11 First Day of Classes
The next day did not harbor much difference for Plato's routine. He got up early, and proceeded to train, still maintaining minimal contact with everyone except for Basara and Iwatani.
But for other students, things were very different. Reality had refused to sink into the minds of some ignorant first-years, and they were still hung up on the festive atmosphere of O-Week. For other, more experienced students, like second-years and third-years, took the start of the semester seriously. If they paid attention now, they could still play around later.
This was especially the case for Masters and Honours students, since every year was important for these high-achieving students. This was even more important for Basara and Iwatani since they were on scholarships. If they didn't have a GPA of 6, their scholarships would get revoked. It wasn't too big a deal for them, but it meant that they would no longer have an excuse to accompany Naofumi in Australia.
These two brothers were currently waiting for Plato to show up and go to class with them. They had spent the night discussing their plans involving Plato, so they didn't exactly sleep too much. They woke up too late, so decided to skip breakfast. As such, they didn't see Plato in the morning. Now, they were waiting in the lobby area next to the reception. They waited and waited, until there was only half an hour left before the lecture. It would take 15 minutes to walk to the venue, but this could be shortened to 5 minutes if they ran.
As such, they decided to wait until the last moment. At the same time, the two spammed Plato's Messenger, asking for his whereabouts. Little did they know that Plato had expressly turned off his phone to avoid any interference with his training. Seeing as how Plato hadn't read the messages, much less reply, Basara and Iwatani looked at each other helplessly and could only shrug their shoulders. The best they could do now was to take down notes diligently and deliver them to their brother. They did not suspect that he had met any trouble, because they assumed that he was sleeping in or staying in his room procrastinating.
With their well-trained bodies, the two ran to the lecture theatre within four minutes. Sitting down, they tuned all of their attention to the lecturer. Since these classes didn't require a roll-call, it also meant that attendance was technically "optional". They wouldn't explicitly be failed if they didn't attend, but there was a good chance it would happen because they weren't familiar with the content.
However, there was still a tutorial and lab session for each course, and smarter students could easily catch up on missed theory by learning from the practical applications. After all, with a subject like engineering, it was more important to have hands-on experience, rather than cramming theory.
Basara, Iwatani and Naofumi had all signed up for the same courses, and they were also in the same tutorial and lab classes. Every day of the week was busy for them, since most classes took up two hours. Some labs took up to three hours. Since it was the first week, there was only lectures, but each course had two lectures a week.
For Mondays, they had two consecutive lectures that were held at different venues. From week 2 onwards, they would also have a three-hour lab session in the afternoon. The ridiculous amount of contact hours had even Basara and Iwatani stressed out – and they were already some of the more intelligent students.
At the same time, there was a mutually accepted thought in their minds whenever they felt stressed – "Nao would think this to be a breeze". As someone who had studied in high school and achieved first place in the entire grade while working three different part-time jobs, workload was never a problem for Naofumi.
His immense adaptability and capability of handling large amounts of work left others envious. If that, and his hardworking attitude, were to be coupled with an affluent family background… Naofumi would grow to be extremely wealthy and powerful.
But while man proposes, god disposes. Yet it was not all bad. Although Naofumi himself didn't come from a powerful family, he had two brothers who were; and they were more than willing to help him out.
Their families already owned a large proportion of the most successful businesses in Japan, and their influence had begun to spread into South Korea, China and South East Asia. In actual fact, it would be more beneficial for Basara and Iwatani to study business management or economics, since they could just inherit their family businesses. Nevertheless, they decided to study engineering for some godforsaken reason.
Real lectures are very boring, unlike what some novels portray them as. Basara and Iwatani felt bored out of their minds, and were constantly being distracted. However, they thought that Naofumi was relying on them to take notes even though he hadn't mentioned anything of the sort, so they focused every once and again.
When the two lectures ended, they couldn't wait to get out of there. The sprinted back to Bruce Hall and did whatever they did in their free time, whether it be surf the internet or play cards. They had completely forgotten about Naofumi.
On the other hand, Plato was still in the middle of his training. Lecture recordings were only released the day after the live lecture took place, so the current Plato still had no idea what his courses were about. Of course, he had read the brief description when he enrolled, but that was all it was – a brief description.
No matter what it was, it would be easy enough with "All-Seer" being upgraded, and his Intelligence boost.
*****
Ashikage Junko was standing underneath a tree, hidden in its shadow, close to where Plato was training. Seeing that he had stopped his sword training, she felt pleased, as well as a sense of achievement that had sprouted out of nowhere. She felt as if she had accomplished something big in life by convincing Plato to stop.
