Julius Rapha Holfort had to wonder if any family which was the majority ruling power of a country just naturally succumbed to dysfunction and fell apart given enough time. That was what happened with his own family after all. His worthless father, his poor mother, and his dear younger siblings. He thought of this as it seemed that he had another example unraveling right in front of him and his trusted friends.

After they were whisked away to the Rault family manor by Miss Louise, an audience was quickly arranged with her father. To say that Chairman Albergue Sara Rault was alarmed by the news that the five of them had become the apparent Guardians of the Sacred Tree Sapling they found in the dungeon was an understatement. The alarm turned into apoplectic anger when they told him about Serge's involvement in the acquisition of the sapling from a dungeon.

"-or were you not paying attention to all the lessons you had about how the Sacred Tree works!" Julius couldn't help but wince in secondhand shame as their friend was being dressed down by his father.

"Well, how the hell was I supposed to tell that it wasn't just a special healing herb or something?!" His reasoning fell on deaf ears as both his father and elder sister glowered at him.

"It's things like this that make people question the wisdom of adopting you to become house Rault's heir." Miss Louise's derision was the last straw for Julius. From the looks of the others, they were of the same mind. He decided to intervene before Serge could dig himself into a deeper hole with his family.

"If I may interject, Chairman." He spoke out, not in the least intimidated with the way their eyes darted to him. Attention was something Julius was well used to, whether for good or ill. "We would appreciate it if you do not blame Serge for the current situation. We would also like the chance to speak, being the very guardians that you are all arguing over."

"Honestly, none of us want to be the Sacred Tree Guardian anyway. If there's a way to give the crest over to Serge, then we'd be all for it." Greg added, with the others nodding along. Ah, that was certainly another way to go about things. Excellent idea, Greg!

Serge looked at us in complete disbelief before finally finding his voice. "Are you guys serious? You'd actually give up the ownership of your own Sacred Tree to me?"

"We don't particularly need one." Chris pointed out as he adjusted his glasses.

"Besides, we would be hard pressed to find a suitable location to plant a tree that would eventually grow into the size of a mountain." Brad's joke made them chuckle, even Serge was smiling. His father and sister just looked rather stunned though.

"You crazy bastards." Serge muttered while turning away from everyone. If his family would not support him, then it would fall to them to pick up the slack.

"You're our friend now, Serge. We always have our friends' backs." Jilk gave voice to his thoughts. As expected of his best friend. He then added something they all definitely agreed with. "If he was here, I'm sure our other friend, Leon would say the same."

"Leon." The way the Chairman said Leon's name made the five of them glance at each other in uncertainty. Did his reputation already make it all the way out in Alzer as well? It certainly wasn't impossible if the right people knew about it.

"It's the young man I spoke to you about." Louise hissed at her father, making him grimace. Well that was certainly not the kind of reaction he was expecting.

"What's this about?" He finally voiced their confusion. Even Serge was not meeting their eyes, looking away as if he was sulking about something.

"I would like you all to take a look at this photograph." Albergue said, reaching towards a framed picture on his desk and offering it to them. Julius had to blink a few times to make sure that he was not seeing things.

Chris was the first one to snap out of their shock and ask the most relevant question. "Why is there a picture of Leon as a child in the Rault household?"

"That was my son, Leon Sara Rault." The Chairman's son?! He even had the same name! Julius noted that Louise looked rather crestfallen at the mention of the boy. "He would have been your age by now."

Ah, that certainly explained it.

"My condolences." Julius genuinely meant it. He couldn't even imagine what it would have been like for them. His friends also gave their respects before they all took a closer look at the picture.

"The boy looks exactly like our Leon despite being a completely different person. What a fascinating coincidence." Jilk said in clear wonder. The resemblance was definitely quite uncanny. The Rault house would likely have been sent into a panic if Leon had accompanied them in the exchange program.

"Coincidence." He heard Louise say after a scoff. Julius chose not to comment on the strange reaction from the older girl.

"Back to the topic at hand." The Chairman said after they returned his son's photo. "Sadly, there is no record of any instance of the Guardian Crest being transferred to another or rescinded while the current Guardian was still alive. More so, the mere fact that the guardian was chosen before the priestess already upends the traditional order of how things are done."

"Can we just get a full explanation on how all of this is actually supposed to work then?" Greg asked in complete exasperation.

Jilk expounded on the growing confusion and frustration that we were all feeling at that point. "I agree. We do not have a complete picture of what the significance of anything is, preventing us from properly appreciating the severity of it as you all seem to."

Chairman Rault accepted their words with grace and proceeded to educate them about how the process worked. About the legend of the Sacred Tree and how it is renewed through the discovery of Saplings. About how it chooses its caretaker, the Priestess. About how the Priestess chooses its protector, the Guardian. How the specific Priestess and Guardian Crests are more powerful than any of the other ones that the great houses possessed. The way he spoke of it, the Priestess and Guardian could very well be considered as the Queen and King of the Republic.

