Author's note: Hello everyone, and welcome to another intermission chapter! Like last time, this chapter is comprised of three short stories that mean little in the grand scheme of things, but I would still recommend reading them for the heck of it. Unlike last time, however, the time frame of these events is different for each story.

As for whether this means I will return to updating this story at my usual schedule, that remains to be seen. Hopefully this chapter, however, short it may be, can hold you over until then! Enjoy!

Memories, Part 1

"...And that is why we brought her to the villa."

A blonde-haired man dressed in regal red clothes with groomed facial hair let out a sigh of discontent. "Olivert, my son… You should know better than to bring strangers here."

"I was aware of the risks, but after debilitating the facts, I ultimately decided to go with this course of action. I think you will find that there is little cause for concern if you talk to her, though."

"...Very well. Are Alfin and Cedric with her currently?"

"They should all be in the library."

"Show me to her."

Prince Olivert led his father through the halls of Karel Imperial Villa.

…

"...G...A...N! There! That's how you spell your name!"

"Mmm…" Morgan looked listlessly at the letters Alfin wrote on the piece of blank paper.

"U-Um…" Cedric plopped some books onto the table Morgan and Alfin were sitting at. "Here are some books about Erebonia! I'm not sure if you know how to read, but these should help jog your memory."

"Thank...you…"

The sounds of the door opening echoed through the empty library. Alfin and Cedric both stood up and, upon noticing the figures that were approaching them, lowered their postures respectfully.

"Hello, Father!" "Hello, Father…"

"Alfin. Cedric." The siblings' father smiled at them. "My apologies for not seeing you back. And this is…"

"!"

Morgan's first instinct was to wince and hide behind Alfin, who was the closest person to her seat.

"There is no need to be afraid, child." The blonde-haired man knelt to the ground so he could look at Morgan directly. "Tell me, do you know who I am?"

"Um…" Morgan tilted her head and put a loosely-closed fist to the edge of her mouth. "Your name is...Father?"

The man couldn't help but let out a chuckle. "You aren't wrong, in a sense." He put his hand to his chest. "My name is Eugent. Eugent Reise Arnor. I am the father of the three people who brought you here."

"Don't worry, Morgan!" Alfin said cheerily. "Father is very nice."

"Do you have a father, Morgan?" Eugent asked.

Cedric began to speak up. "Father, she said that doesn't remember anything-"

"Robin."

Her sudden response shocked Alfin, Cedric, and Olivert. Eugent merely nodded his head and asked, "And your mother?"

Morgan held her head while wearing a troubled expression. Compared to her last answer, this one did not come as quickly, but she eventually managed to croak out, "Lu...cina?"

"So you remember your parents' names. Is there anything else you can remember? You can say whatever is on your mind."

Morgan shrunk back and shook her head. "Mm-mm."

"I see…"

"Father, can we look after her?"

Eugent raised an eyebrow. "Are you certain, Alfin? She may be an enemy. Or a spy."

"But she isn't! I know she won't hurt us." She looked behind her. "Isn't that right, Morgan?"

The black-haired girl didn't immediately respond, which caused some suspicion to rise in Eugent's mind. She then locked eyes with him for the first time that entire conversation.

"What is a spy? Is that something you eat?"

She asked those questions in the most sincere, innocent manner possible.

Eugent laughed, and all the tension in the room was released at once. "No, Morgan. It is not, in fact, something that you eat."

Olivert hummed to himself, looking rather amused by the response as well. "What do you think, Father?"

Eugent looked at Alfin, whose eyes were practically begging for approval. "Well, I suppose we can't exactly leave a child all on her own…"

"So then-!"

"However." Eugent silenced his daughter with a firm expression. "She can only stay for the remainder of the week, or until we find her parents. She also cannot go anywhere by herself unless she is accompanied by at least two servants. Finally, no more hide-and-seek from this point forward; if you're going to play with her, do something that lets you keep a visible eye on her. Do I make myself clear?"

Alfin looked very disappointed for a moment by the ban on hide-and-seek, but she bounced right back with her trademark smile. "Of course! Thank you so much, Father!"

"That's good news, Alfin!" Cedric congratulated his sister.

Morgan merely responded with another innocent question. "What is...hide-and-seek?"

Eugent couldn't resist smiling as he stood up from the ground. "I will see you all at dinner. For now, there are some other important matters I need to attend to. Olivert, can you come with me?"

"Of course, Father."

The two men bid farewell to the children for the time being. As soon as Eugent stepped out of the library, a woman's voice asked, "Are you sure about this, Dear?"

