Any hopes that Fie might have had for a somewhat normal return to guild life died a miserable horrible death as she gazed upon the stupid grin of her annoying older sister figure. "Shut up, Sara." She stated even before the older woman opened her mouth, causing the former instructor to pout.

"Where's everyone else?" Rean asked, causing her to shoot him a fierce glare. He still wasn't forgiven for his horrific betrayal and by asking Sara a question he was giving her permission to speak, which was the absolute last thing that she wanted.

"Oh, did we not mention it last night? Yeah... So Toval, Schera, and I figured that we all needed a vacation, and since our favorite rising stars were coming back today, we decided to take them all at once! Me, being the kind person I am, decided to stick around and keep the guild open until the two of you decided to show up."

Her already low opinion of Erebonia's most senior bracers sunk to a new low. "What's the point of keeping all of you around if you're that useless?"

"Schera and I are gonna be spending the week in Raquel. It's gonna be awesome. Toval is off to visit his lady friend in Arteria. Oh and just so you know..." Sara continued, completely ignoring her complaint. "This technically makes you the highest ranking bracer in all of Erebonia until we get back, so you're in charge of... everything, I guess."

"Seriously? This sucks!" Her already miserable day was clearly reaching a new low that she didn't even think was possible. "You guys are so lazy!"

Rean, however, was not so certain. "Maybe, but that's not all there is to it, is it? I can definitely see you being lazy, and Schera seems to be of a similar mold..." Said person slumped at being called lazy by her favorite student. "but Toval wouldn't choose to leave at the same time as you without a reason..." The pieces were all there and it only took a second for Rean to reach a conclusion. "This is training for Fie to handle the extra duties of an A-Rank bracer, isn't it?"

Fie shot a disbelieving look to her partner for his observation before turning back to her mentor. Sara, for her part, merely shrugged with a ghost of a smile on her face. "Who knows?" She asked, trying to be mysterious.

"Wait, that means I have to do paperwork?" This deal just sounded worse and worse by the minute!

"Among other things. The receptionists at all the branch locations will handle their own duties, but many of their decisions will need your approval. Keeping track of the junior bracers will also be one of your duties, as will making sure the weekly report gets sent up to HQ on time. But not to worry, I'm sure your precious boyfriend will help you out. Well, assuming he still is after last night. Hard to tell. Am I your lover now? Don't think I will ever forget that intimate moment we shared for as long as I live..."

Said girl groaned. She knew that Sara was going to bring it up at some point, but it didn't make it any easier to deal with.

Fortunately, rescue came from a most unexpected source. "I agree. You never forget your first kiss, do you?"

Both women turned their eyes to the speaker. "Wha-" Sara muttered dumbly at Rean's insinuation before coloring in anger. "That's not true at all! I've kissed plenty of people before!"

That much was probably true, but to hear such a burn from the lips of Rean was surprising as hell. Fie was mentally kicking herself for not making that comment first, but blamed the awful day for having ruined her mental capacity. Stuff like that might end up getting Rean bed privileges back. Maybe.

"You say that, but I've never seen you with another person. Sorry for stealing your first kiss in a drunken haze that I don't remember and means absolutely nothing to me."

Sara spluttered frantically as she glanced between the two of them. "...I hate you kids so much." She accepted the loss with all the grace and dignity that could be expected from Sara Valestein, which was practically none at all. Still, after a minute the older woman perked up. "Oh well. Enjoy the paperwork, Fie. I'll be thinking of you while I'm partying at the casino tonight! Toodles!"

"Well this sucks." She grumbled after Sara successfully made her escape. The girl now in charge curiously made her way to the back and began inspecting the work left behind.

"Do you even know how to handle all the stuff she said?" Rean asked as he followed behind.

"Uh huh. Toval showed me most of it last year. It's boring work, but most of it is pretty easy."

Others might have been surprised, but not Rean. He knew just how intelligent Fie was, even if she wasn't one to show it off. He remembered her scoring 72nd on the midterms despite having no formal education, and doing even better on the finals after the Civil War. If she said that she could handle the administrative work forced upon her he believed her. That being said... "Well I was an instructor for two years, so I should be able to help out a bit." If nothing else he was the next one down on the bracer rankings, so he suspected he would get stuck with this work after Fie got her promotion, so learning now would be preferable to being forced to learn on the job.

