Chapter 6 - Classy
The main hall was filled with all the students of Haven academy. Everyone was there, even the ones who were not new to the academy. The students who already had finished the quest. The teachers stood in front of the elevated platform.
Headmaster Lionheart stood on it, together with our friends Lycide, Thistle, Yellwin and Gris. I just then noticed that he was indeed a Faunas, so the name Lionheart had a literal meaning. Our friends smiled and were obviously proud of themselves, just as everyone else.
Personally, I couldn't stop smiling since we finished our quest.
We all took the item we chose with us. I held the stone figure of the smith in my hand. As soon as I would go onto the stage, I'd place the figure I my pocket. The huge hologram on the wall lit up again. It was time to call out the teams which we formed when the quest was active.
The pictures and emblems of our friends appeared and placed themselves in an order.
Our Headmaster continued his speech. One could easily notice that he was glad we made it. It may seem a bit harsh, sending fresh students with nothing that their experience in fight school and their own skills into a thick forest with difficult terrain and unknown dangers. Although the fight school which every student had to attend before did not teach many subjects we had to experience later on.
But it worked out well; at least that was what Greystep said on our way back.
"It is an honor for me to announce that Lycide Flairtone, Yellwin Pyre, Gris Hamelinn and Thistle Turika have fought well, facing difficult tasks on their way, and they mastered all. Hereby I declare those four students now Huntsmen and Huntresses, and they will act and fight as a team from this day on, until their graduation has taken place. They will be known as team LYGT, and the leader of their team will be Lycide Flairtone, who gave orders well and showed a great interest in leading. I wish you good luck in the future. You now may leave the stage."
Applause replaced the silence and livened the attendants up. Now it was our time to shine. We walked up the stairs, giving team LYGT, pronounced light, a wink. They couldn't stop smiling. We positioned ourselves on the stage. Lionheart nodded and began to talk to us.
"Darkin Tangery, Eda Eisengrau, Ivory Zogeiro and Pale Luken. You came from all kinds of different origins, but you fought together and achieved tasks which required strength, teamwork and slyness. You have used various ways to achieve our goals, and the way you used to defend yourselves from a dangerous airship was interesting indeed. I have to admit, I have never seen something like that before.
Hereby I declare you Huntsmen and Huntresses. You shall protect the people of Remnant from all its threats. From now on you will be known as team DEIP. Darkin Tangery. I name you as the leader of this team, because of your actions and your salient plans. I wish you best of luck for your future. You now may leave the stage."
Team DEIP, pronounced deep. We all were filled with joy and pride. This had to be celebrated. But now wasn't the time for that. Because we were about to meet the other new students. The next four students walked up the stairs next to us.
Three girls and one boy. One of the girls carried a very colorful short sword, the other a long distance sniper rifle. The third girl had an interesting assortment of knifes attached to her two belts. The boy carried something that looked like a sword, but it wasn't. It seemed like that weapon could transform into something way different. I was interested by that. I would surely meet them personally soon. They placed themselves in front of headmaster Lionheart as well.
"It is now time for Baared Narju, Rogey Flame, Nigrin Yaku and Numa Taika Azuline. You prove yourselves just as good as the others. But you did something special. You were the first ones to make it to the goal.
This means all of you have thought quickly and were precise while fighting whatever stood in your path. Baared Narju, you have brought every one of your companions to safety, and you also prove to be authoritative of the position as the leader of team BRNN. I wish the best of luck to you all; I know that you will protect the people of Remnant just as good as you did in the quest. I wish you best of luck for your future."
The wind was interestingly fast on that day. The clouds above me seemed to fly as fast as bullets, maybe even faster. Yeah, clouds were way faster than bullets. I looked at the ground and moved my head around a bit.
I kept staring at the sky for the past minutes. The bench next to the landing platform was actually very comfortable. I reached into my pocket for my cigarette box. I finally got one out without having to take out the whole box.
"Hey, you're up here. I've been looking for you."
I lit up my cigarette and looked over to my right. Eda came towards me.
"Mind me?"
"No, not at all. Please, join me."
I took a deep breath from my cigarette and looked at the sky again. I still held the statue I had taken from the quest in my hand. Eda sat down next to me and looked around.
"What are you doing all alone up here?"
"Honestly, I am doing absolutely nothing. I'm just enjoying the silence. It's cool to do that sometimes."
Eda smiled and folded her hands. She looked at my hand, and at the statue I held in it.
"Why did you choose the smith?"
Eda asked me. My humble self had been waiting for that question to come up actually. I sat up straight. I felt like what I chose, it would matter in the end. I had a feeling which I couldn't describe. It felt like I had chosen my destiny.
