[19th day of Great Tree Moon, Imperial Year 1180]

It was a brisk, early morning in the lands surrounding the Garreg Mach Monastery. While the wind still gave out frigid chills, the air was beginning to grow warmer and the fertile soil growing malleable as Spring slowly came into bloom. Within a short time, farmers will be able to sow their seeds across the vast seeds of Tailtean and Gronder, hunters will find fresh game to bring home, and the flora will spring back to life en masse. In short, it was what most folks would call an ordinary Great Tree Moon day.

There was something special about today, however. Today marks the beginning of an abundant amount of traffic passing through surrounding villages. As explained in the introduction, Garreg Mach Monastery is host to two organizations: The Church of Seiros and the Officer's Academy. Within less than a week, the Officer's Academy will begin its two-hundredth school year, which means hundreds of students from all across Fódlan, commoner and noble alike, have finally begun arriving after days or even weeks of travel. Many young nobles will have arrived with their own troop of soldiers on standby, ready to protect their lieges at a moment's notice. Most commoner students will have either arrived together on shared carriages or simply traveled on foot to their destination.

Krillin Chastain, however, wasn't most commoners. If anything, he was in a situation most commoners could only dream of being in. See, the tuition fee for a year at the Officer's Academy was nothing short of through-the-roof. While noble students could obviously pay it off without much issue, the same can't be said for students of lesser social standings, much less someone with the heritage Krillin had. Having an Almyran mother and a Leicester father created a lot of issues for the young man growing up and to anyone who saw him, it would have seemed impossible for him to even get to the monastery's front gates, let alone enroll at the academy with a paid tuition.

And yet here he was, sitting within a well-guarded carriage and only half of a day's trip away from the almost-millennia-old abbey! Seeing the building and the surrounding mountains off in the near-distance…It all seemed so unreal, but a pinch to the cheek reminded the half-Almyran that it very much was.

"I'm guessing you've never seen anything like this before, have you Krillin?"

And Krillin's situation was thanks to the voice's source sitting across from him; a peculiar noble by the name of Claude von Riegan, heir to House Riegan of the Leicester Alliance. Now, if you saw him and Krillin standing side-by-side without context, you'd likely think they weren't even acquaintances, much less good friends. But that couldn't be further from the truth.

Keep in mind that these guys aren't childhood friends, but rather they've known each other for about a year and a half now. When they first met, Claude had only been recently declared House Riegan's legitimate heir. At the time, the young noble had decided he should do a quick journey of the lands within the Leceister Alliance. He and Krillin met while visiting the latter's home, the trading town of Maurin and after a little incident regarding some bandits, the two hit it off surprisingly well. Well enough for Claude to suggest that the commoner should come enroll at the Officer's Academy with him.

The bandit story will have to wait another day, but as a result of that and a little bit of convincing with Duke Riegan, Krillin will soon become a new student of the prestigious academy located right at the heart of Fódlan. Now back to the conversation at hand…

"It's huge! I'd heard stories about the place from my father, but I didn't think it'd be this big!"

"Haha! Yeah, well, we're going to have to get used to it pretty quick. After today, we've got about, oh…" Claude paused a moment, scratching his head for the answer.
"Maybe five-ish days until classes start? Well, for you anyway."

Krillin raised an eyebrow at that little comment.
"Wait, what do you mean 'for me?'"

Claude's calm expression turned into a look of surprised confusion before a realization came to him.
"Ah shoot, I forgot to tell you. Since I've been selected as head of the Golden Deer, I have to do some kind of training assignment with the other house heads. Because of that, I'll have to leave for a few days." He reveals this information like it wasn't anything important. As much as Krillin likes Claude, sometimes his attitude towards things can make conversations like this…er, let's say it was hard to put up with at the start and it's still hard to put up with now.

"Seriously? We're just about to arrive and now you tell me you're leaving so soon?"

"Hey, blame the academy for this, not me! I'm simply wrapped up in the school's affairs until our classes begin."

Krillin opened his mouth to protest but just sighed solemnly instead.
"And here I was, thinking I wasn't gonna be completely surrounded by total strangers…"

There weren't many people in Fódlan who held much respect for those they consider as 'outsiders' and Almyrans were no exception, due in no small part to previous wars and other conflicts between the two nations. Even if you had never picked up a weapon in your life, if you were in any way related to Almyra, you were an outcast at the best of times. At any given time in his life, Krillin has always worried about meeting new people because of Fódlan's views of their eastern rival. And while there are definitely those in the young man's life with more common sense than a house cat, let's just say there have been more than enough incidents simply caused by Krillin's half-blood.

Claude placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, bringing him back from his little internal exposition dump.
"Hey, that's not true! You'll be meeting some friends of mine who'd be more than happy to show you around while I'm gone."

