Chapter 3: Chapter 2 – Enter the Academy

Chapter 2

Enter the Academy

-000-

The travel from the Redborn estate to the Academy was quite uneventful, though given my previous life, I did quite enjoy the peace and quiet. It was four days of travel with the family’s powered carriage, this time to the east of where the estate was. Additionally, the academy itself was a day’s ride from the Royal Capital, the city of Presidius. It was constructed in a coastal shattered region… Though apparently, thousands of years ago, the Academy and the coastal small campus town of Ehren near it would have been landlocked. However, after the great magical overflow that created the shattered lands, it was now beachfront property.

My driver -knowing I liked to sightsee while traveling- opted to take us through the coastal highway. I’m going to have to ask father to give him a raise, because it was a splendid decision.

It was early in the morning when we left the inn for this final leg of the journey. The waters of the Ostsee glistened majestically as the rolling waves reflected the rising sun. The floating islands that dotted the skies cast long shadows on the water, breaking up the patterns in an irregular manner. I sorely wished that a magical device that could capture such scenes existed, since I thought the image I saw would rival even some of the most beautiful paintings out there.

Out in the horizon, I saw airships of different shapes and sizes move up and down the coast. I took my binoculars and looked at them closer. Some of them I recognized as warships belonging to the Kingdom… probably under the command of Duke Ostgard who ruled much of the eastern coasts. The ones that I saw were a small squadron consisting of a light cruiser and four destroyers. I furrowed my brows for a bit. There seemed to be an awful lot of warships flying around, but then I remembered that the other ships flying about also existed. A lot of the students from more wealthy families opted to take their private airships to the Academy. While there were docking facilities in the campus itself, it was reserved for training and for a small garrison of the Kingdom’s warships. Civilian airships had to dock over at Ehrun, where the students would then have to travel to the Academy proper.

I surmised that the high concentration of military vessels were due to the high influx of traffic coming to and from Ehren harbor. Despite my doubts with the ruling family, I felt reassured that the Kingdom was taking the security of its students seriously, especially with the grand reopening of the Academy. The campus had been shut down for the duration of the war, as it was believed that it presented too much of a target. The Confederacy might just launch a raid on the Academy, and that would be quite devastating regardless of the true damage dealt.

Students who were still in the middle of studies were summarily declared graduated from their studies, though those who chose to continue where they left off were free to do so. Predictably, few chose to return.

As such, us first year students would make up the bulk of the people attending classes.

These circumstances were pretty much the same as in my previous life. This year’s class would be composed of people of various ages ranging from the minimum age of 18, to the oldest age of 24. I myself was only 20 at this time… no longer a boy, but still not quite a man. We would only study for three years, so I’d be 23 by the time I graduated from class.

If I was lucky, I’d be able to push the Kingdom from collapsing just within those three years, but I knew better than to hope for something so unrealistic.

-000-

Despite my reservations and reluctance to study in the Academy for a second time, I felt a wave of good nostalgia crash over me. While it’s true that I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about studying here -both in my previous the first time around as well as now- it was here that I met a great many of my life long friends and allies. Assuming nothing else major had deviated since my intervention at Yashin Bridge, it would be quite nice to reunite with my friends from the previous life… even if they would be meeting me for the first time around.

It was probably the only thing motivating me to come here… that and my research… but my research didn’t require me to be a student in the Academy. There were many workshops and Magi-Armor development houses that would be more than happy to sponsor my work. Barring that, I could always consult with the teachers here as an outsider.

So it frustrated me that I was required -by law, mind you- to attend the Academy. All of this because the Kingdom reserved the right to refuse to acknowledge me as a Manor-Lord in the future if I didn't go through with this.

Thankfully, Theo and Allanah were joining me soon enough, so at least I could share my suffering with them.

Actually, scratch that. Theo was suffering more than I was.

His parents had personally dropped him off at the Academy's gates. A pair of servants flanked his sides, carrying some of his luggage for him.

I looked at the man himself -now clad in the Academy's navy blue uniform, same as I was- and saw that his face was curled into equal parts scowl, and equal parts embarrassment. With that image standing in front of me, I couldn't help but start jabbing at him.

“Oh goodness gracious m’lord, it seems that your luggage is too much for you to carry!” I teased, making my voice sound as patronizing as possible. “Shall I carry some for you?”

I saw Theo’s eyes twitch, and let my face curl into a smug expression.

“Morgan, if it weren’t for the fact that my hands are full carrying these bags, I would beat the living daylights out of you for that!” He threatened, though he kept his voice low so as to not disturb the other students.

I laughed loudly at that. It felt good to be hanging out with Theo like this again.

“Besides, where’s the rest of your stuff?” The big guy then asked me.

I looked at the stuff that I was carrying, and compared it to his. It looked lightweight in comparison. It was merely one large suitcase, the backpack that I was wearing, and the duffle bag slung over my shoulder.

“This is all I need.” I told him. “Whatever else I might need to get, I can always grab over at the town.”

My habits from my previous life carried over. Being at war for so long had conditioned me to not require much to live. I was quite used to living with the bare necessities, as I considered everything beyond that a luxury.

It must seem a bit strange to Theo, who was raised practically the same as I was… and yet turned out so different. He had become somewhat accustomed to the luxuries his parent’s riches had brought him, while I maintained my modest, borderline utilitarian pragmatism.

“I get that… I get that…” Theo said, trying to scratch the back of his neck, but then gave up with a sigh when he remembered his hands were both occupied. “Still, you really should slack off a bit, buddy. We’re not camp kids anymore. We can afford to be a bit more frivolous, you know?”

“H-hey… you two!” We heard a voice call us from behind.

We both turned to see who it was, and discovered that Allanah had also only recently arrived. She wore the female version of the uniform, which was mostly the same as the male version, but came with a skirt instead of pants.

