Tempestamens 11, 1614 Central Calendar, 07:00
As usual, Walman woke up feeling refreshed in the morning after a good night's sleep. He felt the morning sun shining through the blinds and as he sat upon the bed with bleary eyes, he stretched his body for a moment. With a satisfied groan, Walman then rubbed his eyes and remained in place for a while.
He heard a shuffling sound from the side and when he turned his head to look, he found his childhood friend and roommate, Meteos, is still sleeping, facing him with crossed arms and a frown on his face, squeezed between him and a woman sleeping on the edge of the bed.
Wait.
A woman.
"Ay, yo, what the fuck!?" He exclaimed in shock.
The woman has shoulder-length brown hair and looked familiar to him. Upon closer look, he realized she is their teacher living next door, Robin, who also likes to hang out in their apartment room.
She was snuggling comfortably against Meteos' back, drawn in by the warmth emanating from his friend with one of her hands draped around him. Sometimes, Meteos' face will contort in a somewhat painful expression, but Robin's soft breath that tickled his nape and her chest rubbing against his back put Meteos' sleeping form at ease.
"Wait... it's Miss Robin... okay... that kind of explains things. But why is she sleeping here!?"
Concluding that he won't get answers by freaking out alone, he decided to wake Meteos up by delivering a precision slap at his cheek.
"Meteos, wake up!"
WHACK!
"ARGH!! THAT WRETCHED GRAD—HUH!?"
Meteos abruptly shot up from the bed, his arms flailing in panic and eyes wide in shock as he suddenly feels a stinging pain in his cheek. The first thing he saw was the sight of Walman looming over him with his hand raised. Whatever thing that Meteos had in his mind immediately left him as his eyes immediately zoned in on Walman's hand. He did not waste any time thinking and concluded that Walman is the one who did it.
"YOU! What is wrong with you!?" Meteos yelled as he rubbed his sore face.
"That's my line! What—"
"Nngggh... so noisy..."
Walman was cut off when they heard Robin grumbling on the other side. The two of them turned to stare at her, who was in the midst of waking up. She then let out a yawn and cracked her joints, letting out a satisfied groan by the time she finished.
"Man, that feels good...... Good morning, everyone!" She turned to Meteos and Walman and greeted them cheerfully.
"Morning," Meteos answered curtly as he rubbed his face, shaking off the remaining traces of sleepiness in him before yelling once more, "Okay, now get off me!"
The boys immediately scrambled out of the bed, leaving Robin sitting there, staring at them amusedly. As the grumbling Meteos stomped into the bathroom to wash his face, Walman leaned on the bathroom door and waited for his turn. His gaze occasionally wanders to Robin, who has gotten out of bed and is doing some stretching.
He really needs answers now, before his mind wandered to some weird conclusions.
Later, when the three of them are having breakfast together, Meteos explained to Walman what happened last night to calm him down. He said that he couldn't let a very tired Robin sleep on the couch, which may cause her huge discomfort in the morning, so he told her to take the bed. He also admitted that he is the one at fault for not heeding Robin's words to not overwork himself, causing the entire thing to happen in the first place.
"........."
As Walman munched on his breakfast in silence, he received the explanation with a feeling of resignation, not wanting to hurt his head this early in the morning. At least someone managed to talk Meteos out of his habit of overworking, but he did not expect it to be done in this manner.
During weekends like this, the three of them will usually go out to do some physical exercises, and since Meteos and Walman are both Student Mages, they will also go to the nearest place where they can freely use their magical power, RMA's Training Ground, under the supervision of Robin, who is a Mage herself.
And during the training, Meteos decided to repay Walman for slapping him awake... by hurling his wind spells at him.
Not wanting to be outdone, his friend retaliated by his own fire magic, and somewhere in the middle, their teacher joined in and on that day a corner of the Training Ground that morning was filled with traces of wind, fire, and lightning spells being thrown everywhere in a three-way battle.
By the way, Robin emerged as the victor thanks to her usage of Manadriver-powered chantless spells, something that Meteos and Walman don't have, allowing her to spam magic spells and overwhelm them before she ran out of stamina, much to their chagrin.
-----------------------
One hour later, the three of them are finishing their exercises in the morning and stopped by Robin's office in the RMA's administrative building to rest. The building is quiet that day, with the only people there being the janitors and the engineers holed in their department, whose work has become increasingly busy since Meteos' arrival to RMA with his ideas and inventions.