He turned to see his wife waiting just outside the door. She wore a lovely red dress that went all the way to her feet. "Priscilla…"

"With all due respect, I was certain that you'd send her to the capital."

Eugent closed his eyes. "You're absolutely right. If it were up to me, I would have arranged for her to be sent to the capital straightaway. For all we know, she could be a jaeger in disguise, and I'd prefer not to take my chances." He balled his fists. "Once was more than enough for a lifetime."

"Dear…"

"But that all changed after I saw her eyes. You should see them for yourself." He looked back to the library. "She looked lost. Almost listless, even. We have yet to truly discern if she is friend or foe, but I have enough experience in politics to know when someone is bluffing or lying, and I could detect no such pretense from her. From the way she reacted, it seems as if she has no clue of where she stands either."

"Exactly my point," Olivert said. "It is difficult for anyone, even the most collected of assassins, to commit to an act like that. And for the record, we also couldn't find any weapons on her."

Eugent nodded. "For the moment, we can trust that Alfin and Cedric won't let her out of their sight. It's not everyday they get to interact with someone around their age who isn't a noble."

"Where did you say you found her, Olivert?" Priscilla asked.

"In a field just north of the villa."

"I will send some soldiers to scout the area for clues," said Eugent. "We may be in the clear now, but if she has any accomplices, they may come searching for her. To quote something the Chancellor often says: 'Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer.'"

Shockstick

On the final day of the Summer Festival, just a day after they had returned from their field study, Morgan received a call from Omar telling her to come to his house the next time she was available. Since classes didn't run at the academy during the festival, and Morgan didn't have any other plans, she decided to return to Heimdallr right then and there.

When she made it to Westen District, she found Omar standing outside of his house, presumably waiting for her to arrive.

"Ah, Morgan! There you are."

"Hey, Omar! So what's up? Is the next model ready?"

Omar laughed softly to himself. "Hmhmhm. I think I've developed something truly extraordinary, if I do say so myself. Have you prepared yourself?"

Omar's rare showing of self-confidence did not go unnoticed by Morgan. That, however, only made her more excited. "Show me the goods!"

Omar led Morgan directly to the basement. Once there, he hobbled over to the forge and presented her with the orbal lance, except…

"Did you...change the design?"

Some parts of the lance had indeed undergone a visual makeover. The shaft had two sets of knobs that denoted where the weapon was meant to be held. The blade was now more jagged and also had a line running through it, better resembling the signature shape of a lightning bolt.

"Quite right. In order to accommodate the new method of generating orbal energy, some visual aspects of the weapon had to be changed as well."

"NEW method?"

Omar nodded and motioned for her to come to the testing ground. Better to just show it directly, Morgan figured.

Once they made it through to the other side, there was a row of barrels waiting in the center of the room.

"Try activating it."

"Okay, Omar."

Morgan held the lance with both hands and tried to cast an art. However, instead of an orbal aura appearing around her, the blade of the lance simply began to light up. The line that was visible along the blade began to slowly fill up with a yellow-green bar of energy.

"Allow me to explain…" said Omar. "I isolated the quartzes into their own separate chamber, which, upon activation, lets them generate electricity at its purest, most raw form. The energy from the battery gathers at the front end of the shaft, where it then gets stored and transferred into the blade for eventual use. The line along the blade serves as a visual indicator of how much charge you have left after you use an attack."

The bar reached to the very tip of the blade, causing the lance to crackle with electrical energy.

"That lets you know that the lance has reached its maximum charge and is ready for use."

"So it charges automatically?" Morgan asked. "Does that mean I can just give the order to fire whenever I want?"

"Indeed. You need only point in the direction of your target. The quartzes should still respond to your intentions."

Gripping the orbal lance tightly, Morgan forcefully pointed it at the leftmost barrel. "Like this?"

At her command, a stream of lightning shot from the lance in a straight line towards the barrel, zapping it and destroying it in one hit.

"Wh-Whoa!" Morgan shouted in surprise. "It responded so quickly!"

Omar nodded to himself. "Hmm. It's working as intended."

The inventor's eyes were on the yellow-green line of the blade, which was now only three-quarters-full due to Morgan's attack. After a few seconds, the bar began moving its way back up again.

"It recharges after every attack, huh?" A grin started to creep up on Morgan's face. "In that case…"

After the lance reached its full charge again, Morgan waved the lance a total of three times, with each wave being aimed at a different barrel. The orbal weapon discharged three shots of electricity, each one just as responsive as the first and accurately hitting their respective targets. At the end of it, the lance's energy level was now mostly depleted, though there was still room for one more shot. Without wasting another second, Morgan ran towards the last remaining barrel and thrust it forward. The blade broke through the side of the barrel and released whatever remaining electricity it still had stored, causing the barrel to burst apart.