"A smith builds all the things that society needs. He makes the final path for it. I mean, society could not work with one of all those factors missing. But the smith is one of the most important I think. After all, he is the one who forges the scepter for the king in the first place."
"Probably. But without the trader, there would be no steel for that. Or gold."
Eda was right. I nodded.
"You're right. And that's exactly what they wanted from us. To understand that no matter what we chose, it would be right. These individuals are all seeking for a common goal. I'd love to know, why did you choose the queen?"
She breathed out. She already had an answer to that.
"I thought that there needs to be a second opinion, someone who sees the bigger picture. A king should always have someone who tells him what his plans look from the outside. Imagine you are the king. You work out your very own plans, and they can even be brilliant, but you don't see your own mistakes at first. Then I come around the corner and see the mistakes instantly, as little as they might be."
"You have a good point there.
It really is important to see a picture from all sides first."
I replied. I noticed that someone else came up to us. I turned my head around and saw the leader of team BRNN. He was as tall as me, with a little bit darker skin and black, short hair. He wore a dark orange jacket above his bang orange shirt and bright grey trousers. He had a harness with armor strapped around his torso. His sword hung on his back. I lowered my cigarette.
"Oh, excuse me, I didn't expect you. Baared Narju, am I right?"
The boy came closer and made a slight bow.
"Yes. You can call me Baared. It is an honor to meet you. Darkin Tangery, wasn't it?"
I stood up and nodded.
"You are right as well. Call me Darkin. It's a pleasure to meet you.
You are the first ones who made it, huh?"
I asked friendly. He smiled lightly, while his orange eyes looked at me.
"Exactly. But I call it luck. We had to fight of course, but the monsters were mostly concentrating on you guys, I assume."
"And why would they?"
I asked. But at the same time I had an idea.
"Maybe you had a few differences with someone who you met?"
Eda stepped in.
"From what I have heard, I would say that is correct.
But that is already under control, isn't it, boss?"
She prevented any more questions with that statement. Thank you I thought.
Baared looked at her and understood her point. He made a light bow into her direction as well.
"I think we haven't met yet, Eda Eisengrau, isn't it? The badminton champion?"
Eda smiled self conscious. She dropped a courtesy, which honestly didn't look bad at all. It fitted to her.
"Correct. Baared Narju. It's nice to meet you."
He surely seemed like a nice guy. I couldn't see a single reason why I would ever want to have nothing to do with him. Something about him was relaxing; maybe it was his clothing, which perfectly fit in with his whole appearance.
"I have heard quite a lot about you, Miss Eisengrau. It is said that no one could beat you in a fair game."
Eda giggled uncomfortable and laid her hand on her chest.
"To be honest, there are enough people out there who can put up a good match. I am certainly not the best one in Remnant."
I had to ask Baared one question. I tried to be as outgoing as I could.
"Hey, what kind of weapon do you use? It surely looks interesting."
He took his sword and showed it to us. He pushed a tiny lever next to the grip. The sword unfolded to its original size. It wasn't that long, but it was thick.
And it had a very exotic feature.
"This is Narani. It is my weapon. It seems to be a simple sword when looking at it the first time. But it has a unique ability. It is a crossbow at the same time."
He pulled at the grip, and the blade instantly split up and clapped aside. A string span between the two arms as they unfolded. He took out a bolt out of the holster which hung on his back and showed us.
"Here, these bolts are shot with my beauty, and they are extremely accurate."
He threw it over to me. I caught it and inspected it closer. It just looked like a normal dart to me. However, it was built in a similar way as the feather balls from Eda. I passed it back to Baared and jokingly asked.
"So, how many darts do you have with you? Maybe you'd pass some tips over to my friend here; she had a little issue with her ammunition."
I earned a hit on my arm from her. I smiled and sat back down on the bench. I was about to ask Baared to join us, but he sat down on one of the huge stones in front of us. It's interesting to point out the way he sat there. He angled his foot and sat down, resting his weight on the back of it. He was able to jump up instantly and he'd be combat ready. He addressed Eda.
"You know, it does not matter how many bullets you have, what is important is how you use them. Take one to eliminate two targets, understand me?"
"Huh, that is an interesting idea. To be honest, I always thought the more bullets the better. Thank you. I'll try it next time."
We all got along with each other. That was interesting; I did not expect so much friendliness from literally everyone around here. Suddenly noises appeared which sounded like more students coming up to us. We looked to our left to see both our teams heading up to us. I saw Pale and Ivory talking to Baared's teammates.
"Her you are, Baared. Come on, we're going to be late to the first class."
