end of it, you will have mastered the basics."

While everyone soon knew that Kazu had never set foot in the War School, his intelligence and physical skill were more than enough for his students to start respecting him from the very first day. Often, he would join in the evening combat games of the students, beating them soundly (though nobody knew how) without any magic whatsoever. To nobody's surprise, he soon had his own fan club: a group of boys who would follow him around like lost puppies. He never minded them, though, and was always willing to give them advice on matters outside of class as well.

One afternoon, the fan club and a few other students ran into him as he was about to leave the academy grounds. "Professor Ozan, sir, where are you going?" one of them asked.

"I'm leaving for a walk around town, before I go make some visits," he said. "Is there anything you'd like to ask before I leave? I still have some time."

"Who are you visiting?" About ten students who asked that question were staring at him wide-eyed. So this is what it's like to have a cult following you, I suppose, Kazu thought. Well, no harm in telling them, is there?

"I-I'm going to visit my fiancee." For the first time in the three weeks his students had known him, he looked less like a confident instructor and more like a teenager just out of school.

The questions came at him faster than the sudden rains last week.

"Your fiancee?"

"Who are they?"

"How long have you been engaged?"

"When are you getting married?"

"Can we attend the wedding?"

"Will there be good food?"

"He's not even given us an answer yet, you idiot!"

Kazu held back a laugh. "She's a professor at the university. We're having the wedding next month, over the winter holidays.

"As for the invitations...let me ask her and get back to all of you."

The students cheered. The food at the military academy was never the greatest, so the prospect of free food, which probably tasted good too, was enough to lift their spirits up. 

"Where did you meet her?" 

The redhead paused for a moment. "We met at school. I was her best friend's bodyguard at the time, and I was to protect my charge's two friends as well, which included her."

As with many individuals, the idea of a forbidden love fascinated the listeners, which was what they suspected had happened. Unfortunately for them, Kazu wasn't about to reveal the details.

"My tenure as bodyguard ended during my final year at school, after which I started dating her. We got engaged over the summer." As if to confirm it to himself, he touched the ring on his left hand, which Eri had insisted on getting for him.

Since their professor had declined to mention the details, the students left slightly disappointed, but they were also determined to wrong out the details from him come hell or high water. It may not have been the greatest idea in their minds, but it wouldn't leave.

Kazu, for his part, hummed his usual melodies as he walked down the path that would lead him to Aster Villa. Less than a month would pass before he never had to do so again. Instead, he would wake up there every morning.