I suppose that was supposed to be the heir's way of cheering his friend up, but all it did was make the young commoner's brow furrow.
"Are you sure about that, Claude?"

"Hey, this is me we're talking about. Anyone who can look past my bloodline will surely look past yours."

I guess that sort-of makes sense. Claude was half-Almyran as well, so if anyone's willing to put up with him then that should also apply to Krillin, right? Then again, these 'friends' might only be Claude's friends because he's also heir to the Leceister Alliance's most powerful house…

As the carriage draws closer and closer to the massive monastery, Krillin can only guess that he'll just have to find out the intentions of these 'friends' for himself. He can only pray that coming to Garreg Mach wasn't going to be a mistake in the long run.

- - -Meanwhile, in a carriage traveling from the Empire- - -

"Are you prepared for this, sister?"

"…I'm not sure, Lapis."

Several hours south of Garreg Mach, at the end of the lands of Varley, a similarly guarded carriage was coming in from the capital of Enbarr. Within the carriage sat twin siblings from the minor Adrestian noble family, House Sappor. On one side, you have the raven-haired swordsman-in-training and younger brother, Lapis Onyx von Sappor. To his right, the silver-haired mage, and elder sister, Lazuli Zariza von Sappor (Don't bother remembering their full names, Lapis and Lazuli will work just as well for the twins).

Just like Krillin and Claude, they too will become new students at the Officer's Academy. But unlike those young men, these siblings weren't as excited about what was soon to come. I mean, most people would be chomping at the bit for even a month's worth of the academy's schooling and yet Lapis and Lazuli were uneasy at best, even if their semi-neutral expressions say otherwise.

"What if…What if he finds a way to control us? Without having to be close by?" Lazuli asks, her icy-blue gaze situated at her hands in her lap. To that, her brother gave her left hand a gentle, but firm squeeze.

"Normally, I'd be worried about that too…But I'm pretty sure that he hates our guts right now. I predict that for as long as we're out of the house, he won't even want to think twice about us."

But Lazuli's troubled frown still remains. "Do you truly believed that, brother? You're trembling hand says otherwise…"

The younger twin's eyes held a hint of surprise. He looked down to see that it was just as his sister said; his hand was indeed noticeably shaky. How did he not see this earlier…? "Oh my…How did that happen, I wonder?" Lapis tried to play it off with a low chuckle, but it just made him sound uncharacteristically anxious.

"Lapis, I…" Lazuli opened her mouth to speak but her voice quickly faltered, unsure of what she should say. Instead, the silver-haired maiden kept her gaze down whilst Lapis, also unsure of what to do himself, simply began watching the scenery pass by his window. Soon enough, the carriage's atmosphere had turned to a mind-numbingly awkward silence.

Finally, after what felt like ages, Lazuli proposed an idea; "It might be in our best interest to keep friendships to a minimum while we're away."

Lapis didn't take his eyes off the window, but he listened all the same. "You know he'll try finding other ways to make us do his bidding, right? It won't matter if we make friends or not."

"But what if-"

"Lazuli, what happened to Emerl wasn't our fault. It's all on that bastard we call a father and those damned mages."

Lazuli's face subtly pained at the mere mention of that name, Emerl. Emerl…Their brother and closest friend. One of the twins' only friends…Just the thought of the memories his name held was almost enough to break the siblings' aloof demeanors.

"I understand your concern, sister…" Lapis finally broke his gaze away from the window, moving his sister's head so that her eyes looked dead-on into his. "I don't wish for anyone else to share his fate either, but you have to realize that…that Father isn't some omnipotent, all-seeing demon. And even if he wanted to hurt someone to get to us, you know we're perfectly capable of stopping him."

Now it was Lazuli's turn to look surprised. "What do you mean by that?"

"Think of it like this; After seven long years of having to put up with that torture Father claimed would 'help us rise as nobles,' we're finally in a situation where he won't be breathing down our necks at every second! It's the perfect chance to get one in over him, to pay him back for what he's done to us!" The more Lapis spoke, the more his overall tone shifted. His eyes grew more determined, his posture went from a light slouch to a more upright position, even his voice began to take on a more confident air. It was as if new life was being breathed into him in real-time and frankly, it was scaring the crap out of Lazuli!

"Brother, you're beginning to worry me."

The raven simply smiled. "Don't you understand, Lazuli? For the first time in forever, we…we're free." Usually, that sentence would hold a sense of unnaturally-happy derangement, and maybe it really did, but Lapis managed to somehow keep his voice calm and composed as he said those two words. And as usual, Lazuli had to take on her role as the eldest and reign in her little brother.

"Correction; We're free for a year, then it's back to what is essentially sugar-coated slavery at best." She replied with her most logical conclusion. But Lapis wasn't having any of that, oh no.

"Who's to say we absolutely must return home? After we graduate, we could just forget about House Sappor and travel as much as we pleased! After all, we've almost reached adulthood."

