Five Years Prior to the Fifty Years' War
A cold rain poured down on Magic City Gariland, like the tears of heaven coming to drown the earth in its sorrow. Balbanes looked out one of the windows of the Gariland Academy, his long blonde hair tied back in a rather messy, hastily made ponytail. The young man was somewhat scrawny compared to some of the other aristocratic sons at the Academy, though his body hinted at agility and grace that was untapped in his relaxed state. The sound of fighting amongst the students came from behind him, likely arguments over who would be the best knight out of all of them when they joined the Hokuten or which girl in Gariland looked cutest. Balbanes shut these conversations out of his deep thinking, contemplating on the courses he had taken today for his advancement towards knighthood, knowing that he had been placed into the Academy in part so that some of the more highly placed nobles would be able to call him a failure and expel him. While such conversations were amusing at times, he had to focus on remaining within Gariland Academy rather than being sent back to his home with nothing but the weight of failure. Balbanes was only twelve years old and, while his parents made the move to have him sent to Gariland's famous knight academy, they likely hoped to have him out of the way so that the elder sons could inherit the Beoulve legacy.
Mavoul Beoulve, his father, was often bedridden due to an illness that only the most powerful of clerics would be able to cure. Unfortunately, his family's political clout wasn't able to obtain the help of these clerics, only able to afford the help of lesser clerics who only kept the illness at bay and for great cost to the family. They were often among the lowest of the nobles in riches, striving both to raise the elder sons and daughters to marry into more powerful families and strength the Beoulve name while trying to keep Mavoul's illness at bay. It was a difficult struggle between life as a noble and life near the paupers most of the time. Then, the day Balbanes turned twelve, he was sent off to Gariland Academy to be trained to be a Hokuten Knight. For generations, a Beoulve served the royal family in the Hokuten knights, even the now bed-ridden Mavoul. For this, even though they were not greatly respected among the other nobles, they received the gratitude and occasional support of the royal family, who knew of the services that the Beoulves gave.
It was this support that allowed them to get Balbanes into the most prestigious academy in Ivalice, though it pained his mother to send him away to it. It was a family tradition for each male son to be sent to the Gariland Academy upon coming to the age of twelve, so that they would be trained to serve the Hokuten and Ivalice. So now, he found himself training to be a squire, learning among the most famous knights from Ivalice and beyond, for it was a peaceful time without anything more than the rumor of struggles. They were more likely skirmishes with bandits on the frontiers, no big problem to the people of the major cities.
Balbanes was suddenly pushed to the side, his squire uniform scraped harshly across the cold stone wall. The young boy turned around to face the person he now found himself struggling with, his practice sword gripped tightly at his side. He found himself staring at the face of an older student, one from a more powerful noble family. The kid pushed Balbanes back against the stone roughly, a rather malicious grin on his face as his friends came up behind him, while the other children turned their eyes away from the fight at hand, knowing that the struggle was a part of everyday life in Gariland Academy."Beoulve! What are ya doin' in this academy! Did daddy pull some strings to get ya in here, ya little brat? Or did he sell his soul to Lucavi?" The bully starts to laugh with his friends as they surrounded the younger Balbanes and gripped wooden practice swords from the sparring yards. The leader of the gang of bullies closed in on Balbanes and looked the younger kid straight in the eyes, meeting fear and justice with a cruel gaze. "You won't survive here kid! You're too weak, just like your daddy!"
As Balbanes opened his mouth to curse the bully and his ways, the leader of the band of hooligans is knocked to the side by the swift strike of a practice sword from another student, only a bit older than Balbanes. The other students striked out at this new opposition to their band, finding themselves faced against a skilled swordsman who met wooden blade with wooden blade in mock combat. The new student swung his blade out to smash one of the bullies with the flat of the blade, the bully falling to the ground with a red mark on his face for his troubles. As the newcomer is forced to back up against the strikes of multiple blades, Balbanes took his blade to smash into the back of the lead bully's knee and the bully is sent tumbling to the ground before the other boy, a wooden sword put to his face. The bullies regrouped themselves in panic and, with muttered curses and oathes of vengence, stumbled out of the room to recoup their losses.
"I saw those kids picking on you... so I thought I'd help out! I'm Orlandu Cidafalos. Ya can call me Cid." the newcomer said in crisp, enthusiastic fashion, looking over to a somewhat stunned Balbanes. He had heard of the Cidafalos family, who were like the Beoulves in that they had a tradition of joining a knighthood, in this case the Nanten Knights. However, the Cidafalos family was much more famous than the Beoulve family, being among the more powerful noble families.
"I-I'm Balbanes Beoulve. Nice to meet you too." Balbanes replied, a bit shakily at first, surprised at the help he had received from one of the more powerful nobles, who generally had a tendency to pick on him. "So why did you help me out?"
"I don't think that somebody should be treated differently because of just rank... it isn't right, you know?" He looked out the window at the pouring rain,and the black skies seemed to swirl around before the two before it starts to clear. "So how about we become friends... I don't know many people this far west and you seem to need a good friend. It works out for both of us!"
"Sure! I'd be glad to have you as my friend!" Balbanes replied happily, a somewhat childish grin on his face now to match the grin of the older Cid.
"Good. Now let's get out of here before we get yelled at for striking another student." Cid said calmly, before he started a brisk pace towards the library of the Academy. Balbanes stopped for a bit in somewhat stunned amazement at the course his first day had taken before he followed after Cid, having decided to follow after this new friendship and whatever path his life might take him.