Said the girl with the huge assortment of knifes. She was clothed in a peculiar way. It looked a lot like a short robe, but it appeared like she was wearing many layers of clothing. It turned out to be sewn like that. Her long and curly light brown hair jerked in the wind. Her eyes were a flashy and luscious blue.
"Oh, you're right. By the way, meet Darkin Tangery and Eda Eisengrau."
He looked at us. He pointed at the girl.
"This is Nigrin Yaku. She is our best melee warrior."
Nigrin made an irritated expression and bobbed her head.
"Well, I wouldn't call me the very best as you do,
but I know how to fight if you mean that."
She seemed to be lively. That was always a great gift. Paying attention to everything can be way easier that way. One of the other girls stepped next to her and rested her hand on Nigrin's shoulder. It was the girl with the bow. She was about my height, and I quickly noticed that she probably was a fan of sunshine and beach parties. She was lightly sun-tanned. She wore very interesting and colorful clothing. Her pelvis was covered under a bright red skirt, which was slightly longer than Eda's skirt. It had some sort of extension which ran up to her waist on her left side. It gave a clever opportunity to hide a quiver and some pouches under this contraption.
She chose to wear a dark vermilion top, without many accessories except for a piece of armor on her right arm. She had blonde hair and purple eyes. She smiled.
"What, are you making new friends?"
"I am. Why, don't you want to know who is amongst you while you're waiting for your graduation?"
Nigrin looked at us.
"This is Rogey. She is one of the best when it comes to bow and arrow."
Rogey Flame made a gesture which looked like shooting us and winked.
"Probably the best. What's up, team DEIP?
I heard you did pretty well against the Grimm."
"Yeah, you could say that."
Ivory replied and joined us together with Pale. I looked around and kindly asked the third girl. She was the one with the colorful sword. She wore a skintight outfit with a wide array of colors, with blue being the dominant color. Her battle skirt had a few incisions which allowed it to move around freely while fighting. She had short, light blue hair and light green eyes.
"So, we haven't met yet as well.
My name is Darkin Tangery, and this is Eda Eisengrau. What's your name?"
"Name's Numa Azuline. It's a pleasure to meet you guys."
I was shocked about the way I changed from a shy and weird boy to a rather confident weird boy. Huh, being a Huntsman trainee wasn't bad in the slightest way. I stood up, killed the cigarette and addressed everybody.
"So, I assume that we have more than enough time to get each other better to know. But now I think we should hurry up and get to class, am I right?"
And as soon as I said that, we sat in the classroom. We wore our black uniforms which we received earlier. They did fit my style actually. I looked around once more to have a better focus. The classrooms had an interesting architecture. From the outside it seemed like a normal square room, but we actually sat in a circular order. Two rows of seats and tables, claiming two thirds of the rooms. Up to twenty four students could be educated in there.
I chose to sit with my team of course, Pale and Eda in front and Ivory and I having a seat behind them. We could talk though; there wasn't a great distance between us. Our teacher was a middle aged man with blond hair and a goatee.
Doctor Marigold was his name. He walked around in front of the huge chalk board with his arms crossed. The past few minutes he kept talking about our duties and rights.
"Huntsmen are gaining more and more respect with the time nowadays. It shouldn't surprise you that many people prefer you instead of the police. But with respect comes duty. Be nice, be respectful to the citizens, and most importantly, make sure your reputation is what the people expect.
Even if you still are students, all of you will become real Huntsmen eventually. Which simply means that you always have to keep in mind that you are not invincible."
He turned to us and pointed up to the chalk board. There was some sort of scale written on it. Three years of our training were shortly described there.
"In the first year which has just begun, your training will focus especially on training you in combat and perception. You will study the creatures of Grimm as good as possible, which by the way, will be my part as well.
In about two months you will get the permission to sign up for missions within the kingdoms walls, and keeping your abilities and experience in mind, you will get greater tasks, sometimes outside.
The second semester is dedicated to exercises such as judging, duties and rights, and making your own conscious decisions. Also, a fact to throw in at this point. The second semester will include the Vytal Festival Tournament, this time taking place in Vacuo. Is there anyone here who does not know about it?"
A few students raised their hands. Not many. Doctor Marigold nodded.
"Good. I will explain it to you. The Vytal Festival serves as a reminder of peace between all kingdoms and cultures, more or less initiated to celebrate the Great War's end and to remind everyone in remnant to constantly live in peace.
Many festivities take place every two years, including a combat tournament. While the host kingdom changes every time, it opens up its borders to let in visitors from all out of Remnant. Interestingly enough, out of all twenty times it had taken place, our very own Kingdom of Mistral had only won the combat tournament three times. So don't be surprised if some teachers push you to train months before it takes place."
