Trails of Wrought Iron [Sen no Kiseki/Trails of Cold Steel Genderswap]

[WrandmWaffles]

March of Burgeoning Life​

"The Ministry of Railways wishes to thank all passengers for their patronage. This train is bound for Bareahard via Celdic."

The gentle chime of the train announcement sounded in the ears of its occupants, nudging one particular passenger awake.

"The next stop is Trista…Trista."

The svelte girl blinked the sleep out of her eyes, stifling a yawn. She shook her head slightly to clear the fog of slumber, her indigo ponytail swishing side to side.

"We will be stopped at Trista for one minute. When disembarking, please ensure no belongings are left behind."

Pale lilac eyes blinked open, flicking to the view outside the train window.

'Almost there', the young woman thought, sitting up straight and smoothing out her green plaid skirt, before folding her hands in her lap. 'Good thing I'm not a deep sleeper. One minute really isn't a lot of leeway. I might have ended up missing my stop.'

She glanced up at her belongings again to confirm they were still there, before turning her gaze back out the window, eyes widening as she took in the sight of trees in full bloom, a slight smile lighting up her gentle features with a hint of the enthusiasm of youth.

"Spring is certainly here. And in such a pretty way too!'

Hands still folded in her lap, she ran a thumb over the cuff of her red school jacket. 'Though it's probably still cool enough that this is still warranted. On that note…'

Her eyes flicked discreetly around the train car, passing over the well dressed adults and lingering on the other youths in the uniform of Thors Military Academy, almost all dressed in green. 'No one else has a red uniform, that I can see at least. I wonder what that means? Does that mean I'm in a new class? I thought Class I and II wore white and Class III, IV and V wore green?'

She most certainly did not shrug her shoulders, instead keeping her ladylike posture as she pondered her predicament again. 'This red seems to match the colors of the Imperial Family…,' she mused, before shaking her head. 'No use thinking about it for now. Surely the instructors will explain.'

That settled for the moment, she looked out the window again, watching as the train slowed, pulling into the station, the bright light of the morning dimming, still filtering into the building through various skylights, but otherwise blocked.

"Now arriving at Trista…Trista."

The young woman stood from her seat, reaching up and standing on her toes to retrieve her luggage, before promptly exiting the train, stepping onto the platform along with a small crowd of students.

Among the many green and handful of white uniforms, her red jacket stood out, as did the one worn by a serious looking young woman and an almost distractingly handsome young man with lavender hair, of all things. 'Oh good, it isn't some uniform error. Or I'm not alone there, at least.'

A few other students gave her curious looks as they all milled generally in the direction of the exit. She smiled politely at the ones who stared a bit too long. Some of her observers smiled back, while others hastily looked away.

'I can't possibly be intimidating, can I?' she wondered, before stepping a bit more hastily towards the exit.

As she stepped outside, she paused, her breath hitching as she blinked in the sudden sunlight, taking in a closer view of the blooming trees. 'The lino flowers are as pretty as they say! Oh, and the town looks nice too.'

It resembled her hometown of Ymir in atmosphere, despite its proximity to the capital of Heimdallr, but in the more classic Erebonian style as opposed to the eastern influence evident in Ymir.

'As beautiful as some of the buildings in the Sankt district were, they can't compare to nature's beau–!' "Oof!"

She was almost sent sprawling as someone crashed into her from behind, but she managed to keep her footing, albeit with some very much unladylike flailing. Definitely not a great start to her tenure here.

"Oh my, terribly sorry about that!" a cheerful voice called from behind her, and she turned to see a young man with messy blonde hair giving her an apologetic look. Notably, he also was wearing a red jacket.

"There's no need to apologize," she demurred. "It was my error for blocking the doorway."

"Well! Beauty and grace!" the young man smiled at her, bowing slightly in an informal way. "I can't believe I was distracted from the unique flower by the fading perennial ones!"

"Ah…that's very flattering. Thank you…?" She curtsied as properly as she could while holding a suitcase, trying her best to ignore the slight flush heating up her face.

"Oh! My bad!" the young man exclaimed, dipping into a more formal bow. "I'm Elisha Reinford, may I ask the name of the young lady I've accidentally accosted?"

The young lady in question brought one hand to her mouth to cover her laugh. "Hehe, I am Irene Schwarzer." Her brow furrowed in thought. Elisha looked a bit familiar… "Have we met before?"

"Ah! Young lady Schwarzer!" Elisha cheered, before cocking his head in thought. "I wouldn't have forgotten such a pretty face…perhaps you know me from my name?"

Irene felt her face warm up at the compliment, part of her flustered, even as the rest of her told her Elisha wasn't really trying to flirt. "You flatter me, mister Reinford. Perhaps you are correct. We haven't been formally introduced, at the very least."

"Well, consider that travesty rectified then!" the young man cheered.

"If our matching uniform colors mean what I think it does, we may be in the same class," Irene suggested. "So I suppose it makes things slightly easier now that we have already met."

"Yeah…I was wondering about that," Elisha mused, tapping his chin in thought. "You don't happen to know anything about the red jackets, do you? I almost thought my mother was trying to mess with me for a while."

"Unfortunately, no," Irene replied, shaking her head. "I was not informed of anything like this. In fact, I was a bit worried that there was a uniform error until I saw other people with the same color jacket."

"Hmm…not sure I'd rule that out quite yet," Elisha cautioned. "As wealthy as my family is–not that I mean to brag–we are not nobles, unlike your family, and as far as I know, Thors still segregates classes by…well, class."

"That was my impression as well," Irene concurred, looking down at her jacket. "Although…this almost looks like Arnor red. Not quite…"

"Are you suggesting we have some imperial favor or something?!" Elisha burst out, eyes wide.

"I don't know," Irene replied. "The Schwarzer family has been close to the imperial family for a long time, and your family is very influential, but…" she shook her head. "Speculating just on that is a bit risky."

"Yeah…" Elisha agreed, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "The Reinford name's got quite a lot of weight to it, but imperial attention?" He glanced down at his jacket. "Now I'm feeling a little self conscious about this."

"Oh! It was just a guess, I did not mean to make you uncomfortable!" Irene dipped her head apologetically.

"Nah, it's fine," Elisha waved her off. "Just weirds me out how far just my last name can take me sometimes."

"For someone who's technically a commoner, you probably have a decent idea of what it's like for nobility," Irene remarked.

"Maybe," Elisha shrugged, shifting his luggage to his other shoulder. He shot her a skeptical glance. "I'm a bit surprised you would say that aloud though, most nobles would be offended by that comparison."

"Well…" Irene demurred, brushing some loose hair back over her ear, "my family likes to live more humbly than most nobles." 'Not to mention my own unusual circumstances.'

"Hmm…" Elisha grunted thoughtfully, staring off into space. Irene shifted her feet uncertainly for a moment, before regaining control of herself.

"We should probably get going," she suggested, checking her watch. "The opening ceremony isn't too long from now."

"Huh?! Oh right." Elisha flinched, snapped out of whatever thoughts had preoccupied him. "Yes." He nodded. "We should go. Do you mind if I accompany you, Lady Schwarzer?"

"Hehe, there's no need for that kind of formality." Irene did her best to keep her smile from becoming awkward. "We're both students after all. But no, I would not mind if you accompanied me, Mister Reinford."

"Excellent, then let's be off!" Elisha declared, and the two of them began to make their way through the town, only slightly hurried.

"Wow, this place really is pretty enough for a postcard," Irene observed, taking in the village center and traditional looking buildings that wouldn't look too out of place in a rural hamlet. Combined with the blooming trees and the Thors tower in the distance, it was quite a sight.

"Yeah," Elisha agreed. "Don't see this much green stuff in Roer. A lot more metal."

Irene nodded. "Indeed, though Roer has its own charms."

"So do you," Elisha replied, almost automatically, before jolting up and waving a hand disarmingly. "Uh…sorry if that was too forwards."

"I will take that as a compliment, hehe," Irene replied, looking away so he wouldn't see the blush on her face. 'What is with this guy?'

The two of them walked through the park and down the path towards the Thors Military Academy proper in a bit of awkward silence. Up ahead was an archway with the school crest carved into it, under which several other people had gathered. Students and family, it looked like.

"Alan! It's good to see you again!" called a tall young man wearing a red jacket like a cape, hefting a large suitcase over his shoulder and waving amiably at a short, nondescript young man in a green uniform. An elderly man with an impressive mustache stood to the side, amusement clear on his face.

"Lawrence?! You remember me?" Alan (presumably), looked a bit taken aback.

"We met not too long ago, did we not, Klaus?"

"It has been some time, Master Lawrence, perhaps a year or so…yes, that seems about right."

'Oh, so the elderly man is his butler. Lawrence must be a noble.' Irene tilted her head in thought. She was sure she had never met Lawrence before, but something about him seemed familiar.

"Oh, so it was a fair bit ago," Lawrence admitted, scratching the side of his head before shrugging his shoulders. "No matter, it is still good to meet a devoted swordsman again."

'Ah! He must be Lawrence S. Arseid!' Irene's eyes widened as she watched the blue haired man with interest, focusing on the suitcase on his shoulder. 'I've seen some practitioners of the Arseid school, but not from an Arseid.'

"T-thank you, Lord Arseid," Alan stuttered, bowing at the hip. "I am honored that you'd call me that."

"Bah! No need for that!" Lawrence declared with a sweep of his free arm. "I am not the Lord of Legram, that is my father, and we are both to be students here, so no need to stand on ceremony. Not to mention that you would not be under my rule if I did hold my father's title anyway."

Alan let out a nervous laugh. "R-right. But I don't think the other nobles would appreciate that."

"You have a point," Lawrence acknowledged with a nod. "And I won't press if you prefer not to treat me informally. But I simply see no reason for our difference in class to matter on the practice field."

"I'll keep that in mind," Alan replied, looking more steady. "Thanks Arseid."

"It seems you are already making friends here, Master Lawrence," the old butler chuckled, bowing slightly. "I pray you find victory here in both your studies and with the sword."

"Thank you for your service, Klaus," Lawrence returned the bow gracefully, "and I am entrusting you with managing things while Father and I are away."

"It is only my duty," Klaus returned, "and I will perform it to my upmost."

"Farewell, then, Klaus." Lawrence bowed again, before turning and striding towards down the path to the academy, Alan trailing after him, looking rather nervous.

"Farewell, Master Lawrence," the old butler called fondly.

He watched the two young men depart for a moment, before he seemed to notice Irene and Elisha and turned to greet them. "Oh, my apologies, young lady, young sir, was I in your way?"

"Not at all!" Irene assured him. "I was simply taking in the scenery." 'Most certainly not eavesdropping! That would be rude.'

"Was that a sword in that suitcase?" Elisha blurted out incredulously. "That thing was huge!"

"The Arseid school mainly trains with greatswords," Irene supplied, "but you are right, that looked heavy." 'Wait, Klaus is taller than Elisha! But he looked so small next to Lawrence!'

"Young Master Lawrence is quite strong," Klaus explained, amusement evident in his voice, but his eyes were sharp, looking over the two youths before him with practiced polite curiosity. "If I may, you have the bearing of an aspiring sword maiden yourself, young lady."

"Ah! My apologies," Irene curtsied hurriedly. "I am Irene Schwarzer."

"Ohoh, the elder daughter of Lord Teo Schwarzer? A disciple of the Schwarzer style of Court Fencing, then?" The butler asked with clear curiosity. "Oh! Please forgive me, I am Klaus, butler to Viscount Viktor S. Arseid." He bowed apologetically.

"It is a pleasure to meet you." Irene smiled. "And while I have learned some techniques from Father, I primarily practice a form of The Eight Leaves, One Blade."

That seemed to light a spark in elderly man's eyes, and he gave Irene an appraising look. "A student of Master Yun Kai-Fa? Here of all places? And such an elegant young lady as well. This year's class of students seems to be quite an auspicious bunch."

'What is going on?!' Irene clamped her mouth shut, trying vainly to control the mad rush of embarrassment flooding through her. 'This many compliments in such a short time, from people who seemed honest–this was too much!'

"Uh…is Sword going to be a class?" Elisha asked sheepishly. "Cause that's a little out of my wheelhouse."

"There is a fencing club," Klaus answered. "And there are combat classes for those who wish to pursue a martial career, but I do not believe they are mandatory if you are seeking other forms of education." The old butler looked the blonde youth up and down. "Tell me, young man, I can see that you have some training. Which path do you follow?"

"I…uh…use a gun," Elisha replied awkwardly. "I shoot things."

The elderly man nodded. "That seems sensible, as it plays towards your strengths."

"What do you mean by that?" Elisha snapped, glaring at the butler.

"I meant no offense, young man," Klaus replied. "Simply that you have the hands of an artisan–engineer perhaps. While craftsmanship can certainly improve the quality of a sword, a gun is much more serviceable if you seek the ability to defend yourself, rather than pursuing martial excellence."

Elisha and Irene shared a glance, before staring at the shockingly perceptive butler.

"You are one scary old man," Elisha mumbled, fiddling with his luggage.

"Ha! High praise from a Reinford," Klaus barked a laugh, before glancing at his watch. "Even so, I'm afraid I have taken up quite a bit of your time. I wish you best of luck in your studies." He gave them both a formal bow. "Farewell, Lady Schwarzer, Mister Reinford."

Irene and Elisha returned his respects, and the old butler strode purposefully back towards the station.

"Is…uh…is that normal for nobility?" Elisha asked Irene cautiously.

"Having a butler?" Irene asked. "Pretty normal." 'We don't have one though.'

"Such a scary one?"

"That…not so much…I think…"

"...I guess nobles all have some quirks," Elisha muttered.

Irene nodded along absently. 'If I learned anything from St. Astraia, it's that nobles can be strange…and quite cruel.' "S-shall we go?" she suggested, checking the time on her watch again.

"...Yeah…" Elisha nodded in agreement.

The two of them continued on towards the academy, both put off balance by that encounter, and in short order, they arrived at the gate to the campus proper.

"Huh," Elisha grunted, looking up at the bell tower in the main building. "So this is Thors Military Academy."

"Mmhmm!" Irene nodded, making a noise of agreement, looking around the place she would be living and learning at for the foreseeable future. "Founded by Emperor Dreichels himself in year 985–"

"Must have been renovated then," Elisha observed, "buildings look too new."

"Well of course!" Irene shot back, slightly miffed at being interrupted. "The campus has been renovated to accommodate orbal technology, among other things."

"Is it really the same school then?" Elisha wondered, "if everything's changed?"

"Not exactly the same," Irene conceded, giving her companion a confused look. "But the same spirit remains–and it's not like things don't change every day, hehe."

"It's not as if structures themselves have spirit though," Elisha mused, as if Irene hadn't said anything. "Though I suppose there can be traditions and whatnot. But if something is done for tradition's sake, can that be said to be the same spirit as the original?"

'He seems to get lost in thought a lot, hehe.' Irene smiled awkwardly as the blond youth continued rambling. 'But it would be rude to just walk away…it would also be rude to interrupt.'

"But even then, guidelines exist for a reason, traditions didn't start from nowhere, so ignoring them is probably quite foolish too."

'Um…what do I do here?' Irene shifted uncertainly, perhaps a bit morbidly curious where Elisha's train of thought was leading him.

"But everything has a cost of some sort, it's obvious to engineers and technicians, why can't management see that–?"

BeBeep!

The sound of a car horn finally snapped Elisha out of his thoughts, and the two of them hurriedly moved out of the way as an expensive looking orbal limousine rolled to a stop at the school gate.

'I've definitely seen this car before. Is that…?'

"That's a fancy car," Elisha observed. "Looks custom made too. Very expensive."

The chauffeur stepped out of the front and walked back to open the rear passenger door. "Thank you for your patience, my lady. We've arrived at the academy."

"It was no issue," a cool, aristocratic voice replied, and a stunning young woman stepped out of the car, nodding briefly to her chauffeur, before looking over the academy with feigned indifference. "Thank you for spending the time to drive me here."

Oyster blue eyes, blond hair done neatly up in a crown braided bun, and looking the epitome of feminine noble grace, it was none other than Julia Albarea.

"Please, milady, let me take your luggage," the chauffeur requested in a resigned tone, as if he already knew what the response would be.

"Thank you, Arnauld, but that will not be necessary," Julia declined. "I would prefer not to stand out more than necessary."

"Kinda late for that, with that kind of ride," Elisha muttered, not nearly as quiet as he probably intended.

Arnauld threw an irritated glance over his shoulder, and Julia's gaze likewise turned in their direction–

"Lady Albarea!" Irene called, curtseying formally. "It's good to see you again."

Julia locked eyes with her, fixing her with a cold glare, before a slight smirk pulled the side of the blonde noblewoman's mouth up. "Well if it isn't little Miss Student Council President. Are you waiting to greet everyone at the gate again, Schwarzer?"

"You know this girl?" Elisha stage whispered–

"O-oh, no, nothing of the sort," Irene replied, ignoring the blonde man next to her. "I just happened to see you arrive." She smiled, closing her eyes momentarily. "And please, I'm no longer the student council president." 'Thank Aidios.'

"Those two were standing inconsiderately at the gate," Arnauld added, giving Irene a dirty look.

"This road isn't even designed to have cars drive on it, let alone fancy ones like this," Elisha pointed out. "Also, driving a fancy car all the way up here is gonna draw a lot of attention, you know–though it is a very nice car."

True to his word, there were quite a few other students observing the scene, some of them already whispering to each other about it.

Arnauld glared at the blonde man. "Mind your tongue! You are speaking with–"

"Arnauld, please," Julia cut him off. "I can introduce myself. And he has a point." The chauffeur did not look pleased at all, but acquiesced.

Julia turned to Elisha, a bored expression fixed on her face, and dipped in a perfect curtsey. "As you may have guessed, I am Julia Albarea. And who might you be?"

"Elisha Reinford, at your service." Elisha managed a stiff, but appropriate bow. "I am honored to meet such a flower of nobility as yourself."

Arnauld's glare only intensified, but Julia merely raised a curious eyebrow. "Well met, Mr. Reinford. How did you come to accompany Irene?"

"We bumped into each other at the station," Elisha shrugged, posture relaxing. "She seems a decent enough sort, didn't turn weird when I mentioned my name."

A flicker of amusement passed through Julia's eyes, and she dipped her chin slightly. "It is as you say. For a Schwarzer, forming relationships for political gain is an entirely foreign idea. Isn't that so, Irene?" Her oyster blue eyes turned to the young lady in question.

"H-huh?" Irene stuttered.

Arnauld clicked his tongue disapprovingly, but refrained from saying anything after Julia glared at him. The blonde noble sighed, shaking her head as she surveyed the number of people watching the exchange. "As pleasant as this conversation is, I do believe we are blocking the road, Arnauld."

"They are of no concern–"

"I will be fine, Arnauld," Julia interjected icily. "You may leave."

"...As you will, my lady." The chauffeur bowed, getting back into the car.

The young Albarea strode purposefully towards the Thors Academy Gate, halting under it to sweep her gaze across the campus, before turning to Irene, a small smile pulling at her mouth. "It seems we are schoolmates yet again, Irene." Her eyes flicked meaningfully over their red jackets. "Perhaps we are even in the same class."

"You know what the red jackets mean?" Elisha asked curiously.

"No," Julia replied, not bothering to look at the man. "Merely an inference." She turned to gaze up at the Academy bell tower. "Regardless, if the likes of you two are my classmates, then my stay here might just be tolerable."

She strode forwards, every inch a proper noble lady. "Come, we wasted enough time as it is."

"R-right!" Irene followed a half-step behind her friend.

"...Nobles are weird." Elisha was not far behind.

A short way past the gate, the trio was met by a portly young man in a technician's jacket and a small girl wearing the uniform of one of the commoner classes.

"Oh hello you three!" The small girl chirped. "That makes all of them I think."

"Yup," her companion agreed. "That makes you-"

"Julia Albarea," the blonde noblewomen cut in with an annoyed look. "And who are you?"

"Ah, sorry!" the small girl apologized. "I am Towa Herschel, the student council president."

Julia threw an amused look at Irene. "Well now, it seems there are two of you. This might get a bit out of hand."

"Wait," Elisha pointed at the portly youth's clothes, "can we wear that instead of these dumb uniforms?"

"H-huh? What do you mean?" Towa stammered, looking between Julia and Irene. "And George, didn't I tell you this would happen?"

"I didn't think anyone would want to wear something like this," George mumbled, recoiling slightly from Elisha's intense look.

"Hmm…you should watch yourself, President Towa," Julia remarked drily. "Irene might be coming for your position."

"Julia!" Irene exclaimed, stamping her foot. "Be nice!"

"If you insist," the blonde noblewomen sighed. "Do you have a purpose for accosting us? Or just the standard greeting?"

"R-right!" Towa exclaimed. "Welcome to Thors Military Academy!" She turned to Irene, then to Elisha. "And that means you are Irene Schwarzer and Elisha Reinford, right?"

Irene nodded. Elisha shrugged. "Seems about right."

"Are those your weapons you got there?" George asked, gesturing at their suitcases. "We'll need to take them off your hands for a moment." He flinched slightly as Elisha glared at him, clutching his luggage protectively while Julia gave him a scathing look. "It'll only be for a bit, you'll hardly miss 'em, I swear!"

"A-ah, I remember seeing something like that in the handbook," Irene chimed in, handing over her bag, hoping to diffuse the situation.

"Oh, was there?" Elisha asked sheepishly. "Didn't read all of it."

"Ah, I suppose it would make sense they would assign the student council president for that task," Julia conceded, handing over her luggage.

"Just don't jostle it too much," Elisha warned, dumping his bag on George. "Wouldn't want it to explode."

"G-got it, right," the portly youth mumbled nervously, staring down at the bag in his hand with concern.

"It won't be long until the entrance ceremony," Towa added, looking a bit overburdened by Irene's bag. "It's right over there, can't miss it."

"Much obliged," Julia nodded, striding past the two upperclassmen. Irene curtsied briefly before following.

"Bye!" Elisha waved, "try not to explode!"

"...Man, this class is scary."

"G-george!"

'I'm not that intimidating, am I?'

---

To Irene's surprise, it did not take the staff much effort to get the new students into their seats. 'I guess older students would have more discipline, unlike the St. Astraia students. This is also a Military Academy, even if it isn't solely one anymore.'

There were several of her old classmates present, such as Ferris Florad and Bridget Falkenheim, but the trio had arrived too late to chat. Julia walked to the front row as if she belonged there (which she did), seating herself next to the purple-haired daughter of Count Florald, a mask of indifference fixed on her face.

Bridget waved warmly to Irene, and patted the seat next to where she was sitting in the second row. Irene sat down next to the sandy-haired lady with a grateful smile.

"It isn't like you to cut it so close, Schwarzer," Bridget whispered as the Vice-principal stepped up to the podium. "What held you up? And what is the red uniform all about?"

Irene winced at the reminder of their near tardiness. "Let's talk later, the ceremony is about to start."

"As you wish, Miss Student Council President," Bridget huffed, but turned her attention to the front nonetheless.

A flash of guilt swept through Irene as she realized she had forgotten about Elisha, but a quick glance around showed her that he had taken a seat towards the back, and didn't seem all that upset about being left behind. 'I'm going to have to apologize for that later.'

She looked back towards the front, only to find Bridget giving her a curious look. Irene winced at being caught, an embarrassed flush creeping up her neck. Bridget giggled lightly, even as Irene glared at her.

Letting a huff of irritation at her friend's cheek, Irene turned her head towards the podium, where the Principal looked to be beginning his speech, pointedly not looking at Bridget.

Overall, it was not an unusual speech. It had the usual greetings and ceremonies, but Principal Vandyck's booming voice lent his words much more credence than the words themselves.

'His military background is quite evident. Appropriate for Thors Military Academy, I suppose.'

"...Now, if I may, I'd like to say a few words about this academy's illustrious history," the principal boomed. He went on to briefly describe the school's founder, Emperor Dreichels the Lionhearted, 73rd Emperor of Erebonia, who ended the War of the Lions, with the help of allies from the Nord Highlands and the knights of the Eisenritter.

Irene's gaze flicked over to the tall blue-haired young man seated a ways down her row. 'We even have one of the descendants of the Eisenritter in our year!'

"It was to be a place where young folk like yourself could learn the art of war," the principal explained. "But with the mechanization of the military, many of our graduates now pursue careers outside of the army."

'And yet, the army is the largest it's ever been in history,' Irene mused. 'And that isn't even accounting for the Noble Provincial Armies.'

"Our mission, however, remains the same," the principal continued. "To prepare you students to fulfill Emperor Dreichels' famous mandate." He leaned forward, a passionate gleam sparking in his eyes.

"Arise, O Youth, and become the foundation of the world!"

Most of the new students had heard the academy's famous motto before, but here and now, with it booming through the assembly hall, reverberating through acoustic engineering and the thunderous voice of a retired general, it suddenly carried greater weight, as if centuries of tradition laid expectations on their shoulders.

Irene couldn't help but sit up straighter, and she noticed in the corner of her eye that many other students also shifted in the same way.

"Much has changed since this school was founded," the retired general said, voice softer, more contemplative. "But the fact remains that the future is the domain of the young. Which begs the question…"

His gaze swept out across the assembled students, and while he couldn't possibly have singled out each one of them, it was enough to feel as if the weight of his scrutiny rested on all of them.

"What qualities must one possess, what actions must one take, what manner of person must one become, to take your place as part of that foundation?"

The principal stood straight again, a slight smile evident even under his bushy mustache. "I hope this credo serves as a guide and inspiration for you, both during your tenure here and beyond. Go forth, my students! The world awaits the great things you will one day accomplish."

'The foundation of the world…no pressure at all, hehe…'

"The general is quite good at oration," Bridget observed, glancing at Irene. "Do you think they teach lessons for that in the army?"

"I would not know," Irene replied. "I would assume so."

"They definitely teach shouting," a sardonic voice chimed in from Bridget's other side. "Otherwise their men wouldn't be able to hear them over the fire and noise of battle."

The speaker was a tall young lady, with blonde hair curled in ringlets and mischievous blue eyes. She was mostly dressed in the white uniform of a noble student, but she was wearing pants under her skirt.

"Pardon me, have we met?" Irene asked, not remembering her from St. Astraia.

"Well we have now," her new acquaintance snorted.

"This is Margarita Angelica Dresden," Bridget sniffed with a long-suffering tone. "And she's only here because Lawrence Arseid is attending."

"Among other things," Margarita acknowledged shamelessly with a flip of her hair.

"W-what?!" Irene squeaked, drawing a snort from Bridget and a full blown laugh from Margarita.

"Ehem!" The vice principal cleared his throat pointedly, glaring in Margarita's direction, to no effect. "And that brings us to the close of Thors' two hundred and fifteenth entrance ceremony."

"That's heiny Heinrich for you," Margarita snorted, drawing an incredulous look from Irene.

"Next," the admittedly creepy looking vice principal called, "please proceed to the class designated in your guidebook. There, you will go over the school rules as well as your classes' curriculum. That is all. Dismissed!"

"Well, then, shall we be off then, Falkenheim?" Margarita asked, stretching her arms and legs out like a cat.

"Right, to Class II," Bridget agreed, before turning to the indigo-haired lady next to her. "That's where you were assigned too, right Irene?"

"...No…" the girl in question replied hesitantly. "My guidebook didn't say anything about what class I was in."

"It isn't like Thors to make that kind of mistake," Bridget remarked.

"Could be the red uniform," Margarita suggested. "Looks snazzy, I kind of want one." She shrugged in an exaggerated and very much unladylike fashion. "Maybe you're in class VI."

"Maybe," Irene mumbled, glancing at the other students already filtering out of the auditorium. "You two should get going. It would not be a good start to be late on your first day."

"As you say, Miss Student Council President," Bridget sighed, smoothing out her skirt.

"I'm not–!"

"Suit yourself class mom," Margarita added, nodding to Irene before leaving as well.

'Class mom?!'

"Don't worry, you'll have Julia with you at least," Bridget offered, before hurrying out of the auditorium herself.

Irene glanced around nervously as Bridget exited the building. Julia gave her an idle look, Elisha…did he fall asleep?!

"Alll riiight! Students in red uniforms, can I get your attention please?!"

A fuchsia haired woman dressed in a blue long coat belted together under her bust, thigh-high boots and a yellow shirt strutted in their direction with a slightly manic grin on her face.

'S-so indecent! She can't be our instructor, can she?!'

"By now, you're probably all confused. 'Where's my class assignment?' you're probably thinking." The outrageous woman closed her eyes and smiled wider. "That's perfectly understandable–your situation is just a liiiitle more complicated than the other students'."

Her eyes opened and she shifted her weight to one foot, resting one hand on her hip. "But before I explain, I'd like for all of you to join me in a special orienteering exercise."

"Is that a real word?" Elisha wondered.

"Yes." the purple haired young man from earlier replied flaty, adjusting the glasses on his face.

"Worry not!" their instructor(?) exclaimed, looking far too cheerful, "everything will be made clear soon enough! Now, right this way please!" She turned and marched right out of the auditorium, not bothering to look back to see if anyone was following.

"I wonder…" purple hair and glasses pondered, before following the shameless woman.

"We're going to have to fight something, aren't we?" Lawrence Arseid muttered, before also exiting the building.

'Looks like we just have to follow.'

---

The red uniformed students trailed their probable instructor out into the main building's courtyard, then to the right, past several other buildings then along a dirt path that ran between several old looking trees.

At the end of the path was a weathered, ancient looking building, perhaps old enough to date back to the school's founding.

"Oh, wonderful," Julia griped. "All these new buildings, but no, we are relegated to the dirty, hidden one."

The girl with green hair Irene remembered seeing at the train station gave Julia a pointed look, before narrowing her eyes at the blonde noble. She didn't say anything, and Julia ignored her, but that looked like trouble.

"W-well, it looks like an old schoolhouse," Irene observed. "Maybe it's a cultural landmark?"

The purple haired boy let out a snort at that, but paid Irene no further heed. Their instructor(?) seemingly ignored them, humming to herself as she fiddled with the lock on the doors.

"Forgive my ignorance," a tall young woman with a darker complexion and deep brown hair pulled into a neat braid began, turning to face Irene, "but I was under the impression that Erebonians generally make a serious effort in preserving culturally significant landmarks. Was I mistaken?"

"N-no, you were right, which makes this more strange," Irene replied, giving the other girl a curious look. The taller girl's features were unusual for Erebonia, perhaps she was from–

"If I may, are you from the Nord Highlands?" Lawrence asked, giving the dark-skinned girl a speculative look.

"I am," she confirmed with a nod, "so please bear with me, many things here are foreign to me."

"Of course," Lawrence nodded graciously. "A school founded by Emperor Dreichels should always be open and welcoming to a descendant of his first allies."

The doors of the old schoolhouse clicked open, and the fuschia haired woman pushed them open with a hum, stepping inside with nary a look backwards.

"Trap."

Irene blinked, head swiveling towards the speaker, eyes landing on a short young man– 'how old was he?'–with short cropped silver hair. 'I didn't even notice he was there, how did I miss him?'

"Gah!" the green haired girl burst out. "Is she even going to explain what's going on?" She whirled towards the silver haired boy. "And you, what do you mean it's a trap?!"

"Clearly a trap," the silver haired boy muttered laconically, unimpressed by the green-haired girl's irritation.

"Is this some sort of test of courage?" Lawrence suggested, eyeing the building curiously.

"Hmph, looks like something of that sort," the purple haired young man agreed.

"Grrgh! I'm no coward!" A slight ginger-haired girl clenched her fists, squared her shoulders, and marched right up the stairs into the building.

"Hah!" Lawrence boomed with laughter. "With such an example how could we not follow?" He likewise strode into the old schoolhouse.

Spurred on, the rest of the students followed their peers in.

'This class sure seems an interesting bunch.'

The inside of the building looked no better, at first glance, but as Irene flicked her gaze around the interior, something niggled at her mind. The place just felt…off.

She scraped her shoe against the stone floor. Plenty of friction. No dust. On second glance, there were also no other typical sights in an abandoned building. No spiderwebs or debris.

"Just what is this place?'

Their instructor strutted up some stairs and out onto a half level which could serve as a stage of sorts, and the students automatically clustered closer to where she was standing.

'Huh, at St. Astraia that would have taken a lot more cajoling.'

"The name's Sara Valestein," the fuschia haired woman declared with a smirk. "I'm the instructor for Class VII, which means you get the pleasure of seeing me all year. Glad to finally meet you!" She closed her eyes and grinned, in a way that Irene wasn't certain was supposed to be cute or intimidating.

"...Class VII?" the green haired girl asked incredulously.

"Yeah, I thought there were only five classes?" the ginger girl asked.

"That has been the case since the renovations a couple of decades ago," the purple-haired youth confirmed, looking unruffled by the revelation. "Divided based on social class and home region. At least until now."

"Eyup! Right you are, mister top scorer on the entrance exam!" Instructor Sara cheered. "Students in each year are divided into five classes: two for the nobility and three for commoners. It's been like that for a long time, but this year we decided to shake things up a bit…so we added a sixth class."

She folded her arms across her chest, an all too pleased grin on her face. "Fittingly called: Class VII! And in Class VII we recognize no distinction between nobles and commoners."

"...And here I thought Thors could count," Elisha muttered.

"Nobles and commoners in the same class?" Lawrence mused. "Fascinating."

"Is this some kind of sick joke?!" the green-haired girl nearly screeched, glaring accusingly up at their instructor, "and how come this is the first I've heard of this?!"

'Wasn't she a commoner? That's a reaction a lot of nobles would have…'

"Well…uh…" their instructor mumbled intelligently, "which one were you again?"

"Masha Regnitz!" the green-haired girl spat, pushing her glasses up her nose just a bit aggressively. "And mixing commoners and nobles is an absurd idea! Am I going to be forced to spend two years shoulder to shoulder with those arrogant, stuck up hedonists?!"

'But those of us here aren't hedonists, are we?'

"I resent that accusation," Lawrence called, giving Masha an annoyed, but mostly confused look. "Arrogant, I could understand, but I take offense at being painted a hedonist."

Masha's eyes widened for a moment as she craned her neck up to look at the blue-haired youth, taking a small step back as she realized just how much taller he was. "W-why, you..!"

Julia let out an amused scoff, drawing the ire of the bespectacled girl.

"What are you laughing at?!"

"Oh, nothing of note," Julia replied airily, not deigning to turn towards the shorter girl. "The irony of your outburst is just too amusing."

"Is that so?" Masha sneered, directing her outrage at the less imposing target. "And whose palms did your daddy have grease for a pampered powdered lady to get into this prestigious academy." Her eyes narrowed angrily. "Or did daddy have to sell your virtue–"

"You go too far!" Lawrence boomed, his voice echoing through the room thunderously, causing the other students to flinch.

"Peace, Lawrence," Julia called, nodding in his direction. "I can defend myself."

"Of course," Lawrence bowed slightly, voice softer. "I would not deign to imply otherwise, milady."

The sudden noise and the deference the massive noble showed Julia seemed to rattle the rest of class, especially Masha, who turned her gaze back to Julia with the look of a person who realized they may have bitten off more than they could chew.

"A-and just who are you anyways?" she sniped at Julia, trying to recover some of her earlier confidence.

"Julia Albarea," the blonde noblewoman replied sweetly, even going as far as to dip into a perfect curtsey. "It is such a pleasure to meet you, the Imperial Governor's little girl."

Masha flinched again at the realization she had picked a fight with the daughter of one the highest ranking nobles in the whole nation.

"S-she's from one of the four great houses!" the ginger girl whispered.

"Ah, the daughter of Duke Helmut Albarea, lord of all of Kruezen," the purple haired young man commented. "That is about as noble as you can get, short of imperial."

"Oh right," Elisha muttered. "That Albarea."

'Wait, how did he not realize–?'

The young woman from Nord just looked confused, while the silver haired boy looked like he was nodding off on his feet.

"Do you expect me to be impressed?!" Masha snarled, unwilling to back down. "Your family lineage and your pet thug mean nothing to me!"

"Ha!" Julia laughed. "You would call Lawrence S. Arseid, the son of Viscount Viktor S. Arseid, the Radiant Blademaster, a thug?" She shook her head disdainfully. "You shame all commoners with your ignorance and lack of tact."

"Why you–!"

"That's enough!" Irene shouted, slamming her right foot slightly forwards and automatically reaching for weapons that weren't there. 'Oh…everyone is looking at me…'

"U-um…it's the first day of class," she mumbled, face heating up from all the sudden attention. "Do you really want to get into trouble before we even start classes…hehe?"

'Please stop staring at me!'

"Well at least one of you can keep a cool head," Instructor Sara observed with a short laugh, before fixing the Masha and Julia with a stern stare. "Now it seems that a few of you already have grievances, but now isn't the time to air them. I'll take complaints later, but first you have your fun little ice breaking orienteering exercise!" Her serious demeanor dissolved as she grinned dangerously.

"Just what is an o-orienteering thing?" the ginger girl asked, shifting side to side nervously. "And why are we in this creepy place anyways?"

"Assuming our instructor is using the word correctly, it would be some form of outdoor activity," the purple haired young man explained. "Typically a cross between navigation and treasure hunting."

'I really need to learn their names…wait!'

"Is that why we had to hand over our weapons at the gate?" Irene asked. 'Though what would we need them for?'

"Huh, nothing gets by you, does it?" Instructor Sara observed with amusement, stepping backwards in a way that was not suspicious at all. "Buut, I don't want to spoil all your fun, so let's get started, shall we?"

She pressed her hand against a pillar, and the floor beneath the students' feet shifted.

The flat surface they had been standing on suddenly became a steep ramp, drawing shouts of surprise as Class VII tumbled down and backwards.

Irene reacted fast enough to lunge for the new ledge, but she was a rege too short to grab on.

'Aw, crap. What a way to start school.'

She fell into the darkness.

---

AN. Well this idea has kind of taken off. Partly inspired by Ashen Chevaliere by Light1108 on Ao3 and the Jessica Schleiden SI by Randomguy. Despite this undertaking, I actually have not played through any of the Sen no Kiseki games fully, so please point out any lore discrepancies you might see (there is so much lore). Of course, Class VII is going to be different, and I plan on tweaking a couple of things, such as having St. Astraia being more of a middle school/feeder school into Thors, despite several characters notably making a choice between the two schools, or having the drinking age being more in line with Germany, since it seems the in game drinking age has more to do with it being a Japanese game.

If you want to chat about it outside this thread, I have a Discord, even if that's mostly been for my other fic so far (which I still have to finish).

 

[WrandmWaffles]

March of Blooming Companionship​

Irene braced herself for the coming impact, but it was much gentler than she expected, the floor somehow absorbing the impact–

"Are you alright, Lady Schwarzer?"

'…that wasn't the floor, was it?'

Irene opened her eyes and looked up to see Lawrence looking down at her with concerned amber eyes, their faces a lot closer together–

"What was that about not being a hedonist you sleaze?!"

Lawrence turned to look at Masha, a perplexed look on his face, as Irene realized with dawning mortification that the giant noble had caught her in his arms. 'Why is this happening to me?!'

"Would you prefer I let her fall?" Lawrence shot back at the irate green-haired girl.

"Just where do you think your hands are?" Masha shrieked.

'Wha…!' Irene froze as she finally registered his large calloused hands, one holding on to her bare thigh and the other cupped around her torso under her shoulder. 'Aa…buh…waaah?!'

Lawrence startled a bit, leaning down to hurriedly set Irene down on her feet. "Please forgive my error, Lady Schwarzer, I should have been more careful."

"I-it's f-fine…really! Hehe." 'Oh Aidios, he's really muscular!' "I–uh…appreciate not hitting the ground, hehe." Her face was burning, and she was sure it was beet red. 'I'm going to die of embarrassment at this rate!'

"I do not understand," the Nord girl said. "That was an appropriate way to catch someone."

"Did you see where his hands were?!" Masha snapped, whirling around at the foreigner.

"Yes, spaced out to distribute her weight evenly," the taller girl replied, unaffected by the green haired girl's outrage.

"That's not the point!"

"He couldn't have caught you, you know," Elisha pointed out completely unhelpfully. "We fell at about the same time, Irene managed to hug the wall a bit–nice one by the way."

"What?! No! That is not what I am saying!" Masha growled. "As if I'd want some pampered fop trying to sweep me off my feet like I'm some toy to play with!"

"I still do not understand, he just put her back on her feet," the Nord girl pointed out.

"What self respecting man would bother with you specifically, anyways?" Julia sneered, throwing Masha a nasty look.

"Julia!" Irene gasped, shocked at the venom in her friend's tone. 'Masha shouldn't have gone there, but still!'

Masha looked stricken for a moment, then rage rekindled in her eyes. But before she could explode again, a scraping sound drew their attention as the silver haired boy slid down the ramp nonchalantly, landing lightly on his feet at the bottom.

"See. Trap."

"Ggrah! What is wrong with this class?!" Masha growled–her rant was cut off as a ringing sound filled the room they had fallen into, emanating from the various bags around the room, their weapon bags.

Elisha dashed over to his bag, patting around until he found what he was looking for, and pulled out a small handheld device that was the source of the ringing.

"Son of a bitch! I left that pocket empty for a reason!" He looked at the device clutched in his hand. "Oh you've got to be kidding me!"

"You recognize the device?" purple hair and glasses asked.

"Yeah," Elisha sighed, "took a lot of work to get it portable."

"Well I guess I shouldn't be surprised you'd recognize Reinford handiwork!" Instructor Valestein's voice chirped from the device.

"Of course I do!" Elisha snarled. "I–no," he sighed. "I guess it doesn't matter."

'He really changes mood really fast, I wonder why that is?'

"Anyways! This is a new type of–"

"Fifth-generation battle orbment made through collaboration between the Epstein Foundation and Reinford Company, called the All-Round Communication and Unison System because suits are shit at naming things," Elisha ranted. "An all-round communication system is a speaker, or a megaphone–!"

"...uhh, right, or ARCUS for short–"

"They picked the name for Gehenna-bound marketing!"

"U-um…Elisha?" Irene interjected gently, "can you explain what it is for, please?"

"Ah, right, that would be useful," he conceded.

"Annyways, they are combat orbments, so they can let you cast Arts at will–" Instructor Sara gamely tried to continue.

"They also theoretically allow two users to link reflexes, of a sort," Elisha added, "not to mention a quartz integration system and communication features–" He paused, taking a breath. "So the Unison part of the name is actually not stupid."

"Hey! Spoilers–!"

"That make sense?" Elisha acted as if he didn't hear Instructor Sara at all.

"Yes and no," the purple haired young man replied, adjusting his glasses. "I can see why something of the sort could be useful, but that begs the question of why we are being assigned one, and still tells us nothing about why we were dropped into the dungeon."

"Oh come on! Are you guys going to ruin all the fun–?"

"A dungeon on the grounds of such a prestigious academy?" he mused. "Or perhaps the academy is on the threshold of a dungeon?"

'He almost sounds…sarcastic? As if he's asking rhetorical questions…'

"Are you suggesting that this was not constructed for the academy?" Lawrence asked, flexing his hand idly.

"It was certainly not on the curriculum," the purple haired man returned.

"Pardon me," the Nord girl interjected, "You all seem very knowledgeable, but would it be possible to make further introductions? I don't think you would appreciate it if I called you by your hair color, or Julia and blonde number two." She glanced up at the ramp they had fallen down. "I also think our instructor is trying to tell us something."

"Maybe remote teaching wasn't such a good idea…Shame, it'd have made things so much easier!"

"U-um, well, I am Irene Schwarzer, may I ask your name in turn?"

"Naturally," the Nord girl nodded. "I am Gaia Worzel. There, that wasn't so hard, was it?"

"Lady Julia already named me earlier," Lawrence said with a shrug, "but to make it official, I am Lawrence S. Arseid."

"Emmet Millstein," purple hair and glasses added. "From a place of no great importance, and a family of even less." It was hard to tell if he was being sarcastic.

"I'm Ellia Craig!" the ginger girl blurted out, throwing a fist into the air, before shrinking down as the class turned its attention to her. "Um…hi?"

"Hello Ellia," Irene returned with an encouraging smile.

"...Thanks?"

"Need I repeat myself?" Julia sighed airily. "Regardless, I am Julia Albarea, in case it was rattled from your brains by the fall."

"No one asked you!" Masha muttered. "And I'm Masha Regnitz."

"Oh, so you are suffering memory loss," Julia continued, voice oozing with obviously fake concern. "But I repeat–"

"Oh right, I'm Elisha Reinford, in case you didn't know." 'He… really couldn't read the room, could he?'

"...Fion Claussell," the diminutive silver haired boy added, rounding off their introductions. "Hi."

"Nice to meet you all!" Irene called, trying her best to put on her Student Council President smile, even if it felt a bit awkward.

"I'm starting to feel like a third wheel at this instructor thing."

"Ah! I'm sorry, instructor!" Irene apologized. "Please continue."

"I left some quartz near your bags, try slotting them into your ARCUS, after that, the exercise can really start!"

For once, the students actually listened to their instructors, though that may have had more to do with their desires to check on their weapons.

"Oh good," Elisha cheered, pulling an orbal handgun out of his bag, "looks like nothing's exploded!"

"Uh…i-is that something we should be worried about?" Ellia asked hesitantly, edging away from Elisha slightly while fiddling with an orbal staff.

"If the Reinford runs, question nothing, just run" Emmet replied blandly, examining his own staff, which looked more like a cane.

"H-huh?"

"I'm sure everything will be fine!" Irene intervened, carefully examining her own weapons, before strapping them to her side.

"Everything seems in order," Lawrence declared, hefting a traditional zweihander over his shoulder with one hand. "Now, how does this device work?" The ARCUS looked tiny in his palm as he flipped it open gingerly. "Mister Reinford, how durable is this device? I do not want to break it."

Julia sighed, her rapier already at her side. "Allow me." She took the ARCUS from him and demonstrated how to install the quartz.

Gaia discretely watched as well, before repeating the process on her device, a bow slung over her shoulder.

Fion was already done, standing idly with a pair of bladed pistols at his hips.

Masha was clutching an orbal shotgun a little bit too enthusiastically to be healthy, but otherwise seemed to have no issue with her device.

"Everyone ready?" Instructor called over their ARCUS units. "If not, too bad! The real orienteering starts now!" A door slid open in the wall, revealing a dimly lit hallway. "Behind door number one–"

"So it is a dungeon," Lawrence observed. "How did you know, Mr. Millstein?"

"Wild speculation," Emmet replied drily. "Either way, keep your guards up, there will definitely be traps and monsters down there, not to mention dead ends." He walked towards the door casually, as if it was a stroll in the park, staff slung over his shoulder. "Instructor, I presume the correct way out is not, in fact, to climb back up the trapdoor?"

"…Yeah no."

"Wouldn't be much of an orienteering exercise otherwise," Emmet observed, heading into the dungeon with no hesitation.

"Wait, where are you going?!" Masha barked, but Emmet did not reply, vanishing into the dim corridor.

"Well he's certainly confident," Lawrence observed. "Seemed like he could back it up too."

Fion followed Emmet into the dungeon, ignoring the rest of the group.

"Hold on, wouldn't it be better to stay in one group?" Lawrence called. "Then if one of us runs into trouble there will be help nearby."

"I can t-take care of myself!" Ellia yelled, dashing through the door.

"Are you serious?!" Masha barked. "Don't leave me with these stuck-up nobles!" She also ran into the dungeon.

"Uh…did I say something wrong?" Lawrence asked sheepishly.

"I do not think so," Gaia assured him. "Though perhaps I should make sure they don't get into any trouble."

"That may work better," Lawrence agreed. "They seem to have some grievance with me."

"I do not understand why," the Nord girl shrugged, "but I think that can wait until we are not in this dungeon. Or any other dungeon." She headed into the dark corridor at a brisk trot, bow unslung.

"You always seem to elicit a strong reaction from women, don't you Lawrence?" Julia sighed, shaking her head.

"I do?" he asked, scratching his ear awkwardly. "As far as I remember, you did not act like that in any way when we first met."

"Oh course I didn't!" Julia huffed, a hint of blush dusting her cheeks. "I have more discipline than that, why would you even consider such a thing?"

"You did say…" Lawrence trailed off, before shrugging. "Never mind."

Irene covered a giggle with her hand at their interaction. 'Julia probably wouldn't like it if I brought up how often she mentioned Lawrence. Then again, he was a pretty popular topic in general at St. Astraia.'

"So…anyways," Elisha interrupted. "Is this a race…which we just gave up a lead for for no reason?"

"I don't think so," Irene replied, "but we should probably get going."

"Agreed," Lawrence nodded, stepping towards the door. "I can take point, Elisha covers us from the rear, and you two ladies can keep the flanks clear. Does that sound like a plan?"

"I can acquit myself just fine," Julia declared, drawing her rapier.

"Works for me," Elisha shrugged, pulling gloves over his hands.

"T-that sounds fine," Irene agreed, drawing her daisho, katana in one hand, wakizashi in the other.

"Do not be fooled by her meek demeanor," Julia warned with a smirk. "Lady Irene is, in fact, quite a skilled little sword maiden."

"J-julia!"

"Hah!" Lawrence barked a laugh, eyeing Irene's weapons and stance with a glint in his eyes. "I look forward to seeing that firsthand!"

With that last bit of embarrassment, the four of them moved into the dungeon, the two noble ladies falling in step with practiced motions while Lawrence marched ahead with easy confidence and Elisha brought up the rear, weapon at the ready.

It wasn't long before they encountered monsters. As they exited the corridor into a wider room, their presence disturbed a pack of flying felines, the airborne cats diving towards them with startled yowls.

Lawrence swatted two of them out of the air with one swing, the felines practically coming apart on impact.

A cat darting down from directly above met its end from Elisha's well-placed shot.

Two more came at the group from the sides, but were smoothly cut down by Irene and Julia.

"Did the others come through here?" Irene wondered. "How would they have avoided these monsters?"

"Maybe the cats came in after they left?" Elisha suggested, poking the remains of one said creature with his shoe.

"Dungeons are strange things," Lawrence observed. "It seems mister Millstein is correct about this not being made by the school."

"Perhaps they simply built the facade of a school building over it as a cover," Julia suggested, before gesturing forwards. "Whatever the reason, let's not dawdle, lest more monsters arrive."

"Aye," Lawrence agreed, forging ahead at a steady stride, the rest of the group scrambling to keep pace.

After that, they did not immediately encounter more monsters as they continued. Instead, the main issue they encountered was dead ends.

"Orienteering indeed," Julia grumbled irritably.

"This place makes no sense," Elisha muttered, looking at something on his wrist. "Something here seems to be interfering with my compass."

"At least the lack of monsters suggests our compatriots are doing well enough," Lawrence pointed out.

Irene closed her eyes and let out a slow breath. If this place was confusing to the eye, perhaps using her ears would give her a clearer picture.

'Hmm…is that…yes, there's a humming sound. I wonder what that is? Whatever it is, we haven't come across it yet, so it's as good a direction to go as any.'

"I hear something humming that way," she reported. "Perhaps some kind of machinery?"

"We haven't seen anything obviously mechanical asides from the doors," Elisha thought aloud, "so it'd be new at least."

"You have sharp ears, Lady Schwarzer," Lawrence complimented. "Is awareness training part of your routine?"

"Well…um…sort of?" Irene mumbled, shuffling her feet self-consciously. "Master Kai-fa said I couldn't really learn to use weapons until I learned to be aware of my surroundings."

"You studied under Master Yun Kai-fa?!" Lawrence exclaimed, looking her up and down. "So you do practice a form of the Eight Leaves, One Blade. Intriguing."

"Oh, I'm still a beginner," Irene demurred, "so it's not that impressive, hehe."

"She was one of the best fencers at St. Astraia," Julia cut in. "That may not sound like much, but she could regularly match Friedel Andechs."

'Wait, Julia stop! What are you doing?'

"Truly? Lady Friedel is quite skilled, and is a year older than us."

"I-it wasn't that close…" Irene stammered.

"Just watch," Julia snorted, "she will no doubt seek to drag you into the fencing club due to her search for worthy opponents."

"That does sound like her," Lawrence laughed.

"I don't know what a Friedel is," Elisha grumbled. "Can it help us find a way out of here?"

"Oh, my apologies," Lawrence muttered sheepishly. "I can get carried away with swords quite a bit."

"Truly now?" Julia drawled. "I had no idea."

"Did the hum sound like orbal technology? Or some other type of machinery?" Elisha pressed, rolling his eyes at noble antics.

"Maybe? I-i'm not certain?" Irene replied.

"Shouldn't be a monster at least," Elisha muttered.

The group made their way towards the sound. Its source was, oddly enough, what looked to be an orbal charging station.

"Is that the source of the humming you detected, Irene?" Julia asked.

"Mmh, I think so," Irene nodded, giving it a curious look.

"This makes no sense," Elisha declared. "This building must predate the orbal revolution, and it's not as if many other people have been down here, right? How is this a thing?!"

"It is rather suspicious," Julia agreed, eying the device. "Do you think it is a trap?"

"Not sure," Elisha shrugged, walking straight over to it and plugging his ARCUS in.

"Wait–!" The three nobles cringed reflexively, but nothing happened.

"How is this thing compatible?" Elisha muttered furiously. "This demands more research!"

"Perhaps a little warning next time?" Lawrence sighed.

"Huh?" Elisha grunted. "Oh right, I just figured that if it was a trap, the reckless people would have set it off already."

The three nobles shared a glance, collectively acknowledging that he had a point, but all wincing slightly at how blase that statement was.

"Whatever the reason this fascinating piece of universal technology that is not in public use is doing here," Elisha rambled on, "I have no idea. It doesn't really do us much good since none of us have used any arts yet. I wonder if we could take it with us…"

"Perhaps we could return for it later," Lawrence suggested. "For now, we have other concerns."

"It had to have gotten here somehow," Elisha grumbled mutinously, but followed along as the rest of the group moved on.

Down the hallway from the strange device, they came across another group of monsters: several grass drones milling about an otherwise empty room, the green blob-like creatures leaving trails of questionable substances across the floor.

"Ugh," Julia let out a disgusted snort. "It would have been better if we had prior notice for this task. I would have worn something more appropriate for this activity than this damnably short skirt!"

"A-at least they're easy to move in?" Irene replied hesitantly. 'They really are quite short, and Julia is tall, so it looks even shorter on her.'

"Grass drones, it will be a bit trying to destroy them with brute force," Lawrence pointed out.

"Fire works better," Elisha agreed, slotting something into his gun. "Also, the skirts look nice, which is probably their intended function."

"Other arts could probably work too," Irene added, sheathing her wakizashi and pulling out her battle orbment, pointedly ignoring the blonde man.

"Allow me!" Julia cried, weaving her way expertly through an incantation and sending a bolt of fire burning into one of the drone's single eyes, blasting the monster apart.

Elisha fired his gun, this time launching a stream of fire from the barrel, from which the remaining drones recoiled, giving Irene time to hurl a mass of compressed air into one of them, blowing apart the burning creature..

Julia stepped forward, preparing another fire bolt and letting it fly with a flick of her rapier, searing away another drone.

A drone dropped from the wall towards her–

Lawrence smashed it aside with his sword, the last of the monsters splattering across the floor in a green smear.

'What strength!'

"My thanks, Lawrence," Julia nodded gratefully, brushing her skirt off. "I should have been mindful of my surroundings."

"Think nothing of it, Lady Julia," he replied. "It would be a shame for it to ruin your hair."

"That–!" Julia flushed, "is not of utmost importance at the moment."

"It is nice looking hair," Elisha commented matter-of-factly.

"Indeed!" Lawrence agreed obliviously.

"Enough of this!" Julia barked, storming forwards, Irene trailing after her.

'Hehe, she probably spent a lot of time on it this morning.'

"Your hair is quite well done as well, Lady Schwarzer," Lawrence added casually.

"Whaa-?!'

"Also looks nice," Elisha added.

Irene and Julia shared an exasperated look, before moving forwards in a huff. Lawrence still overtook them easily, long strides allowing him to return to his lead position.

Partway down the next corridor, he called for a halt.

"There is a swarm of beetle-like monsters up ahead," he reported. "I can clear a path, but you will have to keep close."

"Of course," Julia returned, before running through the incantation for an empowering art.

Irene let out a slow breath, clearing her mind of doubts (temporarily), blades held at the ready.

Elisha pulled a grenade out of his pack. "This work as a signal?"

"Aye!" Lawrence barked with a laugh.

"Fire in the hole!" the Reinford crowed, hurling the explosive into the middle of the swarm of monsters.

