...Spartan Academia…

About another week had passed since the end of the tournament, most of that time was spent nailing down which candidates would go where and making sure that he had full profiles of each person. It was a process that ended up worrying Yunyun severely since he essentially burnt the candle at both ends to make sure that it got done. But regardless of what it took, he'd gotten it done. By the end of the week he had whittled the seventy five down to forty. "Aurdel," Megumin said looking at the list, "Why are there forty people here instead of twenty? I thought that you said all you could take was twenty."

"What, you don't remember that conversation I had that I told you about?"

"What conversation?"

"Aurdel, it's been a long time no see," Six clasped his hands on his shoulder, greeting him. The Spartan had been away for the majority of the time that had passed since the defeat of the Demon King, mostly fighting. As Aurdel had expected as the time one had to be careful of what you wished for. Because while Anatalia's wish had been well meaning and for all intents and purposes should have had no repercussions, it had severe ones. Instead of the two sides simply mending ties a third uprising began in the country, a populist one. Even relatively peaceful places like the city they'd visited while they were in Siberas were hit by the conflict, with bloody battles on all sides. So Six had left for the continent soon after their victory and helped the populist uprising, training the people that came his way and fighting directly if he had to. "I heard you have a plan in the works to set up a new company of Spartans."

"Something like that, a group of battle hardened irregulars to face any situation. Why?"

"Well since my work overseas was done, I thought that I'd join you in training them."

"Join me?" He raised an eyebrow, "The class is only twenty people large, it wouldn't make sense to have two teachers for just one class."

Six sat down at the seat opposing him, kicking up his feet. He wasn't in his armor currently, a privilege afforded to him by the fact that Aurdel now had tools to actually take apart the armor. It was something he wished he had much earlier. "Then you can give me my own class."

"I suppose I could do that," he looked back at the list he had currently, "Thing is I've essentially already picked out the top candidates for my class, currently I'm looking over the more mid-levels. While I don't want to say the rest are bad you'd certainly have more work ahead of you in terms of preparing them and teaching them."

"It's not a big deal," Six took a glass and Aurdel poured him a drink with his free hand, "We're Spartans after all, we're used to the challenges that come our way no matter how hard."

"You're right, I'll get to work on drawing up a class for you. I have lesson plans already drawn up so you can copy those and adjust as you see necessary."

"Good, I was planning to do things somewhat differently for my class anyways."

Aurdel raised an eyebrow again, "Differently how?"

"Seriously? When did Six get here?" Megumin asked, shocked.

"He came in just the other day, you guys were all asleep when he did. He was also out for all of yesterday in the forest, said he had things to do," he shrugged, "What those things were I have no idea, but he was probably just preparing something for his class today."

"Eh?! Does that mean our class is going to be the harder one?! I thought I would have at least gotten into the top ten!" Bukkorori shouted, angry with Aurdel's placement of him.

"Every choice I made, I made for specific reasons. If you want me to even consider changing it, you can challenge me here and now."

"I-i'll pass," Bukkorori backed down following Aurdel's challenge, a smart move.

"Good, if that's all the complaints I have to hear from you all then your class can head down to Six's classroom," he pointed in it's direction, "It's down the hall and on the right, opposite of mine." And with that Class B left them, leaving just him and Class A.

"Teacher," one of the students in his class asked, "Shouldn't we be going to our classroom too?"

"We will, but we have an exercise to perform first before we start the actual classes. One we'll do outside."

"Outside?" Most of them were confused, "Are we going to be practicing with our magic already?"

"No, but you'll see. Just follow me," and so he led Class A outside of Red Prison and into a field he'd cleared outside of the school and repurposed for his uses. "This is one of the places that you will train yourself under mine instruction, while I don't have a name for it right now I will eventually come up with one for simplicity's sake."

"Aurdel, how did you do all this stuff by yourself…?" Megumin muttered.

"From memory." He spent a good amount of time painstakingly recreating some of the courses from his training in the Spartan II program on Reach, though they weren't exactly the same since he couldn't just throw these guys into something as hard as that so soon. "Don't worry about those for now. Instead, I have something for our first exercise. I want you all to get into a single file line, quick now." They did as he asked, all lining up. "From what I've heard and read about so far, you all took some form of martial arts classes. Am I correct?"

"Yes, that's right," one of the students said, "Our teacher was-"

"Forget all of it."

"Eh?!" There was a loud shock from the class, "We have to forget all of it?!"

"Absolutely, if it's like most of the other things you've learnt then you're better off without it. I'm going to teach you real close quarters combat, the kind you can actually use." They all seemed to pout at him for that fact aside from Megumin, who was staring off to the side with her head low. Ah, that's right. She'd skipped all of her gym glasses. "Before we start your classes I want to drill an important lesson in to you all, one that you should keep in mind even once you finish." He motioned forwards towards Arue, she stood at the front of the line and stepped forward. "I want you to punch me in the stomach as hard as you can."

