Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 68

Gathering-2
Establishing an academy is not an easy task.

It requires many professors, that need to be masters in their fields, and also requires a bit of advertising, to attract students who are from outside the association.

The reason why such an academy would be beneficial for the association, is because most of the students would create emotional bonds with each other and with the teachers, making them forever in debt with the creators.

Also, there was a need to train someone to take the position of leader of the American security department first team, once in the hands of Elijah.

Her niece would’ve been a perfect choice, if not for the fact that his public opinion was drastically reduced after his sudden retirement, making her, a member of his family, hated as well.

Not only that, it also required the facilities and staff.

And sometimes, even the scouting and subjugation of gates without killing the boss, so that the students could enter the gate safely to gain experience.

To sum it all up, it was an incredible expense of both money and manpower, difficult to maintain even for a big association such as the AMA, especially since such costs weren’t to ever be repaid, if there was such a high price to attend it, no one would’ve even set foot inside that building, considering that many of the awakened came from lower class families, who couldn’t afford such expensive education.

“Lastly” the woman finished her speech, adding:

“Since we, the Los Angeles association branch, have proposed this initiative, we obviously went ahead and completed the construction for the academy building.”

The woman started explaining all the preparations they had taken, and also the structure of the building.

For a while, every person in that room apart from her didn’t speak, but in their hearts, they were all cursing that cunning woman.

Even the NY association branch leader.

This simple act of building the facility before even having received the approval meant that the academy would’ve been situated right where she wanted it: in Los Angels.

No one could even ask to change the position because then it would’ve looked like they were asking to burn the association funds, or trying to pull something strange with the academy.

Having an academy under the city of Los Angels not only meant that they could control it, but also that various people from all over America would’ve moved there, including but not limited to all the professors and students.

The presence of awakened made the civilians feel safe, and the number of people residing in a city with many awakened couldn’t help but increase.

For this reason, the smart woman managing the association branch situated in Los Angels, had already built the facility with her own personal funds, under the pretext of constructing a normal college.

The next few hours, the discussion circled around this matter.

Every single detail was covered, and not even a single teaching post was left without a ideal owner.

What the students would need, what they would do, who would teach them, where would’ve they gained real life experience…

All these matters were discussed and decided by the branch leaders.

It might’ve looked like a simple and banal task, but the people entering that place would’ve one day become the pillars of the American society, and overlooking their education and situations was only a fool’s mistake.

After six long hours of meeting, when all the already stated matters had been resolved, the NY branch leader took the lead once again.

“We thank the Los Angels association branch leader for her outstanding ideas and ambitions”

He said in quite the annoyed tone.

And Hans seated on his uncomfortable seat, stretched his back, finally ready to get out from that hellish place, but as he was ready to step up and leave, the voice of the short man continued speaking.

“Now, without further ado, let us talk about the remaining problems”

Hans froze in place, afraid to even move his pupils.

And drowning in a sea of despair and suffering, he thought

‘that… wasn’t the end?’

…..

“Knock knock”

…..

“knock knock”

“Aaah”

Hans suddenly woke up screaming, scared by the loud noise coming from his door.

He got up from his bed, and, still half asleep, started walking towards the wooden door, as he was about to grab the handle, his steps were interrupted once again by that extremely loud and annoying noise.

“Knock knock”

In a fit of rage, Hans slammed the door open with his feet, and screamed with all his voice:

“What the hell do you want?!”

Standing petrified in front of him was Kenta, who watched him in the eyes as a little animal in front of a wolf.

“W~we have to take breakfast”

He said, his voice wavering after seeing this side of Hans he had never witnessed.

An incredible aura, even more powerful than the one he emitted when finding out the truth from Elijah, came out of Hans’s body, making Kenta’s hairs fly backwards.

“So you’re telling me that the reason why you couldn’t wait twenty seconds before knocking again…. is because we have to take breakfast?!” Hans threatening and anger filled voice made Kenta shiver just by hearing it.

…

Twenty minutes later, Hans was sitting on the comfy chair of the hotel’s dining room,with his right hand he was barely holding up a spoon, containing some cereals and milk.

His eyes were like islands inside a deep black see, being that his circles almost reached the end of his nose.

Last night, after discussing about the academy, the meeting continued for more than 7 hours.

Meaning that in total they had been inside that room for..

“Thirteen hours…”

Said the tired and feeble voice emanating from Hans’ throat.

“Those bastards..”

the meeting spanned from 4pm to 5am, and even if staying awake for various days wasn’t a problem for hunters, the meeting semmed to require more energy than clearing gates for Hans.

After a certain point, every word spoken by the other leaders sounded like bullshit, and as his eyelids became as heavy as lead he tried his best to look at the blurry image in front of him.

The world seemed to fall apart, as he gritted his teeth and held his head up to avoid falling asleep.

And now, he still suffered from extreme fatigue, so much that Kenta, in front of him, feared he might’ve fallen asleep between a bite and the other.

When they were finally done with their breakfast, another four hours were spent sleeping on the comfortable mattress of the hotel.

It was finally the last day of the gathering, and they were invited to the buffet.

He wasn’t constrained to attend it, but under the repetitive pressure of Lucas, who had begged him to stay and create some connections with other branch leaders, he gave in, and decided to try it out.

In case he found the party way too boring or flashy, he would’ve left immediately.

He dressed up elegantly, and headed straight for the association.

Kenta had left, apparently some rats had managed to snuck inside Chicago while he was away, and it was time for him to take care of them.

He entered the hall, as always luxurious and spacious, he was pretty tired of it.

When the food and the drinks started going around, on the trays of the waiters, people started talking.

One after the other, all the talks covered the room, not leaving any space to intervene for those who talked in a quiet way.

Hans was standing on the left side of the room, leaning with his back against the wall, and scouring the area for possible targets.

As he couldn’t find anyone, he cursed in his mind Lucas.

‘Connections?! How am i even supposed to get close to anyone here, the one with the closest age gap is five years older than me, they probably won’t even spare me a glance”

As he was getting ready to leave, he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder.

“Hey there”

Hans remained shocked when seeing who it was.

“Where you thinking of leaving already?”

The man’s hand was quite big, but when Hans turned around, he found a person al least thirty cm shorter than him:

The New York association branch leader.

“How could i think of leaving, i was just taking a brief stroll to the restroom.

But.. what do i owe the favour? Mr Quinn”

“Hoho” laughed the other, “how could i not pay a visit to the young hero that saved Chicago city at such a young age?

You are eighteen this year right?”

“That is correct” replied Hans

“That’s truly amazing, to think you’ve already reached A-rank at such a young age, I don’t know, but maybe with the passage of the years you’ll be even able to surpass Elijah, what do you think about helping this country with me”

What the man meant was simple, many turned around to hear their discussion, understanding what it was about.

But even under such pressure, Hans replied without any hesitation or concern:

“I really thank you for your offer, but I’ll have to refuse”