“What the hell is with that bastard anyway?” Victoria rolled her shoulder, her muscles feeling sorer than they ever had before. “Even the headmaster doesn’t hit that hard.” 

 

“It certainly was something..” Cassian joined in, holding a bag of ice over his swollen cheek. All five members of the graduate class were sat in the cafeteria, a large breadth between them and the other students, no one daring to get too close. “Does anyone know who he is?” 

 

Everyone remained silent, faces down as they nursed their meals, a few waiters having delivered personalised breakfasts for each of them, one of the many perks of being in their esteemed class. 

 

Their downtrodden behaviour drew the curious gazes of their fellow students, some of the more brave amongst them daring to openly gawk. Although this only led to the outburst of their more brutish and quick to anger member. 

 

“The fuck are you staring at!?” Zachary slammed his hand down on the table and fixed a glare at the surrounding students, all their eyes turning around and locking onto their own plates as if their lives depended on it. “God I hate these brats sometimes.” He said with a huff, returning to gorging himself on a bonafide mountain of meat that was piled onto his plate. 

 

“He seemed to know the headmaster quite well,” Lucia spoke up. Being the most attentive out of the group she often spotted things that the others completely missed. “As if they had known each other for sometime.” 

 

“He’s probably a vet or something then,” Victoria posed, still trying to knead the muscles in her shoulder back into place. “But if no one recognises him, he was probably just some grunt or something in the headmasters unit.” 

 

“If you say so,” Lucia had learned to not bother trying to contradict Victoria whenever she had made up her mind, no matter how stupid her conclusions might be. In her opinion, the thick minded brute was quick to assumptions but slow to change, there was no point arguing with such a woman. Instead she turned back to her own meal, and in stark contrast to the barbaric Zachary to her side that shovelled food into his mouth with both hands, she ate in a much more slow and controlled manner, only eating the smallest morsel of food at a time before placing her silverware back down and patting her mouth clean. 

 

Dominic for his part kept to himself. Being the only one of common origins at a table of nobles he often felt completely out of place, even if his skills were no less than any of his peers. 

 

“Huh?” 

 

“What is it Cassian?” Victoria questioned as the man in question stared off into the distance, a shocked look on his face.

 

“Nothing nothing..” he shook his head, face turning back to a static neutral expression. “Just thought I saw someone that I knew. Must’ve been mistaken.” 

 

“Uh huh?” She was unconvinced, turning to see what he had seen, only to find nothing but a sea of students chatting and eating in the crowded cafeteria. “All I see are a bunch of snot nosed brats,” Victoria quipped as she turned back around. “Anyone know when our next combat training class is? I wanna get back at that bastard.” 

 

Their experience before wasn’t their actual lesson, rather a simple meeting with who would be their next combat instructor. Ordinarily they would have met when their first class with the instructor began, however the headmaster for some reason wanted to introduce them personally. 

 

“It’s our last lesson for the day, fifth period.” Cassian answered for her. “But I warn against trying anything stupid. We all saw what happened this morning, our new instructor isn’t like the last ones you bullied into quitting.” 

 

“Ehh, I can still give it a go,” Victoria viciously grinned, however where before the fellow members of her class would grin alongside her, she instead was met with blank stares, as if they were looking at a dead woman. “Oh come on, you guys are no fun sometimes.” 

 

“It’s called being practical,” Lucia spoke up. Earning a glare from Victoria in return. 

 

“It's called being a coward. So what if we were beaten once? If we all jump him together I'm sure we can win.” The group sighed and shook their heads, however they did not completely dismiss her idea. 

 

It was a long running tradition for the graduate class to bully whoever was unlucky enough to be their combat instructor into quitting. If they weren’t able to keep up said tradition they would look like a bunch of weaklings to their seniors that had come before them. 

 

“It’s worth a shot at least..” Cassian said reluctantly, not rating their chances very high. 

 

“Then it's settled,” Victoria slammed her fist down on the table, like a judge with their gavel. 

 

– – 

 

Alarea sat with her face as close to the table as she could, hand up over her head to try and shield herself further. 

 

“What’s wrong with you?” Coral asked, confused as to why she suddenly jumped for the floor. “Are you sick or something?” 

 

“Ssh,” she raised a finger up over her lips. “Be quiet, I just saw someone I knew is all.” 

 

“Oh? Who is it?” Sofia asked, turning around together with Edward to look for whoever this person could be. 

 

“Don't look!” Alarea ‘shouted’ in a hushed tone, giving Edward a kick under the table, not being able to reach Sofia as so settling for the next best thing. 

 

“Why? What's wrong?” Coral asked, her confused face slowly turning into a grin. “Is it a boy you like or something?” 

 

“Ack!” Alarea almost hurled at the thought that crossed her mind, having to hit her head against the table to chase it away. “No! It's just.. Someone that I know that doesn’t know I'm here.” 

 

“Why wouldn’t they know you're here?” Edward questioned. “There's no point trying to hide. The academy is big but it's not huge, you’ll run into each other eventually no matter how hard you try to hide.” 

 

“I know it's just.. Complicated..” she sat back up, and continued eating her food. She had hoped her shorter and different coloured hair would help disguise her, and it had allowed her to go unseen up until this point. However it seemed it wasn’t that easy to fool her older brother, the man’s eyes had instantly widened in recognition the moment that theirs crossed, there was no room for questioning whether or not he noticed her. 

