ENF Academy: For Some Reason, She Can Only Save the World if She’s Naked

Ch 3.13: Chaperone

Engineering was surprisingly normal, given the circumstances.

Sylvas was wandering around the outdoor workshop as students worked away on their various projects. Elaina herself was occupied with testing different types of ropes she’d made, some by hand-weaving, some by machine-weaving, and some still made with her [Restraint].

Sylvas had come up with a decent method for testing as far as she could tell, a machine that was apparently for clamping metal while forging could easily be used to test the relative strengths of her ropes if she cranked it the opposite way that it normally worked, pulling at the ropes she tied to it instead of pushing metal in. It took quite a lot of cranking to break the rope that she’d made with her aspect, but she was having a different type of trouble when it came to the other ropes.

“Fuck!” she said as her machine-woven rope untied again, the clamp shooting open as the handle she was turning started moving freely and causing her to nearly fall over.

“Lass!” she heard Sylvar shout from across the way. 

Elaina winced for a second, instinctually thinking she was about to be reprimanded for cursing, but that went away. Other students often cursed in this class, and Sylvas didn’t seem to mind, but being shouted out still wasn’t fun anyway.

“Yes, Professor!” she said, standing up straight as he hobbled over. 

“Sylvas, not ‘Professor’ I told you. But nevermind that. It’s the third time that happened, yes?”

Elaina blushed as she lifted up the end of rope that had come undone. “Yes, it is.” The rope itself was actually holding up quite nicely, but no matter how tight she tied it the damned thing just wouldn’t stay on the clamp, and she had no idea what the relative strength was since it kept coming undone far before the one she’d made with her aspect had snapped. “I’ll try to tie it tighter, with my aspect this time instead of just my hands.”

Sylvas sighed, tsking as he shook his head. “And why do you think tying the knot tighter is the solution?”

“Uhm…” Elaina hadn’t really thought about it. She knew that it hadn’t been a problem when she’d tied the first rope with her aspect as she made it though, so it only seemed logical. “It worked with the other one, I guess.”

“Aye, but is that because it was tighter, or was it because you were cheating with your aspect again, like with the bear traps?”

“Cheating?” Elaina wouldn’t have used that word to describe what she did with the bear traps before Sylvas had came along and taught her more about the physics behind them, but she knew what he meant. She’d been ignoring how bear traps actually worked, relying on her mana to manually move them instead of the laws of nature to do the work for her. But rope was different, right? “I just tie them, and—”

“With what type of knot? Where is the tie, on the anchor point or further down the rope? How many loops, are they under or over?”

Elaina blinked. She didn’t really know how else to answer the question other than, “I have no idea,” and that didn’t seem like a good answer to give.

“Here,” Sylvas said after realizing he wouldn’t get an answer out of her, taking the rope and untying it before wrapping it around each side of the clamp, looping it around multiple times on each end and finally producing a pair of knots that looked more like links of chains than simple ties. “You’re still relying on your aspect to hold ropes together when you tie them, which is why I have you out here doing this in the first place. Go ahead, test it now.”

Elaina did as she was told, cranking back on the machine. She got more rotations in than she had when she’d been tying easily, easing up as she approached the point where her aspect-made rope had broken, easily moving past that and starting to struggle even more as she pushed on the handle, each rotation taking more and more force until the thread of the rope started to come apart, finally snapping just as she was about to call it on the test, another loud clang happening as the machine lurched, but at least she wasn’t taken aback by the rope untying suddenly.

“It was… so much stronger,” she said, looking at the frayed break in the rope.

“Aye. It was the machined one?”

Elaina nodded.

“You’re good with your hands, with weaving, but machines make things tougher and with more precision than our hands ever could. Your idea of a rope is one that you can make without tools, but you need to open your mind more. And the only way to do that is to make rope, over and over, using the machines.”

Elaina looked at the other rope on the table with a bit of sadness, the untested one she had handmade. It was neat, far neater than most people’s would be, but she could tell it wasn’t as perfectly made as the one she’d just tested, even though it was her first time making one with that method. Still, Sylvas was right. If she could put the process of making stronger rope into her mind, it would be easier to make rope with [Restraint] too.

“What about the knot though?” Elaina said. “

Sylvas tsked at her again. “The blue book I gave you on your first day, the small one, All About Nautical Knots. Clearly you haven’t read it.”

Elaina struggled not to frown at that. He’d given her a mountain of books; of course she hadn’t read them all. He’d also told her that he much preferred learning by hand than instead of books, but she wasn’t going to argue with him since it was only the second time he’d asked her to read something.

“Don’t focus on that now though,” he eventually said, turning around and looking across the rest of the workshop. “You’ll have plenty of time to practice tying knots on your trip up north.”

“Oh, you know,” Elaina said, looking away.

“Aye. I’m actually one of the chaperones.”

“Chaperones?” It was Elaina’s first time hearing about that.

“Of course. You lot are still students, after all.” Sylvas glanced around them, and it seemed he was more looking for eavesdroppers than examining the students’ work. 

“I’m going to try and keep you away from patrols as much as I can,” he continued with hushed words. “I honestly can’t believe they’re asking this of you.”

“Right…” Elaina tried to take solace in those words, but it was hard. She still didn’t even want to think about it, still hadn’t told Temmie, still hadn’t figured out what to do with Temmie.

“It’ll be fine though,” Sylvas said with a clap on her shoulder, a difficult feat for him to manage with his shortness, but that actually made it feel a little more comforting. “The professors heading up are in agreement, we keep you kids out of stuff as much as we can, with first-years being priority. It’ll be hard keeping the second and third-years off patrols though.”

“Third-years?”

Sylvas nodded again, this time not seeming to catch on to her confusion. “The Health girl will be easy to keep off the streets, and I can use you for help maintaining their fortifications and whatnot, but the rest of the students are mostly trained in battle and leadership, so they’ll be out the most.”

“Got it,” Elaina said, still trying to piece everything together. If there were third-years coming, that meant they weren’t the only team being sent off. That was both a little comforting and unnerving at the same time.

“But that’s three weeks away,” Sylvas said, limping off towards the forges just as a giant fire erupted over there. “Test that last rope, then focus on making rope just as strong with your aspect. We’ll worry about Kaldish later.”

If Elaina could’ve stopped worrying about it, she would have.