Harpstring moon(may)/13, night

It was a clear night, nothing too special. I had found myself in a small village, looking for someone. This was the type of place for someone to go into hiding after a long day worth of stealing. It just so happens I'm looking for someone like that. I had found this certain someone in an ally way, along with some other snickering morons. Guessing they had noticed me because the snickering got a lot worse.

"Hey, kid, don't you know it's dangerous out here?" "You're right sir, but you don't care about that, do you?" "Yeah, you're right." He took out his sword. "Give us everything you got." "I was about to say the same thing. And yes, we're gonna do this the hard way."

As expected, they drew their swords. Two of them came running at me. One was going to thrust their sword at me, so I move out of the and raised my leg fast enough to kick him in the face. In succession, I smashed his head against the wall. The other one was ready to vertical slash me from above. That move was easily exploitable. I moved in fast enough to stop his attack by his wrists. I then delivered a knee to his stomach then a few quick punches that were able to do the trick. I had stomped him on the head to be safe. The last one was shaking like an idiot, too nervous to even make an effort, so he ran away. That left the head of this small group of bandits.

"S-stay back!" "Why, I came for you after all." At that moment, he pulled out a mini crossbow. While not being as powerful as a regular bow, it made up for that flaw in versatile use. "I said stay away." "Hey, if you're going to shoot, then shoot. But the moment you do, I'll crush your hand."

I had slipped right over to him before he could fire the bow. I had grabbed his wrist to put some pressure on it, making him drop the bow. I pushed him. "Wow, always wanted one of these." "What do you want from me!?" "You have a bounty on your head, you've been taking stuff that isn't yours. And the specificity of this job is interesting. You either give back all the stolen goods, or I leave a half beaten bandit in the middle of the town you've been stealing from... What will it be; do you have the goods?" He shook his head no. "Shame, guess we're going with option two then. This might hurt a bit."

...

That night, as the boy dragged the bandit on through the night, he would gaze up at the moon periodically. He had noticed the unusual white shine to it. It was so bright to the part where it had shined on his head. "Huh... Been a while since I last have seen one..." The boy went on to ignore the moon for the rest of the night, however, that was the mark of the winter moon.

Harpstring moon(may)/14, Fodlan, Adrestian Empire, morning

It was morning in the capital of the empire. Strolling through the city wasn't an interest of mine but I had to look for work somehow; bounties that can found on billboards aren't really that good unlike the one from last night. I need to listen to the people on the street for work. There are bound to be some troubled nobles who need the enlistment of someone who can make their problems go away. Unfortunately, I wasn't hearing anything today. Most of his sources weren't telling him anything either.

"Damn, I guess today just isn't my day, huh." I guess it's a good thing that I don't have a job today, it's been a long time since I had the chance to relax, so maybe I shouldn't squander it. As I thought that, my stomach began to speak out. "Welp, guess that means it's time to find something to eat then." With the pocket money I have on me, I can pretty much get anything I want... Eh, most of the fancy crap isn't to my taste, I like something simple. "Hmm, grilled meat would do." Or maybe some grilled fish, no, perhaps grilled bear. "Maybe I should go hunting today!" I was getting excited about what I could get, there was a forest not that far out of the city. If I started going, I could get there before the afternoon. But as I was making my way there, someone had grabbed me by the forearm.

"Rock." "Who wants to know?" I knew this guy's voice, he was a messager for my main source for jobs. "Garith wants to see you." "Now? I'm kind of busy at the moment." "He said it was urgent. You know how he gets when you ignore him on this topic." Last time I did it was a low-paying month; kind of killed my options for supplies. And to be frank, I don't want to go through that again.

"Fine, where is he?" "Follow me." I followed the guy off to where ever Garith is...

Adrestian Empire, morning

We ended up at a pub. It was the type of run-down place nobody would look twice at let alone wink at. The inside was as shabby as the outside but was decent enough to meet in. Someone was sitting down at a round table; Garith. He still had the scruffy look to him coupled by his suspicious mug.

"Rock," Garith called. "What do you want?" "Still have the attitude and no real weapon it seems." "You bet, now what do you want?" He made a gesture at the guy behind me. He went over to the bar area to get a cup and a bottle of booze. I took a seat. "Been a while since we talked, how you been." "So-so. You got anything to eat?" "Probably." He shrugged his shoulders. "Hey, while you're back there, make something to eat..."

