Chapter 53: The Weakness We Found
The simulation ended, and they were back.
White floor.
Open ceiling.
Arthur looked across the room with his eyes barely open.
Leon was against the far wall with Mephistopheles lying on the stone beside him. The Golden Dragon’s breathing was slow. Leon’s eyes were closed with sweat covering his face. He looked like someone who had given everything and hadn’t decided what to do next.
"Even Leon," Arthur said.
Leon opened one eye. "...You made it."
Arthur smiled. "So did you."
Leon nodded once. "...Good." He closed his eye again.
Arthur laughed quietly. "...He’s definitely tired."
He hadn’t meant to say it out loud, but it was true.
Teams were scattered across the floor. Some sat, some leaned against walls, most drank water in silence. One girl was crying, not from sadness but from relief. A student from another team had his beast’s head in his lap, his hand resting on its side. Two people from a third team were laughing quietly at nothing in particular.
Arthur’s team leaned against the near wall, propped up against each other. Arthur had his eyes closed. He wasn’t asleep, but he was close.
Ajax stepped forward, and a crystal board rose behind him. Most of the room looked up.
COMPLETION TIMES, the board said.
Students straightened. Some sat up. The rankings formed from the top down, and when Leon’s name appeared near the top, people nodded to each other like they’d expected nothing less.
The list continued.
Arthur’s team appeared at the bottom.
Arthur opened one eye.
"...Damn," he said.
Sun looked at him. "I have never heard someone deliver that word with that little energy in my entire life."
"I’m tired."
"We’re all tired."
"Then you understand."
Steven stepped forward beside Ajax, and the room’s attention shifted.
"Congratulations," Steven said.
The room waited.
"You all finished first."
Confusion spread through the crowd.
Steven smiled. "The objective was never to reach the oasis quickly. It was to reach the oasis." He looked across the room. "An expedition doesn’t produce rankings. It asks one question when everything is over." He paused. "Did everyone return?"
The room went quiet.
One student slowly looked toward the teammate sitting beside him. Another looked toward her beast. A third quietly lowered his head.
The room finally understood.
Nobody cared who arrived first.
Only who arrived together.
Arthur opened both eyes.
A girl from one of the slower teams stared at the floor as if she was lost in thought. Not because they had lost. Because they could see now exactly where they’d wasted time they didn’t have. It stung, but it was useful, and they wouldn’t forget it.
Ajax let the silence sit. "Round Two is next Monday. Same time." He paused. "Rest while you have it."
Steven added, clearly enjoying himself: "One more thing. Every participant today may eat anywhere in Pathfinder Academy. The Gold Line is open to you."
Arthur processed the phrase "Gold Line."
"That sounds expensive," he said.
"It is," Steven said.
...
As everyone began heading out, Arthur blinked.
A familiar screen appeared.
[New Title Acquired]
[Clown’s Bane]
Awarded to those who overcome psychological trials without surrendering.
[Passive Effect:]
Mental attacks lose a small amount of effectiveness while your allies remain determined.
Arthur blinked. "...Clown’s Bane?" He rubbed his chin. "Wonder what kind of title Mom has. She’s never given up on anything. I bet she went through a lot in the academy."
The screen disappeared.
Arthur shrugged.
"I bet it was something amazing. Like the Unbreakable or the Unchained!"
"What are you muttering about?" Sun asked, raising a brow.
"Cool titles my mom used to have."
"Huh?"
...
The Gold Line cafeteria smelled different from ordinary cafeterias. It smelled like ingredients that didn’t exist in ordinary kitchens. Crystal fruit sat in a bowl that seemed to be cooling itself from below. A Dragon steak was being served three tables over, with sides Arthur couldn’t name.
Arthur pointed. "Can students actually afford that?"
A nearby student looked over. "Normally, no."
Arthur nodded. "...That makes me feel better."
A dessert floated at shoulder height near the service window, waiting for whoever had ordered it.
Arthur looked at all of this. "I’m going to cry," he said.
Mithra appeared beside him and handed him a tray.
He looked at it. "You already—"
"You would have stood here for five minutes," she said.
Arthur looked at the tray, then the food, then the cafeteria. He sat down and ate, and for a while nobody talked.
The team ate like it was a job, not a meal. When Arthur set down his fork after the third course, he slapped both hands against his cheeks, his usual reset motion.
"That was fun," he said.
The table erupted.
"You almost died," Sun said.
"I did," Arthur said. "Still fun."
Athena sighed, the sigh she used when something was beyond productive discussion.
...
Arthur set his glass down.
"I don’t want that to happen again," he said.
The tone had changed, and everyone at the table noticed.
"If that had been a real expedition, and not a simulation, somebody would have died. Our legs gave out. Our beasts were at the edge. We held together, but barely." He looked around the table. "We fix that."
Nobody argued.