What she didn't know was that it stemmed from the fact that Plato had effectively rejected her beauty. When he did so, it had unconsciously left a shadow on Junko's heart – that she was nothing without her beauty. Although no-one said anything of the like – he hadn't even spoken to her – she had applied her bountiful imagination to the scenario. Now that she saw Plato 'heeding' her advice, she had felt that being an ornamental vase wasn't her only value.
Despite the fact that Basara and Iwatani were afraid of her, she knew that it was only because of her family. After all, they had once had their own dynasty of consecutive Shoguns. Although the Hattori's were influential, they were, after all, just the vassals of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
As the sole successor of the main Ashikage family, she felt that she was going to be married off to another family as marriage ties, and a male successor would be chosen from the branch families. She wanted to prove herself as a woman capable of getting things done, so she had chosen to be dispatched to Australia to follow Basara and Iwatani. When she got here, she noticed a conspiracy brewing; it was at around the same time that she met Plato.
She herself had trained in the sword for a while, and she had clearly seen Niten Ichi-ryu and Hattori Style in Plato's movements. She warned him purely out of goodwill, and nothing else. She didn't know that this seemingly ordinary man would play a major part of her life, and was someone that she would never be able to disentangle herself from.
Feeling satisfied with her 'progress' in proving her capability, she slinked off while under the cover of the shadows.
*****
As for Plato, he had long noticed her. If he couldn't, then "All-Seer" should be renamed to "Trash". As for why he wasn't practicing his sword? It was simply because he was practicing his unarmed combat for the day. He had decided to employ a rotation system, training swordsmanship and unarmed combat on alternating days.
Plato had clearly seen the satisfaction on her face, so he didn't pop her bubble of pride. It would have been very easy, since all he would need to do was pick up a stick and start swinging it.
In addition to that, he really couldn't be bothered with the troublesome woman. She had butt into his business willy-nilly, and even expected him to be grateful for it! Well, it would be false to say he wasn't grateful. But it wasn't because of her warning, but because she had provided him with a clue about what Basara and Iwatani were doing here.
When she left, Plato didn't even bat an eyelid and systematically continued with his training. Keeping with his routine, he left in the evening and returned to Bruce Hall for dinner and a good night's sleep.
But for other students, things were very different. Reality had refused to sink into the minds of some ignorant first-years, and they were still hung up on the festive atmosphere of O-Week. For other, more experienced students, like second-years and third-years, took the start of the semester seriously. If they paid attention now, they could still play around later.
This was especially the case for Masters and Honours students, since every year was important for these high-achieving students. This was even more important for Basara and Iwatani since they were on scholarships. If they didn't have a GPA of 6, their scholarships would get revoked. It wasn't too big a deal for them, but it meant that they would no longer have an excuse to accompany Naofumi in Australia.
These two brothers were currently waiting for Plato to show up and go to class with them. They had spent the night discussing their plans involving Plato, so they didn't exactly sleep too much. They woke up too late, so decided to skip breakfast. As such, they didn't see Plato in the morning. Now, they were waiting in the lobby area next to the reception. They waited and waited, until there was only half an hour left before the lecture. It would take 15 minutes to walk to the venue, but this could be shortened to 5 minutes if they ran.
As such, they decided to wait until the last moment. At the same time, the two spammed Plato's Messenger, asking for his whereabouts. Little did they know that Plato had expressly turned off his phone to avoid any interference with his training. Seeing as how Plato hadn't read the messages, much less reply, Basara and Iwatani looked at each other helplessly and could only shrug their shoulders. The best they could do now was to take down notes diligently and deliver them to their brother. They did not suspect that he had met any trouble, because they assumed that he was sleeping in or staying in his room procrastinating.
With their well-trained bodies, the two ran to the lecture theatre within four minutes. Sitting down, they tuned all of their attention to the lecturer. Since these classes didn't require a roll-call, it also meant that attendance was technically "optional". They wouldn't explicitly be failed if they didn't attend, but there was a good chance it would happen because they weren't familiar with the content.
However, there was still a tutorial and lab session for each course, and smarter students could easily catch up on missed theory by learning from the practical applications. After all, with a subject like engineering, it was more important to have hands-on experience, rather than cramming theory.
Basara, Iwatani and Naofumi had all signed up for the same courses, and they were also in the same tutorial and lab classes. Every day of the week was busy for them, since most classes took up two hours. Some labs took up to three hours. Since it was the first week, there was only lectures, but each course had two lectures a week.