The servant boy scurried into the kitchen.

"Okay, now onto the main topic... I just got a new job," Garith told me. "Kay, and?" "It's not like any other job... This is big." "Big, how so?" "I don't exactly know how big but it's big. This job requires the entirety of the whole Garith band." "So what, is this a recruitment for a skirmish or something?" "No, not from what I was told."

Geez, why all the secrecy? This contractor should just give us the specifics on the job.

"Say, out of curiosity, where did you score this job," I asked him. "From the same contractor that gave us that raid job back in the holy kingdom." Ah, I remember that job nearly got me thrown in prison. But I have to admit, the pay was definitely worth it.

"Still though, with the number of people in your band, the pay might be cut severely," I had told him. "I know, and do you think I'd be making a big deal out of this if we weren't gonna be paid adequately."

He suddenly plopped something on the table. Judging by the impact, it weighted like bricks in a bag. He opened it up to show me a golden object inside. Bullion and they were bigger than normal ones.

"Damn!" I picked one up to see how heavy it was. "This only half of the advance payment." "Really!" "Yeah, now are you interested?" I put both of my elbows on the table. "I am... But there is something I want to know: why am I the only one here instead of the rest of the band?" "Well..."

As Garith was leading onto what he wanted to say, food and booze were put on the table. My plate had chicken cut into individual pieces. All of them had been seasoning to absolute perfection.

"Not bad waiter, I give you an A-plus," I complimented him with a chicken piece in between my teeth. He took a quick bow and left just as quickly. Just as I was enjoying my meal Garith took a large chug from his mug.

"We need you to be a plant," Garith just said out of the blue. "A plant? Are you drunk already? "No, what I mean is: our employer requested that you be on standby in a specific location: the Garreg Mach Monastery." The name rung a bell. That was a neutral area between the Adrestian Empire (the continent we're in), the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, and Leicester Alliance. I worked in the other two areas at some point but they were just one-offs.

"As you might know not know, regular people can't just enter there whenever. Only the Knights of Seiros and Officer academy students. Wait, you do know who the Knights are?" "They're knights that serve the Church of Seiros, I know." He clapped as if I was some animal doing a trick. Ugh, this is half the reason I don't like seeing him.

"So what, are you asking me to be a Knight of Seiros," I jokingly questioned him "No, that's not exactly what we had in mind... You're gonna be a student of the officers' academy."

"..."

"..."

"Huh, huh...?" "Yeah, this was the only way we could get you in there." "I'm sorry, I think I didn't make my surprise clear; What the hell!?" "This is the only way to get you in there. It's the best cover." "Why the hell do I have to be a student? Can't you guys just have someone become an employee there?" "We do, but whoever sent the job wanted you to be a student there." "So I have to pose as a student... No, count me out." "Wait, now listen, I've done a lot for you; give you jobs, give you food when you were about to die from hunger, and I never asked for anything in exchange. So please, just do me this one job, one last time and you'll never hear from me again."

His proposal was rather tempting. The lack of annoyance would be great, but seeing him beg like this was rather sad, but if this is a sort of tactic he's using to make me do. In either case, it's working.

"*Sigh* Fine, I'll do it. But I'll do it with no strings attached so you won't have to worry with that scruffy face of yours." "It's not that bad kid." "Whatever you say. But onto serious business, how am I suppose to get admitted? Don't I need to pay for it?" "Tuition, and yes. However, we could also use another method: getting help from a Nobel." "I see, that way, we don't have to spend any money at all. Let's go with the latter." "All right. Now we're gonna have to go over other details but most importantly, we need to register you with a new name. Sorry but Rock is a little on the nose... So I want you to go with Gildarts." Ew. "No offense but no." "Well, that's all I got. What name do you want to go with?" No names popped up in my mind. However, there was one...

"Shirou." "Shirou... What kind of name is that?" "A foreign one." "...I don't see what you're getting at but it'll do..." He took a chug out of the glass of alcohol and got up from his seat. He walked for the door. "I'm going to get everything set up right now. I want you to stay in the capital for a while until it's time." "Where should I stay?" "Here, this place is pretty comfortable. And don't worry, there aren't any bugs here... Especially." "Okay, I get it! Can you just go already!?" "All right, all right, I'll go. Take care of the bar." "Sure, I'll greet the ghost passing on by."