Also, I noticed that Allanah was carrying more luggage than I was, but still less than Theo. It seems like the sight of a girl carrying less baggage had knocked a bit of the spirit in him.

“Hey, I thought you said you departed for the Academy early?” I greeted her. I was expecting to meet her later in the day, after the opening ceremonies have concluded. That was how Theo and I met her the first time around, after all.

“I-I did, b-but I decided to stop by my Gramma’s house on the way.” She said. “I ended up getting carried away and staying the night at her place before coming here.”

“I see.” I simply replied.

More and more things were shifting in the timeline. I felt vindicated that I didn’t create an exhaustively detailed plan for my interventions. Relying too much on my memories of future events would be a fatal mistake. After all, there were no guarantees that things would happen the same way as last time.

The three of us chatted as we walked through the Academy’s courtyard. The campus was vast, probably larger than the entire Redborn estate. This wasn’t even including the various training facilities outside of the main compound, like the Magi-Armor training grounds and the small airship harbor. Also, I suppose one could also include the forest behind the campus grounds as a part of the institution, since the area is often used for training by the students studying to specialize in combat roles.

Looking over the way the campus was structured now, I’ve actually come to appreciate it more than in my previous life. Now, I wasn’t appreciating them for their architectural beauty or what have you… though the buildings certainly are finely crafted… No, I was appreciating the Academy since the campus layout was surprisingly built like a fortress. Sure, the walls and gates weren’t as thick as a fortress, and the windows on the buildings were far too large to be well fortified… but given a day or two of hard work, well motivated defenders could easily convert this place into a hard to dislodge entrenched position.

The main study buildings were laid out in a crescent moon shape, with the curve facing away from the main entrance. This would provide an excellent killzone to any attackers who would try to storm the front gate.

The side walls were also tall enough that invaders would have a hard time scaling them, and the third story windows of Building A and C provided perfect sight lines to anyone trying to climb over them.

In the center of the campus was Building B, which was massive compared to Buildings A and C. It was both used for studies, social events, as well as the administration. Campus security was also based on this large building, and its position in the center of campus meant it was in a good position to respond to any threat around the facility.

Finally, the final bit of the layout that I really appreciated was where the student dorms and harbor facility was located. The dorms were located behind Building B, away from the curve of the three main buildings. This building was also sandwiched between the harbor which was built into a nearby mountain, and Building B itself. This means that if things got really bad, the students could quickly be evacuated via airships.

I didn’t know exactly if the campus had always been laid out this way, or if the Royal Court decided to heavily renovate the facilities to make it more defensible. Either way, I quite liked how this place was built. I certainly wouldn’t mind meeting the architect behind the construction.

Unfortunately, my friends couldn’t share my enthusiasm. When I gleefully pointed out the defensive genius of the campus layout, they merely looked at me like I had grown a third head.

Alas, I suppose some things I would have to keep to myself.

-000-

The opening ceremony started with all of the students gathering in the big assembly hall… though to simply call it big would be an understatement. It was absolutely massive. I think there were around about a thousand or so students that gathered here today for the opening. In fact, the place was so packed, some students were herded off towards the audience balcony on the 2nd floor.

This was how Theo, Allanah, and I found ourselves with the less stuffy and humid seats for the event. Granted, the Academy’s staff had to bring out a whole bunch of cheap foldable chairs for those of us in the balcony, but it sure as hell beat being down there with all the other hundreds of participants. I sat in the middle of our little group, with Theo to my right and Allanah to my left.

“Jeez, talk about cramped.” I heard Theo quietly complained.

The headmaster was currently making his opening speech, talking about what we can come to expect from our time in the Academy, and what would be expected of us when we graduated out of here. I’ve already heard it before in my previous life, so I already knew that it was all boring platitudes and all that nonsense. Instead, I tried to pass the time.

“It’s not that this place is too cramped, it’s that you’re too big.” I jokingly whispered back.

“Be quiet you two, I-I don’t want to get in trouble on my first day!” Allanah scolded us both.

I made a mock surrender gesture to Allanah, before going back to trying to entertain myself in this whole chore of a ceremony. I decided to look around and see if I could spot any familiar faces in the hall.

I peeked at the students below to try and see if I could recognize anyone. So far, I have had very little luck. Since the three of us were sitting on the balcony furthest from the podium, that put us behind all the other students. That means I had to try and identify people based on their hair.

I first looked around for my squadron members from my previous life.

Of all the members, Inara was the easiest to find. Since she was the only Half-Elf in the entire campus she was easily identifiable by her silver hair and tan pointed ears. I made a mental note to find and greet her as soon as I was able to. I remember that she had some issues with bullying early on due to being a half-elf. If at all possible, I’d like to sort out that problem quickly so that I could focus on training her in her weakest aspects, that being marksmanship and melee combat.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, she was a fantastic battlemage… but it’s when her magic failed her that things got messy. If she had a reliable secondary weapon to fall back on, be it a shortsword or a pistol, I’d be able to rely on her better.

Minutes passed, and then I finally found another member. It was Jonah, who was our squadron’s “cleric”. He was the only other reliable mage in our squadron, though his abilities still fell short of Inara. Granted, she had an advantage due to her Half-Elf blood, but that’s beside the point. Jonah was good with magic and was an excellent melee fighter. He was a reliable squadron member in my previous life. I’d have to go and secure him for my squadron later.

Time crawled ever onwards. The headmaster was now introducing the teachers of the Academy, but one peek confirmed that the current roster was the same as the one from my previous life. I instead returned to looking for my previous squadron members, but had none of them… Well, I suppose that’s not true. I did find Hector and Nils, but those two deserted the squadron before our final stand. There was no way in hell that I was going to accept them into my squadron this time around. I didn’t feel like putting the effort into grinding out cowardice out of those two, so I decided that I will simply find replacement members instead.