Bang!

Fire bloomed in blazing fury, sending the large insects scattering with shrieks of alarm.

Lawrence charged through the swarm, his sword cleaving through the more active beetles with ease while he crushed the ones stricken by the grenade under his boots.

Irene and Julia followed, the later weaving another fire art in between her strikes, while the former struck out in a whirl of blades.

The two of them had sparred together often during their time at St. Astraia, so they were quite familiar with each other's movements, but in that moment, that familiarity crystalized into something…sharper.

Irene cut apart a beetle going for Julia's blind spot, while the blonde noblewoman swept a fire art through the remainder of the swarm as it converged towards them, before lashing out with precise strikes in between the intervals of Irene's whirling cuts.

Elisha used whatever method he concocted to blast fire out of his gun, dissuading any of the insectoid monsters from getting too close.

With their collective effort, the swarm all but vanished in a matter of moments.

"I certainly hope there will be less of this ilk further in," Julia griped, a disgusted look on her face.

"I pray that our compatriots did not have to deal with this many foes," Lawrence added worriedly. "Gaia seems to be able to handle herself, I am less sure of Ellia and Masha."

"Glad I'm not on the wrong end of your pointy things," Elisha muttered.

"Above you!" Irene cried out as one last beetle leapt down from an alcove near the ceiling.

"Wha-?" Elisha glanced up, lashing out with his offhand. His fist struck the insect as it descended. There was a flash of heat, and the beetle was knocked away, shrieking and on fire.

Bang!

Elisha shot it dead before it hit the ground.

"A mixture of new technology and some martial arts," Lawrence mused. "Yes…it seems I have much to learn from this class."

"Huh, that worked!" Elisha cheered. "Hadn't gotten a chance to test that on a live subject."

The three nobles shared another glance, unsure what to make of their companion.

'Hehe, he's a Reinford alright.'

"That was quite artfully done, ladies," Lawrence complimented with a nod. "It's clear that you have fought alongside each other in the past."

"We did train together often," Irene explained bashfully, doing her best not to think about the nobleman's musculature.

"Lawrence, please, it is far too early for your flattery," Julia huffed, glancing away from the tall swordsman.

"I suppose we ought to save discussion until after this exercise," Lawrence acknowledged. "That does not change the fact you have certainly improved since we last left, Lady Julia. You must have put in quite some effort."

"…it was nothing."

'Julia always did seem to train harder after she came back from break…'

"Of course, that is only natural for you," Lawrence smiled warmly, completely oblivious to Julia's quiet embarrassment.

"As for you, Lady Schwarzer," the tall noble turned to the shorter young woman, causing her to stiffen under his attention. "It is a shame you never attended a Junior Eisenritter camp. Your skill would have been a welcome addition."

"T-that's very kind of y-you," Irene stammered. "But we really need to get going!"

'Why is he looking at me like that?!'

"Yes, Lawrence, you can gush over pointy things later," Julia snarked, but Irene had to stifle a giggle at the flush on her friend's face.

'You share some of his enthusiasm, don't you, Julia?'

The tall noble marched on ahead, sword at the ready, and the group fell again into a diamond formation, moving with what would have seemed eerie synchronicity had there been anyone else to witness.

The monsters they encountered stood no chance as Lawrence smashed and scattered them, Julia smote them with arts as Irene cut through in a whirl of blades, while Elisha picked them off at a distance, as well as covering any opening his companions left.

Gunfire sounded in front of them. Irene narrowed her eyes, opening her senses–someone was hurt!

"Is that–?"

"Go!" the indigo haired swordswoman dashed past her tall compatriot, who immediately fell in step, rushing forwards towards the sound of conflict.

They turned the corner to see the three girls who ran ahead fending off a small crowd of monsters.

Gaia drew her bow, an orbal arrow forming in an instant before being launched into a flying feline, sending it crashing to the ground. The Nord fired thrice more in as many seconds, pinning a trio of beetles to the ground, where Masha blasted them apart with her shotgun.

Ellia, though, was curled up on the ground behind the two other girls, clutching her abdomen, her orbal staff abandoned on the ground.

Lawrence cursed as several beetles crawled down the wall towards the downed girl, unseen by her defenders who were occupied with the rest of the swarm.

Irene took one step. Another. Then leapt.

She crossed the distance in an instant, twirling in midair like a leaf caught in the wind, blades flashing out in deadly, precise arcs, carving apart the attacking beetles.

As her spin slowed, her feet returned to the earth and she had to catch herself as the room seemed to whirl around as well.

"Irene!" She had missed one–!

Thunk!

Irene stared as a massive sword embedded itself into the wall, splitting apart the last flanking beetle. 'Did he…just throw his sword?'

"Is she alright?!" Lawrence barked, rushing forwards, seemingly unconcerned that he had disarmed himself, snatching the last flying feline out of the air by its neck and smashing its head against the wall, all without breaking stride.

"No," Gaia replied, giving them a thankful nod. "But she is not in immediate danger, though she will need medical attention. I do not think she can move herself."

Irene let out a relieved sigh, shaking her head to try and clear the dizziness. "Do either of you know any healing arts?"

"It hurts!" Ellia gasped, hand pressed against her injury, face pale and twisted in pain.

The Nord girl shook her head. Masha looked away.

"Hold still!" Elisha called, changing some setting on his gun, before firing a bolt of green energy straight into Ellia's chest.

"What-?!"

"Gah!" Ellia gasped, some color returning to the features.

"What the hell was that?!" Masha shrieked.

"An approximation of a healing art," Elisha explained nonchalantly. "She should be able to move now."

"What did we say about a little warning?" Lawrence grumbled, yanking his sword out of the wall.

"I did give one!" Elisha protested.

"How does 'hold still!' in any way mean 'I'm going to shoot you and heal you'?!" Masha cried in disbelief.

"Mister Reinford," Irene sighed. "None of us know what your machines can do. When Sir Arseid asked for a warning he meant that you should explain what you are doing until we get accustomed to what you can do."

"How does that mechanism work," Julia questioned, running through the incantation for her own healing art, crouching down next to Ellia.

"You basically cast an art into the battery," Elisha shrugged. "Then you can cast it later instantaneously."

"But not spontaneously," Lawrence observed.

"Yeah, got a limited number of them," the Reinford confirmed.

"T-thanks…" Ellia groaned, trying to stand up, before Julia stopped her gently.

"Don't try straining yourself just yet," the blonde noble chided. "Give the art some time to settle."

The ginger haired girl nodded. "Ok."

Masha stared at Julia disbelievingly, her shotgun held slack to one side.

'Hehe, Julia can come across as pretty mean, but she's definitely a softy. That said…'

"Would you three prefer to travel with us from now on?" Irene offered. "Safety in numbers, after all."

"As you have experienced, it generally helps to have a close quarters fighter in close quarters," Lawrence pointed out.

"That seems wise," Gaia agreed, giving Masha a pointed look. The bespectacled girl grimaced, but had enough sense to recognize that surviving was a higher priority than her grievance against nobility in general.

"Just please do not shoot me in the back," Lawrence requested.

"Who do you take me for?!" Masha snapped.

"A person with a shotgun. In a tunnel…" Lawrence blinked, unsure how he kept offending the green haired girl.

"She can cover the rear with me," Elisha suggested. "If they get behind us again, the shotgun could hold them off until you can rotate over."

"Mmh!" Irene nodded. "That could work."

"Assuming she can set aside her disdain for nobility to deign to work with us," Julia muttered.

"Miss Regnitz," Irene smiled, closing her eyes briefly. "You can save your grievances for later, right?"

The girl in question flinched, glancing down at Ellia, who was looking significantly better.

"...Yes…" Masha sighed.

"Excellent!" Irene declared, opening her eyes again. "Are you well enough to move, Miss Craig?"

"...Huh?" the ginger girl blinked. "Oh, yeah, I think so…" She frowned. "Miss Craig? I'm not old, am I?"

"I w-was just trying to be polite," Irene stammered, "I didn't mean to imply that you were old."

"Uhh…it wasn't really anything like that," Ellia muttered. "It's just usually my older sister getting called that."

"Well then," Lawrence declared, hefting his sword into a ready position, "let's make sure you will see her again."

"There are still the other two people in the class," Irene added.

"With any luck, they will have fared better than these three," Julia chimed in, helping Ellia back to her feet.

"Grr…let's just get out of here," Masha grumbled. "What kind of assignment is this?!"

"Stress test," Elisha replied. "See if we break or not."

"I'm not gonna let this stop me!" Ellia cried, pumping a fist in the air.

"Aye! That's the spirit!" Lawrence laughed, taking the lead again.

Ironically, they encountered fewer monsters after consolidating their groups.

'Maybe they are more hesitant to attack a larger group? Or could we have already cleared out most of them?'

The monsters they did encounter did not last long under the group's collective effort, and as irritable as Masha had seemed, she proved true to her word, and managed to avoid shooting any of them in the back.

They still saw no sign of the other two students–or was there?

"Do you sense something?" Julia asked, narrowing her eyes at the corridor before them.

"I think I hear fighting," Irene replied, quickening her step, in case their aid was required again. The three sword nobles rushed forwards, suddenly outpacing the others.

"How do they still have all that energy?!" Ellia gasped.

The group's vanguard dashed down a stairwell, entering yet another room, only to be greeted by a storm of arts.

Emmet stood defiant in the middle of a pack of monsters, his staff alight with fire as he slammed it into a grass drone, sending it sliding back, shrieking and ablaze.

He leaned out of the way of a diving flying feline, preparing another art almost instantly and a blast of compressed air slammed the cat to the floor, crushing a beetle in process.

Each strike of his staff led into an art, and each cast flowed into another strike. The monsters were dispatched in short order, burned with fire, hammered with air, or just beaten with a stick.

As the last monster fell, the purple haired man spun around to face the assembled group of students, twirling his staff into a resting position. "Glad you could make it," he greeted, adjusting his glasses. "Isn't it curious, that none of these monsters ended up loose on school grounds? Especially the ones that can fly?"

"It is good to see you are well, Mister Millstein," Lawrence returned. "Evidently, you do not need our help–excellent work by the way, what style is that?" The tall man shook his head. "Never mind, that can wait. Would you mind accompanying us? You clearly seem to know your way around this sort of thing."

"Thank you for the compliment," Emmet replied, "but these things are not truly a challenge."

"Did we even fight the same enemies?" Ellia muttered as she caught up, looking around at the mess of scattered monsters with wide eyes.

"That did not answer my question," Lawrence pointed out.

The purple haired young man hesitated. "It may be better for me to continue on my own. I'm not used to fighting in a group; wouldn't want to hit an ally with a stray art."

"No need to spare our feelings," Julia cut in. "You clearly have enough control, if you do not wish to join us, say so."

"You are welcome to join though," Irene added, "we could definitely use the help, though I wouldn't want to pressure you."

Emmet sighed. "I suppose there was no prohibition from grouping together. And this way no one needs to wait, aside from Fion."

"Did you see him on the way here?" Irene asked, a bit worried about the silvered haired boy.

"Briefly," Emmet shrugged. "Seemed like he was avoiding the monsters, mostly. Sensible enough approach."

"Good to have you on board then!" Lawrence cheered, stepping forwards and offering a hand.

Emmet gave him an odd look, before shaking his hand. "This corridor leads to a dead end, so the way out must be a different direction anyways."

"We got caught by monsters when we had to turn around at a dead end," Ellia murmured with wide eyes, "and he fought his way out alone?"

"Maybe Mister Claussell also found a dead end," Irene suggested. "That would help us narrow where the exit is."

"If that means we get out of here faster, then I'm all for it," Masha muttered.

The group set off again, with Emmet falling in step near Elisha. After that, the monsters were even sparser than before, and some actually fled when they noticed the group's passage.

"Would hunting them down actually accomplish anything?" Lawrence wondered. "I do not want them to end up loose on campus, but this place cannot be a new phenomenon, and I do not recall any such incident occurring in Thors' history."

"They appear to be contained to the dungeon, which is not unusual," Emmet explained. "You could say that these can serve as a sort of training ground. Monsters are attracted to the sepith here, though whether that is by design or by happenstance is hard to say."

"You certainly seem to know quite a lot about dungeons," Julia observed, giving the purple haired youth a scrutinizing glance. "How did you come across this information?"

"Here and there," Emmet replied. "Mostly there."

"Tch! Very well, if you don't wish to explain, it is of no concern to me."

As they turned a corner, the air seemed different. 'Is that…wind?'

"The Wind moves more freely here," Gaia observed. "We must be close to the exit."

Irene cocked her head, listening intently–

"GRRRAAAGH!"

"What was that?!" Ellia yelped.

"What is that?" Lawrence yelled, pointing forwards, where a silver haired youth was backpedaling rapidly from a…moving statue?! Horns, wings, whip-like tail–was that a gargoyle?!

"Bang!"

A bright flash lit up the hallway, and the gargoyle roared again, rushing at Fion, seemingly unfazed by the flashbang or the hail of gunfire the agile youth sent its way.

"Are monsters such as that common in Erebonia?" Gaia wondered, shooting her classmates a concerned look.

"Not outside myths and legends!" Julia snapped back.

"It's between us and the exit!" Irene barked. "Let's go help Fion!"

"Time to send this thing back to the Dark Ages!" Lawrence declared, charging forward again.

Their arrival did not immediately register to the monster or to the silver haired youth, but it became clear enough when Lawrence rammed swordfirst into the monster.

The blade did little against the creature's stone skin, but the force of his headlong charge knocked the gargoyle off balance, the impact sending both combatants sprawling, giving Irene time to slash at the monster's leg, to limited effect.

"It's tough! Use arts!" Irene called, ducking down as the gargoyle's tail lashed out at her as it thrashed back to its feet with an enraged roar.

"Hah!" Lawrence yelled, hewing at the gargoyle's shoulder with such force it shattered stone, sending fragments flying through the air.

Bolts of fire slammed into the creature's side as Julia and Emmet let loose arts in quick succession while Elisha and Fion took aim and fired, peppering the monster with their weapons.

The gargoyle shrieked, its wings bursting open with sudden force and in an instant, howling wind roared in the chamber, blowing most of the group back, though Lawrence stood defiant, sword planted in the ground, his jacket cape flapping wildly behind him.

Irene felt her mind still as the twister slammed into her. She did not fight it, instead letting it carry her upwards. 'Like a leaf on the wind.'

The aerial art faded, leaving Irene high in the air above it, giving her a bird's eye view of the fight below.

Her class moved with an inexplicable rhythm.

Lawrence squared off against the monster, striking at its head and keeping its attention, blocking the retaliatory blows he could, while Julia intercepted any strikes he couldn't with well-placed arts.

Emmet launched a stream of arts into the gargoyles' side, the energy rending openings in its hides which Gaia and Fion exploited with precise aim.

Elisha and Masha peppered the monster with gunfire, blasting chunks out of its stone hide.

"Kill its ass!" Ellia cried as she…danced? Her feet tapped to the beat of the fight as she cast a healing art on Lawrence.

Bolstered, the tall swordsman slammed his sword into the monster's chin in a brutal uppercut, sending it reeling backwards onto its hind legs with a pained cry.

The rhythm paused.

'My turn!'

"As the seasons turn, so comes your end! Autumn's Breath!"

Irene let loose the energy she had absorbed from the aerial art and fell upon the gargoyle in a whirling slash, blades of air following her swords and slicing through the cracked skin of the stone monster.

She bent at the knees as she impacted the gargoyle's shoulder, twisting off and slashing her katana though its exposed throat, before–'Oh, I mistimed the roll–!'

Lawrence caught her midair with his offhand, guiding her momentum so she landed on her feet next to him. The gargoyle crashed to the ground in a heap a moment later.

"Beautifully done Lady Schwarzer!"

"T-thanks–"

"It's not down yet!" Emmet cried, slamming another fire art into the creature. True to his word, the monster leapt back to its feet with a roar, lunging forward, claw raised to strike–

Lawrence stepped into the attack, grabbing hold of its arm and ramming his shoulder into its chest. With a cry of effort, he redirected the gargoyle's charge, flipping it over and slamming it to the ground on its back.

"Cripple it!" Emmet shouted, smashing his staff into one of the monster's knees, shattering the weakened stone.

The rest of the class piled on, and under a deluge of blows, the gargoyle's second wind petered out almost as fast as it came.

Its wings crashed uselessly against the ground, and it roared in rage, gathering energy for one last attack–

"Grraagh!" Lawrence would have none of it, gripping his sword by the blade and swinging the crossguard down in a thunderous mordhau. Stone gave, then shattered, and the gargoyle's roar was silenced as its head was dashed to pieces.

The group paused for a second as the rhythm stopped.

"Is it dead now?" Ellia asked.

Color bled from the gargoyle's remains, petrifying into stone not unlike the walls of the dungeon they were in.

"I hope I don't have to pay for the statue," Fion muttered under his breath.

"Huh…looks like the Unison feature works quite well," Elisha mused, rubbing his chin.

"You mean how it kind of felt like we were performing as a troupe, but with weapons?" Ellia asked, rubbing a lock of hair between her fingers.

"It seemed like we started glowing a faint blue light," Masha added.

"What?" Julia snorted.

"Side effect," Elisha muttered. "Will go in notes."

"It seemed like we knew exactly what each of us was doing," Irene murmured.

"Strange, usually such coordination would require extensive practice," Emmet observed.

"Mmh!" Irene agreed. "Perhaps that was–"

"The biggest selling point of the almighty ARCUS!" a familiar voice called, and the class spun around to see Instructor Valestein leaning against a railing above them, clapping cheekily. "Looks like friendship and teamwork save the day once again!" she cheered with an all too pleased grin. "I'm so proud of you guys!"

"Why?" Emmet muttered. "None of our efforts or skill had anything to do with you."

'He…has a point, but that's still rude!'

Instructor Valestein strode down so she was on the same level as the red coat class. "And that about finishes up today's special…orienteering exercise."

Her gaze swept across the unimpressed faces of her class and she cocked her head to one side curiously. "What's with these faces? I thought you'd all be happier?"

"About what?!" Masha barked. "You dropped us into a dungeon with no warning!"

"I have so many questions about this place," Elisha muttered. "But it's not like someone like you would know, instructor."

"Hey!"

"Oh yeah, what's up with this class anyways?" the blonde man added.

"Yes, just what is the purpose of this 'Class VII'?" Julia asked sharply, narrowing her eyes at the fuschia haired woman.

"It seems a bit political," Lawrence suggested, "given that there are members of notable noble and commoner families–apologies Mister Millstein, but I have not heard of your family before."

"Wouldn't have expected you to," Emmet replied. "I did say my family was of little significance."

"Somehow, I find that unconvincing," Julia muttered, scrutinizing the purple haired youth with a calculating glare.

"But aren't most Thors students from a notable family?" Ellia pointed out.

"...It was Unison compatibility, wasn't it?" Elisha asked flatly.

The instructor sighed. "Are you going to spoil all the surprises?!"

"If a group of students, including several without much combat experience, could operate so fluidly after only meeting each other hours ago…" Lawrence mused.

"That would be very beneficial if applicable to a wider scale on the battlefield," Emmet finished.

"Yep!" Instructor Valestein chirped. "An elite unit that can fight perfectly in sync, hard to put a price on that!"

"Millions of mira," Elisha muttered flatly. "Also prototypes. Expect…unintended effects."

"That's true," the instructor confirmed. "With the technology available currently, the combat links require a certain amount of affinity, and you lot turned out to have the highest affinity for them!"

"And since that takes precedence over social class…" Irene murmured.

"Here you are!" Instructor Valestein finished cheerily.

"What even gives us this affinity?" Masha asked, exasperation clear in her voice. "That seems incredibly arbitrary!"

"What indeed?" their instructor shrugged, before her face took on a serious mien. "This class isn't exactly cheap to run, so we aren't going to force anyone who doesn't want to be here. Fair warning, the curriculum will be tougher than normal, even for Thors."

"So, that leaves you all with one important question," she declared. "Will you stick with Class VII, or not?"

The assembled students glanced at each other, wondering what they should do.

"If you opt out," Instructor Valestein added, "you'll just be placed in the class you would have been assigned to otherwise, nobles into classes I and II and commoners into classes III, IV and V, so no pressure. It's only the first day, so you won't have to worry about being too far behind."

With that, she placed her hands on her hip and looked at them expectantly. "Well, any takers?"

"I will," Irene declared, stepping forward.

The other students blinked, surprised at how fast she agreed.

"That makes you the first," Instructor Sara observed. "No hesitation either. Any particular reason you're so eager?"

"E-eh…" Irene stuttered. "My family has already given me so much to get me here. If I did not put forth my all then I would be shamefully ungrateful to them."

"Huh…How cute!"

'Instructor?!'

"Count me in as well," Lawrence called. "This seems a worthy endeavor, and I will not shy away from it."

"I as well," Gaia added. "I already traveled this far to attend school here, may as well see where the wind takes me."

"So we have the foreign exchange student and the guy who might actually win a fight with a brick wall. That makes three."

"I'll join!" Ellia cried, pumping her fist again. "Even if I failed today, I can't get better if I give up now!"

"Huh," their instructor grunted. "Guess I pegged you wrong."

"Being a test subject is just what I needed," Elisha grumbled. "I'm in!"

"Uhh…ok, great! That makes five."

"Hm…I wonder…" Emmet murmured, lost in thought. "Yes. I will join."

"So we got both our orbal staff testers—wait, that's not the staff you were assigned!"

"I brought my own," Emmet replied, "so I left the unfamiliar one in its bag."

"Why didn't you hand over your weapon like you were supposed to?"

"I was clearly correct in keeping ahold of it," Emmet shrugged. "You did drop us in a dungeon, after all."

"Lemme guess, you're not going to use the expensive prototype staff, are you?" Instructor Sara asked flatly.

"No." Emmet confirmed.

"Guess you don't have to write the reports about them then."

"Ooh! Reports!" Ellia cheered, drawing confused looks from a few of her classmates.

"And what about you Fion?" their instructor asked the taciturn silver haired boy.

"Dunno, don't care," he drawled, kicking his foot idly.

"Fion."

Fion sighed. "Fine, mom, I'll join."

'Mom? They don't look similar, adopted?'

"…At least you made a decision," Sara muttered, one eye twitching in irritation. "That puts us at a magnificent seven! Leaving just…you two."

"This whole class still seems ridiculous," Masha hissed. "Some random nebulous trait giving me an opportunity for this?"

"It is a system of merit," Julia pointed out snidely. "Shouldn't you be fawning all over it? It's what you reformists claim to want."

"Claim to want?!" Masha snarled. "The predations of the noble class are what's holding this country back! I would prefer an assignment based on actual merit, not that someone born with a silver spoon in their mouth would understand!"

'But Julia wasn't—oh, I suppose that isn't common knowledge among commoners.'

"Technically, this affinity and noble birth are both merits," Elisha pointed out.

"No one asked you!" Masha snapped at the other blonde.

"Just make up your mind," Elisha grunted, fiddling with his ARCUS. "I need to make sure they didn't quatch anything up with this."

"I will claim my place in this Class VII," Julia declared haughtily.

"What?!" Masha burst out. "You're the spawn of a Duke, being in the same class as commoners should make you sick!"

'If only you knew…'

"Oh? You fail to properly express your own feelings and expect to know mine?" Julia snarked. "Besides, to an Albarea, other nobles might as well be as commoners, not that I would respect you any more if you were the daughter of Heimdallr's baron."

"Why you–!"

"Though you are not so different, I suppose," Julia pressed, voice sickly sweet. "With the money your family has, you probably know as much about how regular commoners feel as a stuck up, hedonistic noble would!"

"Can you just answer the damn question already?" Elisha griped. "Go get a green jacket if you can't stand being near a noble. It's not that hard."

"I'm not going to let myself be bullied!" Masha growled. "I'm joining this class, and I'll show you! Just you wait!"

"Well, would you look at that? Nine out of nine!" Instructor Sara crowed, spreading her arms dramatically. "Congratulations on being the first ever Class VII!"

---

AN. Should I include links to images of the various side characters? I can see this becoming quite confusing. Obviously, Class VII won't have official art.

 

[WrandmWaffles]

March of Recurring Laughter​

With their places in the strange new class confirmed, Instructor Valestein led them back out of the dungeon, somehow right back through the room from which they had fallen in.

"What kind of sorcery is this?!" Elisha yelled.

"Ancient," Emmet muttered blandly.

"This would be an interesting training ground," Lawrence mused, to which Julia gave an exasperated sigh.

"Urgh," Ellia groaned, falling to her knees. "Glad that's…haah…over."

"Do you need to go to the infirmary, Miss Craig?" Irene asked, rushing over to check on the smaller girl.

"I'm fine!" Ellia insisted, even as she winced in pain.

"You were hurt," Irene chided. "Healing arts can tide you over, but it's best if you get proper medical attention."

"Adrenaline can be a crazy drug," Instructor Valestein added, coming over to check on Ellia's injury. "Little miss team mom here has got it right. Let's get you to Instructor Beatrix."

'Is she going to keep calling me that?'

Julia snorted, giving Irene a teasing look. Irene glared back, but it was undermined by her flustered expression.

"You know what?" their instructor said. "Might as well have all of you checked out, even if the rest of you look fine."

And so on their first day, all of the new Class VII ended up in the infirmary. Instructor Beatrix was a kind-looking elderly lady with graying blonde hair, but the lecture she barked at Ellia made evident her past as a colonel in the Imperial Army. Instructor Neithardt yelling at Instructor Valestein did not help calm things down.

Fortunately, Julia's healing art and Elisha's dubious medicine had largely staved off any lasting injury, and the ginger girl would recover with some rest. The rest of the group also managed to escape with a few cuts and bruises at most.

When all was said and done, the day was already beginning to darken when Instructor Sara finally led them towards their dorms.

"Well, here we have the commoner dorms on the left," the fuschia haired teacher said, pointing to a largely unornamented building. "Doesn't look fancy but is actually pretty nice, though definitely not as nice as the noble dorms over there on the right."

The dorms for Class I and II were also largely unornamented, but it was clear that each room was larger, judging by the fewer number of windows.

'So that's where I might be staying if I wasn't in Class VII.'

"Now that place is pretty fancy," Instructor Valestein added, gesturing towards the building, "but there's a bunch of hoity-toity types there so it's not really my speed."

At that moment, one of the windows on the top floor slid open.

"Albarea! Arseid! Schwarzer! There you are!" A noblewoman with long blonde hair shouted, sticking her head out of the window. "I was looking for you all day! Where have you been?!"

Julia sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose in exasperation. "Oh Aidios, please not now."

"Ah! Hello, Lady Friedel!" Lawrence yelled back, waving cheerily. "I am glad to see you again, how have you been since we last met?"

"Better now I no longer have to keep searching for you lot!" Friedel called back.

"F-friedel, get down from there!" Irene cried. "That can't be safe!"

Friedel smiled, nodded, then proceeded to swing herself completely out of the window, dropping to a ledge on the second story, then launching herself outwards, skidding across the the wall around the dormitory, before flipping gracefully off the wall and landing in front of the poleaxed group of red clad students.

"There! Now we don't have to shout," Friedel laughed, eyes closed in mirth.

"F-friedel!" Irene squeaked in relief and admonishment.

"Huh, nice moves!" Instructor Valestein laughed. "Uh…who are you again?"

"I am Friedel Andechs," the blonde girl introduced herself, "and I'm here to enlist a few of your students into the fencing club!"

"E-eh?!"

"More nobles?" Masha grumbled. "Can we at least get to our dormitory first?!"

"That was…kind of cool, actually," Ellia muttered.

"Lady Friedel, what in the–oh! Lady Albarea!" Another blonde noblewoman leaned out of an open window on the second floor, this one with her hair pulled up in a high ponytail.

"Theresia!" Friedel cried, "I asked them first, wait your turn!"

"I just wanted to say hello!" Theresia objected. "Oh! Hello Lawrence, Irene!"

"Lawrence?" Margarita Dresden poked her head out the same window, pushing Theresia to the side. "Lawrence!" She cheered, waving excitedly.

"Hello Lady Theresia, Lady Margarita!" Lawrence waved back.

Spurred on by that greeting, Margarita sprung out the window dropping to the ground and dashing over and clambering onto the wall as well.

"It is wonderful to see you again–ah!" She slipped overdramatically and fell, but Lawrence caught her and set her on the ground. "My hero!"

"Oh for crying out loud," Julia muttered. Masha nodded, before twitching as she realized she had just agreed with a noble, even if it was about other nobles being weird.

"Erebonians certainly are an interesting people," Gaia observed quietly.

"Did you fall just so I would catch you?" Lawrence snorted. "You are the same as ever."

"Ohoh, how familiar!" Margarita laughed. Friedel tapped her foot impatiently, annoyed at the interruption.

"Is it always like this?" Irene whispered to Julia, receiving a flat stare from her exasperated friend.

"Oook," Instructor Valestein drawled. "As fun as parkour is, I do have to get these kids tucked in after all the work they did today."

"You have your weapons already…" Friedel observed with some consternation, "and I left my sword in my room, how foolish of me!"

"Well we did just fight a bunch of monsters," Lawrence explained. "That's why we have our weapons."

"Oh? That sounds like an entertaining day!" Friedel's eyes glinted in excitement.

"Lady Julia!" Theresia called, exiting the gate to the dorm and approaching them on the footpath, having taken the stairs like a normal person. "I apologize for not greeting you earlier. I looked for you but could not find you."

"It's fine, Theresia," Julia sighed. "I was otherwise occupied."

"Alriiight," their instructor drawled. "Why don't we at least take this meet and greet to the Class VII dorm, shall we?"

"Irene! What happened?" Bridget called, a few seconds behind Theresia.

"Geez, aren't you three popular?" Sara muttered, eyeing the noble dorms suspiciously.

"Just how many of you already know each other?" Elisha wondered.

"Everyone!" Irene chided. "Please listen to Instructor Valestein. I'm sure our dorm has a place where we can all talk more comfortably, correct, instructor?"

"Yup!" the fuschia haired women nodded, continuing down the path. "Follow me kiddos!"

And so Class VII ended up being accompanied by several members of Class I and II, much to Masha and Julia's consternation.

"W-wait for me!" Ferris Florald cried a few moments later.

---

"They dropped you in a dungeon, Lady Julia?!" Ferris exclaimed. "Are they insane?!"

"That seems…excessive," Theresia observed diplomatically. "Our orientation last year only included rules, schedules, and the like."

"A combat portion does not seem so bad," Friedel objected. "Though why the secrecy?"

"It've been more fun," Margarita snorted.

"The trapdoor makes this sound kind of silly," Bridget agreed.

"Great, now the students are already questioning my methods," Instructor Valestein muttered. "Oh well!"

The five girls from Class I and II sat spread across a pair of couches in the lobby of the Class VII dorm, clustering around Irene and Julia, while Lawrence leaned against the wall. Friedel, unsurprisingly, sat closest to him.

Instructor Sara observed from a distance, drinking from a bottle she had produced from somewhere.

The other members of Class VII had already retired to their rooms for various reasons, Masha practically running up the stairs to avoid the group of nobles.

"It was more an annoyance than a challenge," Julia snorted. "Aside from the one at the end, the monsters were not particularly dangerous."

"Not to us, since we have combat training," Lawrence pointed out. "They posed a threat to Miss Craig, for example."

"I would have thought the daughter of Craig the Red would be quite formidable," Friedel commented.

"She is spirited, but not trained, so it is possible her father wanted a different path for her," Lawrence suggested.

"Hmm, I wonder why?" Friedel mused.

"Passing down martial training is not always considered so important among commoners," Irene explained. "Even among military families, especially in regards to daughters."

"Indeed," Theresia agreed. "From what I've seen, Saint Sandlot seems to be more of a fairy tale to commoners than an inspiration." She grimaced. "Or a character from some questionable literature. Why did Viscount Arseid not object to some of them?"

"Eh, they didn't do anything illegal," Lawrence shrugged. "And it is not like they could pass off as historical."

"It is still quite shameful," Theresia sighed.

"I am tempted to say the same for this new special class," Ferris spoke up, eying Instructor Sara suspiciously. "Why the secrecy? And the haphazard manner in which the 'test' was conducted? Not to mention placing Lady Julia in a class with commoners. Is this some sort of insult?"

"I do not think so," Irene replied. "Everyone in the class seems quite respectable, and with all these special provisions, it seems unlikely that it is meant to be an insult."

"At the very least," Julia interjected blandly, "I will not have to share a dorm with nagging suitors."

"True, those are quite annoying," Friedel commiserated, "though did you have to take Lawrence with you as well? The suitors haven't been that absurd, have they?"

"Is there someone you need me to throw out, Lady Friedel?" Lawrence asked mildly.

"Ooh, how about me?" Margarita laughed.

"Well…not at the moment," Friedel replied with a closed eye smile, ignoring the woman sitting next to her. "And please, you may call me Friedel."

"As you wish Lady Friedel," Lawrence returned, drawing a few light laughs (definitely not giggles).

"I can not say what your classmates are like, since I haven't really met any of them," Ferris continued. "But if any of them turn out to be unsavory, at least you'll have two other nobles looking out for you, Lady Julia."

"Don't you mean three?" Bridget asked, tilting her head questioningly.

"Who else?" Ferris returned.

"That purple haired man," Bridget replied. "I do not recognize him, but isn't he a noble too?"

"Mister Millstein?" Lawrence said, taken aback. "He did not claim to be. In fact he claimed his family was of no importance."

"What?! A man that beautiful has got to have some noble blood!" Bridget sputtered.

"… 'Of no significance?'…" Ferris mumbled. "He's prettier than my brother!"

"With the fastest arts cast I've seen," Lawrence added. "Not to mention some skill with a staff."

"Oh? Faster than Julia and I?" Margarita inquired curiously.

"As much as it pains me to admit it, yes," Julia confirmed. "He may even be comparable to Princess Alfin."

"Truly?!" Theresia gasped. "But isn't it the Imperial bloodline that allows for…that?"

"Do you know who his parents were?" Ferris asked, eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"He did not elaborate," Lawrence replied. "Though I got the sense they are no longer with us, so I did not pry further."

"…Suspicious," the purple haired girl muttered.

"To be fair, the staff is more traditionally used by commoners aside from my family," Margarita pointed out.

"And it is not unheard of for there to be commoners skilled in arts," Julia added. "The bracer Toval Randonnauer comes to mind."

"Didn't your father…uh…have an interesting youth, Margarita?" Bridget asked tentatively.

"Yup," the ringlet bearing girl agreed. "But he can't be my half-brother because dad takes his marriage vows seriously."

"Please don't bother Mister Millstein about that," Irene sighed. "Even if what you are thinking is true it does not seem like a topic he is comfortable with."

"I agree with Lady Schwarzer," Lawrence nodded. "And besides, it is possible he simply does not know."

"…This is going to eat at me, isn't it?" Ferris grumbled.

"Yes, it sounds like something from a story," Bridget laughed.

"Poor young man," Theresia sighed. "I couldn't imagine what it would be like to lose a parent."

"It is no easy thing," Lawrence agreed grimly, gazing off into the distance.

Friedel and Julia shot the ponytailed noble sharp looks, causing her to flinch. "A-ah, I apologize, that was thoughtless of me."

"Huh?" Lawrence grunted, glancing over to her in confusion. "It is simply the truth, no need to apologize."

Theresia flushed, eyes dropping to her lap.

'Oh. On second thought, I haven't heard anything about Viscount Arseid's wife…'

"O-on a different topic," Friedel interjected, giving Lawrence a hopeful glance. "Are any of you three red coats interested in joining the fencing club? Theresia already managed to recruit Ferris to the lacrosse club, Bridget plans on joining the music club, and Margarita is joining the cooking club."

"Do they…uh…have a fire code?" Lawrence asked sheepishly.

"It was not my fault that building lit on fire!" Margarita cried.

"Sure…" Lawrence was unconvinced.

"Have any other first years joined the fencing club?" Julia inquired, trying to steer the topic back on track.

"Quite a few expressed interest," Friedel replied. "Of note is Patrick Hyarms-"

"No." Julia scoffed. "That boy is insufferable."

"Then think of it as an opportunity to put him in his place!" Friedel smiled.

"I'll pass," Julia snorted. "Even if that sounds tempting. I believe I'll prefer the riding club."

"Ohoh! Have your eye on Lambert, do you?" Margarita tittered.

"Perish the thought," Julia shot back, rolling her eyes.

"He's not that bad, is he?" Lawrence asked.

"Truthfully? No, but I am not interested in him that way," Julia replied. "Not to mention that any such arrangement rests in my father's hands."

The girls and Lawrence winced, and decided not to speak of such things for the moment.

"How about you, Lawrence?" Friedel asked. "Surely you'd be interested in the fencing club?"

"I was actually considering the swim club," Lawrence replied, and Friedel's face fell. "Though I would be more than willing to spar with you if you desire, Lady Friedel."

Friedel's eyes lit up and she smiled, before nodding thoughtfully. "Swimming is a good way to exercise…" she trailed off, eying Lawrence speculatively.

Theresia flushed red, looking away, while Margarita grinned almost maniacally. Bridget covered her mouth to hide a laugh and Ferris sighed and shook her head. Even Julia looked like she was blushing a bit.

'What are they all thinking about? Lawrence just wants to join the swim–ohhh...'

Irene shook her head to not think about Lawrence without a shirt on.

"Is something wrong with the swim club?" Lawrence asked, looking around bemusedly.

"No!"

"Nothing at all!"

Lawrence didn't look like he believed them, but chose not to comment. Instead, he glanced Irene's way.

"How about you, Lady Schwarzer? Have you decided what club to join? Fencing or otherwise?"

Irene stiffened a bit at being singled out. "I have not decided yet. I'm afraid I have not had a chance to look at the options–"

"She'll be working for the Student Council, most likely," Julia cut in, to firm nods from the other St. Astraia alumnae.

"I h-haven't decided–"

"You'll end up there anyway," Julia snorted.

"There's no need to pressure her," Lawrence chided. "I'm sure Lady Schwarzer will find an appropriate activity of her choosing to partake in."

"The 'of her choosing' part is the problem here," Julia countered with a smirk.

"I was not aware we would be assigned activities if we did not select one," Lawrence muttered.

"N-neither was I…" Irene agreed.

"Somehow, it will happen," Julia muttered.

"A simple way of preventing that would be to join the fencing club," Friedel cut in. "You certainly could teach the other first years a thing or two."

"Of that, I have no doubt," Lawrence agreed. "I have not had the pleasure of observing any of Master Yun Kai-fa's students in person until today, Lady Schwarzer, and it was quite a fascinating thing to see." He smiled brilliantly at her, and Irene was sure she would die of embarrassment. "I look forward to witnessing what other skills you may have."

"Eeehhhh?!'

"Another one?!" Ferris muttered under her breath. Margarita just laughed.

"Are you alright, Lady Schwarzer?" Lawrence asked, with some concern.

"I'm p-perfectly fine!" Irene squeaked, face bright red.

"Perhaps you are fatigued from today's events," he asked, clearly not believing her.

"No! W-well…yes," Irene sighed. "The orienteering exercise was a bit stressful." 'Yes, please talk about that instead!'

"Fighting a gargoyle was certainly a novel experience," Lawrence observed, rolling the shoulder he had rammed into the stone monster.

"A what?!" Ferris gasped.

"I thought they were myths," Friedel remarked skeptically.

"So did I," Julia remarked drily. "But we did fight a moving stone statue."

"I suppose I shouldn't be terribly surprised after the things we saw in Lohengrin Castle," Thereisa remarked.

"Yes, sneaking away from the group was not the wisest idea, Lady Theresia," Lawrence teased, resulting in an embarrassed flush from the lanky blonde.

"I know that now!" Theresia exclaimed, crossing her arms indignantly.

"Our excursions as Junior Eisenritters aside," Friedel interjected, eyes alight with curiosity. "How did you defeat this gargoyle? It was made entirely of stone as in the stories, right?"

"Lawrence tackled it and bashed its head in," Julia answered. "He even ended it rightly."

"Ha! You really are a brute, aren't you, Lawrence dear?" Margarita chortled.

"It was a collective effort," Lawrence corrected, looking a bit perturbed by the excited looks his way. "You and Mister Millstein slagged much of its hide, and we can hardly overlook Lady Schwarzer's deadly pirouette."

"Oh?" Friedel pressed, giving Irene an expectant look.

'Wait no! Don't talk about that! It was sloppy!'

"The gargoyle hit us with a wind art, throwing us all around, but Lady Schwarzer used it to gain elevation then fell on the gargoyle from above while we distracted it," Lawrence boomed excitedly, much to Irene's mounting mortification. "The Arseid school calls some of our techniques dances, but that was something out of Arc en Ciel! Assuming what I've heard of that is correct."

"She came pretty close to cutting off the thing's head," Julia added, "even if it seemed to regenerate right after."

Irene sank down into her seat, trying in vain to avoid the attention.

"You will have to show me that technique sometime," Friedel demanded politely, giving Irene a closed eye smile. "It seems fascinating."

"...I feel a bit bad for any uppity student who picks a fight with her," Ferris mumbled, to which Bridget giggled into her hand.

"I-it wasn't that impressive!" Irene objected, desperately waving her hands. "And I failed to stick the landing properly–"

"I'm not so sure about that," Julia cut in with a smirk. "You did land in Lawrence's arms."

"Of course!" Margarita laughed. "Happens all the time!"

The circle of noble girls nodded in unison, giving the tall man a variety of exasperated looks.

"Usually it's just children or kittens who climbed into places they do not know how to get down from," Lawrence clarified, looking mildly concerned by the way everyone else was looking at him.

"I think the number is skewed due to Lawrence being large enough to actually catch people that fall, rather than merely serving as a cushion," Julia observed drily.

"I don't think having people fall on you is a common occurrence to begin with, Lady Julia," Theresia pointed out.

"Ugh, enough of this!" Ferris scoffed. "Some of you are far too interested in swords, can we please talk of something else?"

"Such as?" Friedel asked dangerously.

"W-well," Bridget began hesitantly. "I had heard that General Craig's wife was a music teacher, do you know if his daughter is musically inclined?"

"She seemed to have a sense of rhythm," Irene offered, "she was sort of dancing to an art incantation."

"She was?" Lawrence muttered in surprise.

"I do not remember that either," Julia added, giving Irene a curious look. "Then again, you did have an aerial view."

"Hehe, yeah," Irene twirled her hair tie nervously. "It was a little unnerving, in hindsight."

"Anyway," Bridget interjected. "Do you think Miss Craig might be interested in joining the Wind Orchestra?"

"I have not spoken with her very much, so I could not tell you," Irene replied.

"You could just ask her tomorrow," Lawrence shrugged.

"If you are curious about our other classmates, I would like to point out that we only met most of them today," Julia pointed out. "So it is not as if there is much point in asking about them."

"I would also like to point out that the most effective way of getting to know them might be, well, talking to them?" Lawrence drawled.

"How bold!" Margarita tittered, hand over her mouth.

"That is a fair point," Friedel admitted. "Though none of them seemed particularly interested in the fencing club."

"That may be because you singled out the three nobles in the group," Theresia suggested with a laugh. "Though I can't imagine they would think you're a typical noble, not with an entrance like that."

"I will say, that may have been an overly hasty decision," Friedel admitted, hands clasped tightly in her lap.

"It was certainly a memorable one," Lawrence laughed. "I am fairly sure they'll remember your name after that."

"I'm sure you'll have plenty of interesting freshmen joining your club, Friedel," Irene encouraged. "Though I suppose I could help out sometime, if you need."

"I suppose I could lend a hand sometimes," Julia added with feigned reluctance. "Even if Hyarms is an annoyance."

"Excellent!" Friedel smiled.

"That said," Irene continued, clapping her hands reflexively. "We are rather tired from today, and we all have class tomorrow, not to mention maybe being too loud for the other people in the dorm, so perhaps it is time we parted for today."

At that moment, a soft snore sounded from the corner, and everyone turned to find Instructor Valestein dozing off in the corner, empty bottle in hand.

"Lightweight," Ferris snorted.

"I suppose it is getting dark," Theresia commented, looking out the window at the setting sun. "It's not healthy to stay up too late."

"Would you ladies like me to walk you back to your dormitory?" Lawrence asked helpfully.

"Oh for Aidios' sake, Lawrence," Julia scoffed. "We are at Thors, there are five of them and one of them is Friedel."

"Oh? And why should that stop him from being polite?" Friedel shot back, smiling dangerously.

"U-um…" Irene tried to get their attention. "Friedel, if Sir Lawrence escorts you back to the Class I and II dormitories, wouldn't you immediately challenge him to a duel? Then you wouldn't get any sleep."

Friedel sighed as her dorm mates giggled lightly. "As you wish, Student Council President."

"I'm not–!"

Her objections fell on deaf ears as the Class I and II noble ladies left the Class VII dorm laughing.

"I think you could do well on the student council, Lady Schwarzer," Lawrence said matter-of-factly, "But there's no need to get involved if you do not wish to."

"T-thanks, I'll keep that in mind," Irene replied, face in her hands as she tried to rein in her embarrassment.

"If I had to guess," Julia muttered, "our instructor will end up foisting a fair amount of her work into Irene."

Lawrence looked as he wanted to object, then he glanced at where Instructor Valestein was sleeping in the corner and winced. "You may have a point there. Though speaking of our instructor, are we just going to leave her there?"

"Lawrence, no." Julia barked. "You are not going to carry our instructor to her room."

"E-eh?" Irene squeaked. "We can't just leave her there though."

"Give her a blanket or a pillow if you want," Julia shrugged dismissively. "It doesn't matter to me, and she is not our responsibility."

Irene sighed, retrieving one of the pillows from the couch and using it to prop their instructor's head up.

Lawrence seemed to consider using his jacket as a blanket, but Julia glared at him until he relented.

'Speaking of his jacket…'

"Um…" Irene began. "Why are you wearing your jacket like that, Sir Lawrence? Not that it looks bad–it looks good on you!" 'Wait no!'

Lawrence shrugged the jacket off and held it up in front of himself, and Irene saw the problem. "It is too small," Lawrence explained. "But I still needed to wear it since it is part of the uniform."

"But the goddess, Lawrence," Julia sighed, shaking her head in fond exasperation."You could have simply requested one in the right size."

"I didn't want to make a fuss," the tall man scratched the back of his head bashfully.

"This is Thors Military Academy, and you are the son and heir of the Radiant Blademaster," Julia pointed out. "It would not have been an issue."

"You can still put in a request," Irene added. "I'm sure we can get that fixed."

"Really?" Lawrence wondered. "It seems a bit frivolous."

"Don't think like that!" Irene chided. "Sure, it may not be the most important, but it's still an oversight that should be fixed."

"I am starting to see what Julia meant about you and the Student Council, Lady Schwarzer," Lawrence murmured, giving her an amused look.

"Eh! N-not you too!" Irene stammered.

"That's my line," Julia muttered, eying the other two in exasperation.

"I'm merely stating the truth!" Lawrence objected. "Anyways, I suppose I may as well bring it up with our instructor later, when she's sober–more sober?" He shrugged, before covering his mouth as he yawned. "Ah, my apologies."

Irene also yawned a moment later, the fatigue from the day's excitement catching up to her.

"We should probably turn in," Julia suggested, looking fairly tired herself.

The other two nobles nodded in agreement, collectively heading towards the stairs to their rooms.

'Oh…I feel bad for making him stand the whole time. I'll have to find a way to make it up to him.'

As they reached the second floor, Lawrence turned around and smiled at them. "Good night, Julia, Lady Schwarzer."

"Good night, Lawrence," Julia replied with a nod.

"U-um," Irene dithered, twining her hair tie around her finger. "If you don't mind Sir Lawrence, may I ask you a question?"

"You just did, but you can ask another," He replied simply.

"E-eh?! Oh! Umm…Hmh!" Irene stuttered. "Is there any reason you do not use my personal name?" 'He didn't seem the type to care about that, but…'

"You did not give me permission to," Lawrence replied evenly. "Would you prefer otherwise?"

"Ah! Yes! You may call me Irene," Irene stammered.

"Well, Lady Irene," Lawrence replied, "you may refer to me as simply Lawrence if you wish. Though, if I may ask, why did you think I was addressing you more formally?"

"Um…well," Irene blundered, shuffling her feet awkwardly. "I w-was thinking that it might have to do with me being a-adopted."

Lawrence stared at her blankly. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"H-huh?!"

"I only met you today, Lady Irene," Lawrence explained. "I thought it would be overly familiar to call you by your personal name. What does being adopted matter in that regard?"

"N-nothing, really," Irene demurred, playing with her hair tie awkwardly.

"It does not appear to be nothing," Lawrence observed, tilting his head curiously. "But if you do not want to say more I will not pry. Good night, Lady Irene." With that, he turned and walked down the hallway towards his room.

"Hah…" Irene let out a relieved sigh, stumbling after Julia as they walked up to the girls' floor.

"Is…is he always so intense?" the indigo-haired girl whispered questioningly to her friend.

"When not asleep," Julia returned blandly.

"He's definitely a descendant of the Eisenritter, hehe," Irene chuckled. "If he put on a suit of armor I think he'd fit in pretty well to one of those stories."

"He was like that even as a kid," Julia sighed. "When we were first introduced, he basically decided he was going to be my bodyguard for the day since I'm an Albarea and he's an Arseid, didn't even care that I was…you know."

"I…think I finally understand you Junior Eisenritters now," Irene giggled. "It must have been some experience with him there, not to mention from what I've heard of Legram."

"Yes, it was," Julia confirmed with a slight smile. "It's a bit of a shame that you did not attend, I think you would have enjoyed it."

"Ymir is about on the opposite side of the country from Legram," Irene pointed out. "And w-well, Father and Mother had practically entirely withdrawn from interacting with other nobles around that time, for my sake." She sighed, shaking her head sadly. "Given what my first few weeks at St. Astraia were like…I am not shocked they didn't want to send me that far."

"There was a bit of tension, initially," Julia admitted, "but it was hard to focus on noble distinctions when we were training, or in the presence of Viscount Arseid and Aurelia Leguin. Some of us got tossed into the lake."

"Into the lake?" Irene gasped.

"I should not have brought that up," Julia muttered. "I wasn't very good at swimming, so Lawrence had to fish me out."

"Hehe, you sure seem fond of him," Irene teased.

"He is an absolute oaf!" Julia scoffed. "But a charming one." She smiled, giving her friend a knowing look. "And it seems that you are not immune, in faaact, you might be rather weak to him."

"J-julia!" Irene gasped.

"Hah! Good night, Irene." Julia entered her room with a wave over her shoulder.

'Wait…'

"How do you know what Lawrence is like when he's asleep?"

"Good night, Irene."

---

AN. Started linking pictures of side characters when they are first introduced in this story.

Given St. Astraia is listed as more of a middle school, I've made it so many noble girls go there, before transferring to Thors when they are older. It confused me when Laura and Theresia are described as choosing between St. Astraia and Thors when there did not appear to be overlap in the age ranges. As such, a few of the noble girls are already friends with Irene and Julia.

Another difference is that Lawrence ended up traveling with his dad on occasion, while Laura mostly stayed at Legram, so Lawrence has also met many of the nobles in Kruezan already. It did strike me as odd that Laura did not recognize Jusis in CSI, given that they are from the same province and his family is the ruler of said province.

 

[WrandmWaffles]

March of Effervescent Spring​

The next two weeks passed in a flurry of activity. While the academic portion of Thors Military Academy was not as unusual as their first-day orienteering exercise, it still proved to be strenuous enough on its own.

Fortunately for Irene, not having to wrangle a herd of younger noble girls meant she had a lot more time to study, and it helped that while the students at Thors sure had their eccentricities, they tended to be less disruptive than her former classmates at St. Astraia.

Well, mostly. Ellia's guitar was quite loud, even if she was clearly quite skilled. Fortunately, the ginger haired girl was understanding enough to move her practice to times when there was no one else in the dorm or just out of the dorm completely. Or perhaps she was just too intimidated to refuse.

Ever since the orienteering exercise, and probably in no small part due to the appearance of the noble friend group, the commoner girls of Class VII had seemed hesitant to interact much with their noble classmates. Gaia was cordial, and had no issue speaking with Lawrence, but generally seemed to prefer Ellia and Masha's company, and those two seemed determined to spend as little time near their noble classmates as possible.

For the male commoners, however, not much had changed. Fion and Emmet remained stand-offish, while Elisha interacted with people as he saw fit, with little concern for social niceties or class.

It could not be said, however, that there had been no change at all.

On this particular Saturday morning, Irene ran through her usual set of practice katas, not truly training, but more as a way to center herself for the day.

By some sort of unspoken agreement, part of the ground floor of their dormitory had been set aside for training, and at the moment, the four young men of the class were busy hitting punching bags, in what looked like either a silent competition or some form of male bonding Irene did not fully understand.

Krak! Thump!

"Dammit Lawrence!"

"Ahah…my apologies…"

Irene stifled a laugh as Elisha ribbed the tall noble about knocking his bag over again.

"The school doesn't have an infinite supply of those, you know?" Emmet grunted.

Fion just snorted, before launching a flurry of blows into his own target.

'Well, at least they seem to be getting along fine.'

Some time later, Julia came down the stairs in her training gear, blinking groggily. "Morning," she grumbled, before yawning.

"Good morning Lady Julia!" Lawrence returned with a smile.

"Morning," Elisha returned.

Fion nodded a greeting and Emmet grunted an acknowledgment.

"Good morning, Julia," Irene greeted, smiling gently. "Sleep well?"

"Well enough," Julia muttered back, beginning to stretch. "Can't believe this class has so many morning people."

"You're also up pretty early," Irene pointed out.

"No way I can sleep in with this racket going on," the blonde noblewomen griped without any real heat.

"I think Gaia already left too," Irene observed. "And it's not as if Masha or Ellia get up late either."

"It's too early to think about that nuisance," Julia groaned.

"Juliaaa," Irene chided, "she may not like us, but there's no reason to be rude behind her back."

"True," her friend agreed. "More honest to say it to her face."

"That isn't what I mean," Irene sighed.

"Dunno what she's got against you guys," Elisha snorted. "You three sure ain't as stuck up as most nobles, and you're not freaking menaces to society like Angelica."

Irene winced, both at how informally he referred to and insulted the daughter of Marquis Rogner, the man who ruled the whole northern part of the country, as well as how correct he was to label her so.

"She hangs around the engineering club a lot too, and she doesn't really do much either!" the blonde man complained.

"Surely Lady Rogner can't be that bad…?" Lawrence asked hesitantly.

'Yes. Yes she is.'

"Nah," Elisha scoffed. "She's worse. So when I joined the Engineering club…"

---

The Engineering building was a squat, rectangular building tucked to the side of campus, separated from the Student Union by a wall.

'Sensible enough,' Elisha thought. 'This way if it goes up in flames there will be less immediate damage to other buildings. Wouldn't help if it was bad enough, but Thors doesn't have something that volatile…probably.'

The first day of classes was over, and it hadn't been too bad. Most likely the brain pain had not quite started, which was why Elisha was here to join a club.

'Might as well get my foot in the door before school really kicks into gear.'

He opened the door and stepped inside, spotting the portly student who had taken his weapon the previous day.

"You!" Elisha exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at him.

"M-me?" The fat man stuttered.

"Yes, you!" 'What was his name again? Gregory? George? Gerald? No…' "Nome!"

"Uh, yeah…? That's me," Nome replied, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly.

"I told you not to make anything explode," Elisha barked.

"I…didn't though?" Nome objected hesitantly.

"Well good job," Elisha replied. "I was half certain some of the bombs would have gone off."

"B-bombs!" Nome exclaimed.

"Don't worry, they're perfectly safe," Elisha reassured him. "If you aren't stupid."

"Um…did you need anything?" The portly man asked.

"Yes," Elisha answered flatly. "Are you in charge of the engineering club?"

"Y-yeah…?"

"I would like to join."

"Oh. It's the first day though?" Nome scratched an itch on the side of his head. "Wasn't expecting new students so fast."

Elisha shrugged. "I knew what I wanted, didn't see a reason to wait."

"Well, with that attitude I guess it makes sense," Nome observed. "Welcome to–"

The door opened behind them. "Hey George!"

'Her?!'

Wham!

Angelica Rogner doubled over as Elisha rammed a fist into her gut. "Take that you menace!"

She recovered quickly and returned the favor, sending Elisha crashing into a table. "That was for the hearts of innocent young maidens you broke, you gearhead!"

"Wha?!" Nome recoiled from the sudden violence.