Garith had left out through the door. Now that I was alone to my thoughts. The prospect of this job. A student at the monastery... What a silly idea, acting like a normal person, mingling with Nobel brats. ...Then again, this does sound rather simple, laying low and living carefree for a bit; sounds pretty relaxed. Besides, what does a student do?

Harpstring moon(may)/20, Fodlan, Garreg Mach Monastery, Officers Academy, morning

The sun was shining down on me. I was doing nothing but sitting down on a bench, looking blankly at the sky. My mind was shifting through whatever was on it. I have been here for nearly a week now and I already wished death would take me now. This whole student thing was pretty damn boring. So far, I've only been listening to lectures about useless stuff such as Fodlan history, and the four saints whatever, and mostly about the principles of magic (useful for mages, not as much for me). And after all that, there's nothing to do; no fighting, no gambling, nothing fun.

"*Sigh I'm so bored! If I knew it would be this bad, I would just not have done that... Then again, scruffy would've held this over my head for the rest of my life. Honestly, that man is a first-rate con artist if I haven't seen one." Maybe I should go read a book or something... But as I was ready to find the library, I saw a herd of students going off somewhere. They seemed pretty excited from the looks on their faces and their voices. I could make out what they were sort of saying. Something about a professor...sparing match. Those words were all I needed to hear. I immediately followed them to wherever they were going.

Officers Academy, training grounds, morning

I entered the area behind a crowd. They were cluttering together. I pushed my way through all of them to get a better view of what was going on. "What the?" Two people were fighting, one had blue hair and a black coat on, and the other was wearing a more elegant version of the academy uniform. She also had white hair. They were fighting with a wooden sword and axe, with that, there was already a disadvantage I could see for the white-haired girl. Using an axe with a blade of that length is pretty terrible mostly because unlike a sword you can't guard with it. Plus, a blade can bypass it easily; this will be more evident when blue hair tried to go for a thrust. But to my surprise, as the fight went on, blue hair's next move ultimately disarmed her and putting the wooden sword at her neck, this was over. The audience began to give applause at the performance.

"Thank you all for the cheers," white-haired spoke. She bowed with a sort of decorum to herself. Despite being beaten, she didn't seem to be upset about it. But if I was her, I wouldn't be so glad.

"I'd like to thank professor Byleth. Please give him a round of applause." The clapping continued. The professor seemed pretty confused about what was going on judging by his face. "Um, thank you for the applause." He bowed less grace as the white-haired chick. Hm...he seems familiar but I can't put my finger on it.

"If anyone else would like to try and fight the professor, you're welcomed," the white-haired girl proposed. The students seemed to be daunted by the idea of fighting him and I don't fail to see why. I might only catch the last few moments of the fight but I can tell this guy really knows how to fight... And he'll help me kill my boredom. I walked onto the training grounds soon after deciding to fight.

"I'll take a crack at it," I announced. I was rotating my arm in anticipation. This what I was waiting for, a chance to let out some steam.

"And you are?" "I'm Shirou." "I see... you seem rather familiar," the professor said. "Wouldn't you look at that, I had the same feeling. But even if we did know each other from somewhere, that won't stop me from blowing off all my boredom." "All right then, I guess I'll have to be ready for a fight." He took a stance. It wasn't anything special, rather it was standard, but it was still good enough for offensive and defensive play. "Do you need a wooden sword," he asked me. "No, got my own." I took out the wooden sword off my belt. It felt good to hold this thing out again.

"That's a wooden sword?" "Yep, and don't worry, it'll do the trick in this fight." "I see... whatever works for you is fine." I took my stance in preparation. "Now, are you sure about this," white hair said to me. "Yeah, I'm sure." "In that case, I will begin the count down to the match. I wish you both luck." The crowd grew quiet for the fight that was about to begin. I had to clear all the excitement from my mind and focus; can't fight with noise in my head. "Professor, when she reaches zero, I'm gonna go all out on you, no hard feelings." "No need to hold back on my account." "Good." Our exchange led to the white hair to put out four fingers.

"On the count of four, three, two, one... Go!" With that, we dashed towards each other.