‘It's been a long time, I have forgotten the feeling of being mortal’ 

Liam thought as he looked around the academy with a warm smile on his face.

*sigh*

“Pity this peace will not last long”

Passing by the students, he can’t help but feel helpless for them, most of them are commoners who come from rich merchant families with a small percentage composed of poor nobles, involving him.

Liam remembered that his parents sent him to the academy to learn the techniques of the academy and become the hope of the family.

‘I should bring Emily back home with me since the techniques the academy provides are only at the Low Adebt Grade’

In the Carriela Kingdom, most of the Higher Grade Techniques were in the hands of the upper nobles including the royal family.

Joining the army can provide you with Middle Expert Grade Techniques, but very risky as they always conflict with other countries or calamities.

Joining the nobles or royal family on the other hand can provide you with High Master Grade Techniques, but will lose your freedom and will guard them for the rest of your life.

If you're lucky and join the royal family, and gain their trust, you might get a Middle Grandmaster Grade Technique.

In the past, those nobles only sent their weakest forces into the frontline against the demons, which made the frontline of the Carriela Kingdom was responsible for, collapse after two Masters and one Grandmaster joined the battlefield.

‘It's useless for me to go out of my way to change their minds, it's better for me to go home and develop my own forces’ 

Liam shook his head and then continued to walk.

…

After walking for a while, he arrived at the training area, where most of the students train in their free time.

Liam looked around the training area, looking for Emily, passing by hundreds of students training their techniques.

*Shing*

The sound of a sword being swung in a corner of the training area.

Liam smiled, as he saw a diligent girl with brown hair in a ponytail swinging her sword seriously, and walked up to her.

“Hard working I see.”

“If I don’t work hard, how could I protect you from danger!” Emily said while still swinging her sword.

Liam smiled looking at her. Emily Sullivan, the daughter of the head maid in the Akash territory, was sent with Liam to serve as his maid and guardian while in the academy.

In the past, he and Emily reached the apprentice level in the midst of the war, due to the technique given by the academy being only at the Low Adebt Grade and full of flaws, it took them a while.

“Uhm, can you stop starring at me like that, it's embarrassing”

Liam came back to his senses and noticed that he was staring at Emily for a while.

“Nothing, just thought you were cute.” Liam said while still smiling at her.

“Eh?!” 

Emily's face blushed as she was shocked.

“What with you today, you're not asking like your usual self”

Emily tried to redirect the subject to Liam.

“Nothing much just came to tell you I'm dropping out of the academy and going back home.”

“Eh?! why?!”

Emily was shocked for the second time.

“I decided to go back and inherent and develop the Akash territory.” 

“But, but the academy will force us to sign a contract that will prevent us from practicing the academy technique back home!”

Emily looks worried for both of them that the Novice level will be their limit in this lifetime.

Liam’s mouth curved.

“Seems like we will have a normal lifespan, we should make every moment count”

*sigh* “Fine, it's your choice, ill follow after you”

Emily frowned looking sad but decided to leave with Liam as his maid.

“Well, since I cut off your chance to transcend, I'll take responsibility and marry you”

“Eh?!”

Emily was shocked for the third time, steam came out of her head.

“P-p-please take care of me” 

Emily lowered her red face, unable to think of a way to reject Liam taking responsibility.

Liam was amused by Emily accepting it instantly.

“Alright, alright I have a technique here which is higher than the academy technique, I'm planning on using it as the hereditary family technique”

“Realy?! Can I also use that technique?!” Emily's eyes brighten to hear that Liam has a higher technique than the academy.

“Yes, yes you can practice it when we return back to the territory”

Liam held his laughter seeing Emily’s out-of-character.

“Ah! Ehem, thank you for giving me the chance to transcend a higher level and please refrain from joking about marriage”

Emily came back to her senses and immediately returned to her normal posture.

“Who said I was joking”

“Eh?!”

…

“Those guys really don’t care about anything else when there is money involved huh”

Liam came out of a room after reporting his and Emily’s withdrawal from the academy.

‘Anyways, this gives me less hassle to handle later’

Withdrawal from the academy usually takes a lot longer, being passed from one person to another to confirm the withdrawal of a student.

‘Emily should be done packing by done’ 

As Liam was walking out of the academy, he turned to look back at the academy.

‘This should be the last time I see this academy standing’

A memory flashes in his mind, due to the frontlines of the Carriela Kingdom collapsing, the royal family implemented heavy taxes and nobles' obligation, that is to have the noble's strongest private forces go to the frontlines. Of course, the nobles who heavily invested in their forces voiced their complaints to the royal family. 

The royal family did not give the nobles a bit of negotiation and made the kingdom on its way to a large-scale civil war.

Liam continued to walk to the carriage after having looked at the academy for the last time.

Opening the carriage door, he saw Emily already sitting and waiting for him.

“You done reporting to the academy”

“Yeah, those guys will do anything for a fast cash grab, I even wonder if those guys bought their position into the academy” 

Emily nodded with a pouted face.

“If you didn't tell me about the corruption of the academy, I would have never known about it, it was in front of me. yet, I didn't see it!!”

“Well, most students in the academy are only there for the academy technique and solely focusing on their training, so most of you won’t see it until you closely look at the academy.”

“If an academy like this is already this corrupt, what about those where those nobles go to?”

Emily asked with a curious face

“The noble academy is actually much worse than the 5 Element Academy, those nobles will only go to the noble academy to make connections with other nobles and bribe and boast to each other, you'll rarely see a noble really going there for training, most nobles already have Expert to Grandmaster Grade techniques as inheritance, and would rather have someone train subordinates to  defend them”

Laim recalled the past when he and Emily were tasked by the military to protect a noble’s son while “training” in the academy, Liam already knew that someone in the military was bribed.

 

"But if those nobles don't train their techniques, how could they live longer?"

“Those nobles usually buy those expensive potions, that can help them skip the Notice level to Master level depending on the potion grade. Anyways, let's rest for now, it will take a while to arrive back home, based on the speed of this Novice Level Horse it will take a week to arrive back home” 

Liam nodded looking at the speed they were going at.

‘Back home huh, how much I missed it.