For Mondays, they had two consecutive lectures that were held at different venues. From week 2 onwards, they would also have a three-hour lab session in the afternoon. The ridiculous amount of contact hours had even Basara and Iwatani stressed out – and they were already some of the more intelligent students.
At the same time, there was a mutually accepted thought in their minds whenever they felt stressed – "Nao would think this to be a breeze". As someone who had studied in high school and achieved first place in the entire grade while working three different part-time jobs, workload was never a problem for Naofumi.
His immense adaptability and capability of handling large amounts of work left others envious. If that, and his hardworking attitude, were to be coupled with an affluent family background… Naofumi would grow to be extremely wealthy and powerful.
But while man proposes, god disposes. Yet it was not all bad. Although Naofumi himself didn't come from a powerful family, he had two brothers who were; and they were more than willing to help him out.
Their families already owned a large proportion of the most successful businesses in Japan, and their influence had begun to spread into South Korea, China and South East Asia. In actual fact, it would be more beneficial for Basara and Iwatani to study business management or economics, since they could just inherit their family businesses. Nevertheless, they decided to study engineering for some godforsaken reason.
Real lectures are very boring, unlike what some novels portray them as. Basara and Iwatani felt bored out of their minds, and were constantly being distracted. However, they thought that Naofumi was relying on them to take notes even though he hadn't mentioned anything of the sort, so they focused every once and again.
When the two lectures ended, they couldn't wait to get out of there. The sprinted back to Bruce Hall and did whatever they did in their free time, whether it be surf the internet or play cards. They had completely forgotten about Naofumi.
On the other hand, Plato was still in the middle of his training. Lecture recordings were only released the day after the live lecture took place, so the current Plato still had no idea what his courses were about. Of course, he had read the brief description when he enrolled, but that was all it was – a brief description.
No matter what it was, it would be easy enough with "All-Seer" being upgraded, and his Intelligence boost.
*****
Ashikage Junko was standing underneath a tree, hidden in its shadow, close to where Plato was training. Seeing that he had stopped his sword training, she felt pleased, as well as a sense of achievement that had sprouted out of nowhere. She felt as if she had accomplished something big in life by convincing Plato to stop.
What she didn't know was that it stemmed from the fact that Plato had effectively rejected her beauty. When he did so, it had unconsciously left a shadow on Junko's heart – that she was nothing without her beauty. Although no-one said anything of the like – he hadn't even spoken to her – she had applied her bountiful imagination to the scenario. Now that she saw Plato 'heeding' her advice, she had felt that being an ornamental vase wasn't her only value.
Despite the fact that Basara and Iwatani were afraid of her, she knew that it was only because of her family. After all, they had once had their own dynasty of consecutive Shoguns. Although the Hattori's were influential, they were, after all, just the vassals of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
As the sole successor of the main Ashikage family, she felt that she was going to be married off to another family as marriage ties, and a male successor would be chosen from the branch families. She wanted to prove herself as a woman capable of getting things done, so she had chosen to be dispatched to Australia to follow Basara and Iwatani. When she got here, she noticed a conspiracy brewing; it was at around the same time that she met Plato.
She herself had trained in the sword for a while, and she had clearly seen Niten Ichi-ryu and Hattori Style in Plato's movements. She warned him purely out of goodwill, and nothing else. She didn't know that this seemingly ordinary man would play a major part of her life, and was someone that she would never be able to disentangle herself from.
Feeling satisfied with her 'progress' in proving her capability, she slinked off while under the cover of the shadows.
*****
As for Plato, he had long noticed her. If he couldn't, then "All-Seer" should be renamed to "Trash". As for why he wasn't practicing his sword? It was simply because he was practicing his unarmed combat for the day. He had decided to employ a rotation system, training swordsmanship and unarmed combat on alternating days.
Plato had clearly seen the satisfaction on her face, so he didn't pop her bubble of pride. It would have been very easy, since all he would need to do was pick up a stick and start swinging it.
In addition to that, he really couldn't be bothered with the troublesome woman. She had butt into his business willy-nilly, and even expected him to be grateful for it! Well, it would be false to say he wasn't grateful. But it wasn't because of her warning, but because she had provided him with a clue about what Basara and Iwatani were doing here.
When she left, Plato didn't even bat an eyelid and systematically continued with his training. Keeping with his routine, he left in the evening and returned to Bruce Hall for dinner and a good night's sleep.
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