"May I get the day started now?"

"Yes Mum, sorry Mum."

The three kids walked up to him next.

"Dad, that was embarrassing." Tiamutael and Ki-ko said, piling onto his guilt.

"I didn't mind Dad, but you could had just sent a message and done it tomorrow, rather than make a scene out of."

"Sorry kids..."

As the younger years headed to the building leaving behind just the nine eighteen year-olds and the teacher, Carl began with a brief lecture.

"This isn't compulsory, they are pets according to the system, but they are like children to me and you will be responsible for them. If I ever hear about one of them being abused or not cared for, there will be consequences. So if you aren't sure you can handle the responsibility, you will be free to begin your usual lessons."

"Carl! I would just get on with it, all they talk about is having their own friends like the Principal's or Miss. Alisha's." The teacher had the orange hair that was more common amongst the Bashe clan, but it was the melodical accent that made Carl certain.

"Fine then, why don't we go have a look at your stats and have a bit of a chat. Three of us, nine of you, so if you all split yourselves amongst these three you can discuss what kind of pet would be best."

"Why aren't you going to discuss? Isn't it more helpful for the leader?"

"It would be, yes, but this is your future. I would rather find ourselves short-handed somewhere than positions filled by unfulfilled workers. Do what you love and leave me to worry about the short-fall."

"As you can see, our leader is an idiot who likes to make work for himself. It's true we won't force you to fill a role, but it would be nice if you decided to dedicate yourselves to a role that the faction is lacking." Klaire said with a bow of appreciation, that came as a lingering habit of being a student of Kon's.

"Indeed, for example; Lacey has a fascination with history, it would be nice to have an archivist who could record the growth of the faction. You could even produce something to show at the founding festival each year to shine some light on advances." Kyubi suggested.

"Really!? You want someone like that when there's still so much practical work to do?"

"I hadn't thought about it, but yeah. If we lose our way, you can show us how far off-course we've gone and make sure the hard work that everyone has put on are given the recognition that it deserves."

"What kind of pet would help that?"

"One which can read emotions maybe? That way you could accurately document how people were feeling about an achievement or announcement. Just make sure to ask permission first, some people won't appreciate having their inner feelings put on display."

"Sounds good!"

Carl suggested that an all seeing leviathan might be a good fit, but she said that she would prefer something fluffy.

In the end, Carl mixed the empathic abilities of the light spirit with a white tiger, crystal heart and a shadow wolf. The result was a canine creature, with feline traits, that had a large crystal embedded in its head.

It was about three feet tall on all fours and heavy set body with a tigers striped fur pattern, but the long husky fur of the shadow wolf ending in the more tiger-like tail.

"Awww, he's adorable!"

"You got lucky, I didn't even know I had the crystal heart banked, must have banked it in Cocytus. Well, you get to name the species and the pup."

"I'm going to call it a crystal tiger-wolf. This one is Carbuncle, because he looks kinda like one."

"I wouldn't say that in front of a real carbuncle, they're incredibly proud of their short-neat fur." Kyubi warned.

"Hmm, what about calling them psuedo-carbuncle and this one Suishō."

"That should be fine, but just make sure you take good care of him." Kyubi said with a gentle reiteration.

"I will!"

Whilst Lacey got to know Suishō, the others went to have a look at stats and do a bit of future thinking.

Only Carl remained behind to talk to her about the telepathic bond and help them get to know each other.

When the others had finished they returned, one of them was wanting to be an explorer/surveyor, one was wanting to be a game designer, one wanted to be a doctor, a couple wanted to join the expedition teams, one wanted to join Lillim's defence unit, one wanted to be a diplomat and the last wanted to be an engineer.

Carl, Klaire and Kyubi were happy with the first batch of would-be graduates and planning for a diverse range of vocations.

"Well, I'm happy to see you're all able to see a future in the faction, now what kind of partners do you want at your side?"

The first to step forward, was the one wanting to join Lillim's defence unit. "Can I have a partner like the one that brings the kids to school sometimes and we've seen escorting the vampires around lately?"

"Unfortunately, that's a no. Aegis was made using my family's donations and instinctively only cares about me and my orders. If you want to wait and think about it I'm happy to do this at the end of the school year."

"No! I know, can I have one that's a mix between Gillian's and principal Leanna's?"

"An elemental wolf that can merge with you? Do you just want one exactly like Scorch?"

"You'd let me have the same pet as a householder?"

"Sure, aside from my kids' species and ones like Majesty, nothing is off-limits."

The moment the kid yes, Carl created another platinum dire wolf and tilted his head towards the young man.

"I'm gonna call him Marchos, after Lycaon's friend Marchosias."

Carl just barely refrained from mentioning the fact he had a meeting with Lycaon the next week and only as a result of the unmistakable weight of his Wife and girlfriend's silent warning.

After that, they got the rest of the class sorted and Carl was surprised at how most of them had ideas not necessarily for partners that they wanted, but traits that would compliment them or be useful in the job they wanted.

"Well, what about you, have you thought about it?" Carl asked the teacher.

"What? No, I didn't think you were going to give me one as well."

"It's a reward for achievements, all the volunteers at the school and hospital have more than earned it."

"Well, I'd love something that can help me sleep, I've suffered from insomnia quite severely since my howling."

Carl thought about it for a moment, then realised that the creature that had been made from the illusory realm of the aspect of Mind for his merger would be perfect.

'Sis, I need another one of the creatures from my third merger, what's it called?' Carl asked, reaching out telepathically.

'Err, not sure, can't remember.... Sorry, busy...'

'Hey, hey, hey, what's it called?"

'Ugh... it's called "Bro-mer-cre-three'

Carl swiped through the list his system manifested and selected it, deciding to save the self-redeeming lecture for later.

When Carl produced the creature, it appeared as a plant and everyone had thought he messed up until he spoke.

"This is it, it's a psychic being and doesn't have a solid form, it will change into whatever it thinks you are most comfortable with. Just talk to it until it learns more about you."

"Okay..." The teacher's eyes narrowed, suspicious that it was a trick, but after speaking and getting a response they became quick friends.

Carl then went around and spoke to every teacher, his plan being to make it known that only high achievers and people who do good work for the guild, would have the opportunity to get a partner and motivate the students to work hard.

By the time they were done, every teacher had a partner, Tiamutael, Kitsunoko and Raziel had been embarrassed by their mums fussing over them whilst their teacher got theirs and Leanna had scolded them all for disrupting the entire school all morning.

"Look at you three, I don't care about positions or power, you're disrupting lessons and those three kids look on the verge of bursting with embarrassment... While we're on that subject, when were you planning to tell Alisha and I that we had a new grandchild?"

The three of them apologised to the kids before they were escorted out by Leanna with a good deal of haste.

"Well we annoyed the mother-in-law, what next?"

"Well, since I'm making the partners for people, why don't we go annoy Lydia next?"

"She did let me know that all the patients from The Carrion assault have been discharged and they're back to daily bump and scrape duty... I'd say they more than earned their partners during that."

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