Khan reached his flat in no time. He wasn't in a hurry, but he felt restless, and it took him a while to understand the source of that feeling.
Initially, Khan blamed Cora and their kiss for his restlessness. After all, he had jumped into a situation where he didn't have feelings for his partner. He hoped to develop them to make sure that Cora got what she deserved, but part of him desired the opposite outcome.
Still, his hesitation and uncertainty weren't enough to make him feel like that. Khan even went over Headmaster Pitcus' message again to see if the imminent meetings with the families' representatives stirred something. Yet, he didn't experience anything out of the usual. He actually sensed confidence brimming inside him.
Khan could find the source of his restlessness only after eliminating those imminent problems. He had already realized that being selfless made him feel good, but the kiss with Cora revealed that a heavy price accompanied that approach. It was easy to forget about himself when he focused entirely on others.
That approach could work with men and women at the end of their careers or with no interests left. Khan could imagine versions of Lieutenant Dyester and Captain Goldmon completely focused on their underlings. Still, he was different. He was barely seventeen. He had many desires that his various traumas and peculiar situation had suppressed.
Those desires were the reason behind his violence during the kiss. They explained why Khan kept drinking whenever he had the chance, and they also revealed why he joked with Amber. He simply liked doing that.
Khan was far from tired, but he didn't want to spend the whole night immersed in his training programs. He had many books to study, but that wasn't the right time to memorize alien languages and customs.
Khan left his flat without even realizing that he had made up his mind. His feet led him in the areas with the training halls, and a sigh of relief escaped his mouth when he saw the metal door sliding open at the touch with his phone. Menus lit up under him, and he quickly tapped on a few labels to choose the exercise.
Thinking was too troublesome. Worrying about the messy desires and fears that filled his mind was too tiring. Khan set the alarm to his phone and decided to shut his thoughts to lose himself in long battles. An honest smile even appeared on his face when the training hall released the first puppet.
"It was like this when I arrived," Khan swore while wearing the most honest face he could muster.
"Then why did you wait almost twenty hours to contact me?" Headmaster Pitcus sighed while adjusting his glasses to inspect the damage.
The training hall's state was as perfect as ever, but that only applied to its surfaces. The wall containing the workshop that built the puppets was open now, and Headmaster Pitcus could inspect the destroyed mechanical arms, drills, and tubes inside it.
"Why did you even attack the training dummy before it became ready to fight?" Headmaster Pitcus asked while straightening his position and showing his frown to Khan.
Khan didn't know what to say. He had remained inside the training hall since the previous night, halting his battles only when his body needed breaks. That had allowed him to dive deeper into his instinctive fighting style, but it had also led to unexpected consequences.
During real battles, Khan had always been forced to retain a basic level of control. He couldn't allow himself to react solely to the waves of mana since he had to differentiate between allies and enemies.
However, the training hall offered a safe environment where Khan could go all-out without worrying about eventual consequences, or so he thought. When he was completely immersed in the waves of mana, he had launched a chaos spear toward the workshops since he had sensed energy gathering in that spot.
The training halls were resilient, and Khan had even chosen one that could endure his element. Yet, only its surfaces had that resistant factor. The workshop inside the wall had nothing similar, and it was even quite frail compared to the overall structure.
Khan had realized what he had done only after he couldn't find other opponents around him. It had even taken him a while to recall how he had destroyed the workshop, but he didn't hesitate to contact Headmaster Pitcus afterward.
"I went on auto-pilot," Khan admitted. "It wasn't my intention to damage the camp."
"I hope it wasn't," Headmaster Pitcus chuckled.
"Aren't you angry, sir?" Khan asked.
"It's just a training hall," Headmaster Pitcus stated. "My superiors won't even ask for a refund when they hear that you have been the one to break it."
Khan heaved a sigh of relief. He probably didn't have enough money to pay for the damage, and he didn't want to be broke again so soon.
"Let's talk a bit about you instead," Headmaster Pitcus changed the topic while looking at Khan's bleeding hands. "Are you okay? It's common for soldiers to develop problems after wars. We have specialists here that might be able to help."
"Oh," Khan exclaimed as he glanced at his hands. "My hands are fine. My knife broke near the end, so I had to use these. Don't worry. It happens all the time."
"And you consider it fine?" Headmaster Pitcus asked.
"They really are okay," Khan explained while closing and opening his hands, but the process only enlarged his superficial injuries and made more blood fall out of them.
"Pay a visit to the medical bay when you get out of here," Headmaster Pitcus ordered while shaking his head. "And take a shower before heading for the meeting with the representatives. Remember to wear your military uniform. I'll be there to intervene if something goes wrong."
"Thank you, sir!" Khan replied while performing a military salute.
"Go to the medical bay already," Headmaster Pitcus scolded. "The meeting is in two hours. Being late won't help your cause."
