Chapter 4
With the evaluation complete, Elise and her teammates finished the registration process.
When they returned to the Hall of Discipline's office and saw how many Church personnel were waiting there, Elise finally understood why the place was so crowded.
Disciplinary missions were issued at random.
Whenever the Hall of Discipline identified a criminal, its clerks and officers assessed the target's strength, then found a team capable of bringing the target down.
That meant every registered team had to leave one member on standby here—someone who could also gather the rest of the team on short notice.
Elise spent most of her time at the Academy, so she could reach the Hall quickly. The same went for Roland.
But what about Glenrius and Telynia?
Telynia caught the question in Elise's eyes and answered at once. "Elise, I'll be resting and studying at the Mage Guild. You and Roland can find me whenever you need me."
The Mage Guild stood right beside the Church of Light, only minutes away.
Glenrius explained his own arrangement. "I have a distant blood tie to Bishop Almus. I can stay at the Church."
"Church rules state that only Church personnel may accept a mission," Roland added. "I'll be the one who waits at the Hall of Discipline."
"May the Light God watch over us," Elise said, satisfied with the arrangement.
After settling the reward split for future missions, they went their separate ways.
Leaving the Hall of Discipline, Elise glanced at the changes to her spell skill experience on her system panel, shook her head, and headed for Nolan's classroom.
Nolan had spent the past few days leading training teams, which had put her [Runecraft] lessons on hold.
Since Elise had drained both her spirit energy and mana, this was the perfect chance to recover through [Meditation] while picking her [Runecraft] studies back up.
[Meditation skill experience +13.]
[Runecraft skill experience +3.]
[Runecraft skill experience +4.]
...
To Elise's surprise, no one interrupted her studies that afternoon. The Hall of Discipline didn't issue her team a single mission.
Just as she was considering checking the investigation notices herself, Wylan came hurrying over.
"Cleric Elise, Sir Roland asks you to come to the Hall of Discipline," Wylan said, excitement plain in his voice.
He was clearly thrilled to be useful to her.
"Thank you for telling me. May the Light God watch over you, dear Wylan."
Elise gently ruffled the boy's hair. A faint thread of tension stirred in her chest.
This would be her first disciplinary mission for the Church—elite enforcement work, in practice.
The mission would certainly take place somewhere inside Megalith City, but Elise knew perfectly well it would still be dangerous.
She checked over the Transcendent items on her person before taking her leave of Nolan.
By the time she reached the Hall of Discipline, dusk had begun to settle over the city.
Under the glow of the office's alchemical lamps, Elise quickly spotted Roland.
Glenrius stood with him, along with a face she barely knew.
Before Elise could greet her teammates, the unfamiliar knight saluted first.
"Cleric Elise. I hope you still remember me."
"Of course, Sir Harkian Fris. What can I do for you?"
His presence struck her as odd.
The unspoken rule of the Hall of Discipline was that teams kept their distance from one another. No one knew what mission another team might be assigned.
Harkian Fris standing here was already a breach of that custom.
When Elise questioned him, Harkian showed no sign that he thought he'd done anything wrong. Instead, he straightened his back.
"I believe your team lacks a proper knight. To put it bluntly, everyone else here is trash. You need me."
"I'm sorry, but I disagree," Elise said.
She understood now.
He was here to ask to join the team.
But his tone was far too arrogant.
Harkian Fris was Chalmers's younger brother. At twenty-three, he stood only one step away from Prime First-tier Knight. In strength, birth, and combat experience, he outclassed Roland.
The real reason Harkian wanted to join Elise's team was simple.
He looked down on everyone else.
Harkian held himself in very high regard. At twenty-three, already approaching his breakthrough to Prime Knight, he considered the other students at the Academy of Light unworthy of teaming up with him.
Only a prodigy like Elise deserved to stand beside a future Radiant Knight.
Besides, Elise's team genuinely was short-handed.
Harkian believed Elise needed him. Naturally, he felt entitled to ignore a few of the Hall's unspoken rules.
But Elise's simple "I disagree" left him staring at her in disbelief.
For a moment, he almost thought he'd misheard.
"Cleric Elise, you need a knight at your side. With me, no harm will come to you."
"I'm sorry, but my answer is still no," Elise said.
She recognized the familiar sickness of noble arrogance in him.
Compatibility mattered when choosing teammates. Elise had no interest in recruiting a knight who hadn't yet scrubbed the aristocratic airs out of his bones.
After refusing him a second time, she spoke up for Roland directly.
"If you understood how to respect others, you wouldn't ask to join our team at a moment like this. And you certainly wouldn't call my teammate trash."
She had named his flaw to his face.
Harkian's eyes went wide.
He couldn't believe he was being criticized over something so trivial.
He was a genius one step from Prime Knight. His extraordinary equipment was far better than Roland's. He had taken the initiative to offer himself, and she was rejecting him?
"Elise, I'm here," Telynia called.
Before Harkian could say another word, Telynia arrived.
"Let's go," Elise said, giving the order right in front of Glenrius.
Glenrius smiled faintly.
He didn't contest her leadership—partly because he recognized her strength, and partly because he understood she wanted real training.
The group left the Hall of Discipline with Elise at its center, leaving Harkian behind to stew.
Once Elise and her teammates had vanished from sight, two people approached him.
"Honored Harkian, future Radiant Knight, why aren't you traveling with Elise?"
"Light God above. Future Radiant Knight, were you rejected?"
The two were Sayaris and Cunard.
Together with Harkian, they were known as the Academy's Three Knights, all standing just short of Prime First-tier strength.
Their relationship had always been a delicate one.
Sayaris came from common birth and wasn't close to the two nobles.
Harkian, son of a viscount's house, looked down on Sayaris—and on Cunard too, who hailed from the baronial House Whitemere.
Cunard, caught in the middle, wasn't particularly close to Sayaris either. But he had no habit of indulging Harkian's arrogance.
After all, Baron Whitemere owed allegiance to Viscount Fris, not to Harkian personally. And Harkian, like Cunard, was a knight of the Church; his odds of inheriting the family title were next to nothing.
Harkian was arrogant, but not truly malicious.
It was just that...
"Elise is too naive," Harkian said coldly. "She'll realize her mistake soon enough."
In truth, he saw himself as an elder brother within the Church, someone who could shelter Elise.
Sayaris and Cunard didn't buy into that self-appointed role.
But on one point, they agreed with his judgment.
Elise's team composition wasn't suited to enforcement work.
When arresting extraordinary criminals, staying alive came first.
And two physical fighters on the front line was the standard for a reason.