"There’s somewhere," Athena said. She’d already opened her notebook. "The Beast Bond Chamber in the Beast Court yard District. It isn’t about fighting. It’s about shared endurance, mental connection, learning to hold together through hard times without breaking at the same time." She closed the notebook. "It seems relevant."
Arthur leaned forward. "I have been wanting to visit that place! Let’s go!"
"Please," Sun said, "can we digest first?"
They digested first.
...
Before they left, Athena knelt beside Athy, who sat on the table staring at the same spot on the tablecloth.
"You wanted to stop," Athena said.
Athy didn’t answer with sound. She lowered her head, then reached for the small pad of paper she kept for conversations that mattered, and wrote.
"I almost made Arthur lose."
Athena read it. "You were worried about him," she said.
Athy looked up.
"That’s different from giving up," Athena said.
Arthur smiled. "Besides, you stayed."
Athy looked at him. "And even helped me not give up. Thank you, Athy."
The owl trembled before turning away.
Across the table, Mithra watched Melo, whose tail had been twitching for a few minutes while she faced the other way.
"Is something wrong?" Mithra asked softly.
Melo’s tail flicked. She grabbed her own paper and wrote without turning around. "Don’t want Arthur sad."
Arthur leaned forward. "Really?"
Melo turned around, caught. She crossed out "Arthur" with a firm line and wrote below it in bigger letters.
"TEAM."
She set the pen down hard, like she was closing the case.
Arthur smiled. "...Sure."
Nobody believed her.
Nobody needed to.
Then he looked at Vedas. "You okay?" he said.
Vedas met his eyes. "I don’t want to feel that helpless again," he said. "Not because something was stronger. Because I couldn’t respond to it."
Arthur nodded. "Then we get stronger."
"Yes," Vedas said.
Sun had been watching this with a dazed look. "...I think I finally understand this Academy."
The monkey tilted its head, then tapped his face. "Fine," he said. "I’ll train."
His monkey raised one small fist into the air. That was the monkey’s stance on most things involving commitment.
Arthur grinned, then blinked. "Oh right, I didn’t catch the name of your monkey."
Mithra gasped. "That’s true. We’ve been so busy with the round, we didn’t even realize." She turned to Sun. "What’s his name? I’m sure you’re not like a certain blasphemous person who forgot to name their partner."
"...It was a mistake."
"Mhm."
"I got caught up in the moment."
"Mhm."
"Vedas, buddy? A little help?"
"I agree with her. You forgot me."
"..."
Sun’s lips twitched. "This little guy is called Kong."
Arthur rubbed his chin. "That’s a good name. Not as good as Vedas but—"
"Kong is the best name!"
"Hahaha."
...
Athena led them away from the main plazas, down a path that got quieter the longer they walked. The sound of the Arena district faded first, then the general traffic between buildings, until the air felt different entirely.
Arthur noticed it before he understood why.
"It’s peaceful," he said.
He expected another building.
Instead, the Academy simply became a forest.
Ancient trees rose on either side of the path, their branches woven into a canopy so thick the sky only showed through narrow gaps in the leaves. Gold leaves drifted through the air with no wind to move them. Wooden platforms circled the largest trunks, connected by vine bridges that swayed without any breeze.
Arthur stopped walking. "...Wow."
Between the trees, students worked beside their beasts.
Not against them.
A girl rested her forehead against the head of a massive silver wolf. Neither moved, but golden light passed between them in slow pulses, flowing from the wolf into the girl and back, each cycle brighter than the last.
Further in, a swordsman sprinted across a courtyard. Above him, a crimson hawk folded its wings and dove. Neither looked at the other. When the hawk swept past, the swordsman’s blade completed its swing at the exact same moment. Together they landed a strike neither could have made alone.
A student sat under one of the oldest trees with a bear leaning against his side. Neither trained. They just shared the afternoon.
Nearby, a small rabbit circled a laughing girl. Each lap made both of them glow faintly before it faded, and both of them loved it.
Arthur turned slowly, taking it all in. "Everyone here treats their beast like family," he said.
He looked toward Vedas. "Want to try?"
Vedas blinked. "Try what?"
Arthur smiled. "This." He leaned his forehead against Vedas’.
Nothing happened.
Then he felt a warm surge through him.
Vedas smiled. "...That’s nice."
Mithra covered her mouth. "Adorable."
"It’s expected from those two. Anyway, understanding your Beast doesn’t begin with combat," Athena said. "It begins with trust. The techniques come later. Trust is the foundation."
The silver wolf nudged its partner to her feet. The girl laughed. The wolf’s tail wagged.
Deeper in the forest, beasts chased each other through the trees while their partners laughed behind them.
Arthur smiled before he realized he was smiling.
"I think I’m going to like this place too," he said.
Mithra laughed.
"I knew you were going to say that," she said.
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