"What do you think, Morgan?"

"What do I think?" Morgan turned around and gave Omar the biggest smile she could muster. "Omar, this is perfect! It's everything I could've imagined!"

The inventor was briefly taken aback by the enthusiastic response, almost as if he was surprised that she hadn't broken his weapon at this point. But then he coughed to recompose himself. "Hm! Of course!"

"A quick question though: what happens if I use up all the energy at a time?"

"Well, the process of creating the electricity has been streamlined so that there is always a constant output. However, as you have demonstrated, it is entirely possible that you will use up all that stored electricity beforehand. Should that event occur, I hard-coded a safety measure that prevents you from shooting forth lightning any further until the power level reaches its maximum point again."

"So it has a usage limit…" Morgan looked at the lance. The bar that was filling up the side of the blade was now colored red, indicating that it is not usable in this state. "Except instead of the weapon breaking, it just goes back to being a regular old lance."

"Precisely. Proper utilization of this orbal weapon requires the wielder to manage their resources wisely. Of course, there may be some instances where it is more beneficial to use the weapon without the electricity, in which case…"

Omar motioned for Morgan to hand over the weapon. After Morgan gave it back, Omar tapped the end of the shaft on the ground three times. This caused the lance to power down.

"...You can turn it off manually like so."

"Interesting…" Morgan cupped her chin. "It looks simple on the outset, but it's actually more complex than I thought."

"It is certainly more unwieldy compared to conventional orbments. But…" The corners of Omar's mouth curved upwards as he handed Morgan the lance again. "For someone like you, that shouldn't be a problem."

"Someone like me…?"

It was at that moment that everything started to click together in Morgan's mind. The way the weapon perfectly responded to her every command. The fact that she was able to understand its intricacies despite this being her first time using it. "You're right. As soon as I started wielding it, I couldn't help but feel like…"

"...Like it was made for you?"

Morgan blinked. "How did you…?"

Omar grunted. "Because that is what this entire project has indirectly been leading towards. Once I realized that, I saw that I had no choice but to redesign it from the ground up with you in mind. The end result is different from what I had initially envisioned, but perhaps that is for the best. I wouldn't have gotten this far if you hadn't appeared to become my tester; thus, I have no qualms with bequeathing this to you once it is truly complete."

"I...I don't know what to say." Morgan held the lance close to her chest. "Thank you so much!"

"You ought to thank your classmate Alisa for suggesting that. She was also the one who came up with the final design."

"Alisa did?" That surprised Morgan. "You mean when she came to do patrols on the first day of the festival?"

Omar nodded. "Giving the blade a more jagged shape so it can give the electricity a more defined shape. That girl has a bright future ahead of her, let me tell you!"

"Um...does this mean I can't be your assistant anymore?"

"Who says I can't have more than one?" Omar shrugged nonchalantly. "Besides, there's no replacing that spontaneity of yours when it comes to pointing out my weapon's flaws."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Morgan put her hands on her hips. "So what's next? What other adjustments do you need to make?"

"Well…" Omar cupped his chin. "I would prefer it if the battery were to recharge just a bit quicker, for one. Also, the shaft could use a grip of some kind to prevent electrocution in the event of a malfunction. Small quality-of-life changes like those. Can I ask you to come by again once I have made more progress?"

Morgan nodded her head enthusiastically. "You can count on me!"

"Ah, I just remembered!" Omar added. "It just occurred to me that we never came up with a name for this particular weapon. I've devised a few experimental names myself, of course, but if you have any suggestions-"

"Shockstick." Morgan's answer was immediate.

"A...Shockstick?"

"Yeah." Morgan touched her two index fingers together. "Er… Is that okay?"

Omar deliberated the name for a moment. "Well, I suppose the name DOES get straight to the point… Alright. I will let you know once I have made more progress on the...Shockstick."

Morgan breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. Oh! Since you're going back to the drawing board, you mind if I make another suggestion?"

"What do you have in mind?"

"There's a battery in this thing, right?" Morgan said, holding up the lance. "If it's not too much trouble, do you think you could find a way to put it in my trick axe someday?"

A bead of sweat dropped from Omar's forehead. "Oy vey… I've got my work cut out for me."

Rare Pairs

"Loath as I am to admit it, your relentless optimism is perhaps your best quality."

