The court mages knew that if the restructuring went ahead, they’d completely lose face, and that any attempt to keep clinging to their own profits and authority after the reforms would see them cleared out of the Order. But the king was entirely on board with the proposals, and he was angry enough with the state of affairs that anyone who tried to stop him might find their head on the chopping block for treason. The court mages had no way out.
Ultimately, then, these mages had given the outward appearance of falling in line with the king’s decision, allowing themselves to be incorporated into the broader military.
But these mages’ plans had been derailed in a big way: They’d soon found they could no longer turn down requests from the Order of Knights, as they’d been doing this whole time. Even then, though, it wasn’t as if the restructuring would immediately wipe out the long-standing antagonism between the groups, so plenty of arrogant, egotistical individuals had refused nonetheless—and found themselves fired before long.
Amid all this, the mages assigned to Aleph’s knights had joined the knights in their training. They’d been fiercely resistant at first...but a few weeks later, upon their return, they were suddenly obedient and devoted to their jobs. It was like they’d turned into completely different people.
Yes—they too had undertaken the Trial of the Depths.
Just like that, then, a clear distinction had been drawn between the “useful mages” and “useless mages,” and only the former were kept within military service.
Those individuals who’d merely pretended to feign obedience to the king’s command, quietly plotting to take back their former authority the moment they had a chance, had been weeded out entirely, stripped of all authority.
Encouraged by the initiative’s success, the king and the Order of Knights had recommended that the Trial of the Depths be incorporated as part of standard training. In contrast, those who’d been in favor of maintaining the old structure of the Order of Mages had seen their influence wane rapidly.
“Thanks to you, Mr. Zelos, we’ve been able to shut the mouths of those noisy old fogies in the Order of Mages,” Aleph said. “We don’t need that kind of dead weight around when we’re trying to defend the country.”
“Zelos?! Did you seriously take a scalpel to the country’s institutions?! What were you thinking?!” Ado cried.
“I haven’t done a thing,” Zelos replied. “Anyway—it sure sounds like everyone hated those old Order of Mages leaders, eh?”
The old fogies from the Order of Mages had actually ventured into the Far-Flung Green Depths as well, but they hadn’t been able to withstand the fierce combat and harsh conditions there.
In fact, upon seeing members of the Order of Knights using magic as well, those mages had been forced to recognize that it would be nigh impossible to maintain the existing system.
It simply wasn’t feasible for the mages to keep sitting back in safety and scheming to grow their influence while the knights honed their skills in brutal training. Seeing the overwhelming—and still widening—skill gap between them and the knights, the mages had been forced to confront the reality that the times were changing. Mages with essentially no combat experience had been weeded out on the spot, while those desperate to survive improved themselves and were integrated into the Order of Knights.
It really was survival of the fittest. The knights’ ghastly training regimen was enough to send shivers down the spines of spoiled mages from noble backgrounds.
“There’s no training better than real combat, after all,” Aleph said. “And while we might have been working with you as guards, Mr. Zelos, what we went through in the Depths was excellent training for us as well. Though I can only wish to be strong enough to take on wyverns myself someday...”
“Zelos?” Ado spluttered. “What have you been getting up to that you haven’t mentioned?!”
“Look, I... I just wanted my pupils to learn how terrifying combat could be,” Zelos said. “I certainly didn’t expect the knights to pick up my idea and run with it like this. Speaking of which—what were you planning to do if people died out there, Aleph?”
“Plenty of people dropped out due to injuries,” Aleph said. “They were all mages, though. If you ask me, it just goes to show they hadn’t trained enough, that’s all. They go out there, run out of mana in seconds, and then they’re useless, since they have no idea how to fight up close and personal. And neither the Order of Knights nor the court mages need that kind of dead weight in their ranks.”
“Damn, you guys are hardcore!” Ado said. “I get it’s a meritocracy, but jeez!”
Most members of the Order of Mages had been recruited based on their grades and had no experience in combat.
It wasn’t as if they were completely useless in combat, but they didn’t have the slightest clue how to handle critical situations. The moment a battle devolved into a melee, they’d stop following orders and run straight for the nearest rescue party.
