Chapter 115: The School (2)

"I will."

The words drew more attention than Encrid had expected.

For a moment, nobody said anything.

Then Steward Vess slowly lowered the paper he had been holding and looked at him.

Dane’s eyebrows had risen.

Ysolde Marr was staring at him with an expression that was difficult to read, while several of the other commanders exchanged brief glances with one another.

Even Vess, who had spent enough time with Encrid over the past three months to understand that the young Strategist rarely said something without having thought it through, looked as though he had just heard something particularly unreasonable.

Encrid understood why.

He had just told the Council that he could teach cultivation.

It was an arrogant thing to say.

A man with three Stars who had reached the Grandmaster Realm might hesitate before making such a claim. Strength and knowledge were not the same thing, and reaching a higher Realm did not automatically make a person capable of explaining cultivation to someone who had never felt a Star open inside their body.

There were Grandmasters who could split boulders with their bare hands and yet could not explain to an Initiate why the first Star refused to open.

There were cultivators who had spent decades advancing through the Realms who could demonstrate every movement of their cultivation method perfectly but became completely useless when asked to explain what they were actually doing.

Teaching was a skill of its own.

And here stood Encrid.

A man who had arrived on the Wall only six months ago.

A clerk with a reputation that had once been considerably worse than his present title suggested.

Someone who was called the Scoundrel of the North not long before.

And now he was claiming that he could teach it.

Encrid looked around the table and could almost see the thought forming in some of their minds.

’Who does he think he is?’

He did not blame them.

"I know what that sounds like," he said.

That quieted the room again.

"I know I am only in the Initiate realm. I am also painfully aware that I may not have much talent for cultivation, and I have no expectation of becoming powerful through it."

He said it without embarrassment.

There was no attempt to soften the admission or hide behind some convenient excuse.

He simply stated it as a fact.

"My own Star is weak. My progress has been poor. There are people on this Wall who could defeat me in a training yard without much effort, and there are people sitting in this room who know more about fighting than I will probably ever learn."

His gaze briefly passed over Ysolde.

"That does not mean they can teach cultivation."

Ysolde’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Encrid continued before anyone could interrupt.

"I am not claiming that I am a better cultivator than them. I am not even claiming that I am a good cultivator. What I am claiming is that I understand the theory well enough to teach someone who knows nothing."

He tapped the papers in front of him.

"Those are different things."

That distinction seemed to settle over the room.

Encrid had expected someone to challenge him immediately, but nobody did.

He continued.

"I have spent a considerable amount of time studying cultivation. I understand the seven Stars, the basic structure of the channels, the progression between Realms, the problems caused by forcing an opening, and the reasons a person can become stuck at the same stage for years."

He paused.

"I also understand what I do not know."

That drew a faint reaction from Vess.

It was perhaps the most convincing thing Encrid had said so far.

"I cannot teach a person how to become a Grandmaster. I cannot promise that I can make someone open a Star. I cannot tell you that every person with an unopened Star is secretly talented and simply waiting for the correct instruction."

He folded his hands.

"But I can teach them what to look for."

Dane leaned back.

"Explain."

"Most people who awaken a Star do not understand what happened to them."

Encrid looked down at the papers, though he did not need to read them.

"They experience something they have never experienced before. Their body changes. Their perception changes. Their energy begins moving in a way they have never consciously controlled. If they are lucky, someone tells them what happened afterward. If they are very lucky, that person knows enough to guide them."

He looked back up.

"Most are not lucky."

Nobody contradicted him.

"Some receive a manual. Some receive a few instructions from a relative. Some find a teacher after the Star has already opened. And some simply start moving energy around until they discover something that works."

His expression tightened.

"That is not a system."

The words were simple, but they carried more weight than the longer explanation before them.

"The Wall has seven hundred people with open Stars, and almost none of them were taught here. They arrived with their Stars already open, or they awakened them by accident. That means we have spent hundreds of years accepting cultivation as something that simply happens to certain people."

Encrid pushed the list toward the centre of the table.

"I want to know what happens if we stop accepting that."

The Council remained silent.

Then Ysolde spoke.

"And you believe you can teach them because you have studied it."

"Because I have studied it, because I understand the theory, and because I am willing to teach it properly."

"That is some confidence you have in yourself."

"It is."

Ysolde’s gaze remained on him.

"Perhaps too much."

"Perhaps."

There was no defensiveness in his answer.

That seemed to bother her more than an argument would have.

Dane gave a quiet laugh.

"You really are willing to stand here and tell a room full of cultivators that an Initiate realm clerk should teach cultivation."

Encrid considered that.

"Yes."

The laughter around the table was restrained this time, but genuine.

Even Vess smiled.

Encrid waited until it faded.

"Because the purpose of the school is not to produce people stronger than you."

He looked toward Ysolde.

"Or stronger than anyone else in this room."

His finger rested on the list of names.

"The purpose is to find out whether the people who have never been taught can be taught."

He turned another page.

"I have identified four hundred and eleven people who may be suitable for the first trial."

That number caught their attention again.

"Four hundred and eleven?"

"People between seventeen and thirty-five. Healthy enough to cultivate. No known injuries to their channels. No existing Star. No known history of cultivation training."

Vess looked over the list.

"You have already made a list."

"I am bringing this matter before the council, and I do not take my position lightly to propose something without preparation."

Ulrich looked at him with something close to approval.

"And I do not want all four hundred and eleven."

He pointed to the next figure.

"Forty."

Dane frowned.

"Forty?"

"Forty people at a time."

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