Harem Training System: Every Girl I Train Makes Me Stronger!

Chapter 29: 29. She Called It Administrative Liaison Duties. Her Ears Said Otherwise.

His room felt smaller than usual that night, the way spaces sometimes did after a day spent surrounded by people who had come to depend on him. William sat on the edge of his narrow bed, boots still on, running through the evening’s drills in his head out of pure habit, cataloging what had worked and what needed adjusting.

It took him embarrassingly long to remember that tomorrow was a rest day, which meant no training, no lectures, and no schedule dictating every hour of his existence. He stared at the ceiling and realized, with the particular horror of a man discovering an unexpected void in his life, that he had absolutely nothing planned.

"What the fuck am I supposed to do with free time?" he said out loud to the empty room, which had become something of a habit lately. "Read a book? Do I even know how to relax anymore?"

"Shit man... my death in the last life slowly starts giving me some PTSD to not lower my guard at any time to the point that I can’t even relax anymore." William said while brushing his face with his palm.

His entire existence, both in this life and the one before it, had revolved around training people. At some point, his work had transformed from just a job into the very thing that gave his days structure.

Without it, he suspected he would spend the entire day pacing his room and inventing new drills for students who weren’t even present to receive them.

He was still turning the problem over, only half seriously considering breaking his own rule and finding somewhere to train alone, when a knock sounded at his door. William glanced at the darkened window, mildly surprised anyone would be visiting at this hour.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Come in, it’s open," he called, expecting one of the girls with some emergency or another.

Catherine stepped inside instead, and William noted immediately that she had changed out of her instructor’s uniform into something plainer, her white hair loose around her shoulders instead of pulled back in its usual severe style.

On her, even off duty, elven features carried an effortless elegance that made the plain clothing look deliberate rather than casual.

’When you look at an elf this close... I could see the beauty of it... now I get why people love elves.’

"Catherine? Everything okay?"

"Everything’s fine," she said quickly, then hesitated in a way that was distinctly unlike her usual crisp efficiency. "It’s just that... I wanted to ask if you’re... free tomorrow."

William blinked. "Free as in, not currently drowning in academic politics...?"

"Uh, yeah, apparently I have an entire day with nothing to do, which is somehow more stressful than having something to do."

"That’s, well..." Catherine cleared her throat, and William watched with open fascination as the woman who had faced down furious noble parents without flinching suddenly seemed to have trouble meeting his eyes. "I was going to ask if you wanted to see the city..."

"Properly, I mean... Not just the parts visible from the academy walls."

’Wait... this is...?!’ William noticed a pattern right away. ’Is this what they call rizz?!’

"You’re inviting me on a tour of the city."

"It’s not—" Catherine’s ears, William noticed, had gone faintly pink at the tips, a detail that human ears couldn’t have offered but hers apparently could. "It’s a reasonable use of a rest day!"

"You’ve been here for days, and you haven’t left academy grounds once... I—it would be irresponsible of me, as your administrative liaison, to let that continue."

William grinned just to tease her. "Your administrative liaison duties now include sightseeing."

"They include ensuring instructor well-being," Catherine said, with the particular dignity of someone doubling down on a cover story even as it visibly crumbled. "Well? Are you coming or not?"

William considered pointing out that she looked like she’d rather be anywhere in the world than standing in his doorway asking this question, and then considered that pointing that out would probably end whatever this was before it started, so he simply said, "Yeah... Sounds good!"

"I could use the break and also look at the city."

Something in Catherine’s shoulders loosened, relief evident even through her attempt at professional composure. "Good... I’ll meet you at the main gate at nine."

"Wait, one more thing," William said as she turned to leave. "You mentioned Headmaster Albert earlier this week wanted to talk to me about something."

"Did that ever get resolved?"

Catherine paused in the doorway. "Actually, yes, that’s part of why I came by tonight."

"Headmaster Albert wants to give you a weapon."

"Uh-huh..." William raised an eyebrow. "Well, yes, I don’t currently have one, if you hadn’t noticed."

"Kind of an oversight for a combat instructor."

"He’s noticed," Catherine said. "It’s part of why he wants to give you one."

"In academy tradition, when an instructor distinguishes themselves significantly, the headmaster personally arranges for a weapon of merit."

"It’s considered a mark of honor... Given everything you’ve accomplished since arriving, and given the incident with the operatives, he feels you’ve more than earned it."

"Huh." William turned that over in his mind.

A weapon he’d actually chosen for himself, rather than whatever standard issue garbage had come with this body’s meager belongings, sounded appealing in ways he hadn’t let himself think about since waking up in this world.

"That’s actually really generous of him."

"He can afford to be generous when it comes to instructors he considers assets worth protecting," Catherine said. "I’ll arrange the details."

"For now, get some rest. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day, one way or another."

She left before William could ask what exactly she meant by that, and he spent a solid minute staring at his closed door before shaking his head and finally getting undressed for bed, already half convinced that whatever tomorrow held, it would somehow turn into another Chapter in the increasingly ridiculous story his life had become.

...

The city outside the academy walls hit William like a physical thing, a wave of sound and color and impossible detail that made him stop dead in his tracks the moment they passed through the main gate the next morning.

He had seen fantasy in movies. He had read about it in books during whatever spare time his previous, brutal existence had allowed.

None of it had prepared him for the reality of walking down a cobblestone street lined with buildings that seemed to grow rather than have been built, timber and stone twisting together in shapes that defied straight lines, roofs shingled with something that shimmered faintly blue in the morning light.

"You’re staring like it’s the first time you’ve seen all of these," Catherine said, amusement evident in her voice as she walked beside him, dressed in simple traveling clothes that made her look years younger than her usual formal attire suggested.

"I’m allowed to stare," William said. "I grew up somewhere with no magic and significantly fewer horns."

He wasn’t exaggerating about the horns. A pair of towering figures with skin the deep grey of river stone and short curling horns emerging from their foreheads hauled crates past a merchant stall, exchanging casual banter with the human shopkeeper as though nothing about the interaction was remarkable.

Further down the street, a woman with the lower body of some sort of serpent coiled comfortably atop a cushioned platform outside what appeared to be an apothecary, chatting with customers while her tail flicked lazily behind her.

Small winged creatures, no larger than housecats, darted between rooftops carrying what looked like tiny sealed letters, apparently serving as some sort of localized mail system.

A group of children with pointed ears not unlike Catherine’s chased each other through the square, laughing in a way that felt reassuringly, universally human despite everything else about them that wasn’t.

"This is insane," William muttered. "This is actually insane!"

"I keep forgetting I’m not on Earth anymore, and then something like this happens, and it just, it hits me all over again. ’William thought to himself.

"You get used to it," Catherine said.

"I really don’t think I will."

They wandered through streets thick with the smell of unfamiliar spices and cooking meat, past stalls selling everything from enchanted trinkets that hummed faintly with contained magic to bolts of cloth that seemed to shift color depending on the angle of the light.

William found himself asking questions constantly, and Catherine, patient in a way he hadn’t quite expected from her, answered each one without a trace of the exasperation she’d shown during their first meeting.

Eventually they arrived at a squat, sturdy-looking building near the edge of the market district, the unmistakable ring of hammer on metal echoing from somewhere inside even before they reached the door.

A sign above the entrance, carved rather than painted, read Grock’s Forge in letters that had clearly been touched up many times over the years.

"This is the place," Catherine said. "Grock’s family has supplied weapons to the academy for three generations."

"If Headmaster Albert wants you to have something worthy of the honor, this is where it comes from."