Pale was rocking on his chair; he came closer to Ivory's table and supported himself on its edge.
"So that's why they let you in, Dark. They need good warriors."
He smiled cheeky. That one wasn't bad qctually.
"Oh, of course, that is the real reason why I'm here.
Because you're not as good as I am."
He stretched out his fist while smiling even cheekier than before. We bumped fists and returned to pay attention to the class.
"So, by reaching the third and final year of your training, you will indirectly be Huntsmen already. Everything you will learn then will include locating Grimm hotspots and how to destroy those. You will help villages and people all across Remnant with all sorts of things, and all of your actions will mostly be freely chosen and executed, unless you have authorities tell you otherwise."
He turned around swiftly. He looked around the class and pointed at Lycide.
"Miss Flairtone. Would you mind telling us why you wanted to become a Huntress?"
Lycide got caught off guard. She seemed sunken in thoughts. She came back to the real world and thought about her answer for a second.
"I want to become a Huntress to save lives. I have heard quite a lot stories about all the dangers in the world. And it has a little bit to do with my family, but that is accessory."
"Thank you, Miss Flairtone. Now, what does…?"
He looked around and chose someone else.
"Yes, Mr. Hamelinn. What do you think, why are you here?"
Gris relaxed a bit more in his chair, letting one arm hang from the backrest. He made a circular movement with his hand.
"Honestly, I always had a talent in fighting. Why would I sit inside all day, rather than helping the people around me who can't defend themselves? I have the spirit and skill to help, so I'm just doing it."
Doctor Marigold nodded slowly. He probably understood his point. I did too, but I couldn't shake the feeling that he sounded a little bragging. He didn't mean it; at least I was sure of that. I saw Doctor Marigolds glimpse wandering to me. He addressed me.
"Mr. Tangery, what reason did you have to join our school? I heard quite a bit about you from Doctor Greystep."
I wasn't sure what to answer. I mean, I knew why I was there. I needed a fresh start in my life. There was no explicit reason. Sure, helping people in need sounded great.
And I was able to fight, which was a gift which not every person in Remnant enjoyed. I was fast and agile. My weapon was designed to allow an attack at high speed. It was light but useful. Thin and beauteous. Strong and reliable. I thought about my answer, and then I got one.
"My past was full of lies and criminality; and although I never participated in all of that, I want to indemnify everything I can. And helping to protect humanity from all the trouble out there seems like the best thing I can do."
Doctor Marigold smiled proudly. He turned around, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
"And what does every one of you notice while listening to the ideals of the others?
All of you come from the most different places and ancestries. That doesn't matter that badly though. That's because every one of you has the very same goal.
You are here to protect, to spend hope, to give joy to every citizen in Remnant."
He formed a fist with his hand and held it higher up.
"Your past is no reason for you to think that you are special or less worthy.
You can come from Vacuo, Mistral, Atlas or Vale. You can come from every continent. You can be human or a Faunus. Male or female. It simply does not matter.
And that is something every one of you has to understand. Huntsmen and Huntresses have to hold together as one, which is the only way we all survive."
I grasped what was going on. I was falling. The words of Doctor Marigold echoed through my head and gave me the strength to focus on my surroundings. It really did not matter who I was before. Now I was a Huntsman. Well, more or less. I quickly let my eyes wander around. I tried to get a clue why I was falling. My leg began to hurt suddenly. Apparently Gris managed to land a hit against my lower leg.
He had used his right leg to kick while we were crossing our weapons. That was not a forbidden move as Doctor Mashiro had said earlier. He wanted everyone to play by the rules while the fight classes were on.
That meant we shall not bite, to punch unless that was your fighting style, we had to be careful not to injure someone too bad and so on. Gris and I were the first ones to get chosen to battle each other.
I focused and did the only thing I was able to do in this situation.
Gris was busy with balancing himself. He tried to get the higher ground as I fell. I saw the sand of the training grounds come closer. My arm stretched out automatically. Both of my legs angled and the momentum caused me to flip over. Gris stared at me as I got onto my feet again. He did not expect me to catch my fall and to be ready to attack again. He lifted his pike up and stiffened his stance.
I used the moment of surprise that just opened up a path for me. I performed a quick dash at him. I turned my body sideways to avoid his weapon. I thrust my sword at him. I drew my knife at the same time and positioned it behind his pike. I pulled with force at my knife and Gris stumbled forward.
But instead of swinging my sword at him, I positioned my left leg to let him trip over it. And it worked. He let go of his weapon and crashed onto the ground with a thumb. I stood there; trembling for this move was performed by my mind.
