Rivers of the Night

General Pennel looked over at General Zhen for not much more than a brief instant.

"Ignore him, kid. He's annoying."

Theron blinked. Of all the responses he expected, this was the last one. Of course, he could think of several ways to get out of this through words alone. But… it seemed like when you had the power, talking was entirely unnecessary.

What good was talking if it was just a waste of breath? What good was strength if you still had to bother to play political games?

Would the Emperor himself even dare to slight General Pennel too much with how much of the Empire's sky he held up? This man was far too important, and he also put in more work than anyone else too.

If the Emperor took action against him, it would probably be the most foolish decision in their Imperial Clan's history.

Theron's eyes glowed before he slowly suppressed it.

What was the use in getting excited? It wasn't as though it was his strength?

"He'll be helping you, mother?" General Pennel asked, not paying much attention to General Zhen's seething at all.

"Mm, he will be." The Dean nodded.

"Is he strong?"

"Boy, what does strength have to do with being an academic?"

General Pennel pouted. "He'll be in the academic stream? What a complete waste."

"You want him for the military stream?" Dean Pennel asked slowly, her eyes narrowing.

General Pennel put his hands up. "No, no. Never that. Never that."

"Good." Dean Pennel nodded.

Theron looked between the mother-son duo, feeling like he was watching a theater show play out, and he wasn't exactly sure why that was. It felt like they were manipulating something.

Unfortunately, he had nothing more than intuition to tell him that. Looking at their mannerisms and the cadence of their speech, they were definitely not lying about how this return was a surprise.

Plus, back in the office, it would have been impossible for Dean Pennel to plan out her surprise that well. Even if she could, why would she put on such a show just for Theron alone? After all, only he had been there at the time.

This meant that whatever scheme this mother-son duo had come up with was being executed on the fly and completely without communication.

'… Interesting…'

It wasn't until the following day that Theron would learn of what that was.

**

Theron stood across from General Pennel, a bit of an odd expression on his face, and that wasn't because the man had just carefully peeled his wife off of his arm.

Until just now, Teacher Fern had been hanging from the man like a koala bear, unwilling to let go of him, even now that they were in a training room.

The room was filled with thick, black, rubber mats that felt like elephant hides to the touch of Theron's feet. It wasn't just the floors, but the walls, and even the ceilings.

The only disruption in these rubber mats was the benches that Dean Pennel and Teacher Fern had gone off to sit on, and the pot lights that dotted them like stars from above and even below.

"Military stream?" Theron asked. "Both?"

General Pennel shrugged. "I wanted to listen to my mother's words. She doesn't really like it when academics waste time on war. 'There should be a clear divide between the mind and blood,' as she always likes to say. But this time, it was the Emperor's orders."

Seeing the helpless expression on the man's face, Theron was beginning to get the feeling that the stereotypes about military men being brutes were complete nonsense.

This man was cunning and conniving. And Theron immediately understood why that was.

General Pennel seemed to have replaced the second Dean of the academy in an interim position. Because of this, the Imperial Academy had suddenly become the territory of the Pennels as they controlled the dos and don'ts of both streams.

Obviously, this wasn't something that they could do out in the open because it would look like a grab for power. That would lead to a great deal of backlash. By pretending like Dean Pennel was highly opposed, it made it easier to swallow.

Then there was the perspective of the Emperor himself.

From what Theron heard from the conversation between Teacher Fern and Dean Pennel, General Pennel had no heirs. So even if the General was doing a power grab, who was he stocking up on power for?

Finally, there was the pivotal point: Theron himself.

No one had confirmed who caused those deaths. But what was obvious was that Theron was a great talent under the Thistle's control. The more it felt like he was playing for the Imperial Clan, the more difficult it would be for the Thistles to use him as a political tool.

Once Theron represented their Imperial Academy, it would be hard to wash off those "stains." He would permanently become a man of the Imperial Clan.

In the end, here Theron was, suddenly being pulled into representing the First Years in both streams.

He really didn't know how this happened. He was just a live-in son-in-law, but now he had suddenly become like this.

"So let's—"

"General, can I ask for a favor?" Theron asked suddenly.

"Hm? Sure. What is it?"

"My wife… I haven't seen her in a while, and…"

General Pennel blinked and looked to the side. "This kid has a wife?"

The two women nodded.

The General burst into laughter.

"Alright, alright. We'll bring her over, then."

"She's quite the genius herself too, of the academic stream. I think she could do well in the main Imperial Academy."

"Good. Then we'll have mother handle that. Shall we begin?"

"What are we beginning—?"

Theron didn't even get a chance to finish his question before a fist slammed into his chest.

It felt as though all the organs in his body had been flipped on their heads, a mouthful of blood coming out from him long before he slammed into a rubber wall.