"Mmm... I'm counting on you." Fie agreed easily enough. If Rean was able to help her get through this week of hell she would actually forgive him for his previous transgressions. Forgive, but not forget, however. Never forget. Some sins were destined to remain for all eternity. "Thankfully it looks like Toval handled all the morning work so we should be fine until tonight."

Given how late they were in arriving that day tonight wasn't all that far off, but they still had a few hours to kill. "What do you want to do now?" He asked her curiously.

"...I wanna kill something." An alarming answer if someone took it out of context, but honestly? It was exactly what he expected the moody girl to say. "Anything good on the board? Maybe a cryptid or a stray Aion to be taken out?"

He sweatdropped at the absurd request, but looked over the available requests anyways. "Nothing that exciting, I'm afraid. A few monster exterminations available, will they suffice?"

"I guess so..." Her lack of enthusiasm was obvious, but it would hopefully be enough to sate her need for wanton violence and get her mind away from the worst twenty-four hours in existence. At least for a little bit. "At least I still have the keys to the bike..."

"Just don't kill me, please?"

"If I do, it's only because you deserved it." Not the answer he was hoping for, but probably the one he should have been expecting. With a sigh he grabbed the mission requests and followed his partner out of the door and to work for the first time in a while.


Although none of the monsters were truly dangerous, the multiple requests they completed was enough for Fie to let out some of her pent up aggression. Watching her literally punch a monster twice her size to death was a bit worrisome. And kinda exciting, although Rean would never admit it out loud. Now feeling a little better the two returned to the guild branch on Alto Street. That good feeling died a tragic death when she remembered what the evening would entail.

Luckily, as she had told Rean earlier that day, the work itself wasn't hard at all and honestly wasn't even that time consuming. It was just tedious. Most of what she had to do that evening was compile the reports from all the Erebonian branch guilds into one singular report to be sent to the headquarters in Leman State.

Fortunately, she had a secret weapon that none of the others had been privy to: Rean Schwarzer. All that time spent working for the student council and as an instructor was really paying dividends as his ability to sort, organize, and find information was second to none. And best of all? In an attempt to get back in her good graces he did it all with vigor and no complaints. Belatedly she realized that she was playing the role of Towa and wondered if the former student council president also enjoyed having such a loyal minion around to do her dirty work.

Still, despite the fact that the job wasn't hard or long, it was still mind numbingly dull. Paperwork would never be her thing. But she would endure it. One day she would reach A-Rank and could delegate the job to Rean for the rest of eternity. Or at least until he found someone capable of doing it, but the drop off from him to the next highest Erebonian bracer was a steep one indeed.

After an hour or so the two heroes made their exit. Since it was later then they had anticipated they decided to forego any cooking and stopped at a food stall in the capital before beginning the trip back to Trista. There she would be forced to make her hardest decision of the day.

"Alright, after careful deliberation I have decided that you have, in fact, been a good boy today. So I will let you sleep on the bed tonight."

"...I didn't realize this was up for debate. Also, please don't treat me like a dog."

"And just like that you've lost your treat for the night. Keep talking and I'll change my mind and you can sleep on the couch."

Her threat didn't seem to land as he just shook his head with amusement. "I've said it before. It doesn't really work when we don't own a couch. Maybe we should go pick one up... Or perhaps a bench from outside would better suit your tastes?" The withering glare she sent him could have scared off an Enforcer. Rean just laughed before raising his hands in mock surrender. "Fine, fine. No benches for Fie."

"Listen here you big jerk! Today has been awful. From the very second I woke up until now it has been one thing after another! I don't need to hear it from you! So we're gonna change, go to bed, and you can resume your role as my favorite pillow! Got it?"

"Sure, sure". An early night didn't sound too bad to him either, so he had no real complaints. Still, after changing he couldn't resist the urge to fire one final shot. "So are you going to check those missed calls tonight or not?" He definitely deserved the ensuing shove, but thankfully the bed was there to catch his fall. Those moments where he could tease his beloved Fie weren't all that common, so he had to take advantage of them when he could. And even as she sent a baleful glare at him as she followed him onto the bed he knew there was no real heat behind it. She might get even at a later date, but that was fine by him. For now she was dead serious when she said she wanted to use him as her pillow, and that was completely fine with him.


