Weakest Beast Tamer Gets All SSS Dragons novel Chapter 1045

The long table filled again at midday.

Anuar had cooked enough for the number of people present plus a reasonable margin, which Li had independently calculated and which turned out to be the same number Anuar had calculated, despite the two of them always fighting and having arrived at it by completely different routes.

"I can't believe everyone is eighteen already," said Liu again, in the same monotone.

"You said that this morning," said Taro.

"I'm saying it again because I find it relevant." Liu looked at the full group with the expression of someone who had something to say and was building it as he said it. "Eight years ago none of us imagined being where we are, thanks to Ren."

A brief silence.

"And in three days we'll be defending the wall," Liu continued. "Which is also relevant…"

"You said that this morning too," said Taro.

"Also relevant."

Ren looked at Liu.

Liu returned the look with the expression of someone who knew exactly what he was doing and didn't need anyone to explain it to him.

Ren raised his glass.

No speech nor elaboration... Just the gesture Liu was looking for.

The group followed, a variety of people who shared a moment without needing the moment to describe itself in order to exist.

Li raised his too, his had juice while most of the others had something else, and he raised it with the enthusiasm of someone who did not consider the difference in contents to change the nature of the gesture.

Anuar raised his with both hands and the reverence he applied to moments he considered historic, which were more moments than most people would have classified as historic, but Anuar's position was that this was exactly the point.

Tao raised his without saying anything, which was Tao's way of saying what Liu had said with more words.

Reed's garden was still Reed's garden outside.

The mansion was still small and still everyone's favorite.

And in three days the wall would be waiting for them with the indifference of things that didn't know they were waiting but that were there regardless when you arrived.

♢♢♢♢

But a few stayed.

Some of the best tamers in Yano's history had not taken that path and had produced things the wall alone would not have produced, discoveries, advancements, the kind of practical knowledge that came from applying preparation to different ways of life. Leaving the wall wasn't a lesser choice.

It was simply another choice.

But those who stayed were also necessary… 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

So even with those who stayed, the defense could always use more people when a generation departed. The structure had a constant appetite that graduation filled each year by a bit more of new blood replacing the lower number of experienced soldiers it emptied.

The ones arriving to replace them were the ones arriving now.

The protocol established that new soldiers filled the gaps at random.

Not according to their capabilities, not according to their preferences, not according to any optimized assignment system. According to where the structure needed someone at the moment they arrived. The oldest method of integrating a person into something larger: put them where the structure needed them and let the structure teach what it had to teach. Friction as curriculum.

For most graduates of any year, this meant living in sectors separated from their close friends, with commanders who didn't know them, in units that had been established long enough to have their own internal dynamics, systems that absorbed new arrivals with the slightly impersonal efficiency of processes that had handled many iterations of the same thing and knew where to put the next one.

But for Ren's group, the situation would be technically different.