As they were resting on the comfortable couch in the office, Walman turned to Meteos with an annoyed expression on his face.
"......Must you cast spells at me that hard?"
Meteos only gave him a side-eye as he drank a bottle of water and replied with a nonchalant expression, "I merely gave you a retaliation for the way you wake me up. If you don't want that, then don't do that to me."
"I was panicking, okay!?"
Meteos stared at him for a moment and heaved a sigh.
"Enough. I admit it was very foolish of me to have such a juvenile thought... Walman, I'm sorry," he conceded.
While he was saying that, Meteos' expression turned downcast, seemingly genuine in his apology. His eyes were also distant, as if he was reminiscing about something. For some reason, Walman felt an inexplicable sense of discomfort seeing his friend look so sad like this.
He remembered that ever since they were little, Meteos has always been very kind to him, so kind that it feels ridiculous. Although he will show outbursts from time to time, he will immediately regret it and is the first to apologize, even if they are justified.
"Uh... okay... I'm sorry too, for hitting you earlier."
These words brought back the light in those blue eyes, and Meteos beamed at him. As if it was natural, Walman found himself smiling too, and the two shared a laugh.
Sitting across them, watching the two friends' interaction, Robin nodded in approval and clapped her hands loudly to gain their attention.
"Isn't it wonderful when you can find it within yourself to forgive each other's mistakes? I am so proud of you," she said with a smile, causing Walman to blush.
"Anyway. Miss Robin," Meteos called out.
"Yes?"
"Continuing our conversation from last night... I'm curious how your meeting with your boss went."
Robin leaned on the sofa and crossed her legs before answering. "Ah, yes. My superior, Director Lippin, agreed to bring this matter as the proposal from the Ancient Ministry during the Imperial Conference, which will take place in a few days. So, as I said before, everything went well."
Meteos nodded and muttered, "I see. Well... if His Majesty wanted the best for his Empire, he should listen."
"Wait, the Ancient Ministry's leader is called Lippin?" Walman interjected.
"Yes, his name is Arsene Lippin... oh right, he is new, having taken office only a year ago. His predecessor, the one you read in your textbooks, was fired."
"Ahh..."
Robin turned to Meteos again, "In case the Ancient Minister's proposal gets rejected, what will you do?"
He puts a hand to his chin and pondered for a bit before answering.
"I really hoped that the proposal would pass, but I do have several ideas in mind..."
Meteos then proceeded to outline his alternative plans, which includes research and development of various means of detection, including underwater detection and navigation techniques now that the development of a submarine is now entering the production phase; development of improved armament such as new naval guns with more efficient magic energy usage, new anti-aircraft gun equipped with proximity fuses, and next-generation torpedoes; development of advanced fire control system; development of stronger armor based on their previous research of material engineering, including a new armor scheme to reduce over-reliance on magical reinforcement and new anti-torpedo defense; improvement of the magic ship's propulsion system by developing an engine using turbine technology; revision of the design of the Navy's ship designs; and development and construction of the new type of ships with improved capabilities.
If the Ancient Ministry's proposal of the development of advanced jet aircraft is accepted, then these plans will be Meteos' outline for future reforms. He believes that he if can complete all of them, it will be the best.
As Robin and Walman listened, the two of them noted that the plans mainly focused on naval reforms, taking advantage of RMA's expertise in that field and the fact that compared to the Army and Air Force, the Navy's more successful effort in reverse-engineering and mass-producing Ancient Sorcerous Empire technologies (albeit with defects here and there) made them an easier branch to improve.
However, one question remains: how will Meteos accomplish all that? By himself?
Upon noticing that Robin is frowning and wanted to retort, Meteos raised his hand to stop her from interrupting and continued.
"Yes, I understand, thank you for your concern. I am aware that in no way I can do all of that by myself. For now, I am merely a high school student with very little power, which is why I can't wait to graduate and find someone to teach and leave some of my work to them. At least, that's the plan, what do you think?" he finished with a reassuring tone, calming his teacher down.
Meteos is aware of the nature of his country, whose knowledge is acquired by imitating what the Ancient Sorcerous Empire had thought, can only develop based on what they can find and their lack of ability to innovate and develop technology on their own. However, that doesn't mean that the Milishian people are stupid, as once they understand the principles of technology, they are able to invent something original on their own. For example, the RMA engineers working on the radar, Robin inventing grimoire and Manadrivers, and Gormes, who devised the idea of a submarine without Meteos' intervention.