"The more you ramble on about this supposed 'freedom,' the more concern I'm getting for your mental health."

Lapis shrugged. "Look, all I'm trying to say is that by the time we're done with the Officer's Academy, we'll finally have a say in what we want to do with our lives. I'm sorry if I sound a little looney, but it's true! At this point, the only way Father will have any sort of power over us if we allow him to."

"I…I don't know, brother."

Tired of going on and on about this subject, Lapis folded his arms and sighed. "Look, just think about it for me, alright? I'd hate to think about that bastard bleeding you dry…"

"…Tch, fine. I'll think about it."

"Alright. And while you do that, I'm going to catch up on some rest. -Yawn-…It was so cold last night, I could barely keep my eyes closed."

The silver-haired maiden laughed softly at her brother's pitiful expense. "You do that, my dear brother."

As the raven got himself comfortable and drifted off, Lazuli indeed began thinking about what her sleepy brother was saying. Maybe traveling around Fódlan wasn't such a bad idea after all. She wasn't entirely sure how her father would react to their sudden disappearance, though…

Would he send his best soldiers to bring them back home, dead or alive? Or would he simply not care about what could happen to the twins? And if he did try to bring the two back, would they really be powerful enough to fight back? Lazuli might be what you'd call a prodigy in the magic arts, but was that really enough to carve a future for herself? While Duke Sappor was all in all a relatively minor noble, that didn't mean his power was anything but. After all…

It was thanks to him that Lapis and Lazuli could excel in their respective skills.

"How so?" I hear you ask. Well, I don't know if I should reveal the twins' secret this soon, but perhaps I'll give you a hint in the form of a picture?

Lazuli holds a very peculiar Crest, one thought to have been lost to history for well over a millennium; it is called the Crest of Noa.

Maybe that can give you a few ideas.

Well, it took about eight more hours of sitting in a cramped space, but Krillin and Claude have finally arrived at the entrance of Garreg Mach Monastery! It may have been a two-week-long journey but seeing the ancient monastery in its full glory made Krillin think it was all worth it in the end! All that was left to do now was find out where his quarters would be and finally start going to sleep in an actual bed again…

Oh, and exchange farewells with a certain guard.

"Oh-ho-hoh…I can't imagine a day where my pride and joy won't be at home to welcome me-e-e!"

"F-Father, please let go…I can't breathe…!"

…Huh? What're you looking at me for?

…Oh-Oh! Oh crap, I completely forgot to mention this little tidbit! Okay, so, fun fact about Krillin's family; His father happens to work as a soldier of House Riegan. In fact, he was one of the soldiers who first escorted Claude to Maurin, where he and his son first met, and when he heard his son was going to enroll at the Officer's Academy, well he just absolutely clamored with Duke Riegan to grant him a spot as his carriage guard! And while that wish was fortunately granted, now there was no avoiding the conclusion; Mr. Chastain had to let his precious son go, figuratively AND literally (Seriously, this man's hugs exert a force equal to the love child of a vice grip and a high-end bear trap).

"I-I know you have to run along now a-and think about your future, b-but…I'M GOING TO MISS MY BABY BO-HO-HOOY!" Needless to say, Mr. Chastain is a very emotionally driven man, especially when it comes to family. Not a bad quality per se, but it does lead to suffocating moments like this.

"I'm g-gonna miss you too, but y-you're also crushing my everything…" Krillin managed to croak out, which his father luckily registered through his incessant tears.

"I-I'm sorry, son. I'm just happy to see that you're headed for a bright future! It's…Why, Goddess above, it's more than I ever could've hoped for you."

Krillin smiled at his father's sentiment. "I always thought it'd be impossible to even get to the monastery. I kept pinching myself the first week we hit the road, you know." ᵖʳᵉᵗᵗʸ ˢᵘʳᵉ ʰᵉ ˢᵗᶦˡˡ ᵈᶦᵈ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᵃᶠᵗᵉʳʷᵃʳᵈˢ.

"Oh, I bet! Though if you wore this armor, it wouldn't just be your cheek that'd be pinched, haha!" Mr. Chastain laughed heartily before his expression softened just a tad. He ruffled a hand through his son's hair and beamed a tiny, wistful smile.

"Your mother would be so proud of you, Krillin."

Krillin's own smile faltered a bit at the mention of her…Beloved Aruna Chastain, the beauty from Almyra. "Yeah…I bet she would."

The once highly-emotional mood took a slight turn for the subtle melancholy. Had another soldier not broken the silence, it might've left the farewell on a more bittersweet note.

"Oi, Chastain! Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you promised the Duke that you'd be back 'within the next fortnight,' no?"

The once-somber father quickly shifted back to his typical jovial self. "It'll be but a moment, sir!" Mr. Chastain then quickly turned back to face his son-er, rather, get right up in his son's face with a deathly serious look.

