"You are late for your morning lessons on your second day," Paul scolded while looking at the boy performing a military salute in front of him.
"I lost track of time during my meditations," Khan lied. "It won't happen again."
Paul had come out of his habitation as soon as he heard Snow's wings flapping in the camp. Khan wanted to hurry toward the lesson, but Paul had intercepted him before he could enter the building.
"Being on time is an important skill in all recruits," Paul commented. "Your presence here should mean that you are among the best of the best, and that includes not being late for the lessons."
"I understand," Khan replied while keeping his eyes on the soldier.
"Look," Paul eventually sighed while breaking his stern expression. "I know that you are a special case, and I don't want to be too harsh on you after everything that you have done on Istrone. However, I can't have recruits late or sleeping during classes. That behavior might affect my promotion."
"I won't be late again," Khan promised, "And I won't fall asleep during the lessons either. I'll be the perfect recruit that you need."
"How can I trust you?" Paul asked. "The schedule here is harsh, and you make it worse by training all night somewhere on an alien planet. You might be able to last for a few days, but the lack of sleep will definitely affect your performance in the missions with the Niqols."
"I have remained awake for almost three days before fighting a first-level warrior," Khan commented. "I won't make you lose face during those missions."
Paul suddenly recalled the reports of the Istrone's rebellion. He didn't know what to say in front of those facts. Khan had already proven that he could handle the lack of sleep perfectly.
"Just take care of yourself then," Paul signed. "The fact that you can endure the lack of sleep doesn't mean that you should remain awake as much as possible. Take it easy. You have earnt it."
Paul began to leave, but Khan gave voice to a weak "sir" that made him turn.
"Would it be possible to skip the morning lessons?" Khan asked. "I know that a soldier should know our history and how mana cores work, but I'd rather spend that time training."
"Do you want to remain ignorant about such crucial topics?" Paul asked.
Khan snorted inside his mind. He came from the Slums. Most of the soldiers there didn't even know that they were immune to Tainted animals.
Moreover, learning about the various details of human development and the many stats of the mana cores felt pointless. Khan would rather have them as separate books to read whenever he had time. Having the chance to look them up on his phone was far better than spending four hours of his day listening to a professor.
"You aren't the first to complain about the tight schedule," Paul revealed. "The army thinks that the lack of training halls and the three free days are enough to make up for the time spent in the additional lessons. The higher-ups didn't add the missions with the Niqols to their math. They even tried to add courses unrelated to mana in the past."
"How would they even fit them?" Khan asked while shaking his head.
"Don't ask me," Paul shrugged his shoulders. "Captain Erbair has tried to reduce the number of lessons for quite some time as far as I know, but it seems that the higher-ups are stubborn."
"Why would they even oppose that?" Khan wondered. "I thought getting stronger soldiers was the army's priority."
"What do you want me to say?" Paul sighed while spreading his arms. "The higher-ups probably want to leave easy subjects to make even idiots graduate."
The training camp was free for two years, but the recruits often left it sooner to join different specialized fields. Still, they had to complete a few requirements to leave it and successfully graduate as soldiers.
Becoming a first-level warrior was the easiest and most common requirement due to the help of synthetic mana. Many recruits managed to make their attunement hit fifty percent in a bit more than a year, so they didn't even need to continue attending the lessons.
Other requirements involved successful mastery of a subject. Those events needed written tests planned through the network and helped to add value to a soldier.
Khan would need to pass tests in xenolinguistics, human and alien politics, and alien customs to appear on the list of potential ambassadors. He even had to add a decent level and multiple achievements to his profile to gain more value in the eyes of the Global Army.
Soldiers would gain access to contests and similar tests for specific positions as long as their profiles met their requirements. The network of the Global Army updated a list of available tasks and roles every hour, and a simple phone was enough to browse it.
Martha had taught Khan how to check his list in the past, which had obviously turned out to be empty. He didn't look it up after Istrone's events, but he knew that the process would remain pointless as long as his profile lacked proper certificates of his abilities.
"I'll ask if you can skip those two lessons," Paul continued. "They might make an exception for you. Giving you more free hours can only help my situation."
"Thank you, Paul," Khan honestly replied. "Though, make them send the lessons to my phone anyway. I want to read them when I have time."
"Sure, sure," Paul said while turning and waving his hand. "I'll try to get you everything you want as long as you stay away from alien pants."