"Ha!" Elisha laughed, wincing at the impact. "Hahaha!"

"Hah!" Angelica broke out into laughter as well. "Ahahaha!"

"…What just happened?" Nome muttered.

"You're getting better Eli!" Angelica gasped. "I actually felt that one!"

"Still a blight on society like always, aren't you, Angie?" Elisha groaned, picking himself up.

"Do you two…know each other?" Nome asked hesitantly.

"Yeah we do!" Angelica laughed, stepping over to grab Elisha in a headlock. "He's practically my little brother!"

"Yes," Elisha drawled, "it was as bad as you are thinking."

"Hey!" Angelica cried in mock offense. "Who taught you to talk to girls?!"

"Trial and error," Elisha shot back. "You and gramps were useless."

"What are you talking about?!" Angelica returned. "I'll have you know that I've had plenty of lovely ladies fall into my arms!"

"I just got slapped when I did the same thing," Elisha grunted. "And I think you're going to have stiff competition, my classmate already caught two ladies in his arms on the first day."

"No!" the purple haired woman gasped, "I need to up my game!"

"He seems to have a little group of admirers already too," Elisha added, to Angelica's despair.

"Nooo! My pure love!"

"Cry me a river you disgusting philanderer," Elisha scoffed, unimpressed by her theatrics.

"I have to talk to Friedel, she'll help me defend the poor, innocent maidens from this menace to society!" Angelica went on.

"Uh…" 'I'm not very good at peopling, but that Friedel Lady jumped out of her window to get to him faster, so…'

"Why are you making that face….? Wait! Nooooo! It's not possible! Not Frieeedel!"

'Will percussive maintenance help fix her…? Nah.'

---

"Should I be worried?" Lawrence wondered. "Friedel usually has no problem dealing with suitors that get a bit too pushy."

"You do realize they were talking about you, right?" Emmet snorted.

"But Friedel and I are not courting?" the tall man pointed out in confusion.

"Ah, I see, you are clearly just friends."

"Why do I get the sense you are being sarcastic?"

"Because I am."

"Not sure you got much of a leg to stand on," Elisha cut in. "What with that purple noble girl that keeps asking questions about you, or that weird occult girl you kept asking about."

"Don't talk about her!" Emmet snapped.

"Too much protest," Fion grunted.

"No, there is something seriously wrong with her," Emmet insisted.

"That is a rather rude thing to say about a woman who merely seems eccentric," Lawrence replied reprovingly.

"You don't understand," Emmet sighed. "None of the clubs had really caught my interest, then I noticed an 'Occult Research Club' that hadn't been on the list the previous day, so I became curious…"

---

There was something strange about this 'Occult Research Club.' Aside from it suddenly appearing on the club list, no one seemed to know much about it, even the instructors, who just shrugged and chalked it up to student tomfoolery. Even odder, the head of the club, a 'Beryl', was equally mysterious. There was not any information on her to be found.

'I don't remember ever seeing her before, strange. It seems that there will be no other way of investigating than going directly forward.'

Emmet opened the door to the club room, stepped inside, then froze as a wave of unease swept over him. A dark haired girl with languidly amused amber eyes stared at him from behind a crystal ball. The whole room was decked out in a manner typical of a fortune teller's tent, altogether not too odd, but the girl…there was something off there.

"Hmm…" the girl hummed, "So you did come. Curious." Her voice wasn't much louder than a whisper, but it seemed to fill the room nonetheless. It sounded wrong, with a tinge of something other, different, but reminiscent of some of the people Emmet knew.

'She doesn't seem to be a witch…which makes this even more strange.'

"You were expecting me?" Emmet asked skeptically. Divination was not an easy thing to learn, as far as he was aware, and most fortune tellers were hacks using admittedly impressive mundane observations rather than anything more supernatural.

"You cannot run from destiny," the odd girl replied, which took Emmet aback.

"I'm sorry? What do you mean by that?"

"You have a role to play, no matter how much you may resist."

"Are vague statements supposed to impress me?" Emmet snorted, crossing his arms in irritation.

"I suppose you would be tired of women being…less than forthright."

"That is hardly unique to me."

"Hehehehe!…True enough."

The dark haired girl leaned forwards, looking through the crystal ball at him, her features suddenly distorting into something otherworldly and nearly ghastly through the glass. Her amber gaze struck Emmet with almost physical force through the distortion.

"So. Shall I see you?"

"Just what in Gehenna are you?!" Emmet snapped, dropping into a ready stance, breaking out into a cold sweat.

"I am Beryl," she replied, leaning back, and taking the guise of a human girl once again. "And I am here to perform Occult Research."

---

"I feel like you might be overdramatizing things," Lawrence muttered.

"Yes." Fion agreed.

"You know, I didn't think you'd be the type of guy to get freaked out by stuff like that," Elisha laughed, giving Emmet a friendly jab.

The purple haired man sighed. "I am being completely serious! There is obviously something unnatural about her."

"So why are you still in the club?" Elisha asked, wiping some sweat from his face.

"Someone has to get to the bottom of this," Emmet grumbled, redoubling his strikes against the punching bag.

"There seems to be more to that,' Irene thought. 'But it doesn't seem like Emmet wants to talk about it.'

"It's quite funny," Julia remarked under her breath. "Those four have the collective social awareness of a potato, but seem to get along just fine."

"Well at least they aren't fighting," Irene sighed, thinking about how awkward things had been with the commoner girls.

"Tch, if the carrot duo wish to isolate themselves, it's not my problem."

"Juuliaa…" Irene chided. "You could try not picking a fight with Miss Regnitz all the time."

"I do not pick fights with her," Julia objected, moving through her own set of exercises. "I simply respond appropriately when accosted."

"Picking out nasty insults to throw at her when she gets mad at you isn't really helping," Irene sighed. "I know she's said some very hurtful things, but–"

"Yeah, yeah, I am aware," Julia cut her off. "As a noblewoman I should embody grace in all things, including when someone who barely knows me is intent on shitting all over me."

The boys did a double take at the curse.

"Juliiiaaa!"

"Sorry, sorry," the blonde woman sighed. "I am not a morning person."

"Don't worry," Lawrence snorted. "I'm not going to throw you into the pond for that."

"You better not!"

"It's strange," Emmet commented. "You three are somehow both exactly what I expected from nobility and entirely not."

"W-what do you mean by that?" Irene asked, glancing nervously at Julia.

"The three of you–" he glanced back briefly at Julia. "The three of you are usually formal and polite, you have your circle of noble friends and a variety of noble things that you talk about, but you also act like normal people around each other too."

"Is that supposed to be some grand revelation?" Julia drawled irritably. "It's not as if being nobles means we are some sort of alien or monstrous creatures."

"Ehh…Lawrence's got some monstrous strength," Elisha pointed out.

"That is…largely unrelated to being a noble," Lawrence returned.

"There's that too," Emmet added, pointing at the tall noble. "You three are a lot less touchy about things than the stereotypical noble. I swear…" He waved at Julia. "Even you aren't as bad as my grandmother."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Julia asked sweetly, her tone rising dangerously.

"These two don't get offended easily," Emmet replied, waving at Irene and Lawrence, unimpressed by Julia's irritation. "And you definitely don't care that much about niceties, or you'd be foaming at the mouth because of the Heimdallr girl."

"Why do I feel this is damning with faint praise?" Julia returned drily.

"Because it is, somewhat," Emmet replied flatly.

"E-everyone!" Irene called, glancing at the clock. "We should get ready for class."

"About that time anyway," Elisha grunted, heading towards the bathroom.

"Hooray," Fion cheered blandly.

"Thank you for the reminder, Lady Irene," Lawrence nodded on his way out.

"Y-you're welcome!" Irene called after him.

"What is wrong with this class?" Julia sighed as the two girls headed up the stairs to change.

"Um…you know that includes you as well? Hehe."

"Not you too Irene!"

---

Masha Regnitz groaned as she finished up her preparations for the day. She usually had little difficulty getting up in the mornings, but the curriculum at Thors, particularly the physical part, was proving more tiring than she expected.

It wasn't that she liked school, exactly, but Masha had always appreciated the structure and opportunity to learn new things from subject matter experts. It helped that she was quite good at it, not that she was bragging, and she had been the top scorer when she graduated from her last school.

She had also scored very well on the entrance exam for Thors, if she looked at things objectively, but she hadn't scored first. Emmet Millstein did.

'That shouldn't bother me as much as it does.'

He was a commoner (the rumors were baseless) from some remote rural place who managed to get a scholarship to one of the most prestigious schools in the empire based entirely on his own merit, not noble nepotism.

'I should be happy for him! He's proof that the smug noble superiority is nothing but a myth!'

But being outdone academically galled her nonetheless, and by a man no less. Having to share a dorm with nobles did nothing good for her mood.

'To think an Albarea would be in this class! What crazy nonsense is this?!'

Masha listened at her door, making sure none of the nobles were still in the dorm. It was still early, but they usually got up even earlier.

She sighed.

'To be honest, Schwarzer isn't that bad. Maybe that's just because she's the daughter of a baron from a remote place. But she's always with that insufferable Albarea! And the Arseid…'

Masha shuddered. Lawrence Arseid was perfectly polite, unless Irene or the Albarea were gravely insulted, but he was also huge.

'If the Albarea sicced him on me…I wouldn't be able to do anything!' She shook her head furiously. 'Get it together! Dad managed to become the Imperial Governor through hard work and determination, and if I don't put in the effort, I'd be spitting on all he worked for!'

"Masha, are you ready to go?" Ellia asked, knocking lightly on her door.

"Yes," Masha replied, opening the door. "Let's go."

The two of them made their way through the now quiet dormitory.

"Heh, I think I'd be fine even if I forget to set my alarm," Ellia commented. "With how early they get up, I probably couldn't oversleep too long."

'Damn nobles, having to show me up at everything!'

"At least we're on the third floor so the racket isn't that bad," Masha grunted.

"Yeah," Ellia agreed. "Though honestly they aren't that loud unless they're training."

"Why do they have to train here anyways? There's a gymnasium for a reason!"

"Probably because it's a long way to go for a morning warmup?" Ellia suggested. "Or maybe it's because the gymnasium is usually very busy too." She fingered a strand of her bob cut nervously. "I should probably train more too, the past couple weeks have been rough."

"Well, it is a military academy," Masha pointed out as they left the dorm and stepped outside, pausing to inhale a breath of fresh spring air. "But the rest of the class seems a little nuts about that."

"Yeah, no kidding," Ellia giggled. "I'm not surprised Lawrence spends a lot of time training, but even Irene and Julia do, and they look so graceful and refined most of the time!"

"Ugh, those three are infuriating!" Masha grumbled.

"...Sorry," Ellia mumbled, looking to the side awkwardly. "But, you know, I don't think they're that bad?"

Masha glared at her, gritting her teeth so she wouldn't blow up at a completely undeserving target.

"I m-mean, none of them seem to mind too much if we talk to them like normal people," Ellia blurted out, trying to defuse Masha's bad mood. "Even Julia doesn't seem to care too much, and Irene usually reigns her in if she gets too mean."

'It's true, even that insufferable Albarea rarely mentions her family's title or influence. And Schwarzer almost acts more like a maid than a haughty noble, but still…'

"I've even met some of the other noble girls from the first day," Ellia continued as they walked through the town towards the school. "Bridget is pretty cool and really good with the piano, and doesn't seem to care much about social class all that much. I think she's friends with Alan and he's a commoner."

'As much as I would like to, I can't pretend that they don't work hard.'

"Theresia is really nice, even if she's really intense about lacrosse, which looks pretty fun by the way."

'Despite his brutish appearance, Arseid definitely makes an effort to study. Schwarzer too. Even that Albarea does. Now if only she'd stop hogging the library.'

"The Floralds are kind of stuck up though…and Friedel is scary."

'If those three hadn't been born with silver spoons in their mouths, they'd probably still get pretty far.'

"I heard she and Lawrence broke all the training swords the fencing club had the first week!"

'Lawrence is definitely not like Arthur, and I don't think his family is anything like Arthur's either.' Masha twitched. 'Damn nobles! Why did it have to be Elsa?!'

"Margarita is…weird…" Ellia finally stopped her rambling to catch her breath, and Masha winced internally as she realized she had mostly zoned out what her friend had said.

"And you know, none of our classmates seem bothered that they couldn't live there," Ellia observed, nodding at the upper class dormitory as they neared it on the path to school.

That was true. "In some ways," Masha sighed, "they are–"

"Hey! You're in our way," an arrogant voice called. "Step aside at once!"

Masha and Ellia's heads snapped to their left, spotting the smug face of an auburn-haired noble in the uniform of Class I.

"Oh yeah?!" Masha snapped back. "Are you incapable of walking without assistance? Why else would you need the whole path?"

"Tch!" the noble's face twisted into a disgusted grimace. "As expected of Class VII, a bunch of jumped up nobodies who don't know their betters." He sneered, while his two tagalongs laughed. "A word of advice, girls, you may be in a 'special' class…but that doesn't mean anything. Never forget your place."

Masha glared, refusing to move.

"What an ugly face!" the noble snorted. "Come on, something that rubbish will be cleaned up shortly. This is not worth our time." The three Class I students walked past them and headed towards the academy.

"Grrggh!" Masha took a step after them, but Ellia held her back.

"I know they were really rude, Masha, but I don't think we'd win a fight against them."

"I'm not going to back down from some spoiled noble brat!"

"M-maybe we should just be glad that our noble classmates aren't like that."

Masha sighed, bottling her rage for later. 'One day, they'll see! Their time is over!'

"Ah!" Ellia exclaimed. "We're going to be late!"

Masha cursed, then rushed forward. Noble scum or not, she was not going to be late for class!

---

The classes for the day were as dense as usual, but Irene found she actually wasn't all that tired as their homeroom wound down. Part of it was the anticipation of a free day the day after, and another part of it was the lecture on the War of the Lions, a part of Erebonian history that had always captivated her.

'Though maybe I went a bit overboard if Instructor Thomas was joking that I was coming for his job after my answer to his question, hehe.'

"Well, congrats everyone!" Instructor Valestein cheered, snapping her book shut. "You've made it through another week of classes! Real tough stuff too!"

She went on to explain that while there were no classes on their "Free day," they were really expected to make the most of it, even if she herself seemed more inclined to just sleep through it.

"So…while we might be having a 'free day,' what about the school facilities?" Elisha asked. "They'll still be open, right?"

"I would like to make use of the library, if possible," Masha chimed in, "so I would also like to know."

"Yup! The facilities will still be open," their instructor answered, "the school doesn't get days off! And also the staff are getting paid, so…" she shrugged. "Anyways, most of the clubs have something going on on free days, so if you're in one, go have fun, or whatever you do in clubs. Those of you who aren't, most of the clubs are doing recruitment drives, so you should probably check them out."

"Hm, that would be helpful," Gaia said thoughtfully. "Many of the activities on the list were unfamiliar to me, so it would be nice to have an explanation."

"I can help with that!" Ellia called, smiling at the Nord girl.

"My thanks," Gaia returned. "And that would help you find out where you want to go as well, no?"

'I should probably find one to join. If I actually join the Student Council, Julia will never let me hear the end of it!'

"Now, about next week," Instructor Valestein continued. "Middle of the week you have your practical exam."

"Practical…in what?" Emmet asked slowly, as if he had an idea of what it was.

"Hitting things!" their instructor cheered, throwing her arms up into the air. "Well, kinda. It's part of your combat training."

Murmurs broke out through the class, whether in excitement, concern, or annoyance.

'Definitely a quite different form of practical than at St. Astraia.'

"Oh! Another thing," Instructor Sara continued. "After the practical, I'll be making an important announcement about the Class VII curriculum that I haven't mentioned at all yet."

"Wait, what?!" Masha cried.

"Is this some kind of blind conscription for black ops?" Emmet muttered darkly.

"So make your free day count! Whatever you decide to do, or not," their instructor finished, completely failing to explain her previous words.

'As outlandish as Emmet's idea is…it's still pretty weird that there's this much secrecy. We haven't even gotten our full student handbooks yet! But there's no way it could be something like that, right? Surely Julia and Lawrence are too high profile to be able to do that? Masha too.'

"What's got you so deep in thought, Irene?" Julia asked, sitting herself on the edge of her friend's desk, hiking the rather short skirt of her uniform up dangerously.

"Huh? Hey, don't sit on my desk!"

"Everyone else has left," Julia replied with a shrug, "and you are still deep in thought." She smirked. "Don't overthink it, otherwise you will end up on the student council."

"That's not how that works, Julia!" Irene sighed, shaking her head. "I was just wondering about why we seem to be kept in the dark about a lot of the curriculum. I would have thought a school as prestigious as Thors would have plans for even a special class set up by now."

"You are aware that that is the sort of talk that a student council president might make?"

"Why are you all so insistent on that?!"

Julia shrugged. "Honestly? You wore the title well."

"I don't think I did anything special," Irene countered, most certainly not pouting. "Nor did I find it particularly easy."

"That's because you actually did much of the work," Julia shot back. "You probably should have delegated some of it, but there weren't that many girls at St. Astraia who you could trust to put in the work and be fair, at least after the year above us left."

"Everyone always seemed so busy," Irene demurred, "so I didn't want to give them more work."

"That's just because they figured out that pretending to be busy could get you to give them a pass," Julia scoffed, before smiling slightly. "Though you did wise up to that eventually. You really chewed them out, if I remember correctly."

"Wah! I don't want to think about that!" Irene cried, dropping her head onto her arms.

"Tch, it wasn't nearly that bad and well deserved anyways," Julia reassured, patting her friend on the head. "That kind of confidence looked good on you."

"Juliaaaa!"

The door to their classroom clicked open and they both looked up to their instructor strolling right back in like she had forgotten something. "Oh! Did I interrupt something?"

"Not really," Julia replied nonchalantly, sliding off Irene's desk. "We were merely talking about some facets of school."

"Reeally now?" Instructor Sara asked, an amused gleam in her eye.

"Y-yes! I was just wondering why some of the parts of this course seem so haphazard," Irene added.

"Well, about that…!" their instructor cried. "I was going to ask either of you a favor. The Student Council was working on something reeally important for your school life, and I just need someone to go pick them up for me."

"Are you not capable of retrieving these things yourself?" Julia shot back accusingly.

"Weeell…I got things to do, people to see, you know," Instructor Valestein shrugged. "Got to prepare for your practical exam too."

"That's next week," Julia pointed out. "Since when did you plan so far ahead?"

"Geez, so little faith in your instructor!"

"Not inside the classroom."

"Julia!"

"So I'm gonna guess that's a no from you, little miss Albarea?" their instructor asked.

"Correct."

"I can do it!" Irene interjected, trying to stop Julia from getting too worked up. "I was planning on going around to all the clubs to see what they were like anyways, so going to the Student Council room to pick up a few things shouldn't be that much out of the way for me."

"Really, Irene?" Julia sighed.

"It's fine, Julia," Irene insisted. "Weren't you interested in checking out the Riding Club?"

"Sounds like it's decided then!" Instructor Valestein declared. "The Student Council room is at the end of the hall on the second floor of the Student Union. I'll leave that all in your very capable little hands." With that, she turned and strode back to the front of the class, digging through the podium.

"U-umm…"

"Did you forget the class register again, instructor?" Julia snarked.

"Of course not!"

---

Despite having a request from her instructor. Irene actually did make good on her plan to visit the various clubs active at the school.

She met Bridget at the rather inaccurately named Wind Orchestra room, given that they had string instruments, including some really nice violins.

"Oh! You've got to play a bit now that you're here!" Bridget insisted, so Irene ended up trying out one of the violins. It really did carry a nice tone.

"Hey, that was pretty good!" the bespectacled head of the Wind Orchestra cheered when Irene finished, running a hand through his brown hair. "Is this the friend you told me about, Bridget?"

"You'll have to be more specific, Hibelle," Bridget laughed. "A lot of my friends know how to play an instrument, since 'it is a fashionable and respectable pastime for a proper lady!' Or something like that."

"Sheesh, are they all this good? We could always use more members."

"Irene's probably one of the better ones, though we're all pretty decent."

"B-bridget is the best musician among us," Irene added. "Though Ferris is quite skilled as well."

"Oh, don't sell yourself short, Irene," Bridget sighed. "If you spent as much time practicing your violin you'd be as good as you are with your swords."

"And if you spent as much time practicing fencing as you did the piano that would hold true for you as well," Irene shot back.

"Touche," Bridget laughed, with a slight shake of her head. "Guess you're not that interested in the Wind Orchestra then?"

"I wouldn't say that!" Irene objected, "I just want to have an idea of all my options."

"Welp, I'll come visit you at the Student Council room when you figure it out."

"Alright," Irene smiled and nodded. "See you later Bridget." 'Wait…no!'

Next to the Wind Orchestra room was the kitchen, from which Irene heard shrieks of terror and maniacal laughter, as well as a casual whoop of excitement…?

'I…don't think I want to know.'

Down the hall was the art club. All of its members seemed very focused on their work, so Irene left them be. 'It's not as if I have much skill at anything like that.'

And so on and so forth it went.

She stopped by the practice field (after being accosted by and smiling for a picture for a boy named Rex from the photography club) to say hello to Theresia and Ferris. As it turned out, a good portion of their class was there.

Julia was talking to a horse as she groomed it, so absorbed in the task that she probably did not even register what was going on around her. Gaia and the head of the riding club were having an animated discussion. 'That's right, Nord horses are some of the most prized in Zemuria.'

Irene had some practice riding horses from the occasions her dad's adventurous nature had looped the family into one thing or another that involved horseback riding, but she was never adept at it. 'I should probably avoid that one. Horses, and animals in general, tend not to like me very much, aside from Badeux.'

The other side of the academy field was occupied by the lacrosse club, whom the boy from the photography club had been trying to take pictures of… 'I should probably tell them about that…'

To her surprise, it looked as if Masha and Ellia were interested in lacrosse. Neither of them had seemed particularly inclined towards sports, but Ferris hadn't either. Or perhaps Irene's two classmates were just fixed in place by the lacrosse captain's incredibly enthusiastic speech about the sport. 'I don't recognize her, do I? I'm honestly a bit surprised Theresia isn't captain.'

"Do try to control yourself, Emily, I believe you're frightening them," Theresia chuckled, before her eyes found Irene and she smiled. "Oh! Hello there Irene, are you interested in joining too?"

"Hehe, maybe," Irene replied, "though I think I've had enough of being knocked over by you."

"H-hey now!" Theresia stammered, her face reddening slightly. "Please don't give the newcomers the wrong idea!"

"Hahaha!" the red haired girl next to her laughed. "She's got you there!" She smirked, wrapping her arm around the blonde noble's shoulder. "Don't be fooled now, Theresia seems real nice and polite, but she'll run you right over if you're in between her and the goal!"

"Emily! We're trying to recruit more people, not scare them away!"

"I-is that something that happens a lot in lacrosse?" Ellia asked nervously.

"Not necessarily–"

"Yes!"

"Irene!"

"Though that is also what the padding is for," Irene added, her hand over her mouth to hide her laugh.

"I think I'll pass…" Masha said, slowly moving away from the group.

"Sign me up!" Ellia whooped.

Theresia and Emily blinked at her for a moment, before enthusiastically welcoming her to the club.

"Oh! Ahem!" Irene called. "There was a person from the photography club taking pictures of you all earlier. Was that something you were aware of?"

"What?!" Emily yelled, running off the field. "Oh, he's dead!" Masha was not far behind her, and she looked livid.

'Umm…good luck Rex?'

"Emily! Please don't kill anyone!" Theresia cried after her friend, before shaking her head. "All that aside, welcome to the lacrosse club, Ellia! How about we show her the rules, Ferris?"

After that excitement, Irene thought it best to leave Julia and Gaia to their activities, heading towards the gymnasium.

The fencing club did sound a bit tempting. She had been part of the informal fencing club at St. Astraia, after all. The swim club, on the other hand, she was less sure about. Irene knew how to swim, but…

Shouting came through the door to the practice room, scaring away a strawberry haired girl who had been considering entering.

'Oh dear, what happened now?'

Pushing through the squeaky door, Irene was met with the sight of a tall man in a commoner's uniform engaged in a shouting match with an auburn haired nobleman. They had not quite drawn swords yet but it was looking close.

Friedel stood to the side, hand on her hip and an amused look on her face.

"What's up with this guy?!" a girl with dark blonde hair cried, her high ponytail swaying side to side as she shook her head. "Does he really think he should be captain just because he's a noble?"

"So much for respect for your elders," a dark haired boy murmured next to her. The same dark haired young man Lawrence was talking to that first day. 'What was his name? …Alan?'

"I've never been able to get along with people like that," the girl next to him muttered. "Don't see that changing anytime soon."

"As the best swordsman here, I should be the captain," the auburn haired noble declared. "Or do I have to use simpler words for you to understand?"

"I got ya the first time," the tall, spiky haired commoner squared up against him spat. "And I'd be happy to throw down if that'll put you in your place."

"I have no objections to that, but bear in mind, you challenged me, so don't go around whimpering when you lose."

Despite the threats, the two of them didn't actually follow through, at least just yet, giving Irene time to pad quietly over to the blonde fencing club captain.

"Um…Friedel? Is everything alright?" Irene asked quietly.

"Irene! I was wondering when I would see you," her friend greeted cheerfully. "As you can see, we've had some interesting first years join the club, so I am quite curious where things will take us this year."

The two young men on the sparring floor only seemed to get angrier.

"Friedel?" Irene insisted worriedly. "Do I have to go get Lawrence?"

"I do not think that'll be–"

"Aidios no!" the spiky haired commoner yelped, swiveling around to give Irene a pleading look. "That guy's a freaking monster!"

"Now Loggins, don't be rude," Friedel said, eyes closed and smiling dangerously.

"Sorry, sorry, geez," he acquiesced quickly. "Wouldn't want to piss that guy off."

"Sir Lawrence is generally very even tempered," Irene pointed out. 'The only time I've seen him get angry was when Masha cast aspersions on Julia's virtue.'

"Yeah, I noticed," Loggins replied, before doing a double take at Irene's sudden appearance. "Which is why I really don't want to be nearby when he gets mad."

"Hmph," the auburn haired noble scoffed, "so you can learn respect for your betters. Miracles never cease."

"Oh you're one to talk, Patty-boy!" Loggins fired back, nerves temporarily forgotten.

"Um…I can leave and come back later?" Irene offered.

"Now we can't have that, I have waited long enough!" Friedel declared, pulling a training sword off the wall and tossing it to her. "Show me what you have learned!"

And thus Irene was dragged into another activity by one of her friends (and successfully diffused the tension, at least for now). As always, Friedel was almost manic when she had a sword in hand, and unfortunately for Irene, the club didn't have any training weapons suited for her preferred style, so she fell back into her family's variant of court fencing. Unsurprisingly, Friedel beat her quite handily, but it wasn't entirely one sided.

"You seem to have improved," Friedel praised, clasping hands with Irene as they ended their bout. "I'm glad my concerns were unfounded."

"Not…hah…as much…as you have," Irene returned breathlessly. "Thors must really be something." 'I could barely keep up!'

"It truly is a shame you won't be joining the fencing club," Friedel sighed, patting Irene on the shoulder.

"But I haven't decided yet!"

"Dang, Class VII seems to be pretty high level," Alan murmured. "They've got Lawrence, and then this lady."

"Geez, I wish I could get in a fight and come out looking that pretty," the ponytailed girl mumbled.

Irene left the fencing club a little bit faster than ladylike after that. She almost went to the swimming pool, before she heard Lawrence's booming voice, and decided she had enough of embarrassing herself for one day, so she moved on.

The Engineering building was locked, with a sign on the door explaining that the club was out testing something, so she went on to the Student Union, stopping by the cafeteria to pick up some food (quite tasty too!) after her unexpected dueling session, before continuing on to peruse the clubs that were holding meetings in the building.

After hearing shouting from inside the Photography club room, she elected not to poke her head in. The Literature club room emanated several uncomfortably high pitched squeals, so she declined entering there as well. After hearing about Emmet's experience in the Occult Research club, Irene also did not find that idea appealing either. The chess club members just looked sad so she decided not to bother them.

She briefly considered going out to see what the gardening club could offer, but it was getting dark, and she had never been able to get plants to grow properly like her mother or little sister.

And so, after everything, Irene ended up in front of the Student Council room door.

'Well, time to see what Instructor Valestein wanted me to collect. There definitely is someone in there, even if I don't hear anything.'

She knocked on the door politely.

"Come in!" called a light, young voice. 'Oh right! It's Miss Herschel.'

Irene opened the door and stepped inside, beholding a room with several desks that were all overloaded with stacks of paper. Her eye twitched, her fingers flexing in the air.

"Oh! Hello there," Miss Herschel greeted. "You're Irene Schwarzer, right?"

Irene nodded, finally registering the disarmingly short brunette. "Ah! Hello President Herschel, it's good to see you again." Her hair was done up in a long tail decorated with a blue ribbon, and her bright green eyes reminded Irene oddly of a puppy. 'She's shorter than Elise! Must…resist!'

"Ehehe, you don't need to use my title," Herschel said. "No need to keep track of all that senior or junior stuff either."

"As you wish, Miss Herschel," Irene replied.

"Eh?! Please just call me Towa!" the incredibly cute little Student Council President cried, flushing red in embarrassment.

"A-alright, Towa," Irene amended. "You may also call me Irene."

"Oh geez," Towa sighed, "with Angie around I sometimes forget how formal you nobles can be. It's doubly weird when applied to us commoners."

"I w-was just meaning to be polite," Irene explained hurriedly. "I didn't mean to sound condescending."

"O-oh no! It's nothing like that!" Towa assured her quickly, "it's just that the nobles who act super formal tend to treat commoners kind of weird." Her eyes widened, before she began waving her hands apologetically. "Not that I meant to paint all of you with a broad brush or anything, especially not you!"

"No, no, it's fine," Irene demurred. "I've spent too long at St. Astraia, so I sometimes forget to switch my manners to the appropriate ones."

"R-right, ehehe," Towa smiled awkwardly, twisting side to side with her hands clasped behind her back. "I imagine I'll be seeing your class a lot in the near future, so if you have any issues, please feel free to send us a request." She stood up straighter, eyes filled with determination. "If you do, then I'll do my best to get it sorted out."

'Sooo cute!'

"Mnh! I'll be sure to keep that in mind," Irene replied, nodding her head seriously. "Thank you for your hard work, Miss President."

"Y-you don't have to thank me yet!" Towa demurred. "I haven't even gotten a request from you guys." 'Well there's Lawrence's jacket…'

"Even then, it's clear you've been working very hard," Irene pointed out, glancing around at all the paperwork that still had to be filled out. "Where is everyone else?"

"Um…well…" Towa trailed off, before shrugging her shoulders helplessly. "Everyone else is busy preparing for the first free day?"

"Why did that sound like a question?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean–"

"No, no, it's fine, I apologize–"

"But you didn't do anything wrong?"

"Well, yes, but…"

The two young women stared at each other for a moment, trying to remember what they had been talking about previously.

"Ehehe," Towa chuckled awkwardly. "I didn't even give you a chance to say what you were here for, did I?"

"No worries," Irene replied. "Instructor Valestein asked me to pick up something for her, and said that you would have it."

"Oh, right! Those!" Towa turned to her desk, collecting a stack of–were those student handbooks? "Here you go!"

Irene took the stack of student handbooks, noting that hers was on the top. "Oh, I was wondering why we didn't have a full one yet, the ones they gave us earlier were incomplete."

"Yeah…sorry it took so long," Towa apologized, making a face akin to a kicked puppy (not that Irene would ever kick a puppy). "Class VII's curriculum is different enough that we had to write a whole new section for it, especially for the ARCUS orbments, since they're different from the ones the other classes are using."

"Ah, so these have instructions for proper usage?" Irene inquired, looking at her notebook speculatively.

"Yep!" Towa chirped. "The other first years are using the same orbment as last year, so we could reuse the template, but for you guys, we basically had to make the whole thing from scratch."

"That sounds like a lot of effort," Irene observed. "Thank you, Towa."

"Ehehe, no problem!"

"Hold on…" Irene looked around the room again. "When you say 'we'..."

"It was…pretty much just me? Instructor Sara asked me to do it for her," Towa admitted, rubbing the side of her head bashfully. "Which means it's my fault for this taking so long!"

"Oh no no! Don't say that!" Irene objected. "If you were doing all that work by yourself, then we owe you a lot for all that effort." She frowned. "Is this really a task for the Student Council? I would have thought that this should be done by faculty or other academy staff?"

"Yeah, probably," Towa agreed, cupping her chin in a thinking pose. "But your instructor's always so busy, and I've helped the other instructors out before too, so I really don't mind."

"I see…" Irene glanced through the notebooks in her hands. There were nine of them. "So Instructor Valestein would like me to hand these out to my class?" 'That's a bit strange, her room is in our dormitory, so she could have quite easily passed them out to us herself.'

"Yes please!" Towa confirmed. "And I really appreciate what you've all agreed to do too."

"Pardon?" Irene asked, not sure what she was referring to.

"She said you're going to help out with the Student Council's duties, right?" Towa replied, hands clasped together excitedly in front of her. "That's such a nice gesture. Class VII's really getting off to a good start!"

"I…do not remember agreeing to anything of the sort…" Irene said slowly. "Nor have any of my classmates, as far as I'm aware."

"Oh no! I didn't misunderstand something, did I?" Towa gasped. "I thought Instructor Sara said you were all eager to help, so if I needed to, I could delegate some of our tasks to you." She shook her head furiously. "O-oh how embarrassing! I didn't mean to try foisting work off after you've just enrolled!"

"I…believe Instructor Valestein may have volunteered us for something without telling us…" Irene suggested, eyes sweeping across the room, and over the many stacks of incomplete paperwork.

'This is too much work for one person! No matter how diligent.'

"What?!" Towa cried, face twisting in despair. "You mean none of you agreed to help–!"

Irene slammed the notebooks on the table, leaning over so her face was close to Towa's. "What are the criteria for joining the Student Council?"

"Eh?!"

"As of right now, I have not joined a club," Irene explained. "There is evidently a lot of work that needs to be done, and someone is clearly not getting enough support. So even if I did not volunteer as Instructor Valestein said, consider this me volunteering now!"

"Eh? Oh!" Towa's face lit up. "Thank you so much! It's been so hard to find people to recruit!"

"...Does that mean there is a position open?"

"There is now!"

"Excellent!" Irene cheered. "So what is it that you need me to do?"

"The tasks I was planning on delegating to you and Class VII are mostly requests from students and townspeople," Towa explained.

"So…not unlike bracer work?" Irene pointed out.

"Yup! A lot like that," Towa agreed. "I'll go through the ones we got and give you a list for you to handle tomorrow, does that sound good?"

"If I'm going to be joining the Student Council, wouldn't it be a good idea for me to start by assisting you with that?"

"Oh! That would be great, thanks a lot!"

"It's only what I'd be supposed to do."

"Even still, it'll take some of the load off of me!"

"So where do we start?" Irene asked, glancing from one stack of paper to the next.

"Here!"

While St. Astraia was very different from Thors, there were quite a few similarities in paperwork, so Irene got the hang of things pretty quickly. Together, the two young women managed to cut through a lot more of the work than Towa had been expecting to get done that night.

'It's strange. I never really enjoyed doing paperwork on the Student Council, but this is actually a bit…nostalgic–!'

"Wah!" Irene's head hit her desk and she groaned in embarrassment.

"Irene!" Towa cried worriedly. "Are you ok?!"

"Yeah…sorry," Irene sighed, sitting back up and rubbing her forehead. "It's just…some of my friends kept teasing me about how I would end up on the Student Council. And well…now I'll never hear the end of it."

"I'm s-sorry! I d-didn't mean to pressure you into joining!"

"You didn't, don't worry. We have our class assignment anyways."

"Oh! I should have known there was something off about that!"

"That's the instructor's fault, not yours!"

This went on for a while, but eventually Irene managed to convince Towa that she really was on board with joining the Student Council.

---

Even with two of them working, they were not able to finish all the paperwork that had managed to build up. But Towa was still ecstatic that they had made as much headway as they did. Either way, by the time Irene left the Student Union, it was well after sunset.

Despite the dark of night, the path back to their dormitory was mostly well-lit with street lights, so getting back was not terribly difficult, not to mention that Irene had walked this path often enough she could probably do it blindfolded.

As she crossed over the bridge heading into the town, her ARCUS rang. It took her a moment to realize what that meant, before she pulled it out of her pocket and thumbed it open.

"Um…H-hello, Irene Schwarzer speaking."

"Guten Tag, my favorite little wunderkind!" Instructor Sara's cheerful voice rang over the line.

"Instructor Valestein?" Irene replied. "But…it's well into the evening…?"

"Ack, fine! Guten Abend," her instructor shot back. "Sheesh, it's a little late for these things, isn't it?"

"I suppose…" Irene conceded. "But may I ask why you are calling me this late, Instructor? I do have the notebooks you requested I pick up. I also have the list of tasks that we were requested to take care of."

"Huh, well look at you go!"

"Although…" Irene continued, voice lowering dangerously. "There is also the matter of you volunteering me for tasks I did not agree upon."

"Hey, don't be like that!" Instructor Valestein objected. "It's got to do with the part of the curriculum I haven't told you about. Consider this a bit of a head start on that. And the Student Council really is busy, so hey! Two birds with one stone. Pretty good idea, right?"

"They really are quite busy," Irene agreed. "Which is why it was very inconsiderate of you to add more to their workload, Instructor!"

"Hey now, I'm busy too! And in all honesty, I don't have that much more experience using the ARCUS than you guys, even less so in making instruction manuals."

"But…you are an academic instructor…"

"Right? Who would have thought?!"

Irene sighed. "Regardless of your questionable decision making, I'd be more than happy to assist the Student Council. Is that all your assignment requires?"

"Ehh…don't think of it as an assignment, if you've got a club you're interested in, feel free to do that instead during your free day."

"As a matter of fact, I have decided on a student run activity I would like to partake in," Irene sniffed primly. "As such, I will be busy with that tomorrow."

"Huh, maybe I had you pegged wrong. Guess I'll have to see if someone else can take care of those requests–"

"Since I have, as of this afternoon, joined the Student Council," Irene interjected. "I will be taking care of said requests."

"...Hahahha! You got me good there!" Instructor Valestein laughed. "Should have expected something like that from Team Mom!"

"Instructor?"

"That's part of the reason I picked you for this idea," she continued, "You've got to be wondering 'why me?' right? Well, the long and short of it is that you're the one who can get the whole class to listen, while also being considerate enough to try.'

"H-huh?" Irene stuttered. "I d-don't think that's true. Masha will barely even talk to me, for one."

"True, but you did manage to get her to go along with you down in the dungeon. Not to mention you convinced the whole class to start working together real quick."

"It j-just made sense! Especially after Ellia got hurt because her group wasn't as prepared."

"Ha! Like I said, you're kind of the team mom."

"Umm…shouldn't that be you, Instructor?"

"Me?! Pff! I'm too young for that! I prefer the role of the big sister, personally."

"Err…Instructor? You're older than me, aren't you?"

"Hey, hey! I'm not old!"

"I…didn't say you were?"

"Aww…you really are too cute for your own good. No wonder you and Towa got along so well!"

"Instructor?!"

"Hehe, well anyways, that's all this was!

Irene sighed, shaking her head at her instructor's lackadaisical manner–

"Wait…Instructor, are you drinking?"

"Of course!" came the not so surprising reply. "It's the weekend, and they won't let me have vodka, so beer will have to do!"

"Did you…call me while you were at a bar?" Irene asked worriedly. There were a few places that served alcohol in Trista, but most kept a pretty close eye on students.

"Nope! I'm in my room, by myself, unfortunately," Instructor Valestein sing-songed back. "If only I had a nice and classy gentleman friend who would go drinking with me, but alas! No such man can be found!"

"Umm…Instructor, I'm fairly certain that there are at least a few men that could fit that description among the faculty or townsfolk…"

"Oh? Keeping an eye out yourself?" her instructor teased. "Didn't know you liked them older, but hey! I toootally see the appeal."

"Instructor!" Irene squeaked. "That's not it at all!"

"A thoughtful and mature girl like you? I can see why you might find the hot-headed boys your age a bit off-putting."

"I did not mean that whatsoever!" Irene cried, stamping her foot in frustration.

"It'd really break quite a few hearts on campus though. I didn't know someone like you had it in them!"

"Instructor." Irene smiled, closing her eyes to center herself. "I was going to say that if you really wanted companionship so much, you could send a request to the Student Council to find possible candidates. But now that you've decided–"

"Wait wait wait wait! I can do that?"

"I mean…theoretically," Irene replied, playing with her hair tie. "We'd need some criteria, obviously, and it wouldn't be a guaranteed thing."

"How come I never thought of tha–waaait! I'm too young to need a matchmaker! I've still got plenty of charm left!"

"Umm…but instructor, there are some people who are betrothed at a very young age."

"Oh right, stuff like that is more common for you nobles…but I'm still too young for that!"

"Well, ok then, instructor. Is there anything else you need?"

"Nope! Well, I'd like some vodka but I'm pretty sure I can't request that," Instructor Valestein replied cheerfully. "Anyways, good to hear you've found somewhere to plant yourself. You'll go flying off with the wind if you don't. Oh yeah! Be back by curfew. You never know who a nice young girl like you might run into late at night!'

With that, she hung up, leaving Irene to realize she was still on the bridge. "Our instructor sure is a strange one…"

"You could say that again."

Irene swiveled around to see Julia and Lawrence strolling towards her from the direction of the academy.

"Oh! Hello you two!"

"Good evening, Lady Irene," Lawrence greeted her in return.

"What is our instructor calling you about?" Julia asked, narrowing her eyes. "She has a room in our dorm. Is she so lazy that she can't even be bothered to walk up some stairs?"

"I…don't know, now that you mention it," Irene admitted. "Oh!" she pulled open the bag she had stored their student notebooks in. "Here, this is what Instructor Valestein wanted me to collect."

"Our student notebooks?" Lawrence wondered, palming his copy. "Thank you very much, Lady Irene. I wonder why it took this long."

"The instructions for the ARCUS needed to be made wholesale," Irene explained.

"Ah, I see," Lawrence nodded. "I will definitely need to study those thoroughly then."

"She sent you to get our notebooks from the Student Council?" Julia asked exasperatedly. "Need I repeat that she has a room in our dormitory."

"Hehe, she did say she was busy?"

"With what?" Lawrence wondered. "Preparing for the as of yet unannounced part of our curriculum?"

"She didn't say much," Irene sighed.

"Tch," Julia scoffed. "Some kind of instructor we have."

The three of them started towards their dormitory again. In the lamplight, Irene spotted a few droplets of water on their skin, and smelled a faint scent of the chemicals used to keep the pool clean.

"Were the two of you swimming?" she asked. "I thought you joined the riding club, Julia?"

"I did," Julia confirmed. "But the swim club does not have exclusive use of the pool."

"Oh, so you waited until they were done for the day?"

"I had worked up a sweat out riding," Julia shrugged. "There are showers in the gymnasium, but I thought I might as well go for a swim while I was there."

"And I decided to keep her company," Lawrence added.

"I do not need to be fished out of the pool," Julia said, voice flat, "but your company is pleasant enough, compared to some of the other insipid fools here."

Lawrence laughed. "And the fact that my presence helps dissuade any would-be lecher had nothing to do with it?"

"That may have played a small part in my thinking," Julia admitted.

"Hehe, you two really are close," Irene observed, happy to see Julia so relaxed with someone.

"He has his uses," Julia drawled, "like a large guard dog. Very threatening to other people, but mostly harmless to you."

"I will take that as a compliment," Lawrence snorted.

'I see, he can see past her status–both ways even–and see the person there. No wonder she's so friendly with him.'

"Tch! I see you've become inured to my prodding," Julia grumbled. "I will have to innovate."

"Your tongue is sharp as ever, but as usual, mostly harmless," Lawrence shot back with a grin. "But I still say you'd win more friends with that smile of yours."

"I'm not here to make friends," Julia mumbled, turning away from her tall friend. Even in the lamplight, Irene could see the slight flush on her face.

"You said that St. Astraia, and look what happened there," Irene pointed out.

"Your first few days with the Junior Eisenritter were like that too," Lawrence added.

Julia rolled her eyes. "Putting on a disinterested front dissuades the social climbers and creeps."

"I see," Irene nodded solemnly, before giving her friend a teasing smile. "You wish to reserve your smile for people you actually care about."

"Nothing so saccharine," Julia sighed. "I simply wish to reserve my energy for people who are worthwhile."

"Well, then I'm honored you consider me so," Lawrence laughed.

"As am I," Irene agreed primly, affecting a haughty air momentarily.

"And here I thought it would be a good thing for the two of you to meet," Julia grumbled, shaking her head in exasperation.

"I have to pay you back for all that teasing somehow," Irene chuckled, covering her mouth with her hand.

"Come now, Lady Julia, the riposte is part of the duel," Lawrence added.

"Just one of you was bad enough…" Julia sighed, though her lips twitched upwards in a slight smile.

"Oh, I do believe we have a new record here, Lady Irene."

"It would seem so, Sir Lawrence."

"Oh for Aidios' sake, you two!" Despite her protests, her smile grew wider.

The three of them reached their dormitory in good spirits, though Julia tried to hide that fact.

When they went inside, they found Emmet hammering away at one of the punching bags.

"Evening Emmet," Lawrence greeted, to which the purple haired man returned with a grunt.

"Excuse me, Mister Millstein?" Irene called. "I have your student notebook. It was delayed due to needing time to write out the instructions for the new ARCUS units."

Emmet paused to take the notebook, flipping through it briefly. "They should have planned for that. Thanks."

"You're welcome, Mister Millstein."

"Just call me Emmet. Mister…sounds wrong."

"Mn! If that's what you prefer," Irene nodded.

"I can take Elisha and Fion's notebooks, if you'd like," Lawrence offered, "save you some time."

"Oh, no, it's fine," Irene replied. "It shouldn't take long."

"I'm going to my room anyways," Lawrence pointed out, "so it's even less of a detour for me."

"Just give him the damn notebooks," Julia snorted. "Unless you two just want to keep flirting."

"Julia!"

"I don't see how this is flirting."

"Just go to sleep already," Emmet grumbled.

"Ah, sorry Emmet," Irene apologized, handing Lawrence the two notebooks.

The three of them headed up the stairs, and Lawrence bid them good night as they reached the second floor.

"…Wait a moment," Julia called, reaching into her bag and pulling out a swimming cap, offering it to Lawrence. "Thank you for letting me borrow this."

"Keep it," Lawrence waved her off. "I know you dislike getting your hair too wet, so I brought one for you."

"…Thanks," Julia mumbled, putting the cap back into her bag with deliberate slowness.

The two girls walked up to the third floor in silence, Julia glaring at her friend, daring her to ask about what just happened. Irene declined, heading down the hall to hand out the notebooks.

Irene knocked on Ellia's door, explaining the situation and handing the nervous looking girl her notebook when she opened it. Ellia thanked her quietly and closed the door.

Then she knocked on Masha's door.

"Ellia, is that you?"

"It's Irene."

"What do you want?"

"I have your student notebook."

"Why do you have it?! Shouldn't that be something our instructor is handing out?"

"She…um…asked me to hand them out, hehe," Irene replied, rubbing her hair tie nervously.

"…Oh."

Masha opened the door, took the notebook, then closed it without a word.

Irene sighed. 'I suppose that could have gone worse.'

"Still as prejudiced as ever," Julia snorted, leaning against her door frame. "Maybe it's a Heimdallr thing?"

"I don't think so," Irene replied, stepping closer to her friend. "I feel as if she had a personal experience with nobility that must have ended poorly."

"That…is unfortunately all too common," Julia conceded.

Irene nodded. "We've seen that firsthand too. And poor Kordell…"

"Yeah, some nobles are real pieces of work."

"But enough about that," Irene declared, giving her friend a teasing look. "Did you and Lawrence really go on an evening swim together?"

"It was nothing like what you're implying," Julia deflected. "We simply practiced actual swimming."

"Do you…wish it was more than that?" Irene asked gently.

"No–I don't know," Julia sighed, before shaking her head. "It will never happen anyways. Not while my father and Viscount Arseid disagree as they do."

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought that up."

"All is forgiven," Julia shrugged. "Though…what were you doing out so late?"

"I…may have joined the Student Council?" Irene admitted slowly.

Julia snorted, looking far too pleased with herself. "Told you."

---

AN. And here's the last chapter I had posted to the Trails Ideas Thread. Irene interacts with Towa more. It goes about as you'd expect.

Next chapter has a fair bit done, including sort of bonding events I randomly selected.

 

[WrandmWaffles]

March of Elementary Questing​

Irene woke up the next day feeling refreshed, so she spent more time in the morning practicing her meditation and the sword than usual. Julia elected to sleep in a bit later, so when Irene finished, she left to complete the requests she was tasked to handle herself, at least initially. Investigating the Old Schoolhouse would be best taken on with assistance.

'Aside from the Old Schoolhouse, there is Colette's request for finding her student notebook, George's request to help with deliveries, putting in the order for Lawrence's jacket at Le Sage, and something from Fred at the cafe. Probably easiest to start with the latter two.'

As she stepped out of the dorm, she paused, her breath caught in her throat as she watched the light of the morning sun wash over the town.

'Wow…it's such a beautiful day!'

The lino flowers were still blooming, and the white petals they dropped were still fluttering through the air like warm snow.

"Quite a sight, isn't it?" came a placid voice from next to Irene.

"Oh! Good morning Gaia," Irene started, turning to the side. "Apologies for ignoring you."

"It's quite alright," the Nord girl laughed from where she leaned against the outside of their dormitory. "It seems that this must be an unusual sight, even to an Erebonian such as yourself."

"Mnh!" Irene agreed. "These trees don't grow in Ymir, it's too mountainous."

"Not many trees grow on the Highlands at all."

"Ah! So a lot of the scenery is new to you too, not just the place and people."

"Indeed," Gaia affirmed. "I will say that the variation in terrain in the Empire is quite refreshing. I love my home, but one can only behold so much open plain before the novelty begins to wear off."

"Hehe, I feel similar about snow," Irene said. "In the winter, Ymir usually gets blanketed so that all you see is white. Looks real pretty, but it sure is a pain to clear or walk through."

"The weather and climate are one thing," Gaia mused, "the people are quite another. It's quite interesting to see how complex things are, even in a fairly small town such as this."

"I can imagine," Irene replied. "Has it been difficult adjusting?"

"Overall? No." Gaia shook her head. "For all your nation's reputation for being dismissive or suspicious of outsiders, I have mostly encountered curiosity or wariness at worst."

"It probably helps that Erebonia has never really had serious conflict with your people," Irene pointed out.

"Perhaps," Gaia agreed. "I did encounter some very unpleasant individuals, but their unpleasantness was directed against everyone, not me specifically. You'll find those kinds of people in every society."

"I suppose that's true," Irene agreed. "Though, onto a less grim topic, may I ask what, or perhaps who, you are waiting for?"

"I had asked Masha to show me around the bookstore or the library," Gaia replied. "I had never seen so many books in one place before, it made me curious."

'That's right! Given how many Nord live, they probably can't really keep that many books.'

"I can't imagine life without easy access to books," Irene murmured. "Reading about history is just so fascinating!"

"Your passion for that is evident in class," Gaia chuckled with a light smile.

"Hehe, is it that obvious?" Irene asked bashfully, before trying to change the subject. "You mentioned you wanted to go to the bookstore, right?"

"Indeed," Gaia replied. "As much of a Nord savage I may be, I have read books before, though I have never had the pleasure of having one I owned myself."

"Well we can't have that!" Irene declared, before pausing. "I would offer to go with you, but I don't think Masha would like me showing up uninvited."

"You could also just happen to be at the bookstore at the same time," Gaia pointed out, a slight smile on her face.

"That would be a little bit funny," Irene chuckled, "but I wouldn't want to ruin the mood." Instead she reached into her pouch and retrieved a five hundred Mira note. "Here, this should be able to pay for your first, very own book."

Gaia's eyes widened slightly. "You are giving me this, without any desire for repayment? Why?"

"I just think everyone should have at least one book to call their own," Irene replied. "Is that strange, ehehe?"

"Perhaps," Gaia answered slowly, taking the note. "But it seems a noble sentiment to me. I thank you for your generosity."

"It's no problem," Irene waved her off. "I hope you have fun!"

With that, she and Gaia parted ways and Irene headed for the boutique. After a short conversation with the clerk (also named Julia, as it so happened) and an utterly shameless pink haired student named Vivi, that task was done. Next, Irene stopped over at the cafe to speak with Fred, who needed help acquiring some specific spices, before heading towards the academy.

As she approached the bridge, she found it occupied by a purple haired young man in a noble's uniform, a cap, and wading boots of all things. He noticed her approach and greeted her with a wave.

"Hey there," he called. "Haven't met you before. You're Class VII right? What with the red jacket."

"That's correct," Irene confirmed, dipping into a brief curtsey. "It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Irene Schwarzer, and you are?"

"Oh geez, where are my manners?" the young man smiled awkwardly, standing up straight. "Ehem. I'm Kenneth Lakelord, pleased to meet you."

"Of the Lakelord family, then?" Irene asked politely. 'From what I heard, his family is quite fond of fishing. It would explain the boots.'

"Yup, part of the Imperial Fishing Club and all that." Kenneth relaxed, leaning against the railing. "You ever try fishing?"

"On a few occasions," Irene replied, a bit surprised by his casual manner. "I didn't ever really get the hang of it, unfortunately."

"That's a shame, it's a nice pastime, did you like it at least?"

"It shares some similarities with meditation," Irene replied. "So it was a calming activity."

"Well in that case, how about you take these?" Kenneth pulled a simple looking fishing rod and a notebook from the bag set against the side of the bridge. "I've got others, and it's always good to see new people interested in fishing."

"Oh, umm…" Irene stuttered, unsure how to respond. 'This is…quite forward.'

"What's–oh…oh!" Kenneth flushed, waving his hand. "I've been asking if anyone was interested in fishing, please forgive me if it came off as something else."

"It's alright, Lord Lakelord," Irene replied graciously. "I was merely surprised."

"Man, you're really formal about all this," Kenneth observed. "Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's still weird being called 'lord' though, that's my dad in my mind."

"I can refer to you otherwise–"

"Yeah, just call me Kenneth, it's less confusing that way."

"Very well, you may call me Irene in turn, and thank you for the gift."

"You're welcome," Kenneth replied, turning away and walking towards the academy. "See you around, I'll be looking for nice fishing spots."

"Could you wait a moment, please?" Irene called.

"Huh?" Kenneth started. "Oh sure, what is it?"

"Do you happen to know where Annabelle is?" Irene asked hesitantly. 'She ran away from school, and we haven't heard a word from her since.'

"No," Kenneth replied, shaking his head. "Last I heard was her running off after she was betrothed to my brother. I've got no idea what happened to her."

"I see," Irene sighed. "Thank you for answering."

"I'm sure she'll turn up somewhere," Kenneth reassured. "Probably at a good fishing spot. Who knows? Maybe I'll find her someday." With that, he walked off.

'I sure hope she's fine. But there's not much use thinking about that now.'

Putting aside worrying for her former schoolmate, Irene made her way to the Engineering building. As she reached the door, a sharp, off-key sound came from inside, almost making her flinch.

Not wanting to interrupt something important, she opened the door slowly and poked her head inside, spotting Elisha fiddling with what looked to be a radio.

"Are you almost done with that?" the portly upperclassman who had been with Towa on their first day called, covering his ears. 'His name was George, right?'

"I think so," Elisha called back. "It's working, but I don't think it sounds quite right."

"Obviously! It sounds totally off!"

"If it bothers you that much, George, maybe you could just tell me what the actual issue is!"

"Um…" Irene interjected. "Is this a bad time?"

"Irene!" Elisha yelled, waving a greeting. "Does this sound off to you too?"

"Yes…it sounds very off key."

"Huh, I figured," Elisha muttered. "Couldn't really tell for sure though."

"How?!" George exclaimed disbelievingly.

"I'm tone deaf, ok!" Elisha grumbled.

"You couldn't have told me that earlier?!" George yelled.

"How was I supposed to know that it would be relevant?" Elisha fired back. "Do you go around saying 'Oh yeah, I'm tone deaf!' when you meet people?"

"No, I meant you could have mentioned that when you tried tuning the thing!"

"I wasn't trying to tune it at all!"

"Then what are you doing now?!"

"Testing the sound output!"

"Well tune it then!"