"You want me to punch you?" She parroted, seemingly confused. Everyone else in line was the same way, confused by what he was asking of them.

"Yes, as hard as you possibly can. Don't hold back."

"If that is what you wish, beware the power of the Crimson Demons martial arts!" She telegraphed a wide swing and plunged it into his stomach. Then she let out an eep and fell back, holding her right hand.

"Alright, next!"

"Aurdel, was this really necessary?" Yunyun asked, looking out at the class. Each one of them had injured their hands in their attempt to punch him. None of them had so much as laid a bruise on his chest.

"Of course it was necessary, there was a lesson to be learned here. Highness Heal!" He healed all of them at once, they looked back towards him after doing that. "And that lesson is that even though I've chosen you among the top of those that participated in the tournament, none of you are invincible and there will always be someone stronger than you. If you don't solidly ingrain that fact into your mind from this day forward you won't succeed with me." He pointed at them, "So buckle up, because when I'm done with you you're going to be some of the best soldiers this world has ever seen. And when that day comes you won't need people like me to defend your world, just your own to hands. All of you, to the classroom!"

"Yes sir!" With a shout they ran off, back towards the building. It certainly wasn't the most orthodox way of getting the lesson through to him, but it was sure to make it a lesson that they wouldn't forget.

When he himself walked all the way down to the classroom with Megumin and Yunyun he found everyone seated. This was a class that was eager to learn. He wouldn't disappoint them. "All of you, I want you to list out all of yours names. Starting with the front row and moving backwards!" He paused for a moment, "And without your ridiculous introductions."
"How many times do I have to tell you that they're not ridiculous!" Megumin tried to shake him.

"Arue!" "Nerimaki!" "Funifura!" "Dodonko! "Ericaras!" "Almaboria!" "Teredal!" "Danabure!" "Anacelia!" "Nedestrin!" "Tanabria!" "Atsurahashi!" "Venakamari!" "Ilibris!" "Berenas!" "Huyabure!" "Terrikohl!" "Kesloviras!" "Zavoniste!" He looked at the list as they called out all their names. Then something hit him.

"Aurdel, is something wrong? Your face has a weird expression," Megumin said, looking him in the face.

"No, it was just looking at some of these names… Some of them gave me a weird feeling of deja vu. And I'm not talking about the ones that I was initially scouting for, this is different." Megumin and Yunyun shrugged, they didn't have an answer for him. Nor would he find one himself, so he just shook off the feeling and went back to what he was doing. "Take a look at the people in front of you and behind you, those will be your teams. Among your class these will be the people you work with the most often, they are to become like a second family to you." And so they looked around.

"Hey!" Funifura shouted, "I thought that if we were going to make teams it would be by row, not column! That's why I sat in the front!"

"That's what I figured most of you would guess, that's why I made it turn out like this. It's better to have five teams of four rather than four teams of five either way. Flexibility in combat is important, and the more people you have the more difficult that will become for you." He shrugged, "Little lessons like that are important, so make sure that you remember it." He could see that in the back at least one if the students was writing it down, smart. "Of course there are a few housekeeping things that need to be done, but that will all be done with time. Even if it's the first day, I already have a homework assignment for all of you."

"Already?!"

"Quiet. You'll be designing uniforms for you to wear, old school uniforms wouldn't be fitting nor would what you're currently wearing be fit for combat. You need to design something practical that you're able to fight in. Then once I've looked over them all I'll decide on one to make and use." They seemed a little less angry with already having a homework assignment after hearing that, it probably appealed to their innate necessity to stand out that was part of their personality. Either way it wasn't like he was doing it just for them, in his mind it was completely necessary for them to have some way to differentiate themselves from other Crimson Demons. One of the students raised their hands, "Yes?"

"Teacher, what should we call you? It doesn't feel right if we just call you teacher all the time."

"I see, that's a good question…" He pondered it for a moment, "I suppose you could just call me Mr. Ganowicz. I don't see any harm in that."

"I-In that case! They can call me Mrs. Ganowicz!" Yunyun said.

"What are you saying Yunyun?! You idiot!" Megumin shouted, tackling here. The two of them ended up fighting the floor, rolling by the desk he had set up in the front of the room.

"Should we be concerned with them…?" Someone muttered.

"No, it isn't anything new," something told him that the answer he gave really didn't answer their question, but he wouldn't bother with giving another. "First, I'll pass out sheets with what exactly I'm going to be teaching in this class. It'll be a lot easier to hand out one paper with everything instead of continually having to repeat it because of someone forgetting." He pulled out a stack of papers and handed them out to every row. "If we start from the top, you'll see-"

"Mr. Ganowicz."

