“You would like me to serve as the School District recruiter?”
When she was called into the office of the manor, Lefiya’s eyes widened.
Finn, Riveria, and Gareth were there as well.
“That’s right!” Loki smiled right in front of her. “You’re a graduate! Who could be better for grabbin’ up all the top students from that cheeky place?! You’re the one who knows us and them best!”
“That is…true, I suppose, but…”
The School District, the roving institute of education, would return to Orario in three days.
And its return marked the start of the season when every familia would seek out students with future potential.
This period was Orario’s recruiting season.
With cooperation from the School District’s leadership, representatives of every familia would hold sessions explaining and promoting their factions.
For Orario, it was a way to gather talent, and for the School District, it was a way to provide its students with opportunities. Given the merits for everyone involved, this event had been sponsored since the school was founded—or rather, the original intention in founding the School District was to gather people from all over the world in the Labyrinth City.
And amid all that, the administration could request that a familia send a member for an extended period as a recruiter. They could build a deeper relationship with the students, teach them more about their familia, and advertise its activities. Generally, the reason for this from the School District’s perspective was because of a large number of students demonstrating an interest in joining a given familia, and as such, it was an accommodation for the largest familias.
As one of Orario’s strongest, Loki Familia was of great interest to many students.
“Royman and ’em have been hounding me. They wanna make sure Orario grabs lotsa top students and all.”
If they could capture the students’ interest, Orario’s strength would grow, even if they all ended up joining different familias.
The Guild was interested in enlisting the best of the best—potential future top-tier adventurers.
It is true that the students are brilliant, but wasn’t Loki Familia not aggressive about recruiting? I heard Loki had only grudgingly engaged with it last time.
Lefiya was confused.
She was the first student from the School District who Loki Familia had accepted.
It caused a big stir at the time, with people calling it the most extraordinary feat since the School District’s founding. As one of the top students at the time, she had won a recommendation and was the only student to be accepted out of eight hundred applicants.
“But if a representative of the familia is being sent, I believe Ms. Aki or Ms. Alicia would be better suited.”
“What do you know, we sent those two kids as recruiters last time. Wouldn’t want them grumbling about having to do the same thing all over again, though, and it’s rough around here without them.”
Put bluntly, Lefiya wanted to withdraw her name from consideration, but Loki wouldn’t let her get out of this so easily.
Even for the sake of strengthening the familia, Finn and the rest of the senior leadership could not leave for an extended time. The familia would stop running without them. As for the other core members…I’m sorry to say that they are just not suited to it.
Aiz was not especially articulate, Tiona and Tione would probably break something, and Bete was just out of the question. In that situation, the obvious targets would be the second-tier members, particularly the tactful Anakity and Alicia.
However, as Loki mentioned, they were the recruiters sent last time around when Lefiya was a student.
“Anyway, no training with Bete during that time. And no goin’ into the Dungeon, either.”
Lefiya’s eyes flared hearing that.
When she finally sussed out their true intent, her tone grew immediately prickly.
“Loki, I understand my condition better than anyone. I am not forcing myself, and I am taking breaks. Please do not push work onto me as an excuse to limit my freedom.”
“I ain’t sayin’ anything like that. I just want ya to focus on the recruiting. If we’re gonna poach some students, I want ya a hundred percent focused on it.”
She could not help glaring at her brazen patron goddess.
It was all the worse because it was a perfectly reasonable argument.
She could not be half-hearted if she was serving as a recruiter or an official representative of her familia. It would likely mean staying aboard the ship for the duration of its visit.
Loki surely had that planned from the start.
Lefiya recognized that every escape route was sealed no matter how she struggled.
“And most of all! Just think of those cute and innocent students looking up to you, the OG alum!! Just imagine their eyes glistening, calling you big sister! A lovely lily or two might just bloom, hee-hee-hee!”
They won’t call me that, and nothing of the sort will bloom.
Exasperated, she stared sharply at Loki, who did not bother to hide her ulterior motives.
Loki smiled quietly at her.
“You against it?”
Of course. I don’t have time for this. I want to get stronger. Just when I was starting to really feel the change happening.
She could see through Lefiya’s heart even if she kept a straight face and still smiled.
“But too bad. Goddess’s orders.”
“Gh…Loki.”
Lefiya leaned forward as her goddess played the ultimate trump card, but…
“It is a request from me as well, Lefiya. Our familia has sustained casualties, including the people we lost in the last battle. I would like to recruit graduates from the School District to make up for some lost strength. All the more so if there are promising students like you.”
“Captain…”
“Not that we think elves like you are poppin’ up all the time, though! If they are, they’re more’n a wee bit better at teachin’ people than we are! Ga-ha-ha!”
Gareth’s garrulous laughter eased the mood after Finn’s earnest request.
After receiving such a request, Lefiya found it impossible to refuse.
Fighting the urge to sigh, she gave in and straightened up.
“Very well…I accept the recruiter position.”
“Thank you, Lefiya. I appreciate it,” Finn said, thanking her
“Take this opportunity to reexamine yourself, Lefiya,” Riveria said. “Not just through your own eyes, but through the eyes of others as well.”
✦ ✦ ✦
The iconic ship earned the title of the world’s largest many times over.
A diameter of 700 meders.
Its body was a cylinder that could hardly be called a hull. It was most correctly described as a floating ship. A grand manifestation of Orario’s magic-stone industrial development, an amalgamation of 500 large-scale magic-stone devices—a flotation device also used for the elevator in Babel—allowed it to slide across the surface of the sea and boldly travel all around the world.
The round structure that made up the ship was divided into three layers: the control layer, the residential layer, and the academic layer. The cylindrical layers were over twenty meders tall, providing a massive amount of living space despite being on a ship normally out at sea. More than ten thousand people lived on board, and its scale was on par with that of a large city.
The highest level, the academic layer, was bathed in sunlight beneath the blue sky. It was covered in schoolhouses, large-scale arenas, and various other facilities laid out in beautiful symmetry. In the center was the bridge, a tower that resembled Babel.
The bow resembled the head of a heron and could move a full 360 degrees, setting the ship’s course.
It, too, was a magic-stone product, a one-of-a-kind forcefield propulsion device.
A short stack of pancakes.
A clock with an extra-long hand.
A grand dragon’s back.
Described along those lines by those who saw it, it was an object of envy across the breadth of the mortal realm.
Both a ship that traveled the world and a world of knowledge and study unto itself.
Welcoming those who studied, illuminating those who were lost, a guiding light that spread its wings across the whole world.
Its official name was the Hringhorni. Its other name was the Maritime Academy for Scholarship Special Administrative District, aka the School District.