Eventually, we got to the final part of the opening ceremony. A representative from the first year students would come up and make a speech. Just like my previous life, it was the Crown Prince who came up to the podium and started talking.

The man who stepped up to the podium looked every bit like the Crown Prince of a nation. He was very handsome, sickeningly so… to the point where I swore the air around him glittered. His hair was a shade of light brown and reached the nape of his neck, while his eyes were a fascinating deep yellow. His jawline was sharp and angular, much different to my own and Theo’s more blocky shape. Additionally, his skin was fair… quite fair indeed. I wonder if he treated his skin as delicately as the women did. If he did, it would only cement my opinion even more that he was all glam and no guts.

“My name is Maximillian dal Grunnder.” He started his speech.

His voice was soft, almost melodic in a way. Had I been a woman myself, I’m not quite sure if I’d be able to resist being serenaded by such a man. Fortunately, I’m a man that knows all too well the rot in that bastard’s heart… though I did personally know someone who didn’t. Cautiously, I also took a peek at Allanah beside me, but it seemed that she hadn’t been caught in the devil’s honeyed words yet.

“Many of you may recognize me as the Crown Prince of the Kingdom… but please, in this Academy, I am simply another student. Do treat me no differently than you do each other.” The prince continued.

As Maximillian kept on his speech, I leaned towards Theo and whispered to him.

“Hey, let’s place some bets,” I asked him. “How long do you think his whole ‘treat me like another student’ act is gonna hold up?”

“Hah, I’d give it a week.” Theo quietly answered.

“A week?” I scoffed. “I was thinking of less!”

“You two, maybe you shouldn’t judge the Prince too harshly?” Allanah scolded us again. “At least give him some credit! He isn’t trying to abuse his power!”

“I’m just saying.” I leaned forward in my seat and defended myself, still talking in a quiet voice. “An entire life of being waited on day in and day out, does he even know what normal is for us?”

Theo then pushed me backwards into my seat so that he could get a clear view of Allanah and talk to her

“Morgan’s got a point.” He said. “Those upper noble guys are raised completely differently than us. You know, my dad told me a bunch of stories from his Academy days. He said that the upper guys acted like they were better than us by default just because of their family title.”

I then decided to add to Theo’s point.

“If the upper nobles are already like that, just imagine how bad the guy who’s going to be above even them is gonna be.”

“You guys aren’t being fair.” Allanah argued again.

She seemed really passionate about this… was my previous assessment wrong? Was she already hooked by that snobby bastard? I certainly hoped it wasn’t the case. I’d like to get things between the three of us right this time around.

“Who knows? Maybe he’s serious about wanting to be treated normally!” She continued. “We won’t know if we don’t give him a chance!”

Well, if it’s just about giving him a fair chance, maybe I could rest a little easier. Allanah always was one to look at the brighter side of things.

As I was still quietly contemplating my thoughts, it was now Theo’s turn to interject.

“Well, how about this: you join in on the bet. If you turn out to be right, the both of us will personally apologize to the guy for doubting him.”

“Hey, hold up!” I complained, nearly raising my voice. “I didn’t agree to this.”

“You’ve got a deal!” Allanah quickly cut me off. “If it turns out he’s a hypocrite, I’ll treat you guys to dinner every week for an entire month!”

The two of my friends shook hands. Since I was sitting in between them, they both had to invade my personal space while they did so. I had to lean further back into my seat just so that I didn’t get in their way. This might be a legitimate wager between those two, but I had experience from my previous life. I knew what Maximillian was really like, so I already knew how this was going to end.

I almost felt bad for Allanah, but then I reminded myself that she brought this on herself. I’ll simply have to make sure Theo and I didn’t go overboard when we chose dinner.

-000-

After the whole opening ceremony ended, the students were dismissed and were free to settle in. Since I had the luxury of carrying only a little luggage, I had managed to get all my stuff sorted out before we were corralled into the hall earlier.

As I sat on my bed, I looked to the other side of my shared room and saw Theo -who was my roommate- still busy unpacking his stuff. This was the third bag he was unloading, and he still had four more to go through. I was honestly amazed he brought this much stuff. I nearly burst out when I realized that each suitcase was dedicated to a specific theme. The first one was all filled with day to day and casual clothing. The second was filled with his uniforms and study materials. The third was bathing and grooming items. I felt a small smirk form on my face as I imagined what the other bags could possibly be packed with.

Theo somehow must have sensed my amusement, because he threw one of his dry towels at me. After that, I couldn’t hold myself back anymore and started howling in laughter.

“Why don’t you make yourself useful and help me unload all this crap?” Theo yelled at me.

Unfortunately, that only caused me to laugh even more.

“Hey, that’s your crap, not mine!” I said back.

“Ugh, I told Ma that I didn’t need this much stuff, but nooo…” Theo started grumbling. He started roughly unloading all the stuff in his bag, no longer caring if he messed up some of the clothes or items.

Feeling that I’d just annoy him further by sitting there, I excused myself from the room and went out to explore the dorm… well, not necessarily explore the dorm per se, but find people from my previous life I wanted to reconnect with.

I stepped out and saw that the halls were still quite busy. Students were all going to and from their rooms, carrying their bags or boxes and settling in. Surprisingly, I saw a handful of upper nobles mixed in among the crowd. They were easily identifiable since their uniforms had a gold trim to them, while us lower nobles had a white trim. This in particular surprised me since the lower and upper noble dorms were on different buildings entirely. Being curious, I listened in on one of their conversations and found out that some of them were making sure that their toadies were settling in.

Well, at least they’re nice enough to do that… I suppose. I suppressed a scoff and decided to start looking for my squadmates.

