In the end Kon had to call in reinforcements a little after lunch-time, they decided to demonstrate their own build in different situations, such as Klaire using her Neo Starlight build to help with crafting using starlight rays, or Gillian being a close combat brawler despite being a summoner and Alysse using her crafting skill "Disassembly" to disarm and dis-armour enemies.
"What about Carl?"
"I can stab with a spear..." He groaned, making others laugh.
"Boss-man has insane stats, several are five digits, but yeah in terns of skils he only has spear skill and stuff that helps with settlements. Also he is the highest graded student in academy history, like he said, he worked damn hard and he has me to thank for it."
"Gillian's an idiot, but he isn't wrong, our rivalry is as much resonsible for motivating me as anything else... Having friends is great, having a rival to motivate you is great, just make sure that you don't grow too dependant on your friends and let your rivalries deteriorate into grudges."
"How did you two stop being enemies?"
Claire grinned and threw her hand up. "I shot him til he stopped, hit him with a stun shot first year and he learnt his lesson."
"Is that true?"
"She forgot to say that she had stunned me first after an argument and only stunned Gillian after he made fun of her. It was a friendship born of understanding rather than mutual interests." Carl explained, to the quiet giggles of sever, including teachers.
Kon eventually took the stage and announced that the lecture was officially over, then asked everyone to thank us for our time. It was then, as the hall was filled with the resounding applause, that the four of them actually looked and counted the rows of students before looking at each other.
"Did any of you realise how many there were?" Alysse asked nervously, making Kon chuckle
"Nope and I never want to think about, let's go." Nope
"Yep..."
"Yep..."
"Yep..."
"Do you see why we don't do assemblies often? Around three-hundred thousand between all years. Next year we have decided to use planet Oregna for full assemblies, but divide students into "Upper Four" and "Lower Four" for ones like this." He explained, before taking a deep sigh.
"Humanity is definitely on the rise again and I have to wonder if it won't inspire other races to target us."
He didn't know it at the time, but that hit the four of them hard, they wondered if it was a sign or just coincidence. Would they really be able to bring an end to the madness before the next major conflict erupted?
Kon continued to lead the way to the optional program's administration offices, aware of and confused by the sudden tension he sensed in them.
"Did I say something?"
"Oh... No sir, apologies... Just thinking about the chance of another war." Klaire replied on their behalf.
"Well, don't worry as much as I would have recommended a couple of hours ago. Carl saying he would only accept people free of prejudice may have just ensured every single one of those children works together. I don't think you realise this, but you all just earned the respect of every single one of them and they will undoubtedly want to join you when they get to that age."
When they finally reached the office and found Carl's and Klaire's assigned administrator, they explained the group's plans for multi-site operations.
They started by explaining that they had secured a base of operations to be an independent HQ for the group on Lugaria. That alone had already left the man speechless given the Lugarian's hostilities toward other colonisation attempts.
He then explained his "Household" and the current members, which were the four of them, Lydia, Lillim and with two beast experts on the wings.
"Did you say Lillim, that Lillim, signed one of these contracts?" The administrator said, as though he had spontaneously deciphered someone speaking a dead language.
"Yes, her contract restricts her to a purely advisory and support role, she will not lift a finger to help with anything but our personal development." Carl explained, which was actually her idea to make humans leave their HQ alone at the risk of bumping into her home alone.
Unable to really comprehend what he was hearing he simply said "Oh, that's okay then..." before going into a state of unquestioning acceptance to preserve his sanity.
"So I have Lydia as a medical and scientific adviser, which has been approved. Lillim, as personnel growth and development adviser, who will kill us all if we don't approve it, settlement location Lugaria, with multi-world expansion plans..."
"Actually Lugaria is HQ only. Our "Personnel growth and development adviser" gave us this..." Carl withdrew the territory deed Lillim had given him for her planet, which still seemed ridiculous to him. "It's a deed to a desolate world, I think she said it was called "Archyon". It can only be owned by me and my chosen successor though, is that okay?"
"Archyon? Did you say Archyon? That world isn't just desolate, it's dead, no atmosphere, nothing. You wou-"
"Would need a class five space suit just to set foot there?" Alysse finished as she withdrew one of the ones she had made for a practical cultivation. "I had to make some for a cultivation, that's what made her think of it."
"Did you make a planetary terraformer as well?"
"No Carl's Mum did." Gillian said, making the other three crack-up whilst Kon and the administrator just looked confused.
"Are you saying Leanna, or the ot-"
"No, he's just being an idiot. However, we are sure we want to settle Archyon. We have a plan, it won't be easy and we will definitely be pushing the one year dead-line for tangible results." Klaire said, trying her best to recover and sound mature.
Kon looked sceptical, but the administrator wasn't supposed to prevent failure, his job was to keep track of settlement groups and file reports. The truth of the matter was that one way or another, the reckless quartet would likely prove the most interesting group he was assigned to, maybe ever, but most certainly that year.
When he had updated the settlement team records, they bowed in respect with Kon and followed him to the Madam Director's office.