Khan nodded and retrieved his broken knife and phone before leaving in a hurry. His blood fell on the device's screen when he browsed through the unanswered messages. He had replied to Cora and Amber during his short breaks, but he had still left them hanging for a few hours.
Needless to say, both Cora and Amber grew worried when they heard about his trip to the medical bay, but he reassured them quickly. Cora even asked if Khan needed her, but he explained how time wasn't on his side.
The nurses were more than enough to handle the shallow injuries on his hands. They applied lotions and bandages that didn't hinder the movements of his fingers before letting him go back to his flat.
The alarm that Khan had set the previous night rang while he was still in the middle of his shower. The event forced him to hurry even more and led to a long sprint across the camp's streets.
The meeting couldn't happen in the central areas of the camp due to the political repercussions that the presence of the families' representatives could cause to the professors. Khan would only end up at the center of more gossips if someone saw him attending a private meeting with those important figures, but the same would apply to any soldier.
Headmaster Pitcus had designated an underground structure near the train area for the meeting. Khan reached it in an instant through his sprints, but he still arrived only five minutes before the scheduled time.
The instructions on Headmaster Pitcus' message were extremely clear, so Khan found his destination easily. A large hall unfolded in his vision when the metal doors slid open, and a series of gazes immediately fell on him.
Khan performed a series of polite nods as he walked inside the hall. The layout of the room resembled the areas used by other subjects. He could see a desk on one side and a series of seats on the other with stairs running through them.
Headmaster Pitcus was already sitting behind the desk, and the same went for the figures on the seats. Khan saw more than twenty figures wearing cold faces as they inspected him from head to toe. The atmosphere was more than tense, but Khan didn't let it affect his thoughts.
"Greetings, esteemed guests," Khan exclaimed before reaching a spot in front of the desk and performing a military salute to the families' representatives.
His behavior was impeccable, but that wasn't enough to please the representatives. They only showed annoyance and scorn in front of his salute, and none of them dared to address it adequately.
Headmaster Pitcus cleared his throat and stood up to announce the beginning of the meeting. "Now that everyone is here, Lieutenant Khan will answer your questions. I hope that by the end of the meeting you'll feel reassured about his teaching methods."
"That sounds hard since Lieutenant Khan can't even manage to arrive before us," A middle-aged woman among the representatives complained.
"Does he believe that his duties are more important than ours?" A middle-aged man among the representatives asked.
"I wouldn't be surprised about that," Another representative added. "He is young, and his background didn't teach him anything about Earth's ruling class. How long did he even spend studying in Ylaco's training camp?"
"I'm sorry, Headmaster Pitcus," A fourth representative continued. "I respect your figure and dedication toward Reebfell's training camp, but I simply can't understand how Lieutenant Khan can be a good choice for this job."
Headmaster Pitcus wanted to respond, but Khan glanced at him and nodded. The soldier could only reveal a smile and sit back on his chair while announcing his intentions. "That's why we are having this meeting. You can redirect your doubts to Lieutenant Khan."
"Thank you, sir," Khan quickly said before turning toward the representatives. "Esteemed guests, I must admit that becoming a professor had never crossed my mind. Colonel Norrett offered me this position after winning Onia's tournament, and I found no reason to refuse, especially since I believe I have something worth teaching."
A series of snorts resounded among the representatives. They didn't dare to complain right after Khan mentioned Colonel Norrett, so they waited for him to continue and say something they could contradict.
"I know that my teaching methods are unusual," Khan continued, ignoring the snorts and suppressed curses that followed his statement. "Still, the same goes for my subject. I wouldn't know how to teach it without forcing my students to face calculated dangers."
"It is my understanding that you have forced your students to face a Tainted animal with genetic and bionic enhancements," One of the representatives exclaimed. "How can you consider that a calculated danger?"
"It was calculated because I was there, ready to intervene," Khan explained.
"Why did they suffer injuries then?" Another representative asked. "My boy told me that you didn't even let them visit the medical bay afterward."
"I did delay their trip to the medical bay to recreate the conditions of a battlefield," Khan declared.
"Are you crazy?!" A third representative shouted. "Do you think we would like our descendants to experience a battlefield when they aren't ready for it?"
"With all due respect," Khan responded, "I don't care about what you like. I never thought about you during my lessons. My whole focus must be on my students."
The statement left the representatives speechless for a few seconds, but Khan soon heard a storm of complaints flying toward his ears. They shouted, stood up, and slammed their palms on the small desks in front of them as they voiced their anger.
Some representatives took Khan's lines as an insult that didn't respect their position. Others started to view him as a sadistic man. A few directly started to ignore him and called Headmaster Pitcus with bold requests. Khan heard the words "fire him immediately" seven times in less than thirty seconds.
"Are you all dumb?" Khan eventually shouted, and the event surprised everyone so much that even Headmaster Pitcus stood up.