I did not do anything in fact. I have always had a quick perception in dangerous situations. Although, it was a reason for many mistakes I made, too.
Doctor Mashiro clapped his hands twice.
"Excellent work. Both of you fought with great skill."
He turned around to the others. They all stood around the training field and watched us closely. I stepped to Gris and helped him up again.
"That was an excellent fight, my friend."
He rolled his eyes.
"Yeah. You put up a nice challenge. Next time I'll get you."
I smiled and shrugged.
"We'll see."
We both walked back to the others. Mashiro chose someone else to test their ability in combat.
"Miss Eisengrau, what about you? Are you ready?"
She stiffened and nodded confidently.
"Yes. I'd love to."
"Great. So, is there anyone who wants to challenge her?"
Mashiro asked loudly. Someone raised his hand. It was none other than the bully we met on the first day of our arrival.
"Yes. Carmine, go on."
He had an expression of triumph on his face. I rolled my eyes and closely watched as both stepped onto the sand. I heard them talking.
"Let's see what you got. I still can't believe that you made it out of that forest."
Eda tried to not look pissed. She gave a confident wink.
"Really. You don't say."
"No offense, but your little weapon looks like it could break in two after a good hit. We should try that out."
She rolled her eyes. Now she was not in the mood to be insulted. But she kept cool, completely ignoring Carmine.
"Do as you wish. Be careful though, it can hurt getting hit by such an elegant and thin weapon."
She stretched out her right arm, holding the racket downwards. She stiffened her legs and her shoulder. Her eyes fixed on Carmine's weapon. It was a Macuahuitl, a huge steel plank. Its sides were embedded with many prismatic blades made out of obsidian. The edges seemed to be far sharper than razor blades.
It had engravings all over it. She stared at this interesting weapon and obviously found a weak spot, because she lifted her weapon up and challenged him to begin.
Of course, as ignorant as he seemed to be, he stormed forwards. Eda crouched just a little bit. She was becoming ready to jump aside as soon as he reached her. Carmine reached back and swung the weapon at Eda.
She jumped aside, leaving the sand below her to his weapon which tore the sand apart. Eda spun and clashed her racket against Carmine's armor. He didn't even notice it. He lifted his weapon up and swung it at her sideways. Eda cowered and eluded the attack just by an inch. She stood up and kicked Carmine against his arm. Normally this would have caused the opponent to let go of his weapon.
But he was way too strong for that to work. He towered up in front of her and thrust his weapon towards my teammate. She, of course, saw that one coming. She made a back flip to get away from him. She landed and crouched, pushing the sand backwards like a wave, holding her racket upwards this time. She let it transform, and the blades shot out at the top of the rackets head.
She jumped with full force at her opponent and threw a huge combination of thrusts, swings and all kinds of different attacks at him. She spun around two times and with each consecutive hit she managed to push the bully further and further towards the white line of the training ground. She suddenly stopped attacking him; instead she faked to thrust her weapon at him and backed away.
Carmine stumbled backwards once more and nearly tripped. He got balanced again and glanced at her. It was obvious that this guy had turned angry already. He turned his weapon sideways and ran at her. Eda lifted her weapon up, positioned herself right and held the racket with one arm. She shot a few high caliber bullets at him which got blocked by his massive weapon.
Eda widened her eyes as she saw what he did. He thrust his strong leg into the ground, causing a huge cloud of sand to fly right at my teammate. She protectively held up her left arm to cover her face. And Carmine used this cowardly attack to hit Eda with his shoulder. Eda got thrown back by the impact, and she lost grip of her racket. It whirled through the air and got stuck in the sand.
She was now unarmed and probably had no other choice than surrendering. She was still startled and did not see Carmine's final blow coming. He stopped walking and hit her with the hilt of his heavy weapon, right into her face. She closed her eyes caused by the caustic pain and lost balance. She got flung to the ground and kept lying. Her Aura lightened up in shiny silver.
The hit was very hard, maybe a little too overpowered for a training match.
She was frightened and stared at Carmine. He now stood above her and held his weapon high into the air. The plank was embedded with blades, and at the front, which was facing her, was a thick spike. Carmine obviously did not know what he was doing. I took a step forward. I heard how other students shouted at him, he must not continue his attack. It could seriously injure her, now that her aura was depleted. I feared for my teammate, there was no way she could defend herself now.
She was still startled by the quick occurrences. I was about to use my Semblance; at least to distract him. Carmine smiled like a mad maniac. A shot rang through the training grounds. Carmines weapon got flung out of his hold. He looked at Doctor Mashiro who stared at them with his arm stretched out. I saw that he was wearing his weaponry under his uniform.