"Er… Excuse me?"

"You are constantly striving to be a better man than you were the day before. To prove that limits were meant to be broken. Once you have a goal in mind, you never yield until you see it through to the end. Though it results in you acting as a contemptible degenerate with no regard for others' opinions, you are unmatched in that aspect."

"You...truly think so?"

"I strive to analyze others' capabilities without emotion. That is all…"

The two men stared longingly into each other's eyes, sharing a brief moment of mutual understanding. Eventually, that moment turned into a minute, and that minute into several minutes. Slowly, their faces began moving closer to one another until they eventually-

"KYAAAH! I can't hold it in anymore!"

"Incredible! This is truly incredible, Your Highness! Where did you manage to get your hands on this?"

Princess Alfin giggled knowingly to herself. "Teehee! Oh, I have my fair share of connections~"

By the grace of the Goddess, Alfin had managed to convince Morgan to ask Dorothee for more copies of her rough draft. After all, having a larger sample size is never a bad thing. It certainly made for a noticeable change of pace from what the book club usually did, but considering all the chaos surrounding the Summer Festival just a week prior, the students were grateful to have something different to do.

"Now, do keep in mind that this is still a work in progress. The author was kind enough to give us several copies, so if you have any constructive feedback, please let her know by writing in the margins!"

"With all due respect, Your Highness…" one of the club members said. "We cannot forget about Rule #17 of the BL Society: 'Rough drafts are a holy grail that none shall trespass with their writing utensils without explicit permission from the author.'"

"...Which we have right here." A girl with long green hair waved a small note in her fingers. "For the sake of conserving paper, the author told us that we can mark to our heart's content!"

"As expected of you, Mildine! You never miss a detail!"

While Mildine gave a small curtsy to the rest of the gathered students, her roommate was sitting in the back of the room, quietly reading her own copy of the rough draft.

"Why did I agree to this…"

Lea Eros was long accustomed to expecting the unexpected, so when she was told that the club would be doing something different for this week's meeting, she thought she was prepared. It was just her luck, then, that the activity turned out to be reading and providing feedback for a rough draft about, you guessed it, boys' love. Even with Mildine's assistance in...desensitizing her enough to handle the genre, Lea could hardly consider herself an expert-enough writer to give constructive criticism. Oh, and did she mention that this was her first time attending the club? Definitely not the greatest of first impressions.

With all that said, she did have to admit that despite her initial apprehension of the genre, once she started reading it, she could see where her classmates were coming from. For the most part, the story generally followed a straightforward formula that was easy to understand, and the characters each had their own unique trait to make them stand out. There were just two main issues that Lea had. The first was that the story was prone to getting very...intense at times, particularly between the two male leads. Lea could do without a few of the more graphic details.

Lea's other issue was with some of the vocabulary. Her knowledge of words and common sayings used by the upper class had improved over the years, but it still wasn't perfect. Fortunately, she would make up for her deficit by reading the mood of the room and responding accordingly, a strategy that simply could not work if her opponent was a piece of paper. If Lea was being honest, she had never seen some of these words before, much less know what they meant.

"Um, excuse me?"

Lea looked up. Standing in front of her was a girl with long, straight black hair. She was in the year above her, if Lea recalled correctly.

"Are you feeling alright?" the girl asked.

"...I'm fine." Lea was most certainly not fine, but she knew better than to admit it to someone's face. "Did you need something?"

"I just wanted to check on you, seeing as this is your first time here and all. This isn't what we typically do, so I was wondering how you were adjusting."

"Mm. Can't complain. It's a good change of pace from my usual routine."

Her upperclassman took a chair and sat next to Lea. Now that she had a closer look at her, Lea noticed that there was something different about her. She assumed that the girl was at least upper class, given her politeness and clean appearance, but the air she gave off felt very...natural? Most nobles carried varying degrees of pretense in their behaviors or appearances to separate themselves from the common folk; even Lea herself wasn't exempt from this, taking great care to make herself look the part of a noble's daughter. Obviously, her upperclassman took care to make herself look presentable, but there was little else about her appearance that looked artificial. She carried no pretenses or the like; she was simply who she was.

"Pardon my curiosity, but how did you come across this club?"

"My roommate. She's been pestering me to sit in for the longest time, and I finally gave in. It's not because I'm into reading or anything like that. Sorry."

Lea was expecting her upperclassman to stand up and leave at that, but instead she giggled. "It's not a problem at all. Actually, I know exactly what you mean."

"You do?"

