065

As she went to work, even though she was a little late, no one made it hard on her. They wouldn't dare mess with the manager for dozens of minutes… Heck, no one dared mess with the manager. And that's who she was. She was one of the managers when it came to the buying of mechs. There were few. Two of them being her friends. And those two didn't hesitate to come and tease her about her night. It was obvious to them from her smile that something good happened… They were quite surprised when they were told that she went on to meet the poor guy but they went over it in seconds. They prioritized gossiping about what they did…

Meanwhile, Ron returned to his dorm to change before leaving once more unhurriedly. The lesson today was a fighting class. One that he had been allowed to skip by the teacher himself. And he would certainly do so. Fighting bare-handed was meaningless. In a space war, what could a fist do? He did not want to waste his time there which was why he was quite grateful to the teacher. As to Celine giving him some free augments… He had no reasons to reject her. It was something helpful after all. Doesn't mean that he would play along with her whims and return to class. Instead, he left the university and went to a café to work on theories and concepts of engineering. Since he was going to be sent to the army, he reoriented himself towards war machineries. Knowing how to craft a car would probably not be as useful as knowing how to make some guns… With a bit of luck, he might be sent to a military factory as an engineer instead of a soldier at the front lines.

While he was learning, Celine was raging at the training grounds. She waited for him but he never showed up and it was already half an hour ago that the lesson began. At that moment, the teacher walked next to her sighing and teased her: "Seems like your assignment wasn't that easy, eh? I wonder, what did you even do to make you think he would come?"

She didn't even look his way as she gnashed her teeth and answered: "I provided him augments all the way up to the fifth level"

The teacher stopped grinning and his expression turned grave. While that kind of money was nothing to him and his few students, it remained a fact that it was a big sum to most humans. If she spent so much only for him to keep fooling around, it was quite serious. But then again, he gave the task to Celine which meant he did not need to care so much about it. Knowing her temper, she would certainly find him and a solution. If the carrot did not work, she was likely to show up with the stick this time. And judging by her expression, it wouldn't be a simply stick… He told her once more that she could skip his lesson and focus on the task he gave her before going back to check on the other students. They were weaker and could be taught compared to her.

She opened her wrist-com and sent a single message: "Where is he?"

An instant later, she received an answer and left the training grounds with decisive steps.

Soon, she reached a café and spotted the little shit reading while enjoying some warm drink. She went up to him and took a seat while glaring at him. She wasn't rash to the point that she would hit him or something just for skipping a lesson but she needed to be given answers. And those answers better be worth her time. She waited for him to apologize and give her an excuse but he only looked up once before resuming his reading. It infuriated her but she reigned down her anger. She asked him herself: "Why aren't you in class?"

He looked back at her and asked in return: "Why aren't you either?"

She looked at him bewildered, not having expected such a retort. Then, she glared back and stated: "Because of you. Now, explain yourself"

She did buy him augments so it was true that Ron was indebted to her. At the very least, he decided not to treat her badly as he had been all this time. She was quite peculiar and her personality wasn't great but she did give him something beyond his own means. And she did it without a single moment of hesitation.

He answered politely: "The lesson is about learning to fight in melee with one's fists, right? I don't see any use to that. When you're in a war, it's with weapons that you fight. If it was a lesson on how to use guns or canons, I would have joined. But fistfights? That's useless to me"

She agreed that during a war, only a fool would try to go fight barehanded. But she disagreed with him when it came to the uselessness of it. She stated her point: "It might come a time when you need to know how to fight with your fists, even if outside of war. Being able to defend yourself is something useful regardless of who you are"

He nodded and stated: "But a gun can defend me even better, can't it?"

She looked at him with mixed feelings. He wasn't wrong but it didn't feel right either. Though, in the end, she noticed what truly mattered. If it was about gunfighting, he would come and learn. This was enough. That guy wasn't a delinquent playing hooky. He was simply studious in his own ways, prioritizing the learning of what he considered important. She could understand that.

So, she asked him: "How about coming with me and learning about guns then?"