A tiny barrel stuck out of his sleeve. He shouted at Carmine in a steady voice.
"Young man, it is time to stop that now. Back away from your opponent this instant!"
He reluctantly stepped away from his opponent. I breathed out in relief and hurried to Eda just as the others did. Some walked towards Carmine to prevent any other kinds of provocations. I knelt and checked if my friend was alright. Eda's eyes were glassy. She slowly got herself to sit up with my help. Thistle stepped next to us and looked at the others standing between both fighters. I saw Nigrin rushing to us as well.
"Wow, did you see that? What a rude idiot."
"Eda, are you okay?"
Ivory asked while she came to us with the weapon of our teammate in her hand.
"Yes, I am. What a cowardly asshole!"
She said with the most pissed voice I have ever heard. She slowly began to stand up, while Pale and I supported her. I shot a glimpse at Carmine. He was busy with trying to provocateur the other students around him, even insulting his own teammates in a way I did not understand. His teammates were nothing like him at all.
His teammates were Racko Vadelma, a tall but mostly thin boy. His mid long, violet red hair always hung to the left side and had a few piercings all around in his face. He had pale skin, but he was stronger than he looked.
Together with Akupacca Tarto he tried to hold Carmine back. Akupacca, who most of the time got called Aku, was a handsome and muscular young man wearing nothing else but a leather vest, dark green trousers and a backpack, showing off his muscles. He had blue eyes and very short, lime green hair.
He was looking at the fourth member of Team CRAL, standing for coral, Laurel Kona Tim. He was busy with trying to calm down the other students. He was tall and wide, had a dark tan and Yellow eyes. He had messy grey hair and wore some sort of fine clothing which was elegant but also functional.
Carmine' teammates were nothing like him, and to be honest, I had no idea how he became the leader of such a team. Doctor Mashiro stepped in between the brawl, holding his hands high up in the air.
"Now, what are you doing here? Did I miss anything? I thought I was teaching Huntsmen and Huntresses here, not punks. Everybody, resume to the spectators ranks immediately. This is not acceptable."
"With all due respect, Doctor, but his behavior was not acceptable."
Gris threw in. Mashiro nodded.
"I know, that was a very irrational decision. We are not on the battlefield, and neither is any student on this school your enemy. Treat them with respect, then there will not be any misunderstanding, do you understand that, Mr. Bull?"
Carmine looked at Doctor Mashiro just as if he was his mother lecturing him.
"Yes, I am very sorry, Doctor. This won't happen again."
He said unemotionally, without even looking at Eda. He faked an apology which even Mashiro didn't buy.
"I got carried away, I'm sorry."
If I was anywhere near him, I would have slapped him for that kind of behavior. Oh dear, I felt the need to really pay him back for nearly injuring my teammate in a lethal way. Doctor Mashiro made a gesture that told us all to go back to the spectator ranks. We had helped Eda up by now, and she crossed her arms and looked at the ground. Ivory handed her the racket, and she thankfully nodded.
"Thanks a million, guys."
"Don't ya worry; his arm will fall off if that happens once more."
Pale solaced her while staring at Carmine. He was looking at us. I narrowed my eyes and gave him a very intense stare. He looked away and joined the other spectators. We joined team BRNN and team LYGT at the side of one of the buildings, next to a little pond with a tiny stone waterfall.
Eda leant herself against the wall of the building and stomped her left foot against the stone fundament.
"Great."
She hissed.
"This guy is a complete maniac. Unbelievable!"
"Calm down, Eda."
Baared spoke in a calm voice. He was more of a watcher than someone who took action. He was calculating things; that was his real strength.
"Mashiro will have him on a leash. He won't let this happen again."
"And neither will I. Next time he can fight me, we will see who gets the bruises. I need to care about my team as a leader. And my friends stand above all, of course."
"Just don't lose the reality, sweetheart."
Numa replied to my statement. She wasn't all excited about my reaction.
"He did this dumb thing once. It wouldn't justify your actions if you started a brawl with him now."
"I didn't mean to start a brawl. I said I wanted to teach him a lesson. Next time I will volunteer to take on him."
Gris pointed at Carmine with his thumb.
"And let me guess, you already have an idea how to teach him?"
I nodded slowly.
"Yes, there was a pattern in his attacks. He always used tons of strength on a simple attack which didn't even land a hit. He wastes his energy, and I seriously doubt that he will be able to survive a long time out there, if he doesn't change that."
I pointed at my biceps.
"What would happen if he ran out of strength in a short time?
