The Magician of Sound

The next day,

Kai slowly opened his eyes before feeling some pain in his head.

"Ugh…" 

His left hand grabbed his head while his right hand took the device beside his pillow. He checked the time, and it was already past eight. 

"I overslept," Kai complained to himself.

Last night, he entered this room that had especially prepared for his group. Even Sanae was also stationed here, considering they would move together. There were many empty rooms in the abandoned building.

The Earth Magician had reinforced some structure so they could be used, and the soldiers only needed to bring some sleeping bags or mattresses given by the support team.

His body rose from the bed, and he looked left and right, not finding anyone in this room. "As expected, everyone is already left."

Kai left his bed and walked to the door. On the way, he felt a headache and staggered because he had slept for more than twelve hours, including the nap he took after finishing the map. Normally, he would still wake up just fine, but the task really took a toll on his mind, so he slept like a log.

In the end, he didn't leave the room first. Instead, he fixed his bed hair first and warmed up his body. His headache gradually eased, and he could move his body as usual.

"Fu." Finishing his warm-up, Kai searched through the base, locating Michelle's position. It looked like there was no change in the activity around the base even though he and Via had delivered the map. In other words, Nathan still observed the map before giving his approval.

Thinking about it, he searched for Nathan and found he was sitting in his room. After finishing his first job, Kai didn't know what he needed to do. At the same time, it didn't feel right not to do anything and lazing around the room.

He ended up sending a message for Nathan, in which he replied almost immediately. 

'Come to my office. You should know about my office with your ears, right? Well, if you don't know, just ask someone about my office.' 

Kai smiled and shook his head helplessly after reading the message. He changed his clothes, wore his coat, and went to Nathan's office. 

It only took him a few minutes before reaching his office. He knocked on the door a few times and heard Nathan's voice from the inside. 

"Come in."

Kai opened the door without hesitation and found Nathan playing around with the map. 

"Good work for this map. Although I have found some inconsistencies such as the sudden dead-end, no problem on my end." Nathan fiddled with the map again, observing the number around the map. "Yeah. Is this number…"

"They are the number of Magical Beasts in that area. They are scattered, of course, but I can make it as a general one. Of course, they can move around, but unless they are moving to a big number, it should pose no problem as long as they are careful." Kai explained.

"Fair enough." Nathan nodded. 

"As for the tunnel-" Kai wanted to elaborate it a bit more, but Nathan stopped him. 

"Wait. If you are talking about the plan, then we can discuss it in the meeting today. I feel bad for your group members for not taking part in this, but considering the discussion would be with all commanders in this operation, they could only go through the process with other soldiers." Nathan sighed.

"I… Understand." Kai nodded, even though they didn't talk for a few days already. 

"Anyway, we will go to the meeting after Via arrives… So, she could do some battle simulation for us." Nathan pointed his finger to a couch located on the corner. "Sit there for the time being. I will summon all the people in the meeting room."

Kai nodded and waited without saying anything. After another hour, Via finally entered the room. "I'm sorry for making you wait."

"It's fine. You two have worked hard for the past two days. We are not going to attack them until tomorrow anyway." Nathan stopped her from apologizing. He rose from his seat and said, "Let's go to the meeting room."

Kai and Via exchanged looks and nodded, following Nathan to the meeting room. Suddenly, Nathan slowed down his pace and said,

"We have six commanders this time in which two deputies would be assigned to each of them. Including Via and me, you will explain your plan in front of twenty people. Are you ready?"

"I'm ready." Kai nodded at him with a serious expression.

Nathan nodded with a smile before opening the door, revealing the other commanders in this operation. However, he was a bit surprised when he found Michelle's teacher, Mano Yuki, in this room. She sat down in the front row like the six others, including Sherwin.

Noticing their presence, the people turned around and looked at Kai before narrowing their eyes. Only Yuki greeted him warmly by waving her hand and smiling.

Nathan patted his shoulder once again, asking him to come in. After that, he said out loud, "I have made you wait, ladies and gentlemen. We are going to discuss our current plan."

His words made all the people rise from their seats and saluted.

Via tugged Kai's hand before pointing at the two seats leaning on the wall. Kai nodded and walked toward those two seats, realizing it was their seats.

He then observed the room. 

The room itself had nothing special other than the big table in the middle and six chairs right behind the table. Behind each of those six chairs were another pair of seats. According to his knowledge, the six in front were a thousand men commanders while the two were their deputies. Normally, they were in charge of five hundred each.

In front of everyone, Nathan took a seat and said to Kai. "These people are the commanders of each army. You may use them as you deem fit."

Without waiting for his reply, Nathan turned around and narrowed his eyes. He predicted the complex map right in front of their eyes. 

"Woah…" They were astonished for a few seconds, noticing what this map was. "General, is this the underground map?" 

"Indeed. It might not be a bit off, but I can proudly present you seventy percent of the map. There was even some information about the number of monsters. Although it wasn't too accurate considering they might constantly be moving, it was enough to give you a general view of their number."

The commanders opened their mouths in amazement. "As expected from Miss Via Carman."

"Of course, she can't do all this alone, considering we don't have any information about the actual map. That's why I bring a helper, and he will also be the strategist of this operation." Nathan stopped their excitement. 

"Helper?" The commanders glanced at a student beside Via while Yuki kept smiling at him from the beginning.

Nathan asked Kai to come while the latter nodded and walked toward him, already expecting this from the beginning.

"This is Kai Carter. He created the map with the help of Via Carman, and he will be our strategist for this operation. I have my deputy, Sherwin, to take care of the soldiers for the time being so that we can discuss our plan here, undisturbed." Nathan said nonchalantly. 

"Kai Carter? I feel like I have heard this name somewhere?" One of the 1000-man commanders pondered. He had black hair like Via and a muscular body, making him look like a heavy fighter.

Beside him was a green-haired woman with glasses. No one could see her body because she had yet to take off her coat even though she was in this building. She fixed her hair and said, "He is the reinforcement… No, it should be the hero of Prince Rupert. I don't really follow his achievement in school, but outside the school, he also has an achievement in Cuba Military Base." 

"Cuba Military Base? Ah, I have heard that. The general of that base was Sanders, but the one who took the command of the army was a student… So it was him." Another 1000-man commander nodded. He also had short green hair with an appearance close to the woman beside him. They looked like siblings.

"Oh. If I'm not wrong, it's the battle against twenty thousand magical beasts. He took the command of four thousand soldiers and held onto the end. It was only after the reinforcement came, the battle finally ended." The same as the other three, another commander was a blue-haired beauty. She observed Kai.

"Yeah. It's indeed impressive, especially when you only lost a thousand people in that battle, which was supposed to be much worse. I read the record and thought they would lose around three thousand people… But I was wrong." The last unknown 1000-commander said. She placed her hands on the table while supporting her chin.

"You need to remember there are actually six intelligent A rank magical beasts there," said Yuki, supporting Kai.

"These six people are the 1000-commanders, They are respectively Colton, Alicia, Henry, Kate, Faith, and Yuki. Just call them by these names, if they think you are disrespectful, I will hit them for you." Nathan laughed.

The six commanders were speechless. Although the ranking was actually the one that matters, the age difference was too big, especially when Kai was only a student.

"I don't mind about all of this honorific thing. One should be in charge if they are capable. However, I still need to see how capable he is, not from the report but from my own eyes." The first one to speak was the one who thought he heard Kai, Colton.

At this time, Kai didn't answer him. Instead, he looked at the door before sweat appeared on his forehead.