If the Empire has more innovators who look towards the future like them and continues to advance regardless of whether the Ancient Sorcerous Empire's artifact exists or not, they will surely be able to live up to their name as the protector of mankind, free from the shackles of ignorance indirectly imposed upon themselves by the enemy of all races, the Ravernals.
After thinking about it for some time, Meteos decided that he should pass on his ideas and knowledge to other people who, in turn, will do the same to others and create a new generation of innovators. If he wanted his plans to change the Empire's fate to succeed, then he will need help from other people.
Speaking of changing fate...
The woman sitting across from him is the one whose fate changed the most as a result of his reincarnation and his subsequent actions. And as history begins to diverge from his previous life, Meteos wondered how the world would react.
And then there is the matter of the Annonrial Empire, silently preparing for the arrival of their masters while hiding their true power, deceiving the world with a display of weakness...
"Dammit..." Meteos murmured with a frown. The mere thought of what those winged people are scheming is enough to ruin his mood. After all, there are many ways of how they will react to the changes in the world. He unconsciously clenched his fist as he thought of the endless possibilities that can happen.
Unaware of Meteos' predicament, Robin mistook his sudden bout of frustration to be something else and thought to herself.
'Hmm... Meteos and Walman are already at the highest grade of junior high school, and their performance also exceeded our expectations... Although graduation is still several months away, there's no reason of to hold them back anymore. In fact, I think they should have skipped the high school altogether—that's right, I need to talk to the higher-ups about this.'
With that decision, Robin clapped once again.
"Alright! I know!" she exclaimed as she stood up from her seat.
"What? What?"
Her students are looking at her with question marks above their heads. Robin, with an excited expression, continued.
"You two, just graduate already!"
"Hah? I mean, aren't we going to graduate in a few months...?" Walman said, even more confused.
"No, I mean like right now!"
Robin then explained what she has in mind to the two of them and how she intends to carry it out. When she finished, Meteos and Walman looked at her with a mixture of surprise and amazement.
"Wow... I feel overwhelmed..." the brunette boy said.
"As expected from a MOASEC member—no, as expected from Miss Robin..." Meteos muttered, "But what about the others?"
He was referring to the students who helped Meteos several times before, such as Nadia and her friends.
"If the RMA's higher-ups decide that they are good enough, then they will consider it. As for you two, though, it's a different story. You know, many of the RMA's officials also have the same opinion as me. So, it shouldn't be that hard convincing them."
"Ah, I see..."
"Also, from last night's meeting, the Ancient Ministry has expressed their interest in recruiting you, so you will not need to worry about getting a job after you graduate."
The good news is coming one after another. Meteos couldn't resist laughing, and laughed he did. At this rate, he will not need to wait for too long until he reached a position where he can implement the reforms easier without encountering hurdles like his current situation. His plan is going smoother than he expected, thanks to Robin who, in this new life, is not dead.
"Hah... Wonderful!! Your power of connections never ceases to amaze me, Miss Robin... Alright! We are looking forward to working with you in the future, as fellow members of the Ancient Ministry. Right!?"
Meteos nudged Walman, who could only answer with a light grunt.
"Ahh... yes..."
"Hahaha! That's the spirit! I can't wait, too! Now leave everything to me, I will do my best to make sure that our plan succeeds!" Robin exclaimed with a bright expression, pulling Meteos and Walman closer and smothering them with her chest.
After the three of them returned to their apartment, in the evening, Robin received a call from her boss, Director Arsene Lippin, who wanted her help in preparing the materials for the upcoming Imperial Conference. Wishing her good luck, Meteos and Walman also proceeded with their own work with a renewed determination to pursue their dreams.
And four days later, the Imperial Conference begins.
-----------------------
Currently Publicly Available Information
CITY OF RUNEPOLIS
The capital city of the Holy Milishial Empire, located in the northwest part of the country, it is the center of the Greater Runepolis Metropolitan Area, the largest, most developed, and most densely populated major city in the known world, the place where all the world's elite converge. Due to the widespread use of magic lighting, Runepolis is also known by the nickname "Sleepless Magical City". It is bordered by the hills to the east, north, and south, and by the Minerva Ocean to the west. The Great River runs through the city, dividing Runepolis into northern and southern banks. The city is divided into thirteen districts.
The head of the House of Pendragon, one of the most prominent noble families of the empire, serves as the Lord Mayor of Runepolis.