"Recruits and cadets of Galka War Academy, as your principal, I'm very happy to announce that the cadets of Konate Wild Academy will be here today for the friendly competitions for tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. After the assembly is dismissed, I want the fourth-year cadets to remain behind." Senraki's voice echoed through the arena. It had been a week after Sagiri's attack, and school life had pretty much returned to normal. He had not made contact with the Tamelku twins again, but whenever they crossed paths, they always gave him looks between hate and tension.
The Konate Wild Academy was so far south of the west that Sagiri wondered how many days the boys had to travel. Just like Galka concentrated more on the art of war, the Konate wild school concentrated on studying the raw art of the hunt in war-making, just as deadly. They ranked fourth overall and second in the west, right after Kafka Rift Academy. Kafka is an all-girls school that concentrates mostly on the art of the hunt. killing in the hunt more like, and they were as fierce as they came. Their choice of animal was also worrying, and it was the only thing on the school logo.
"Cadets dismissed!" he bellowed, and all the cadets below the fourth year saluted before leaving the assembly ground. Silence prevailed as they left in an orderly manner until Pindrop silence was restored. After another heartbeat of silence, Senraki finally spoke. This time, he was not smiling. His eyes were cold when he looked at the students in front of him.
"I should say it is a happy event that Konate Academy is coming, so you can polish your skills, but it is not. if not that the boys and girls of Konate had already set out when this incident occurred, I could have cancelled it. Our recruit and aged student was attacked and almost killed inside the walls of my academy. I ask myself if, after all these three years, I have failed to discipline you?"
"You haven't failed, Marshal!" The cadets saluted, getting on one knee. right knee to the earth, the right hand to the heart, and the left to their backs in a sign of great regret and apology. "We cadets failed the marshal!" Even Sagiri joined in the chorus, but with every word, his urge to punish them became even more unbearable, and he wanted to cut a limb of each of the twins by himself. Since I don't want to ruin this friendly competition for everyone, I allowed recruit Sagiri to tell the names of the two who attacked him after they are over. I will then punish them in accordance with the rules of Salka War Academy. They shall be stripped of honour now and in the future by losing a limb." Senraki finished with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, taking over his face.
Sagiri had already told him the identity of the culprits, so he could not understand why the senraki could tell such a lie. The only reasoning behind it could only be that the man had another plan up his sleeve, and Sagiri was just glad he was not on the end of the stick for his mind games. There were uncomfortable breaths from everyone, and Sagiri could perceive the thick feelings of discomfort in the air. After all, a dishonored warrior was the same as a dead warrior. The means of punishment were intense, but it was necessary. Sagiri had a feeling that Senraki was the one who had put such an extreme rule in place. He just couldn't prove it.
"Moving on to the good news," Senraki continued, "There will be no classes today, and you all can use this time to polish your studies and areas where you are weak until midday, when we will meet here again to welcome your comrades from Konate Wild Academy.
"Now you are all dismissed except for Sagiri, N'varu, Kaka, Kiuga, Ulekai, Bukata, Zolinka, Zazarie, and all members in temporary team 25 remain behind. Everyone dispersed except team 25. The other two members, one is from the Bami tribe, just like Kaka, and the chimera clan, just like Fuwuka. He was big in size but did not come near being as big as Kaka. The other was from the central plains, and he was just normal-looking except for the weird innovation chain he always wore. He joined the Galka War Academy because of his love for creating war instruments. The collar he wore on his neck. It was rumored that one of his innovations had backfired during his first year and almost chopped his head clean off. Their names are Maita Chimera Bami and Banga Mindatu Wataida. The two were the ones Sagiri had not acquainted with most because they were mostly quiet and disinterested.
"I should punish you for letting your teammate get hurt." Senraki started as soon as the other left. kaka snickered but held his tongue.
"He has not even told us who attacked him. He clearly does not consider us as teammates," Kaka finally said, not able to hide his discontent. He was the Galka Academy's top 1 student in both the art of war and second only to Kiuga in book work. Yet the boy had not learned patience and holding his tongue.
"It was my order that he not reveal who attacked him. Now that is not why I called you here." Senraki continued ignoring Kaka's outburst.
"Consider this your first mission from the marshal. Until the end of the friendly competitions with Konate, you are in charge of protecting the recruit," he said, looking at each of them to let his words sink in. There was a mix of reactions.
"How can we compete properly if we are babysitting? Maita spoke for the first time since they started working together. He was truly from the Chimera clan, like Captain Fuwuka. They hated going out of their way to help those who were hopeless.
"Well, recruit, do you intend to disobey the marshal's mission to you?" Fuwuka, who had been standing silently beside Senraki, said.
"I dare not," Maita said, jumping at Fuwuka's voice. It was clear he feared the guy, even though they were from the same clan.
"A warrior doesn't question his superior's order. I should punish all of you." Fuwuka continued.