Khan remained expressionless, but he still felt lucky that Paul wasn't looking at him when he made that comment. The soldier was quite perceptive, so Khan wanted to avoid giving even the slightest hint about his situation. It was better if Paul never learnt that he had already gone against his orders.
The conversation with Paul didn't exempt Khan from the morning lessons. He had been a mere thirty minutes late to the first class, so he had nine more hours to go before regaining his freedom.
The lack of sleep tried to get to Khan's head, but he easily vanquished those sensations. He paid attention during the lessons, even if many of them were incredibly dull, and his tiredness reached its peak once the night approached.
"Will you come with us tonight?" George asked while a small group of recruits hurried toward the camp's exit and turned to wait for him.
"I think I'll go for a flight again," Khan showed a sorry smile before looking toward the white dot that had appeared in the sky.
Snow landed next to him, but it didn't manage to scare George at that time. The boy had already grown used to the eagle, which ended up giving voice to a disappointed screech at that scene.
"Don't be late again tomorrow," George laughed, "And try to sleep a bit. I don't want to think about Istrone when I look at your face."
"How did it go with the girl in the end?" Khan asked while climbing on the eagle.
"It would have been better if I had your charm on my side," George laughed. "Be sure to help me one of these days."
Khan limited himself to laugh. Snow set off and flew toward the mountains in the distance. The Aduns had yet to see Liiza's eagle that day, and Khan could only hope that she went out for a flight at some point.
Spending time on his own wasn't an issue. Khan set the alarm and dived into his training. It was almost six pm, so he had twelve hours left before the lessons in the morning. He could easily fit his mental exercises, meditations, practice with the Lightning-demon style, and a nap before that.
Khan approached the mental training right away and finally completed the ninth exercise. He could move one step closer to the Wave spell now, but he felt a bit tired, so he decided to meditate for a few hours before standing up and repeating all the techniques of the Lightning-demon style.
'Only four hours before the lessons,' Khan sighed in his mind when he checked his phone.
His training could occupy his entire day. The lack of training halls didn't affect his packed schedule at all, especially since he could spend many hours meditating and increasing his attunement with mana.
Snow could require almost an hour to fly between the camp and the mountains. That time depended on how long it played during the flight, and Khan didn't want to take that away. He liked keeping his eagle happy, which meant that he only had three hours left.
Khan had returned to the large flat area where Liiza had kissed him, but she didn't arrive. The winds were strong there, but he didn't need to fear avalanches, so he decided to walk near the rocky wall and sleep in a partially covered corner.
The rocky surface was nothing too hard to withstand after Istrone's events. Khan even ended up falling asleep faster than usual there. The cold on that spot couldn't affect his body, and the winds didn't manage to keep him awake. He felt free and safe in the wild.
The noise generated by the flapping of wings awakened him before his alarm could ring. Khan opened his eyes and saw a dark-grey figure landing next to the edges of the flat area.
"I didn't want to wake you up," Liiza announced after jumping off her Aduns. "You must be exhausted after yesterday."
"I would have sensed your mana anyway," Khan revealed before scratching the corner of his eyes and reopening them to gaze at the stunning figure walking toward him.
Liiza was wearing her usual aloof expression when she was on her Aduns, but a smile had appeared on her face seeing Khan. She hurried toward him and knelt to lay her shoulder on the rocky side next to him.
"Hey," Liiza whispered.
"Hey," Khan replied, and his eyes inevitably fell on Liiza's mouth when she saw her biting her lower lip.
The two smiled as their faces drew near and eventually led to a kiss. A slight tinge of awkwardness had been in the air, but the two returned to the previous night when their lips met.
"My mother has come back today," Liiza explained before sitting on Khan's lap and facing him. "It's always hard to sneak out when she is home."
"It's fine," Khan said while their foreheads touched. "We can't spend every night together. Finding the time for everything is getting hard."
"I can always break up with you to give you more free time," Liiza teased before exploding into a laugh when she saw Khan's frown.
The two remained in that position for a while. They exchanged kisses, jokes, and long, meaningful gazes, but Khan's alarm eventually rang and reminded him about his lessons.
"I have to go," Khan revealed in a helpless tone while putting the phone back inside the pocket hidden by Liiza's leg.
"This is so annoying," Liiza sighed while tightening her legs around Khan's waist and doing the same with the arms clung to his neck.
"We will have more time together during the weekend," Khan explained. "I still have to train, but I wouldn't have to spend ten hours on the lessons."
"You won't," Liiza revealed. "Your team will have to help with a monster. The entire travel to the hunting area will take three days."