I might be a little too rash, but I am quick and agile. Eluding his heavy attacks which are normally meant for collapsing buildings;
that would be something I'd do for breakfast."
"You are brave, Darkin Tangery."
Lycide said nonchalant. I noticed she was not sure if I was certain about what I just said. "I have to give you that."
We had a lot of classes on that day. But it was more like a first overall insight into the lessons than actually learning stuff.
We spoke about our future, sometimes our past, and a lot of times we were asked what we thought. I quickly noticed a huge difference to the normal school, or even the fight school. Because both of these had some sort of hierarchy.
The teachers came first, then the students. At least it was like that on Sanus, hell of I know if it was different in the other kingdoms.
But in Haven, it was different. It seemed like the students, in that case, every one of us, were the ones who stood above all. We got treated like grownups, although not everybody was eighteen or older, like me and the rest of my team for example. I knew for a fact that Lycide was about to turn eighteen years old in a few months, still in the first semester. Lycide seemed to be older than me as well.
Gris on the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if he told me that he was even younger than me. Nigrin from team BRNN, she was nineteen years old. But even though not all of us were adults at that moment, we still had skill, and we were ready.
At least everyone except for Carmine Bull. He still had to learn a lot about leaving pride where it belongs, and how to properly fight his fellow students, without killing them. Or he just had such a huge ego which didn't allow him to give in when it was time for that.
Either way, such a behavior was not acceptable. My shoulders got pushed lightly by someone. I turned my head around and saw Pale. He looked at me.
"Hey, Dark, you alright?"
I shook my head. Reality came to me again. We were in our own bedroom. We stood there and looked around in this completely empty room and thought about solutions to this emptiness. Well, the others did. I was thinking about the other students and the one asshole in our ranks.
"Yes. I just got carried away."
Ivory smiled sarcastically with a huge grin on her face.
"I guess one could say you were DEIP in thought. Am I right?"
She looked around and shrugged. We all looked at her, but I could not stifle a short giggle.
"No takers then. Alright."
"Calm down, Ivory."
I said chuckling.
"It wasn't that bad."
Eda rolled her eyes and walked around.
"This room needs some style, seriously."
Our bedroom was big enough for all of us; four beds were neatly placed against one wall. There were two square windows in between the beds, a relatively big closet stood in the corner, a crate and a bookshelf were placed opposite of the beds, and a desk with two chairs stood left from our beds. The ceiling was painted in a matching white; the walls were constructed with the same dark wood which the whole school was built with. Some blue tiles decorated the coherent beige floor.
"There needs to be a carpet soon, the floor does not fit in at all."
Ivory said, this time leaving the sarcasm behind. They were right. The room looked boring without something which made it unique.
Eda thought, crossing her arms and pointing at the beds.
"We need to change the array of the beds. They are standing way too similar, for my taste at least."
We all looked at our friend. And in the second we heard that we knew what needed to be changed. We arranged nearly the whole room in a completely varied way.
Eda's bed stood in the left corner from the windows; mine stood next to the bookshelf on the right side. Pale's bed stood on the opposite side of mine, while Ivory put her bed next to Eda. I sat down on mine and stared at the floor.
"So, what do we do now? Pale, when is our next class?"
Pale threw another gum into his mouth.
"It's in about thirteen minutes, man. We got plenty of time if we bounce at four."
We all looked at the clock simultaneously. The two watch hands gave us the information we needed. We resumed relaxing again.
"You know what, I just asked myself how pretty much delirious Captain Verden must have been; when he heard that a few kids screwed over one of his ships."
My expression became a little bit more serious. Eda had a question which was totally justified, given that she almost died with us in that cave.
"Hey, by the way, would you mind telling us what went on there?
Who is this Verden exactly?"
I tried to remember the moment I first met this guy. Was it at the age of ten?
No, he was with us way back. Maybe at the age of four, but then I had one problem. I couldn't remember. When I was ten, there were more than enough memories. Also, all of those I tried so badly to forget now came up to the surface again. He was a smuggler, an outlaw, and he had a bunch of criminals working for him. And worst of all.
"He was a family friend."
I replied. My hand slid over my belt to the metal box which held my spare magazines. I held one of these up.
"For example, they took care of business such as weapons, ammunition, Dust and men. To be precise, they hired mercenaries. No task was too easy or too hard for them. They did everything my father told their captain to, and they executed every single one of his requests, no questions asked. But there was one slight mistake Verden made. And that was something he couldn't stop, because it had happened from the beginning. He was becoming friends with my father, and that made him a slave as well."
"And why exactly do they hate Huntsmen and Huntresses?"
Ivory wanted to know why we got attacked by them in the first place, and that was an interesting but easy question.