"Sure, tell the tone deaf guy to tune something, that'll work out great!"

"Um…didn't you send a request for assistance with deliveries?" Irene interjected, trying to calm the situation.

"You…asked a skinny girl to carry stuff for you? Geez, George, just how out of shape are you?" Elisha snarked, throwing an accusing look at the portly upperclassman.

"Hey now! I sent the request to the Student Council, not her specifically," George deflected.

"So you asked the short, skinny girl, who delegated it to the taller and stronger, but still skinny, girl…" Elisha continued, not at all impressed. "What stuff do you need her to deliver anyways?

"Well, there's an orbal scale for the cooking club, an antique orbal lamp for Micht at the pawn shop, and a wrist watch for Micheal at Radio Trista," George listed off.

"Oh, not that heavy," Elisha observed, "so why can't you go and drop them off yourself?"

"I've got all this stuff I need to get fixed up!" George cried, gesturing to a fair number of orbal devices in various states of disrepair.

"Oh right, you're making time for Angie's project," Elisha concluded.

"That too," George conceded.

"Alright, I get it," Elisha nodded. "You got a tinkering date, so I can't really blame you there."

"It's not a date!" George spluttered. "We're not like that!"

"...right," Elisha said after a long pause.

"Do…you have the items I need to deliver ready?" Irene asked, having stood awkwardly to the side for most of the conversation.

"Oh! Yes, sorry about not paying attention," George muttered hurriedly, turning around to collect the repaired items.

"Say…you've got good hearing, right Irene?" Elisha asked suddenly.

"I s-suppose so?" Irene replied, giving him a questioning look.

"And you're not tone deaf, right?"

"I am not."

"Would you mind helping me fix this thing?" he waved at the orbal radio on the bench in front of him.

"I'm afraid I would be of little help," Irene replied. "I've hardly ever used one of these before, let alone fixed one."

"Nah, that's not what I was asking. I just need you to tell me if the thing's making the right noise," Elisha explained. "If it sounds wrong, I'll tweak it, tell me if it sounds better or worse, and so on. That make sense?"

"I suppose I have time…but how will I know what it's supposed to sound like?" Irene wondered.

Elisha pushed a button on the device and the notes of a song blared through it again. Unfortunately, it was not a song Irene recognized.

"This'll take awhile, won't it?" George muttered to himself, covering his ears.

It took some time before a song Irene recognized was played, but one song was all Elisha needed to get it working properly.

With that done, Irene took the delivery items and headed out towards the main building to deliver the orbal scale.

She approached the home economics classroom with some trepidation. When she did not hear any screaming or crazed laughter, she breathed a sigh of relief and opened the door–

Whoosh!

A flash of flame bloomed from a stove, before suddenly vanishing.

"Margarita!"

"It wasn't me this time!"

And sure enough, the ringleted girl was not the one who's station had combusted. Instead, it was the pan in front of Fion.

"Oops," the silver haired boy said flatly.

"Margarita!" Instructor Altheim sighed, "why did you teach Fion how to do that?"

"I didn't! He must have figured it out on his own!"

Everyone else in the club gave the unusual blonde noblewoman unconvinced looks.

"Yup," Fion nodded, examining the remnants of whatever he had been trying to cook, before using a fork to pop some of it into his mouth.

"Fion!" the instructor (who was also a blonde noblewoman) gasped in both surprise and reprovement.

"Tasty," Fion declared, chewing on the questionable food he had made.

Everyone else in the room stared at him.

"D-did I come at a bad time?" Irene asked, shuffling her feet a bit when all eyes in the room swiveled over to her.

"Oh! Hello Irene," Instructor Altheim greeted with a strained smile. "Are you interested in joining as well?"

"Unfortunately, I'm afraid I must decline, Instructor Altheim," Irene replied. "But I do have the orbal scale you sent to the engineering club for repairs."

"Already?" The brown haired leader of the cooking club asked, squinting his eyes at Irene. "George really works fast!"

"Oh, thank you for sending that out, Nicholas," Instructor Altheim sighed, shooing Fion away from his cooking station. "Fion, are you alright?"

"Yup." The silver haired boy seemed unharmed, and entirely unfazed by the near miss, face blank and as passive as ever.

"Wait, why were you stirring with a metal spoon?!" the club instructor exclaimed. "Is your hand ok?"

Fion raised a gloved, and unharmed hand. "Yup."

"Oh, thank goodness," Instructor Altheim sighed. "Please, Fion, if you aren't sure about something, ask."

"Ok." Fion nodded. "Why are there so many different spoons? Why so many different forks? Why are there dull knives when other ones are sharp? Why are there sticks in the utensil drawer?" Throughout his sudden barrage of questions, he maintained his flat, uninterested tone he usually spoke with.

Instructor Altheim was taken aback, "Err…not quite what I meant…"

"Ok." Fion nodded again, and stopped talking.

"Fion," Irene called, getting the silver haired boy's attention. "I believe Instructor Altheim just wants you to give her a chance to answer one of the questions before you ask the next one, not to stop asking questions at all."

"Yes, thank you Irene," the flustered blonde noble replied thankfully. "Oh, this group is going to be such a handful!"

"I resent that!" Margarita cried, but Instructor Altheim ignored her.

"Um…I can help explain the utensils to Fion, if you would like?" Irene offered, feeling bad for the harassed looking fine arts teacher.

"That would be wonderful, dear," Instructor Altheim breathed. "Thank you."

And so Irene set the other two orbal items down for the moment, and started introducing Fion to the rather confusing field of table manners.

It…went, not poorly, but not well.

"Butter is easy to cut, yes, but why not use the sharp knife?"

"You have a knife dedicated for the butter, so it can stay with butter in case someone else wants to use it."

"Wouldn't it be easier for everyone to just have their own sharp knife?"

"Maybe, but it would be rude, and a little unsanitary, to use your own utensil to manipulate food that could be shared with everyone."

"Is that how that works? I've never seen it work like that."

"Did your parents not teach you about this?"

"Nope. It was more grab all you can before it's all gone."

"...Oh. My apologies."

"Huh? For what?"

"...Never mind." 'Is Fion an orphan?'

The silver haired boy seemed to know nothing of table manners, somehow, but he was also extremely curious, even if many of his questions were perhaps excessive. Either way, while Irene was happy to help him, she was starting to see why Instructor Altheim looked so frazzled, and was so willing to pass off handling Fion.

Fion rarely spoke unless prompted. But as it turned out, he had plenty to ask when prompted.

---

After what turned out to be about half an hour but felt substantially longer, Fion finally ran out of questions about cutlery. Irene tamped down the urge to sigh in relief. This was the most she'd heard the young man speak, and she didn't want to discourage him from talking, even if it was a bit tiring to keep up with.

'What kind of life has he lived so far? The only other person I've seen as quiet as him is Kordell, but she is the complete opposite of lackadaisical–Oh! I have to deliver the other items!'

Making her excuses, Irene turned to leave, but paused when she felt a slight tug on her sleeve. She looked back to see Fion offering her…a student handbook?

"Found this on a couch when I went to nap," he explained. "You're the notebook lady, right?"

"Eh?" Irene blinked. "Oh! I suppose I was the one who gave Lawrence your notebook. Whose notebook is it? It isn't yours, right?"

Fion shook his head. "Not mine. Dunno whose."

Irene took the offered notebook and checked the front cover. 'Oh! This is Colette's notebook!'

"Thank you, Fion," Irene smiled. "One of our schoolmates said this had gone missing. This simplifies things a lot."

"You're welcome," Fion returned, voice bland as always, but Irene couldn't help but be reminded of Badeux whenever he retrieved a target during a hunt.

"Hehe, you're quite a thoughtful young man, aren't you?" Irene chuckled, absently giving Fion a pat on the head.

"I guess?" the young man shuffled his feet uncertainly, then turned back to the organized categories of cutlery.

"So many forks and knives…"

'It's strange to see such a young student here. Still, he seemed quite skilled during the orienteering exercise. Just what was his life like up till now?'

After that, Irene went to the Student Union, where she returned the notebook to the surprised and very thankful Colette. She also spoke with the chef there, a man named Ramsey, who happened to have a stock of the spices that Fred needed.

Now with all the items collected, Irene headed back into town, delivering the lamp to the rather grumpy proprietor at the eponymous Micht's and handing the wristwatch over to the rather excited Radio Trista DJ named Michael, who recommended their new radio show. Irene did not have a radio, so she just smiled and nodded.

With those tasks completed, Irene headed back to the Engineering building.

"That took a while," Elisha observed, looking up from his bench, where his gun lay partially disassembled. "Did the fatass saddle you with too much stuff to easily carry?"

"Hey!" George objected.

"No, they weren't that heavy at all," Irene quickly corrected. "I was just waylaid by a few other tasks."

"Man, the Student Council sure is busy," Elisha muttered. "Are people that desperate already? It's only been a couple weeks."

"Well…"

"They take requests from the town too," George pointed out, "so that can add a fair bit depending on the week."

"So the Student Council has pseudo-governmental responsibility over the town, or is the town government that incompetent?"

"More like the town sprung up around the academy," the portly engineer explained, "so the Principal kind of functions similarly to the mayor of the town."

"Huh," Elisha grunted. "And he doesn't even have to pay the Student Council for doing odd jobs. Nice."

"We do appreciate your work though, Irene," George added, giving the young woman in question a thankful nod.

"You're very welcome," Irene returned gracefully. "It's all just part of my new duties."

"You can also have the radio Elisha just fixed," the portly man offered. "We just got a new one here, so we don't really need it."

"Oh, I couldn't–"

"Wait, then why did you want me to fix it anyways?" Elisha grumbled.

"I wasn't planning on throwing it out just because we got a new one!" George yelled back.

"I c-can take the radio if that helps," Irene interjected.

"Yeah, take the radio Irene," Elisha agreed. "Make him pay you for your work!"

"All that aside," George sighed, "it helped me out a lot. If you need help with your quartz or any orbal device, feel free to ask me for help. I'm also supposed to be in charge of doing maintenance on your ARCUS units, but well…" He glanced over at Elisha. "I'm definitely not as familiar with them as one of the designers."

"Oh! You designed the ARCUS, Elisha?" Irene exclaimed, giving the blonde man an impressed look.

"Part of it," he replied, idly twirling his screwdriver. "Mostly the link part. Seems to work well for something hashed together by a guy with no friends. Also is it copyright infringement if your mother uses your work in something your family company makes without your permission?"

His voice was mild, but he definitely was not pleased.

"Oh…" 'Is it ok for him to be telling us that?'

"Eh, forget I said anything," Elisha shrugged. "Not like you guys had anything to do with Reinford Co shenanigans."

"I apologize if us using them bothers you," Irene began, but Elisha cut her off.

"I ain't got a problem with you guys," he corrected. "You seem all decent folk. I'm more concerned about who these things are intended for, after they are done with the test phase."

'That was a good point, actually…'

"That's kind of above our paygrade," George pointed out.

"I don't get exactly paid," Elisha shrugged. "But yeah, enough about that." He turned to Irene. "Is it true that you're going into the Old Schoolhouse again?"

"The principal has requested I lead a group there, yes."

"Got room for me? I have many questions."

"Yes, thank you for offering," Irene replied. "I was about to go ask around–"

"I got it," Elisha interrupted, pulling out his Arcus and putting it to his ear. "Hey Emmet, Irene's got an assignment to look into the Old Schoolhouse–."

"I'll be there," Emmet replied, then immediately hung up.

Elisha called another person, though this time they took longer to answer. "Hey Lawrence, you up for a run into the Old Schoolhouse?"

"Aye," came the prompt reply.

"Cool, see you in a bit," Elisha ended the call.

Irene blinked, not sure what to say.

"What?" Elisha asked, giving her a curious stare. "Three of us want to see more of that place, so this is as good a time as ever."

"I see," Irene nodded. "I just wasn't expecting you all to be ready on a moment's notice. Please let me collect some supplies before we head into danger."

"Sounds good," Elisha replied, reassembling his gun in no time. "I bet Emmet and Lawrence will be headed to the store as well, we might as well meet them there."

Sure enough, when the two of them arrived at the Student Union store, Emmet and Lawrence were there as well.

"Well met, Lady Irene," Lawrence greeted, waving.

"How many tear balms do you think we will need?" Emmet asked, skipping the formalities.

"I've got some recovery arts stored up," Elisha replied, "so no need to go overboard."

"I am of little use when it comes to arts," Lawrence admitted, "especially since I am still having trouble operating the ARCUS."

"Yeah, they weren't really designed with hands your size in mind," Elisha observed.

"We should acquire a few antitoxin and the like," Irene suggested. "Though if the Schoolhouse gets too dangerous, it may be best to retreat."

"If it is anything like our last stint down there, that might be a bit excessive," Emmet countered. "Something tells me that if there is an increase in danger, it is going to be more gradual." He shrugged. "It is still not a bad idea to err on the side of caution."

The four of them purchased the items they thought would be necessary, then headed upstairs to discuss the task with the principal. Since she technically was the one who was assigned the task directly, Irene knocked on the door to his office.

"Come in!" Principal Vandyck's booming voice called, and the group entered.

"Ah, I see that you've already assembled a group, Class VII," the principal observed, turning around to face them from where he had been looking out the window. "I suppose that simplifies some things."

The retired general was tall and broad shouldered, but at the moment, he appeared relaxed, waving the students over informally. Even so, Irene felt a bit hesitant approaching him, but ended up dragged forward as no one else in the group appeared to share her trepidation. Then again, Lawrence was even taller than Vandyck, and by a wide margin.

"I request that your Class investigate the interior of the Old Schoolhouse," the principal began. "It has long been a sort of campus mystery, and under normal circumstances, would be officially off limits, even if students always had a habit of using it as a test of strength."

"Normal circumstances?" Emmet inquired, apparently unafraid of interrupting the principal.

"We decided to test your class in the same way," Vandyck explained, before frowning slightly. "Although the trapdoor had not been part of the discussion, so that was purely the decision of your instructor."

"Of course it was," Elisha muttered, rolling his eyes.

"That said," the principal continued, "I do owe you all an apology for that. It was probably unnecessary, even if it was an effective way of demonstrating the kind of instructor Valestein is."

"An unconventional instructor for an unconventional class," Lawrence offered diplomatically.

"Indeed," Vandyck agreed, before pressing on. "To return to the topic at hand, there have long been many rumors about the schoolhouse, the gargoyle you faced being one of the more well known ones."

"It was certainly an unusual monster, if that is all it is," Lawrence mused.

"You might even consider it a 'demon' or 'fiend'," the principal added.

"You seem awfully cavalier about sending students into a place with such 'fiends'," Elisha pointed out. "Sure, we beat it before, but with how that place is, what if it comes back?"

"Very astute. From our observations, that gargoyle will indeed return to its original state if given enough time alone."

'Wait, what?! How?!'

"If that much is known about the Schoolhouse, why send us to investigate now?" Emmet asked. "Perhaps you have evidence to suggest that the current situation is abnormal?"

"We have our suspicions," the principal confirmed. "There have been reports of strange doors appearing and disappearing, and even voices in the darkness. However, we are not certain of the veracity of these reports, hence this request."
"Is there a reason that you are making this request of students, Principal Vandyck?" Irene asked with deliberate politeness. "Would not such phenomena be better investigated by agents from more knowledgeable organizations? The Church and the Bracer Guild come to mind."

"If there is indeed something dangerously amiss there, then yes," Vandyck admitted. "But as of now, with only rumors that may or may not be the result of a prank, we deemed it likely safe enough for you." He smiled, looking over the group. "Though I will say: with the skill you already possess, you are already quite formidable."

"Eh, I wanted a crack at some of the weird tech in there anyways," Elisha declared.

"Think of it as studying for our practical exam, Lady Irene," Lawrence encouraged, giving her a bright smile.

"I might as well count it as a club activity," Emmet muttered under his breath.

"I suppose it is a request for the Student Council," Irene sighed. "But with all due respect, Principal, I still question the value of this level of circumspection."

"Your concern is noted, Lady Schwarzer," Vandyck replied. "Only keep in mind that we hope to limit the spread of the rumors to avoid less capable students stumbling into more trouble than they can handle, especially without us being aware of their entrance into the Schoolhouse."

"I understand," Irene nodded. 'I am not sure if this will truly dissuade people from poking around, but at the very least we will be clearing out some of the monsters.'

"In any case," the principal continued, "you will be needing this." He offered the group an old, ornate key. "This is the key to the Old Schoolhouse. Best of luck, and stay safe."

Lawrence gave Irene a questioning look. 'I suppose this task was relayed to me, originally.' She took the key. "Thank you, Principal Vandyck. We will report back when we return."

"Rather optimistic, aren't we?" Elisha joked on the way out of the Student Union.

"I find it unlikely that the principal would send us there if he had serious doubts about our chances of survival," Lawrence countered.

"Or he believes we have good enough sense to run if things become too dangerous," Emmet suggested.

"There might not even be anything different than last time," Irene added. "Unless the whole place can just rearrange itself on a whim."

"Point," Elisha conceded, "probably still more monsters, but I haven't seen any work crews, so it's not them pulling a fast one on us like that."

"I would not be so certain," Emmet cautioned, straightening his glasses.

As they approached the Old Schoolhouse, they found, to their surprise, that Fion was waiting for them, idly juggling one of his pistols.

"That better not be loaded, young man!" Irene called reprovingly.

Fion shrugged, catching his gun and holstering it. "No, ma'am," he replied, rather unconvincingly.

Irene sighed, shaking her head. "What are you doing out here Fion?"

"Saw you guys gearing up for something," came the bland reply, "so I figured it had to be here."

"Well, I think your assistance will be helpful for this excursion," Lawrence declared.

"Would mean that we'd have one person left out of a combat link," Elisha pointed out.

"I'll probably scout ahead," Fion shrugged, "so no biggie."

Irene was tempted to object, but pushed it down, remembering how Fion had almost gotten through the whole dungeon before them, only blocked off by the gargoyle. "If you reach the end, Fion, please don't try to fight the gargoyle on your own."

"Wilco," the silver haired boy replied, "I'll backtrack if I find the exit. I didn't think the statue would come alive, so probably best to expect that something else's gonna pop up there."

"No harm in that," Emmet agreed. "That seems to track with what we've seen so far."

With one additional member to their party, Irene unlocked the door and they went inside.

The room looked the same as it did the last time they had been here, but when they pushed open the door through which they had been led after defeating the gargoyle the last time, they stopped short.

"Is it just me, or does this room look smaller than it did last time?" Lawrence asked, glancing around bemusedly.

"Yeah, maybe about half the size?" Elisha agreed. "There's also a charging station that was not there before."

"No gargoyle," Fion pointed out. And indeed, there was no statue, not even the remains of the creature they had fought.

"Strange," Irene murmured. "I don't believe there was a door there last time, either."

"With how seamless the wall is, there is no way this could have been accomplished without anyone noticing within two weeks," Emmet observed.

"It appears that the principal's suspicions are correct, there is something strange going on here," Lawrence declared. "We're not going to find any answers standing here, so shall we advance?"

"Hold on, I want to check on the charging station, maybe even take it with us," Elisha objected.

"Wouldn't it be easier to grab that when we leave?" Irene asked. "I don't know if it would be wise to carry something like that around."

"Assuming we can even remove it from the floor," Emmet pointed out.

And true enough, despite its appearance, the charging station would not budge, not even under Lawrence's efforts.

"What the shit?" Elisha cursed. "This makes no sense."

"Yes, this is odd," Lawrence agreed with a frown, eying the floor around the charging station. "I do not see anything fixing it in place."

"Let's get a move on," Emmet suggested. "We're wasting time."

They pushed open the new door, and paused yet again.

"That…is completely different than what we went through two weeks ago…" Elisha observed.

"The room is one thing," Lawrence remarked, "but it would be downright impossible to alter this whole dungeon so quickly, as far as I'm aware."

"This will definitely be something the principal will be interested in," Irene observed, closing her eyes and reaching out with her senses. "There are also monsters ahead, so we will have to be careful."

"Most likely different ones too," Emmet added.

"What makes you reach that conclusion?" Irene asked, giving the purple haired man a curious look.

"Just a hunch."

'He doesn't look as surprised as the rest of us. In fact, this almost seems…familiar to him.'

"What's that?" Fion asked, pointing to something not far from the entrance. It was clearly a device of some kind, with some sort of hemisphere set on top of a round table of sorts.

"No idea," Elisha replied. "Not like these things come with manuals."

"Is it perhaps a marker?" Lawrence suggested. "Or a map?"

"Could be," Emmet shrugged. "But I don't think any of us can decipher this at the moment, so there isn't much reason to gawk at it."

That was true, and so the party continued into the dungeon floor proper. Fion scouted ahead, alerting the main group to dead ends and monster group movements.

Emmet's conjecture proved correct, and there were indeed different monsters present than two weeks ago, including some sort of slug creature, poms, and amalgams.

He was also correct that the monsters did not prove major threats, especially with the five of them.

Irene wasn't sure when it happened, but she and Lawrence had formed a combat link almost without conscious effort, and the two sword nobles easily carved a path through any of the monsters that got within their reach. Lawrence's fell hand sent many of them staggering, leaving them open to Irene's precise, deadly cuts.

Emmet and Elisha linked as well, coordinating arts and gunfire to pick off distant enemies, prioritizing the ones more resistant to physical attacks.

To make matters worse for the monsters, many of the groups they encountered were scattered and confused from Fion's hit and run scouting, often allowing the main group to catch them unawares.

After perhaps an hour, they reached a long corridor with a set of doors at the end and paused to catch their collective breath. None of the fights had been that individually tiring, but there had been many monsters.

"That's the end of the floor," Fion reported. "Assuming those doors are the end. Didn't go through, but don't seem trapped."

"Thank you, Fion," Irene smiled at her young classmate, who ducked his head slightly.

"What's that?" Elisha asked, pointing at another object, which was similar, but not quite the same as the charging station.

"Dunno," Fion shrugged.

"Let's not go poking around in it quite yet," Lawrence remarked, giving Elisha a pointed look.

"There's also another one of the hemispherical objects," Emmet added, pointing to the side. "That's evidence towards it being a marker of some kind, assuming that this is indeed the end."

"You have a guess about what's on the other side of that door?" Elisha grumbled, gaze flicking from one device, to the other. "And do we even know if it can be opened?"

"Door opened when I got close," Fion cut in.

"By itself?" Irene asked in surprise. "These ruins have to predate the orbal revolution."

"If I were to guess," Emmet drawled. "There will be a strong enemy on the other side of those doors. If it's anything like the gargoyle, it might even have horns."

"Everyone ready?" Irene asked, taking a deep breath to center herself.

"Aye!" Lawrence declared, rolling his shoulder.

"You're already acting like he's right," Elisha grumbled, but he nonetheless prepared his gun.

"Yup," Fion said.

Weapons at the ready, the party stepped up to the doors, which slid open as Fion described, revealing a wide room lined with pillars. One with no other exits.

There was a flash and distortion of air in the center of the room.

A guttural roar filled the room as a vaguely humanoid creature announced its arrival. Its bulging arms and legs were covered in dark fur and its torso and head were armored in rusted looking armor. Notably, its head did have horns.

"I was correct," Emmet remarked with some satisfaction.

Lawrence roared a challenge in return, and the party converged on the creature.

It was strong, its large fist pulverizing stone as it struck out at them, too slow to catch Irene as she danced to the side, blades cutting into its knee.

Lawrence's sword slammed into its head with a clang of metal, its helmet crumpling under the force.

Fire struck it in its chest a moment later, but failed to inflict lasting damage.

It reared up, inhaling deeply–

Gunfire struck its helm as Fion opened up, causing it to flinch, sending dark mist harmlessly into the air, leaving an opening that Irene and Lawrence ruthlessly exploited, the former cutting into its other leg, the latter cleaving through its armor in a screech of metal.

Golden spheres slammed into its head, followed by a burst of compressed air as Elisha and Emmet fired off arts.

There was a loud bang, and the monster's knee exploded as Fion dashed away–

Lawrence rammed his sword home in its other knee, slammed into its torso shoulder first, and toppled the bull headed creature to the floor with a thunderous crash.

The students descended upon the downed monster like a pack of hunting dogs, Irene and Fion attacking its arms to prevent it from retaliating, while Elisha blasted its remaining leg to keep it prone. Lighting crackled to life on Lawrence's sword as Emmet muttered an incantation, and the tall noble slammed the blade point first into the thing's throat, before tearing its head clean off with a grunt of effort.

The thing did not bleed, instead vanishing in a cloud of energy.

"I suppose that makes sense," Emmet remarked idly, adjusting his glasses and dusting off his jacket. "The higher elements would be active here."

"You think that was some kind of space or mirage art?" Elisha wondered.

"It could also be time," Emmet pointed out.

"Ehem! Is anyone hurt?" Irene cut in, focusing on something of more immediate importance.

Fortunately, no one had anything more than scrapes or bruises.

"Weak," Fion observed.

"It did seem less dangerous than the gargoyle," Lawrence agreed, checking over his sword. "Though perhaps that was because we were prepared this time."

"I don't think it was prepared to fight this many people," Elisha suggested, "especially not one almost as big as it was."

"It seemed less intelligent," Emmet added. "It tried to go for whomever appeared to be the weakest opponent first, leaving it open to retaliation when Schwarzer dodged."

"I'm just glad that no one was hurt," Irene said, not particularly concerned about how easily the creature had gone down.

"I suppose it is time we report back–"

"Not yet!" Elisha cut Lawrence off, rushing out of the dead end room. "Wait, that thing is now glowing!"

True enough, the hemispherical object was alight with a soft blue glow.

"Quest complete?" Lawrence murmured. "That can't be how this works, right?"

"It might…for all we know," Emmet shrugged.

"What in Gehenna?" Elisha sputtered. "This thing can convert sepith into quartz! Very idiot proof design too. Hmm…" he trailed off, furiously taking notes in his notebook.

Fion approached the now glowing object curiously, but Irene held out an arm to halt him. "We don't know what that does, let's not get too close."

"It does not appear to be a trap," Lawrence remarked. "Far too obvious."

"Unless it's a lure," Emmet countered. "Though if it is, it's strange that it started glowing after we killed the main monster on this floor."

"Perhaps it seeks to catch you off guard after you feel you are safe?" Lawrence suggested.

"Map," Fion declared, pointing at the hemisphere, specifically, the lines carved into it, now more evident next to the glowing lights.

"Was that also on the other one we saw?" Irene wondered, not having committed that detail to memory.

"Perhaps," Emmet replied thoughtfully, "but as far as I remember, it was a smooth hemisphere. It could be that the lines are not evident until it is lit. And yes Fion, it does appear to be a map of the floor we just traversed."

"Hey Lawrence! Can you move this thing?" Elisha called from the other device.

Despite the large noble's best efforts, it would not budge.

"Even more evidence that these changes were not done by more mundane means," Lawrence sighed, taking a deep breath.

"Could it have been due to the higher elements being active as you described?" Irene asked Emmet, who shrugged.

"Can't say I'm an expert on that subject," the bespectacled man replied. "But I believe these modifications would be beyond the ability of most to make, even if they were incredibly skilled at Space arts."

"Shouldn't we leave?" Fion asked. "Not smart to stay."

"Mnh. That we should," Irene agreed. "We need to report these findings to Principal Vandyck. Elisha, are you ready to leave?"

"No! This thing is fascinating! I need more time!"

"We do not know if more monsters will arrive," Lawrence cautioned. "It is probably best we leave."

"Something tells me that you will not be able to uncover that thing's secrets in one sitting," Emmet added.

"True," Elisha conceded. "I probably should take a coffee nap before I really try anything."

"Now that you mention it," Irene said with a sigh, "I'm starting to feel a bit tired myself."

"With how much you've been running around the whole day, I'm not surprised," Elisha snorted.

"If you wish, I could carry you–"

"No! T-thank you for the offer, but I will be f-fine!" Irene squeaked, shuffling away from Lawrence.

"Very well," the tall noble acquiesced, with no sign of offense.

"Ok, now to look at the other device." Elisha strode over to the glowing hemisphere. "Huh, there appears to be some sort of control panel here. Very seamless. Very nice."

"Wait, Elisha no–!"

There was a flash of blue light, and Irene felt her stomach drop as she had just fallen into another trap door.

An instant later, everything righted itself, and the group found themselves standing around the first of the hemispheres they had seen, now also glowing.

"Huh, so that's what–ow!"

"What did we say about giving us a warning?" Lawrence grunted, gently slugging Elisha in the shoulder.

"I did give a warning!"

"Figures that this was its function," Emmet murmured.

"'Ooh, shiny!' is not a warning, Elisha!"

'Emmet seems to be really familiar with the dungeon. Has he been in other ones?'

"Everyone!" Irene called. "The principal is waiting on us."

"Yes, let's go," Fion added. "I'm hungry."

"Elisha."

"I get it, I get it. I'll give a better warning next time."

The five of them left the building, stepping out to see the setting sun casting the world in a red hue. Irene locked the door, then they started down the path back to the rest of campus.

Emmet paused for a moment, glancing back. Irene followed his gaze, spotting a beautiful black cat perched on the roof of the Old Schoolhouse. For some reason, it had a blue ribbon on its tail.

"Ooh! That's an adorable cat!" Irene gushed, voice higher pitched than strictly polite.

"Eh, looks like a cranky one," Emmet muttered. "Probably vain and annoyingly needy too."

"I take it you don't like cats, Emmet?" Lawrence asked with a slight chuckle.

"Birds are better," Emmet replied. "Smarter, more loyal, and actually make pleasant noises."

"…I guess they're both cute," Irene conceded.

"Let's just go," Emmet grunted, "don't want that thing begging us for food."

They returned to the Student Union and headed up to the principal's office, where they reported their findings.

Both Principal Vandyck and Instructor Valestein were surprised to hear about the changes to the floor.

"While there are many strange things recorded about the Schoolhouse, this kind of phenomena does not appear in the academy records," Vandyck mused.

"The whole floor rearranged itself while we were gone?" their instructor reiterated. "That never happened when I was poking around down there. I wonder what changed?"

"Were there any changes made since then?" Emmet asked. "Any stimuli that may have triggered these changes?"

The principal shook his head. "We have not sent anyone in there since your orienteering exercise.

"No one got sent, but did anyone poke their nose where they weren't supposed to?" Elisha suggested.

"That is an unfortunate possibility," Vandyck acknowledged, "but that has happened before, and the changes you described did not occur."

"So, with a dearth of other possibilities, that would suggest the cause of this change was the orienteering exercise?" Emmet mused, skepticism clear in his voice.

"How would that be different from a more traditional test of courage?" Irene wondered. "The most unique feature of our class would be ARCUS, but I don't see how that could cause this change."

"Unless this is some sort of dungeon from the old stories that is supposed to test the bonds of friendship," Lawrence muttered.

Emmet snorted in laughter.

"There are a few stories about Emperor Dreichels and Saint Sandlot training in something similar," Lawrence defended. "Though I was under the impression that those were largely embellishments."

"No, sorry, I wasn't laughing at you," Emmet apologized, reigning in his laughter. "It's just funny that 'magic dungeon from old wives' tales' seems the most reasonable explanation at the moment, since we can quite easily discard the ones requiring more mundane methods."

"That seems a bit of a reach," Elisha muttered.

"Maybe," Irene murmured, twining her hair tie around her finger. "But if there is truly no explanation within our grasp, then we must accept that the cause lies outside our preconceptions."

"For what it is worth, Castle Lohengrin has displayed somewhat similar behavior ," Lawrence added. "Nothing as extreme as entire floors rearranging themselves, but I have seen the doors to and within the castle lock, unlock, open and close with no explanation."

"...As weird as that sounds, there's no way a castle that old would have the orbal tech to do stuff like that," Elisha tacked on.

"On second thought," Lawrence mused, rubbing his chin. "The Schoolhouse does feel similar to Castle Lohengrin. It has been some time since I was in the castle, so it did not immediately spring to mind."

"Perhaps you could ask your father to compare notes?" Emmet suggested.

"As fascinating as this subject is, my father has many responsibilities," Lawrence hedged. "However, it is theoretically possible to send a request to Legram's Bracer Guild branch."

"I guess I could send Toval a message," Instructor Valestein shrugged before muttering something under her breath that sounded a lot like "lucky bastard."

Lawrence gave their instructor a long look, before shaking his head.

"I suppose that could be a potential avenue of investigation," the principal noted, "though that will be outside the purview of this assignment."

"I imagine we will need more information before you are willing to send out a request," Irene added. "There is very little to go on, even for Viscount Arseid or a skilled bracer."

"Indeed," Vandyck nodded. "As such, I would like your class to further investigate the Schoolhouse when you have the time. After your performance today, it seems you are certainly up to the task."

"Great, I get to add more notes of how this thing makes no sense," Elisha whooped.

"Trying to reverse engineer one of those devices?" Emmet snorted.

"I'm nowhere near that point," Elisha shot back. "I barely even know what those things are."

"So something from the Dark Ages can stump an expert at modern technology?" Instructor Valestein chirped. "Those times must have been something wild!"

"Is that how old the dungeons are?" Irene exclaimed.

"I suppose that would explain the gargoyle," Lawrence offered.

"That is indeed what the records suggest," Vandyck confirmed.

"Remarkably clean for a structure over a millenia old," Emmet mused.

"The schoolhouse clearly is not that old," Elisha pointed out. "So that's got to be a later addition."

"Correct," the principal replied. "That was built when the academy was first founded."

"...Can I go find food now?" Fion piped up, causing a few of the room's occupants to double take, having forgotten he was there.

"Hah! I suppose that is enough speculation for today," the principal conceded. "Thank you for your work, Class VII, and I look forward to what you manage to accomplish in the future. In that interest, you may keep the key to the Old Schoolhouse while this investigation continues."

"Thank you for your confidence, Principal Vandyck," Irene replied, curtseying politely. "And we can get some food if everyone is hungry."

"Woo…" Fion cheered.

"Going on a dinner date with all the boys?" Instructor Valestein drawled with a grin. "My, aren't you ambitious, Irene?"

'H-huh?'

"Your insecurities are showing, Instructor," Emmet remarked mildly.

"Hey!"

"W-wait no, that's not–"

"If you're that desperate you can come too, teach," Elisha suggested.

"Oh come on!"

"Have you eaten, Principal Vandyck?" Lawrence asked. "I am not sure you would be interested in the food downstairs, but I feel it would be rude to exclude you."

"Hahaha! You certainly have your hands full with these ones, Sara," Vandyck laughed. "It would be entertaining, at the very least."

"...Did I just get a date?" Instructor Valestein mumbled.

And that was how the whole group ended up eating at the Student Union cafe, but at least there weren't tables large enough for it to become too awkward.

---

After a rather tasty meal in the cafeteria, Irene and her classmates went their separate ways. Lawrence went to train, Fion to nap, Elisha wasn't sure what he was supposed to do and Emmet did not divulge his plans.

Irene returned to their dorms for a quick shower before heading back to the student council room to help Towa with her duties. This time, they managed to clear out the backlog, but the other student council members still didn't show, to Irene's confusion.

It was tiring, especially after the expedition into the Old Schoolhouse, but Towa's grateful smile was well worth it.

"Thanks so much, Irene!" the diminutive president cheered, a wide smile on her face as the two of them exited the Student Council room. "We've basically all caught up with your help."

"It's all part of my new duties," Irene demurred, a small smile on her own face.

"Well, look at you two busy bees," a lackadaisical voice called, coming from a young man in a commoner's uniform, running his hand through his gray hair held up by a headband as he leaned against the wall.

"Oh! Hello Crow!" Towa chirped. "Waiting for me?"

"Nah, I was just hanging around," Crow replied with a grin, standing up straight and walking over to them. "So this is your new assistant?" he commented, looking Irene up and down, "she's pretty cute."

"Crow!"

'I…really need to get used to dealing with boys, don't I?'

Irene smiled politely. "It's nice to meet you, Mister Crow…?"

"Crow Armbrust, Class V," he introduced himself, a sly grin on his face. "Hope you can take care of Towa before she gets buried in paperwork, Student Council newbie."

"I will do my best," Irene replied, glancing over to Towa, an image of the small girl literally buried in paperwork flashing through her head.

"Oh, you don't have to worry," Towa assured. "You've been a great help already!"

"It was no trouble," Irene replied. "You seem to be working far too hard already, it seems."

"It was just my job to do all this," Towa deflected.

"And it is now my job to help you," Irene returned. "And that includes helping you work through the backlog."

"Oh, Aidios! There are two of you!" Crow exclaimed, staring at the two girls with wide eyes.

"H-huh?" Towa stammered.

"I…don't understand what you mean?" Irene replied questioningly. 'We don't look all that similar, do we?'

"Geez, way to make a guy feel awkward," Crow muttered, shaking his head in amusement.

"I apologize," Irene said contritely, glancing at Towa in confusion.

"S-sorry Crow," Towa added. "I don't know what you mean though. Irene and I don't look that much alike."

"...I think I'm just gonna cut my losses and stop talking about that," Crow decided. "Either of you up for some grub at the cafeteria? With all that paperwork, your hands must be cramped."

"Oh no, I'll be fine–" Towa paused as her stomach growled, and her face reddened in embarrassment.

"Haha! Sounds like you're hungry after all," Crow laughed.

"Hehe," Irene chuckled from behind her hand. "We have been working for a couple hours, and I don't remember seeing you eat dinner, President Towa."

"Oi oi!" Crow exclaimed. "Do I have to tell Angie you're skipping meals again?"

"No, no!" Towa protested. "I had lunch!"

"I don't believe coffee and crackers count as 'lunch', Miss President," Irene countered evenly.

"Hahaha! Attagirl, Ireney," Crow cheered. "Don't let her get away with it anymore!"

"I-ireney?"

"Crow!" Towa whined, shaking her head furiously. "Fine, I'll come eat, sheesh."

"Have a nice meal!" Irene said with a smile, taking a step away from the pair.

"You can come too, Irene," Towa suggested, smiling brightly. "After all the help you've been these couple of days, the least I could do is treat you to a meal."

"Oh! You don't have to–"

"Well I'll be damned, Towa," Crow drawled. "I didn't expect you to copy Angie this way."

"It's not like that Crow!" Towa burst out, shaking her fists at him in a way that was more cute than intimidating.

Crow just laughed, while Irene just sighed and shook her head. "And here I thought talk like this would be scarcer outside of St. Astraia," she murmured to herself.

"Oooh, sounds like someone's interested," Crow snickered.

"Mi-ster Armbrust." Irene closed her eyes and smiled. "Cease."

"Okay! Okay!" Crow backpedaled. "Geez, you really found a mini-me, Towa." He glanced between the two student council members. "Well, not exactly mini."

"Crow! Be nice!" Towa insisted.

"Fine, fine! Let's just go eat."

Irene ended up eating dinner with a group of people as well. To Towa's consternation, Crow ran off without paying, but Irene decided to cover the cost.

After that, she returned to her dormitory for the evening, practiced some of her sword forms, then listened to Radio Trista's new program, perhaps uncreatively named 'Abend Time'. Still, the host Misty's voice was pleasant enough, so Irene figured that it would not be a bad program to listen to while working on her schoolwork.

And so ended Irene's first free day at Thors Military Academy. It had been rather hectic, but she had a feeling this was only the beginning.

---

 

[WrandmWaffles]

March of Unexpected Adventure​

Despite being physically fit, Irene felt some trepidation creeping into her mind as Class VII gathered at the practice field for their practical exam.

"Looks like you're all here," Instructor Valestein chirped, "so let's get this month's practical exam started!"

She paused, holding up a hand. "To be clear, this isn't going to just be about combat skill, it's also going to be about how well you can make strategic decisions during a fight."

"Don't you mean tactical?" Emmet grumbled.

"Shush, smartypants!" their instructor shot back. "Anyway! Let's get this thing started! Irene, Fion, Ellia, you're up first!"

'Why me?' "A-alright." Irene stepped forward.

"Ok." Fion joined her, idly inspecting his weapons.

"U-umm, why me?" Ellia mumbled, before shaking her head. "Never mind! I got this!"

"Who should use the combat links?" Irene asked, glancing between her group. With three, one person would be left out.

"You guys can," Ellia replied. "I'll be fine on my own."

Fion nodded and Irene tried to link with him. It wasn't as natural as with Julia or Lawrence, but clicked nonetheless.

"You three ready?" their instructor called. "Then here we go!" She snapped her fingers, and something appeared in front of her gathered students.

It was some sort of T-shaped automaton, somehow floating in mid air and bobbing threateningly.

"What is that?" Ellia asked suspiciously.

"Bot," Fion replied. "From where?"

Irene reached out with her senses, feeling nothing from the object. 'This might prove to be difficult.'

"It's a bit like a scarecrow. Only moving…and able to punch back, I guess," Instructor Valestein explained. "Either way, no, it's not alive. Though I did set its parameters pretty high, so it should be a bit of a challenge, but I think you'll be able to handle it. Probably."

"Darn, now I want to take that thing apart and take a good look at its insides," Elisha muttered gleefully, rubbing his hands together.

"Aaand that's why you're going last," their instructor drawled. "You break it, you fix it!"

"Fair enough," Elisha conceded.

'Is that the strategic thinking she's talking about?'

"Fion, I'll keep its attention and away from Ellia, can you get behind it?" Irene suggested. "And Ellia–"

"I got it, I'll back you up!" the ginger girl whooped.

"And go!"

At their instructor's signal, the 'scarecrow' darted forward, somehow spinning its hanging segment in a winding haymaker kick(?). Irene felt the force of the blow in displaced air as she ducked out of the way, slashing out with her blades as it passed.

The automaton seemed unharmed by her strike, but that hadn't been her goal. The scarecrow turned, starting towards her, only to wobble as a staccato burst of gunfire slammed into it from behind, prompting it to spin around and head towards Fion.

Irene lashed out in a flash, sending the dummy careening through the air as she struck at its rear, drawing its attention once again, before Fion redirected its mechanical ire with a few well placed shots.

The scarecrow, apparently having some level of pattern recognition, ceased trying to chase either of them, instead spinning in place rapidly and rising menacingly up further into the air.

A blast of water struck it as it reached its apex, but did not deter it from slamming downwards towards the three students arrayed against it.

Fion hopped quickly out of the way, but Ellia had just cast an art–

Irene twirled, slashing her katana in a wide arc and sending a blade of wind into the automaton, deflecting its trajectory so it slammed into the ground well away from the ginger haired girl.

The impact still shattered the ground under her own feet, nearly knocking her prone, but the scarecrow was unable to take advantage of her misstep as gunfire struck it center of mass.

While not entirely stupid, the automata still turned to face Fion, giving Irene another opening to slash at its side, though she was forced to backpedal as it abruptly changed direction and swung at her.

Unfortunately for the dummy, its rotating attack meant it stayed roughly in the same location, allowing for Ellia to blast it with another offensive art, sending its spinning wildly to the side.

It was unable to recover before Irene and Fion converged upon it and dropped to the ground under their onslaught.

"Does that mean we won?" Irene asked, eyeing the still scarecrow suspiciously.

"Yup!" Instructor Valestein cheered, clapping her hands encouragingly. "Nicely done you three. Didn't expect that to go as well as it did since you haven't really worked together before."
Irene flushed slightly at the praise, and instead turned to give her teammates a grateful smile. "Thanks for working with me, you two!"

Fion just nodded, though he seemed pleased.

Ellia sighed, inhaling deeply to catch her breath. "Man, did you guys just come up with that strategy on the fly?"

"Not exactly," Irene replied.

"Pretty common tactic against dumber monsters," Fion explained.

"Guess I'll have to up the difficulty for you guys next time then!" Instructor Valestein chirped. "Anyways, on to the next group! Masha, Gaia, Julia, step forward!"

The green haired commoner and the blonde noble eyed each other with distaste, and Masha formed a combat link with Gaia without even bothering to ask. Julia snorted, taking a ready stance with her rapier, while Gaia shook her head, bow at the ready.

"And go!" At their instructor's command, the scarecrow whirred to life again.

The fight did not go as smooth for this group. Julia slammed the scarecrow with a fire art early on, drawing its attention, which wasn't necessarily bad, but with the lack of combat link, Masha was not able to get in a clear shot as the blonde noble dueled the automaton. Gaia was able to land some shots, but could not draw its attention, leaving Julia mostly dealing with it alone.

Then it slammed into the ground and the group was sent sprawling.

Eventually, the three of them were able to knock it over, but all of them were sporting various cuts and bruises.

"Well, congrats on beating it, I guess?" Instructor Valestein shrugged. "Definitely could use some work there."

Masha and Julia glared at her, before returning to glaring at each other while Gaia just nodded solemnly.

"Is it our turn?" Elisha asked, hopping lightly on his feet.

"Yes, indeed," their instructor answered, giving Elisha, Lawrence and Emmet a significant look. "I don't really like using it, but still, please at least try not to destroy it."

They…didn't really seem to.

After they were done with it, the 'scarecrow' was smashed into the ground and twitching erratically.

"Great…" Instructor Valestein groaned. "Though I guess since knowing when to use brute force is strategic, you guys technically pass."

"Just what is this thing, anyway?" Lawrence wondered, poking the battered object with his boot.

"Yeah I'd like to know too," Elisha snarled, fingers prying open a cracked panel on the downed machine. "This is like nothing I've seen before but it's so damn familiar somehow!"

"Woah there, don't actually rip it apart!" their instructor called, "well, more than it already is. Let's just say it's a good tool for you guys to train against."

'It seems she doesn't want to talk about it.'

"That ain't an answer!" Elisha barked, eyes narrowing angrily.

"It technically is," Emmet snorted. "A bad one."

"I'll let you poke around in that thing if you help fix it," Instructor Valestein offered, giving Elisha a confused look.

"Deal." Elisha snapped.

'What about that thing made him so angry?'

"Aannyways. That concludes this month's practical exam," their instructor continued. "And as I mentioned last week, that means I have an announcement to make. Any guesses?"

"You're retiring," Emmet returned flatly.

"Hey! I'm not old–! Oh never mind." Instructor Valestein shook her head before continuing. "It's a special part of your curriculum: a field study!"

The class stared at her for a moment in incomprehension.

"You…want us to go and stare at grass?" Elisha asked incredulously.

"Let me guess, you're not coming along?" Emmet muttered.

"Nope! You'll never learn to be independent otherwise!" their instructor chirped.

"What do you even mean by field study?!" Masha exclaimed, glaring angrily at both Instructor Valestein and Emmet.

"You'll all be split into two groups, A and B, each sent to a different location, where you'll be assigned some tasks to complete," Instructor Valestein explained. "Yes, you'll be graded, this is still for school."

"Didn't we just get here?" Ellia wondered, "and we're getting sent out already?"

"Great…" Elisha grumbled. "Don't suppose there'll be a workshop where we're going?"

"Speaking of which, where are we going, Instructor Valestein?" Julia inquired. "And is the schedule already arranged, or are you procrastinating?"

"About that, remember me saying groups A and B?" their teacher replied, ignoring the jibes thrown at her.

"At least you know your alphabet," Elisha snorted.

"Now, now, no need to be hasty," Emmet cautioned, "those are only the two first letters."

"As I was saying," Instructor Valestein continued gamely, pulling a stack of papers from her bag, "you'll be split into two groups, as described here, each of you take one. That'll tell you who's in which group and where they're going."

The class collected their papers, reading them over.

"Oh, Gehenna's Bells…" Emmet muttered.

'So I'm in Group A with Elisha, Lawrence and Ellia, and we're headed to Celdic– Wait…oh no.'

"Are Celdic and Parm both in the Empire?" Gaia asked. "I have heard the name Celdic, but not much else. I've not heard the name Parm."

"Parm is a town in the far south of the Empire," Lawrence explained. "Famous for having a lot of waterwheels, spinners, and other rotating things. There is also a Vander school training hall there."

"And Celdic is a market town in Kreuzen," Ellia supplied.

"Long train ride," Fion remarked.

"That's not the main problem here!" Masha snapped.

"Wonderful," Julia drawled, unimpressed with the groupings.

"It seems that these groups are to ensure we interact with some of our classmates whom we haven't spoken much with," Lawrence observed.

"Really?" Elisha grunted. "Don't think I've been avoiding you, and we've both talked to Irene on occasion."

"Though none of us have spoken much with Ellia," Lawrence countered.

"Hey! I'm right here!" Ellia interjected.

"Apologies, we haven't spoken much with you, Ellia," Lawrence amended.

"Case in point," Elisha mused.

"I hope we can all work together well," Irene added, smiling at her group members.

"Help." Fion muttered flatly.

"Groups are final!" Instructor Valestein chirped. "You'll be heading out this weekend and going to your destinations by train, so make sure you're all ready and raring to go!"

Irene glanced nervously between an irate Masha, irritated Julia, and less than pleased Emmet and Fion. 'Our group has one less person, but somehow I get the feeling we'll have an easier time of it. Hopefully Gaia can keep from coming to blows.'

The Nord girl caught Irene's eye, and just shook her head.

---

The day of their first field study dawned to find Irene and a few of the usual suspects running through their morning exercises, though they were largely more conservative with their energy this time, not quite sure how much they would need it in the coming day.

"Now that I've had time to think about," Julia began as she finished her stretches, "you seem to be on to something about the groupings, Lawrence."

"You agree?" Lawrence asked, pausing his routine briefly. "I was reconsidering my theory when I realized that all the more solitary individuals were in Group B."

'He does have a point there. Emmet and Fion are quite solitary, and Julia likes her privacy.'

Irene's eyes blinked open and she stood up from where she had been meditating.

"Are you implying something about me, Lawrence?" Julia asked slyly.

"No," Lawrence replied, unaffected, "I'm stating that you enjoy a degree of solitude."

"I think our instructor is attempting to force us to work together," Irene added, standing up from where she'd been kneeling. "Particularly the ones who have the biggest differences between them."

"Sorry, were we too loud?" Julia apologized.

"Oh no! I was just finishing up," Irene reassured her.

"Apologies, Lady Irene," Lawrence added, before continuing. "I suppose some of us could use a bit of a push." He shrugged. "Though that begs the question of why she expects us to work as a unit. That isn't really a requirement for the other classes, aside from the festival, and it seems unlikely we would all be working together after graduation, as we are from all walks of life."

"While I am admittedly curious," Emmet cut in, walking back into the dorm from outside, already dressed and packed, "but our train ride is early, so I don't think we have time to wait around."

"Fair enough," Julia conceded. "I am also prepared." She glanced at Irene and Lawrence. "Do you two have something else to do or shall we head to the station?"

"I purchased supplies I deemed necessary yesterday evening," Irene replied, "so I can accompany you to the station."

"I am also good to go," Lawrence said, "so we may as well head to the station."

The four of them collected their bags and headed out of the dorm, but as she reached the door, Irene paused, sensing someone observing her.

Looking back, she spotted Ellia watching from the stairs, bag in hand.

"Eep!" The ginger haired girl yelped at being found out, before shaking her head and stepping off the stairs, trying to project an air of confidence.

"Irene?" Julia called from outside.

"One moment," Irene replied, shutting the door and turning to face her other classmate. "Did you want to speak with me, Ellia?"

"Yeah–I mean…yes!" Ellia declared, nodding her head and trying a valiant attempt at a curtsey.

"What would you like to talk about?" Irene asked, tilting her head questioningly.

"I…um…well…"

"If now is a bad time–"

"I'm sorry!"

Irene blinked. "You're forgiven, but why are you apologizing, Ellia? You haven't done anything to offend me."

"H-huh?" Ellia stuttered. "I've been kind of ignoring you these past two weeks because I've been embarrassed."

"You aren't obligated to speak with me," Irene pointed out. "It's perfectly fine–"

"No, I shouldn't have run off like that the first day," Ellia insisted, waving her hands frantically. "And I should have thanked you guys for pulling my butt out of the fire, but I was too scared that Masha would be mad at me if I talked to you...so thank you."

"Oh," Irene replied, smiling slightly. "There's no need to thank me for that, it was simply the right thing to do."

"What?! Hey! Don't just wave it off, I'm trying to be sincere here!" Ellia grumbled, shaking her head furiously.

"Hehe, you're very welcome, Ellia," Irene chuckled, covering her mouth with a hand. "But I could hardly stand by and let you be attacked by monsters."

"That's not the–" Ellia sighed, running a hand over her face. "Sorry, you just remind me of my big sister. She can get a bit overprotective at times, and I really want to prove that I can handle myself, but, well…" The ginger haired girl shrugged. "That didn't turn out so well, so I got kind of frustrated."

"Your sister must love you very much then," Irene replied, smiling gently.

'It's only been a few weeks since I last saw Elise, but I miss her already! I wonder how she's settling in at St. Astraia's…'

"Let me guess, you have a little sister too?" Ellia asked, giving Irene a flat stare.

"Yes! I have a wonderful little sister!" Irene confirmed with a fond smile, clasping her hands in front of her enthusiastically.

"Oh no…" Ellia mumbled, eyes wide.

"And as a fellow older sister," Irene continued. "I'll make sure to watch out for you in your sister's stead, so there's no need to feel ashamed."

"Y-you don't have to–"

"Ehem!" Irene cleared her throat, giving Ellia a closed eye smile.

"Ok! Ok! I get it," the ginger girl sighed. "I just feel bad having to get carried through all the combat we've been through, especially with all the effort I went through to convince my dad and sis to let me go here."

"Well, no time like the present to get started," Irene declared, before hurriedly checking her watch. "Oh good, we still have time, but we should get going."

"Yes! Great!" Ellia exclaimed. "Let's go!"

The two of them hurried to the train station, the ginger haired girl speeding up her pace so she'd stay ahead of her indigo haired group member.

To their chagrin, they found that they were the last of their class to arrive, with Emmet having already collected the tickets for Group B while Lawrence had done so for Group A.

"What was that about?" Lawrence asked as he offered Irene and Ellia their tickets.

"Nothing!" Ellia squeaked, shuffling a step back behind Irene.

"Ellia just wanted to thank us for helping her in the dungeon," Irene explained, giving Lawrence a grateful smile.

"Ah, it was nothing," the tall noble declared. "We were simply doing our duty."

"Yeah, pretty sure having a classmate die would get our grade docked," Elisha grunted from behind Lawrence.
"Mi-ster Reinford!" Irene cried.

"Oh, yeah, sorry, shouldn't have said that aloud."

"Eheh…you guys are kinda dorks, aren't you?" Ellia mumbled.

'Dorks?'

"Oh no! I've been found out! What gave it away?" Lawrence gasped in mock horror, drawing a snort from Elisha and a suppressed giggled from Ellia.

"Really Lawrence?" Julia drawled, giving the tall noble a long suffering look.

"Yeah, keep your hands off of Ellia!" Masha barked, before starting as she realized she'd agreed with Julia. The green haired girl huffed and turned away, drawing a roll of the eyes from the blonde noblewoman, who likewise turned away.

"What did I do?" Lawrence wondered.

"I dunno," Elisha shrugged. "It was kind of funny though."

"Too early for this," Fion grumbled under his breath, looking like he would rather be asleep.

"Have they been like this the whole time?" Irene asked, glancing worriedly over towards Julia and Masha.

"Pretty much," Emmet replied, an utterly unimpressed look on his face. "And they'll have the whole train ride to continue."

With a sigh, Irene walked over to her irritated friend.

"Yes, yes, I'll be nice," Julia grumbled, looking up at Irene's approach.

"Julia, this is serious!" Irene whispered urgently. "Depending on what tasks we're assigned, someone could get seriously hurt."

"What? Do you think we will be sent out to kill monsters?" Julia returned lowly.

"That's not outside the realm of possibility. Why else would we have been told to bring our weapons?" Irene shot back.

Julia sighed, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "Fine, you've made your point. I'll try to cooperate, as long as she doesn't get too antagonistic."

At that point, the station PA system pinged, announcing the arrival of the train to Heimdallr that Group B would need to take.

"You done talking with your maid?" Masha sniped. "It's time to go." She walked off towards the train.

Julia scoffed, giving Irene a 'told you so' look, before stalking off.

"H-have a safe trip!" Irene called to her back.

"Thank you," Gaia said, giving Irene a strained smile as she and Emmet walked past.

"We'll take all the luck we can get," Fion muttered as he trailed after his group.

"Are they going to be ok?" Ellia asked after Group B left.

"I hope so," Irene murmured worriedly, playing with her hair tie.

"Hopefully Gaia and Emmet will be able to smooth things over," Lawrence said optimistically.

"We should worry about our own study first," Elisha suggested. "Not like we can help them by thinking very hard in their direction."

