Elite Mages’ Academy (Web Novel)

Chapter 274: Letter of Appointment

Other than Class Four, every other class could appoint group leaders. After he got back, Xiao Lin immediately appointed Gu Xiaoyue and Zhou Feng as group leaders. It was different from the verbal appointment during the monthly examination; this appointment would be in their records.

After the evaluations ended, the student union president hurriedly ushered everyone else away before inviting Xiao Lin into his office. What caused Xiao Lin some surprise was the presence of a pretty short-haired girl in the office conversing with the president.

When she saw Xiao Lin walk inside, the woman gave him a thumbs-up, praising him, “Not bad! It’s rare to see those old farts so defeated. You have more potential than I thought.”

Xiao Lin looked at the president, who was smiling at him. He got up from the desk before moving to the sofa to the side, motioning for Xiao Lin to do the same, indirectly establishing a better relationship among all of them.

“I’m Yu Mei. You must be Xiao Lin. I’ve heard good things about you,” the woman greeted him warmly.

The president smiled as he added, “Yu Mei is an army major. Her grandfather was Yu Sheng—he was a brilliant engineer from Dawn Academy a century ago.”

Yu Mei unhappily blinked at him, feeling like the president had said too much.

Xiao Lin found it strange that even her grandfather had been introduced, but he suddenly gasped, standing right up from the sofa before gaping as he said, “An engineer from a century ago? Is your grandfather Captain Yu?!”

Yu Mei did not say anything, silently agreeing, but she did not seem to want to continue on that topic. The socially-savvy president quickly changed the topic. “Those old farts… Ahem, those seniors are all part of the army as well. This examination had some sensitive contents, but since such a long time has passed, the secret stopped meaning as much, but it’s still part of the army’s jurisdiction.”

Dawn Academy was still just a school in the end–a place to cultivate new talent–but as colonists, the real battle was in the New World which was controlled by the army.

“Dawn Academy had to be different from the American Judge Academy. The dean’s power can’t just be limited to school affairs,” Xiao Lin said curiously.

“You know quite a bit, huh?” Yu Mei raised her eyebrows.

“That’s right. Our current dean is the strongest and most heroic dean Dawn Academy has ever seen. It is regretful that there are always some people within the academy who fail to understand the dean’s decisions. They don’t dare to publicly oppose the dean, but regularly mess with him in the shadows.” The president seemed to respect the dean greatly.

“An opposing faction?” Xiao Lin put a different spin on it.

“Yes, that can be said to be so.”

“I still don’t understand, those old people are the dean’s opponents, so why are they targeting me instead? Is it just because the dean treats me better than most?” Xiao Lin was still puzzled. On the surface, the dean did not help him that much, he did not believe those old farts would be so free to target him based on that.

Yu Mei exchanged looks with the president before taking out a document from a small bag she had with her. “You’ll understand after you look at this; it’s also the reason I came back here from the New World to find you.”

Curiously accepting the document, the golden letters on the white paper completely shocked Xiao Lin.

[Letter of Appointment: Appointing student Xiao Lin as a captain in the army; to be temporarily assigned to the sixth regiment.]

At the end was a stylish signature and a seal made with magic, proving that this appointment was made personally by the dean.

Yu Mei smiled bitterly. “Given the rules, the dean can appoint anyone as an officer, but it needs the approval of others. This time, the dean circumvented everyone else and issued the order, which led to a great amount of dissatisfaction. They could not grasp the dean’s real goal, which is why they came here to target you in order to test the dean’s response.”

Xiao Lin had yet to snap out from his stupor. Normally, a student could enter the military after they graduated from the academy, and monitors or year leaders could usually enter the army as officials.

However, that would require him to complete his fourth year. He was still just a new student who had just been in the academy for three months!

“Do you mean I’ll need to join the army and leave the academy?” Xiao Lin could not understand what the dean’s sudden move signalled. He did not feel like he could do anything in the New World at the moment, especially since he was still far behind everyone else in skill.

“No, the dean especially told me that, before you reach Black-iron rank, you’ll only be a captain in rank; you won’t have any actual military powers,” Yu Mei explained.

Yu Mei’s tone led Xiao Lin to think of something. He asked, “The sixth regiment? What are you to that regiment?”

“She is the commander of the sixth regiment. I’ll give you some background information as well. Dawn Academy’s military wing currently has six regiments; the sixth regiment was only formed a few years ago,” the president explained to Xiao Lin.

The young lady was already in charge of an entire regiment. Xiao Lin was quite surprised. Regiments were the common army classifications on Planet Norma, and being able to be the commander of an entire regiment was no easy feat.

“Even though there are many things I need to let you know and many questions you need answered, you still need to reach Black-iron rank before anything happens. Otherwise, even with the dean’s letter of appointment, my regiment does not need someone like you at all.”

After a pause, Yu Mei smiled and said, “I came today because I was curious who could make the dean do so much. The fact that you pissed those old farts off so much exceeded my expectations. Alright, let’s stop here. I’ll take my leave for now.”

After her monologue, Yu Mei left immediately. Xiao Lin held onto the letter of appointment, looking at the president with a baffled expression. “Why do you think the dean gave this to me?”

The baby-faced president smiled. “Don’t overthink it; focus on graduating for now. The commander is right. Without the proper strength behind it, that letter is just a useless piece of paper.”

“Does this count as an advance promotion?” Xiao Lin laughed. He did not know if he really wanted to join the military, but someone had actually already paved the way for him. If he was not opposed to it, he really did not have a good reason to reject it.

Before he left, the president stopped him. “Oh, what you said earlier about the lock and key; make sure you don’t bring it up to anyone else, understand?”

“Relax, I’m not so loose with my words. This is all just my own speculation after all.”

After Xiao Lin left, the president smiled to himself as he looked at the blue skies and vibrant sun outside, sighing as he said, “I wonder how long this peace will last!”