"That is because they are outlaws. They hate everyone who has something to do with authorities. It does not take a lot of deliberating to see what I mean with that."
Pale took off his sunglasses and folded the temples in. He rocked forward slowly.
"And what do ya think, Darkin, what were the doing?"
"Maybe they heard that we were there. A bunch of students would be an easy target if you ask me."
Ivory threw in an argument.
It could have been a valid answer to the question, that was if we had spoken about different people or everyday criminals. But I shook my head. That was not the case,
it didn't sound like Verden. He was no killer, though he had taken many lives already. First they would've never wasted their time to hunt down students; they were no killers after all. And second, they only killed when they really had to.
"A possible explanation is difficult to determine."
I replied thoughtful.
"But it could be that they were just minding their business, and when they noticed us running around at the mountain, they must have thought that we were spying on them, and that pushed the smugglers to attack us. And it explains this flood of burning dust which nearly killed us.
I'd bet that they were transporting huge amounts of dust, ready to take it away."
"So where did the other ship go to? There are not that many harbors around."
Eda put her hand on her left shoulder and moved her waist.
"Maybe they arrived here. It is possible to trace them if they did."
"And what shall happen then? Do you want to step in their way and try to talk them out of their doings? What do you expect to happen?"
I simply replied. She did not know these guys, and the things they were always willing to do. Eda laid her hand on her racket which was lying next to her.
"No, I will do my job."
Ivory and I exchanged looks. Pale nodded.
"I'll help ya out sweetheart. We'll do that and a bag of Fritos."
Had they both turned into policemen by now? They were talking about busting smugglers whose companions attacked us, and we killed those in the end. That was not a very good idea to say the least.
"Wait, our job is to protect the people of remnant, not to bust smugglers. Leave that to the military and the police."
"You just said it. We protect more students, Huntsmen and Huntresses, and most importantly, the civilians."
She had a good point there. If those guys were out there, still looking for people to fleece or to harm, then we had to do something about it. I sighed. It was the right choice after all. And that very same decision would bring us into a lot of trouble, and it would change all our lives forever. Of course, nobody could have ever known that.
"Fine. After the last class has ended, we will go out and look for clues.
What do you say?"
Everyone agreed. We were a team after all, so it was important to always stick together. And I had a slight feeling that Eda would do anything to pay those bastards back. Now there was one simple problem. We had to be careful, and I thought that we had to ask the teachers or the headmaster for permission to investigate. We walked through the hallways to our next class. And we just happened to walk into Doctor Greystep on our way. He was talking to Yellwin, and as he saw us, he nodded to her and she left, waving at us kindly. Greystep turned around and observed us as we steered directly at him.
Eda started the conversation.
"Hello, Doctor. We have a question, if it wouldn't bother you."
He shook his head and braced himself on his walking cane. He looked at us just if he had expected us to ask.
"I don't mind. What can I do for you?"
I took a small step forward and talked a little bit quieter.
"Do you remember when we were attacked by the smugglers airship,
shortly before the quest ended?"
Greystep nodded. Pale continued.
"We all came up with a plan to find them buddies."
Ivory added.
"And we would like to ask if we have the permission to investigate."
Greystep looked at us with a well deserved astonished look on his face.
"And why do you want to do that?"
He asked. I shrugged.
"We are Huntsmen; we are here to protect the innocent and citizens who can't defend themselves. Doesn't that include bad criminals as well?"
This situation was really awkward actually. We just walked towards a teacher out the door and asked him to allow us to hunt smugglers. To be honest, I wasn't sure if he would even let us go near those guys.
He thought for a second, then he presented us with his final answer.
"You do realize what can happen, am I right? The City of Mistral is a friendly place; there are not that many criminals here. But the harbor is a different place. Some airships which arrive here bring a lot of danger sometimes. But, I can't forbid you to go there. In fact, I never had to hear that."
He fingered his beard and continued.
"It would supersede the whole action if you told anyone else about your plans. However, be careful when you're on your own. I don't want to lose one of the most promising teams here.
Now go to your class, you need to learn a lot about the creatures of Grimm."
And with that he walked his way again. We gazed after him and then exchanged looks.
"Did he just allow us to move on?"
Ivory was just as puzzled as the rest of us.
"He obviously doesn't care."
Eda remarked. I did not think so.
"No, he does care. But he probably knows about our abilities. He wouldn't be a teacher if he didn't care about his students, isn't it?"
I looked at Eda as she rolled her eyes and turned around.
"You know exactly how I meant that, team leader Tangery."
I laughed. We continued our walk to the classroom.
"I am going to enjoy the next three years."