Their train arrived soon after, and the group boarded. The train was quite full, populated by what looked like a gamut of people headed towards the market town for the weekend. Eventually, they found a free row towards the back.

Ellia and Elisha plopped onto one side of the bench, while Irene took a seat on the opposite one. Lawrence took a seat next to her after a moment, having waited for everyone else, and the bench suddenly felt a lot more occupied than it had before.

Irene was again reminded of just how large Lawrence was, enough to basically take up what would normally be enough space for two people.

'How does he even fit on our dormitory beds? Oh, he probably got one his size.'

"So, do we all know about Celdic?" Elisha asked. "Any idea what that could mean for the field study?"

"Celdic has long been an important town," Irene began, "even before the Empire was unified. The area around it is one of the most fertile on this side of Zemuria, so it has been a major producer of crops for much of its history, now even more so after the agricultural revolution."

"The orbal revolution and the construction of the railway lines has given it even more importance," Lawrence added. "Since it sits on the line between Heimdallr, Bareahard and Crossbell, Celdic sees even more traffic nowadays, though I believe the residential population has actually shrunk, now that the trip to Heimdallr is only about an hour by train."

"Celdic was also a Free City at one point," Irene continued, "so the Duke of Kreuzen had less direct authority over it and its market, unlike Bareahard, meaning that traditionally, taxes have been lower there."

"Hasn't that changed, what with the government centralizing things?" Elisha interjected. "Pretty sure that was part of what caused the permanent population to go down."

"Yes," Lawrence confirmed. "Celdic has not been a Free City since much of it was destroyed during the War of the Lions, and the reforms put forth in recent decades means that the local government has less say over matters than they used to, with taxes now being partly controlled by the Duke of Kreuzen and the Imperial Government."

"Land is also quite expensive around Celdic," Irene explained. "Given how much prime farmland there is, even some of the people who work in Celdic actually live somewhere down the rail lines."

"Housing in Heimdallr isn't cheap either though," Ellia pointed out. "Though if you're renting it might not be so bad."

"Pretty sure it also has to do with how automation in farming equipment means there's less need for hands in the agricultural sector," Elisha chimed in. "Whereas there's a lot of demand for employees in the new big companies."

"Though I don't think any of that will give a clue on what our tasks might be," Lawrence mused.

"Probably deliveries, or something," Elisha shrugged, "particularly of stuff that's important enough that they'd want armed couriers, but not important enough that they'd ask for help from the Provincial Army."

"Perhaps, or perhaps they do not believe they would receive assistance if they did ask," Lawrence muttered darkly.

"Are…things that bad?" Irene asked. 'Father mentioned that the Nortia Provincial Army's priorities had shifted in recent years, but…'

"To some extent," Lawrence replied. "Part of it is that the Provincial Army has been expanding to try and ensure that they are not completely outstripped by the Imperial Army, especially with tensions rising between the Noble and Reformist political factions. This means that their standards have…slackened a bit, so to speak, and some of the new recruits are of questionable skill and discipline."

"R-really?" Ellia asked, wide eyed. "Why would the Imperial Army getting bigger make the Provincial Army want to do that?"

"Cause there's no trust that the Imperial Army won't be used against them," Elisha answered. "Especially now that a lot more commoners have ended up in commanding roles in the Imperial Army after the Hundred Days War debacle, such as your daddy."

"W-wha?!"

"Indeed," Lawrence nodded. "The priorities of the Kreuzen Provincial Army also appears to have shifted–"

"Wait, you guys know who my dad is?" Ellia cried.

"General Olaf Craig, commander of the 4th Armored Division and Garellia Fortress," Irene listed off. "An impressive military leader by most accounts."

"You all knew?"

"Was it supposed to be a secret?" Elisha muttered disbelievingly. "It's not like you tried to hide your name, and our family names are posted on like, seven different things, so it would have been kind of dumb if you tried."

"So…none of you thought it weird that I'm nothing like him?" Ellia mumbled quietly, looking at the floor.

"What do you mean?" Elisha snorted. "You have red hair."

"You know what I mean!" Ellia snapped. "I don't know how to fight like he can!"

"It isn't as if children need to be exactly like their parents," Lawrence pointed out. "Though I guess I take after my father quite a lot."

"Well, it's not really that," Ellia sighed. "But thanks guys." She giggled nervously. "Now I feel worse for being scared of you."

"S-scared?" Irene stammered. "I'm not intimidating, am I?"

"Seriously?" Elisha scoffed. "You are like, I dunno, in the top ten most dangerous with pointy things students at the academy."

"E-eh?!"

"I actually did hear a few commoners girls say your ladylike demeanor was intimidating to them," Lawrence added sheepishly.

"You kind of…made me self conscious about my manners…" Ellia mumbled, staring at the floor and her face turning a similar color to her hair.

"H-how?" Irene sputtered.

"If it's any consolation, your kindness and, I suppose, motherliness softens the intimidation factor," Lawrence added in a reassuring tone. "Though that might make you more intimidating to some."

"W-wha?!"

"That also helps make you seem less intimidating," Elisha pointed out helpfully.

"Please stop, you guys!" Irene cried, burying her face in her hands.

"Very well," Lawrence conceded contritely. "Apologies for derailing our conversation about potential tasks."

The group continued to float ideas on what they would be doing, bringing up monster extermination, looking for lost items, or anthropological reports. But in the end they concluded they did not have enough information to really make a good guess.

"You know…" Irene mused. "These ideas sound like things a bracer might handle."

"Very astute, my little wunderkind!" Instructor Valestein chimed in, strolling down the aisle as if there was nothing wrong with her presence. "Also, all of Group A is accounted for, hooray!"

"Uh…didn't you say you weren't coming?" Elisha pointed out.

"Weell, I thought you guys might be a bit lost without me, so I just had to come along!"

Group A glanced among themselves, none of them convinced.

"If so, shouldn't you be with Group B?" Irene asked. "They have a longer trip and a train change, so have more chances to get lost."

"Eh, but they'd be a nightmare to deal with," their instructor complained. "Whereas it looks like you guys are getting along just fine!"

"I do not understand this logic," Lawrence muttered.

"Anyways, I got no sleep last night, so…" Instructor Valestein plopped herself down on the bench across the aisle from them and promptly fell asleep.

"…Where was she until now?" Elisha wondered. The others had no answer, yet again goggling at their instructor's lackadaisical nature.

Ellia pulled a pack of cards out of her bag. "Does anyone know how to play Blade?"

Only Elisha did, but Irene and Lawrence also tried their hand at it, to limited success. It was still entertaining, though Irene felt a little bad about laughing when Lawrence thought you were supposed to hold a hand of cards with only one hand.

Partway through losing a game, Irene glanced out the window to the view of fields of grain. It was quite a beautiful sight, and also meant they had almost arrived, so Ellia packed her cards up again.

Once they arrived at the station, the group followed their instructor out into the town proper, taking in the sight of a deliberately rural looking town, complete with barns and windmills, though those were probably not merely ornamental. As expected, there were many people in town, most who looked like they did not live there, wearing fashion popular from Heimadallr, Bareahard, and even Crossbell.

Their destination was an inn called the Weathercok Inn, which was owned by a friend of Instructor Valestein.

"Well, if it isn't Sara!" the matronly woman declared, giving the fuschia haired woman an amused look as they entered.

"Heya Margot!" their instructor greeted back with a cheerful wave. "Got a pint for me?"

"Louise, change the keg," Margot called over her shoulder, shaking her head, before looking at the group of students. "Nice to meet you all as well, Sara's taken care of your arrangements, if you'll follow me."

The group of students followed her, leaving their thirsty instructor and heading behind the dining area and up a flight upstairs to their guest room. A singular guest room.

"Um…" Ellia mumbled. "J-just one room?"

Irene took a deep breath to center herself, even if part of her was screaming inside.

"We can use something as a screen if that will make you more comfortable," Lawrence suggested.

"Don't worry, I ain't gonna risk getting stabbed," Elisha said, in what was probably supposed to be a reassuring tone but did not really sound like it.

"Thors is a military academy, and we will likely have to get used to such accommodations if any of us join the military proper, so we will have to make do," Irene declared. 'I just hope neither Father nor Elise ever learn of this.'

"That's true!" Ellia exclaimed. "I knew that, I'm not worried at all!" The embarrassed flush on her face undermined her words, not that Irene had much room to talk, given her own uncertainty.

"So who's taking which beds?" Lawrence asked. "We can also separate them further if that will make you ladies more comfortable."

"I think it'll be simpler just to leave them where they are," Irene replied. "We can take the two beds on this side, and you two can take the beds on that side."

"Works for me," Elisha shrugged.

"I could probably move these beds if you wish," Lawrence suggested, gripping the frame of one bed and testing its weight.

"That won't be necessary! We…" Irene answered hurriedly, before trailing off.

"Is something wrong?" the incredibly large noble asked.

"Are…you going to fit on these beds, Lawrence?" Irene asked slowly, looking between him and the bed, which seemed woefully small in comparison.

"Probably not," he replied with a shrug. "Most likely I will simply take the mattress off and then sleep on it on the floor. It's what I've been doing at the academy anyway–"

"You're doing what?!" Irene exclaimed, while Ellia and Elisha gave the tall noble strange looks.

"Is that…odd?" Lawrence asked slowly, a confused look on his face.

"Didn't we talk about this?" Irene asked, shaking her head. "If you need something you should bring it up to Instructor Valestein or better yet the Student Council."

"Well, while it would be nice, I do not need it–"

"Is the too small mattress on the floor comfortable?"

"Not particularly, but it isn't all that uncomfortable either."

"It's been weeks! Why didn't you say anything?"

"Well, the Student Council looked really busy, and I didn't want to bother anyone too–"

"Lawrence!"

"What did I do?"

Irene sighed, pinching her nose between her hands. "We talked about this. There is no reason for you to just endure the inconvenience."

"A jacket isn't as expensive as a bed though," Lawrence pointed out, to Irene's frustration.

"Our ARCUS units are far more expensive," she pointed out.

"You have a point," Lawrence conceded. "It's still not a priority though."

"…True," Irene admitted. "This can wait until after the field study, but I will very cross with you if you delay after that."

"Message received," Lawrence chuckled, rubbing the back of his head self consciously.

"Are…they dating or something?" Ellia whispered to Elisha.

"Don't think so," Elisha mumbled back. "Irene's kind of like this with everyone."

"Anyhow," Lawrence continued, holding up a folder with the Thors Emblem printed on it, "I assume this is a list of the tasks that were requested?"

"Why're you asking me?" Elisha grumbled.

With a shrug, the tall noble opened the envelope and pulled out its contents, placing them on a table so the group could read it.

"A monster hunt, replacing an orbal lamp, and collecting herbs for medicine," Elisha muttered, before turning to Irene. "It seems like our guesses were pretty good."

"Indeed," Lawrence agreed. "And this confirms the similarity to bracer work, as you noted earlier, Lady Irene. Is this perhaps a result of the Unclouded Eye of the Eight Leaves, One Blade school?"

"Unclouded Eye? What's that?" Ellia wondered, glancing between the two men in the group.

"It's simply practicing to clear your mind from distractions and preconceptions," Irene explained. "In a way, trying to approach the situation from the perspective of someone who has no expectations, to see if your assumptions are misleading you."

"Woah…sounds pretty cool," the ginger girl mumbled.

"It's not really that mystical," Irene demurred, waving her hand dismissively. "The name just sounds fancy because it was a translated term. You could say it's like taking a step back from a problem."

"On that note," Lawrence began, frowning at the list of tasks, "the first two requests should be things handled by the Provincial Army, or at least in part, in respect to the second request."

"Right, orbal lamps also help repel monsters," Elisha muttered, "which probably means there are monsters around the area where it went out."

"Theoretically, the Provincial Army should provide an escort for the technician," Lawrence remarked darkly.

"But then he wouldn't need to make a request," Ellia observed, before her eyes widened. "Does that mean that…they ignored him?"

"Possibly," the tall noble replied. "But perhaps we should not make assumptions so readily."

"It may be best to speak with the locals, especially the permanent residents," Irene added. "That should give us a clearer picture of what the situation is."

"Sounds like a good place to start," Elisha agreed, "unless we want to aimlessly roam around until we find the monster or a broken lamp."

That decided on, the group headed downstairs and out the door, choosing to ignore their instructor who appeared to be busy drinking herself into a stupor.

They stopped by the nearby church to determine what herbs the priest who made the request, a Father Zirbel, needed. It turned out that there had been a spike in people catching a cold, and he had run out of the preferred medicine. Given that he still had to take care of his patients and the preparations for the service the next day, Father Zirbel had been unsure if he would have the time to grab the ingredients himself, especially not with the orbal lamps needing replacement.

The technician at Oddvin's Arms and Orbal Factory, a man named Samus, explained that one orbal lamp had gone bad, and as a precaution the mayor had requested that all the other lamps with a similar maintenance cycle get checked as well.

Samua had requested an escort from the Provincial Army, but the commander of Celdic's garrison had refused, saying that the spring surge in visitors to the market town required more of their efforts, and that the roads were less important compared to the railroad.

"But aren't the roads crucial for transporting goods from farms to the railway station?" Lawrence asked, a serious look on his face.

"Yup," Samus agreed with a nod, "but the Duke's been having a dispute with the mayor, so the Provincial Army hasn't been that helpful in the past months."

"A dispute? Over what?"

"Taxes or something," Samus shrugged. "Don't right know much about it myself. Just glad you guys are taking care of it now."

"Speaking of which," Irene cut in, "is there a special process for replacing the lamps?"

"Not really, it's pretty simple," the technician explained. "Just unplug the old one and put the new one in."

"You want us to check for damage? Or if there's a fault with any of the other ones in the area?" Elisha asked.

"That'd be nice, but I can get it done once that other light's working," Samus replied. "I didn't assume students would know what to do about that."

"I got it," Elisha waved off, "just get us the keys."

"You know your way around them, then?"

"Yeah, been working on stuff like that most of my life."

The group collected the replacement lamp and the keys to the lamps, then headed out to visit the market proper, looking for the merchant that sold the Bear Claw herb needed by Father Zirbel.

While the surrounding buildings and vistas were quite typical of the Erebonian countryside, almost stereotypically so, the market certainly was grand, with colorful decorations lining the numerous stands filled with goods from all over the Empire and even beyond.

The town itself had added decorations of their own, with colored flags hanging from wire suspended over the marketplace from the central building. Imperial flags, Kreuzen flags, as well Celdic's own flag were also present.

Among the merchants they encountered was Lymon, Becky's father, from whom Ellia bought some ingredients for something she wanted to cook.

They stopped by Merchant Flint's stall, acquiring the Bear Claw herb, which apparently originated from Liberl, of all places.

"Is there anything we will need from the marketplace, specifically in regards to our field study?" Irene asked. "I imagine there are plenty of things we would like to buy, but we should have time for that later."

"I believe we have enough medical supplies for a monster hunt," Lawrence replied. "Though we should probably inquire more into the common local monsters, in case there are some odd ones."

"From what my dad told me, there aren't usually that many big ones near here," Ellia offered. "Most are pests, like crop munchers and crows."

"Then where did this dinosaur thing come from?" Elisha wondered.

"Perhaps it is going after the livestock?" Ellia suggested. "If the patrols have been less common lately, maybe they missed it."

"Perhaps we could ask the garrison?" Irene suggested.

"I doubt they would appreciate it if they became aware that we are taking on a request in line with their job," Lawrence cautioned. "Perhaps best to ask general questions."

"Would they be more amenable if you were the one making the inquiry, Lawrence?" Irene asked. 'Viscount Arseid is a well-known and respected noble, after all.'

"Possibly," Lawrence replied, "it would depend on where in the province they are from. If they are from the southern part of Kreuzen I can most likely expect a friendly response, if they are from around Bareahard then it is a less certain thing."

"If Julia were here then they'd probably be falling over themselves to help us," Elisha muttered.

'That…is probably true…'

"Likely," Lawrence conceded, though giving Elisha a warning look. "I know Lady Julia does not mind, but beware of addressing her too informally in front of more classist nobles, especially near Bareahard."

"Or else they'll challenge me to a duel or something, got it," Elisha returned with a roll of his eyes. "I swear the Class I and II guys have some sort of circular firing squad about trying to get up her skirt the 'proper way'."

"W-what?" Ellia squeaked, face reddening at the implication.

Lawrence and Irene just sighed and shook their heads.

"Julia is a very sought after marriage option," Irene explained. "And being here at school is probably the best opportunity some of the noble students have of getting to know her, so…"

"They just keep fawning over her like she's the hottest new airship or something," Elisha finished with a shrug. "Sure, she's probably the hottest girl in our year, but we're at the academy to learn, not flirt. Theoretically."

"Having a bunch of guys interested in you can't be all bad, right?" Ellia wondered. "And at Thors they at least have to be polite about it."

"It is not so flattering if you are aware that much of the interest is due to your father's station, rather than you yourself," Irene replied, a slight frown on her face. 'Julia has ranted at me about that. Quite a lot.'

"Is that why she wears the wrong size shirt and skirt?" Elisha asked. "Yeah, the uniform skirts are pretty short, but I'm pretty sure the ones she wears are sized for smaller people, and her shirts definitely fit too tight."

"Elisha!" Ellia squeaked, bonking him on the head with her staff. "You can't just say that outloud!"

"Ow! What was that for?" the blonde man grumbled. "And how else would I say it? Do you want me to write it down or something?"

"Let's shelve this topic for now," Lawrence suggested. "No slight meant to Lady Julia, but she is not relevant to our tasks at hand."

"Yes, it is rude to gossip behind people's backs," Irene added, giving Elisha a reproving look.

"Wouldn't that depend on which direction Julia happens to be facing at the current moment?" Elisha snarked back.

"It is a figure of speech, Elisha," Irene sighed.

"Oh right."

"Shall we get going?" Lawrence asked, hefting their supply of bear claw herbs. "I do not want to keep Father Zirbel waiting too long."

With no meaningful objection, the group dropped off the herb at the church, before heading towards the East Highway leading out of Celdic to replace the lamp and retrieve the carrots from the farmer Father Zirbel had mentioned.

Towards the edge of town, they spotted a group of Provincial Army soldiers, equipped with their distinctive pointed helmets and dressed in the sky blue and white uniform of Kreuzen province. Some of the soldiers had stains on their uniform, and their boots were caked with dirt, so they most likely had just returned from patrolling outside of the town proper.

Irene and Ellia hesitated slightly, but Lawrence seemed to recognize the officer among them, and approached the armed soldiers with no hesitation.

A few of the soldiers spotted him, then did a double take as his height became apparent, drawing the attention of the officer.

"Sir Lawrence?" he asked, straightening up and turning to face the tall noble. "I am glad to meet you again, but may I ask what you are doing here? I was under the impression you were at school."

"I and my classmates are here on a field study," Lawrence explained with a nod of greeting. "And it is likewise good to see you, Mister Maier, or should I say Lieutenant Maier. Congratulations!"

"Thank you, Sir Lawrence," the officer bowed appreciatively. "Do you have something to request of the Provincial Army, or are you simply heading out onto the highway?"

"Mostly the latter, though since we happened to meet I thought I might as well greet you," Lawrence replied. "Though as we were requested to handle a few tasks outside the town proper, we would like to know if there is any unusual monster activity."

"There are a couple things of note," Lieutenant Maier began. "First of all, the King Dragonflies are more aggressive this time of year, or so I've been told." He glanced at one of his men. "Hans, you were born here, correct?"

"Yes sir," Hans replied with a nod. "And yes, with all the insects spawning in the spring, the dragonflies are more active. It's also mating season."

He tilted his head towards his comrade, whose uniform was stained with some fluid. "Got to also watch out, they like to spray poison everywhere, like on poor Arnold."

"Yeah," the grumpy looking soldier grunted. "Probably good idea to bring more antitoxin than you might otherwise."

"There are also the wolves, Lord Arseid," a third soldier added.

"Ah yes, thank you Werner," the Lieutenant agreed. "There's an unusually aggressive pack of wolves about. We've run them off a few times, but they are oddly persistent and large in number."

"If I may, sir," Hans interrupted politely, "most of the wolves are usually to the east or south of town, so something must be causing them to move west."

"The problems with the orbal lights aren't helping," Arnold grumbled, looking like he really wanted to get changed.

"That is another issue," Lieutenant Maier acknowledged with a frown. "We've noticed several orbal lights stop working along the highway. I had thought we had requested them to be repaired but so far that has yet to happen."

"Multiple lamps?" Elisha butted in. "Samus only mentioned one."

"Samus?"

"The technician at Oddvin's sir."

"Ah, thank you Hans," the lieutenant said, frowning in thought. "And he is the one who does most of the repair work in town, right?"

"Nowadays, yes," the local soldier confirmed. "He took over his father's job about five years back."

"He has been usually prompt in the years I've been stationed here, sir," Werner added.

"How strange…" Maier paused in thought, before looking at Elisha. "If I may ask, how did you know about this?"

"Our assignment includes assisting some of the locals, such as in the case of this lamp," Lawrence explained.

"Was something of the sort part of the Thors curriculum while you were there, Werner?"

"No sir, perhaps it is to help promising candidates get a taste of the duties of the Provincial Army?"

"Is that so, Sir Lawrence?" the lieutenant asked, turning back to the group.

"It seems to be something of the sort," Lawrence replied, "but we have not been explicitly told so."

"Can you tell us which of the lamps you found to be broken?" Elisha cut in again. "We can see if Samus has heard about them."

"Sergeant, do you have the lamp numbers?"

"Here, sir," Werner said, pulling out a small notebook. "I made a note of the ones we saw failing to function today, please copy down the relevant information." He flipped through it briefly before offering it to Elisha to see.

"Huh, those aren't far from the one Samus mentioned," Elisha remarked, "maybe a maintenance cycle got missed."

"Are they going to need an escort?" Hans asked, giving Ellia and Irene a meaningful look.

"We would not want to impose on your time," Lawrence declined politely.

"And Thors expects its students to be combat capable," Sergeant Werner added.

"Indeed," Lieutenant Maier agreed, "and as Sir Lawrence has achieved Intermediate Level in the Arseid school, this group is in good hands. Oh, congratulations on that by the way, Sir Lawrence."

"Thank you, Lieutenant Maier," Lawrence replied. "I have finally managed to match your level."

"You flatter me, Sir Lawrence," the lieutenant laughed, "but I would very much prefer not to have to fight you."

"Maybe he's big enough to scare off the wolves," Arnold suggested.

"Perhaps," Lieutenant Maier said, "If you see anything amiss, please report it to the guardhouse. Either way, we should not keep you any longer," he glanced at his subordinates. "Not to mention that Arnold would very much like to get cleaned up."

"Aye, sir."

"Very well," Lawrence nodded in acknowledgment. "Thank you for your time, good sirs."

"We live to serve, Sir Lawrence."

With that, the soldiers headed back to their guardhouse, and the students returned to the orbment store to confer with the technician.

"So where do you know that guy from, Lawrence?" Elisha asked, checking over the orbal lamp list.

"Stefan Maier's family owns a farm not too far from Legram," the tall noble explained. "He is a student of the Arseid school, and trained at our hall regularly before he joined the Provincial Army."

"So he's a commoner?" Ellia wondered. "I thought it was hard for people who aren't nobles to become officers in the Provincial Army?"

"There is indeed some serious bias in that regard," Lawrence acknowledged. "Though it is less severe for lower ranking officers. And as many nobles as there are in the Empire, there aren't enough to fill out the ranks of all the Provincial Armies."

When they asked the technician about the lamps the soldiers had marked out, he was surprised. As far as he knew no request regarding them had been made by the Provincial Army, with the broken lamp he'd heard about being reported by a farmer who lived nearby. Nonetheless, he did have additional spare lamps, though not enough to replace all the noted ones.

"It's probably best to prioritize the areas with the most dead lamps, so there's at least some coverage," Samus suggested. "I'd also prefer if you swapped out the first one I mentioned, it's near a farm so it's more important. Wouldn't want the crop munchers to get into the, well, crops."

With that addition to their task, the group headed out onto West Highway, though not before picking up some more antitoxin as suggested by the patrol.

The soldiers' comments proved accurate, as the dragonflies and wolves were among the more dangerous monsters they encountered, though Ellia also proved correct about the pests.

None of the monsters they encountered proved too difficult for them to deal with, but there certainly were more of them than it might be expected for an Imperial Highway.

'Still, a lot of the monsters appear skittish, and there are clear signs of the Provincial Army doing patrols here. Why did Samus say they were unwilling to help then?'

After some time, they discovered a broken lamp. Elisha opened it up and examined it while the others stood guard.

"Huh…that's odd," the Reinford muttered. "A few of the wires are cut. Sabotage?"

"Wouldn't someone need the key to get to the lamp?" Ellia asked.

"Not necessarily," Elisha replied. "These things are mostly designed to keep monsters from smashing them easily and to keep the weather out, their security isn't particularly high."

"And you're certain that the damage is sabotage?" Lawrence inquired. "Because that would mean a saboteur."

"Not definitely, but mostly. This kind of cut isn't gonna happen by itself," Elisha explained. "It could be the guy who replaced it last screwed it up, but then the light wouldn't have worked so he'd have to be either an idiot or an idiot who didn't report it."

"Why would someone sabotage an orbal lamp?" Ellia wondered. "How would making the road less safe from monsters do anyone any good?"

"A distraction for the Provincial Army perhaps?" Lawrence suggested.

"That is likely to be at least part of it," Irene murmured. "But something seems strange…"

"How so, Lady Irene?"

"Ah! Apologies, I was thinking out loud."

"I mean, so are we, so feel free to chime in," Elisha pointed out.

"Well…" Irene began. "Samus mentioned that the Provincial Army hadn't responded to his request, and Lieutenant Maier said the same thing about Samus…"

"Both of them seemed like they were decent people," Ellia observed. "I don't think either were lying."

"Lieutenant Maier is not a liar," Lawrence agreed. "My father would not have helped train him if he was one. However, he was only recently assigned to Celdic, so it is possible he simply was not personally aware of Mister Samus' request."

"There…is also another possibility for the source of the problem, assuming that both Mister Samus and Lieutenant Maier are telling the truth," Irene remarked quietly.

"That is unfortunately an altogether too likely one," Lawrence concurred grimly.

"Are you guys saying the mayor or the Provincial Army captain are not relaying the requests through?" Ellia asked nervously.

"That is one explanation for what we've seen," Irene confirmed.

"If there're people fussed enough to make requests of students, then it'll have been going on for a while," Elisha pointed out, standing up from the orbal lamp, which was now glowing again.

"Oh, good work Elisha," Irene smiled.

"Thanks," Elisha shrugged, "wasn't anything crazy though. Whoever cut the wire cut it towards the end, so there was enough wire to reconnect them with new connectors." He patted his pouch thoughtfully. "Though if all of the lamps are like this I'll have to get more from connectors from Oddvin's, or see if I can make a bare wire work."

"It's a good thing we have you in this group," Lawrence chuckled. "I would not have been able to accomplish even something so apparently simple."

"Yeah, your hands are too big," Elisha snorted.

"Your other point has merit as well," Irene added, eyes closed in thought. "Mister Samus mentioned that this communication issue has been going on for some time now. But what kind of tax dispute would cause this?"

"Sales tax, I presume," Lawrence replied. "Celdic still has a high level of informal autonomy in those regards. And Duke Albarea has been pressuring my father to either increase our tax contribution or expand the viscounty's Provincial Army contingent."

"My father has mentioned something similar happening in Nortia," Irene added. "Although Ymir is small enough that we do not have a proper garrison, just a handful of sheriffs."

"Military equipment is expensive," Ellia agreed, "so I guess they need to pay for the expansion you guys mentioned right?"

"Seems like a bad bet," Elisha remarked. "Isn't part of the reason Celdic is so popular that the taxes for merchants are lower here?"

"Just so," Lawrence agreed. "So I imagine the mayor would be resistant."

"That is assuming this assumption is correct," Irene cautioned.

"Not like we can do much about it," Elisha shrugged. "Let's just get those carrots and check the other lamps."

Fortunately for the group, there were no complications in collecting the carrots from farmer Paul, other than a few rather rude park rangers by Lunaria Nature park.

The lamp by the farmhouse Samus had originally sent them after was surrounded by crop munchers, but most of them scattered and ran once they approached, and the ones that did attack them were put down in short order. When they checked the lamp, Elisha declared that it had shorted out, probably under normal circumstances.

The same could not be said of the lamps closer to the road. Some of them had wires cut, others were outright smashed.

"Could the Provincial Army have done this to try and get the mayor to agree to the taxes?" Ellia wondered indignantly.

"I find that doubtful," Lawrence disagreed. "They would likely put pressure on the market for that kind of coercion. I do not see them creating more danger for themselves in pursuit of that aim."

"Then who's doing this?" the ginger haired girl wondered. "No way a monster's doing it, no matter how smart."

"Not sure, possibly criminals," Elisha muttered. "The soldiers probably wouldn't have to pick the locks."

"If the lamps are out then monsters will come closer to the road. Maybe it's to keep the garrison occupied?" Irene suggested. "I can't imagine Celdic's garrison to be that large."

"Probably bigger than average," Ellia hedged, "but not big enough that they'd have a lot of men to spare, especially if they have to watch the market too."

"Lieutenant Maier appeared unaware of the monster spotted on the East highway," Lawrence mused. "But that may be unrelated."

"Let's just get back to town," Elisha suggested. "Get Samus's second opinion and then take the sabotage to the garrison. If they act funny then we'll know they're up to something."

"And what was with those rude guys at the park?" Ellia added.

"Lunaria Nature Park is a notable tourist attraction," Lawrence explained. "Though I am surprised that it is closed at this time of year, when tourism would be fairly high."

"Not to mention that something seemed off about that situation," Irene chimed in. "What kind of construction in a nature park would necessitate closing the whole thing as opposed to one section?"

"Would have expected there to be more equipment around, or signs of heavy equipment if they were doing any big construction," Elisha piled on. "There'd also be more people. And probably more barriers instead of just a padlock."

"Perhaps the Duke has it cordoned off to cut down on expenses," Lawrence shrugged. "It does cost a fair amount to maintain, and does not directly benefit him in any tangible way aside from prestige, theoretically."

"Wait, why does the Duke have control over the park?" Ellia asked.

"I don't recall the exact reason," Lawrence admitted, "but it isn't uncommon for things of the like to be nominally controlled by one of the Four Great Houses. In the past part of it was to prevent their subjects from siphoning off crucial resources."

"These places may have also had religious significance once," Irene added.

"Well those rangers were some of the shittiest priests I've ever seen before," Elisha snarked, "and I've seen Angelica wear a habit."

"That's a nun's uniform though," Ellia pointed out.

"Exactly."

"I think you may have been outside for too long, Elisha," Lawrence joked.

The group returned to Celdic, showing Technician Samus the smashed lamps and informing him of the ones with cut wires.

"What in Aidios' name?" Samus exclaimed. "I think you're right about this being deliberate, probably human action. The smashed lamps might be something monsters would do, but did they smash the fixture too?"

"No, just the lamp," Elisha confirmed. "And smart monster or not, I don't think they'd have figured out that cutting the connections makes the lamp stop working without destroying it."

"And you said the locks looked like they'd been picked?"

"Yep, based on some of the scratch marks."

Samus frowned. "I really should report this to the Provincial Army, but…"

"They were the ones that told us about these broken lamps," Irene pointed out.

"Who specifically told you about them?" Samus returned, a thoughtful look on his face.

"Lieutenant Maier," Lawrence provided.

"Oh, that makes some sense," the technician remarked. "He's a new officer, I think from Legram, and doesn't seem to have picked up whatever dispute the mayor and the captain have going on."

"So you do not believe that showing these lamps to the captain will serve any purpose?" Lawrence asked, narrowing his eyes.

"I'm n-not sure," Samus stuttered. "They didn't seem to care about lights not working, but something that looks like sabotage might be higher priority, I don't know."

"Who is the commanding officer of Celdic's garrison, anyhow?" Lawrence inquired further.

"Err…Captain Wolfgang…Schlamm…Schal…something '-dorf'...I think."

"Ah, Schalmmersdorf," Lawrence mused. "They are quite ardent supporters of Duke Albarea, so I suppose it makes sense he would assign one of them as the commander here."

"Yeah, that," Samus confirmed.

"Think he's not going to be as friendly as Maier?" Elisha asked rhetorically.

"Most likely not," Lawrence acknowledged, "but I would hope that he would be concerned about this, and is in fact, not behind it."

"He might be under pressure from his superiors to act a certain way," Irene suggested. "Given that he does not appear to have stopped Lieutenant Maier from taking the monster control seriously, it could be that his hands are tied."

"Or it'd look bad if he tells the new guy to stop doing his job so seriously," Samus grunted. "It feels like if we want the Provincial Army to help us at all, we have to go to one of the local guys, or the ones from Legram. The other ones usually brush us off."

"Aren't you in charge of fixing their stuff?" Elisha pointed out. "Seems like a dumb move to me."

"Partly," Samus replied. "They do have a couple of engineers on hand for their weapons and stuff, but yeah, I am the guy that fixes a fair bit of the stuff for the guardhouse."

"So they should listen to your opinion, at least, right?" Irene asked.

"Maybe," Samus hedged. "It's a bit hard to say, since this is a bit outside of my area of expertise."

"I might be able to assist in that," Lawrence offered. "Lieutenant Maier will at least take my endorsement of your conclusion under consideration."

"Well, worth a try," Samus declared.

At the guardhouse, Lawrence asked to speak with the lieutenant, and the sentry at the door was all too eager to follow his request.

"Hello again, Sir Lawrence," Lieutenant Maier greeted as he stepped out to meet them. "I'm glad to see you and your companions are unharmed. Did you find something odd on the highway?"

He glanced around the group. "Ah, hello Samus. I assume that this has to do with the lamps then? And I must apologize, I did not properly introduce myself."

He bowed slightly. "I am Lieutenant Stefan Maier of the Kreuzen Provincial Army. It is a pleasure to meet all you students."

Irene curtsied politely. "Likewise, I am Irene Schwarzer, of Ymir, and now a student at Thors Military Academy."

"I'm Ellia Craig. Nice to meet you."

"Elisha Reinford."

Lieutenant Maier blinked. "Well, if a Reinford found an issue with the lights then I believe that is something to take seriously." He gestured inside. "Why don't we discuss this further inside."

Maier led them to an office that looked to be shared by the lieutenants assigned to Celdic, noting that the other two were out managing the day patrols, while he managed the night patrol.

He examined the damaged lamps and listened intently to Elisha and Samus' explanation.

"Sabotage?" He mused. "That would help explain the increase in monster activity my men noted. I have only been at my post for two months, so I have no reference to what it was like previously."

"Have they been seeing problems with the lights for a long time?" Elisha asked.

Maier shook his head. "No, not like this. One or two every now and again, but not seven or so all in a day or so."

"Have your fellows also seen similar issues?" Lawrence inquired.

"Yes, my fellow lieutenants have noted there being an increase in damaged lights," Lieutenant Maier confirmed. "But with the increased activity in the market, not to mention the more frequent disturbances, Captain Schalmmersdorf has ordered us to focus more on checking identification and permits among the incoming merchants."

"Disturbances?" Ellia asked, hoping for clarification.

Maier winced. "With the sales tax increase and the busy market season, the merchants have been getting more stressed, and thus more disturbances."

"You were instructed to check identification, but not to stop the disturbances," Irene observed cooly.

The lieutenant winced. "You are quite a perceptive young lady. Indeed, the captain has given us instructions to let the mayor handle those disputes, even though neither he nor we can truly resolve them when most of the cause for the distress is from Bareahard."

"Probably just trying to get the mayor to stop complaining," Elisha suggested.

"Perhaps," Lieutenant Maier replied. "But I am not sure that will solve the problem. I was assigned here due to my experience dealing with monsters, and I think that if people were able to see tangible benefits from expanding the Provincial Army, they would be less upset about the increase in sales tax."

"Merchants? Probably not," Elisha disagreed. "But they'll be upset at taxes regardless. They'd prefer to directly pay for security."

"It is still not an ideal situation," the lieutenant sighed, "but that is not your responsibility. I will bring these findings up with the captain. Best of luck with your field study."

"Thanks, we'll probably need it with that scary dinosaur the request mentioned," Ellia mumbled.

"Scary dinosaur?" Lieutenant Maier asked with concern.

"A farmer reported a large monster near his fields to the east of town," Lawrence explained. "We were asked to remove it."

"I…had not heard of that," the lieutenant murmured worriedly. "That is a task we should be handling."

"I am not sure if the farmer, Syro, actually put in a request about it," Lawrence said. "We were planning on speaking with him about it."

"Farmer Syro…let me ask Hans or Franz about him." Lieutenant Maier stood, stepping out of his office for a moment. "Hans! Franz! Apologies for the late request, but do you mind assisting me in another matter?

The two soldiers in question also came into the office, one of them the group had met earlier.

"What's the matter, sir?" Hans asked, glancing at the students. "Did they find something?"

"Thors students?" Franz wondered.

"Yes, to both questions," Maier replied, gesturing to the damaged lamps. "But that isn't what I need you for. They also mentioned that farmer Syro is having monster problems."

"Syro?"

"Old man Syro is a tough geezer, sir" Franz noted. "It must be a big one if he's having trouble with it."

"That was my impression of him when we met last month," the lieutenant mused. "Did either of you hear about him putting in a request?"

"No sir," Hans shook his head. "Thought the old man was too proud for that."

"You would think we'd have heard about a monster that big by now," Franz muttered. "Didn't see any sign of it on patrol."

"It may explain why the wolves moved to the west side of town," Hans noted.

"The request mentioned it nesting on a plateau, so perhaps that's why you haven't seen it?" Irene suggested.

"What?!" Hans exclaimed. "I know that place. When I patrol that way I usually stop by there since it gives you a good view of the surrounding area. Last time I was there was last week, it can't have been there long."

"What kind of monster did he say it was?" Franz asked.

"Some sort of dinosaur," Ellia supplied.

"Those…really should not be outside Lunaria Nature Park," Hans remarked.

"I thought all those things were dead," Franz muttered.

"I know you already went on patrol, but can I entrust you two to assist these students in their task?" Lieutenant Maier asked. "I would accompany you myself, but this matter of the lamps needs to be brought to the captain's attention."

"I can do that sir," Hans agreed. "I guess it makes sense to help them out if they're supposed to be getting an idea of what our job is like."

"And that thing is far too close to town for comfort," Franz added, giving the group a speculative look. "Though are the students able to handle it?"

"I believe so," the lieutenant replied. "Thors may suffer fools sometimes, but it does not suffer cowards."

Group A left town again accompanied by the two Provincial Army soldiers, while Samus and the lieutenant stayed to speak with the Captain.

As the group entered the highway, the two soldiers became curious about the students' weapons, particularly Ellia's.

"So it's something to help cast arts? I can see how that can be pretty useful. Not sure why they're having students test it out though," Franz remarked with a shrug.

"Are you able to cast water arts?" Hans asked. "Those will work better against the big lizard."

"Yeah, but why is that?" Ellia asked, looking a bit nervous (and slightly offended) under the scrutiny of the two soldiers.

"Not entirely sure," Hans replied, "just something I've seen from experience."

"We still need to confirm the details with old man Syro," Franz pointed out. "It could be that the description is off and it's actually something else."

When they arrived at the farmhouse, Farmer Syro was surprised to see the two soldiers, but relaxed when he recognized the two of them as being local to Celdic. He was also a bit cautious about sending students to deal with the monster, especially Irene and Ellia, who admittedly did not look very threatening, but with Lawrence and the soldiers' assurances, he eventually confirmed the details of the report, and his description of the monster seemed to fit the creature Hans and Franz were thinking about.

The group approached the plateau cautiously, the two soldiers stopping every so often to try to spot the creature with their binoculars. Eventually they did. Up on the plateau, a blue and gray lizard-like creature with a dorsal spine was sunning itself on a large rock.

"Why the hell is that thing up there?" Franz muttered. "Don't they usually prefer more cover?"

"There's also no food nearby," Hans mused, "and it can't really make good use of the elevation since its eyesight isn't great."

"You know…with the lights getting messed with and monsters showing up in places they normally wouldn't…could someone be screwing around with them?" Elisha theorized.

"I hope not," Franz grumbled, "that shit never goes well–oh, sorry ladies."

"It's f-fine," Ellia assured.

"While crude, I agree with the sentiment," Irene added.

"Whatever the reason, this creature must be removed," Lawrence declared. "How do you think we should approach this?"

Hans tapped his rifle, which was longer than the one they saw him carry earlier in the day. "Definitely a good thing we loaded for bear. Don't want to have to deal with that thing up close."

"They aren't particularly bright," Franz noted. "If we start shooting it from down here, maybe it'll be dumb enough to crash down the cliff and kill itself."

"Not sure the fall will kill it," Hans cautioned. "Got to take out a leg first to make sure it lands rough."

"I have a gun as well, and Ellia can cast supporting arts," Elisha brought up, "but what do we want our sword brains to do?"

'Sword brain? She wasn't that bad, was she? She didn't think she was quite like Freidel.'

"If that thing manages to crash down and charge us, can we depend on you two to stall it long enough for us to put it down?" Hans asked, looking at Lawrence and Irene.

"Aye," the tall noble agreed. "If it gets too close we can cut its leg from under it to give you more space."

Irene nodded, even though she could tell the soldiers were a bit skeptical of her. Their plan seemed sensible enough, but given how the monsters had been acting strangely, she had a feeling it was not going to go quite as planned.

"What if the monster retreats to where you cannot hit it anymore?" she pointed out.

"We should be able to wound it enough that it should be simple enough to finish it off," Hans replied. "Just got to make it count."

The group surveyed the surrounding area for a while, before finding the best spot for the soldiers to fire from, eventually settling on a hill from where they had clear line of sight to where the monster appeared to be sunning itself on a rock.

Ellia sang an incantation for an empowering art as the three gunmen took aim, while Lawrence and Irene waited to the front and to the side in case the lizard tried to take the most direct path towards them.

"Bang!"

Hans' aim was true, and his shot struck the monster in the hip, drawing a pained screech from the reptilian beast that was cut short as Franz drilled a shot into it jaw, the impact sending it tumbling off the rock it had been resting on, crashing to the ground behind the rock and out of sight, which incidentally caused Elisha's shots to miss.

"Damn," the blonde engineer groused. "Should have shot first."

"Is it dead?" Ellia asked, covering her ears, looking slightly startled at how loud the rifles had been.

"Not yet, I don't think," Franz answered, checking his weapon. "But it shouldn't be able to go far, or really bite anyone anymore."

The hunting party followed the path up towards the plateau carefully, the two sword wielders in the lead, followed by the two soldiers, while Elisha and Ellia brought up the rear.

"Raaah!"

The wounded monster suddenly charged at them from the top of the path, roaring in desperate fury.

"Shit!"

Hans and Franz fired, but the creature's injured leg meant that it stumbled and crashed to the ground, their shot whizzing through the air above it as it careened down the slope towards them.

"Clear the way!" Hans barked, diving to the side while working the bolt on his rifle.

Lawrence shifted sideways, moving out of the way of the out of control lizard, but not without carving his sword through its good leg as it passed, resulting in the monster sprawling out and rolling down the hill like a log.

Left with no space to dodge, Irene instead leapt over the stricken reptile, slicing her blade through its throat, before landing back on her feet a bit further up the hill.

The rest of the group managed to get out of the way, but the frenzied monster was not quite dead, snapping impotently at them as its legs failed.

The two Provincial Army soldiers ended its misery with two more shots into its skull.

"Should we have waited for it to bleed out?" Elisha asked, brushing some dirt off his jacket, looking slightly miffed that he hadn't managed to shoot the thing.

"We might have been a bit hasty," Franz admitted.

"Apologies," Lawrence called from uphill. "I did not expect it to roll like a log."

"I didn't expect you to take that thing's leg clean off!" Franz yelled back. "Seems like you guys are pretty tough for students. It'd have been a bit dicier at the end there without your help."

Hans also looked rather impressed. "If you guys do end up joining the army, I think you'll be able to get up to speed pretty quickly."

"Thank you for the kind words," Lawrence replied, "though it seems clear we still have quite a bit to learn, given how well your plan worked, for the most part."

"What were you going to suggest? Er…Lord Lawrence?" Franz asked.

"I was considering trying to throw it off the plateau and having you shoot down at it."

"...That would have been a great story if we could have pulled it off," Hans laughed. "But I do have to get some rest before night patrol this evening."

"Oh! Then we should get going," Irene suggested. "Do we need to bring proof of the dead monster?"

"Bring back the leg," Franz suggested. "Maybe we can see if it also tastes like chicken!"

And that is how the group ended up returning to town with a giant lizard leg, though not before they stopped to tell Farmer Syro the good news.

Hans and Franz returned to the guardhouse, now looking noticeably tired, even if they were inordinately pleased with the lizard leg. The students instead decided to visit the Grand Market again, possibly to buy some trinkets now that their tasks for the day were complete.

"They were actually pretty helpful," Ellia murmured as they left. "I wonder why the townspeople seem to think they won't help them?"

"It could be that monster patrolling isn't as visible to the average citizen…" Lawrence offered, but his face suggested he did not believe that was the reason.

"Given the discrepancy between the requests made by the citizens and the soldiers," Irene began, "it seems more and more likely that the captain is not assigning men to those tasks."

"There also weren't any soldiers around the market," Elisha noted. "Which is weird since that's where you'd think more fights would happen, not to mention the amount of valuable stuff that is moved through there."

As if on cue, they heard angry shouting coming from the entrance of the market.

"…Not my fault," Elisha declared.

The group hurried into the market, spotting a well dressed merchant arguing animatedly with another merchant who looked like a local.

"This is my spot! I paid good money for it!"

"That's absurd, this is my spot! I even have the permit for it right here!"

"What?! I have the permit for this spot!"

The group paused, unsure what to make of the scene.

"Do the permits truly require specific spots?" Lawrence wondered. "Those permits usually have to go through the Duke's approval, but specifying a spot? I would have thought that that would be the purview of the mayor."

"So is the Duke bad at paperwork?" Elisha snorted. "Or is one of them using a forgery?"

"I don't think that would be this agitated if they both did not truly believe themselves to be in the right," Irene concluded.

Whatever questions the group might have had were put on hold as the argument escalated, one of the merchants shoving the other.

"Alright then," Lawrence sighed, stomping forward, deliberately loudly.

The concerned onlooking crowd could not get out of his way fast enough, but the two scuffling men did not notice.

"Gentlemen," Lawrence growled, clamping a massive hand on the merchants' shoulders.

They stiffened, rounding on the interloper, before their faces turned stark white as the incredibly tall noble loomed over them.

"It is clear you two have a grievance to settle," Lawrence continued evenly, "but there is a proper way to go about things. If you so desire, I can officiate."

"Uh…."

"E-errr…"

"Just who the hell are you?!" the well-dressed merchant cried indignantly, his outrage momentarily overwhelming his fear.

"I am Lawrence S. Arseid, and I am asking the two of you politely to calm yourselves, or to move your disagreement to a more safe location."

At the mention of his name, the merchants paled even more, their ire temporarily quelled by the situation they found themselves in.

While neither merchant looked like they were willing to let things go, they reflexively stepped away from the giant of a man who had snuck up on them, no longer interested in fighting.

"Now, did I hear correctly that you both believe you have the permit for this spot?" Lawrence inquired calmly, taking his hands off their shoulders now that they were not about to throw punches.

Both merchants nodded.

"I…have the permit in my bag," the well dressed one stammered.

"Same here," the local merchant replied, gesturing towards the disputed stand where he had partially set up his wares.

"Assuming neither you are attempting to pass off a forgery, then there must be a mistake in the process somewhere," Lawrence reasoned. "If you were both assigned the same stall, which I assume you cannot feasibly share, then it would be best to bring the issue to the mayor, who should have the authority to find the error or assist in reaching a compromise."

"I hope I can live up to that expectation," an elderly man declared as he approached the commotion.

"Mayor Otto!" The local merchant sputtered in surprise.

Dressed in a fine suit and a bowler hat, the old man did certainly look the part of a mayor, though he certainly did not look pleased.

Seeing someone who could potentially resolve the issue, the merchants unloaded all they knew about the situation, and it seemed that they had truly been given the same permit, down to the identical expiration date.

The mayor frowned, explaining that while he could not change the permits, he would try to find a compromise, and called the two merchants away to negotiate with more privacy.

"Well, that's sorted out, I guess," Elisha grunted. "Don't really know how it fits into our field study…but probably works better this way."

"I'm impressed by how tactfully you handled that, Lawrence," Irene complimented. "I was afraid we would have to drag them apart."

"Haha, you flatter me," Lawrence replied with a slight smile. "They were not seriously interested in fighting. All they needed was an outlet or something to snap them out of their blind rage."

"I know I'd be pretty freaked out if you managed to sneak up on me," Ellia mumbled. "I still don't get how you can be so quiet, it's like turning around and finding a wall moved while you weren't looking."

"I'm not quite that wide," Lawrence chuckled, "and people can miss a lot if they are fixated on something."

"Huh, looks like they've got it sorted out," Elisha remarked, pointing out how the mayor and the merchants had returned, looking resigned, but at least no longer furious.

As they watched, the mayor approached them and gave a polite nod. "Thank you for stepping in, Lord Arseid, it would not have been pleasant if they had actually come to blows."

"It was no trouble, Sir Mayor," Lawrence replied. "Have you managed to negotiate a compromise?"

The mayor sighed. "Both permits were legitimate, so they have tentatively agreed to alternate between this stall and an unoccupied one towards the rear of the market." He shook his head. "It isn't ideal, but that aside, I would like a word with the four of you students."

Mayor Otto led them to his home, a fairly large house not too dissimilar in size to their dorm. He explained the situation over some, going over the same thing Lieutenant Maier had mentioned from a different perspective.

"The Duke has been insistent on keeping the new taxes," he sighed. "Even if it cuts far enough into merchant's margins that quite a few of them cannot afford to sell here anymore. My attempts at petitioning the Duke have gone nowhere, I was not granted a meeting even when I went to Bareahard in person."

"For what reason were the taxes increased?" Lawrence inquired.

"No reason was given," Mayor Otto answered, "which was one reason I protested. But I can only assume it has to do with the expansion of the Provincial Army."

"It is likely related, yes," Lawrence concurred. "The Duke has increased the number of troops each of his subjects is supposed to provide as well. Legram is not the most populated part of Kreuzen, but we were already disproportionately represented in the Provincial Army, and yet the Duke requests we raise even more men."

"Where are all the new soldiers being stationed?" Ellia wondered. "It can get really expensive, especially if the soldiers are mostly not really doing anything."

"For what I know, they have mostly been added to the garrisons of the main army hub, such as the fortress in Aurochs Canyon," Lawrence replied, "though they have also been spread out over city garrisons."

"We have had perhaps thirty more soldiers garrisoned here in Celdic over the last year," the mayor added. "For a while they were quite helpful, for the most part, and before two months ago, they would certainly have intervened in what happened at the market."

"I did find it a bit weird that they had no one stationed at the market," Elisha remarked. "Would've figured crime would have gotten worse."

"There have been more cases of visitors having belongings stolen," the mayor confirmed. "Mostly by other visitors, but it is not good for our reputation."

"And the Provincial Army captain is shirking his duties until you cave and cease objecting to the taxes," Lawrence concludes with a grimace. "Regardless of whether he is under pressure from his commander, that is a gutless act."

"That seems to be the case," the mayor confirmed. "But of course that has never been explicitly stated. It's why the request I collected for you did not end up going to the garrison, though it seems that some of the soldiers don't mind helping. I assume the requests never passed the captain's desk?"

"Probably," Lawrence agreed. "Lieutenant Maier and his soldiers appeared unaware of them."

"And Hans and Franz are from Celdic," Ellia added, "so it makes sense they'd be more willing to help."

"Lieutenant Maier has been helpful since he and his men were assigned here," Mayor Otto remarked, "but he has only been here for a couple months, and does not have the authority to really challenge Captain Schalmmersdorf."

"So you issued the requests to students for a field study?" Irene chimed in, giving the mayor a curious look. "While we are happy to help, we are clearly not a permanent solution."

"You are right, it won't be," the mayor sighed. "But it will help a bit."

"Oh, you're the one handling our requests?" Elisha realized. "How'd you get wrapped up with that?"

"Well I am in charge of the town, so to speak," Mayor Otto pointed out with a laugh, "so naturally this study was brought to my attention during the planning stages."

"Thank you for accommodating us," Irene offered politely. "So far this study has been quite thought provoking."

"You are welcome," the mayor replied. "And on that note, you should probably get back to the inn. You still have one day of your field study ahead of you."

The group thus headed back towards the Weathercock Inn in uncomfortable silence.

"This all doesn't seem fair," Ellia mumbled.

"Most certainly not," Lawrence agreed, "and I doubt Mayor Otto has the influence to be able to bring a petition to the Emperor. Though that might make things worse."

"Yes, if it went that far the Duke would be put into a position where his reputation would suffer no matter what he did," Irene agreed. "And beyond that, the people of Celdic do not have much other legal recourse."

"Plenty of ways to game the taxes though," Elisha pointed out. "Would depend on the wording of the tax, but if it specifies sales, you could do stuff like permanent loans, or pretend the transactions are reciprocal gifts."

"That will likely only exacerbate the situation," Lawrence countered. "Then there will be more fees."

"So there's nothing that we can do?!" Ellia exclaimed. "The Duke's Julia's dad right? If she asked, could that help?"

Lawrence frowned and Irene shook her head.

"Duke Albarea is unlikely to listen to anything Julia has to say," Irene explained morosely, "if he even acknowledges her existence at all. Oh, but I've said too much!"

"…It's that bad, huh?" Elisha snorted. "And her mother is no help either, right?"

"Julia's mother has…passed on," Irene replied.

"Oh…" Ellia gasped, a flicker of old pain crossing her features. "That's sad."

"That was difficult enough for her…" Lawrence trailed off with a sad shake of his head. "But I should not say more."

"Wait, do you guys have dead moms?" Elisha wondered tactlessly.

"Elisha!" Ellia snapped, whacking him on the head with her staff.

"What did I do?!"

"It is…generally not pleasant to be reminded of lost loved ones," Lawrence replied carefully, looking perplexed that Elisha did not understand that.

"Oh…so I was right, sorry."

Irene did not remember much about her birth mother. Not her name, her face, just a vague impression of warmth–

Fire.

Heat.

Her mother's voice screaming her name–

"Lady Irene?"

'Oh…that was Lawrence?'

"Apologies…" Irene replied, "I was…lost in thought."

Ellia and Elisha looked at her in confusion, but seemed to shrug it off. Lawrence, however, seemed to have come to a realization.

'Why is he looking at me like that?'

"Well, I see you guys are thinking real hard about the situation!" their instructor suddenly chimed in as she rounded the corner, looking no worse for wear despite drinking early in the day.

"What are you up to now?" Elisha grumbled.

"Weeell, it seems Group B is having some problems with the 'group' part," Instructor Valestein drawled, "so I'm headed over there to help them out."

"Now?" Elisha stressed. "It's something like six to eight hours to get to Parm."

"Wouldn't it have been better to have gone to Parm in the first place?" Ellia added. "They were already arguing a lot in the morning."

"Unless…you thought there might be trouble here that required your presence?" Irene suggested.

"Heh, seems like you guys will be fine on your own," their instructor declared with a smile. "Put your heads together and I'm sure you'll figure out the best course of action."

"As much as I appreciate the endorsement, what are you suggesting?" Lawrence asked, giving their instructor a suspicious look.

"Well, it might be nothing," she replied, ambling to the train station with nary a look back. "Aidios be with you, and I look forward to reading your reports!"

Group A stared at her backs for a few moments in disbelief.

"For someone who spent the morning getting drunk, she sure seemed to sense what we were thinking," Elisha admitted grudgingly.

"I do hope Julia is doing alright," Irene sighed. "I know Masha can be abrasive, but…"

"In any case, we should probably return to the inn," Lawrence suggested. "We still have to write those reports, and I believe it would be best to do so before the fatigue from the day catches up to us."

"It's already catching up to me," Ellia grumbled, before shaking her head with a start. "I'll be fine though!"

"Dinner sounds good," Elisha agreed. "I'm hungry enough to eat that dinosaur leg as is."

"Well, we can't have that!" Irene declared with a slight laugh, waving the group in the direction of the inn.

After a hearty meal, the group felt refreshed, but also quite sleepy.