That did raise a particular question though.

"But wait, if we are the Guardians of the Sapling, where are the Priestess and Guardian of the current Sacred Tree?" The uncomfortable silence that settled following Julius' question did not bode well.

"The previous Priestess and Guardian, along with every single priestess throughout history, hailed from the now destroyed house Lespinasse." Julius hummed at the information. He remembered being taught that house Lespinasse was the primary ally of the Kingdom in the Republic. He also knew about it being destroyed when he was still a child.

The part about the Priestesses originating from that house exclusively was all new information to him though.

"Destroyed? By who?" Brad asked in surprise. He looked at everyone and continued his thought. "If the claim of the power that those two crests hold is true, what could have possibly caused their downfall?"

That was a very good point. Julius narrowed his eyes at how uncomfortable Albergue suddenly looked. Could it be?

"I'm afraid that the details surrounding the fall of house Lespinasse is a matter of State and cannot be divulged to foreigners." He stated diplomatically. A rather stark change in standing from how freely he gave them information earlier.

Albergue definitely had something to do with what happened to house Lespinasse.

"Where does that leave us then? Does that mean that there is a priestess out there just running around in the open?" Greg's question did raise an interesting point.

"It is unknown. The order of selection is out of order so we wouldn't even know where to begin looking." Albergue answered with a shake of his head. He then gestured towards our hands. "For now, I would highly suggest hiding your recent status as guardians."

"I suppose that we will need to start wearing gloves moving forward." Brad stated with a hum while looking at his fragment of the crest. Discussions continued in a more mundane course. Mainly just assurances that what had happened would not sour diplomatic relations between their countries.

"Thank you for speaking to me about this. I shall try to figure out a way to handle the situation that won't cause a war between our nations." The dismissal was pretty obvious, but there was no reason why they needed to point it out.

"If there is anything we can do to help, please ask. I am still the Kingdom's Crown Prince." He said with well practiced ease.

"Thank you, Prince Julius." The Chairman answered with a smile. Before they left, Julius wanted to make sure of one more thing.

"Before we go, may we speak to Serge?" Albergue narrowed his eyes at the request, but nodded his consent. The six of them walked out of the Chairman's home office just as he turned to speak to Miss Louise.

"How are you feeling?" Julius asked Serge when they stepped into a separate empty room. Their friend tried to put up a strong front, but it quickly broke down in the face of their collective concern.

"Like I'm the fucking failure Louise keeps telling me I am." Greg immediately placed a supportive hand on Serge's shoulder when he said that. Julius followed suit, knowing a thing or two about being seen that way thanks to his father.

"Our words earlier were not just for show. We are your friends and allies in this." Julius reminded him. The others nodded in agreement when Serge looked at each of them. "If anyone gives you a hard time for your involvement in the sapling's discovery, then they will contend with all of us."

"Thanks." He finally said with a relieved smile.

"We'll see you at the Academy, alright?" Chris asked, his fist out in an obvious offer.

"Yeah, see you crazy bastards there." Serge answered with a laugh as the six of them bumped their fists together.

…

Marie Fou Bartfort wondered why it was so easy to slip into the routine of being a high school girl again. She didn't particularly enjoy high school back on Earth, she forgot about it and the experiences she had there midway through her University days. Despite all that, chatting and hanging out with Noelle and Jean was just something she ended up doing as a matter of course. It wasn't even really intentional anymore. Was it the atmosphere?

With how the two of them had become closer than mere friends, Marie was certain that Noelle and Jean would end up as lovers. All her observations when she saw the pair huddling together when they thought no one was looking was quite telling. Once that is done, she just had to bring Noelle to the Sapling they now had and she would-

"You okay there, Rie?" Noelle called her attention using the nickname she insisted on. "You look like you swallowed a bug."

Marie couldn't just tell her that her five lovers, one of whom was the Crown Prince of Holfort, had become the Guardians of the Sacred Tree Sapling. What would happen once Noelle did become the Priestess? Did that mean that she would have to marry one of the five to secure the Good End of the second game?

The most obvious candidate was Julius because of his status. That would bind Holfort and Alzer in marriage and would probably end up being beneficial for everyone involved.

Marie chose not to think about the ugly feeling the thought brought about in her chest.

They were all nothing but children, she told herself, including the two who were looking at her with growing concern.

"I was just thinking about a rumor going around that the two of you have been sneaking around by yourselves." Marie turned the conversation around on the two teenagers with a smirk. Deflect and cover, just like always.

Don't let them see what was inside.

Never let anyone see what was inside.

No one would accept it.

No one ever had before.

As expected, the pair looked alarmed and made eyes at each other. Ah, so they were already at the phase where they could already have conversations with just eye contact. Excellent!