The next day began in a far calmer manner to the previous one. No painful hangovers, no horrific videos of despair, no Sara dropping painful bombs on her lap. Just a busy morning as the two young bracers readied themselves for the day ahead, knowing they needed to be there early for a change. Fie, never one to enjoy early mornings, was far less lively in those early hours. On the plus side it meant that Rean was able to secure the bike before his insane partner could consider the idea of it for herself.

Fie's morning task at the guild was to go through all the requests that had been brought in by the locals and sort them by difficulty and priority. While Heimdallr was mostly a hub for the most senior bracers to deploy throughout the country given the central location and relative safety of the capital, there were still a few younger bracers around to handle most of the simple requests offered by the citizens of the metropolis. It was her job to make sure those requests were made available while anything of a higher difficulty or of a more sensitive nature were reserved for the more experienced members, which at the moment was basically just her and Rean.

Once finished the two decided to wait around for a bit. Technically they didn't need to stick around as the members in the capital knew there was no receptionist in either building and thus could come and go as they pleased, but given it was their first morning in charge Fie understandably wanted to make sure everything operated smoothly.

Fortunately, they did the work correctly and everything ran smoothly that morning. The other bracers were certainly happy to see the two of them back at the guild, and especially happy to see Rean back in good health, but none of them stuck around for too long. With the administrative work finished the duo proceeded to grab their own missions for the day. There wasn't much specifically requiring the skilled touch of an elite bracer, so they mostly picked from the dregs of what everyone else left behind.

While the missions weren't anything important, both of them enjoyed doing the simple things like finding lost cats and missing wallets. Simple tasks that brought them back to the days of their field studies. Unfortunately, they came with unexpected consequences for the pair.

This was the first time the Ashen Chevalier and Sylphid were walking about in public, after all.

To say that the reception at those who saw them was excited would be an understatement. She had thought the reception to the news that they were hitched was bad, but this was at least a dozen times worse. Seeing Erebonia's number one darling hero walking around after his ordeal, having only survived thanks to Erebonia's newest and most exciting hero at his side? That was just too much for some people.

Rean handled it like he always did, with the same awkward cordiality he had been using for years. She however was not prepared for it and for the first time since the Great Twilight felt completely overwhelmed by everything going on around them. Fortunately Rean must have noticed her plight as he gamely took control of the situation getting some of the heat off of her. If she hadn't already forgiven him for his past transgressions such a sacrifice would have done it in a heartbeat, even if she was normally against him sacrificing himself for the sake of others.

"Vivi is so dead." She grumbled after they managed to extricate themselves from yet another group of well-wishers.

"I'm sure the excitement will die down... a little bit." His attempts to calm her down were not very successful at all, based on the unimpressed look she shot him.

She groaned before running a hand through her hair. "Aidios, I'm gonna regret asking this, but did those stupid fake glasses you used to wear help at all?"

"Actually, yes! Or at least they did at first. I think too many people recognize my face for it to work now, though."

"Think it could work for me?"

He envisioned it. Fie wearing glasses was cute. Unfortunately... "Probably not. Not many people have hair like you do so I doubt they would be fooled. Plus, given how much we're together it's pretty easy for most people to put the pieces together..."

She scowled. "Bah. You're useless."

"It's not that bad. It's kinda nice that so many people are happy to see us well, right?"

"You might be more convincing if you didn't look so pained while saying that."

"...Let's just finish up here."


The next couple of days fell into something of a routine. Go in a bit early, do whatever administrative work was needed, spend most of the day doing missions, and finish it up by closing the guild in the evening. They were long days, but it felt nice being back in the swing of things after so long.

It was on the fifth day that someone unusual occurred. The two had successfully managed the morning rush and were now relaxing a bit before picking some missions of their own. That was when the door opened and two figures stepped in.

Both were girls, and quite young at that. Sixteen or seventeen, perhaps? They strode through the door with confidence, but both experienced bracers could see the telltale hints of nervousness as they looked around curiously before their gazes settled upon the two occupants of the room.

"That's Sylphid!" The girl with short blonde hair whispered in awe to her companion, but loud enough so that the sharp senses of the girl in question and her partner heard every word of it.

Her friend with long black hair appeared calmer, but no less awe-struck. "And that must be the Ashen Chevalier!"