 

The group she was seated with accepted her words at face value. While they were friendly enough, they had just met, they weren’t about to go digging in her secrets just for fun. 

 

“What’s our first class today?” Sofia asked Coral, the woman in question pulling out her timetable to see. 

 

“Looks like we have got History,” her answer drew a round of groans from Edward and Sofia, while Alarea simply remained confused at their reactions. “The teacher is a bit of a bore,” Coral explained to her. “And he has the habit of handing out way too much homework.” 

 

“This is a combat school not a school for scholars!” Edward loudly exclaimed. “Why should we have to learn what some random person 100 years ago liked to eat, or what their hair colour was. It’s such a stupid class!” 

 

Alarea couldn’t help but snicker at his outburst, as could the two other women at their table causing the lone man's face to turn beet red. 

 

“Edwards right though,” Sofia spoke up, but in a much more measured tone. “It seemed a bit dumb that we have to learn so much history when we came here to learn how to fight.” 

 

“If you have problems with my lectures, bring it up with the headmaster,” Coral mocked in her best impression of a male voice, puffing out her chest and carefully drawing out her words with a manor of pomp and circumstance. “But seriously,” her voice returned to normal, “It is kinda dumb.” 

 

“I'm sure there's reasons for it,” Alarea spoke out, deciding to play the role of devil's advocate. Although it still remained to be seen if she would keep the same tune after her first lesson. 

 

“Sure sure,” Coral said as the group got to their feet, a large bell ringing in the distance indicating ten minutes before classes begin. “We better get a move on anyways, you can be late on your first day.” 

 

“That would be for the best,” Alarea responded as the group carried their empty plates over to a counter, behind which were a few staff members that loaded them onto carts to be taken away for cleaning. 

 

They made their way out of the crowded cafeteria and back across the now bustling courtyard into the main building. As first year students they were given the worst rooms, having to climb their way up to the fifth floor to reach their lecture hall, a small sign over the door reading, ‘Class 1C’. 

 

“Welcome to the class,” Coral said as they made their way inside the large room. At the head of the room stood three large chalkboards, various scribbles and half rubbed out diagrams covering each surface. To the back were a large number of stepped tables, curving out in a semi circular fashion. Coral led them up the stairs towards the back, taking a seat in the middle three rows from the back.

 

 “You’ll have to ask the professor for a textbook,” she said, pulling out her own and placing it in between them. “But you can share mine for now until you get your own.” 

 

“Thanks,” Alarea nodded, not yet having time to acquire her books and stationary. 

 

Her appearance drew some attention as more students began to file into the room. 

 

“Who’s the new kid?” 

 

“Was she kicked out of class B or something?” 

 

She quickly became the centre of conversation, the sudden appearance of a new student into their class wasn't a common occurrence. However, even if she was being talked about no one had the courage to approach her, that was, until one young man approached her, his uniform completely spotless with a small badge attached to his lapel reading, ‘President’. 

 

“Welcome to class 1C,” he offered his hand, and Alarea shook it. “My name is Henry, class president. Let me know if you need anything.” 

 

“Alarea,” she introduced herself back. “And thank you.” 

 

The man, Henry, left shortly after introducing himself, although the fact that he introduced himself at all put him above the rest of the gawking class. 

 

“Take your seats!” A professor walking through the door yelled. The middle aged man was dressed in a brown suit, over which he wore a large white lab coat. “Now I believe we have a new student joining us today is that correct?” 

 

Alarea raised her hand at that and the professor nodded, reading her name of a clipboard he was holding. “Miss Alarea is it? Very good. Stay back after class and I will give you some materials to help you catch back up.” 

 

Alarea nodded and let her hand fall back down and the professor wasted no time getting to work, not bothering to make sure everyone was listening or even ready. 

 

“Now, following on from our last lesson, let us continue with the next major battle between the Eagle Kingdom and the Aurora Valley. Can anyone tell me where this took place?” The professor's eyes scanned the room, blatantly ignoring the hand of Henry that shot up almost instantly. 

 

“He’s a bit of a know it all,” Coral quipped as she gave Alarea a small nudge. “Teachers pet everyone calls him.” 

 

“Coral,” the professor instantly caught her brief words to Alarea. “Maybe you would like to answer then?” 

 

“Shit,” she muttered under her breath before standing to read from her textbook. “It would be the battle of Earwell river, where the Great General Alexander Thustra and 1000 men held back a force of 10,000 until the King arrived with his army.” 

 

“Correct,” Coral let out a breath, falling back down into her seat. “Now can anyone tell me how he did it?” 

 

Henry’s hand shot up again, and again it was ignored, the professor searching for someone else. “Maxwell, since you're so busy exploring the inside of Miss. Olivia’s uniform, maybe you will know.” 

 

“Ahaha..” the man in question, Maxwell, scratched at the back of his neck. “I'm not sure about that one professor.” 

 

“Minus one achievement point,” the professor declared before moving onto someone else. The action caused her to nudge Coral for an explanation. 

 

“Oh right.” She whispered back. “Since you're new you won't have to worry just yet, but if you get a question wrong the professor deducts an achievement point.” 

 

“He can do that?” 

 

“Sure, every professor or instructor can. They can give points as well but no one ever does.” 

 

This information made sit up in her chair and pay more attention to the lesson. Although it seemed she would have a grace period it wouldn’t last forever. She would have to catch up quickly if she wanted to keep her achievement points, let alone start to earn some.