By pure chance, one of them had his room right beside mine. He somehow had more stuff than Theo did… but to be fair, these all seemed to be books and research equipment. I suppose that makes things better.

The guy himself had medium length black hair and brown eyes behind his glasses. His body wasn’t as well built as mine, but he definitely was on the ‘fit’ side of the spectrum.

I cleared my throat to catch his attention, then spoke to him.

“Hey, good afternoon.” I greeted the guy. “That’s an awful lot of boxes you’re moving around.”

“Oh, hi!” He greeted back. “Yeah, these are all my books… uh…”

His voice trailed off and he looked at me as if expecting something.

Oh right, I haven’t introduced myself.

“Morgan Redborn, my room’s right beside yours.” I told him, jabbing my thumb back towards my own room.

“Hey there Morgan, I’m Jonah Alster…” He said, before stopping himself mid sentence, suddenly looking worried. “You don’t mind if I call you Morgan, right?”

I did my best to pull up a menacing face and faked a scowl. I then tilted my head up a bit to feign an aura of superiority.

“Only my friends get to call me Morgan.” I said, bringing my voice low and trying to sound disgusted at his overly familiar attitude.

The act must have worked since Jonah immediately stiffened up and shrunk.

“I… I uh…” He stammered out.

I felt my lips curl up a bit. Jonah never was the best at interacting with people, preferring to spend his time studying magic and history. Honestly, he was very easy to mess with.

“Well… are you my friend?” I pushed a bit further.

Jonah squirmed a bit where he stood. The guy was good squad member, but he seriously needed to grow some backbone. I mentally reminded myself that I might have to hammer some courage into him later.

“W-well… if you don’t mind?” Jonah stammered out, his last words trailing off a bit due to his uncertainty.

I relaxed my head, let myself smile, then laughed.

“Well in that case, sure!” I then said, making a complete flip in how I spoke and acted. “Feel free to call me Morgan.”

The poor guy must have felt whiplashed after my sudden change in attitude. His face was filled equal amounts of surprise and confusion. Seeing his reaction made me laugh again.

“Hah, yeah, I’m sorry.” I said, giving him a reassuring pat on the back. “I just like messing with people a bit, is all. No harm done right?”

Jonah’s posture immediately relaxed again and he sighed in relief.

“Oh man, you gave me a good scare there.” He sheepishly laughed. “I-I’m not very good with people, you see. So uh… apologies in advance if I do something wrong.”

“Eh don’t worry about it. Well for now, how about I help you move your boxes in?” I offered to help him. “You’ve got a hell of a lot of boxes and some of them’s blocking the way so…”

“Right, right!” He quickly answered..

I picked up one of his boxes and took them into his room. As we worked, I struck up a conversation with him. Just as in my previous life, he proved to be well versed in magic, and has experience in melee combat. How, you may ask? His father was an adventurer that made a name for himself diving into ancient ruins filled with monsters. Eventually, he started bringing Jonah along on his trips, which pushed young Jonah into growing his magic and combat skills.

Once we finished moving all of the boxes into his room, I started talking to him about crystal powered machines. He seemed surprised that I was so well versed in the subject, but his surprise quickly turned to interest as he started bombarding me with questions.

“So you really think it could work?” He said in response to one of my ideas.

“If they give me access to the campus workshop and some funding, I could probably whip up a small scale prototype.” I answered.

"Would you like my help working on it?" Jonah then asked. "You said earlier that you're only working on this since you have a very low affinity when it comes to magic. I can help with that."

"I'd be more than happy to accept your help." I happily said, offering a hand to him.

He quickly took my hand and shook it vigorously.

"Morgan, my friend, you're not going to regret this!" He thanked me.

To be honest, this was sort of what I've been hoping for. Jonah isn't good with people, so it was incredibly easy to lead the conversation to where I want it to go. I kind of felt dirty doing this, to be frank. I feel like I'm using him. It doesn't feel right… though I suppose this kind of research is something that Jonah would like to jump on, even if I didn't prod him into joining though… I guess it wasn't totally scummy of me to do that to him.

Having secured both my friendship and his assistance in my research, I excused myself from his room. There were other members I had to talk to, not to mention the replacements I also had to find a replacement for Hector and Nils… as well as Theo’s replacement, now that I think of it, since as heir to a Manor-Lord he was getting his own squadron.

I spent the next few hours walking around the lower noble dorms, surveying the people around me in addition to looking for my squadmates. I saw Ben Hagalaz earlier, but he seemed busy so I decided to go and greet him some other time. In my previous life, Ben was the squadron’s best marksman. He could pull off some impressive shots that not even I could have done. He would be invaluable to the team.

Shortly after finding Ben, I met three other members of my old team. It was Ari Noah, Tomas Madolessi, and Ygor Schmirnoff. Those three grew up in the same village and were practically inseparable. They weren’t anything particularly skilled… but they were courageous, reliable, and they had likable personalities. However, they did tend to be confrontational when it comes to some particularly sensitive topics.

“You take that back, you shithead!” Ygor cussed out.

Out of the trio, Ygor was physically in the middle. He wasn’t the biggest guy, nor was he the smallest guy. One could say he was quite average. His long dirty blonde hair, light gray eyes, and light toned skin indicated that he hailed from the northern regions of the continent. One would almost expect the man to be as calm and cold as the frigid lands he came from, but he was in fact the most fiery of the entire group. I fondly remember that Ygor was always the rowdiest out of my old squadron.

It would seem that the trio had somehow got into a quarrel with another gang. This wasn’t something surprising to me. What did interest me was the reason they were quarreling.

“Oh, how quickly the Ruskya filth sticks up for each other!” One of the opposing students said. This one had blonde hair. “You two have a lot of nerve showing up in this Academy!”