"Just how important is the report?" Elisha asked irritably. "At this rate I think I'd rather go to sleep."

"I get the feeling," Ellia agreed, before shaking her head furiously, "but I didn't fight my way into this school to give up just because I'm a little tired!" She pumped her fist excitedly, but her enthusiasm was undermined a bit by the yawn that overtook her a moment later.

"Fight your way?" Lawrence asked. "While we did have a combat portion to our first day, I don't believe there was a combat test for general admittance."

Ellia flushed red, looking down for a moment.

"I imagine your big sister had some concerns about you joining a military academy?" Irene asked gently.

"Yeah…" Ellia sighed, looking back up. "You guys can probably tell that I'm not that good at fighting…yet! That's 'cause my dad and my big sister are a bit too overprotective, but I don't want them to have to worry about me all the time, so coming to the academy is a way I can show them that I can stand on my own."

"That seems a potentially effective way to earn a man such as General Craig's respect," Lawrence mused, giving the ginger girl a considering look, "though I imagine you being in potential danger would make him worry more, even if your resolve makes him proud."

"Whaa?!" Ellia squeaked, covering her face with her hands, "how did you know?!"

"Is…it that strange to presume an affectionate father would worry about their children no matter how strong they are?" Lawrence wondered, glancing to Irene and Elisha for support.

'Julia really is right about him being dangerous for women's hearts.'

"I don't think it is strange," Irene reassured, "my own father gave me a long talk about boys before I left for Thors."

"You too?" Ellia cried, looking even more embarrassed.

"My father just suggested I find something outside of the martial arts to pursue while at Thors," Lawrence murmured, giving the girls a curious look. "Though I suppose it would make sense for your parents to consider the possibilities, since there are quite a lot of sons from influential families at Thors."

'That was a small part of the reason I wished to attend Thors…and doesn't he realize that includes himself?'

"Is that why you came to Thors?" Ellia asked, "to find a wife or something? With your dad being one of the best fighters in the country, you don't have to go very far to learn that."

"Err…not exactly," Lawrence replied, slightly taken aback. "And while it is true Father is an excellent swordsman, attending Thors is a good way for me to interact with practitioners of other weapon schools. Though more importantly, it gives me more opportunity to learn of the wider world, especially given how fast technology is changing."

"Wait, you guys talked to your parent before leaving for school?" Elisha cut in, a perplexed look on his face. "Is that a normal thing kids do?"

The three other students stared back at him in confusion.

"Okay…guess I'm weird then," the blonde man shrugged. "And since we're sharing, I'm here 'cause I wanted to see how stuff works outside of Roer. New stuff is cool and all, but old reliable's got its own worth, not to mention that a lot of the eggheads back home kind of have their heads in the clouds, and I wanted to understand the wider effects of new technology firsthand."

"I imagine it must be a bit like stepping back in time seeing the rest of the empire," Irene remarked. "I have visited Roer a few times, and there are so many things that you can't find anywhere else."

"Eh…not really," Elisha replied. "Sure, there's a lot more new tech in Roer, but it's more like going from a place with mountains to the Nord Highlands or something. As cutting edge as some of the new inventions in Roer are, most of them will never reach widespread use because they aren't really useful."

"That is…a more conservative view than I expected you to have," Lawrence admitted. "Given your enthusiasm for new technology, I had thought you would be a bit more in the futurist camp."

Elisha snorted. "No amount of technology is going to make my mother less of a bitch, so I already know it can't solve everything."

Again, the other three stared at him for a moment, taken aback by how casually he cursed his mother. He described her in an even tone, without much emotion, as if it was simply a matter of fact.

'I…What kind of relationship do they have if…? I could never see my mother like that…either of them.'

"So, since the rest of us have shared, how about you, Irene?" Elisha asked, as if he had just been talking about the weather.

"Well…" Irene paused, frowning slightly, "in part it is to support Julia, but mostly, I wanted to prove myself, I suppose."

"Prove yourself?" Ellia asked.

"Yes," Irene replied with a nod. "Unlike my little sister, I do not have noble blood, as I was adopted by Baron Schwarzer and his wife, so in some way, doing well at Thors would prove that they raised me well."

The two commoners' eyes widened in shock for some reason. Ellia looked gobsmacked, mouth actually dropping open.

'And prove those that mocked my parents for taking me in, wrong.'

"I believe you have already achieved that aim," Lawrence observed earnestly, no trace or flattery evident in his voice. "I can say I have met few people as noble in spirit or as kind in heart as you."

'… …. ……Aaah!'

Irene felt her face burn in what must be a furious blush, completely poleaxed.

"Are you sure they aren't dating?" Ellia whispered to Elisha.

"I think he just has no filter," Elisha returned, with not a hint of irony.

"Do you think my assessment incorrect?" Lawrence asked sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

"I don't see how we could," Elisha muttered, "since there is no way for us to know who you've met throughout your entire life before now."

"A-as he said," Irene stammered. "B-but there is no need for flattery."

Lawrence frowned. "It is not flattery, simply the truth."

"I…Thank you, then, for the compliment," Irene amended, taking in a deep breath. "I am…somewhat unused to genuine comments like that."

"If you two are gonna start flirting, I'm going to go do my report," Elisha mumbled, getting up from the table.

'He isn't flirting with me...'

"Y-yeah, I think I'm going to go too," Ellia stuttered, following after Elisha.

'He isn't saying this to butter me up, he really means it!'

"I…am unsure how this is flirting," Lawrence grumbled, "and I must apologize if I seem too forward, but I see no reason to avoid telling you that it seems to me your stated goal is in reach…unless there is more to it than that."

"Thank you, Lawrence," Irene reiterated, glancing down shyly. "But I think you give me too much credit."

"The fact you treat the noble spirit as something to pursue and not innate already sets you above many nobles."

"I would have to, wouldn't I?" Irene sighed. "Or else it would be hopeless."

Lawrence stared contemplatively at her for a long moment. "There is more to your motivations, isn't there? But if you do not wish to share, I won't pry."

"I…appreciate your understanding," Irene nodded gratefully.

'He's more perceptive than he seems at first. Julia was right about that too.'

"I would like to train for a bit before completing my report," Lawrence added. "Would you like to join me?"

"I…I believe I will have to decline if you wish to spar," Irene replied. "What we saw today bothers me, and I would like to clear my mind a bit before writing the report."

"I am of similar mind," Lawrence concurred. "If you wish to meditate alone, that is your decision, but your company would be welcome."

"I…would not mind your company either," Irene admitted.

Despite Elisha's insinuations, there were no romantic undertones about it. The two of them simply went through their routine in pleasant silence, before returning to their room to write their reports.

---

 

[WrandmWaffles]

March of Jurisdictional Jockeying​

Irene woke up coughing, the acrid smell of smoke prickling at her nose and jolting her awake.

Loud noises thumped indistinctly around her, muffled by her surroundings.

What was going on?

A woman screamed.

Mama–?

PAIN

Irene jerked up in her bed with a choked gasp as a sharp jolt of agony spiked through her chest. One hand grasped blindly for her sword which she had left on the bedside table, the other clutched her chest over her aching scar.

She breathed in. Then breathed out. In. Out.

Gradually, the phantom pain faded, and her heart rate returned to a more normal state, but it would be difficult to sleep after that dream.

'I still don't remember how I got this scar. But from the dreams…how did I survive? Why…did I survive? And not Mama?'

She sighed, running a hand through her sleep mussed hair. Her dreams, or perhaps buried memories, never stuck in her mind for long, but for some reason Irene was quite sure her hair was the same color as her birth mother's.

The thought made her chest twinge again, and she brushed it away quickly.

Glancing around the room, Irene was relieved to see that her night terror hadn't disturbed any of her classmates.

'It has been a while since my last nightmare. I haven't really had them since I was at St. Astraia's, and even then they really only happened after the school trip to Valflame Palace. I wonder what changed?'

She shook her head, sliding silently out of her bed, slipping on her shoes, and quietly exiting the room, sword in hand.

'Perhaps some practice might help clear my mind.'

Irene padded out of the inn, the starry night sky drawing a pleased gasp from her as she breathed in the cool country air, a light breeze caressing her face gently.

Her breath evened out.

'This seems like a nice place. The sky is a bit more like Ymir's than Heimdallr's.'

Finding a nice spot behind the inn where the wind flowed freely, Irene took a breath and began to run through her katas.

The rote motions helped clear her mind, and for a few minutes, her nightmares, and the problems of the day faded into the background, whisked away by the gentle breeze and deep focus.

Eventually, she finished her katas, and came to a halt, letting out a slow breath as she dipped out of her fugue.

"Have you incorporated elements of ballroom dancing into your footwork?" inquired a deep, rumbling voice, and Irene let out a startled squeak as her heart almost leapt up her throat, finally noticing that Lawrence had been standing a ways in front of her.

"H-how long have y-you been there?" She gasped. "You gave me quite a fright."

"Oh, I apologize!" Lawrence replied quickly. "I didn't make myself known because I did not want to interrupt your focus."

'Did he sneak up on me? No…I must have just missed him in the dark.'

"You were there for most of it, weren't you?" Irene sighed.

"…Guilty as charged," Lawrence admitted, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "I noticed you were thrashing about in your sleep, but you got up and went outside before I could make up my mind on what to do."

"So you followed me out into the night?" Irene asked in a slightly accusatory tone, even if she did not really mean it.

'Besides, we did just share…a room for the night–but it was with other people–wait no! That makes it worse!'

"It sounds more nefarious when you put it that way," Lawrence grumbled, "but I really just wanted to make sure you were alright."

"Oh! I'm sorry, did I wake you?" Irene apologized, glad that the dark of night meant Lawrence could not see her flushing features.

"Well, yes," Lawrence admitted, at which Irene's heart sank, "but there's no need to apologize. I could hardly hold that over you when you evidently have a difficult enough burden already."

"They're just nightmares," Irene replied, trying to downplay them. "Nothing to be too worried about."

"If you do not mind me asking…?" Lawrence trailed off.

Irene was silent for a moment, not sure if she should continue.

'I already inconvenienced him though, so I at least owe him an answer.'

"…You know how I'm adopted, right?"

"Ah…I had my suspicions about that," the tall noble shifted uncomfortably. "So the circumstances of your loss were…violent?"

"I…think so," Irene mumbled. "There was fire and gunsmoke, if my memory is right, but I don't remember much."

"…You have my condolences," Lawrence said softly. "It must have been hard."

"I don't remember much of it," Irene emphasized, "but your sentiment is appreciated." She paused. "I am also sorry for your loss."

"Your kindness is also appreciated," the tall noble returned, before shaking his head. "But enough of such grim topics. I don't know what I can do to help with your nightmares, but do not hesitate to ask if you need something."

"I don't think you can tackle a nightmare, hehe," Irene giggled, "and you don't have to go out of your way to help me, but thank you for the offer."

"You've already gone out of your way to help me with my jacket," Lawrence countered. "And I know you've done a lot to help Lady Julia even when she's being unreasonable, so it's simply returning the favor in my eyes."

Irene felt her face heat up yet again. "T-that wasn't anything special, it was just my duty!"

"Perhaps the student council work," Lawrence admitted, "but being Julia's friend was not, so I at least have to thank you for that."

"…You two are quite close, aren't you?"

"I suppose you could say that," Lawrence agreed with a shrug. "You seem close to her as well. I don't remember Julia being as playful before she met you. It's good to see her smile more."

"T-that doesn't have much to do with me," Irene denied, though she got the sense that Lawrence was not convinced.

"All that aside," Lawrence continued, "do you feel that you will be able to go back to sleep now?"

Irene blinked.

'Was all that just an attempt to take my mind off things?'

"Perhaps," she sighed. "But it is hard to say."

"In that case, would you care for a dance?" Lawrence suggested, stepping closer to her.

"Whaa?!" Irene squeaked.

"Oh, my apologies. I suppose that was a bit forward," Lawrence chuckled. "You seemed to enjoy dancing, and I thought suggesting you dance while I stand here watching would be odd."

"I wasn't really dancing," Irene pointed out, "I was practicing my katas."

"And now that you are finished, you don't want to start again?"

"Well…to some extent," Irene admitted, the fatigue starting to catch up to her. "Part of me wants to just look up at the sky."

"It is quite a sight," Lawrence agreed. "Do you want to get a view from higher up?" He asked after a moment.

"H-higher up?" Irene asked. 'That sounds nice, but what does he mean?'

"I could give you a boost onto the roof if you'd like," Lawrence offered.

"Um…then you wouldn't be able to see as well," Irene pointed out.

"True," Lawrence shrugged, "but I'm not the one who is having trouble sleeping."

"You don't have to inconvenience yourself for my sake!" Irene declared.

"No, but I want to."

'…Aaah! How am I supposed to handle this?!'

"B-but!" Irene stammered. "W-we have the rest of our field study tomorrow, you should get some rest."

"That would also apply to you," Lawrence pointed out. "If you don't mind, we could just stargaze together."

With a sigh, Irene relented, and the two of them leaned against a fence, staring up into the night sky and the sea of stars.

"I missed this while I was in Heimdallr," Irene murmured. "Ymir is a small town, so there isn't a lot of light pollution. It was a bit strange that I could not see them in the capital."

"Legram is larger than Ymir, but it is likewise remote, and it did bother me how dark the sky was the first few times I stayed at Bareahard," Lawrence concurred.

"Hmn, I guess we're both countryfolk, so to speak," Irene said with a chuckle.

"Ha! So we are."

They stayed like that for a while, and eventually, Irene felt herself nodding off. She didn't quite remember how she got back to her bed, but she definitely slept better afterwards.

---

Irene woke up a bit later than usual the next day, only slightly earlier than Ellia and Elisha. Lawrence had awoken earlier still, and ended up bringing them their breakfast, the large man setting down enough food for five onto the room's table with no noticeable effort.

"The requests from the mayor are here," Lawrence announced, presenting a similar folder to the one they were given yesterday from where he had it tucked under his arm.

Taking the folder from him, Irene removed the paperwork regarding their tasks and read over them.

"There are only two tasks today, a monster hunt on the West Highway, and Merchant Lizzie requesting us to find the owner of a lost wallet," she read off.

"Only two?" Elisha mumbled, rubbing some sleep out of his eyes. "Guess we are supposed to head back later today."

"When did this monster appear?" Lawrence wondered. "We were on the West Highway for a few hours yesterday, and yet we saw nothing that could warrant this request."

"A Zwordar?" Ellia murmured, glancing over the request. "Isn't that a bird-like one?"

"Ah, I see," Lawrence mused, "then it might have been airborne, hence why we did not spot it."

"Kind of weird," Elisha added, narrowing his eyes at the request. "The hell is a birdmon hanging around a bridge for? Figured it would be in a tree or something, and that was a stone bridge, not a dead tree bridge."

"Now that you mention it," Irene murmured thoughtfully, "the Provincial Army soldiers mentioned that some monsters were behaving rather strangely yesterday, didn't they?"

"Not to mention the sabotaged orbal lamps," Lawrence added, "which would mean that monsters are more likely to end up accosting travelers."

"And with what the Mayor said about the taxes…" Ellia trailed off.

"Too much conjecture," Elisha grunted. "Eat first, think later."

'Fair point.'

The four of them dug into a hearty farmer's breakfast, savoring the taste of fresh potatoes, onions, and cured ham.

"I could get used to this," Ellia sighed. "No offense to the Thors cafeteria, but it can't beat this."

"It is quite well done," Irene agreed. "We should thank Margot when we head downstairs."

They did just that when they finished, Irene feeling slightly embarrassed that she was the last one done, but they weren't in a rush so she did not see the need to scarf down the food like Elisha and Ellia did. Lawrence didn't eat particularly hurriedly but he still finished first.

"Well, I'm glad to hear such enthusiastic feedback," the matronly woman laughed when they told her their appreciation. "You've been quite helpful so far, so I hope you'll visit again sometime once your field study is over."

"Perhaps during one of our free days," Ellia agreed. "Maybe me and my sister could plan a trip or something, it's really not that far away."

Whatever further plans could be made were interrupted as the red haired waitress burst into the inn. "Margot, we've got trouble down at the market!"

"Slow down Louise," Margot chided. "And where have you been? You're late!"

Louise winced apologetically. "Sorry, I got held up at the market. It looks like a couple of stalls got smashed during the night and all their stuff got stolen!"

"What?!" Margot barked in surprise.

"Oh no!" Ellia cried. "That's going to be terrible for the merchants!"

"Why two?" Elisha asked. "You'd think you'd hit the best value or as many as you can depending on your goal."

"Was it the two merchants from yesterday who were robbed?" Irene asked thoughtfully.

Louise blinked. "Yeah, how did you know?"

"They'd be the ones most agitated," Irene explained.

"Either way, it sounds like the market won't be opening on time today," Margot observed, smelling an opportunity. "Come on Louise, let's get this place ready in case we get more customers as they wait for the market to open!"

"Perhaps we should check in at the market?" Lawrence suggested.

"Will it do any good?" Elisha asked. "We have our own stuff to do, and the only thing we could manage is stop any punching going on."

"That seems a worthwhile endeavor in and of itself," Lawrence argued.

"And it is worth pointing out that the Mayor listed both tasks as optimal," Irene added.

"Huh? The wallet I can get, but the monster too?" Ellia wondered.

"Let's make sure the market doesn't have a brawl breaking out first," Lawrence declared.

"Yes," Irene agreed. "First things first."

The group hurried over to the market, where the nervous looking merchant trying to turn away early customers let them through, hoping they could help defuse the situation as they–well mostly Lawrence–had done the day before.

As they guessed, the two merchants from the day before were indeed at each other's throats again, and this time it seemed even the mayor's presence could not deter them.

"You hick! Do you think this is a joke, destroying my stall?!" the well dressed merchant yelled, waving his fist threateningly.

"Joke?!" The local merchant cried, likewise irate. "I'll show you a joke! You destroyed my stall, you Heimdallr snob!"

"Like I would be caught dead with your shoddy wares!"

"Shoddy–? Why don't we settle this right here and now, you bastard?!"

"Gentlemen! Please calm down!" the mayor called in vain.

"You're on!" the well dressed merchant growled.

"To the death, or to first blood?" Lawrence rumbled, sneaking up on the two merchants for the second time in as many days.

The two men jumped in shock, instinctively backing away from the tall noble who seemed to have appeared from nowhere.

"U-um…"

"I-i…"

Shocked out of their rage, at least for the moment, the two merchants reconsidered their words.

"That…was not what I meant," the local merchant admitted.

"I may have been too hasty," the well dressed merchant agreed quickly.

The mayor sighed in relief. "Thank you, Lord Lawrence. Marco, Mister Heinz–"

"My stand is still broken and my goods are gone!" the local merchant, Marco cried. "What am I going to do?"

The well dressed merchant, Heinz, glowered at the other man, but did not make any further aggressive move. "I paid good money for this?!" he grumbled.

"What is the delay with opening the market?" A pompous voice called, and everyone turned to see a Provincial Army officer striding into the market, flanked by several of his men.

"Captain," Mayor Otto greeted carefully. "There's been two robberies. Both Mister Marco and Mister Heinz have had their wares stolen."

"The two ruffians who slapped each other like children yesterday?" the captain snorted. "It should be obvious. Men, take them to jail!"

"What?!" the merchants cried.

"Clearly you have both stolen each other's things," the captain declared, "so to the jail you will go unless you reveal where you hid the stolen goods!"

"I did no such thing!" Heinz objected. "I took the train home last evening, it would not be possible for me to do this!"

"I was at a friend's place!" Marco cried. "I never left the whole night!"

"Captain, if I may?" Lawrence interjected, and the officer nodded, though reluctantly. "I am unconvinced that Mister Marco or Mister Heinz could have carried away each other's goods. Mister Marco had at least a truckload of food items, and Mister Heinz had a fair number of boxes as well. It would have been difficult for any one person to carry that off."

The captain and merchants blinked, looking slightly annoyed they hadn't realized that.

"You raise a fair point, Lord Arseid," the officer acknowledged grudgingly. "Even so, as described in the revised Celdic charter, aside from outside interference or issues that prevent the market from opening, market matters should be left to the mayor to handle."

"Surely such a theft would count as something within your scope?" Mayor Otto pointed out. "Unless you believe it to be entirely internal and not one such external factor."

"I have yet to see evidence that it was not due to this dispute between merchants," the captain dismissed. "While it is true that they were unlikely to have done such alone, that does not mean they did not have accomplices."

"Oh come one!" Ellia snapped. "Isn't that worse? If there's a bunch of people stealing stuff isn't it your job to catch them?"

"I will not be lectured on my job by a child, girl," the captain sneered. "The disturbance is over, and I suppose the two troublemakers suffered an acceptable punishment, so that will be all. I am a very busy man, and do not have time for these petty disputes."

With that, the head of Celdic's garrison marched off in a huff.

"I would say that this must be a result of slackened standards," Lawrence muttered after the soldiers were out of earshot, "but I am quite certain Captain Schalmmersdorf was part of the army well before that."

"Grr…" Ellia growled. "And they wonder why people are going to the RMP instead."

"They could have at least helped clean up the mess," Elisha grumbled.

As unsatisfying as it was, the soldiers' arrival had thrown cold water over Marco and Heinz's anger, and the two despondent merchants cleaned up the remains of their stall with the help of Mayor Otto and the Thors students, which did eventually allow the Grand Market to open for the day, though not without a significant delay.

The group started on their tasks for the day, collecting the lost wallet from Merchant Lizzie. Unfortunately, aside from a substantial amount of mira, the only clue to the owner's identity was a train ticket to Heimdallr in the evening.

"Quite a lot of cash," Elisha observed drily. "Bet you the owner is as torn up about losing it as those merchants are about their wares."

"I still can't believe they'd act like that," Ellia grumbled, only half paying attention to the wallet.

"Perhaps the owner would have tried to find it at the train station?" Lawrence suggested, trying to get the group to focus. "It is our only clue at the moment. Asking through the inns might work, but that would be tedious, though we can most likely assume that the owner is not leaving without this wallet."

"Yeah, I guess that could work," Ellia mumbled distractedly.

"Is there a lost item collection somewhere?" Elisha wondered.

"I am not sure," Lawrence replied. "I would suggest the guardhouse as a place to check for that, but.."

"Those guys won't be any help," Ellia finished grumpily.

"Well unless it's Maier," Elisha pointed out, "but he's on monster hunting duty, probably not this."

"Lady Irene, do you have some thoughts?" Lawrence asked, giving the other noble in the group a curious look. "You seem to have been deep in thought."

"Well…" Irene began. "I was considering whether we should investigate the robbery ourselves."

"Really?" Elisha grunted. "I don't think any of us have any experience doing that. Plus we have our own stuff to do."

"I think it's a great idea!" Ellia shot back. "We're already helping out with a bunch of stuff, why not this too?"

"I would like to help resolve this incident," Lawrence said slowly, "but there is the matter of perhaps overstepping my bounds, both as a student and a noble."

"Oh come on!" Ellia cried. "What's the worst that could happen?!"

"We get killed because this was some secret government project or the stuff was stolen by jaegars," Elisha replied matter of factly.

"W-whaa?" Ellia reeled back. "Where'd that come from?!"

"You did ask what the worst that could happen was," Elisha snorted.

"That seems unlikely," Lawrence countered. "I do not think most jaegers would deign to take such a job."

"Worst case," Elisha reiterated.

"I see. Even so, while this is not strictly my responsibilities, or ours, I would certainly like to see it sorted out," Lawrence continued.

"So, are we decided on our course of action?" Irene prompted, deliberately echoing Instructor Valestein's words from the day before.

"Oh right, of course she ran off when there was more work to be done," Elisha grumbled. "As long as we can get out on time, I'm in."

"Mnh!" Irene nodded, a pleased smile crossing her face. "To start with, we should check in with the station about the wallet, then we should check around the damaged stalls to see what we can find."

"At least there are only two things to do," Elisha muttered as they headed off to the train station.

The station attendant had, in fact, received a request about a missing wallet from a young woman, who mentioned that they were staying at the Weathercock Inn, proving Lawrence's supposition correct.

Returning to the inn, the group asked Margot about the wallet's owner.

"Oh! That must be Annabelle," the matronly woman exclaimed. "She was looking all over for it."

"Wait, Annabelle?" Irene asked sharply. "Salmon colored hair, obsessed with fishing? That Annabelle?!"

"Err…that does seem to fit," Margot replied, surprised at the normally mild mannered girl's reaction. "Do you know her?"

"Her family has been trying to find her for months!" Irene cried. "Where did she go?"

"She said she wanted to check around the Grand Market," Margot replied slowly, still taken aback.

"With no money?" Elisha asked drily.

"...Is she planning on trading in fish?" Irene wondered.

"Huh? I think she was going to look in the guest rest area," Margot explained.

'Oh, that makes a lot more sense.'

Alas, Annabelle was nowhere to be seen at the rest area, though another visitor mentioned a woman of her description talking about everything being in the goddesses' hands, so the group had a decent idea of where to look for her next.

While they were at the market, they also spoke with Heinz and Marco, though neither merchant had much more information to share, other than the nature of the goods they had lost, which were accessories and processed foods, respectively. While they were not particularly impressed with the idea of students trying to find their lost goods, they did not have much reason to refuse, given the despair evident in their demeanor.

"This has got to be some kind of scheme," Ellia hissed. "The permits came from the Duke, right? So there's no way these guys getting their stalls smashed is coincidence!"

"Likely not," Lawrence agreed, "but do you think the army did this themselves? As Lieutenant Maier mentioned yesterday, they do have a night patrol, so it would be hard to hide such activity, assuming that he and the local soldiers are not in on the plan, or someone leaked their patrol route."

"I do not get the sense that they would go along with something of the sort," Irene mused. "Especially not Hans and Franz."

"It is also worth noting that Captain Schalmmersdorf argued that the Provincial Army does not have jurisdiction over the market affairs," Lawrence added. "That is true, technically, but I am quite sure that such distinction was supposed to be about affairs such as opening and closing time. As the permits come from the Duke, the Provincial Army would have to enforce those permits or else they would be pointless."

"And yet they left resolving the dispute about the permit yesterday to the mayor, but showed up immediately today when something got stolen," Elisha observed. "Odd that."

"Like Lady Irene, I also find it unlikely they were directly involved," Lawrence cautioned. "As the Provincial Armies serve their lords, their actions also reflect on their lord. Indirectly, however…"

"Which is why they are attempting to silence the merchants' complaints regarding the new taxes," Irene concluded, twirling part of her ponytail around one finger. "Or rather, the captain and maybe some of his lieutenants are, but the average soldier is likely less aware of the specifics."

"There's need-to-know, and stuff like that," Ellia agreed.

"Even so, we would need much more solid evidence to make such an accusation," Lawrence added. "Not to mention that there is the matter of the missing goods themselves."

"There was a lot of stuff, so they couldn't have gone too far," Ellia concluded, "though where would they have put them?"

"Could be a warehouse or something," Elisha suggested. "Though that probably won't stay hidden for long."

"Wait…what about those weird rangers at the park?" Ellia suggested. "All it would take to make that a decent hiding spot is to just block people out."

"True," Lawrence acknowledged, "and it is close enough that transporting them there is feasible. Much of the land around here is either highway or farms, and those are usually too flat or see too much traffic to allow for serious concealment, unless the perpetrators were the farmers themselves, which seems highly unlikely."

"I think we will need more evidence before we attempt to try that gate," Irene pointed out. "And we need to find Annabelle."

"Think we'll have to look around town to find more clues anyway," Elisha grunted.

Firstly, they stopped by the church, where they indeed found a salmon-haired woman kneeling at the altar in prayer.

She finished and stood up with a sigh as they entered. "Aidios have mercy on me please. What am I going to do now?"

'It definitely is Annabelle.'

Irene strode deliberately (marched) up to her former classmate, the rest of the group watching them in confusion.

"Annabelle van Brakell!" Irene called. "Just where have you been?!"

The fish-obsessed girl jumped, spinning around and gawping at Irene a bit like a well…fish.

"Student council prez?" Annabelle mumbled. "What are you doing here?"

"Your family's been worried sick!" Irene cried. "Do you know they've been sending poor Mister Carragan all over the Empire looking for you?"

"Kinda?" the prodigal noblewomen mumbled.

"Your father was so worried he came to St. Astraia's himself to interrogate us and where you might have gone," Irene pressed.

"He could have shown that same concern when selling my future off," Annabelle muttered mutinously.

"Is the son of Baron Lakelord that bad?" Irene asked lightly.

"Wait, Lakelord? That's who it was?!" Annabelle gasped. "I thought it was some army guy!"

"You…ran away from home without even listening to whom you were betrothed?" Irene sighed in exasperation. "You didn't even graduate properly first!"

"Maybe?"

"Annabelle."

"Hey! I'm perfectly happy like this," the salmon haired woman objected. "Well, aside from the missing wallet–"

Irene presented her with said wallet.

"My wallet! Thanks Irene, I knew I could count on you!" Annabelle lunged forward and wrapped her former schoolmate in a hug, but Irene slipped out of her grasp, still holding her wallet out of reach.

"I can understand enjoying traveling around the empire to find good fishing spots," Irene acknowledged, "but at least tell your family where you are and that you're ok. Your father cares enough to have arranged a match with a family who would view your eccentricities as a positive, and this whole mess has put the Lakelords in an awkward position."

"Eh? I figured they'd just dump me," Annabelle shrugged, trying in vain to grab her wallet.

"It isn't that simple, Annabelle," Irene explained resignedly, even as she deftly avoided her former classmate. "Since you disappeared, without expressing your consent or lack thereof, they can't break off the engagement without it being viewed as an insult to your father."

"Oh…I hadn't thought about that."

Irene shook her head with a sigh. "It's fine if you don't want to pay that much attention to those things, but please at least be a little considerate about the feelings of other people, especially if you run off because you felt your father didn't take your own into account."

Something seemed to click in Annabelle's head as a distant look appeared in her eyes. "I…kind of made a mess of things, didn't I?" she whispered.

Irene nodded solemnly, offering her the wallet. "We've all been worried about you, you know? Friedel even had some of her family's soldiers check the good fishing spots around their territory."

"Ehehe, I told you I'd be fine," Annabelle laughed awkwardly. "Guess I got too caught up in the whole thing."

"It's alright," Irene replied. "You're safe, which is the important thing and what we were really concerned about. Though I didn't really expect to find you in a church of all places."

"I get it now, Prez!" Annabelle declared, a flash of conviction in her eyes. "I know what I must do!"

The salmon haired girl almost marched off, but paused to grab her wallet and give Irene another hug, which the indigo haired girl did not slip out of this time.

"See you later Irene!"

"Be safe Annabelle!"

There was an awkward silence in the church for a moment, before Father Zirbel laughed.

"That was certainly one of the more unusual ways I've seen a prayer answered," he chuckled.

"Wow, Irene's definitely got some kind of noble whispering power," Elisha joked. "That chick was running around for what? Half a year? And then Irene talks to her for a minute and they're going home."

"H-huh?! That's not what happened!" Irene objected.

"Heh, got another miracle in ya, little lady?" a despondent man sitting in a nearby pew asked.

"M-miracle?" Irene stammered.

"You did happen to return Lady Annabelle's wallet right after she finished praying for it," Lawrence pointed.

"Any chance you can get me my job back?" the man asked, perhaps jokingly, but his grim tone made it harder to tell.

"Um…well…how did you lose it?" Irene replied. 'I don't think I can help, but no harm in asking.'

"Heh, damned if I know," he scoffed. "I worked as a ranger at the nature park for over a decade, and then a week ago some official pranced in and fired all of us with no warning and no explanation." He shook his head. "Damn scrooges, figuring they can pay younger guys less and get rid of the older guys."

"Is this about the construction going on in the nature park?" Ellia asked with narrowed eyes.

"Construction?!" the former ranger exclaimed. "The hell is there construction for?! It's a damn nature park!"

'So that was indeed a lie.'

"That's what some of the employees at the entrance of the park said when we asked why the park was closed," Lawrence explained.

"That's bull–" the man paused. "That's a lie. Gotta be. What would they even build there? They'd have to pave over a bunch of stuff."

"There have been agitated monsters lately," Ellia murmured.

"…Aidios damn it all," the former ranger sighed. "Well, guess I'll have to figure out a different job then." He heaved himself up and left the church.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Ellia whispered to Elisha.

"How would I know that?" Elisha shot back. "Unless you're thinking that they have stashed the stuff at the park."

"That's–! Why did you have to be so difficult about it?!" Ellia snapped.

"Oh, so that was what you were thinking," Elisha replied with realization.

"It is admittedly a guess without that much evidence," Irene mused, "but there are a few suspicious circumstances."

"It is also in the same general direction as the monster hunt," Lawrence pointed out. "So we would not be going greatly out of our way."

"Then let's go!" Ellia declared.

"Ehem," Irene cleared her throat. "We should consider what we need to fight the Zwordar."

"Those things have some powerful wind arts, don't they?" Ellia replied.

"I believe so," Lawrence agreed. "And they can fly, so I will not be able to hit it with my sword unless it is close to the ground." He turned and gave Irene a thoughtful look. "Though you do have an effective way of handling wind arts."

"What do you mean?" Irene asked with some trepidation.

"I don't know if throwing Irene at the bird will work," Elisha snorted.

"Huh?"

"Wait what?!"

Irene and Ellia shared a confused look.

"True," Lawrence admitted. "Not to mention it would be better to stop it from charging up that attack in the first place."

"Might be a bit tricky if I'm the only one with a proper ranged weapon," Elisha commented. "Sure the staff has some range, but it's not gonna be able to hit the bird reliably."

"Perhaps it would be most effective to ground the monster, then" Irene suggested.

"Yeah, I bet if Lawrence sits on it, it'll be stuck," Ellia giggled.

"If I stood on a wing, perhaps," Lawrence said thoughtfully.

"I may have a way of…convincing it to get close enough," Elisha continued, reaching into his pouch and retrieving some ammunition. "Zwordars don't like fire, right?"

"Ah, so your idea is to anger the monster by shooting fire at it," Lawrence replied. "Then when it swoops down to try to stop you, we can hit it while it is low to the ground."

"Pretty much," Elisha shrugged.

"Sounds like a plan. If the monster flees, that would still be a decent result." Lawrence declared. "Shall we get to it then?"

After stocking up on some more medicinal items, the group again headed out onto the west highway. Now somewhat familiar with the terrain, they found the bridge in short order, and sure enough, they found the large bird monster perched on the bridge.

"Something is very wrong with how these monsters are behaving," Irene murmured.

"Should I still try shooting it?" Elisha asked. "It's already on the ground."

"I am unsure if I can reach it before it flies off," Lawrence replied, "but I do have an idea. I will try challenging this monster. Be prepared to cover me if necessary."

"...Got it," Elisha returned skeptically.

'It might actually work on territorial monsters such as this one. But that assumes it acts normally.'

"Wait a sec," Ellia called, before humming through the incantation for a strengthening art.

Irene pulled out her own ARCUS unit and did the same, the world sharpening into focus as she chanted to herself.

Lawrence marched steadily towards the Zwordar, sword held at the ready.

As he approached, the avian monster reared up, beating its wings threateningly, but oddly enough, did not actually take to the air, instead shrieking angrily at the approaching swordsman.

Lawrence was undeterred, and made no threat display of his own, instead continuing forward at the same pace.

The Zwordar let out a squawk of outrage, stretching its wings wide, and Irene could feel the air rushing to the monster's command–

Lawrence sprung forward with shocking speed and lanced his massive sword through the bird's left wing, interrupting the build up of the art and throwing it to the ground with a startled sound of pain.

The bird monster tried to spear Lawrence with its beak, but the large man grabbed a hold of it and held it away from him with one hand while he tore his sword through its wing with the other.

The Zwordar desperately tried to bat him away with its free wing, but Elisha stopped it with a burst of fire. An instant later, Irene appeared by Lawrence's side and cut through the free wing with her blades.

Ellia launched a torrent of water into the monster and Elisha closed in, projecting a stream of fire into its face, while the two sword wielders cut apart its wings.

With a cry of desperate terror, the bird-like monster summoned a burst of wind with the last of its energy. It was not enough to hurl the group around like gargoyle's had back in the Old Schoolhouse, but it was enough to send them stumbling backwards.

Irene let the rush of air swirl over her, landing on her feet lightly as it subsided.

Lawrence had not been moved far, righting himself without much effort.

Ellia had been knocked flat, but Elisha had managed to catch himself as he stumbled backwards.

The Zwordar opened its beak and let out a defiant screech, one that was cut off as Elisha sent a shot into its head that ripped the monster's skull apart in a fiery blast.

"You could probably have led with that," Lawrence pointed out.

"Didn't want to risk hitting you," Elisha explained. "Still not getting consistent yields on those things. They also keep exploding when shaken too much."

"Urgh! How can you all be so calm about this?!" Ellia cried as she scrambled back to her feet, giving the savaged remains of the monster a disturbed look. "I can see its brains!"

Elisha launched a burst of fire at the dead monster's head, maintaining the stream for a few seconds, enough to char the remains into something unrecognizable. "That better?"

Ellia gave him a horrified look, before doubling over and retching onto the ground.

Irene stood still to the side, trying to suppress a shiver, though for an altogether different reason.

A part of her shared Ellia's discomfort, but another, dark part of her radiated gleeful satisfaction.

"It's a monster, so it's a good thing it's dead, but–'

The scent of charred flesh stung at her nose, reminding her uncomfortably of cooking game meat somehow.

"Oh, I guess you girls might not have seen stuff like this before," Elisha muttered awkwardly.

"I'm s-starting t-to understand why dad didn't want me doing t-this kind of…thing," Ellia stammered, just shy of hyperventilating, still bent over, hands braced on her knees.

"There's no shame in being disturbed by death," Lawrence consoled, holding the ginger girl's hair out of the way with one hand and giving her a reassuring pat on the back with the other. "Just keep in mind that if the monster was left free reign, it might kill people in a similarly gruesome manner."

"Yeah, these things are nasty," Elisha agreed.

"A-are…are you ok Irene?" Ellia asked, probably in an attempt to take her mind off the scene in front of her as she straightened up, her breath coming out more evenly.

Irene blinked, snapping out of her…daze, before turning towards the shorter girl with a slight smile. "I am alright Ellia, thank you for your concern."

That did not seem to reassure her, and Ellia's head snapped rapidly between her groupmates. "Y-you guys have all seen…s-stuff like this before?"

"Yup," Elisha shrugged. "I've seen a guy get pancaked by machinery, and some really nasty burns. One guy lost half his hand and two of his finger, that was kind of weird–"

"I don't need a list!" Ellia snapped, shaking her head furiously. "Oh, Aidios, why did I think going to Thors was a good idea?"

"While Thors does teach combat, most of its graduates do not go into military careers," Lawrence replied. "And it is one of the most academically rigorous schools in the Empire, as well as one of the more prestigious ones."

"Not really what I was talking about," Ellia mumbled with a sigh.

"I've seen animals and monsters like this before," Irene murmured, centering herself with a slow breath. "The first time…well…that's probably not a good example." She shook her head, trying to cast away the phantom iron tang of blood on her tongue.

"A few people I knew were killed when jaegers attacked the Legram Bracer Office some years back," Lawrence added somberly. "It was…an unpleasant sight."

Ellia looked between the three of them, then at the remains of the monster. "I think I get dad a little bit more now."

Irene nodded. "You can see why he wanted to protect you now, right?"

"Yeah."

"And what of your desire to be able to take care of yourself?"

Ellia stared at the monster's corpse and swallowed. "I…I think I have a better understanding of what I need to do to get there."

"Ah crap," Elisha cursed, "now we can't bring the head back as proof."

"Don't ruin the moment!" Ellia cried, bonking the inconsiderate blond on the head.

"What did I even do?!"

---

The group approached Lunaria Nature Park cautiously, but there were no "rangers" waiting for them at the gate like the previous day.

Instead, their progress was barred only by a simple padlock, and the few scattered boxes proved their suspicion accurate.

"These are some really sloppy thieves," Elisha muttered, crouching down and pulling the cover of one of the boxes.

The box was mostly empty, but there were a few trinkets inside that bore some resemblance to the accessories Merchant Heinz had been hoping to sell.

"Oh good! We can get their stuff back!" Ellia cheered, before frowning at the locked gate. "Assuming we can get in."

Lawrence walked over to the fence, reaching up with his arm, his fingers reaching the top.

"I can probably climb over," he observed. "I can also boost the rest of you over."

"Are you certain?" Irene asked. "If you cannot make it over and send us over first, we'll be stuck."

"Well then, I shall try."

Lawrence stepped back, ran a few steps forward to the wall, and leapt, hauling himself to the top so easily Irene almost felt embarrassed for doubting him.

"Huh," Lawrence grunted, perched on top of the wall. "How exactly does this stop animals and monsters from getting through? Pretty sure the lizard thing could have gotten over it."

"Its arms were too small," Elisha pointed out, walking over to the wall below Lawrence. "You gonna help me up or what?"

"Ah, right, our original goal," Lawrence chuckled, reaching down and hauling Elisha up onto the wall with one arm, from where the blonde man hopped down to the other side.

"And you two?" Lawrence asked, offering Irene and Ellia a hand.

"Ah, yes!" Irene stepped over and grabbed at his arm, her relatively small hand dwarfed by his. He pulled her over the wall easily, and she dropped down lightly on the other side, hand going to the hilt of her sword as she watched her surroundings.

"Ellia?" Lawrence called. "We aren't planning on leaving you behind, you know."

"C-coming!" Ellia shook off her hesitation and Lawrence hauled her over the wall as well.

The interior of the park was quite different from the outside, with a thick canopy of trees that cast much of the area in shade, dimming the bright spring sun.

"Looks like there was quite a bit of foot traffic through here," Elisha declared, crouching down to examine something in the dirt path. "Got some bootprints, and wheel marks."

"That explains how they were able to carry off all the goods," Lawrence mused, eying his surroundings carefully.

"Something seems off in the forest as well," Irene murmured, closing her eyes and reaching out with her senses. The wind carried with it near silence aside from the rustling of leaves and the crunch of stones under their feet. "I don't hear any birds."

"Did they get scared off by the people poking around in here?" Ellia wondered.

"Supposedly, the theft took place during the night," Elisha pointed out, "so it wouldn't have been that immediate for the animals."

"And the creatures that dwell in this forest are likely more accustomed to human activity in their vicinity," Lawrence added, "so yes, there really does seem to be something strange afoot."

"Perhaps even beyond the robbery," Irene theorized. "All these monsters acting oddly seems unlikely to be a coincidence."

"That's probably not something people stealing ham and bracelets could do though," Ellia muttered.

"True," Lawrence conceded, "they may be unrelated, but it is still suspicious."

"Is this the only entrance to the park?" Elisha asked. "If it is, taking a truck into here would make it hard to get out quickly."

"I think we are getting ahead of ourselves," Irene chided gently. "We should determine whether the thieves really are here first."

"Fair enough," Elisha grunted.

The group thus headed deeper into the park, following the trail and the occasional mark left by the likely thieves.

They encountered some monsters along the trail, mostly mushroom like creatures and beetles, neither of which proved much of a threat. Even so, their presence alone was a bit unusual.

"Is it normal for monsters to get so close to the path?" Ellia asked as they cleared out another pack. "Or are the fake rangers just not doing their job?"

"It might be that with fewer visitors, the monsters are more confident in approaching the road," Irene suggested.

"I dunno, is this one of those controlled hunting places?" Elisha asked.

"No," Lawrence replied, gesturing to a variety of stone sculptures that periodically lined the path. "It is considered more of a historical site, given the animist structures present here. Though from what I understand, there has not been that much actual research into the park's history, possibly because there is not much evidence to work with."

The park turned out to be quite sizable, and with the occasional wandering monster group, it took them at least an hour to traverse the path, which took them across a stream and towards the center of the forest.

The trees and undergrowth grew thicker around them, and their pace slowed as they watched warily for an ambush.

"Hold on," Irene called softly. "I think I hear someone." The group paused, and she listened more deeply.

"Nice haul we got," one of the fake park rangers chuckled. "And we'll get even more if those grubby merchants don't stop complaining about the tax."

"Don't get ahead of yourself," another one chided. "We're getting paid well anyways."

"Though…just who were those guys?" a third fake ranger murmured. "The Provincial Army seemed to be way too willing to accommodate them."

"None of our business," the first bandit dismissed. "We don't get paid to ask questions, we just need to be ready to get out of here really quickly."

"You will be going nowhere!" Lawrence declared, stepping around the corner, sword in hand, followed by the rest of the group, not that the bandits noticed, scrambling backwards for a moment at the sudden appearance of the tall man.

"Shit! Where the hell did he come from?!" one bandit cried, fumbling his gun.

"How did someone that big sneak up on us?!" another one yelled.

"Forget it! They're just students!" their apparent leader barked, aiming his gun at the group. "It really wasn't a bright idea to come here into the woods, with no witnesses–"

Bang!

"Aaah!" The bandit leader stumbled back, one hand clutching his arm where Elisha had shot him, his weapon clattering to the ground. "What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

Elisha threw a grenade in response, sending the bandits scrambling to get away, but one still got caught in the blast of bright light and fell to the ground clutching his face.

Another one ran right into the pommel of Lawrence's sword and dropped like a rock.

The last bandit tripped and fell at the students' feet. "Wait! Please don't hurt me!" He looked plaintively at Irene, perhaps hoping the girl would be more merciful.

"If you return the goods you stole, then there will be no need for violence," Irene returned coolly, sword still pointed in his direction.

"Ok! Ok! I'll do that!" he cried.

"Do you guys hear a flute?" Ellia asked suddenly.

The air thundered as a monstrous howl crashed across their senses, causing the bandits to cry out in fear.

"What the hell was that?!" Ellia shrieked, gripping her staff tightly.

"A big monster," Elisha answered dumbly.

As if on cue, booming footsteps heralded the arrival of a massive ape-like creature as it barreled through the trees towards them.

"Well, fuck," Elisha cursed, switching out the ammunition on his gun.

"I do not think we can outrun this," Lawrence observed with deadly calm, readying his sword.

"W-who says we're running?!" Ellia barked, voice trembling, but determined.

Irene simply breathed in, holding her blades in a ready position.

The monster roared at them, then charged.

Lawrence and Irene stood their ground, part of them absently noting this was strange behavior for a monster.

Then it was on them, fists crashing down with an impact that shook the earth, but it hit nothing.

The two sword nobles went for its legs, Lawrence hacking a vicious wound through its calf, but Irene's strike was blunted by its thick hide and did little more than cut a gash into its thigh.

Still, the beast stumbled, having overcommitted to its strike, and received a face full of gunfire courtesy of Elisha, explosive rounds tearing away at its flesh.

Lawrence and Irene felt strength surge through them as Ellia cast an empowering art and they hewed again at the ape monster, but still only did superficial damage.

And then it recovered, whirling around swinging a fist in their direction. Irene ducked out of the way and Lawrence deflected the blow, but the second fist caught him in the chest, sending him crashing into the ground.

"Lawrence!" Ellia cried, starting to cast a healing art.

"I'm fine!" he grunted, springing back to his feet.

Irene ducked between the ape monster's blows, its movements quick and terribly forceful, but also heavily telegraphed…to an almost unnatural degree, but she didn't have time to dwell on that.

It attacked with reckless frenzy, heedless of the gunfire exploding around its head, instead resolutely continuing its efforts to squish its much smaller opponent to little success.

Still, Irene could not find any opportunity to counterattack, too busy trying not to get hit. If she had time to process things, she would have been terrified, but there was no time, and her world narrowed into sharp focus, with little room for anything but the monster in front of her.

A nudge from her ARCUS link prompted her to plant her feet and lash out, cutting two arcing gashes into the beast's right arm, leaving her open to the other fist, if Lawrence hadn't been there to cleave it almost cleanly off.

The giant ape screamed in pain, only to be interrupted as Elisha hurled a grenade into its open mouth and Ellia blasted it with a mass of water.

Irene paused to take a breath as Lawrence finished removing the monster's injured arm, but she could tell the fight was not over.

She inhaled deeply.

Dark energy swirled around the massive ape as its abused throat released a dreadful sound.

Lawrence went for its leg, but it did not fall, somehow ignoring the injury and the bombardment of gunfire and arts and hurling itself at the tall noble, trying to crush him underfoot.

Irene exhaled, spun on her heels, leapt, and struck.

The monster stiffened, suddenly silent, blood fountaining from an x-shaped wound in its throat, before toppling to the forest floor with a thunderous, but limp, crash.

The threat vanquished, a wave of exhaustion almost overwhelmed Irene, but Lawrence managed to steady her as she landed.

"Impressive swordwork, Lady Irene," Lawrence huffed, also breathing heavily. "If that is what a beginner of the Eight Leaves can accomplish, I will have much to learn if I ever meet even an intermediate."

'I'm about to keel over from that one move! You got punched by a giant monster and barely look winded!'

But Irene was too tired to voice her thoughts aloud.

"Are you two ok?!" Ellia cried, breathlessly attempting to cast another healing art with trembling limbs.

Elisha looked relatively unruffled and emptied his gun into the monster's corpse. "It better stay dead after this."

"...The fuck did you say about students?" one of the restrained bandits muttered, eyes wide.

"Are you sure they aren't jaegers in disguise or something?" another one whispered worriedly.

"How would I know?!" their leader gasped, still clutching his arm.

"Now, you shall return your stolen goods and turn yourselves in for the crime!" Lawrence boomed, glaring at the thieves, who wilted under his gaze.

"What, you expect us to just carry all the stuff back and walk right up to the Provincial Army guardhouse and turn ourselves in?" one of the bandits scoffed.

"Yes," Lawrence declared coolly, looming over them.

"And if we don't?" the apparent leader snapped. "What are you going to do about it?"

Lawrence just pointed at the felled monster behind him. "And rid yourselves of your false ranger uniforms as well. You are not worthy enough to wear them."

"You want them to walk back naked?" Ellia asked in confusion.

"If they are wearing nothing under their uniforms, then so be it," Lawrence replied.

"You serious?" one of the bandits squawked.

"I think we should do what he says," their leader bit out, glancing warily at Elisha, who was idly juggling a grenade. "Though I don't think I can do anything with my arm like this."

"If you promise to be good, I can help with that," Ellia declared, ready to cast a healing art.

In most other circumstances, that probably would not have been convincing, but the bandit leader was getting steadily paler and Lawrence and Elisha were quite intimidating even if it didn't seem like they were really trying to be.

With their leader in slightly better shape, the unnerved bandits (sans uniform jackets) began loading the stolen goods back into the truck under Lawrence's baleful gaze, giving Irene time to catch her breath.

'I'm still not making much progress.'

She let out a breath as the wave of exhaustion faded into a dull ache. Even though she trained often, it really wasn't as stressful as this had been.

"You doing alright there?" Elisha asked, coming closer to check on Irene while still keeping an eye on the bandits. "I still have a few of those healing shots left."

"I w-will be fine!" Irene squeaked, not particularly enthused by the idea of being shot, even if she had seen it work before.

"Well, yeah," Elisha went on. "I figured that much, I just wanted to know how fast you will be fine, just in case these guys have more friends somewhere."

Irene pursed her lips. He had a point. "All right. Hit me."

Elisha discharged his gun, causing everyone else to flinch. Irene sucked in a breath as her heart rate spiked, but the fatigue bled out from her limbs. "Thank you."

"No problem."

"What did I say about a warning?!" Lawrence barked.

"Hey! I got permission this time!" Elisha shot back.

"Oh, that is an improvement," Lawrence acknowledged. "But you should still give a warning before discharging a firearm. I almost swung my sword reflexively."

The bandit directly in front of Lawrence suddenly hurried towards the van with a crate.

"Shit, I didn't know Jaegers got so crazy this young," one of the other bandits whispered.

Irene glared at them, red tinging her vision–

Crash!

She blinked, unsure how a tree had suddenly fallen over.

Oh.

It had been cleaved through diagonally, like some of the practice pieces she used sometimes.

"What'd that tree ever do to you?" Elisha snarked.

"It was making too much noise," Irene shot back, uncharacteristically snappishly.

The bandits stopped talking.

Once all of the goods were loaded onto the truck, the bandits glanced at each other, then at the students, seemingly uncertain what to do next.

"Do you guys know how to drive a truck?" Ellia asked.

Irene and Lawrence shook their heads, while Elisha shrugged.

Seizing on their moment of hesitation, one of the bandits leapt into the driver's seat of the truck, started the engine, then gunned it as hard as he could.

For a moment, its wheels spun in the mud, before it sped off with a spray of dirt and grime, splattering the remaining bandits.

"Aidios take you Karl!" the bandit leader snapped.

"He's getting away!" Ellia cried, launching an art at the retreating truck to no avail.

"He isn't going to get far driving like that," Elisha commented.

"We will catch him eventually," Lawrence declared, with certainty that drew confused looks from everyone else.

"We aren't going to outrun a truck," Ellia pointed out.

"I do not believe we need to."

"You think he's going to crash into the gate?" Elisha suggested, raising an eyebrow at Lawrence. "Dunno how you're so confident about it."

"I would not be surprised if he did crash into the gate," Lawrence replied. "Though I do not know if the gate can stop him. But unless he stops the truck to dump all the stolen goods, he will have to drive quite far to avoid suspicion."

"You believe he will be captured by the authorities?" Irene murmured. "The Provincial Army seemed uninterested in investigating though." Her eyes narrowed at the expression passing over the bandit leader's face.

"I would hope seeing such damning evidence would ensure some action," Lawrence growled. "If it does not…"

The rest of the group glanced at each other. Irene wasn't sure what he was considering, but taking his father's influence into account, there was a chance that he could actually have something done about this whole situation. Not a very high chance, as Victor S. Arseid was not particularly politically active and the Provincial Army in Celdic answered to Duke Albarea directly, but certainly more likely than an attempt by anyone else here.

Whatever he was thinking, the remaining bandits didn't want to find out, and remained well behaved as they were marched out of the park.

When they approached the gate, they heard…shouting? And was that smoke?!

"Lunaria Nature Park is under our jurisdiction!" came the indignant cry of a snide, aristocratic voice, sounding like the commander of the Celdic garrison.

"Indeed. However, as this man committed a crime interfering with national commerce at the Grand Market, this case falls under the duties of the RMP," returned a cool, feminine voice.

The group of students turned a bend to see a smashed open gate and a rolled over truck not far beyond, with the runaway bandit cowering on the ground between what looked like a standoff between the Provincial Army and the Railway Military Police.

'What are they doing here? We're near Celdic, which is a major railroad junction, but isn't the Provincial Army officer correct?'

"Fucking Gehenna," one of the bandits rasped, "did you have this all planned?!"

Lawrence did not reply, instead narrowing his eyes at the arguing military units. "So here it is again."

One of the RMP soldiers noticed their approach and called out. "Halt! Identify yourself!"

"We are students from Thors Military Academy out on a field study!" Lawrence shouted back, probably unnecessarily loudly, but it did work to get everyone's attention.

The Provincial Army Captain's face twisted into a complicated expression before evening out.

"I see. Did apprehending these thieves fall under the purview of your field study?" The ice blue haired RMP officer with captain's markings asked wryly, one hand on her hip like an unamused school teacher.

'Captain Claire Rieveldt, one of the Ironblooded children…'

Irene frowned.

'If she is here, then this has to be some political machination.'

"It is within the parameters," Lawrence declared, "if not explicitly assigned."

"Is that so?" the RMP Captain wondered lightly. "I presume this one gave you the slip?"

"Indeed," Lawrence confirmed. "You have my thanks for apprehending him."

"There is no need for that," the Icy Maiden demurred. "It is our duty to apprehend those who break the law."

"Can they really claim credit for it?" Elisha muttered. "It looks like the gate did most of the work."

"I will be sure to commend the gate for going above and beyond the call of duty," the RMP major added drily.

"Huh, didn't expect her to have a sense of humor."

"Speaking of duty," Lawrence began again, giving the Provincial Army Captain a flat look, "Captain Schalmmersdorf , I was under the impression that you considered this case beyond the scope of your duty. What, then, has made you change your mind on this matter?"

'Did he change his mind? Or is him being here an indication of guilt?'

"We…received reports about a disturbance at Lunaria Nature Park, Lord Lawrence," the Captain replied with a grimace. "As such, we investigated according to our duty."

That seemed quite obviously a lie, and it seemed that most of the other people thought so as well.

"In that case, I must applaud your response time," Lawrence declared. "Though we have already defeated the massive ape monster that attacked us and these bandits. Perhaps with it dealt with, there will be fewer dangerous monsters appearing throughout the vicinity of Celdic."