"Um." Rean began lamely. "Is there something we can help you with?" Technically it was Fie's job to greet people when they arrived at the guild, but she was not the most sociable of people even on a good day, so he took that task upon himself.

"Ahem!" Coughed the first girl before standing up straight as she focused her attention on the two seniors. "I'm Kay and this is Celica. We want to become bracers!"

The two Class VII members exchanged a glance. People wanting to become bracers was nothing new as recruitment numbers had gone up after Rean had joined, but this was the first time it happened while they were in charge. "I have no idea what we're supposed to do." Fie whispered so that only Rean could hear her.

"Me neither." That really wasn't a surprise. Due to their previous exploits neither of them had to take any sort of tests before being accepted into the guild, and Rean even managed to skip the junior rank entirely. "I guess we just improvise?"

"Mmm." Fie made an agreeable noise. While they didn't know the official process, they had witnessed enough prospective bracers coming and going to at least have a general idea of what they needed to do.

Realizing that the two enthusiastic looking girls were starting to look awkward as the two bracers whispered, Rean was the first to speak to them. "Welcome! I'm Rean and this is Fie. We're senior bracers. You say you want to join the guild?" Two nods answered him. "Well, uh. I guess my first question is do either of you have combat training?" Technically a lack of training wasn't a disqualifying thing, but having it was usually a good sign of their resolve and skill.

And if he had to hazard a guess, the weapons they both possessed made him think that they did. While he wasn't as much of an expert on firearms as Fie was, even he could tell that the orbal pistol at Kay's hip wasn't new and even looked like it had some custom work done on it. Celica's weapon was even more apparent, as the large spear strapped to her back was impossible to hide. It looked like a traditional Erebonian spear and not the cross-shaped spear that Gaius and the warriors of Nord were fond of using.

"I do." Replied the calm looking black-haired girl as she held her spear in front of her body. "My mother trained in the Schleiden school and passed down most of her training to me. I'm only beginner level, but I hope that will suffice."

"Unlike Celica, I don't really have any formal training, but I have been practicing with this for many years." Kay said, patting the pistol at her hip. "Dad gave it to me for protection during the civil war and I like to think I've become a decent shot since then."

Fie looked suitably impressed. "Not bad at all. So I guess I need to ask, why do you want to become bracers in the first place?"

"Why wouldn't we? Bracers are heroes! We both live in Sutherland so we've grown up hearing all about the exploits of the guild. Everything from the incident in Liberl to your actions last month. And while the Ashen Chevalier wasn't a bracer during the civil war or great war, the fact you joined right after makes it clear that it's a noble path to take!"

"We have no delusions of saving the world like you two did," Celica followed her friend's speech. "but we think we can at least help others out. We want to follow in your footsteps so we can protect the ones that matter most to us, just like you did."

Rean had expected Fie to retreat in the face of such praise, as she normally did when someone approached the duo, but she didn't. While she looked about as embarrassed as he expected, there was also a hint of something else. She almost seemed happy. It didn't take long for him to realize why: These two girls wanted to become bracers because of her and imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. This praise was genuine and that actually struck home for her.

Still, it didn't look like she was capable of responding in that moment, so he stepped up for her. "Well, it certainly seems like the two of you have the right mindset to be bracers, and with your prior training I got a good feeling about the two of you. Think we should give them a combat test?" While neither of them had experienced such a test themselves, having earned the right to skip it thanks to their exploits as Class VII, they at least knew that one should be administered.

"Huh? Oh... right." Fie muttered as she recovered from her thoughts. "I don't suppose either of you have orbments?" Two shakes of the head answered her question. "Damnit... I have no idea where Toby and Sara keep the spares. Sorry, but the usual people in charge aren't here for a few more days so you may need to come back later..."

They look disheartened and Rean felt bad for them, but like Fie he had no idea where the spares were kept. They both already had their ARCUS units when they joined the guild, after all... Oh. "Actually, Fie, I have an idea. Go over everything with them and I'll be back in about thirty minutes, okay?"

She appeared confused, but trusted him enough to nod her head in agreement before she followed his instructions. For his part he was quickly out the door and on his orbal bike. To beat the time he set for himself he drove off at speeds that would have made Fie proud. It wasn't long before the swordsman was back at their home in Trista, where he quickly retrieved the items he set out for before making the return trip.