“Hey, just because Petrov and Ygor are half Ruskya, doesn’t make them any different than the rest of us!” Ari backed up his friend.

Ari was the smallest of the trio, only coming up to my shoulder in height. His long grayish-black hair and pale gray eyes contrasted each other well, and he made up for his small and lean build by being above average when it comes to magic. He’s not as good as Jonah or Inara though, so he wasn’t a dedicated mage… but if push comes to shove, he knows a handful of spells that can even the odds.

I looked over the situation and concluded that the three intervened to stop the bullies from harassing another student. I remember that Ygor was quite touchy about his heritage. His grandfather had immigrated from the Ruskya Confederacy many decades before the last war. He hated the Confederacy as much as any other red blooded Kingdom native. That didn’t stop people from picking on him for it though. The man was born in the Kingdom, and loved his homeland quite a bit. I distinctly remember that he was the last member of my squadron to join me when I declared I would be joining the revolting side during the civil war.

This Petrov person on the other hand, was new. I never met him in my previous life. I would have to investigate him further… though the trio sticking up for him probably means he’s not all too bad a guy. He was relatively big, around about my size and build. His hair was medium length and light blonde, while his eyes were a pale green. His skin was about as light as Ygor’s own. That confirmed that he was of Ruskya descent.

“The Ruskya are our enemies, you dumb shits!” Another one of the quarreling students shot back. This second guy had brown hair. “You two are idiots if you’re willing to trust those filths.”

“You two should go back north where your filthy ancestors came from.” A third member of the quarreling students hopped in. “Don’t you know how many of our people your kind have killed?”

A small crowd had formed in the hallway where the two groups were quarreling. I pushed my way to the front so that I could step in and control the situation.

“I can’t believe the Academy let you enroll!” Blondie said. “Why, I should report you two as spies drag you over to the royal palace.”

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Finally, it was Tomas’ turn to step in. He was the biggest of the three, being taller than even myself, though not as tall as Theo. His slightly tanned skin and short dark hair indicated that his parents came from the Kingdom’s southern regions. Despite his intimidating physical appearance though, he was always the last of the trio to resort to violence. He was a soft speaking person who was slow to anger, preferring to discuss and negotiate whenever possible. However, when he did get angry, not even I could do anything to stop his wrath.

“Look, we’re not asking for trouble.” Tomas said, gesturing to both sides to stand down. “We’re all students here, we shouldn’t let our differences…”

“To hell with that!” Blondie cut him off. “I’m sure you’re from the southern regions, so I’ll let your ignorance slide for now… but Ruskya scum like him only bring trouble!”

I saw that Tomas’ right eye was starting to twitch. That’s not good. He’s probably been trying to keep both sides from getting too heated this entire time, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was at his wit’s end. If he did blow up, it won’t end well for those three bullies.

Right, now was the time for me to step in. I formed a sneer on my face and stepped into the ring formed by the crowd.

“You lot, keep it down!” I barked out. I decided to try and appear neutral for now, but I’ll definitely pivot to defending my squadmates once the bullies inevitably start pushing back against me.

“You idiots are causing a scene!” I continued. “You’re acting like peasants, quarreling over trivial nonsense!”

“Nonsense?” The blonde bully shot back at me, as expected. “What cave have you been living in? My family lost our fortune because of the invasion, and yet I’m just supposed to welcome these filths into the Academy! You’re insane if you think so!”

“Yeah!” The brown haired one cheered for his friend.

“Go tell ‘em Karl!” the black haired one said.

The bastard started insulting me. Splendid. Now I can pivot to attacking him.

“If you think I'm so insane for not having a problem with those two, then feel free to drop out from the Academy entirely.” I coldly responded.

“Eh? The hell are you talking about?” Blondie said, not quite understanding where I’m going. “Why the hell would I drop out?”

“Use that empty head of yours, why don’t you?” I prodded at blondie's forehead. "Who the hell do you think approves enrollments here?"

I could see the gears in the three bullies' heads start to churn as they thought about it.

"The… headmaster?" The one with brown hair answered, though he wasn't quite certain with his answer.

"Yes, that's right. Bravo for answering that correctly." I responded sarcastically.

I then leaned forward and stared at the brown haired bully dead in the eye.

"And do tell…" I spoke in a more sinister tone. "Who does our headmaster answer to?"

The three of them thought about it for a few seconds, but it was the one with black hair that figured it out first. I could tell because it looked like he saw his life flash before his eyes.

"T-the superintendent… L-lord Marshall Olsyn…" He answered, color draining from his hair.

"Exactly!" I brought my hands together, giving the three a gesture of mock congratulations. "The King's own brother approved Ygor and Petrov's enrollment."

The rest of the bullies finally caught up with his black haired friend, as color drained from their faces as well. I had to give them some credit now, since they realized it much quicker than I thought they would.

I let the gravitas of the situation sink in for a while before I decided to hammer the final nails in the coffin.

"So the way I see it, moving forward… you've got three options." I said, still maintaining my low and sinister tone. "You can either suck it up and shut up about this whole debacle, you can formally protest Ygor and Petrov's enrollment to the headmaster and by extent the Lord Marshall and the King… or you can leave school and never come back."

I made sure to emphasize that last bit, since everyone here should already know what dropping out from the Academy means for their own future as nobles.

Blondie tried to argue further, but his face slowly soured as he couldn’t figure out a way to push the issue further. He must be running through all the possible arguments he could think of, and realized that none of them would fly. It’s surprisingly smart of him. Instead, he made the intelligent decision to withdraw. The guy turned his back to me then broke away.

“Tch. I’ve had enough of this.” Blondie said, trying to act tough, though the frustration was clear in his voice. “Let’s get out of here.”

The three bullies quickly made themselves scarce, having been beaten soundly by yours truly.