"Rie's a friend, we can trust her." Noelle assured her obvious boyfriend with a pat on his arm. Jean looked a bit hesitant and nodded. Oh? Were they finally going to tell her that they were together now?

"So listen," Noelle excitedly started while gently elbowing Jean's side, making him blush. These two were just adorable. "I've actually been helping Jean here use all your advice so he could ask his crush from the Third Year out on a date, and he finally succeeded!"

What?

"It was touch and go for a bit, but I just remembered all that talk about finding a girl who was worth overcoming my fear of being rejected for." Jean shyly stated, while Noelle just gave the boy a thumbs up. "Honestly, I was surprised at how easy it was. I was just upfront and honest about my interest and she said yes."

Who said yes?!

"Well, Rie also said that asking the girl out is the easy part. Making sure you don't mess up the date itself will be harder." Noelle lectured, repeating some of the things she said to them to hint how he should act once he was dating his friend. "But you should be fine with all the tips Marie gave you."

This wasn't why she gave that advice!

"That is true. Thank you Marie, I never would have even thought about asking her out if you didn't say all that stuff about regretting missed opportunities." Jean just continued to hammer the truth that he had used all her tips and tricks in order to ask out a girl who wasn't Noelle!

"So, who is this lucky girl then?" Marie asked with a big smile she used to hide her panic and loathing behind.

"Her name is Emma. Her family runs a local bakery that I frequent with Elle." Jean told her with a smile of his own. Marie was sure that his dog, who shared a name with Noelle so they just call her Elle, helped in convincing whoever that Emma was to go out on a date with him.

Oh god, everything was spiraling out of control! The girl who had half the chance to become the Priestess is still single when the Sapling was already on the board! What else could go wrong now?!

As if answering her question, another person walked up to them and spoke up. "I see that you're having fun there, Noelle."

"You don't have to say it like that, Lelia." Noelle tiredly responded. Marie took a look at the newcomer and immediately knew who she was. How could she not? She looked like a palette swapped version of her friend. Lelia Beltre looked exactly like Noelle, but her hair was pink instead of blonde. They both even had side tails, though Lelia had her tied on the left side while Noelle had hers tied on the right. If they fused together, you'd get the girl that Marie saw on the poster of the second game.

"Hello Lelia." Jean greeted the pink Beltre sister.

"Jean." Wow, talk about dismissiveness. She then turned to Marie and raised an eyebrow. "And you are?"

"Marie Fou Bartfort. I'm an exchange student from Holfort." Marie introduced herself with a smile. It seemed that the other twin was a lot less friendly in general.

"Listen to this, Lelia!" Noelle excitedly started to tell the story of Jean's recent success with women. "Marie is awesome! She managed to get Jean to finally ask out Miss Emma on a date and she accepted!"

"I see. Good for you, Jean." She really didn't like the mild mannered boy, huh?

"Thank you." At least Jean didn't seem so offended by it. Or was it that he was just used to the way the pink one treated him.

"Speaking of dates. You should just follow my advice and give Loic a chance. He's obviously a good match for you." Marie tensed up at the pink one's words. Noelle winced and made it obvious what she thought about that idea.

Marie finally decided to smoothly insert herself into the conversation. "A bit of a high bar to go after an heir to a great house."

"Why not? I'm dating Emile." The pink one pointed out before waving a hand at her sister. "It will be easy for Noelle since Loic is already interested in her."

"Well, I'm not interested in him. Why do you keep pushing him on me?" Noelle grumbled and it looked like this was a conversation that already happened before.

"Because it's for your own good. He's perfect for you." Marie couldn't help but snort at the pink one's assertions.

"That's a pretty tone deaf thing to say. Are you sure you two are twins?" She said with a mocking smile.

The pink one narrowed her eyes at her even as she spoke. "Stay out of this. This is between me and my sister."

"Your sister can decide who she can love for herself." Marie firmly stated. Who did this bitch think she was?!

"Please stop arguing!" Noelle suddenly spoke out and stood to her feet. She then grabbed the pink one and started to lead her away.

"Thanks for standing up for me, Rie. I really appreciate it." Noelle told her with a smile before pulling her sister to another part of the Academy. "Come on, Lelia! Let's talk about this somewhere else."

"She won't be happy with Loic." Marie finally said once the twins were gone.

"No, but Lelia is strangely insistent on it." At least Jean didn't seem blind to how bad a pick that one was. He then took on a thoughtful expression. "Loic wasn't even that bad during our first year. He was a pretty genuine guy."

Marie narrowed her eyes and leaned towards Jean. "What changed?"

"I'm not sure. I do recall that he was just following the advice of someone close." Of course someone else caused this garbage to happen. Marie looked back in the direction where the twins went and scowled.

Dammit! Why did she have to work around a shitty sister too?

Didn't she have any self-awareness?!