Fie and the two girls were still where he left them and so he moved over to the nearest table and set three objects down. A small bag and two battered old orbments bearing the crest of the horned lion on them.

"Oh, I see!" Fie exclaimed as realization set in.

"Yeah. Our old ARCUS I orbments and plenty of quartz for them to use." He had removed most of their high level quartz as that was a terrible idea to offer beginners. "Sorry that these aren't as good as the ARCUS II units you will be getting if you're accepted into the guild and aren't configured to your specializations, but you can borrow these until we can get them for you."

If he was worried that they might not like being given older model orbments, he was woefully mistaken. "The original orbments of the Ashen Chevalier and Sylphid?" Kay muttered in awe. "It's a great honor!"

"We'll take good care of these." Her partner muttered, equally as awe-struck.

"Were you able to figure something out for their test?" He asked as he approached the young woman in charge of everything.

"Uh-huh." Her reply was for his ears only. "Gonna send them down one of the underground passages and at the end will be a surprise that Estelle told me about."


Rean couldn't help but sweatdrop as the two waited at the exit where the two potential recruits should be arriving at eventually. "Do we really need to do this?"

"Yup. It's a great final test."

"I know, but this..." He made a gesture towards himself.

Her idea, supposedly one used in the training grounds of Le Locle, was for the two to pretend to be jaegers and engage the others in a mock battle to see how they fare when they thought they were truly in danger. Of course they would be holding back considerably, but the two would still have to earn their win.

His problem wasn't with her idea itself, but in the way she chose to execute it. Or more specifically, the outfits she had chosen for the two to wear. On one hand he understood that they didn't have much time so Fie's options were somewhat limited when they quickly swung by Le Sage's Boutique, but why did she have him dress up like the kind of guy one might find in the seedier areas of Crossbell or Raquel? He wore a face mask to hide his identify, but it only served to make him look even more absurd. Her explanation that jaegers often dressed in more casual outfits when working undercover made sense, but did he really have to wear this awful attire?

Her outfit wasn't much better, but it was certainly more pleasing in his eyes. Like him she also covered her face, with her disguise having a hat to conceal her long silver hair and a scarf to cover her face. Those two things comprised the majority of the clothing on her, actually. Her excuse was that a lot of female jaegers tended to wear very little, and he knew that was true from Shirley, and yet...

Damnit, he couldn't look away! Where did she even find an outfit that was almost entirely straps anyways? Her modesty was covered... barely. It was a fortunate thing that both of the new recruits were girls as he would have been forced to take more drastic measures to ensure nobody gazed upon her if they had been men.

"Stop staring. They should be here soon." She didn't even have to look in his direction to know he was gazing her way. Despite the warning, she appeared more amused than anything. "And plus, I think you look positively amazing. And hilarious. Mostly hilarious, actually."

"Very funny, Fie." Of course she would take enjoyment in his humiliation. "But at least tell me why you left your gunblades behind, but still told me to bring my tachi?" Leaving the weapons behind made sense as their armaments would have been a clear giveaway. "I can hold back a lot, but it's still gonna be pretty obvious when they see me using it."

"That's 'cause you aren't gonna be using it. I am. Hand it over."

Her idea made sense, and yet... "What am I going to use?" Still, he didn't hesitate to comply with her request as he set about unbuckling the belt holding his sword and sheathe before passing it along.

"You always brag about your unarmed training, so go use that." Her disinterest in his question was plainly obvious as she was far more engaged in putting on his sheathe. Happily she drew his blade. "Roar, look at me, the Ashen Chevalier! Cower in terror at my cheesy speeches and overly dramatic sword techniques! Class VII will prevail yet again!" With no reply forthcoming she pouted. "Tough crowd."

"...I don't sound like that."

She shook her head emphatically. "You totally do! We even had a bet going when we attacked the Empyreal Fortress on how many times you would say the phrase 'Class VII'. Ash won a pretty good amount of mira that day."

"That's a lie." Rean countered with confidence. Said confidence took a hit when from what little he could see of her face hinted that her grin had only grown. "That's a lie... right?"

She was about to answer when they both sensed two presences slowly approaching. The conversation, while not forgotten (at least in Rean's mind), was put on hold for the time being as the two prepared to assume their roles.


