A New Star Chapter 85 (Patreon)

Alexandra

A quick bath and meal were nice, but that was just delaying the inevitable, and I was not looking forward to this after action report. I was especially not looking forward to it since the Count had been following closely behind us the whole time; I had detected after the first two hours, roughly, and kept track of him the rest of the delve, among other things. The old man loved to bloviate and get lost in tautological tangents to no end; with him having been the one shadowing us, this certainly wasn’t going to be a brief affair, and I felt like having a strong drink for the first time in this new life. Alcohol was something I had mostly avoided in my previous life, but I had partaken a few times, and I understood the appeal, even if I didn’t find it’s song all that alluring.

The meeting was twice as tedious as I thought it would be, but that was always how meetings went. I had experienced more than my fair share of them, but it was something that I could avoid more in my later years as I had to hold the line, and as I had appointed competent subordinates to oversee various divisions and processes. That was a past I was eager to get back to, in more ways than one, but for now, I had to attend this meeting about the delve and what happened. It was opened by Thomas, whom I discovered was Sasha’s father; several of the other parents were there, but many were not, trusting the others and the support staff to keep the children, or younger adults would probably be a better way of phrasing it, safe throughout the delve. They hadn’t known I or the Count, or the Silver Lady, would be showing up, not that it would have changed much, but there might have been fewer people here in that case.

“Alright, we are all here?” Thomas said, looking around, scanning the crowd in the large main tent. The kids were all sat together in a row while there were a few staff behind them. The ‘adults’ were sat mostly across from them, though some were at the sides of the tent as well, while I leaned the top of my butt against the edge of a table in the corner with my arms crossed.

“Good, let’s start,” he continued. “Count Emmanuel, can we leave a discussion of the basic progress of the delve to you?”

“Certainly, certainly,” the Count said, standing and walking to one side of the group where everyone could see him. “And don’t think I don’t see you in the corner, Young Lady.”

He had directed the last at me, and I replied, “If you want a beating, you can just ask for one, old fellow. No need to beat around the bush about it.”

“Ahem, we’ll continue your lessons later,” the Count said, clearing his throat as he sent me a glare. “Now, onto a review of the team’s performance.”

What followed was a long and exhaustive description from the Count, though a couple interjections from me kept him from wandering off into idle dreams of his days in Eckleburg or wherever the fuck. With that, we were able to get through his review, with questions from the other chaperons, and a couple from the team members, in just over an hour. Concise was not a word you could use for Emmanuel, not even at the best of times. It was largely a review of how the team did, and thus the other chaperons, who had monitored less closely, had several questions. It wasn’t time to directly review each of the team members performance, which is why they had very little input in this part.

Then it turned to that time, with each team members performance being reviewed one-by-one, though nobody was sent out or pulled aside for it. It was a full review in front of all their peers, the chaperons, and the various support staff in the room. It was also rather brutal, not least because they started with the nominal leader of the whole thing, Jhan, whom they gave a rather legendary beat-down. I held little pity for the young man, despite the flashes of competence he had displayed at the end; if he had led the entire time, one or more of the team would be dead, assuming neither I nor the Count stepped in, but the point still stood.

“Jhan, you are first,” was how it started, rather tersely, and it went from there.

“You performed rather poorly,” was the Count’s mild start, which already had some protest.

“I did not perform poorly. I was exemplary in that dungeon! I even dealt the final blow to the boss, finishing the entire delve off! I can’t believe I’m going to be blamed for poor performances on the team when I did quite well,” Jhan ranted in reply. It was truly startling, just how out of touch he was with reality. “What’s that supposed to mean?!”

I realized I had been distracted enough that I had said the last part out loud. “What is what supposed to mean?” I asked then in a faux innocent tone, the edge of mockery clear in my voice.

“What you just said! I’m out of touch with reality? It is you who are out of touch with reality, standing back there with your arms crossed like none of this affects you!” he continued his rant.

Rather than dignify the fool with a verbal response, I suddenly moved, darting forward and flashing through The Dark, arriving in front of him in a split second, grabbing him by the scruff of the neck and lifting him from his chair. He produced a most undignified squeak when I did so, which elicited some small laughter from several others in the room, not helping to reduce the deep shade of red his face had turned. I cared not for his embarrassment or the others’ amusement, and I gave the boy a good shake, using a bit more of my strength this time than the last time I had walloped him, which rattled him.

“You think I really care about this? Or about…you?” I asked in a scathing tone, glaring him right in the eye as I held him off the ground. “Be lucky I don’t, elsewise I’d have long ago broken your fool neck. And don’t think I would hesitate in such a thing; you are a poison, boy, a cancer that eats away at those around you. Your arrogance, combined with your ignorance and aggressively incompetent nature will lead not just you, but those around you to ruin and damnation. If you can’t fix your lousy attitude and shape up, the least you can do is sit quietly to the side and not disgrace us with your whining. Do you understand?”

I had given him a shake at the last line and he took a moment to reorient himself; it looked like he was slowly realizing I was far stronger than I had yet let on. “Do you care not for dignity?! Unhand me this instance! You dare think you can threaten a son of house Madrigaal in this manner? Father, tell her-“

His ranting continued, and I looked over at the leadership team, giving the Count in particular a look that he recognized, seeing that I was about to go from a shake and a stern reprimand to more…physical correction in very short order. He stepped in, though he didn’t move, simply removing Jhan from my grasp with a flick of his finger, sending him to Jhan’s father’s side. The man had been silent all that time, letting his youngest son bury himself with his own stupidity, but Jhan’s father was also an interesting shade right now, somewhere between bright red and dark purple. I had not thought someone’s face could assume that kind of color.