Leanna started by filling Kon in on everything she had learned about Carl's abilities. "Due to my status, I am unable to learn much about Carl's abilities. Lydia is held by her contract so she can't betray them, but if I or Danielle also did that..."
Kon sighed, the weight of what he had learned pressing down on him. "Why tell me? Why not Liam? It's no secret that he would die to learn more of..." He placed a hand over his face as pieces clicked into place. "...So, it's because I'm a pure-blooded human. You don't want it to appear Carl has turned his back on humanity."
Leanna didn't speak, just nodded, a sharp and painfully subtle gesture.
"Sir, your knowledge on ecology is incredible and you know almost as much about animal's as Professor Liam, but your a human and on top of that your family has been quietly supporting the equality movement." Carl explained, sounding far more mature than Kon had known him to be.
"Enough, fine. I'll join you as your Ecology adviser, I'll also speak to my family and see if I can get some support for you from them."
"Before you sign on, we need to contract you into the household, Grandmother was quite insistent on that. Then we can get you back and make the administrator's day."
"One more thing... The marriage. When exactly did that happen? Have you notified the committee?"
"I don't know if Mum did, but that worm Matthew definitely will. Hopefully before they disown him, Squidge says that he is currently having a breakdown and that girl that was with him has her voice back... He also wants me to take it away again."
"That won't be go-"
"Seriously, can we just get you contracted up so we can tell you everything already." Klaire laughed, making the others, including Leanna, smirk at how he is going to react to everything.
With that though he held his hands up in surrender, they all bowed respectfully before leaving, though when they said they were heading back to Carl's suite, they may have given him false hope that the rest was going to be fairly normal.
When they finally got back to the suite, Kon finally spoke again. "So where is this contract I need to sign."
"Sorry sir, we need to go to Lugaria for that, so I need you to follow us into my wardrobe." Carl said absent-mindedly, making the others snicker as Kon looked at him like he had lost his mind.
"We didn't plan for this bit, did we?" Alysse laughed. "Should we just use the gate room?"
"I guess that depends on Kon. Sir, will you please come to my wardrobe with us?" Carl asked again, making the others burst into laughter as Kon looked like he was going to smack some sense into him.
Kon's reluctance was unfortunately unwavering, not that any could really blame him, though Lillim had been quite clear in her contract that they were not allowed to discuss household secrets clearly with outsiders. Even Gillian's joke was skirting the grey area of the word "clearly".
In the end they headed to the gate-room, then asked Levi to fly them to their house. Levi was a much smoother flight than Squidge, what she did was more akin to swimming through air and gravity, whereas Squidge flew the same as a wyvern and used wings and power to fight against gravity.
Levi only lacked the gelatinous cushioning that he offered and since her scales were actually armoured eye-lids, they occasionally shifted and it was uncomfortable for both the riders and Levi.
After arriving, Kon could barely believe what he was seeing or feeling. The hot, arid air of Lugaria suddenly settled into a comforting and soothing, each breath of it more refreshing than any taken before.
"What in the world is purifying the air here and when did you have time to build this place?" Kon tried to ask, exhausting the last of the fours ability to hold back. They wanted to tell him everything, but they couldn't, all they could do was force him into the home and let Lydia and Lillim contract him and run him through "initiation" so they were free to talk."
The moment that he was contracted however, Lillim was forced to wait, the four could no longer hold back and bombarded him with information. The thing Kon truly learned during that bombardment though, was the weight on their shoulders, their lingering immaturity that was made apparent by their excitement in being able to share with someone new.
He wanted to be excited with them, but those factors stopped him. "So tell me Lydia, Lillim... Why is it they are pushing themselves so hard? Carl has always been like that, but I sense the others aren't simply being influenced by him."
Lillim didn't answer the question with words, simply drew her magic circle again and began her initiation, his blood ran cold as he saw the end of humanity's rule over over their home-world and it confirmed many of his family's suspicions regarding the counter-productive nature of the Committee's methods and goals.
Finally he asked about the nature of Carl and Klaire's completely out-of-the-blue marriage, considering they were not in a relationship when they left for the exam.
Finally he slumped back in the seat he was occupying. "By the gods this is a lot. I suggest you drip feed all of this to the next household members, it's a lot to drop on people all at once. Carl, Klaire, is there anything we need to know? As a teacher, I will let people know if you two being apart is going to bring divine wrath down on us."
Everyone laughed. "No, nothing like that, but Levi will be staying with Klaire wherever she goes and Squidge with me. Since they can communicate with each other and me regardless of distance, I thought you should know that you will be able to monitor the telepathic link between members and pets so you know we aren't cheating in exams."
"Telepathic? What do you mean?"
"I'm setting your role to Invigilator/Adviser, you will have use of several things, but you will also be able to access household specific advantages and we prepared a manual, here you go."
The "manual" was clearly a work-in-progress, it had clearly been refined and had a good amount of effort and thought put in, but the scrawling and messy editing on every sheet made Kon's teeth itch.
"I would fail you if you ever turned in a piece of work this sloppy... Now you best study, if I remember correctly Gillian, Klaire and Alysse have their first exam tomorrow and Carl will be busy with me."