"Yes?"

"We can't read these," he held up the papers, "They're in a language we can't read." Crap, he'd written them in english instead of the language used in this world.

"I told you to go to sleep earlier!" Yunyun said from behind the desk, still struggling with Megumin.

"Eh, just hold on to the papers. I'll just tell you what they were supposed to say," he must have been really tired to make a big mistake like that, he would have to be careful about that in the future. "Because I don't trust your village's educational system, I'll be cramming several levels of math and science into one big section of the course. At the same time I'll be teaching you english, since no one here speaks it and because that makes it a useful tool for communication. As for reading and writing I'm sure you can do both, so we'll skip literature courses since I also haven't read anything from this world."

"Eh?! Why do we need to learn any of this stuff? I thought we were supposed to be learning how to fight as well as you?!"

"This is all necessary to become a good fighter! I can't begin to tell you how many times I've found that I need to use those subjects, it's more useful than you realize. And besides I had most of this stuff down by the time that I was ten."

"Why were you learning advanced math and science before age ten?!"

"Out of the question, moving on! Since you wanted to rush me I'll get to the part of the course involving combat training. You'll all be undergoing an intensive and all inclusive training regimen developed by me from my own experience. Swimming, weight training, self-defense martial arts, track. You'll do all of it and more."

"And then after that you'll go with one of us!" Megumin shouted, jumping up after fighting with Yunyun. Both ended up standing and were covered with bruises and scratches."For the more daring of you I'll be teaching the Grenadier course, Aurdel even convinced me to learn Detonation for this so some of you better show up or else I'll come and blow up your homes!"

"Mr. Ganowicz , is she really serious about blowing up our homes?"

"I'll be honest I can't tell, so don't take the risk in the case that I can't stop her."

"I'll be teaching Practical and Advanced Application of Magic," Yunyun said, "You all know how to use your magic, but not how to use it properly. After Aurdel's help I'll be able to show you how to become the best mages there are!"

"I'll be teaching the Leadership course," he said, "It's important that at least one of you from each team come to my class, or else you'll find yourself severely behind compared to others. Six will be teaching the Support course, this is another important course that I suggest at least one of you take. For those that want to double up on any of those courses they will be offered during what would have been a free period, but at least one is required. If you ever need any help you can come to one of us, though for main subjects it'd be best to come to me."

"Aurdel, is this really the proper amount of information to be dropping on them on the first day?"

"Of course it is, any less and they wouldn't know what was ahead of them," he shrugged, "Believe me, compared to everything that I had dropped on me on my first day, this is nothing." That led him to wonder though, what was Six doing for his class?

"TEACHER SIR, IS IT REALLY NECESSARY TO START US OFF WITH SOMETHING THIS HARD?!" One of the students shouted at the top of his lungs, out of breath. He was in the middle of putting his twenty students through the ringer. According to Aurdel and even his own observations these guys needed serious work, and what better way to do that by taking them out of the frying pan and putting them straight into the fire? The reason he'd been almost gone for the entire previous day was because he'd spent his time out in the woods. While Aurdel had chosen to recreate his conventional training facility from his time on Reach, Six was going his own way. He'd spent his time trying to recreate some of the training conditions from the planet he trained on, Onyx. It was an unconventional way of doing things sure, but it was what he thought would be necessary. Currently they were going through one of the obstacle courses that he set up, crawling under barbed wire and on sand.

"Of course it's necessary! Don't you want to become some of the best fighters there will ever be?!"

"Sure we do, but-!"

"Then keep going!" He fired his assault rifle over their heads. While he was shooting live rounds over their heads, it was only because he currently didn't have access to any blanks. It wasn't that big of a deal anyways since he knew he wouldn't hit any of them with any of his rounds. Either way, he was going to train these guys good.

He was sure that it was going fine.

...Remove One Evil...

Despite what some may think, Sylvia wasn't the only Chimaera in the Demon King's army. Rather, she was just the foremost of them. That's why she was the one that became the head of the Monster Enhancement Division for the Demon King. But at the same time she'd had several of those same Chimaeras work under her dutifully, learning as apprentices. As a result there were facilities hidden all across the continent where unspeakable experiments occurred and horrifying monsters were made. After the defeat of the Demon King these facilities remained undiscovered by the adventurers and by the kingdoms they were based in, but despite all that the production of the creatures they made didn't stop. Rather, they increased. With the Demon King's failure to conquer the world there were those that sought to carry the torch, and to do something like that an army was needed. From the big cities the poor, downtrodden and forgotten of society would slowly disappear. None the wiser the rest of society would move on, unaware of the growing threat to their daily life. Demons that knew of the facilities would flock to them, growing the enemy's strength even more. "Just one more and… There, he's finished." The Chimaera took a step back from the monster they were working on. It was a beastly creation, one to surpass all others that had taken years to create. It was an amalgamation of creatures combined into one terrifying force. It was still one that remained without a name, but that was something that could come later.