The girl nodded. "I wasn't aware of boys' love at all until my first year here. The only reason I was even made aware of this was because of my friend. She was also the one who suggested that I join this club so I could ease my way into the school."

Lea raised both her eyebrows. Internally, she found herself connecting to the other girl's situation.

"It's fine if you don't understand the appeal yet," her senior continued. "Honestly, I still find some parts rather questionable myself. But I CAN appreciate the feelings the author puts into their text. In fact, if I take my mind off the more...salacious moments and just look at it objectively, the material becomes…"

"...Surprisingly bearable."

Both girls said those words at the exact same time. Upon realizing that, they wordlessly stared at each other for a few seconds.

"My name is Elise Schwarzer, by the way. Sorry for not introducing myself earlier. What is your name?"

"Lea Eros. A pleasure."

Perhaps choosing to attend this book club wasn't such a bad decision after all, Lea thought.

…

After talking about their respective backgrounds for a little bit, Lea asked Elise for help on some of the phrases in the rough draft that she didn't understand. Elise was more than happy to lend her expertise, guiding Lea through the more complex vocabulary.

Off to the side, both of their closest friends caught wind of their interaction and began chatting amongst themselves.

"Looks like she's fitting in just fine."

"Teehee! You should introduce us sometime, Mildine. Any friend of yours, and I suppose now Elise's, is a friend of mine!"

"I believe that can be arranged…" Midline turned an eye at some of the other members of the club. "If you don't mind enduring the jealousy of others."

"Oh, you know I could care less about that."

"I just thought I'd let you know in advance, Your Highness. But don't worry; I have your back."

"I know you do. Even though you're younger than me and Cedric by a year, your mind is ten times more mature. Between you, Elise, and Morgan, I have no shortage of people looking out for me."

"Ah, yes. The Butterfly Maid. How has she been lately?"

"Very well! Thors is shaping up to be a wonderful fit for her. Oh, and since you mentioned her…" Princess Alfin's voice lowered to a whisper. "She wanted to let you know that she visited Count Egret a little over a month ago."

"Grandfather?" The smile vanished from Mildine's face. "Did she now?"

The princess nodded her head. "They mentioned your name inadvertently. She was accompanying Olivert for business reasons, so there wasn't an opportunity to tell them that you were already acquainted with each other. Still, she was quite surprised to find out that you had grandparents."

"I see…" Mildine furrowed her eyebrows. 'If she met Grandfather and Grandmother… I suppose letting another person know wouldn't hurt, especially considering her relation to the princess. I just hope this doesn't come back to bite me in some way...or maybe I'm just overthinking things?'

Alfin took the silence as her taking the subject too far. She was one of only a few people who was aware of Mildine's situation, so it wasn't the easiest thing to talk about. She clapped her hands together in an attempt to change the subject. "L-Let's talk about something else, why don't we? Now, I don't usually gossip about people behind their backs, but I've been wondering this for a while. Are Miss Eros and Jusis Albarea…?"

At the mention of her roommate, Mildine's mischievous smirk returned in full force. "Close friends? Yes. Something more? Heehee! Who can say? All I can tell you is that they are both single now, but who knows? Anything could happen~"

"Aaaaanything?"

"Indeed. Will they confess their love under the cover of moonlight, or will Lord Jusis find his partner at the academy first? Oh, or even better…" Mildine leaned in close to the princess's ear and whispered, "A male partner."

If it weren't for the fact that they were in public, Alfin would have released all of her inhibitions to squeal loudly. She just barely managed to cover her mouth in time before the sound of maidenly glee spilled from her lips. "Mildine, please! You're going to make me go crazy!"

Midline relented at last, satisfied with the result. One of the special privileges of being on the Imperial princess's good side was that she was free to tease as she pleased. "I jest. Although, I certainly wouldn't be surprised if Lord Jusis became close with some of his classmates. Perhaps Elise's darling older brother is one of them?"

"Oh, I can think of several more examples…" The princess cupped her hand as she whispered into Mildine's ear, "This is just what I heard from Morgan, but a few months ago, something happened between Jusis and one Machias Regnitz…"

Now it was Mildine's turn to cover her mouth. "The son of Imperial Governor Regnitz?! Go on."

Her attempt at payback succeeding, Alfin began to tell the story. "Well, you see…"

Their respective copies of their drafts rested on their laps, entirely forgotten.

Why yes. I DID just put in a Three Houses reference. Don't get used to it, though; I needed some material with subtext and a certain Black Eagles support conversation was the first thing that came to mind. Don't judge me.