Staying close the little girl and shielding her with his body, Humphrey awaited the monsters. As they arrived, he swung his huge sword. Jason was startled at the ease and expertise with which he wielded the massive weapon. It was clearly heavy, but his footwork seamlessly shifted to manage the weight and momentum. Each blow was the end of a monster, but he couldn’t take down all six quickly enough. Two of the nimble monsters skipped around Humphrey as he dealt with the others. By the time he fought past them, Ellie’s corpse was being pulled apart in a tug-of-war between two monsters.

Even watching from a distance, Jason felt viscerally sick at the sight. Rufus tapped a rune, causing the monsters and the child to vanish. Humphrey looked at the now-empty ground in horror, the huge sword falling from his hands and vanishing.

Danielle reached over the console and tapped the rune to close communication with Humphrey.

“Are you trying to traumatise my son?” she asked Rufus, her tone a clear warning. His answer had best be a good one.

Rufus calmly turned to face her as she stepped forwards to confront him.

“Yes,” Rufus said. “I am trying to traumatise your son. During the field assessment, I could see clearly the training he had been through. His skills are exceptional, but it was equally evident you have coddled him to the point of a critical deficiency. The reason I failed him isn't that he lacks the ability. It's that he doesn't understand the duty of being an adventurer. You taught him to handle killing, but not how to handle failure. He hesitates in critical moments because you've taught him to be too perfect.”

Jason watched Humphrey’s forlorn figure through the glass. He agreed with Humphrey’s mother that Rufus’s training was essentially emotional abuse, and thought his speech sounded suspiciously like a pot critiquing a kettle. From what he could tell, Rufus and Humphrey had similar upbringings. He wondered if Rufus had been through the same exercise himself.

“He'll stop to look for the optimal path when what he needs to do is act,” Rufus continued. “If you want Humphrey to act quickly and decisively, he needs to understand the price of not doing so. I can let that slide with the other adventures in this city, but you wanted him to meet my standards. These are my standards.”

Danielle was a head shorter than Rufus, but she got right up into his space, tilting her head back to glare at him.

“Is this how you treat people in your famous academy?”

“Yes. It is.”

Rufus turned back to the control table and reopened communication.

“Get ready, Humphrey,” Rufus said. “We’re going again.”

Jason watched Danielle, seeing she was on the edge of stepping in to stop it. In the end, she took a step back. Inside the dome, a small boy appeared next to Humphrey.