"Yes, Aidios willing," the Captain returned with a pinched look on his face.

'He definitely knows more than he is letting on.'

"So…uh…who are we supposed to surrender to?" the bandit leader asked, glancing nervously between the two groups of soldiers.

"As criminals apprehended within the bounds of Lunaria Nature Park, by right they should be placed under our custody," the Provincial Army Captain declared.

"That would be the case if impersonating park rangers was their only crime," the RMP Captain countered. "These criminals stole goods from a national center of trade at a major railway junction, and according to the letter of the law, that would give the Railway Military Police jurisdiction over them."

"That law was put in place less than a year ago!" Captain Schalmmersdorfs objected.

"All the more reason that it should be followed," Captain Rieveldt returned evenly.

"I have seen this matter of jurisdictional jockeying before," Lawrence growled in an unimpressed tone. "And it appears as counterproductive as always."

"Not to ruin the mood," Elisha added, "but I think that guy's dead, or close to it." He pointed at the formerly truck driving bandit, who appeared to have fallen unconscious in the space of the two groups' argument.

"Serves you right, Karl," one of the other bandits spat quietly.

"He's still alive," reported an RMP soldier as he checked the downed bandit. "Though he probably will need medical attention before long."

"In that case, how about we hold them in your guardhouse for now?" Captain Rieveldt suggested. "We can sort out which court they will be prosecuted at later."

"Yes, that should be…sufficient," Captain Schalmmersdorf agreed reluctantly, face curled up in distaste.

No one looked particularly thrilled about the compromise, the bandits least of all, but regardless the perpetrators were arrested and a good portion of the merchants' goods were recovered, even if some of them were damaged or destroyed during the incident.

To some extent, the soldiers weren't sure what to make of the students' actions. The Provincial Army could accuse them of trespassing in the Nature Park, but that was a relatively minor offense, not something that they would usually make a fuss about even if the trespasser was not a noble as Lawrence was. The presence of the RMP also meant they had less ability to dictate things as they wished compared to their behavior earlier regarding the Grand Market.

The RMP just dutifully followed their captain, who seemed well disposed towards the students for some reason.

"I suppose I should introduce myself officially," the blue haired woman remarked as her subordinates secured the thieves in the guardhouse. "I am Captain Claire Rieveldt, of the Railway Military Police, of course. And you are the Thors students of Class VII, correct?"

"Indeed," Lawrence agreed. "It is a pleasure to meet you, and I must reiterate my thanks for your assistance."

"How polite!" Captain Rieveldt laughed, a hint of mirth in her pink eyes. "And I must also reiterate my own thanks for diffusing the jurisdictional dispute by performing a citizen's arrest. That certainly simplified things."

"I am happy that this matter was neatly resolved," Lawrence continued. "But if I may ask, was not Captain Schalmmersdorf correct regarding their jurisdiction? Even with your argument that this crime involved the Grand Market, both Lunaria Nature Park and the aforementioned market are still legally the domain of Duke Albarea, the park especially so."

The RMP captain smiled. "I'm afraid I cannot disclose more, for security reasons, but I do feel compelled to apologize, as at least part of what you are thinking is true."

"...You can gather my thoughts just like that?" Lawrence blinked in astonishment. "It seems your reputation is certainly warranted then, Miss Icy Maiden."

'I…don't think that's how you're supposed to use epithets…'

Captain Rieveldt blinked, before letting out a light laugh. "No need for flattery, and please, that moniker always sounds a bit silly."

"Yeah…I got no idea where they could have got that," Elisha grunted. "You're not icy at all. Can't comment on the maiden part, but that's kind of a weird thing to label people you don't know with."

The Captain paused for a moment, giving Ellia time to bonk the blonde on the head. "Elisha! You can't just say stuff like that!"

"Stuff like what?!"

"Hehe, it's fine," Captain Rieveldt interjected, an amused smile on her face. "I don't mind. In fact, I am glad to meet someone else who finds the title a bit tacky."

"Yeah! Your hair is blue–looks nice by the way–not ice colored!" Elisha declared, throwing his hands up in the air. "And you can't be icy cold or else you'd be dead…or an automaton or something, which would be pretty interesting actually, but I'm not sure you can mechanize this kind of beauty–"

"Elisha!" Ellia hit him again. "Stop it!"

"Oh what now?!"

The Captain laughed, a disarmingly light sound from such an infamous person. "As amusing as that is, Mr. Reinford, Class Seven, I do have to question you about the events that occurred here, if you do not mind accompanying us back to town?"

"Do…we really have a choice in the matter?" Irene asked carefully.

"Of course," the Captain replied evenly, face suddenly serious. "Though I would not recommend choosing poorly."

"W-we'll be good!" Ellia squeaked, before flushing red in embarrassment.

Fortunately, Captain Rieveldt was again amused, and they returned to town and gave their reports about the incident with no further hiccups.

Mayor Otto and the two merchants were very thankful for the students' help, with the former promising that they would always be welcome in Celdic, while the latter offered them some of their recovered goods as thanks.

Lawrence tried to refuse, as he felt he hadn't done anything special, but Marco managed him to take some of the processed food by pointing out that he could not sell an unfortunately significant portion of them anyways due to food regulations.

Elisha had no issues with free food, and Ellia and Irene could not resist taking a couple trinkets that caught their eyes.

"Would you like one as well, Captain Rieveldt?" Lawrence asked, gesturing to Heinz's wares (how could he be this dense?!) "You were also instrumental in catching the thieves."

"I think some of these would look pretty good on you too, not that you need the help," Elisha observed shamelessly. "Though they're probably not up to regulation."

"You two! What?! I can't even–aagh!" Ellia sputtered. "I'm so sorry about them!" she cried, hoping the RMP Captain would not take offense.

"If I may," Irene interjected. "I do not believe they have any ulterior motives with their words."

"...Am I supposed to?" Lawrence wondered, looking very perplexed by their reactions.

"What are you, my mom?" Elisha muttered. "Wait, bad example."

Shockingly, Captain Rieveldt was not offended, she actually looked slightly flustered(?), even if she hid it well.

"That's very kind of you, but I'm afraid I cannot accept, for policy reasons," she replied evenly. "If I do ever happen to come across your stand while off duty, however, Mr. Heinz, I would love to browse your wares then."

"I see! You'll always be welcome at my stall, Miss Rieveldt," Merchant Heinz declared, with Marco echoing his sentiment.

"Well, well, well, never thought I'd see you slacking off, Icy Maiden," came a familiar wry voice.

And of course, Instructor Valestein showed up just in time to observe the conclusion of the whole affair, having managed to avoid it entirely.

"Hello Sara," Captain Rieveldt replied with a polite smile. "How have you been? Are you settling into your new job alright?"

"Yeah, but no thanks to you," Valestein snarked back. "Didn't know the RMP was going to get involved here, guess you had that all planned out then?"

"You overestimate my abilities," Captain Rieveldt demurred. "I simply have a month or so worth of reports regarding issues in the Grand Market, which is enough to warrant some investigation."

"And a tip from you 'brother', I'm sure," Instructor Valestein added. "Nothing gets by you lot."

'She must be talking about the other Ironbloods. Do they really refer to each other as siblings?'

"We do try to prepare for any issues that might arise," the RMP Captain replied amiably.

"Well, you do you, Icy Maiden," Instructor Valestein shrugged. "Also good work kids! You really applied all I taught you, from what I heard."

"Again, your assistance proved invaluable," Captain Rieveldt agreed, giving them a nod of thanks. "Unfortunately, there are other things that I am needed for, so I must take my leave now. I wish you all the best in your future studies." She turned to leave.

"Thanks for your help Icy Maiden," Elisha called after her with a wave, drawing a strangled cry of frustration from Ellia and unimpressed looks from a pair of RMP soldiers.

Captain Rieveldt sighed. "Again, it is just my job. And that nickname really has overstayed its welcome."

"Hey! It ain't bad," Instructor Valestein objected. "It sounds pretty cool, if you know what I mean, even if it comes with an expiration date."

The blue haired officer gave her an unimpressed look.

"Expiration date?" Elisha wondered. "What, do you need licenses for nicknames now?"

"Is your issue that ice melts at room temperature?" Lawrence added. "I suppose 'Watery Maiden' does not have the same sentiment."

'...Is it seriously that difficult to understand?'

"...No, you do not need licenses for nicknames," Captain Rieveldt replied, looking slightly embarrassed. "And no, it is also not about the Icy appellation."

"Hey now!" Instructor Valestein interjected. "Those are my students, they're a bit too young for you."

"I was not planning on joining the Railway Military Police, but given the typical cadet starts around eighteen, it does not seem that odd to have recruiting pitches for people our age," Lawrence pointed out, somehow reading a very different conversation from what was happening. "Also doesn't 'Purple Lightning' also have an expiration date? Lightning comes and goes in a flash, after all."

Captain Rieveldt smothered a chuckle with her hand, while her fuschia haired counterpart let out a frustrated groan.

"You see what I have to deal with?" Instructor Valestein groused, "And he's not even the worst one!"

"I do not understand," Lawrence said flatly.

"It…may be better if you don't," Ellia mumbled.

"It was a pleasure meeting you, Class Seven," the RMP Captain said, "but I really must go." She turned and headed for the railway station, flanked by two of her subordinates.

"She seems quite different from what her reputation makes her out to be," Lawrence observed once Captain Rieveldt was out of earshot.

"Yeah, dunno why people call her 'icy' when she's hot like that," Elisha concurred.

"You two really like playing with fire, don't you?" Instructor Valestein groaned. "Seriously–"

"Yes." Elisha nodded.

"What?"

"I like playing with fire."

"Do…you not understand figures of speeches or something?" Ellia snorted.

Elisha looked at her flatly. "No."

"No you do not understand or no you do understand?" Lawrence inquired mildly.

"I think it's time we leave," Instructor Valestein sighed, before muttering under her breath. "How the heck did these guys manage to get everything done with skulls that thick?"

'She seemed to have a bit of animosity towards Captain Rieveldt, I wonder what that was about?'

But it didn't seem appropriate to ask, so Irene said nothing as Group A boarded the train back to Trista, claiming another row to themselves as they had on the trip there.

Their instructor picked the row across the aisle from them and promptly fell asleep.

"Didn't she sleep the whole day or something?" Elisha muttered. "It's a long ride to Parm, she'd have plenty of time."

"From what she mentioned, it seems that Group B had even more trouble than we had," Irene offered. "So if Instructor Valestein had to deal with that, and then immediately take a long train ride back here, I can see why she would be very tired."

"Fair," Elisha conceded. "Though I still think she should have just gone with Group B in the first place. It was pretty obvious from the start they were going to have issues."

"Well, maybe our Instructor thought the situation in Celdic might have blown up earlier?" Irene suggested.

"I suppose that makes some sense," Lawrence murmured, talking more quietly so as not to disturb their sleeping instructor. "If she knew that Group B will have more issues, it would make sense to send them to a location where there was less likely to be further problems."

"Well, we do not know whether they ran into problems like we did yet," Irene pointed out. "Though from what I know of Marquis Hyarms, he is unlikely to have let this type of behavior stand."

"Assuming that there was a plan at all," Elisha grumbled, "and Teach wasn't just trying to skive off work."

"I think we should give her more credit than that," Ellia objected. "She did travel almost the whole day to try and help out the other group."

"I just hope Julia managed alright," Irene sighed. "But it sounds like things took a turn for the worse there."

"It didn't look particularly good to start with," Elisha commented.

Lawrence sighed. "There is no use in speculating. I imagine we will hear plenty about what transpired in Parm when we reunite with our classmates. With that said, even if the theft was resolved, it seems clear the main problem in Celdic remains."

"Pretty sure taxes aren't something we can do much about," Elisha shrugged.

"Yeah…" Ellia agreed, deflating a bit. "We helped fix the problem for today, but isn't stuff like this going to keep happening with the taxes like that?"

"Quite possibly," Lawrence replied. "And while I have no say in that regard, should my father tragically pass away earlier than expected, taxes will become a part of my responsibilities. Seeing the cascading effects of a change like that…well, it leaves a lot to consider."

"Yeah…" Elisha grunted. "As much as I don't like my mother, she definitely has a talent for managing the company. Not sure how things would shake out if she bites it for some reason."

"Uhh…so…" Ellia started, giving her classmates a startled look, as if she had just realized the expectations and responsibilities that were set upon them. "Are you going to have to do stuff like that too, Irene?"

"Quite possibly" the indigo haired girl replied. "I would likely assist my future husband with things of that sort, or my little sister if I do not get married."

Her three classmates gave her incredulous looks.

'What? What did I say?!'

"Uh…doesn't the eldest kid usually inherit?" Ellia asked carefully, glancing between Lawrence and Irene.

"That is correct," Irene confirmed. "However, I am not a Schwarzer by blood, so my younger sister takes priority."

"Wait…you're a ba–uh…illegitimate?!" Ellia squawked.

"No!" Irene cried. "Father would never–!"

"I'm sorry!" Ellia apologized.

"It's ok, Ellia," Irene assured her, taking a breath to calm herself. "You did not know."

"So…what? You were adopted?" Elisha asked. "Is that how that works?"

"Yes," Irene nodded. "I was adopted. I do not remember much about my birth parents, but I do know they were close with Father and Mother, so they took me in as one of their own." Her lips pulled into a slight grimace. "Despite all the complications that entailed."

"They sound like honorable people," Lawrence declared. "I would like to meet them someday."

'Lawrence, phrasing!'

"What did I say wrong?" the tall noble glanced questioningly between Irene and Ellia.

"Beats me," Elisha shrugged.

'You can't just go around saying you want to meet a girl's parents like that!'

"In any case…" Lawrence continued, still a bit perplexed. "This field study certainly did follow some of the typical trends of bracer work, as you suggested previously."

"Yeah…not sure how that has any connection to the ARCUS affinity," Elisha chimed in, "so that probably isn't the real main point of this class."

"Indeed," Lawrence agreed. "If that was the sole reason I would imagine we would undergo more consistent trials under the Old Schoolhouse, or something of that sort."

"Mnh!" Irene nodded. "Much of our field study had little to do with our ARCUS units themselves, and the degree of freedom we were given seemed much greater than what one would normally expect."

"Yeah, a bit different, isn't it?" came a cheerful voice from across the aisle. The group turned to see their instructor awake, her trademark grin on her face. "Independence isn't something you'd expect to learn from a school, is it? But learning to make snap decisions based on what you know on hand, with or without orders, is very useful, no matter what you all end up doing with your lives."

"Huh," Elisha grunted. "I wish I could go to sleep and wake up that fast."

"Oh come on!" Instructor Valestein cried. "I explain some teacher stuff and that's what you focus on?!"

"How did you acquire this skill?" Lawrence asked. "It does seem quite useful."

"It's just something I learned from experience," their instructor sighed, "not something I can really teach you."

"Are you implying that our training is, in fact, supposed to mirror Bracer training?" Irene inquired, subtly nudging Lawrence with her foot.

"You guys seem to have figured out part of it," their instructor replied with a shrug.

"Though for what purpose?" Lawrence wondered. "As far as I am aware, most of our class either has no interest or has other responsibilities that would prevent us from becoming bracers."

'It…is one potential option for me, if things go as I expect.'

"Well…I can't exactly tell you everything, can I?" Instructor Valestein shot back impishly. "What kind of teacher does that?"

"Quite a lot of them," Elisha pointed out.

"Wait, I thought most of the Bracer Guilds in the Empire got shut down though?" Ellia added.

Their instructor snored loudly, apparently having gone right back to sleep after her piece was said.

"I wonder if Fion could teach me that technique," Lawrence murmured. "He seems to have mastered it, though not quite to that degree."

"Would make some of our classes more useful," Elisha agreed.

"Hey! You shouldn't sleep during class!" Ellia objected. "And really guys? Aren't you more concerned about how we're apparently being trained to do a job that is basically banned?"

"I still maintain that learning this technique is of greater importance at the moment," Lawrence countered.

"Really?!" the frustrated ginger turned to the other girl in the group with pleading eyes. "Back me up here, Irene, please?"

Irene blinked, having been also considering the benefits of being able to sleep and wake up at a moment's notice.

"You too?!" Ellia gasped, deflating in defeat. "Why is our class so weird?"

"Given your enthusiasm towards music, I don't believe you are as different from us as you seem to think," Irene pointed out gently, causing the ginger haired girl to deflate. "And you do indeed have a point. Why would a Thors curriculum be similar to bracer training when there are few bracers left operating in the Empire?"

"Maybe they're going to create a branch of the RMP or something to do the stuff the Bracer Guild used to do?" Elisha suggested. "Kind of messy to kick them out and not replace them."

"Theoretically, the Provincial Army is supposed to do something similar," Lawrence added, "but with the centralization of governance by both the Great Houses and Empire as a whole, the Provincial Armies have likewise become larger and centrally organized, and thus, in some ways, less provincial."

"And bracers tend to operate in small groups of strong people," Ellia chimed in. "Which…kinda fits our class?"

"It seems kinda a crappy investment though, since none of us went in with that idea in mind," Elisha grumbled.

"Even so, it seems to be a valuable experience so far," Irene mused. "And with so many notable people in our class, it can be good for perspective later down the line when we have bigger responsibilities."

"Hmm…true enough," Lawrence conceded. The group lapsed into thoughtful silence.

A few minutes later, Ellia let out a slow sigh and shook her head. "I'm too tired to think about all this. Do you think Group B got back before we did?"

"Likely not, given how long the trip would be," Irene replied.

The train announcement chimed, declaring their approach to Trista, and Group A and their Instructor filed out of the train in short order. True to Irene's assumption, Group B had not yet arrived.

When they did, a few of Group A almost wished they had been delayed, as a drowsy Irene and Ellia suddenly found themselves subject to angry ranting and sounds of frustration from Julia and Masha.

Suffice to say, they did not sleep very well that night.

---

AN. Well, this one took quite a while, sorry all. Work has been pretty nuts the past few months, but now it's calmed down a bit so I had more time to work on this.

 

[WrandmWaffles]

School Days 1​

Before the Celdic Field Study

---

After her first afternoon as part of the lacrosse club, Ellia could say that Emily hadn't been kidding about Theresia. The blonde noble had run the newcomers through the ringer as she and Emily demolished them in a practice match.

The funny thing was that while Emily talked pretty tough, she was actually rather gentle in how she instructed them. Theresia preferred to demonstrate why their mistakes were mistakes physically, and repeatedly.

All in all, Ellia was bruised and exhausted by the time Emily called it for the day. Even so, it didn't hurt as much as the flying cat that first day.

It wasn't that Ellia liked pain–it had hurt a lot–but she needed to get used to it.

'I knew this wasn't going to be easy. But if I'm going to stand on my own, I'm going to have to push through!'

"Are you alright, Ellia?" Theresia asked, her polite, noble demeanor returning now that they were not playing lacrosse.

"I'm fine!" Ellia replied, pumping her fist excitedly, ignoring the screaming of her muscles. "That was fun!" 'What did I get myself into?'

She smiled and nodded as best she could, then stumbled back to her dormitory, cursing the person who had assigned them one so far away the whole time.

Opening the door took far more effort than it should have, and then she saw the stairs. Ellia thought about it for a moment, then collapsed on the couch nearby, losing consciousness almost immediately.

She woke up feeling like crap, pulled out of slumber by the sound of thumping.

"Guuuh…" Her eyes blinked open blearily, the room swimming blurrily in her vision.

Her limbs felt like lead, but she was too thirsty to stay where she was–

'Ow. That's the floor.'

Trying not to let the pain deter her, Ellia crawled up into a sitting position against the couch, her vision finally focusing to see…a cup of water with a straw in it?

"Drink."

"Wha…?" Ellia blinked, looking up to see the young, silver haired member of her class holding the cup of water.

"Dehydrated. Drink. Now."

Ellia did not have to be told again, and the relief as the cool liquid washed down her throat felt great.

"Thanks," she muttered, gathering enough strength to hold the half-empty cup herself.

Fion nodded. "Drunk?" He shook his head. "Wrong smell."

"No," Ellia mumbled back, before taking another drink. "Lacrosse."

"What's that?"

"...a sport…slurp"

"...What's that?"

Ellia blinked. "You…don't know what sports are?"

"I think it's a game?" Fion shrugged. "Never played."

"Uh…" Ellia stared at him, setting the now empty cup on the floor. "You run around with nets to throw and catch a ball, then try to get it in the other team's goal."

"...Cool, I guess." Fion turned around and walked back to his punching bag.

Ellia hauled herself onto the couch, then tried to stand, fighting off the sudden wave of nausea to stumble over to the kitchen and pour herself more water.

A few minutes and several cups of water later, she was starting to feel like a functioning person again. Enough to remember that they had homework, much to her dismay.

She stepped back into the dorm lobby, where Fion was still jabbing at his punching bag.

Ellia watched curiously as the young boy struck out fluidly, never wasting any movement. 'I don't know much about him. But the way he holds himself reminds me a bit of dad and Neithardt.'

Her face morphed into a frown. 'But he's too young to be a military recruit, right? So how is he so good at this?'

Fion paused, turning to look at her questioningly, and Ellia realized she'd been staring.

'Aaah, what do I do?!' "Um…" she mumbled. Fion tilted his head curiously. 'Aah, cute! Wait no!' "...Could you…help me train?"

"No."

"Wait, please! I don't want to fail the practical exam!"

"I meant not now," Fion replied. "You're too tired."

Ellia paused. Now that she thought about…she could barely walk straight. He was probably right. "Tomorrow?"

"Maybe."

"Ok, see you then."

"Ok."

The ginger girl stumbled over to the… 'Oh right. The stairs. Crap.'

---

Julia Albarea was a proud, noble woman, perhaps reaching the point of arrogance, that much she was willing to admit, though she was definitely not the most pompous noble out there by a long shot.

Perhaps it was simply her unusual experience, but she saw little to be proud of in regards to her lineage. She respected the duty being spawned from the line of Kreuzen's rulers represented, but in what she knew of their family history, there was a remarkable lack of proper ruling in recent generations.

Even if there was, what was there to be proud of? She had not been present during any of the notable deeds of her ancestors, and their actions were no credit to her.

It wasn't that she scoffed at lineage, per se, or else she would have thought Lawrence an utter fool instead of just a normal fool, but she saw only expectations, not honor.

'There I go again.' Julia huffed, shaking her head, striding out of the Upper Class dorms a bit more hastily than might be considered polite. 'I should have known better than to accept an invitation to the lounge, even if Theresia had no ulterior motive.'

The daughter of the Baron of Bareahard had been very welcoming when Julia had first met her, despite all the rumors. Theresia had not put much thought into what she had heard, and had simply helped guide Julia through the subtleties of noble courtesies.

'It is rather funny how such a stuck up pair managed to produce and raise such a humble daughter. Now if only she had decided to socialize in a place where there weren't a bunch of useless nobles propositioning me.'

To be fair, it had not been nearly as insipid as any event in Bareahard or the like. Thors was an academy with high standards, so there were fewer useless clout chasers, but it was still rather annoying to be fawned over like some kind of prized horse.

'I think I might even prefer the ones drooling over my looks. At least my looks are mine, not my father's.' Julia stopped short, cursing herself for reaching that point.

In her distracted meandering, she had ended up near the gardens. She wasn't a part of the club, but it was quiet, so it was a fine place to get away–

'Why was Emmet here? Wasn't he part of the occult club?'

The really unfairly pretty man was crouched over a patch of soil, pouring some water on a sprouting plant. For once, he wasn't wearing his usual disinterested frown. Not quite a smile, but he looked more at peace.

"What are you up to now, Millstein?"

Julia was snapped out of her thoughts as Ferris marched over to Emmet, a determined look on her face.

'Have I been staring at him this whole time? Damn, I must be really out of it.'

Fortunately, it seemed neither Ferris nor Emmet had noticed.

"You clearly know what I am doing," Emmet muttered. "Why ask?"

"Did you at least get permission from Edel for that?" Ferris continued, standing over the Emmet, trying her best to look assertive.

"Sure," Emmet shrugged. "This is mine anyways."

"What is this 'it' you mean in the first place?" Ferris asked.

"A plant," Emmet answered flatly, not bothering to look up at the young noble speaking with him.

"I know that!" Ferris exclaimed. "What kind of plant is it?"

"Why do you care?" Emmet snapped back, standing up to his full height and glaring down at the purple haired noble, the setting sun glinting off his glasses dangerously.

"I'm…just curious…" Ferris stumbled, "that's all!"

"I have a hard time believing that when you've been stalking me for two weeks," Emmet remarked mildly, his eyes narrowing dangerously.

"I have not been stalking you!" Ferris cried, stomping her feet petulantly.

"This was not exactly what I had in mind when I suggested talking to my classmates if you wished to get to know them, Ferris," Julia drawled, finally entering the conversation.

"Wha–Julia?! How long have you been there?" Ferris sputtered.

"Long enough," Julia replied, making her way over. "I was taking a stroll and happened to overhear you." 'Perhaps I can avoid any embarrassment from–'

"That was quite a lot of standing still for a stroll," Emmet observed.

'Or perhaps not.' Julia shrugged. "I will admit I was also curious, though more in regards to why, rather than what."

Emmet raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Didn't think you were the nosy type."

"I am a noble lady," Julia shot back with a faux haughty air. "Being nosy is in my job description!"

"J-julia!" Ferris hissed, giving her an annoyed look.

"Your words, not mine," Emmet snorted, but there was a flicker of amusement in his eyes. "Though I fail to see why my reasons for planting flowers would be of any interest to you."

'Flowers, huh?'

"Flowers?!" Ferris cried. "What do you need flowers for?!"

"And here I thought noble girls were supposed to be cultured," Emmet scoffed. He looked annoyed, but his eyes flicked between the two other students suspiciously.

'There are relatively few reasons a man would be planting flowers…'

"So you are planning on courting someone!" Ferris declared, pointing at the purple haired man accusingly. Emmet stared blankly at her, face betraying no visible reaction, but Julia had heard enough.

"Ferris. Drop it."

"H-huh? But Lady Julia–"

"Drop. It."

Ferris clammed up under Julia's flat glare.

"We apologize for disturbing you." Julia dipped her head contritely towards Emmet. "We will leave you be. Thank you for indulging our curiosity." She turned and gestured for Ferris to follow her.

The Florald hesitated for a moment, before leaving Emmet to his business and padding after the Albarea.

"Julia, I almost had him!" Ferris hissed. "If I figured out who the flowers were for–"

"The only time most men care about flowers are when courting or at funerals," Julia cut her off. "And they usually are too impatient about the former to grow their own."

The purple haired girl stumbled slightly as she stopped suddenly, face flushing red in embarrassment. "Oh no, I've made a right fool of myself, haven't I?"

"Your words, not mine," Julia smirked.

"Gah! Now I have to apologize!" the flustered Florald cried. "And this is even more evidence that he's a noble bastard, but now there's no way he's going to answer my questions!"

'If that's what you're worried about. I don't really see why he should.'

Julia had not slowed down, and Ferris suddenly realized the blonde noble was suddenly quite far away.

"Wait! Julia!" she cried. "Damn it! I will not lose to you!"

---

As different as Erebonia was to Nord, one thing that Gaia found surprisingly similar was the prevalence of weapons. It was not exactly the same, as while almost all Nords learned to fight to some degree, as often necessitated by the dangers of living in the untamed Highlands, most Erebonians did not live life with the expectation that they would have to fight at some point.

Even among the ones who did train martially, there were many who viewed it as a form of prestige or physical exercise, rather than a necessity. And then there were those for whom fighting was even more part of their way of life than for the Nord, like Lawrence and Emmet, though Gaia was fairly certain neither of them were exactly representative of Erebonia as a whole.

Taking all that into consideration, it was not that surprising that Erebonians hardly paid attention to other citizens who were armed, or that there were plenty of stores selling weapons and ammunition. Unfortunately for her, with the advances made in orbal weaponry, arrows were not among the commonly stocked wares, nor was it particularly easy to buy the right kind of materials to make them herself.

Turns out old man Gwyn was more thoughtful than Gaia had assumed when he had given her the orbal bow, even if she had very little idea how to maintain it. It had proved quite useful in the dungeon under the school, the nature of the ammunition allowing her to shoot faster than with conventional arrows, not to mention having to account for less drop off.

However, Gaia had noticed the arrows tended to drift off course, and she did not know enough about this weapon to say for sure if this was normal or if there was something out of alignment.

To make matters worse, this was apparently a prototype weapon, so even most of the Engineering club did not know much about how it worked.

It wasn't that they were incompetent, but they seemed quite hesitant to try anything with the bow got some reason. It was not volatile or the like, was it?

In any case, Gaia found herself in the Engineering Club building, carefully examining her weapon herself, for whatever it was worth.

It was a rather strange thing to work on, with the string serving more of a guide than actual propulsion, which meant quite a few of her shooting techniques were unnecessary or flat out could not work.

Furthermore, the bow generated arrows centered through a hole in the limb rather than nocked to one side as in a traditional one, and the arrows formed as she pulled backwards on the string. This mechanism was beyond her limited understanding of orbal technology, which left her in quite a conundrum.

It worked for now, and she had her more traditional bow and her hunting knives if it failed. But it still felt wrong to her to neglect this weapon.

The door to the building clattered open as Elisha stumbled in, carrying several boxes stacked on top of each other. For a moment Gaia moved to help him, but despite his jerky movements he managed to set them down safely near a workbench. He then spent about a minute making sure the boxes were exactly aligned with each other.

Gaia observed her classmate with bemusement. Her class overall had quite a few colorful characters, but Elisha was a more confusing one. Even with Masha and Julia's tempers, no one in her class was as…erratic as Elisha was. And yet, there was a method to his madness…and no one more familiar with orbal technology, except maybe George.

"Excuse me, do you have a moment, Elisha?" Gaia called.

"Yeah, assuming I don't drop dead right this second…" Elisha paused expectantly, turning to look at her. "Yup, I have a moment."

Gaia blinked, but decided not to address his eccentricity. "Would you mind having a look at this bow? The arrows are drifting slightly to the right and I am unsure how to determine the cause."

"Sure, I'll take a look." The blond man walked over to her workstation and picked up the bow, examining it with a familiarity Gaia had only ever seen from old man Gwyn.

With practiced motions, Elisha disassembled the weapon, almost faster than Gaia could follow, checking for some indicator that she was unaware of.

"Yup, looks like one of the emitters for the arrows is out of alignment," he declared. "Should be fixed now. What happened to it? Did you smack a monster with it or something?"

Gaia shook her head. "No, I have my knives for that. I believe it may have been bumped during my journey on the train while in the luggage."

"Hmm…could be," Elisha mused. "The case for it should be pretty good at cushioning it, and it shouldn't be that finicky…nah." He shook his head. "There'd be something more significant if it was something like that. When did you start noticing that?"

"I am not entirely sure," Gaia admitted. "I did test it back home when I received it, and I did not notice any issues then. It only became noticeable to me while we were under the Old Schoolhouse during the orienteering exercise, and has gotten slightly worse since."

"Do you store it in the case? Or do you hang it up like you would a normal bow?" Elisha asked.

"Like a more traditional bow," Gaia replied. "Was that an error?"

"Yeah, not a big problem, necessarily, but that could explain this," Elisha explained. "This thing is denser than a normal bow, so the weight could be enough to tweak something out of alignment if you hang it like you would a normal bow. Could also be the temperature and humidity variation."

"Is orbal technology truly so sensitive?" Gaia wondered. "It seems too widely used for that to be true."

"Nah, it's not the orbal mechanism itself," Elisha replied. "It's some of the seats for the lens and the like. This thing is basically an orbal gun but vivisected and propped up on display like a skeleton in a museum, so that means the stuff for forming the projectile is more exposed to the elements than an orbal gun. Makes it more finicky that way, but you got more finesse for adjusting things if you know what you are doing."

"Which you clearly do," Gaia pointed out. "Have you worked on one of these before? No one else seems to have, not even George."

Elisha shrugged and nodded, before freezing, staring down at the reassembled weapon for a long second.

"Where…did you get this?" he asked, voice dangerously soft.

"I was gifted it by an elderly Erebonian man who seems to have retired to the Highlands," Gaia answered evenly, a few things clicking together in her mind. "He is quite adept with technology, and has helped my clan in regards to the few devices we have on multiple occasions. When he learned of my plan to attend Thors, he gave me this because of his now evidently accurate assessment that finding arrows would be more difficult here."

"An old Erebonian man, huh?" Elisha muttered. "Did he also say something about how a pretty girl should have a pretty weapon or something?"

"Yes, actually…" Gaia noted with some surprise. "How did you know?"
"...That old bastard!" the blond man cursed. "Of course he did."

"That does not answer my question," Gaia pointed out gently.

"Huh? Oh yeah." Elisha shrugged. "I made this bow. Well, me and Gramps, before he up and disappeared after getting kicked out by dear old Mom. Always wondered where this boondoggle disappeared to."

"Would you like it back?"

"What? Nah." Elisha shook his head. "I got my own stuff now. Stuff I'm not letting anyone else know how to work, so I don't really care about this thing. You're probably better with it anyways."

There was a bitterness in his tone that suggested the bow was more important to him than he was pretending. Truly, old man Gwyn was a thoughtless individual.

"I may have more experience using a bow than you, but clearly you added many more features than I am aware of," Gaia remarked. "Would you mind demonstrating a few of them, as well as point out any other tasks I will need to perform to keep it in good shape?"

"Sure! It's yours now, I guess," Elisha replied. "Though we'll have to go somewhere else if we want to test the explosive arrow mode."

'The what…?! On second thought, I should not have been surprised.'

The two of them ended up getting detention for firing explosives into the pond, but Gaia felt that she now understood Elisha's fascination, at least to some extent.

---

For all that Thors was a prestigious and meritocratic school, it was still poisoned by the longstanding rot of noble influence. Aside from the separation of school classes by social class and the display of unearned wealth and influence that was the upper class dorms, there was also this absurd delineation in only the chess club!

Admittedly, Masha had some mixed feelings about it, since the divide meant she could mostly engage in one of her favorite pastimes without interacting with stuck up nobles, on the other hand, the smug attitudes of the nobles in their own little club was very grating.

The fact that they were, on average, better than the members of the "lower" class chess club did not help matters at all.

It wasn't that Stefan, the current head of the real chess club, was bad–he was actually pretty decent–but it seemed like a lot of the other members had only picked up the game at Thors, rather than playing it before.

It seemed that chess was more of a noble's or rich men's game than Masha had realized, which bothered her quite a bit, especially with that damned Albarea's taunting.

Even if her father was the Imperial Governor, it wasn't like they were anywhere near as wealthy as low ranking nobles or even rich merchants. Father had reached his position by his governing ability, not riding the coattails of his parents or with bribery!

But that did not change the fact that their chess club would need to get quite a bit better if they wanted to show up the snobby nobles, and unfortunately, it turned out that aside from Stefan, the rest of the club was more ambivalent about the whole competition and weren't that interested in extra practice. Even Stefan could only play so many games before having to leave to work on schoolwork, leaving Masha without an opponent.

And while she hadn't said it aloud, Stefan had been getting sloppier as the games went on. Not to mention that playing only against one person wouldn't help her improve much in the long run, unless they were a master of the game, and even then, some variety in the challenge could be useful.

To be fair, though, it was getting rather late in the day, with time having gotten away from her, and she had her own studies to focus on as well, not to mention dinner. So here she was, eating a quick bite at the Student Union cafe before heading back to the dorms to study.

It was fairly noisy, as there were a number of students also eating there, but it wasn't too bad. Heimdallr was much noisier.

Unfortunately, her peace and quiet was disrupted as a few members of the swim club entered the building, particularly, the giant menace of a man that was Lawrence.

Masha tensed, trying not to think about the ease with which the oversized noble had slaughtered the monsters in his path, and how easily he could do the same to people who got in his way. Him being disturbingly genial only made it worse, and she just could not help but worry about when the other shoe would drop.

And now he saw her.

Why was he getting closer?!

"Good evening, Miss Regnitz," he said way too loudly, "how have you been today?"

"Fine," Masha replied, avoiding eye contact and staring down at the table in front of her, pretending to be engrossed with her meal or her chess set.

"Oh, were you playing chess?" Lawrence asked. "How did that go?"

"Fine," Masha insisted, hoping her disinterest would make him leave her alone. What was he even trying to accomplish?!

"That poorly?" the tall noble remarked. "Surely there are some people here who could offer you a challenge. I believe that the Principal and Vice Principal are quite skilled."

"You expect me to challenge them to a chess match?" Masha snorted, glaring up at the absurdly tall noble. "They have better things to do."

"They are undoubtedly busy," Lawrence conceded, "but even they have to take a break sometimes, though I suppose the Vice Principal can be somewhat difficult on occasion."

"On occasion?" Mashe grumbled. She hated to agree with the oversized noble, but at least he was nowhere near as insufferable as that pompous stick in the mud that was their Vice Principal.

"On many occasions," Lawrence admitted. "But that is beside the point. I am no expert at the game of chess, but if you are in need of an opponent, I would be willing to serve as one."

'Just say no, then he will leave. It's not worth it. Just say no.'

"Are you even any good?" Masha shot back, narrowing her eyes.

'Damn it! I can't let this challenge go unanswered.'

"Not particularly," Lawrence replied, "but having different opponents helps with practice, does it not?"
'I really just had to complain about that, didn't I?'

"You're on!"

As it turned out, he wasn't lying, he really wasn't that great. Theoretically, he was worse than Stefan, sometimes trading more valuable pieces for weaker ones or other nonsensical moves like that. That allowed her to build a convincing lead, but his bizarre playstyle kept throwing her for a loop, and Masha found that she was struggling to predict his next move.

She traded a rook for his queen, leaving him with mostly pawns. Normally, her opponent would either forfeit or start showing signs of defeat at this board state, but Lawrence was unruffled.

Masha grimaced. She was winning, but for some reason, it didn't feel satisfying.

Then Lawrence promoted a pawn…into a knight?

'What the hell is he doing?!'

To make matters worse, in her confusion, she missed a dangerous move and lost her queen to said knight.

She clenched her teeth.

She had underestimated him.

Even if he was clearly a musclehead, he wasn't entirely stupid, and that made him even more dangerous.

Still, she was in a commanding lead, even if she found it suddenly tricky to threaten his king and prevent his pawns from promoting, that wasn't enough to allow him to win, especially if he remained oddly willing to sacrifice his promoted pieces.

Shifting her remaining rook into place, Masha smirked as she cut off his king's movement options–

"Well, I can make no more legal moves," Lawrence declared, "that makes it your victory. Well played!" He offered his ridiculously large hand, and Masha reflexively shook it, trying her best not to cringe as her much smaller hand was engulfed by something that could crush her like a twig.

'At least he can take defeat gracefully–'

As the tall noble left, Masha stared blankly at the board.

It wasn't checkmate.

She had blocked his few remaining pawns, and almost trapped his king.

It was a stalemate.

Masha packed up her things calmly, walked the long way back to their dormitory calmly, returned to her room calmly, then proceeded to scream into her pillow at the indignity of it all.

---

AN. Some scenes between Class VII that Irene would not be privy to.
Thanks to @LordOfChange for help in proofreading.

 

[WrandmWaffles]

Heartbeat of Spring​

After the hectic events of their field study, a return to normal academic pursuits felt like a nice change of pace to Irene, even if their studies did not slow down in the slightest. The material was significantly more challenging than Sunday School or St. Astraia, though there were no etiquette classes at Thors, which was to be expected.

The cooking class was also quite a bit different than at her previous school, as there was actually an expectation that the students do much of the preparation themselves, but that was fine with Irene, since that's what Mother liked to do and she was the best cook Irene knew.

Gaia had some trouble at first, because a lot of the cooking tools were unfamiliar to her, but it was quite clear that she must have helped her family cook as well.

That actually seemed to be true of all the Class VII girls, though Ellia and Masha looked a bit confused that Julia proved an expert.

To be fair, Irene had been a bit surprised herself, but in context it made sense that Julia had once helped her mother cook, and with her uncle being a chef, it wasn't that surprising that she became quite good at it.

"She's got to be cheating somehow," Masha muttered darkly to herself, looking at Julia's work enviously. "There's no way a blue blood knows how to cook like that."

"Yes, I am clearly a maid disguised as Julia," the blonde noble remarked drily, "because I care enough about a cooking class grade to bother cheating."

"Julia!" Irene chided her gently. "Please don't make light of our schoolwork."

"We both know you would rather be cooking game meat than making baked goods," Julia shot back.

"W-well, yes, but that is not the point!" Irene returned. "And I made treats for Elise plenty of times."

"Man, those two make me feel insecure sometimes," Ellia mumbled under her breath. "They're somehow both more manly and more feminine than me."

"We can't let them show us up!" Masha hissed.

"Is cooking supposed to be only feminine?" Gaia wondered. "As far as I know, everyone needs to eat. Though I suppose my mother is quite a bit better at it than my father."

"You're doing fine, you two!" Irene called. "Don't worry so much about who makes the food, think about what it will taste like."

Masha grumbled, but refocused on the task at hand.

"Oh good, you are capable of being quiet," Julia snipped petulantly.

"What? Did my voice offend your delicate ears?!" Masha bit back, now distracted again.

"Mine and everyone else's," Julia snarked back.

"Girls!" Irene snapped. "Enough of this! I know you both care about your grades, so stop giving the instructor reasons to dock points!"

The two girls glared at her, but decided she had a point, so focused back to the task at hand.

"Well, guess that's why they put Irene into the special class," Ferris murmured from the other side of the room.

"Isn't her father–well, adopted father–a baron?" a girl Irene didn't recognize whispered. "How come Lady Albarea is letting her order her around like that?"

"It's really strange for the daughter of a duke to be in a mixed class with commoners," another girl murmured. "I am surprised the duke did not throw a fit over this."

"That is none of our business!" Ferris snapped. "Just because the special class has Julia and Irene does not mean we will so easily accept defeat! Focus on your cooking, because you two clearly need to practice more."

"Alright, alright! Calm down, Lady Florald, it is just some idle chatter," the first girl replied placatingly.

"I must admit, I am more used to the servants cooking, but it is important to learn about the ins and outs of running a household," the second girl mused.

"Can't they keep their unwanted opinions to themselves?" Masha grumbled lowly.

"At least they aren't really talking about us," Ellia remarked.

Masha just growled in annoyance.

Irene frowned. It seemed like things had only gotten worse after the field study. Fion didn't seem to care, but even Gaia had been quite annoyed, and Emmet had basically stopped talking to any of the girls in their class.

She let out a sigh, bringing her attention back to her food preparation. There was only so much she could do, but it had been weeks, and nothing had changed.

Was there something that could be done?

---

As class wrapped up for the last time this week, Instructor Valestein finished Homeroom off with a few announcements.

"Don't forget! Your next practical exam will be the middle of next week!"

"I'm gonna get it right this time!" Ellia mumbled determinedly to herself.

"Oh, so that's why we needed to fix the spinny thing," Elisha muttered.

"Are you going to pointlessly wait until then to explain the next field study?" Emmet asked flatly.

"Yep! And don't give me that look, if I tell you about it now it just spoils the surprise!"

"Are we supposed to be surprised?" Gaia asked curiously. "I would have thought in that case we would have been told where to go the morning of the field study instead of having a few days to prepare?"

"Hey!" their instructor cried. "I didn't make the rules for this one. Also, you should know midterms are coming up in the middle of next month."

"You mean the quarter terms?" Elisha asked.

"I don't make the names for these things!"

"Man, I feel like I'm never going to get a break," Ellia groaned.

"It's a good thing to test what we've learned so far," Masha declared.

"Joy," Fion drawled.

"Does it also have a practical portion?" Lawrence asked, "or does this upcoming practical cover that as well."

"Nah, those are separate things," Instructor Valestein explained. "School isn't only about hitting things, and if you don't do good I'll get another earful from Heinrich, so do your best!"

"Does his approval matter that much to you?" Irene asked curiously, noting something down in her notebook.

"Oi! Stop reading into stuff like that so much!"

"I thought you did want us to listen to you?" Julia snarked.

"Aaalright, that's enough for today!" their instructor called. "Try and have some fun on your free day! I know I will!"

With that, she took her teaching material and left the classroom, much of the class following her out in short order.

Irene did not immediately leave, taking a moment to read over her notebook. She wasn't entirely sure if Instructor Valestein genuinely disliked the vice principal, or if she was simply bad at expressing her feelings. Given the amount of time she spent complaining about him, both were possibilities. Not to mention she called him by his first name.

"Hmm…you do know class is over, right Irene?" Julia's amused voice shook her out of her thoughts. "What are you so focused on anyways?"

"Oh, nothing urgent," Irene replied, looking up to see both Julia and Lawrence still in the classroom. "I apologize if I kept you waiting."

"It has been about one minute," Lawrence observed. "And we spent about half of that packing up ourselves. There's no need to apologize."

"It's the principle of the matter!" Irene shot back, her face heating up. 'How is he able to embarrass people so easily?! It even works on Julia sometimes!'

"Well, you were pretty focused on whatever it is, so it must be important," Julia concluded with an amused huff.

"It is just another task our instructor requested from me," Irene explained. "Nothing too serious."

"That woman takes advantage of your helpful nature far too much," Julia sighed. "While she is undoubtedly a skilled combat instructor, she is quite questionable otherwise. And why does she get away with flaunting the dress code anyways?"

"I think you look plenty beautiful in a Thors uniform, Julia," Lawrence declared casually. "Though you might just upstage our instructor if you tried on clothes like that."

Julia's eye twitched, and she shared a look of mutual exasperation with Irene, though the light dusting of pink on her cheeks proved she wasn't immune to flattery. Well, with Lawrence it wasn't flattery, he really meant it, even if there was nothing deeper to it.

"Lawrence," Irene sighed, "you shouldn't say such things so forwardly. People might get the wrong idea."

"They seem to do so regardless of what I say," the tall man countered, "so I will endeavor to speak the truth regardless."

Julia turned away from him so he wouldn't see the growing flush on her face, and Irene stifled a giggle. It was a bit rude to laugh at her friend's embarrassment, but after all the teasing Julia put her through, it was a bit funny to see how easily she could become flustered herself.

"Julia is one of prettiest girls on campus," Irene remarked lightly. "With all the noblemen fawning over her, you might even say she was the fairest of them all."

"Oh, quiet you!" the blonde sniped back, even if she seemed to rather like the idea.

"She has no shortage of competition," Lawrence mused, "but I would say you do have an edge over them, Julia. You as well, Lady Irene."

"H-huh?!" Irene squeaked, burying her face in her hands.

"Way to make a girl feel special there, Lawrence," Julia drawled with a roll of her eyes.

"Technically, everyone is," Lawrence pointed out. "Even identical twins can be quite different, like Misses Linde and Vivi."

"You have been around Elisha for too long," Julia grumbled. "I swear, that boy interprets everything literally unless it inconveniences you."

"I…think that may be his attempt at humor," Irene murmured, peeking out from between her fingers.

"...What."

"Elisha seems to have trouble understanding people, so he acts a certain way that he knows will make others respond a certain way, maybe in a way that is easier to understand for him?" Irene explained.

"You are insightful as ever," Lawrence complimented, "that does seem to match his usual behavior."

"Huh, then he has a better poker face than I thought," Julia mused.

"A-aside from that," Irene started, "do you have something you want to speak to me about? Maybe a request for the student council?"

"Hmph, so I can't simply be having a chat with my friend?" Julia huffed in mock offense. "For shame!"

"You did look more serious than usual," Lawrence observed.

"Oh come now!" Julia sighed, taking a seat on one of the desks (was that Masha's?) and kicking her legs idly. "I'm not that obvious, am I?" (Yes it was.)

"You usually prefer chatting with Lady Irene at our dormitory," Lawrence commented, "so there might be something else if you are willing to wait before getting on a horse."

Julia huffed in annoyance at being seen through so easily, casually leaning backwards and propping herself up with her hands behind her. She did not dispute Lawrence's observation.

"Why are you sitting like that?" Lawrence asked curiously.

"Yes, it's quite improper, Julia," Irene chided.

"Eh, I know I can let my hair down around you two, so to speak," Julia deflected with a shrug. "And fine, you got me, but it's really nothing serious."

A mischievous glint sparked in her eye and Irene felt a shiver of worry at her expression.

"So Irene," Julia drawled. "What's this I hear about running into a dungeon with four different boys? At the same time too! For shame! I didn't think you had it in you!"

'Uh Bwah?!'

"The principal assigned the task to her and she recruited us to assist her, is that so strange?" Lawrence returned.

"But with all the boys in our class?" Julia pouted. "You shouldn't be so greedy, Irene. I am feeling rather neglected!"

"It's nothing like that!" Irene objected, sure her face was red with embarrassment. 'Really Julia?! To imply…why?!'

"To be fair, we did volunteer," Lawrence explained. "I wanted to see how good the Old Schoolhouse is for training, Elisha wanted to examine the strange devices we saw, and…on second thought, I am not certain why Emmet and Fion wanted to come along, but their motivation seemed similar to mine."

"It's no fun when you put it that way," Julia sighed, before dismounting the desk legs first in a rather indecent manner.

'Why are you like this?'

"Was it supposed to be?" Lawrence asked, giving Julia a reproving look.

"Not really, but you really make it too easy, Irene," Julia replied with a smirk. "All that aside, don't leave me out if you get sent on another expedition down there, ok? I want to see what all the fuss is about."

"That was a rather circuitous way of asking about that," Lawrence murmured.

'No kidding. It took him and Emmet all of five seconds.'

"Oh, let me have my fun," Julia groused. "Besides, you look like you have something to ask, and you're taking just as much time."

"Ah, right." Lawrence turned to Irene. "It occurred to me that we have yet to properly spar. I know you are quite busy, but would you be willing to humor me this weekend?"

"I b-believe so," Irene replied, fighting down her nervous tic. 'I don't think I'd be much of a challenge, but…I do want to test myself.'

"Look at you two, already planning an evening rendezvous," Julia snorted. "Should I be penning a letter to Baron Schwarzer about you starting to court someone?"

"Julia!" Irene gasped.

"That…isn't really your responsibility, is it?" Lawrence pointed out.

"Oh, you don't think Irene is worth courting?" Julia shot back, raising an eyebrow challengingly.

"Far from it," Lawrence returned evenly. "I will admit some surprise that no one is already doing so, but the point is that such a decision is ultimately hers."

"Even if her father pushes her into it?" Julia muttered, a hint of bitterness in her voice.

'Father wouldn't do that! So why…oh.'

"Even so," Lawrence affirmed. "Though things become quite a bit more complicated in that case."

Julia locked eyes with her tall friend for a good long while, before letting out a sigh and looking away. "Yeah, really complicated."

"Though I am sure your brother will not let your father promise your hand to someone unworthy," Lawrence assured her.

"You can't know that for sure," Julia muttered, though she looked like she wanted to believe it. "And don't you have a club to get to?"

"I suppose I do," Lawrence agreed, glancing between the two noblewomen. "If you have something else you need to discuss, I will try and ensure no one interrupts you." He nodded at them. "Lady Julia, Lady Irene, have a good evening."

After he left the room, Julia let out a long sigh and sprawled down on her back on top of Masha's desk. "Aidios damn it Lawrence."

"Are you alright?" Irene asked hesitantly. Her friend did tend to relax more around her, but this was a bit much.

"Mostly," Julia hedged, tilting her head to look at her friend. "It just gets a bit tiring, that's all."

"Did you visit the noble lounge again?"

"Theresia invited me again. Don't have the heart to tell her how much I hate it there."

"She'll understand, I'm sure," Irene murmured encouragingly. "Besides, Theresia would be perfectly happy to meet you on the practice field or in the training room."

"Not if she wants to talk," Julia grumbled. "You know how she and Friedel are about that kind of thing."

Irene giggled. "They can be very single minded, yes."

"Not that you have much room to talk, little miss sword maiden," Julia snickered.

"I am not that bad!" Irene objected.

"Yeah, you're not as overt about it," Julia conceded. "But you're still sword brain enough that Lawrence seems taken with you."

"H-huh? What do you mean?"

"You know what I am talking about," Julia smirked, spinning around and rolling over onto her stomach, bracing her chin on her hands and kicking her feet in the air. "He did just ask to spar with you."

"Lawrence is interested in sparring with me because I practice a rarer style," Irene objected, "nothing more."

"Maybe," Julia mused thoughtfully. "For a person as upfront as he is, it can be a bit tricky to figure out what Lawrence is thinking, buuut…"

Irene did not like the look of her friend's cheshire grin. "But what?"

"It's obvious that Lawrence is attracted to girls who are good with swords," Julia snickered.

"Isn't he good friends with Theresia too?"

"Or lances," Julia shrugged. "The consensus is that he'll only marry a fellow martial artist, at least among Kreuzen noble girls."

"Who came up with that? Was Lawrence's mother a martial artist?" Irene asked thoughtfully. "I don't believe the Arseids have a tradition of marrying martial artists."

Julia blinked. "Now that you mention it…I think his mother was more of a musician…huh. Maybe Bridget isn't as out of the race as she thought."

"Isn't Bridget still carrying a flame for her childhood friend?"

"They haven't seen each other for a few years and as liberal as the Falkenheims are, even they won't be eager to let their daughter marry a commoner, especially not one who doesn't have much money to speak of."

"We're talking about Bridget, not her parents," Irene observed. "And as sensible as she usually is, I don't think she sees things that way."

"She'll have to grow up eventually," Julia grumbled darkly.

Irene frowned.

"Was the reason you went to the noble lounge because your father suggested some more candidates?" She asked delicately.

Julia stiffened, before deflating and slumping against the desk. "You are really too observant for your own good."

"Oh…was it at least someone nice this time?" Now Irene felt a bit bad for bringing it up.

"Honestly? Thors seems to have fewer idiots than Bareahard," Julia admitted, "but I know full well that Father has no intention of actually committing to anything. I'm much more valuable as a bargaining chip to keep his cronies in line."

She tsked, hauling herself off the desk. "Once, I would have been happy just getting a letter from him, but now it's just requests to smile and bat my eyelashes at some stuck up son of some stuck up sycophant of his. Something about 'making good use of my accessory allowance' and whatnot."

Irene watched nervously as her friend paced between the desks for a few moments, before sitting back down with an irritated huff, arms and legs crossed in a very unladylike posture.

"I know there are countless people who would quite literally kill for a life like this," Julia whispered. "But I'm sick of feeling like a piece of meat dangled out there to keep the hounds baying."

"I…can imagine how that must be uncomfortable," Irene agreed softly, slipping out of her chair to pull her friend into a hug. "Do you need me to ask Friedel to tell them off?"

"What are you, my mom?" Julia snorted, but she did seem to be feeling a bit better. "I can handle a few simpering boys. At least these ones have enough brains not to try getting handsy."

"If they do, I will make sure they regret it!" Irene declared, pulling back slightly to give her friend a determined look.

Julia met her gaze for a moment, before looking to the side, an embarrassed look on her face. "Tch, look at me making an ass of myself. You're trying to help me, and here I am venting to you about having an excess of suitors when I know full well that you have hang ups about such matters."

"I suppose?" Irene frowned. "That isn't really important right now though."

"Right…You know…I've been wondering," Julia mused, giving Irene a searching look. "Why haven't you visited the lounge yourself? Given the number of girls from St. Astraia here, I doubt anyone would dare to make a fuss."

"W-well," Irene began, "to be frank, I've been busy enough with school and student council work that I haven't really had the time."

"Hmm…" Julia hummed, looking unconvinced. "I distinctly recall you making a list of eligible candidates, and I know at least a few of them frequent the lounge. Patrick is still an idiot though."

Irene flushed in embarrassment. "That wasn't the point of that list! It was for Elise!"

"Of course it was," Julia grumbled, sounding unconvinced.

"You don't have to sound so skeptical," Irene pouted. "Quite a few of the people on the list would never consider me a viable option."

"Pff! Their loss then," Julia dismissed. "Though maybe I'll be able to keep you all to myself."

"Julia!"

"Yeah, no chance, you'd run and try to help too many other people."

"That's not a bad thing!" Irene objected mulishly.

"It is if you drive yourself nuts doing it," Julia countered. "Though you actually seem a bit less stressed now than when you were at St. Astraia."

"Believe it or not, the paperwork is less of a headache here," Irene explained. "And I am assisting Miss Herschel, not running something mostly by myself."

"Riiight," Julia drawled, standing up again, looking ready to leave. "But I'm glad you aren't running yourself ragged." She smoothed out her uniform and checked the wall clock. "I better get going to riding club."