"If the recruit is hurt again, all of it before the end of the friendly competitions. All of you are going in the suspension chamber," Salka added, and Sagiri was sure now that the man was willing to follow through with his punishment to the end.
"Yes, Captain!" Everyone saluted.
"It is not necessary. I can protect myself," Sagiri said, hating having to go be babysat as if he were powerless. He had never wished to tap into all the power within him like in that moment. He did not want to keep being babysat and taken care of as if he were fragile. kaka snickered, and even Ulekai giggled at his statement as if it were the funniest joke he had ever heard.
"If you refuse to cooperate with your teammates and get hurt in the course of these three days, you will go to the suspension chamber alone for failure of cooperation," Senraki said on a serious note, and Sagiri's shoulder sagged in hopelessness. Senraki was more cunning than he had thought, and he was starting to pity anyone who ever got on the man's bad side.
"Yes, Marshal." Sagiri saluted the principal before he got back in a relaxed stance with both hands behind his back.
"You are all now dismissed," Senraki waved them off before he turned around, followed by his two captains. The boys held their salutes for another moment before they relaxed and turned to leave.
They walked silently out of the central pentagon, everyone walking upright. However, as soon as they got through the central pentagon in the wide space between the pentagons, before the fourth year pentagon kaka turned around swiftly held sagiri by the collar lifted him a few inches off of the ground and pinned him to the wall with force but not too much force like the one Makea had used to throw him in the small pool in the obstacle arena.
"Who was it?" he growled in irritation and everyone turned around swiftly.
"Hey, Kaka let him go, you are hurting him," N'varu Neni jumped in quickly, his shoulders tense looking between Kaka and Sagiri who were in a staring match.
"Yes kaka put the boy down, we were given a mission to protect him not to kill him." kiuga tried to pump sense into his friend but he did not look alarmed at all. He just looked tense as if he feared the situation could escalate.
"I have to agree with the Asakana clan king on this one." Maita started his voice low but dangerous. It seemed that he and Kaka did not see eye to eye since he made sure to call him the king of the Asakana clan instead of the king of the Bami tribe. He clearly did not like a person from another clan being called king of the whole tribe. "How can we even protect him if we do not know who we are up against?" he continued, and everyone nodded at his point. He made a good point.
"Yes, Sagiri, tell us who assaulted you so we know how to protect you. We will keep it in the team," Ulekai said, and Sagiri turned his eyes to look at the always jovial boy. All of them were making strong points, and since they were in bed together, he wanted to tell them, but his lips refused to dispatch the information.
"We might be a temporary team, but you had our backs in the shadow and broken pillar arena. Let us protect you this time." Kiuga said his voice was sincere.
"Besides, it won't benefit us to go around telling everyone. it will only lead to the formation of pacts since not everyone is pleased by your admission, and we will be stuck dealing with a bigger crowd," Zazarie said, and Zolinka nodded, agreeing with him.
"Talk recruit or I'll break you in half myself," Kaka seethed again, lifting Sagiri further against the wall.
"Besides, the mission was given by the marshal himself, and failing is not an option," Bukata chimed in.
"Tell them," N'varu said, still staying close to Kaka to protect Sagiri if need arose. A long moment of silence followed as everyone stared at Sagiri, waiting for an answer.
"The twins," he finally spoke, and there was a uniform intake of breath. kaka snickered with disgust before placing him not so gently back to his feet.
"I am going to kill them myself right now," Kaka said, moving quickly, and everyone tensed. If he overreacted and went over and beat them to a pulp, then their mission was ruined.
"Slow down, kaka, if you do that, our mission will become harder. Three days is a long time, and with the Konate students here, it will become even harder. We need to come up with a plan." Kiuga started, and Sagiri could already see his mind racing as he hatched a plan to vanquish his enemies.
"If we go out there as if we are a team too, we will make it even worse," he continued.
"What do you even mean? To make it worse, if we don't protect the boy, we will be punished. We can't stay away from the boy," Maita said, clearly hating to even be in the situation.
"Exactly," Kiuga said as if they had finally found the formula and everyone looked at him not understanding what he wanted. "If we were protecting him, then we would have to stay by his side at all times. That is what everyone expects, and it will be painfully clear that we are on a mission to protect him. The Tamelku twins are not stupid, and even with zero chance of turning the school into chaos to redeem themselves, they will. The Galka War Academy can't punish everyone if a full-scale fight broke out," he said, and it started making sense.
"So how do you suggest we protect him?" Kaka asked, running out of patience. He hated complicated plans and he would rather go in and break bones.
"We become sagiris' enemy." He dropped the bomb and there was a uniform intake of breath.
"We act as if we have been punished for failing to protect him and even have open arguments so that we don't arouse suspicion." he finished, and everyone nodded, finally beginning to understand.
"Then what? what happens after we convince them that we are enemies?" Zolinka asked.
"Then it will give me space to move into the next step of the plan." He answered with a malicious smile making its way to his face. sagiri was once again left in admiration at the ability of kiuga to come up with battle-like strategies. He was a strategy genius.