15 Leaving

Plato did not want to linger in university any longer. The sooner he set up his own foundation and influence, the sooner he could approach the people who held some sway over the world.

In the past few days, Plato had been reviewing the militaries of Earth, all the way from ancient times. He noticed immediately that the Roman Empire's military at its peak resembled the Alliance army from his world.

The military ranks were the same, the sizes, terms, pretty much everything. Even the tower shields and swords were the same. But after the Roman era, there were a lot of other, more advanced military and weaponry developed.

Unable to let go of his most familiar equipment, Plato had, in the end, decided that he would equip himself with Roman legionary equipment when the Beast Emperor descended. As for whether he would be able to kill the Beast Emperor, was an entirely different topic.

As for why he didn't choose the hot weapons of the latest era, it was because the beasts' hide was impenetrable unless you had vital energy. Soldiers from the Alliance army would wrap their vital energy around their swords; otherwise, not even a scratch would be left on the beasts.

It was also impossible to wrap them around projectiles. As the name implies, vital energy exists only within living beings. Once exposed to the air and disconnected from a living being's control, it would dissipate immediately. One of Plato's teachers had theorized a workaround for this, but sadly, he had died before he could see it in action.

The theory was simple. By creating a thin thread of vital energy that attached the user's hand to their vital energy projectile, the projectile would still be connected to the user. Not only would it be a fully functioning vital energy projectile, it would be fully controllable.

Unfortunately, one required insane amounts of control over their vital energy, which would take years upon years to train. Therefore, the only person that could possible use firearms against the beasts was Plato himself. Even in his previous world, there were no archers.

The main ranged troops were magicians, but they required a leyline to harness their powers. As far as Plato was concerned, Earth did not have a leyline. Even if it did, it's quality would be horrendous; and most importantly, Plato didn't know how to train magicians.

Besides, Plato was a front liner. He would not ditch the feeling of having a sword in his hand for the safety of the back lines.

In any case, these concepts and ideas would only be applicable in the far future. For now, Plato had to develop his own worth until people started paying attention to him. For that, he would need to rely on his two good brothers.

He called them immediately, but the call did not go through. He sent them a text message instead, saying:

[Hey, Basara. Are you free at the moment? I want to talk about something.]

An hour later, the received a reply.

[Yeah, sure. I was in a lecture just then. Where do you wanna meet?]

[My room. I need your help with something.]

[Alright. Be there in a sec.]

Plato put down his phone, and ran through the list of things he had prepared to convince Basara. While he himself did not feel like he needed to explain himself, when it came to his brothers, Naofumi's personality insisted on informing them of everything.

However, Plato was still hesitant in doing so. His plan was to announce his intentions, along with some superficial reasons, and canvass for Basara and Iwatani's help. If they insisted on knowing the reasons, then he would explain. As for whether they would believe him, he had no idea.

Minutes later, Basara knocked on Plato's door, sweaty and panting. Plato looked a bit shocked, but did not question it. He quickly scanned him with "All-Seer", and found out it was just because he had run over here at full speed.

"What's wrong? What do you need help with?"

"It's really nothing that urgent. Have a seat first. Here, some cold water."

"Thanks."

After Basara calmed down a bit, Plato proceeded to tell him his plan.

"It's like this. I've realized that studying an honours degree is just a waste of time. I plan on starting my own business anyway, and if I'm using your families' connections anyway, there's not much difference if I do an honours or not."

"Mmhmm. Iwatani and I thought the same as well."

"Alright, it's good that you agree. So, naturally, I'm suggesting that we ditch the honours degree and simply graduate with a bachelors. After that, we can go back to Japan and start up our own companies."

"Alright. Iwatani and I will withdraw as well. When do you want to leave?"

Plato hadn't expected it to be so easy, so he was stunned speechless for a while. 'Didn't you guys have a family assignment to do?' he thought.

"As soon as possible. The sooner the better. It's probably going to get chaotic here in a while."

"Indeed. Alright, serious talk is over. My good brother, why have you not been going to classes? I was wondering all week, but now I know. You've finally opened your mind to sense!"

"What about yourself then? You must be even more senseless than I am, since you actually went to classes seriously."

"Ha! Would I have to go if you went? I'm only going to take notes, so that you can learn it, and then teach me!"

The two joked around for a bit longer, lightening the previously sombre mood, and soon separated. Basara said that he was going to inform Iwatani and prepare the documents for their withdrawals, while Plato started packing.

Since he was a poor student, there was not much to pack in the first place. All of his things only took up one suitcase, and there was still a bit of space left. Since they wouldn't be leaving straightaway, Plato had still left some essentials that he needed to use.

A day later, Basara informed Plato that their withdrawals were approved, and that the plane ticket back to Japan had already been booked. The flight was scheduled for eight days later, and they would all be flying first class. It seemed like the Miyamoto and Hattori family had splurged a bit to celebrate their return. They were, after all, the sole successors of both families.

*****

At the same time, on the other side of the university.

Ashikage Junko was packing her things up, having received a message from home that she was withdrawing from her degree. She did not argue or ask for the reason, she just did as she was told.

Why? Because the message also contained information that her two targets, Miyamoto Basara and Hattori Iwatani were also leaving Australia. Her goal for coming to Australia was to track the two and find out what they were trying to do; and now that they were leaving, she could finally depart from this tropical hellhole.

She didn't worry about being punished, or having the mission treated as a failure, because it had been Basara and Iwatani that withdrew first, not her.

But, she was confused. Why would they leave so suddenly? And it had only been three weeks since the start of the semester. It made no sense to her. Questioning her family would not yield results, so she had to let the matter go.

As for the man she had met once and stalked twice, she had not seen him since that day. Inexplicably, she wondered in her heart what he was doing right now. Despite only meeting once, he had left a deep impression on her, because of his indifference towards her beauty.

Somehow, she felt that the happiness she felt after hearing she would leave dampen when she thought of him. She was shocked and frightened at her own thought process, and hastened her packing speed to distract herself.

The four were scheduled to arrive at Narita Airport eight days later.