After spending all those years arrogantly looking down on knights, these mages had been made painfully aware of their own incompetence. Some had even been so terrified by their brief time in combat that they still hadn’t recovered.
And just like that, only the cream of the crop, who’d made it through hell itself, remained in the Order of Mages.
Hearing about all this left even Zelos flabbergasted. Sure, this training regimen had been his idea, but he hadn’t meant for an entire country to adopt it as a means of cultivating a body of elite mages.
Moreover, it’d been Zweit, one of Zelos’s pupils, who’d suggested the training regimen be used that way.
The little training camp Zelos had improvised on the fly had grown legs of its own.
And in turn, it seemed, the knights and the mages alike had been taking themselves to the next level—both literally and metaphorically.
“Anyway,” Zelos said, “that concludes our report, so I was thinking of heading back to Santor now.”
“Give my regards to the former duke, if you would,” Aleph said. “I’m not sure what we would’ve done if His Grace hadn’t sent you to help.”
“Oh, no, don’t worry about it. All in a day’s work,” Zelos said.
Aleph and his knights would be stationed here for a while longer to keep guard and help with the cleanup.
Zelos and Ado left the mercenaries’ guild—the knights watching as they departed—and headed for Slaiste’s eastern gate.
“So, Zelos,” Ado said, “you’re headed to Santor now?”
“Hmm. Well...” Zelos thought. “We can make Hasam our first stop. I’m sure you’re worried for your wife.”
“Thanks. And yeah. I am worried about her. But what I’m even more worried about is, uh—if she stabs me, can I count on you to heal me?”
“You’re just assuming you’ll get stabbed?! Why are you resolving to die like some tragic hero?!”
“See, the thing about Yui is... She gets insanely jealous. In fact, instead of protecting me, can I ask you to protect Lisa and Shakti? Please. Like, seriously. I’m begging you here.”
Thinking back to when he’d met Yui, Zelos really didn’t remember her seeming like such a scary person. Still, Ado knew her better than anyone else. Zelos couldn’t just say he was lying.
Perhaps this would become the newest example of Zelos’s tendency to get caught up in trouble.
“Oh, Ado!” Lisa shouted from the distance. “You’re finally here! You sure took your time!”
“Yeah. We’ve been waiting here for a while,” Shakti said. “Did making your report really take that long?”
“Sorry,” Ado said. “Things kinda dragged on a bit.”
Seeing the exchange play out like a scene from a cliché romcom put a scowl on Zelos’s face. “Tch! Damn normie. I suuuuuure hope you don’t get stabbed later. It’d be a reeeaaal shame... Peh!”
“H-Hey! It almost sounds like you’re hoping she’ll stab me now!”
Zelos was a narrow-minded man.
His jealousy aside, though, the reunited quartet wasted no time departing through Slaiste’s east gate.
The group walked along the road for a while, and then, once the city’s walls were out of view, Zelos and Ado took out their Harley-Sanders Model 13 and kei car, respectively, from their inventories.
“Ooh. A kei car, eh?” Zelos nodded appreciatively. “Definitely reminds me of a certain manufacturer.”
“I mean, it’s pretty much the same one I drove back on Earth,” Ado said. “Kinda just defaulted to that design.”
“Hmm. It’d probably be able to fit my coccos...”
“Coccos? You mean the trash mobs? You’re keeping those as pets?”
“You shouldn’t underestimate them, Ado. It could get you killed. My coccos are the real deal. Each of them’s a rare variant—and they’re at the point now that they could hunt wyverns, you know?”
“What?! No way those are coccos!”
Zelos would have to pick up Ukei, Senkei, and Zankei along the way. After confirming their location with a map, the group started heading to the village where Zelos had dropped off the coccos on his way to Slaiste. Fortunately, the recent monster stampede meant there weren’t any merchants traveling along the road who could spot them.
When they arrived a little later, they were shocked by what they saw.
“Wh-What is this...” Zelos muttered, at a loss for words.