"So Lambert isn't one of those boys you mentioned?"

"No, Lambert would only care that much if I was a horse," Julia snickered. "Or Gaia, since she might as well be the next closest thing."

"Julia! Don't be rude," Irene chided.

"I'm just repeating what Lambert said," the blonde noble declared, raising her hands placatingly. "And Gaia wasn't offended anyways."

Irene huffed, still giving her friend a disappointed look.

"Don't you have student council work?" Julia pointed out, causing Irene to start.

"Ah, yes! Oh no! I must have kept Miss Herschel waiting!" She quickly finished packing up her things and the two noblewomen finally left the classroom.

Outside, they found Lawrence not too far away, talking to the strange photography club member, who looked like he would rather be anywhere else at the moment.

'Did he really wait outside this whole time?'

"I thought Fidelio had given that creep a good talking to," Julia scowled. "Then again, Lawrence might be more effective."

Irene suddenly remembered what Miss Towa needed her to do, so she parted ways with Julia and hurried to the student council room.

---

Against her expectations, President Herschel was not upset that Irene had not immediately gone to the student council room, having expected her to at least eat dinner first. With the whole conversation with Julia, that had slipped Irene's mind, and she was too embarrassed to tell Towa that she had been delayed for another reason, especially since the diminutive student council president also had yet to eat dinner.

After having worked together for over a month, the two of them divided the work between them and set about getting it done. Irene again found herself impressed by Towa's organizational abilities, which was something she could certainly learn from.

President Herschel seemed to have gotten gradually less haggard after Irene decided to help her, though the two of them still had to work late on occasion, since the other nominal members of the student council were not that dependable. It would be rude to speak ill of Marquis Rogner's daughter, but she seemed to be absolutely terrible at administrative work, and likely was on the roll to cheer Towa up, since the two of them seemed to be friends.

Irene had a sneaking suspicion of how that came to be, but she was rather surprised that the straight-laced student council president would get along with the…unorthodox noblewoman. Irene also had other suspicions about just who was responsible for the current Thors female uniform.

Lord Vincent Florald also was nominally a part of the student council, but he rarely stayed in the office long, always conveniently called away for one reason or another.

Frankly, the fact that President Herschel could keep things running with such layabouts for subordinates was nothing short of extraordinary.

"Have you figured out the requests for tomorrow, Irene?" Towa asked as they were getting towards the end of their tasks.

"Mnh! There did not seem to be that many this week. Klein from the swimming club requested a substitute tutor for a kid he tutors, and Keynes from the bookstore needs several books delivered," Irene listed off. "Oh right! And Principal Vandyck says he had people reporting strange sounds from the Old Schoolhouse, so it seems like we will be braving it yet again." She paused thoughtfully. "Julia said she wanted to join this time, perhaps I should also approach other members of my class about it. The principal did state that it was an assignment for our class as a whole."

"Now that you mention it, why did you go in with only half of your class last month?" President Herschel asked curiously. "Like you said, it was supposed to be for your class in general."

"Well, the boys seemed really eager to venture into the unknown, and I was swept up in the excitement a bit," Irene admitted bashfully. "Fortunately, we were able to handle it."

"Oh, that's good then!" Towa chirped. "I guess you do have pretty strong people in your class. I'd have a lot more trouble."

"Do you even have time to train in between all the work you do?" Irene wondered. "I feel like I barely have time, and I don't do as much as you."

"Um, I don't really plan on being a fighter," President Herschel mumbled, "so I don't have to practice that much."

"Don't you still have combat training?" Irene pointed out.

Towa nodded. "I do ok, but I'd really rather not have to fight."

Irene hummed. She could somewhat understand. Her first steps on the path of the sword were more grasping for control than enthusiasm for battle.

"I guess that makes sense. Most people nowadays don't have to get into fights. It's a bit different out in the country with the monster attacks though."

Towa sighed, but nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that's true. I don't think I'll ever be that good at it though. Not compared to Crow or Angie."

"Well, Lady Rogner seems to like fighting, to some extent," Irene mused. "But as long as you can keep yourself safe, there's no need to worry that much about it."

"Aww…thanks Irene!" President Herschel cried. "You're so sweet!"

"H-huh?" Irene stammered. "It's just common sense."

"Most people don't have that," Fion remarked. Wait–

Miss Herschel let out a squeak and jumped in her chair.

"When did you get here, Fion?" Irene asked, clamping down on her own surprise. 'I didn't even sense him come in…'

"About a minute ago," the taciturn boy replied.

"I'm sorry we kept you waiting!" Towa apologized hastily. "Why didn't you knock? We wouldn't have let you stand there if we knew you were there!"

"Door was open," Fion shrugged.

"You could have said something to us, Fion," Irene pointed out. "We did not mean to ignore you."

"You looked busy," he replied, waving a box of cookies, which did not help Irene understand in the slightest.

"Well, we were busy," Irene admitted, "but if you have a request, that takes priority. The paperwork isn't going anywhere, and I'm sure you have other things you'd like to do."

"Ok." Fion placed the box of cookies on the table and slid it over to them, then plopped down a textbook, flipping it open to a marked page. "Can you answer a question?"

"Do you want some tutoring help?" Towa asked. "There are a few people in my year who'd be happy to help."

"Can they make things make sense like Irene can?" Fion asked.

"Oh! Were you already helping him, Irene?"

"Err…I just explained silverware to him, haha," Irene explained, "and also table manners."

"Huh? Didn't you learn them–?"

"Dead parents."

"O-oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up," Towa apologized with a grimace.

Fion shrugged. "Don't care. Don't remember parents." He paused. "Pretty sure I had parents."

"Um…are there people who don't?" Towa mumbled.

"Dunno," Fion replied. "Maybe some people are born in a machine or something."

"Is…is that possible?" Irene mused. 'That sounds like a fairy tale.'

"Maybe," Fion grunted. "Can you answer my question about this?" He pointed to his…textbook.

"Algebra?" Irene asked. "What is your question?"

"Why do they use letters for variables?"

"I think it's just a convention," President Herschel explained. "You understand what a variable is, right?"

"Yeah," Fion grunted. "It's something you don't know how many."

Irene blinked. "I guess that is one way of putting it."

Fion nodded. "So, why do they use letters?"

"I think it's because most people recognize letters," Towa offered. "So basically everyone can use it."

"But letters are also used for other things," Fion pointed out. "Makes things more confusing. Why not just use a box?"

"If it's better for you, you can use boxes to represent variables," Irene suggested. "Though just make it clear what you are doing."

"Ok." Fion noted. "I now have several other questions."

"Um…" Towa hummed. "If you need some tutoring help, I think I can help you a bit tomorrow."

"Aren't you busy tomorrow too?" Irene asked. "Won't you be overworked?"

"Um…I don't think so," President Herschel replied thoughtfully. "With your help, we've got a lot of the work I thought would take until tomorrow done, so I should have time!"

Irene frowned, having figured out by now that their Student Council President had a tendency to understate the amount of work she did. "If you're sure, President Herschel," she returned, "though if you need me to assist, I'd be willing."

"Irene, please! You don't have to use my title," Miss Herschel cried.

"Is that an order as Student Council President?" Irene asked slyly, a slight smile pulling at her mouth.

"Irene!" Towa squeaked.

"There's no need to be ashamed of the title, Towa," Irene laughed. "You certainly work hard enough to have earned it."

"Always busy," Fion added blandly. "Maybe delegate more? If you are school leader."

Towa puffed her cheeks in frustration and huffed, looking quite childlike, even compared to the other two people in the room, who looked quite young themselves. "Not you too!"

"He does have a point," Irene pressed. "After all, you did say your job became easier after I joined the student council."

"Do you want me to help tutor him or not?!" Towa pouted.

Fion reached into his bag, pulling out another box of cookies and placed them on the table.

"Err…Fion?" Irene asked. "What are you doing with the cookies?"

"Bribing you to answer questions," he replied, as if that was an entirely normal thing to do.

"With cookies?" Irene wondered.

"You don't have to pay to submit requests to the student council!" Towa cried.

Fion just stared at them. "We have to pay for the cafeteria though."

"Well…this isn't the same!" Towa explained. "Our job is to help students with things like this."

"...So how much do you get paid?" Fion asked.

"Errrm…we don't?" Towa replied.

Fion frowned. "Sounds like a scam."

"Well, we do acquire a degree of influence over campus affairs," Irene pointed out. "It is also good practice for the future if you are likely to be managing something in the future."

"..." Fion looked like he had something to say about that, but he instead just placed another box of cookies on the table.

"You don't have to bribe us with cookies!" Towa reiterated, waving her arms frantically.

"...Is it working?"

"I was going to help anyways!"

"But now you also have cookies."

"Were cookies used as currency where you grew up?" Irene asked Fion, partly jokingly.

"Kinda," the silver haired boy grunted. "You two are pretty small, so this should last awhile."

Irene glanced at the box of cookies, suddenly reminded of how she had skipped dinner. 'No, cookies are not good for dinner!'

Towa sighed. "If I take the cookies, will you let me tutor you?"

"...Yes?" Fion frowned, giving Irene a confused look, as that was what he was asking for the entire time. For her part, Irene just smiled and placed a silencing finger over her lips.

Fion shrugged, letting Towa schedule a session without protest. Not that he really had any reason to.

---

After having some of his questions answered and hashing out a time during the upcoming free day to meet for tutoring, Fion seemed to have found the student council room to his liking. He left briefly and returned with three sandwiches, two of which he offered as bribes to let him nap in the admittedly quiet student council room.

Towa was too nice to kick him out even if he was disruptive, and Irene didn't see a problem, as Fion was, if anything, too unobtrusive, and she did her best not to forget that he was there as she and the President continued their work.

True enough to Miss Herschel's estimations, they managed to finish most of their work before the sun set, much to their delight. It had taken about a month, but they had managed to cut down the backlogged paperwork into something manageable.

As they were cleaning up for the day, the door to the student council (which Fion had closed) burst open, revealing a tall young woman with short cropped purple hair and dressed in a…leather bodysuit? "Hey Towa!"

Irene blinked, before recognizing Angelica Rogner and mentally shrugging.

"Oh! Hey Angie, how are you doing?" President Herschel called back with a smile.

"I was going to take a ride down to Heimdallr, and I was wondering…" she trailed off as she spotted Irene. "Oh, hey Schwarzer."

"Good evening, Lady Rogner," Irene greeted in return, giving the high ranking noble a respectful bow.

"Guess I shouldn't be that surprised you're here," Lady (in title, if not in attitude) Rogner muttered. "Anyways, I guess I do have to thank you for helping Towa out," she gave an obviously false smile, "I don't think I can remember the last time I've seen her leave this office before sunset."

"That is kind of you to say," Irene replied. "But it is not as great an accomplishment as you are making it seem." A small smile tugged at her lips. "As diligent as President Herschel is, even she will not continue working when there is no more work to do."

What Irene did not explicitly say was that had Towa had more help, she would not have had to spend so much time on student council duties.

"Err…Angie?" Towa started. "Is something wrong?"

"Of course not? What makes you say that? I'm perfectly fine!" the purple haired noble objected, perhaps slightly too ardently.

"Um…are you sure?"

"I'm fine!" Lady Rogner insisted.

"Then I take this is a social call?" Irene inquired politely. "If you do not have a request for us, then are you here to speak with President Herschel? If that is the case, I can give you two some privacy and take my leave."

"Err…yeah, that'd be great, if it isn't too much trouble."

"Angie?!"

"Have a good evening, President Herschel, Lady Rogner," Irene curtsied politely, finished collecting her things, and left the room, tapping Fion on the shoulder on the way out.

Spotting the strange new person in the room, Fion slid over the back of the couch he had been napping on, skulked over to a window, slipped it open, then hopped out, despite being on the second floor.

"Wait, was that Crow? Get back here!" Lady Rogner yelled, rushing over to the open window.

'They don't look that alike, beside the silver hair, I suppose,' Irene mused. 'Then again, if she only saw a glimpse of him, it isn't that unbelievable of a mistake to make.'

Fion was a bit of a strange kid, but he seemed a decent enough sort.

Irene glanced out one of the windows, smiling slightly as she spent a moment marveling at the red glow of sunset. It was nice to have a little more time to train in the evenings.

Speaking of which, she did agree to spar with Lawrence in her spare time, which she now had…

The thought made her pretty nervous, since from everything she had seen, the tall noble was well on his way to becoming as dangerous as his father the Radiant Blademaster, or the Golden Rakshasa, and yet, Irene returned to her dorms with due haste and a slight skip in her step.

---

As Irene left the room after sensing her presence wasn't wanted, Towa frowned at her friend. "Angie? What was that?! This isn't like you."

"What do you mean? I didn't do anything weird," Angelica lied badly.

"Umm…yeah…," Towa stumbled over her words, unsure how to proceed. "And that's not like you."

"Do you really think so little of me?" Angelica replied with false cheer. "C'mon Towie, you know me, I can hold back if I need to."

Towa didn't want to gainsay her friend, but her incredulity must have shown on her face, as Angelica sighed and deflated.

"Alright fine," she grumbled. "Normally I'd be all over a cute little thing like her, but…well…"

Towa frowned. "Angie, what's wrong with you? I know Irene would never do anything that would make you like this. It can't be rejection, you get rejected all the time!"

Angelica winced as if shot in the heart, but Towa was undeterred.

"So tell me, what's your problem with Irene?"

The purple haired woman grimaced, pulling out a chair across from the student council president and plopping down in it.

"It's…not really anything she did," Angelica began, uncharacteristically somber. "She seems like a nice gal, like you."

"Huh? But I'm not a noble–"

"And Irene's an adopted commoner, or bastard," Angelica interrupted. "I've met her parents, and they're great! They don't pressure their kids to be good little nobles, don't mind if they go sporting or do fun stuff. Hell, I heard Teo Schwarzer takes his kids out hunting sometimes, and he's got two cute little daughters!"

Towa tilted her head in confusion. "Irene acts like a noble though. I barely got her to call me Towa! She usually still calls me 'President'!"

"Yeah, I don't get her," Angelica sighed. "Her parents were willing to bow out of dumb noble stuff just for her sake, so why's she taking it so seriously?"

"Are you…jealous?" Towa asked in surprise. That didn't seem like something her friend would be prone to.

"Maybe? I don't know," Angelica muttered. "It's really not anything she did, and I don't really care what my old man says, but…well…"

She pursed her lips and frowned. "It still bothers me, that time I heard him mutter about how he should have adopted a kid if it worked out for the Schwarzers."

Her fist clenched and she slammed it on the table, though not hard enough to break it. "It shouldn't bother me. It's dumb, and I know Irene didn't do anything, but looking at her just messes with me."

"Oh…your dad really said that to you?" Towa whispered.

"Nah, not to my face," Angie admitted. "I overheard him grumbling to himself. Don't know why it bothers me so much."

"He probably didn't mean it," Towa consoled.

"He definitely meant it about wishing I was more like Irene," Angelica bit out. "Can you imagine that? Me going 'oh, pleased to meet you President Towa' or something like that?"

"She calls me President Herschel."

"Not the point!"

"Oh, no I can't really see you doing that," Towa giggled, before her face turned serious. "But you better not make Irene sad, because I need her help here!"

"Whatever you say, President Towa!" Angelica agreed with a mock salute. "I'm about to take the bike down to Heimdallr, you want anything?"

"I don't need anything, thanks for asking though."

"Awww! You're so cute!"

"A-angie let me go!"

---

There was still light by the time Irene arrived back at the Class VII dormitory, as she had left the student council room earlier and the spring days were lengthening.

Irene let out a relieved sigh as she entered the building. Even though today had not been that tiring, returning to a place that had started to feel like a home away from home was always refreshing.

Inside the lobby, Fion was at the punching bags, which was pretty typical, but instead of practicing himself, he and Gaia were teaching Ellia how to throw a punch.

The three of them glanced at her as she entered, and Irene gave them a greeting with a smile, but she had somewhere to be so she didn't stop to chat, instead heading to her room, setting her school materials neatly on her desk, before changing into training clothes and grabbing her practice swords.

She was pretty sure Lawrence didn't mean to practice with bared steel, though Irene was also quite certain that he could seriously hurt someone with just a practice sword. Or just break it, as Friedel liked to mention.

With that, she descended the stairs to the second level and knocked on Lawrence's door. It would be slightly awkward if he had stayed later at the swim club with Julia like last month–

The door opened and Lawrence poked his head out. "Oh, hello Lady Irene!" He glanced down at her clothes and practice swords and a bright smile lit up his face. "So you have time tonight? Excellent!"

Irene nodded. "Y-yes, we managed to finish our student council work earlier than e-expected." She did her best not to stare, as while Lawrence was dressed, the shirt he wore was clearly a bit too small, making his musculature incredibly obvious.

"That is good to hear!" Lawrence cheered. "Lady Julia was slightly worried about you overworking, but it seems you and President Towa have things well in hand."

"Mnh!" Irene nodded. "Should we spar at the g-gymnasium?" She trailed off, remembering that Friedel would likely be there.

"While I would not mind a decent walk," Lawrence remarked, "I had not planned on returning to campus this evening. How about sparring in the grassy area next to the dorms?"

"I…think that would be better," Irene agreed, smiling slightly. 'It would be more secluded too, so less likely to have an audience.'

"Well then it's decided," Lawrence declared. "I apologize, but I will need a minute to change."

"O-oh it's no problem," Irene waved off. "I did arrive unannounced."

"Very gracious of you, Lady Irene," Lawrence returned with a smile. "I will be down in a moment." He closed the door, and Irene let out a slow breath.

'He really is muscular–noo! Stop thinking about that!'

Irene shook her head to clear her thoughts, then padded back down to the ground floor, where the trio from before were still at the punching bags.

"Have these bags offended you somehow?" Gaia asked as she glanced at Irene, a teasing glint in her eye. "I don't think they'd survive a determined swordswoman."

"They barely survive Lawrence punching," Fion muttered, giving the dark haired noble a nod of greeting, an almost imperceptible smile pulling at his face.

"U-uhm…" Ellia stammered, breathing heavily. "W-we could go somewhere–hah–else, if you need…my lady?"

The other occupants of the room gave the ginger haired girl confused looks, which caused her to wave her hands panickedly. "What are you looking at me for?!"

"Um…there's no need for that, Ellia," Irene replied, slightly confused by the other girl's sudden deference. "I was going to train outside. Punching bags aren't the best for sword training."

"Indeed!" Lawrence boomed from right behind her, and Irene almost jumped in surprise, fighting down a very unladylike squeak. "They're good for learning to strike, but it won't do you that much good unless it could hit back."

"Oh, I see now," Gaia smirked. "Have fun you two."

'Huh?'

"We will endeavor to do so!"

'Lawrence no!'

"W-wait what?!" Ellia squeaked.

"Don't break anything," Fion shrugged.

'Why does everyone keep insinuating something that is so obviously not there?!'

Irene nodded stiffly, stepping to the door with a bit more haste than was strictly polite. She opened the doors to the dorm and paused, glancing back to see Lawrence waving a farewell to their classmates. He was now also dressed in training clothes, and hefting a very large practice sword over one shoulder.

While she didn't think Lawrence would hurt her intentionally, Irene had a few second thoughts for a moment, before she shook them off.

'If I am to gain control of my Curse, I will have to keep moving forwards!'

"Thank you for your patience, Lady Irene."

The lady in question blinked, before flushing slightly as she realized Lawrence had caught up to her. "It was n-no issue!"

The two of them stepped out into the evening, the red riot of sunset casting the town of Trista in a warm glow.

"Good thing there is enough light to train by still," Lawrence remarked, to which Irene nodded.

The grassy area next to the dorms was empty, as usual, and looked smooth enough that they could maneuver without serious difficulty.

Lawrence paced around the area, testing out the terrain. Eventually, he looked satisfied, bringing his practice sword into a ready stance. "Shall we begin?"

Irene squared up against him, a thrill of fear shooting down her spine as she was again reminded of just how much bigger he was. "Shall we go to points? Or yield?"

"Either would be acceptable for me," Lawrence shrugged. "Frankly, I had not considered something that formal, I just wanted to cross blades with you."

"Um…" Irene hummed, a bit flattered and quite a bit embarrassed. "To three points then?"

Lawrence nodded. "That seems fair to me."

Usually, that would require a judge to call the hits, but this wasn't a competition match, and while the two sword nobles had not known each other for that long, they knew each other well enough to trust the other to admit to being hit.

"Ready?" Lawrence asked, his sword held in a ready position at shoulder height and point aimed forwards.

"Yes!" Irene replied, settling into her own ready position, one sword raised above her head and the other in front of her.

The two combatants tensed, but neither moved immediately.

Irene inhaled deeply, letting the gentle breeze of the evening whisk away her errant thoughts, focusing only on the here and now.

Lawrence watched her with a keen eye, searching for any weakness in her guard.

Irene relaxed her grip on her left sword slightly–

She slid to the side as Lawrence took the bait, binding his sword against her left–

"Oof!"

Irene crashed into the grass, her left sword flying out of her grip. Lawrence had powered through her attempted deflection, something she probably should have expected.

"Are you alright, Lady Irene?" the tall noble asked, sounding slightly concerned.

"Point to you," Irene declared, rising from the grass and retrieving her lost weapon in the same motion. 'So this is the difference between a beginner and an intermediate? I still have far to go.'

She had become too used to dueling Friedel and Julia, who, while stronger than her, could not so completely overpower her. To try and match Lawrence in strength was a doomed endeavor.

Irene steadied her breathing, circling slowly to the right.

Lawrence mirrored her, sword held in the same guard as before.

Irene continued circling, not dropping her guard, even as Lawrence feinted, trying to draw a reaction. His reach was too long for her to take advantage of those openings, even if it was clear they were false. 'Wait, how did I know that?'

She had no time to think, as the light of the fading sun glinted in the whites of her opponent's amber eyes, and Irene moved.

Her blades lashed out suddenly as she closed the gap–

Even momentarily blinded, Lawrence blocked her strike, but Irene had two swords, and she drew the shorter one across the taller noble's chest.

"That is a point for you," Lawrence conceded as they split apart, eyes glinting with excitement and a focused curiosity. "You certainly are not one who should be underestimated."

"Thank you for your kind words," Irene returned, a slight smirk pulling at her lips. In a proper fight, that blow likely would not have done much, not to a man who could shrug off blows from a massive ape, but being able to land a hit on him made her feel like she was finally making progress.

They spoke no further, as there was no need.

Something twinged at the back of her mind, and Irene adjusted her stance as Lawrence charged, his oversized sword held over his head. A very convincing feint.

Irene moved as if to intercept, then suddenly shifted to the side, whirling her sword in a flourish to deflect Lawrence's sword as he converted his downward swing into a thrust, the point barely missing her face as she swung her other sword out at his side.

But Lawrence was not fooled, twisting to the side and casually stepping out of range, his longer limbs and longer sword giving him much greater reach, so Irene lunged forwards, not content to allow him control over the distance.

Her attack was thwarted as Lawrence stopped her cold, halfswording to shorten his sword's reach to maneuver into a bind, the pommel of his sword slamming into Irene's chest, the impact knocking her backwards a few steps, preventing her from striking him with her other sword and opening her up to a quick horizontal swing.

Irene could not regain her balance in time to defend, so she didn't, instead leaning backwards under the swing, curling herself into a backwards roll and springing back to her feet before launching herself upwards in a jumping strike over Lawrence's low thrust, but he recovered too fast and shifted out of the way.

Another breath, and Irene dashed behind him, but he turned to face before she could make use of the opening, her paired strikes deflected by a whirling overhead flourish, his long sword providing Lawrence a much greater defense than she had expected.

Irene shuffled her feet, leaning under the follow up swing, one sword warding Lawrence's sword away from his body, the other thrusting towards him–

The point of her left sword passed by his ear as her arm was wrenched to the side, her wrist engulfed in a massive fist as Lawrence somehow deflected her right sword while wielding his own overly large weapon one handed.

If he grappled her in place, she was finished, so Irene twisted and threw her weight to her left, trying to unbalance him and slacken his grip, but the difference in mass was too great and he was unmoved, yet he let go, letting her stumble, following up with an overhand left hand blow.

Irene swayed and ducked out of the way like a leaf on the wind, making another attempt at striking her opponent, but her blow was blocked, Lawrence managing to raise his sword between them in time, stopping her just out of reach with her shorter sword.

For a moment, they held the bind, and Irene felt a shiver of some indescribable sensation creep up her spine at Lawrence's wide grin and gleeful amber eyes. Idly, a part of her realized that she too was smiling.

'What was this feeling?'

They broke apart, and clashed again, Irene dancing just away from Lawrence's strikes, while his greater reach and uncanny coordination prevented her from landing a hit.

Somehow, she managed to avoid his blows and slip out of binds, preventing him from overwhelming her with his strength, but she could not make any headway of her own, as no matter how erratic her movement or elaborate her feints, he always seemed to read them and defend against both her swords.

Neither managed to score a point for some time, but Irene felt herself flagging. Every exchange required her to expend more energy than him, and as much as she did train, she was quite sure her stamina did not outstrip his.

In her fatigue, Irene misjudged an evasive step and was forced to block head on–

She blinked, seeing stars…?

Oh, that was the sky. She was on the ground.

"Irene! Are you alright?!" Lawrence's concerned face appeared in her vision as he loomed over her, a bit too close for comfort.

"I think so," Irene answered raspily, her throat dry from…however long they had been at this. She tried to sit up, and winced as pain throbbed in her head. "Ah!"

Lawrence reached down and slipped an arm around her shoulders, helping her sit up. "I apologize, I got too caught up in the moment."

"I did as well," Irene mumbled, sucking in a breath of air. "So it was my fault too."

"Still, I did not mean to hit you so hard," Lawrence murmured contritely, crouching down next to her and checking over where his hit landed. "Though fortunately you seem to have managed to block part of the impact."

Irene grimaced as the high of combat ebbed and fatigue turned her limbs into lead. "No need to apologize. I appreciate you not holding back too much, even if I'm only at the beginner level."

Lawrence chuckled, looking relieved now that it was clear she wasn't hurt seriously. "That may be so, but I still learned a lot from our exchange. All the strength in the world will not avail to anything if it can never be brought to bear."

"And I suppose it isn't possible to dodge everything," Irene returned with a slight grin, feeling better now the disorientation was passing. She shook her head and sighed. "I can't believe Friedel and Julia manage to keep up with someone as strong as you."

"Hah!" Lawrence huffed a laugh, "believe it or not, our exchange was quite a bit longer than most of my exchanges with either of them."

Irene blinked in surprise. 'Surely I can't be ahead of Friedel, she's been training for longer, and has had a year of practicing with stronger people here at Thors.'

"It's the truth," Lawrence affirmed, noting her skepticism. "Friedel is not quite as evasive as you are, and tends to attack more recklessly once she's forced on the defensive, and Julia depends heavily on arts, so in a sword spar she sometimes stumbles due to reflex."

"But I only managed to get one hit on you," Irene sighed, rubbing her bruising wrist gingerly.

Lawrence looked taken aback for a moment. "I only scored two hits that would count in a match," he pointed out. "So I guess neither of us reached three points."

"Then I may as well yield," Irene chuckled. "Don't think I want to take another hit like that if I want to get all the student council tasks done tomorrow."

"Fair enough," Lawrence acknowledged, sitting down next to her. "I am not your teacher, so far be it from me to dictate your regimen, but even my mentors stressed the importance of not injuring myself."

"Your mentors being…?" Irene inquired politely. 'Presumably his father is one, but he used the plural…'

"Ah, yes, naturally, my father taught me much," Lawrence explained, "but I also learned many valuable lessons from our butler Klaus and also Countess Aurelia Le Guin while she trained at the Arseid school."

Irene's eyes widened in understanding. She had never met Countess Le Guin in person, but Master of two separate schools of swordsmanship had a colorful reputation. "Wise mentors indeed," she mused.

"Am I correct in presuming you learned from your father as well as the Sword Hermit?" Lawrence asked, turning to give her a curious look. "Or is that too presumptuous?"

"No, you are correct," Irene replied, "though Master Ka-fai travels much of the time, so I did not receive that much direct instruction from him." She smiled slightly. "And while Mother is not martially inclined, I cannot discount how much her dancing lessons helped with footwork."

Lawrence nodded. "That seems quite evident in how you fight, it was almost as if fighting wind."

"Well, I can't very well withstand such a heavy blow," Irene pointed out, "so what other choice do I have but to dodge?"

"I know the feeling," Lawrence laughed, to which Irene gave him a confused look, before she remembered just who he had learned from.

"Even now?" She asked incredulously.

"I could probably withstand a blow from my father or Countess Le Guin," he considered, "but that would still knock the wind out of me, not to mention be quite painful."

Irene winced, imagining fighting someone of that caliber. It was a daunting thought. 'Could I…would it even be possible for me to reach that level…? No, that's getting too far ahead of myself. Besides, that isn't the point anyways.'

"May I ask a rather personal question?" Lawrence inquired suddenly, amber eyes considering her searchingly.

"U-umm…I suppose?" Irene stammered. "As long as you do not mind if I choose not to answer."

"Of course," Lawrence conceded, pausing to consider his words. "There is some…dissonance in the way you fight," he began. "I sensed some hesitation when the possibility of sparring was brought up, and yet that mostly disappeared when we actually crossed blades, and was entirely absent during our adventure in Celdic, or under the old schoolhouse."

Irene frowned. "Erm…what exactly are you asking? I didn't really hear a question, ehehe…"

"True, forgive me, I got lost in thought," Lawrence admitted. "To put it more clearly: what is your goal in picking up the sword?"

'Can I really explain truthfully?' Irene silently considered her answer. She had not picked up a weapon before that…day in the snow. She had been afraid to do so for a while afterwards. But it was necessary.

"I…" she began haltingly, before steeling herself. "I started learning the sword because I realized that the world could be a dangerous place, and if I want to prevent harm from coming to those I love…I would have to start on the path of the sword." She did not mention that one of such dangers was herself.

"An admirable sentiment," Lawrence responded, "one for which you have my respect." He looked out into the distance thoughtfully, which was fortunate for Irene as she buried her face in her hands in embarrassment. "It is part of my own motivations as well, though with how the world is going, part of me wonders how much good it can do."

Irene slowly lifted her head out of her hands, cocking her head curiously. "What do you mean by that?"

Lawrence shrugged. "For one, weapons are getting more and more destructive, and there are problems that cannot be solved with a sword, at least not in a good way."

'He has a point. It must bother him especially because of his family history, as their force of arms have in many cases helped prevent the rise of great dangers.'

"I'm sure you will be up to the task," Irene smiled encouragingly. "Or did you forget how you broke up the dispute in the Grand Market?"

"That was the threat of violence," Lawrence countered, though his serious demeanor softened. "But your encouragement is appreciated."

"It's too nice of an evening to think of such things," Irene huffed, "especially when I need to rest well for tomorrow's activities."

"Then don't let me keep you awake," Lawrence laughed, rising to his feet and offering her a hand up, which she gladly took. "Though if you need my assistance for student council activities, I will be more than happy to help, especially if there is another excursion into the old schoolhouse."

"There is, in fact, another request from the principal in that regard," Irene replied. "Though I would not want to impose on your time."

"No need to worry," Lawrence waved off her concerns. "You've already gone out of your way to help me, so it is only fair I assist you as well, as thanks for the jacket, if you wish to see it as such."

"Oh! You've received the properly sized jacket?"

"Indeed! Thank you for your assistance, now I can probably avoid the awkwardness of some other students asking me for fashion advice." Lawrence rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment at the thought. "I am still not sure why they did so."

"Haha!" Irene giggled. "You're very welcome!" A thought occurred to her, and a disappointed frown crossed her features.

"Is something wrong?" Lawrence asked.

"I did not see a request regarding your undersized bed cross my desk," Irene chided her much larger classmate. "Didn't we talk about that matter already?"

"Oh…that had slipped my mind, I'm afraid," Lawrence winced. "I hadn't thought it to be that important."

"Lawrence."

"As my lady commands!" the tall noble chuckled. "I'm sure your mothers would be glad to see the woman you have grown up to be, both Lady Schwarzer and the one with Aidios."

Irene did not know how to respond to that.

---

AN. Well, Lawrence continues to be dangerous for girls' hearts. Fion has some fairly reasonable questions about the school's practices, and Angelica did not flirt with Irene. I did say that it would probably not go as expected. Also Julia complaining a bit about how her father treats her, which is a pretty notable difference from Jusis' treatment, since a second son does not allow for quite the same political opportunities as a a daughter.

 

[WrandmWaffles]

School Days 2​

Between Field Studies One and Two

---

Blasting a few dummies, sentient or not, was one of Margarita Dresden's favorite ways to unwind, so she found herself headed to the range shortly after dinner, waving off some of her new friends about getting some training in even on an off day (haha!)

It wasn't that the day had been particularly stressful, but she had always been more of a kinetic learner. Frankly, most of her family was, even Elder Sister, however classy she could act.

There was also the fact the range was usually fairly empty this time of the week. Though…that didn't seem to be true right now. It was quiet, but with the electric buzz of Magic in the air, it was clearly occupied, and it could only be by one person. Though didn't he just get back from his Field Trip thingy? Wouldn't he want to get food first, or something?

Margarita turned the corner to the range, passing through the silencing barrier and sure enough, the roar of flames suddenly filled her ears as she found Emmet doing his level best to turn a dummy into a barbecue.

She spent a moment observing as he snarled a short incantation, channeling a delicious amount of anger into an impressive lighting bolt, obliterating the target dummy in a crack of thunder.

"Damn!" Margarita couldn't help but whistle. "What did that thing ever do to you?" A part of her was just a little bit envious that Elder Sister had clearly taught her boy toy a few tricks that she hadn't even taught her, but given he had a kinda important job, it made some sense he'd need it.

Emmet turned, his blue eyes flashing with burning rage and frustration, sparkling delightfully in the twilight amid the remnants of his fiery wrath.

"What do you want?"

"So cold!" Margarita gasped theatrically, placing a hand on her chest as if wounded by his tone, even though they both knew it was quite the opposite. "Am I so offensive to your eyes?"

"If I say yes, will you screw off?" Emmet snapped, focusing his ire on her.

'Oh, be still my heart!'

"Right here?!" she gasped. "I didn't think you had it in you Emmet! Is that what the boundary is for?"

"Not in a thousand years," the purple haired boy denied flatly, completely unaffected by her teasing.

"Ouch, you really know the fastest way to a girl's heart there, Emmet."

"Through the sternum."

"Oh, you know what I mean!"

"Through the eyes then, if you want to try hypnosis."

"Ohoho! You are welcome to try!"

"Why would I even bother with you?" Emmet snorted. He still looked annoyed, but his anger was suppressed. He knew it amused her, so he was putting it away for the moment. Spoilsport!

"Hmph, I suppose you are Elder Sister's creature," Margarita huffed, crossing her arms petulantly. It was a bit galling to admit defeat, but seeing the momentarily crack in Emmet's composure was worth it.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night," he muttered.

"Sleep? Is that what you two were doing?" Margarita retorted.

Emmet rolled his eyes, but looked away slightly. "Tch. What do you even want?"

"I was being honest about shooting something," she shrugged. "Though now you have me curious. What's got your dander all the way up?"

A flicker of anger reignited on his otherwise placid face, and Emmet whirled, hurling a bolt of force into one of the remaining dummies, sending it splintering to the ground.

"My word, the field study must have gone poorly then," Margarita remarked.

"Something like that."

"Heh, what? Did Julia and Masha get on your nerves?"

"You showed me that it is possible for someone to be annoying every moment of their waking life," Emmet grunted, "but I hadn't known that it was possible for two girls to snipe at each other for nearly an entire day straight. They barely contributed anything to the tasks at hand, and were active detriments most of the time, so the rest of us locked them in their room at the inn and did the rest of the study ourselves."

"Did you hypnotize them too?" Margarita grinned.

"I almost regret not doing so," Emmet muttered. "They were somehow even more insufferable on the way back."

"What, did you expect them to kiss and make up after being locked in together?" Margarita laughed.

"I dare you to tell that to them," Emmet shot back flatly. "When I agreed to this assignment, I should have thought of how annoying teenage girls can be."

"Oh come now! Teenagers are annoying as a rule, it's our role!" Margarita protested enthusiastically.

"Surprisingly, my male classmates aren't that bad," Emmet admitted. "Though two of them seem like a few bad days from going on a killing spree, and the other one just needs a cause."

"That…" Margarita blinked. "How is that not that bad?!"

Emmet smiled broadly, an almost maniacal gleam in his eyes. "It means I find myself in good company."

'Geez Elder Sister…you really know how to pick 'em.'

---

Theresia Caroline would not call herself particularly pious, even if those who knew she usually started the day by visiting the Church in Trista might say otherwise. It was important to start the day on the right foot, and offering prayers to the Goddess was a simple way to do so.

Like many of her friends, she typically arose early to fit in training among her daily preparatory activities. Back home in Bareahard, the city was too large to feasibly visit the Cathedral there during that routine, so Theresia appreciated the convenience of having the local Church so close by.

The previous year, she had not run into any other students there this early in the morning, so she had become accustomed to only Father Paulo and Sister Ornella being present, but the new year had brought two freshmen who seemed similarly devout.

"I see you have beaten me here yet again, Gaia," Theresia murmured in greeting as she stepped into the Church and spotted the tall foreigner speaking with Sister Ornella.

"Good morning, Theresia," Gaia replied with a smile. "I am quite accustomed to rising with the sun, though don't speak as if you have not been here earlier before."

"Hehe, it's good to see more students here on their own initiative," Sister Ornella chuckled. "This year, I would almost say it's lively here, if not for how calm all three of you are."

"A Church is a place for solemnity and contemplation, is it not?" Theresia pointed out. "Though I suppose if we have some cause for celebration it can become quite lively."

"The most common ceremony like that would be marriage, correct?" Gaia inquired.

"Well, that depends on how many people get married!" Sister Ornella declared brightly. "So while in a bigger city like Heimdallr that probably is true, in a small town like Trista that is not the case." She smiled, though one with an edge of warning. "Which is a good thing, since most of you students are too young and foolish to be jumping into something like that!"

"Too young? I'm not so sure about that," Gaia mused. "Too foolish? On that we can agree."

"That matter really depends on my parents," Theresia pointed out. "Any marriage I would be joined in would be political, so depending on the person, I may or may not feel particularly interested in celebrating."

The sister frowned slightly, though Gaia tilted her head curiously.

"I have heard some of my noble classmates express similar sentiments," the Nord girl remarked. "At first, I had thought this meant their families would try to find a good match for them, but I am getting the sense that I am failing to understand some of the meaning."

"And you would be correct," Theresia replied. "For noble families, marriage is more about solidifying alliances or making connections, and any consideration of how well the two paired up might get along is secondary." It was not something that she liked, but her parents had never really tried to pretend otherwise, and how Julia's father treated her was just one of the more egregious examples.

"That seems quite mercenary for something that should be a sacred bond," Gaia commented lightly, giving Sister Ornella a questioning look.

For her part, the Sister frowned, probably mulling over a proper response. "It is definitely not the right way to go about things, but there have been cases in the past where the right marriage has bridged a long running conflict, which turned out to be a better result for the nation as a whole."

"In fact, that played a significant part in the Arnors unifying the Empire as a whole to begin with," Theresia pointed out.

"So it is a sacrifice of one's own happiness for the betterment of others?" Gaia concluded. "In that case, you and your friends have my respect."

"It isn't quite like that," Theresia sighed. "In most cases it's for some political or material gain, and I don't think it can be called a sacrifice if it is dictated to us."

'That came out a lot more bitter than I meant it.'

"I think I am starting to understand Julia's behavior better," Gaia remarked. "Irene as well…" she frowned. "Though Lawrence does not appear to put much consideration into this topic."

"Ehehe…" Theresia raised her hand over her mouth to cover her giggle (and slight flush). "Lawrence is…well, Lawrence."

Gaia let out a huff of laughter, a glint of mischief twinkling in her eyes. "He certainly seems popular among noble ladies around our age. Are you hoping your parents might try to arrange a marriage with him?"

Theresia felt her face heat up even more. "I will n-neither confirm nor deny that." She frowned. "My parents would probably quite like such a match, but the Arseids are of higher rank. geographically distant, and tend to not be as mercenary with their matches, as you put it."

Sister Ornella sighed, rubbing her face tiredly despite the early hour. "I suppose I shouldn't have brought it up to begin with, and even though this is a place to express one's worries, I think that is enough of this topic for today."

The two students shared a contrite glance with each other, deciding to heed the sister's request.

The door to the Church opened, and a girl with short cropped blonde hair stepped inside, stopping short at the sight of people just over the threshold.

"Oh, is something wrong?" she asked.

"Oh! Good morning, Rosine!" Theresia greeted. "And no, we were just chatting, mostly."

"You all look so serious," the mild mannered girl observed.

"This is supposed to be a serious place," Theresia pointed out.

"I suppose," Rosine conceded, tilting her head thoughtfully to the side. "But I'm sure if you give your concerns up to the goddess, I'm sure whatever's weighing you down will feel lighter."

"That does seem to help," Theresia admitted.

"Well, since you're all here, shall we get started?" Sister Ornella suggested.

The students and the sister spent some time in silent prayer, and while Theresia's worries for her future didn't vanish, they felt less frightening, at least for the moment.

---

"Hyah!"

Klak!

Thump!

Alan hit the training mat with a thud, his reckless thrust under Lawrence's guard having unbalanced him enough that his opponent barely had to lift a finger to knock him over.

"Damn it!"

He scrambled to his feet, ignoring Lawrence's offered hand, but the tall noble took the snub in stride. "Good effort, Alan, but you have to watch your footing if you want to pull something like that off."

"Patrick managed it," the dark haired young man grumbled lowly, getting back into a ready stance.

"Lordling Patrick is taller than you and has longer reach," Lawrence countered, "which is why he was able to make use of such a maneuver against you. And even still, his footwork is better."

"So what do you want me to do?!"

"Practice your footwork," Lawrence insisted, casually deflecting another reckless charge. "You are trying to run without mastering walking, that will just lead to more frustration."

The two freshmen continued at it for some time, and Friedel found herself yet again impressed by Lawrence's patience, though Alan's tenacity was commendable as well.

"You know, Friedel? I kinda feel like he's hijacking our role a bit," Loggins grumbled from next to her. "He isn't even technically part of the club."

"Now, now, Loggins," Friedel replied chidingly. "Do not look a gift horse in the mouth, and are you really suggesting that the path of the sword should be constrained by mere club affiliation?"

"Oi! What's up with that scary smile?" Loggins objected. "I was just trying to make a joke!"

Friedel smiled, though whether it was because of how easy Loggins was to rile up or how interesting Lawrence's teaching methods were, she wasn't sure.

"Why do I feel like it's more 'cause you've got the hots for this guy?" Loggins muttered under his breath. "Ow!"

"Oh? Did you say something?" Friedel inquired dangerously, digging her heel into Loggins' foot.

"Nothing! Ow! I said nothing!" the other fencer grumbled, shuffling away from the outwardly serene Fencing Club Captain.

"Really? Must have been the wind," Friedel declared.

"Wind my ass, we're indoors," Loggins grumbled, now out of reach, but that did not mean he was safe.

"I suppose you do have a point, Loggins," Friedel conceded. The other senior gave her a suspicious look. "It would not do for us to stay idle. Let's get in some practice of our own, shall we?"

"Great…me and my big mouth."

And as much as Loggins grumbled, he quite obviously enjoyed their bout, even if it mostly did not go in his favor. Despite that, Friedel did have to admit that he had improved. She would have to train harder.

The rest of the people in the gymnasium clapped or cheered as Loggins begrudgingly conceded defeat, failing to read a feint and receiving a thrust to the chest for his troubles.

"I'll get you next time!"

Friedel liked that about him. Some of the other club members gave up far too easily, whereas Loggins would try and find a way to press the attack again.

"Hey Captain…" the tall commoner drawled, wheels figuratively turning behind his eyes. "Have you tried fighting the big boy over here?" He stuck a thumb out at Lawrence. "I kind of want to see just how you guys broke everything."

That…was perhaps not the wisest idea…as Friedel knew she had a one track mind, and that Lawrence was more than able to keep up…but…sparring with him was just too much fun.

"I suppose we could go for a bout or two," Lawrence offered, picking up his practice rapier, giving her an expectant look.

"Do you even have to ask?" Friedel grinned, grabbing a practice greatsword from the wall and tossing it over to the large noble.

Lawrence cocked his head questioning, but Friedel scoffed. "You're decent at court fencing, but I want to fight the Arseid," she declared.

"Oh, I thought the club was only for, well…fencing."

"This is a military academy," Friedel returned. "And I think this club could use a reminder of how the different styles common in the armies look."

"Fair enough," Lawrence nodded, taking his position and dropping into a ready stance.

The other members of the club cleared a space for them, and Friedel took her stance opposite him, adrenaline spiking in her veins as she prepared to fight an opponent she could not consistently overcome.

The whole room seemed to hold its breath as the two more advanced swordsmen stared each other down, and Friedel felt a grin pull at her face.

"Um…don't they need a ref?" Alan pointed out, but it was too late.

Friedel lunged forwards, trying to force her opponent on the defensive, because she knew that letting him dictate the pace of the battle was suicide.

Alas, Lawrence was not fooled by her feint, stepping away from her converted downward slash with ease and almost rocking her off her feet with a horizontal blow she barely deflected.

But her footwork was good, partly a product of her father's insistence she learn ballet, so she kept her balance. Even then, she was forced to backpedal as Lawrence advanced in a chain of quick, measured attacks, warding her off and leaving little opening for attacks.

It was far too controlled and timid compared to what he was capable of, so Friedel prepared her footing, then lunged again, managing to slip past his guard and tag him in the chest even as the edge of his sword smacked her in the chest, sending a light sting of pain through her.

"Dirty exchange," Lawrence called, to which Friedel nodded, a frown creeping over her face.

While it was not as if they lived in the same place, the two of them had met and sparred quite often ever since they met at the Junior Eisenritter camp. Friedel's home and the seat of her family was on the Sutherland side of Lake Ebel, so she and Lawrence only had a ferry ride between them and a good fight.

As such, Friedel was well aware of just how much power Lawrence could bring to bear. She had a few scars from when he was not able to control it as well. On one hand, she was pleased that he had so mastered himself, on the other, she was much displeased by how he held back against her.

"Lawrence," Friedel called, her smile widening dangerously.

"Lady Friedel?" the oaf asked back, looking confused.

"What have I said about holding back?"

"Err…Instructor Heinrich told us to stop breaking practice swords," Lawrence pointed out.

"Then don't break the swords," Friedel insisted.

Lance frowned. "Are you sure?"

Good old Lawrence, always concerned about how his strength could hurt people smaller than him, but Friedel was no delicate flower.

"Lawrence!" Friedel smiled widely. "I want you to bring me to my knees."

She ignored the sudden murmuring around her, focusing her gaze intently on her opponent.

"Very well then," Lawrence agreed lowly, settling back into a ready stance, sword raised over his head.

It was a threatening stance, one to draw in the foolish, but also a risky one. It was very tempting to try and lunge at him, even if there was good chance Lawrence could smack her down before she made contact. A wiser swordsman would be more cautious.

Friedel's smile widened. Lawrence just knew her so well!

She lunged, shooting forwards as fast as she could, practice rapier aimed straight at her opponent's broad chest.

Lawrence did not bring his sword down, and her footwork slipped minutely as she corrected her instinctive dodge, but it was enough for Lawrence to strafe out of her lunge.

He was a lot faster than his size suggested, and Friedel was forced to deflect a crushing backhand swing with a defensive flourish, the impact sending tremors down her arm and adrenaline shooting through her veins.

Her opponent moved to press his advantage, but her footwork recovered quickly enough that she was able to defend or avoid his follow up attacks.

Still, every exchange sent shocks down her arm from the force, and her heart pounded in glee.

Lawrence had been quite talented even when they had first met, but he had come a long way from the gangly and poorly coordinated youth who had fished her out of Lake Ebel after she had annoyed Countess Le Guin a bit too much.

There was a time when she could trip him up with a few quick maneuvers, but now that he was fully grown (probably), his limbs no longer seemed to get in their own way, and he stepped as smoothly as someone his size could, the product of some rather forceful dancing lessons, at least in some part.

Friedel's arms screamed in protest as she deflected another crushing blow, the impact rattling her enough that Lawrence had already recovered before she could counterattack.

So far, she had been able to avoid taking a real hit, but with Lawrence's reach on top of his blossoming skill, she was unable to launch a meaningful attack of her own.

When she was younger, Friedel had aspired to be the best swordswoman in the Empire. With the existence of Aurelia Le Guin, that seemed like a less feasible ambition, but there was no use in getting defeatist.

She let out a slight pained sound as her footwork slipped and she was forced to block one of the incoming strikes dead on. Her muscles screamed as the shock rattled through her body, and yet she could not help the grin that spread across her face.

Lawrence had not let getting beaten down by the Radiant Blademaster and Golden Rakshasa for much of his life stop him from becoming their successor, and while Friedel was actually a bit older than him, fighting someone who was stronger than you was a good way to learn.

Feeling herself flagging, despite the adrenaline high, Friedel feinted a lunge.

Lawrence moved to deflect.

Friedel threw what energy she had left into a flourish, deflecting his warding blow and leaving him open for a thrust–

The wind was knocked out of her chest as Lawrence slammed his elbow into her sternum, sending her flailing backwards, barely backpedaling away from his follow up swing.

An idle part of her mind found it funny that his strength had actually knocked her out of range of his next strike, but the rest of her was screaming (she wasn't sure if it was excitement or fear) as she grit her teeth and recovered her balance just in time to parry another crushing blow.

She darted forwards, forcing him to abort his next attack to deflect–

He twisted his sword and trapped hers into a bind, leaving Friedel no recourse but draw her parrying dagger and–

A massive hand clamped onto her wrist and she was wrenched to the ground as Lawrence locked her arm behind her back in a hold that she knew she couldn't escape–

Wait…she just drew live steel…shit.

"Yield," she gasped, her voice raspy from exertion.

"I suppose it has been awhile since we sparred with proper weapons," Lawrence chuckled, taking his knee off her back and pulling her to her feet as she felt herself crash down from the adrenaline high.

"I apologize for that," Friedel muttered sheepishly, putting her dagger back where it came from. "Reflex."

"I understand, Lady Friedel," Lawrence nodded. "I was a bit worried I hit you too hard for a moment there."

"Unless it kills me that wouldn't be true," she grinned back. It would definitely bruise though. Better than being floored like that one time. "Though we wouldn't be breaking any swords if we used our real ones."

"True…" Lawrence mused, taking a step back now that she was back on her feet.

"Uh…not that I'd get in your way, but wouldn't that make Heiny even more pissed off?" Loggins cut in awkwardly, and with some concern.

"Heiny?" Lawrence asked, turning to the other fencing club senior.

"Instructor Heinrich, sorry," Loggins explained quickly.

"Oh, I was not aware you were that close with him," Lawrence remarked, giving the fencing club senior a confused look. "But you might have a point."

"I didn't take you to be one for such deference, Loggins," Friedel observed, still in quite a bit of pain, but recovered enough to compose herself.

"Hey, I just don't feel like ticking off the guy who can beat you, Cap," Loggins shot back with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Ha! Lawrence is largely harmless unless provoked," Friedel reassured him, "isn't that right, Lawrence?" She glanced up at her tall friend, who shrugged slightly.

"I do not typically seek to hurt anyone, save for sparring or when violence is necessary."

"And when is that?" Loggins asked, looking a bit concerned.

"When lives are at stake, or when monsters need to be killed," Lawrence answered evenly, used to having people a bit intimidated by him. "Otherwise words are usually quite effective enough to get by."

"Alright then…" Loggins trailed off. "So are we good for today? Or do you two wanna go for a few more rounds?"

Friedel blinked, eyes darting to the clock on the wall, and finding that quite a bit of time had passed. A glance around the room showed that most of the club had already left, though Alan was watching from the sidelines with wide eyes. Good, if he was smart, he would have learned something from this.

"I think I am fit for another round," Friedel announced, before wincing slightly as her arm twinged. "Likely not for two, unfortunately."

"I feel similarly," Lawrence added, "though I do have to get started on some schoolwork later."

"That can wait," Friedel declared, giving the tall noble a pleased smile.

"Of course, Lady Friedel," Lawrence conceded with a snort.

"I'll give you two some privacy then," Loggins muttered, moving towards the exit.

"Why the hurry?" Friedel called, halting him in his tracks. "You might learn something if you watch."

Why were he and Alan looking at her like that?

No matter, a quick smile and they were easily convinced to remain spectators to her second attempt to topple Lawrence.

It went slightly better than the first.

---

There were times Ellia regretted not joining the Wind Orchestra, especially with how appreciative Hibelle and Bridget were. She hadn't expected the noble girl to be ok with guitars, but Bridget was pretty cool about most things. Hibelle also thought it was interesting but wasn't sure it fit into an orchestra, and he might have a point.

Ellia didn't come to Thors for music though, no matter how much she liked it, and Lacrosse really was helping her get into shape, and Fion and Gaia were really nice about helping her learn how to fight.

Still, the Wind Orchestra was nice enough to let her practice in their room (she really should have realized that practicing at home was quite a bit different than practicing in a dorm). Her hands and fingers were a bit stiff from the day's training, but practicing music always helped her relax.

The door to the music room burst open. "Oh excellent, you're here, Ellia!" Elisha greeted loudly, snapping her out of her playing.

"Eep! Uh…hello Elisha." Ellia gave him a weird look, trying to pretend she hadn't almost jumped in fright.

"I know that I am tone deaf," the blond began, apparently not caring about barging in unexpectedly, "and while I don't have any means to fix that, I think you can help me get around that a bit."

"Um…" Ellia stared at him. He really couldn't read the room. "I'm not sure I can help you with that."

Elisha frowned. "Really? You're quite good at playing music, so you certainly should have some sense of tone, right?"

"What does that have to…" Ellia blinked. "Wait, you're literally tone deaf?!"

"That's what I just said–"

"That's awful!" the ginger haired girl cried. "So does music not sound right to you?"

"I wouldn't know?" Elisha replied nonchalantly. "I don't listen to music much, and it's not like I'd be able to tell if it doesn't sound right in the way you probably mean it."

"That's terrible!" Ellia gasped, clutching her guitar protectively. "Do you not like music?" The thought was almost too horrible to bear!

"Well, I kinda like it," Elisha answered, looking a bit concerned by Ellia's sudden change in demeanor. "It reminds me of machines in production, very rhythmic, very soothing, since it means stuff is working."

Elisha said a lot of weird things, but this! This could not stand!

Ellia quickly thrust her guitar into his arms. "You are going to learn how to play music, even if it's the last thing I do!"

"Um…will that help me with being tone deaf?"

"I…uh…don't think so…but you'll be able to play guitar!"

"Hooray?"

It turned out to be quite a bit more difficult than Ellia had first thought.

Elisha had no musical sense, at all. His fingers were pretty dextrous, and he learned the fingering well enough, he even had a decent sense of volume, but Ellia found to her horror that none of the artistry registered with him.

With effort, he managed to play the right strings at the right time, but it always sounded a bit wrong. Too mechanical. And he was hopeless at chords.

Elisha tried to strum a chord, and Ellia cringed at the discordant noise, while the blond looked at her and shrugged. "Can't really tell the difference by ear."

"...How?!" Ellia groaned. "It sounds like something crying in pain!"

The poor tone deaf man cocked his head to the side thoughtfully, before pulling a device out of his pocket. "Perhaps if I measure the frequency and try to match what you played this way…"

Ellia wanted to scream.

In the end, she just sat him down in front of the piano with all the keys labeled, and tried to teach him with that. It was slightly more successful, but it was very obvious that he was just memorizing where the keys he was supposed to press were instead of any improvement to his musical sense.

Before, Ellia had thought Elisha was kind of weird, and a little scary. But now, she couldn't help but feel kinda bad for him.

It seemed like he had a bad relationship with his mom, and he never mentioned a dad, and on top of that, he couldn't even properly enjoy music! It was really pretty sad.

---

AN. Well, this one took a while to get out, not really because it was hard to write, but I've been working on trying to get my other fic wrapped up, and well, that chapter is approaching 20K words...
Anyways, as you can see, Class VII has quite a bit of shonen/shojo energy. Maybe Oliviert just liked the chaos? Also Emmet, could you please stop raising red flags for like 5 seconds?