“Boy!” he roared when Jhan looked like he was going to start yet again. “You’re going to be lucky if you get out of here without a beating and a decade of duty mucking the stables!”

When Jhan went to speak, his father continued in a dangerously calm tone, “If you even open your mouth for the rest of this meeting, you’re going to be crawling out of this tent, and nobody’s going to fix you up afterward. You understand what I’m saying, boy?”

Jhan nodded vigorously, understanding at last that he was in a very precarious position right now, and that was all of that, surprisingly enough. The meeting continued after that, going through everyone else starting with Gorge, whom even I had to acknowledge with a rare compliment, which rather surprised the Count, though it was faint praise. The rest of the team’s performance was broken down individually, and then a review of what could have been done better was performed. I could see Jhan stewing the whole time, and I would have to keep my eye on him, or maybe have the twins watch him for a while, but I had bigger fish to fry. It was a bit of a surprise when Gorge spoke up before we could do the ‘what could have been better’ section, asking why I had not come up in the review.

“Best to just move on,” I cautioned from where I had resumed my leaning in the back corner.

“Oh? Why is that?” Gorge asked, but it was clear he was genuinely curious and not baiting or trying to make it a cutting remark.

“Because, dear boy, it wouldn’t be of any worth,” the Count interjected. “Alexandra is far more powerful and experienced than her age may bely, as I’m sure you’ve noted during this delve. If I were to be rather blunt with you youngsters, she could have easily cleared a dungeon of that difficulty, and likely faster, as well. Is that not correct?”

He had looked at me at the question, and I answered, “I could have easily solo-cleared that dungeon, and it would have taken me about three hours to fully clear it, assuming I wasn’t stopping to do any harvesting of anything along the way. It would have taken me half a day or just over if I was harvesting only the most valuable beast parts and the few herbs and minor metals I noticed within.”

“You seem rather confident of that,” Gorge said. When I gave him a rather stern frown, he held up his hands and said, “I know you are rather strong, but that’s a rather bold claim. A dungeon that took a team of eleven of us nearly two days to clear could be cleared by you in three hours? I’m not doubting that you’re quite strong, but solo delving is a far different thing than delving with a team. Our instructors have always said that ‘team delving is a dangerous job, solo delving is a death wish’.”

Several others nodded along at the quote at the end, likely something they had all heard in the capital’s academy several times, even by several different instructors. It was a good saying to hammer into these youngsters, as I wasn’t really impressed by anything about them. I realize that sounds rather harsh, but there was no one area they stood as highly skilled or very knowledgeable. Yes, they were young, but they were bad with their weapons, didn’t have a great understanding of their affinities, didn’t have a good understanding of battlefield tactics or movement, didn’t know how to effectively use their various tools together in a seamless manner, and were just overall weak. Again, I understand this sounds like a harsh assessment of a group of young adults who were just starting out in the ‘real world’ after years in the safety of the academy, but their training left quite a bit to be desired. If I were honest, a prodigy among this group might only amount to a skilled regular when compared to other, more efficient and skilled training programs.

“That’s a nice saying,” was what I said, versus unleashing any of my feelings about their teams inadequacy. “It’s a good way to keep people alive, and reinforces a good point. In large part, I would agree with it, and I’m glad your instructors hammered it into you.”

“I’m sensing a but coming somewhere in here,” Anastasia said, frowning at me over her shoulder.

“Very perceptive,” I replied with a small grin. “The ‘but’ to my first statement would be that, while I’m glad your instructors reinforced that for you, it only really applies to below a certain skill and strength threshold. Let us take, before you fire off those angry retorts I see forming, my dear Count as an example. He is a Y-ranker of some great renown and, whether you know it or not, is extremely skilled with the sword. He has decades of battle experience and is quite adept at using his affinities efficiently and skillfully during battle. Based on that, do you think the Count would struggle with clearing a dungeon, let us assume a Y-rank dungeon, very similar to the one we just did? I mean alone, without a team or backup waiting in the wings.”

“Well…” Anastasia replied, and the group had fallen into thought. I could see Jhan had some thoughts of his own to share with the class, thoughts that he thankfully kept to himself, but the rest of them played out the scenario in their head.

“I think it would be dangerous and, if the Count would forgive my forwardness, foolish for him to go into the dungeon alone, but I think he could clear it,” Gorge said, glancing between myself and the Count. The Count merely raised an eyebrow at the assessment, looking at me in the corner, where I was shaking my head.

“Forget the Count for a moment, or maybe moments,” I said.

“Excuse me!” the Count cried.

“You’re not excused,” I insisted before turning back to the team. “Forget the Count; think of a G-rank person. They are firmly in G-rank, and have been for some time. They have plenty of battle experience, years of it, in fact, and are very skilled with their blade. They are just about to breach Expert and reach Master with the sword, and they’ve delved many dungeons. They’ve fought every kind of beast you could imagine, and have loads of experience in strange and stressful situations. The person we’ve made up wants to go do a G-rank dungeon by themselves. Do you think that’s a good idea or a bad idea? Do you think, even if it’s not the safest thing in the world, that it’s quite possible for them to do it?”

“The problem, though,” Gorge said, after thinking a minute, “is that you aren’t talking about slowly soloing a dungeon in a week and barely doing it. You confidently declared that you could fully clear the dungeon we just did in less than three hours.”

I said and stood up from where I was leaning against the table, gesturing to the Count, asking, “Care to assist.”

“Sure. I believe it would be a good lesson,” he replied, taking to what I was asking right away.

“Time for a short field trip, class,” I said in a slightly silly tone, turning and walking out of the tent while the others displayed mild confusion.

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