Chapter 181 Back To Church

Chapter 181 Back To Church

As he thought about what the protocol might be for changing locations now that his official mission was over, Karl realized that Colonel Valerie was still here somewhere, and he had her number in his phone.

He scrolled the handful of numbers in the phone's directory and sent her a simple text message.

[I have a request from the church to go to the Seminary Academy. Do I need to do any paperwork to let the school know where I am?]

His phone dinged a few seconds later with her reply.

[I will take care of it. Have them arrange for your transit back to the Academy when you are finished, or update the mission log if they're sending you out again.]

That was simpler than he had expected it to be, but then a second message came in.

[Sergeant Rita will join you for your time at the Seminary Academy.]

"Are you good to go now?" Doug asked as Karl read the second message from Colonel Valerie.

"It looks like it. They're sending my personal tutor from the Academy to join me during my time there, so I think they're expecting me to be gone for a while." Karl agreed.

"They're sending a Tutor? Not a Professor?" Doug asked.

"Yeah, I usually train under the guidance of Sergeant Rita, or a pair from the Bureau of Elite Development. All three are around somewhere most days, though the other duo sometimes have work to do." Karl explained.

Doug nodded and smiled. "It looks like we got to you too late, they've already found you a cute girlfriend who just needs to make the first move."

The twins laughed and Karl chuckled. "If it's about Sergeant Rita, she's got competition from the first years."

"Oh? Do tell." Bob asked.

Karl realized that they didn't know who he was talking about. "I forgot for a moment that she wasn't on the same helicopter on the way in. There is another fast-growing student, a Mage named Dana. She's already Awakened Rank, and has been on all the same missions I have, only we got separated onto different teams this time."

Once Dana was gone and social time was over, Doug led them to a convoy of white buses with church logos on the side, which were just discharging their passengers.

The young clerics were giving Karl a curious look, and he realized that he actually had met most of these people before. They were students of the Seminary Academy, being shipped out to supplement the groups here.

He leaned over to whisper to Doug. "Should we really be headed back when things are so bad that they're sending bus loads of students out to the front lines?"

Doug smiled and patted him on the back. "It's not like that. They will be assigned as the second or third healer for a ten person military unit to gain work experience. This is a common thing for both Academies once the students are in their second years."

The group stopped to wait for the buses to be ready to start loading again, and the students took that as permission to come say hello.

Sort of.

"Brother Karl! Is Thor here?" One of the girls called from three buses away.

That brought dozens of eager looks their way, and Karl called out the happy Cerro to say hello to everyone.

"He's getting big. Good afternoon Thor." The girl giggled as she ran over to rub his horns.

Thor was quickly swarmed, and the Mages gave Karl a questioning look.

He just shrugged. "Thor is a people person. He makes friends everywhere that we go."

He was making even more friends here, behaving like an attention starved puppy around impressionable young clerics.

"At this rate, we're going to have to give them a refresher in the interacting with wild animals course when they get home." Doug chuckled.

"Thor is thoroughly domesticated. But I wouldn't recommend doing that with a wild Lightning Cerro. Though who knows, maybe they would like it, and it's just that nobody has tried." Karl agreed.

"Oh, someone has tried. That's why we teach the course." Doug countered with a smirk that said he was familiar with the story behind why the course existed.