The four made their way back to the guild office after the conclusion of their little charade. The battle itself wasn't all that interesting, but it was good enough for Fie. If she had to place a value on their skills it would probably be around the level of Rean when they arrived at Thors that first day, maybe a little lower. That made sense considering while both had decent martial training neither of them had gone through the intense training that Laura had or had her own battlefield experience.

Still, unlike the two girls who dominated the early combat classes that year these two actually worked quite well together. Celica had a very defensive fighting style which she used to protect Kay while the latter sniped away at her opponents with solid precision. There was plenty of room for improvement, but it was easily a passing grade in Fie's eyes and if Sara or Toval wanted to complain about it later that was their own damn fault for skipping town.

The two girls had been slightly miffed when they found out that the entire encounter had been one giant prank, and even more so when they realized just how much their opponents had been holding back, but all that ill will had passed when Fie announced that they had passed this little test. This meant more annoying paperwork in her immediate future, but for once she wasn't against the idea. It was kinda fun being in charge of the next gener-

"Oh, Aidios!" She muttered, horrified, as she walked alongside her partner.

Which caused him to sigh. Clearly he didn't think her plight was serious, that fool. "And what is it now?" He muttered tiredly.

"I'm turning into you. I'm! Turning! Into! Sara! I don't want to get old, Rean! Help!"

And now he was looking at her like she was a total idiot. "You only just turned twenty. That's the exact opposite of old, you know? And plus, what's wrong with getting older? We promised each other we would get old together, right? I promise I will always love you, even when we are old and crusty." The one-armed hug he gave her was nice. A shame he had to ruin it as he grabbed onto a strand of her silver hair. "Although it kind of looks like your hair is starting to turn gray in a few spots-"

The pain he felt after she righteously stomped on his foot was nothing compared to the amusement he received from that interaction. With an indignant huff the ancient twenty year old hag turned and walked away.

Celica and Kay shared a bemused look as they trailed behind the two, realizing that Erebonia's most famous couple was nothing at all like how the papers portrayed them as. Still, their heroes were human and that only made them better in their eyes.


Rean S: This is probably a stupid question, but Fie was telling me about a bet you guys had going on at the end of the Great Twilight. That was just Fie being Fie, right?

Alisa R: You told him!?

Fie C: oops

Elliot C: I uh... I need to go prepare for my next concert.

Gaius W: The wind is calling to me, be right back.

Kurt V: Sorry, but it's time for sword practice.

Juna C: elie is calling for me, brb

Laura A: HOW DO I EVEN TYPE?

Crow A: Lmao look at all you guys running away. Of course we did. It was fun!

Ash C: Your shitty speeches won me a ton of mira, so thanks for that.

Rean S: Seriously, and you all participated in it?

Jusis A: I had no intention of participating in something so juvenile, but a certain vengeful spirit wouldn't leave me alone.

Millium O: thats not how i remember it! you were all "i must defeat regnitz!"

Jusis A: Shush you, and for the love of Aidios please learn how to type.

Machias R: And yet as I recall my guess was the closer one in the end. Suck it, Albarea!

Emma M: Don't be upset, Rean. It was all in good fun. I think your speeches are quite inspiring.

Musse E: And they make you look all dashing and sexy, if I do say so myself.

Fie C:

Altina O: While I certainly do not agree with Musse, I do often find your ridiculous speeches to be quite entertaining.

Sara V: How about it Rean, wanna hit us with a nice speech for old time's sake?!

Fie C: I hate ever agreeing with sara, but thats a good idea.

Millium O: speech!

Crow A: Speech!

Juna C: Speech!

Rean S: I hate you all so much.

Rean S has gone offline

Fie C: lmao he's all red and pouting

Gaius W: So Fie, I noticed you haven't replied to my message. Are you going to tell us about what happened on your birthday?

Fie C has gone offline

Sara V: hahahahaha

Elliot C: I'm kinda glad she left. I want to forget about everything that happened that night...

Emma M: Me too!

Machias R: Please.

Alisa R: Seems like everyone agrees to that idea except our beloved instructor...

Jusis A: Makes sense, that's probably the most intense evening she has had in a decade.

Sara V: HEY!

Ash C: Holy shit dude.