"Everyone, have you picked which courses you're going to be taking?"

"Yes Mr. Ganowicz!"

"Good, then pass your papers that you wrote your selection down on forward, I'll be collecting them now then deciding who goes where with your other teachers," he took the papers and neatly piled them onto his desk. Since I don't want to make this day too boring for you all and to make sure that your youthful energy doesn't go to waste, we'll do some exercise. If Six's class is still around when we might be able to combine groups while we do it." They followed him and the others outside of the classroom.

"Aurdel, what are you going to be having them do?" Yunyun asked, walking beside him.

"It should be something familiar to you. After all, if I remember correctly you were there when I told the story. It was one of the things that I did on my actual first day in the Spartan program." He led them all towards the training ground, "I like to call this activity, 'Ring the Bell.' It's simple, you and your team must cross the obstacle course, then once you've reached the bell you must all ring it in order for your team to win."

"Mr. Ganowicz , isn't this a little much?!"

"A little much? You have no idea how hard Chief Mendez eventually made the course. Believe me this will be a breeze for you all," he turned away for a moment, then turned back. "Oh by the way, no using magic on this course. If you use magic on this it'll be an automatic fail for your first grade. Just something to consider. So get in your teams and get to the starting line!" They all scrambled for the clearly painted red line.

If he was going to be perfectly honest, it made him a little nostalgic. "Ready, set, go!" He fired a magnum into the air, giving them the signal to go. The twenty students rushed forward and onto the course. Just like the course that he'd faced when he was a kid the first obstacle was a hanging cargo net, hanging off of a platform that allowed it to freely swing back and forth and could easily throw those who were attempting to climb it off were they not careful enough. Though it turned out that the net was less of the issue and that his student's strength was more of the issue. As it turns out about a quarter of the students were barely able to climb up the cargo net, something he found astonishing. Were some of these people so focused on magic that they almost completely neglected their physical strength? Just what were they supposedly 'teaching' in those gyms classes of theirs?! Eventually they all managed to get up the net and onto the platform, though not without each other's help in pulling themselves up. Right after was the swaying bridge, someone he'd taken advantage of when he himself was doing it with his team.

Unfortunately, none of his students seemed to get any ideas when confronted with the challenge in front of them. Instead they all charged across it at the same time, charging through. It was chaotic and the bridge shook violently back and forth, before ultimately flipping and dumping everyone that stood on it into the water below. Normally any teacher faced with a situation like this would be frustrated, frustrated with his students and the fact that he has to teach them. But not him. "All of you, climb out of the water!" They all slinked out of the water and back to the start of the course. "I suppose it was my bad for just throwing you into it, so why don't I show you how I go through it?"

"It'll be hard, even for you!" One of his students said, unaware. He'd show them just what they would become, and what they had to aspire to be.

"Ready, set," Yunyun held her breath, "G-!"

"Go!" Megumin shouted, overpowering Yunyun's voice. Either way it was the sign for him to move, so he moved. He launched out from the obstacle courses starting line and leaped onto the net that hung off the platform. Quickly he scaled it, skipping the top few rope sections to instead grab onto the platform itself and haul himself up.

There was a gasp as they watched him. He sprinted straight over the swaying bridge, his feet actually connecting with the ground very few times due to his large stride. On the other side were several platforms disconnected from each other. With his already quick momentum he essentially skipped across the top of them, moving from one to another in a flash of movement. For them it was probably hard to keep up with but the point was still getting across. After the platforms came a rope swing. He jumped up and flew across, grabbing onto a rope in the middle before flinging himself off once more and reaching the other side. Normally you were supposed to cross using every rope, but with the speed he had there was practically no necessity. In seconds he got past the monkey bars and the climbing wall, before eventually coming back to the pole where the bell was at the top. He grabbed a hold of the rope attached to the basket and heaved himself up to the top. He rang the bell loudly three times, then let go. He slid down the metal pole as the basket dropped down beside him, and he landed down at the bottom onto the cushions. Then he ran back to the start. "Once you've trained yourself you'll be able to run through a course like that in no time at all. You should-" He was cut off as he was tackled to the ground.

"Did you call for me master?" The Griffin licked his face.

"Ack, I should have known you'd come running Everest," he pushed her off of him, "But no I didn't call for you, I was just ringing the bell at the end of the course." He stood up and ran his hand over her beak, scratching under her neck with his other hand. "Anyways, you should all start training yourself even outside of my classes, you won't make it if you do just what I tell you. So get strong, because it'll only get harder from here."