The hallway was still quiet after that, though there were a couple of whispers here and there from the crowd that hadn’t dispersed yet. It seems my bombastic intervention had left a bit of an impression on the other students. I looked to those who were watching from the sidelines, and realized this was a good opportunity to start building up my reputation.

“All of you, listen up!” I said out loud. “If you’re enrolled in this Academy, that means you’re of noble blood! Act like it!”

I looked around at the faces in the crowd. Some weren’t properly convinced, so I decided to further explain what I meant.

“Just because we’re nobles, doesn’t mean we get to do what we like! We have rules, structure, and codes of conduct to observe. We’re not like the backwater hicks who solve everything by fistfights or by yelling matches! If you can’t even do that, then you’re no better than the idiotic upper nobles who couldn’t run the country straight after King Gustav died!”

I knew that the last bit was personal for a lot of the students here. Most of the lower nobility suffered plenty when King was assassinated and left no heirs. Everybody knew how messy the war got when nobody could reign in all the upper nobles with their different bickering factions. Poking that scar is sure to drive home the point I wanted to get across.

I looked at the onlookers and I saw a variety of expressions. Some didn’t like what I was saying, some agreed… though honestly it didn’t matter what they thought. What’s important is that I can build up my reputation as someone who’s willing to intervene in situations righteously. I’m building up this reputation in anticipation of whatever is coming at the first year closing party. That way, if I’m forced to put the Crown Prince in his place, at least others would be more likely to support me.

At least, that’s the rough plan… but that’s going to be a bridge I’ll cross later. Right now, the four guys I helped approached me. The crowd was dispersing, since I ended the whole debacle. Now was as good a time to talk to them as any.

“Oh man, you’re a lifesaver!” Tomas said. “I really thought we might have to go out swinging.”

“Ah, it’s no problem.” I said. “I just really don’t like it when people get blamed for something they didn’t do… Morgan Redborn, by the way. You guys get to call me Morgan.”

“Tomas Madolessi.” he said, introducing himself to me… not that I needed him to, but he didn’t know that.

“Those two are Ygor Schmirnoff and Ari Noah.” Tomas then pointed at his two close friends.

“And who’s the other one?” I asked, gesturing at Petrov.

“I’m Petrov Pavloshenko, thanks for intervening when you did.” He said, bowing lightly as he did.

I’ve never heard of Petrov in my previous life. I’ll have to try and figure out as much as I could from this conversation.

“I can put two and two together and guess why the whole fight started, but I’d like to hear the details from you guys.” I told them. “That is, if you don’t mind talking about it.”

Petrov was the first to speak.

“It started with me. I bumped into one of them while looking for my room, and that’s how the whole fight started.” He explained. “As you can guess, my parents are from the Confederacy and the other students don’t take too kindly to me being here.”

“Hey, that’s bullshit!” Ygor interjected. “We don’t mind you being here.”

“You mightn’t, Ygor… but that’s because you’re in the same boat as me.” Petrov said, shaking his head. “To everyone else, I’m just another Ruskya from the Confederacy…”

Righto! He’s talking about his parentage. Now was my chance to find out more about Petrov.

“You said before that both of your parents are Ruskyas, correct?”

“Yes.” Petrov answered.

“How long have they been here?” I asked.

Petrov looked down for a bit, and seemed hesitant to answer. Looking at him now, I felt like I had pushed a bit too far. I was just about to rescind my question when he spoke up.

“They’ve been subjects of the Kingdom… for six years.” Petrov answered, feeling a bit ashamed.

Six years… but that would mean…

The guy saw my expression, and must have realized what I was thinking.

“Yes, my parents defected close to the end of the war.” He said, sighing heavily.

“Oh…” Was all I could say.

The trio were quietly listening to Petrov’s story. It seems like they haven’t heard it either, but decided to stick up for him anyways. I smiled inwardly at that thought, those three always were always like that.

“My father… his unit was badly depleted during battle… but the Baron that led the division ordered him to lead his men into battle again.” Petrov recounted the story that led to his father’s defection. “My father protested. They’ve been battling for the entire day, and they’ve hardly taken an inch of the enemy position. Wave after wave kept getting sent to assault the Kingdom’s strongpoint, but we never could break through.”

He took a deep breath as he collected himself. He must not like recalling this story. I gestured at him to take his time, and he smiled at me for that.

After a bit, Petrov continued.

“Well, eventually it came to the point where the Baron was scraping together hodgepodge squadrons out of battered machines and sending them straight into the assault. We were hitting them with everything we’ve got, but no matter what we did, we couldn’t break through. It was all because of an upper noble that personally kept the Kingdom’s defense from falling apart, even to the point of shaming his own men to keep fighting. If he wasn’t there, we could have broken through the defenses.”

Wait a minute… that sounded familiar.

“Eventually, my father had enough… him and a couple other Knights mutinied against the Baron and deserted. When the reinforcements for the Kingdom arrived, my father and the other deserters decided to help them by telling them everything about the Baron’s force. Because of that, the Duke leading the reinforcements gave my father amnesty. He even offered to vouch for my father’s knighthood if he helped out in planning the Marshall’s winter campaign… so my father agreed… Now, here I am.”

I stiffened a bit when I listened to the rest of the story.

An all day assault on a strong point… A Duke personally coming in with reinforcements… a winter campaign following that… could it be?

“Petrov…” I hesitantly asked, my voice trailing off a bit as I kept going over all the details of his story in my head.

He seemed concerned now. Perhaps he’s afraid that I’d hate him after hearing his entire story.

“That battle your father fought… was it, by any chance… at Yashin Bridge?”

Petrov was surprised when I brought up Yashin Bridge, and the trio also seemed to react the same way.

“H-how… How did you know?” Petrov asked, his voice wavered as his concern grew even deeper.

