"General John, sorry for the wait."
Jonathan, who had taken his seat at the conference table, composed his expression. He then drew a deep breath and smiled at John, seated at the head of the table. "Also, regarding the trouble caused by my teacher's earlier joke, as Chief Dean Manny's foremost disciple, I sincerely apologize. Please forgive my teacher's thoughtless remark."
"It's all right. Chief Dean Manny is absorbed in academia, so I can understand."
Seeing Jonathan overturn their previous deal with a single sentence, John confirmed that Manny's chief disciple was his actual negotiating counterpart this time. Rather than dwelling on the earlier matter, he smiled and replied along the explanation Jonathan had given. "After all, although I graduated from the Imperial First Military Academy, I am not fundamentally a conventional scholar. Compared with complicated, tedious academic research, my forte is commanding soldiers to win victories for the Empire at a lower cost."
"And I imagine Chief Dean Manny knew that well, which was why he deliberately brought up handing over control of the Research Institute to liven up the atmosphere, haha."
No, if I hadn't arrived in time, that senile old fool might really have handed you the chief dean's position just for news of those damned Floating City Ruins.
That old man was practically an idiot when it came to common sense!
Jonathan's mouth twitched as he inwardly unleashed a torrent of complaints about his teacher.
Whenever he recalled how he had been recruited as an academician by the Empire's Supreme Research Institute due to his outstanding grades, becoming Chief Dean Manny's foremost disciple, his face uncontrollably twisted into a mask of pain.
When he first heard that news, he had been utterly ecstatic.
After all, Manny's research abilities were unquestionably among the very best in the