"Promise me you'll write back within the month," It wasn't even a question, that was a demand. Thankfully, it was one Krillin was more than content to oblige in.

"Father, you know I will anyway, so please don't let me keep you."

The kindly father gave a hum and a nod before giving his only child another hug, this time with less g-force than before.
"Stay safe out there, Krillin, and remember; aim for the eyes."

Krillin happily hugged back.
"Love you too, Father."

And with that, Mr. Chastain walked over to his carriage troop, which then began the journey back home shortly thereafter. Krillin watched as his father's group shrunk into the distance until they disappeared from sight. He must've still been caught up in the moment because the young man quickly jumped to a start when a familiar hand slammed itself onto his shoulder. Thank the Goddess, it was only Claude and not some stranger.

"Your father seems like an amazing fellow, Krillin. Kind of reminds me of my father, actually," The young noble spoke with a hint of nostalgia in his tone. From the times they did speak about their respective parents, Krillin was surprised his friend found literally anything in common between the two men.

"Really? My father somehow resembles yours?"

"Yeah…Except I'm, like, ninety-nine percent sure yours didn't tie you to a horse and dragged you around whenever you misbehaved."

…What.

"Claude, I don't think I'll ever understand how you aren't a psychopath by now."

"Hey, what can I say? Grow up being busy with schemes like me, then see if you had time to dwell on your parents' methods of, ahem, 'growing character.'" Claude made quotation gestures as he spoke, which in turn made Krillin snicker uncontrollably…for some stupid reason.

(Hoo boy, it's going to be a miracle if Claude somehow doesn't end up becoming a ruthless murderer.)

Suddenly, the loud chime of a bell reverberated throughout the air of the monastery, interrupting the thoughts and conversations of pretty much anyone within a 50-mile radius. So interrupting, in fact, that it actually placed a new thought into Claude's mind.

"Ah, I think the dining hall is going to open soon!" And with about the same warning time as the bell, Claude quickly grabbed ahold of his friend's wrist and began running them both to where this dining hall should be.

Okay, well, it was more like Claude was running and Krillin was being dragged like a laggy kite.

"Wo-Woah! Claude, what the hell are you doing!?"

"Don't worry, this is all apart of the plan! I bet if we charged like an assembly line, we can catch a seat with Hilda and the others!"

"Gah, w-wait! Who the heck is Hilda!?"

"A friend! Don't worry, she's cool!"

Krillin supposed he had no choice but to trust his friend. After all, it was rather hard to object when you're going at seemingly ungodly speeds.

"C-COULD YOU AT LEAST SLOW DOWN!?" Krillin's plea rang out to literally no response. Guess that was a 'no' on that front, huh?

Though in the blur between the front gates and the dining hall, Krillin swears he saw something rather peculiar. It might have been his imagination, but he thought he caught a glimpse of a full head of…silver hair? It was only a moment, but he could tell it wasn't an ordinary color that grayed with age. It was definitely a silvery, almost white color. But who knows? Maybe it was just his imagination getting to him…

Still, perhaps he should keep a close eye out for whoever that white-haired person was…

As the twins were walking about the little docks at the fishing pond, a sudden brush of wind swept past them. At first, Lazuli thought it was a strangely powerful gust of natural wind, but a quick turn of the head proved that wrong. Instead, that wind was caused by two weirdos making a bee line for the dining hall just behind them.

"Woah, they were in a hurry," Lapis commented rather unenthusiastically. Lazuli held a similar tone in her voice as well.

"Well, it looks like there are about fifty other students trying to get into that dining hall. Shot in the dark, maybe the food is finally ready?"

"Hm, makes sense. Pretty good timing too, because I don't think I can take another day of just bread and apples."

"I'm in agreement on that one. I hate the thought of ever having to go back to just eating bread. At least our rations weren't stale…or stolen."

Lapis chuckled at that last part. "Thinking back to when we were a couple of little sticky fingers, dear sister?"

Lazuli gave her little brother a coy smile. "Perhaps just a little bit. You could say those times were better, in some regards."

"Yeah, well, I'm not sure if I'd be too keen on going back to that life again."

"Whatever then. Let's just find some seats and get situated."

Lapis simply nodded in agreement as he led the walk towards the dining hall, which now exuded the cheerful banter of at least two hundred students. On their way, Lazuli couldn't help but laugh to herself about those weirdos who ran headfirst into the building. She'd never seen anyone that excited about dinner before and whenever Lazuli's encountered something new, why she just feels the need to try and investigate said new thing!

Perhaps she'll encounter those fellows during dinner? Probably unlikely, considering the sheer number of students taking up most of the hall's space. Yet it was still something to think about.

If she does encounter even one of those hurried students, maybe she'll try to make small talk with them…