I took a deep breath.

“My father fought there, as one of the Knights under Lord Godfrey’s division.” I explained.

Petrov’s already light skin paled further when I said that.

“I… I-I” He stammered out, unsure of what to say. “I apologize! Sincerely! Please! I know it’s not much but please, if you must bring retribution to someone, take it out on me!”

Petrov had bowed in front of me at a ninety degree angle as he begged for mercy.

“Whoa, wait a minute!” Ygor said, taking a step to get between me and Petrov.

Shit, I had to clear up this whole mess quickly

I gestured to the trio to stand back and simply shook my head in response. I made it clear to them that I wasn’t going to do anything harmful to Petrov before moving towards him. Tomas and Ari seemed to understand what I was trying to do, and held Ygor by the shoulder. I nodded at them in appreciation before turning my attention to the guy in front of me.

Looking back at my previous life, I would definitely have hated Petrov… hell, we might have gone face to face against each other without realizing it. But in this life, things are different. I’m slowly realizing just to what extent my interventions could change. In a way, I felt somewhat responsible for his situation.

I placed a reassuring hand on Petrov’s shoulder. He flinched slightly, but didn’t make another move until I started speaking.

“I’ve no intention of blaming you for something you didn’t do.” I told him. “And besides, your father did lose the battle. As far as I’m concerned, he’s already gotten what he deserved. Anything more would be too excessive.”

Petrov turned his head upwards to look at me.

“Huh?” He asked. “W-what do you mean?”

I sighed.

“Look… did you yourself personally participate in the battle or not?”

When Petrov slowly shook his head, I continued.

“Then you did nothing wrong, right?”

I could see that things were finally starting to click in place in his head, as his face was in deep thought.

“Again, I don’t like punishing people for things they weren’t guilty of.” I repeated my earlier point. “I think it’s a distasteful thing to do. I’d stain my honor as a knight if I did as much.”

Ygor chimed in again now, this time siding with me.

“Right, see Petrov! You shouldn’t think too badly of yourself. If someone like Morgan doesn’t hold a grudge against you, then surely it’s fine for you to be here, right?”

“Yes… but the other students…”

Damnit, this guy really liked to wallow like this, didn’t he? I decided to take a more stern approach. I guess I might have to beat some courage into both him and Jonah later on.

“Screw those other students.” I scoffed. “How about this… I know that squadrons are only going to be divided up next term… but how about you join mine, hmm? If they know you’ve got a Manor-Lord’s son looking out for you, I’m sure they’ll ease off.”

The guy now stared at me in disbelief. Honestly, I don’t blame him. I’m sure he couldn’t believe how incredibly generous I was being right now, and thought that there was some kind of ulterior motive at play. Honestly though, there wasn’t. It was just about filling up the three empty slots in my squadron.

“You’d do that for me?” Petrov asked, his voice still filled with uncertainty.

“Of course I would!” I said. “What kind of friend would I be if I just left you to fend for yourself?”

When I gave him that answer, it almost seemed like he would burst into tears. He probably wasn’t expecting so much generosity from someone who not too long ago was a sworn enemy of his family. Thankfully, Petrov managed to compose himself and avoided making the whole situation more awkward.

“T-thank you, Morgan.” He said, bowing his head lightly. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to repay you.”

Well, seeing as my intervention was actually partially responsible for putting him in this mess in the first place, I felt that it was only fair that I tried to help him out of it.

I wouldn’t tell him that though. He’d think I’m crazy.

-000-

Petrov was quickly adopted by the trio after the whole debacle. I admired how quickly and naturally the three of them were able to incorporate the new guy to their little circle. Within a couple of days after the opening ceremony, Petrov looked and acted as if he were close friends with the trio for his entire life. It almost made me jealous to a certain extent. Since Theo had to find his own candidates for his squadron, I didn’t get to spend as much time with him as I would have liked. What little time we did have to hang out was usually when we retired to our shared room, but even then it was rare that we had the energy to do any more exciting activities for the day.

Ah well, it is what it is.

I spent my free time tracking down my old squadron members and doing what I can to secure their friendships. I’ve met up with most of them already… but reuniting with them was a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, I quite enjoyed meeting with them again. On the other hand, it felt dirty and dishonest that I was using my memories from my previous life to get into their good graces. Hopefully it’s a feeling that’ll go away with time.

So with that in mind, it was a delight when I reunited with a different kind of friend… one from my days as a squire in the war camps. Thankfully, our meeting was nothing quite as dramatic as my introduction to Petrov. In fact, this friend  was the one who approached me in the first place. We met after the last class of the week, which was an engineering and machinery class. I was the last to leave since I wanted to talk to Master Kord -who was our engineering teacher- a bit longer and discuss some of my research with him. My new friend intercepted me the moment I left the class. He seemed to have been waiting in the hallway for me to exit.

“Hey… you’re Redborn, right? Morgan Redborn?” The student waiting for me asked as soon as I closed the door to the classroom behind me.

He wasn’t very tall and had olive skin, typical of people originating from the Kingdom’s south-eastern coastal provinces. His hair was of a reddish brown shade and quite messy. His eyes on the other hand were light gray.

“Uhh… yes?” I hesitantly answered.

Feeling a bit paranoid, I looked down the hall to the left, and then up the hall to the right. Only a handful of people were present, so I was unlikely to be ambushed by a gang. After my little show against the bullies on the opening day, I had to admit that I feared I made myself a handful of enemies. I worried for a moment that I was going to be subject to some form of retribution from the three bullies’ friends. Thankfully, this guy seemed to not be one of them.

“Oh, great! I’m Judau Brekkener.” He introduced himself, putting his hand forward for a handshake.

That name seemed to tickle a memory in my mind, but it was quite hazy. I couldn’t quite remember what it was specifically, so I decided to ask Judau about it.

“Brekkener… the name rings a bell, but I can’t seem to put a finger on where I heard it from.” I told him as I shook his hand.

“Ah, that would be at Lord Godfrey’s war camp.” Judau answered frankly. “My dad was one of the head technicians working under Lord Godfrey’s division.”

Now I remembered clearly. Judau must be the son of Thaddeus Brekkener, who was one of the Magi-Technicians that I personally pestered to tune my father’s machine. So that must mean the Brekkener family were promoted from commoners to knighthood for their hard work during the Battle of Yashin Bridge.

With that bit of info sorted out, I relaxed myself. Thaddeus was a good friend to my father when we were under Lord Godfrey’s command. I don’t think the apple will fall far from the tree, so I felt comfortable letting my guard down a bit around him.

“Ah! I see! So Old Man Thaddeus must be Sir Thaddeus these days. Congratulations to you and your father then!” I said with a smile, reminiscing about the old camp days. “It sure feels like a lifetime ago I was pestering him to work on my father’s machine.”

“Yeah, it sure does.” Judau agreed with the sentiment. “I honestly never thought I’d meet you again here, especially in the same class!”

The two of us continued our conversation as we walked from our current position in Building C towards the campus cafeteria in Building B. Along the way, we regaled each other of what we’ve been doing in the years since the war ended. Apparently Sir Thaddeus was able to get permission to open up a Magi-Armor workshop in Ehren, and that Judau works there part time. When I heard of this, I brought up my own Magi-Armor research projects. The guy was taken aback when I first displayed how well versed I was in the subject, but like Jonah he very quickly caught on and our conversation fell into a good rhythm. We exchanged notes, as he too was interested in developing better equipment for Magi-Armors. However, where I was looking to improve the armor’s offensive capabilities, Judau was more interested in improving its defensive capabilities. 

It was a divergence caused by our different upbringings. I was raised by a knight, so I was more concerned with defeating the enemy. Judau however was raised by a Magi-Technician, so he was more concerned with making sure the machines stayed in one piece.

Despite this, there were fields where both of our interests overlapped.

We continued discussing our research as we ate in the cafeteria.

“Man, self-loading rifles? You're really gunning after the tough stuff huh?” Judau asked me.

“Yep!” I confirmed, taking a bite from the sandwich I bought.

It was a really good sandwich, as expected of an academy for nobles. The cafeteria had professional chefs working for them, and the quality of the food reflected it. I could only have dreamed of eating a sandwich like this at my estate. This was like something you’d buy at a luxury restaurant.

After chewing and swallowing, I started talking about the hurdles I've identified.

“It’s all in the quality of the metal.” I said, pointing to my schematics. “Since the whole bolt assembly has to cycle back and forth from the power of the recoil alone, the metal has to be absurdly tough to withstand it.”

“We won’t just need a powerful spring to push the firing pin, we need one that can cycle the entire bolt assembly.” Judau commented after he bit from his own sandwich. “I think we have the equipment to make something like this in our Ehren Workshop, but I’ll have to double check with dad.”

I felt the building tremble for a moment, but didn’t panic or become afraid. Even as the cutlery and windows vibrated, I didn't think much of it. I already knew what was going on.

Looking outside, I saw that the campus guards were running some drills with their Magi-Armors. The time to rotate the campus guards must have come around, since one squadron was returning to the hangars, and was being replaced by another. This new squadron was lined up shoulder to shoulder while the leading machine walked back and forth the line. The machines were heavily customized Grenzers, with improved external armor plating and undoubtedly enhanced internal systems. Unlike the green and gray color scheme I saw when returning from Theo’s party, these ones were more elaborate and more intricately decorated. Their color scheme was predominantly purple, with white highlights and trim. The sigil of three floating islands and the dragon in between on the chest plate indicated which noble house the squadron was on loan from.

It was House Ostgard.

They were the primary rival to House Grunnder, having lost the vote in the Moot ten years ago. Additionally, it would seem that a political marriage was supposed to happen between the Ramiels and the Ostgards, but that fell through after the Moot as well.

I sighed, knowing full well that the Academy was to be another political battlefield for the upper nobles. There's no doubt in my mind that this squadron was a show of force… a way for the Ostgards to assert themselves in the eyes of the up and coming nobles. Everything about the Ostgard Grenzers screamed showpiece to me. From their aesthetic design, to the equipment they carried.

For goodness sake, their bolt action rifles had furnishing made entirely out of wood! Wood furnishing on a rifle of that size was ridiculous! Most had a hollow metal frame with a wooden exterior to keep things from looking unsightly. The Ostgards had the entire thing carved out of wood. While I appreciated the artistry involved, thinking about the lengths that these upper nobles would go to one up each other made me dizzy.

As I was somewhat lost in my thoughts, Judau must have noticed me staring at the Ostgard Grenzers outside.

"Beautiful machines, aren't they?" He commented. "A lot of work must have gone into them."

I looked over the machines again, and couldn't help but agree.

The knights piloting the machines knew what they were doing. They deftly inspected and presented their own rifles, showing off the expensive customized rifle they held. The knights pulled back the weapon's bolt, removed the detachable magazine, reinserted the magazine, then pushed the bolt back into place... all of this without a single misstep. Each movement was measured and perfectly rehearsed. The amount of time they spent practicing must have been insane.

The Ostgard Grenzer squadron soon dispersed, going in pairs on their assigned stations. A part of me wished they stuck around more so I could keep watching them work… but the wizened soldier inside me knew it was better if they went on their duties.

Still though, I had to admit that their little display had left quite the impression. It reminded me that the Ostgards were formidable foes, and why I shouldn't take them lightly as a threat.

After all, I did join their side in the civil war.

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