Trails of Blood and Steel

by ultimatedbzmaniac

The Blood and Iron Chancellor, Giliath Osborne. The Debaucherous Prince, Olivert Reise Arnor. The board is set; the players are ready. Caught between these titans, Class VII are forced to serve as pieces in their game. However, three of these pieces: Rean Schwarzer, Fie Claussell, and Crow Armbrust; are not content simply being used. No, they would make this game their own.

9. Things Unspoken

Apex85: Okay. Agreed.

I can see where you're coming from, but as far as I'm aware, Patrick always knew that Rean was an adopted noble. Well, by always, I mean since he approached him in chapter two. I can't recall any statements, hints or suggestions to prove otherwise. I took his reaction to Rean after the mock battle for Patrick being petty, snobbish and lashing out because of his hurt pride. He's definitely that sort of person, until he betters himself, but that's beside the point. I could be wrong, of course, wouldn't be the first time, but yeah, pretty sure he knew that in canon. That said, he didn't give him all that much respect, he was pompous the whole time and acted as if he was doing Rean such a huge favor for such an insignificant gesture. So...yeah.

Yeah...you don't like Crow very much do you? That's unfortunate, but understandable. I mean, he sure as hell pissed me off with some of the shit he pulled, so I can't really blame ya too much. I love the guy though, he's tied for my second favorite character after all. That aside, yeah, Fie would notice something like that, so it only seemed natural. I intend it to go differently, for sure. I'm just not a hundred percent sure how differently, or how exactly I wish to do it yet.

RedBurningDragon: Thank you.

Heero De Fanel: It should be, I mean, I certainly intend it to. Thanks. I intend to do much more based around the npcs, just haven't gotten around to it yet. In particular, I have something special planned for Vivi, as well as Rex. What? Well, I'm not gonna tell you, you'll just have to find out for yourself. Eventually. Agreed. And the number of people coming to see him when he gets hurt will only increase, as he forges and strengthens relationships. That's, of course, obvious though.

Guest: Well, that's not a bad guess, that's for sure. Whether you're right or not, you'll just have to find out for yourself. :P As for if Rean will transform earlier than in the game, I'll be blunt, yes. How much earlier, or the exact when though, that I'm not telling you. Don't wanna just give stuff away like that, after all.

Null-Nature: Cool, glad someone else managed to find the amazing, fantastic adventure that is Cold Steel. Thank you, and I hope I don't disappoint!

bri333865: Thanks! After all, every review counts! As long as they're longer than five words, of course, but there's no need to get into that whole can of worms. Thank you very much, I appreciate the compliment. Yeah, unfortunately there's not much Rean/Fie going around, and that depresses me, honestly it does. I am, obviously, biased, but they make the best couple out of anyone in the series, yet so few people see that. Anyway, I digress. Good to know, and glad you're looking forward to that. Cool, no need for you to wait any longer, as here is the next chapter.

Manu259: Thank you. Oh, don't worry, I most certainly will. Yeah, hope to hear from you again.

Guest: Um, I guess I can see how you'd think that. But from everything we've seen, at least in the first two games, that's not the case. So...yeah, that's not true. Again, as far as we know.

DarkMegaSF: I know, I knew the day it released. I've been doing my absolute best to avoid spoilers, some have gotten through unfortunately, but for the most part, I'm almost completely in the dark on it. I know there's going to be a fourth one (YAY!) and a few other things, but I won't disclose those in case some of my readers don't know about them. I hope all you guys show me the same courtesy and keep your reviews and any PMs you send me spoiler free. Ugh, man, the wait for it to get localized is going to kill me! I need it, I NEED IT! Ahem, moving on.

One of your favorite pairings? Cool. It is my favorite pairing. Rean X Harem (No, not all of the girls, just some of them, so a small harem) is tied with Rean and Fie, but that too has Fie in it, with Rean...so, yeah, you could say I'm obsessed with those two being together. XD

Thank you, I'm happy you enjoyed it. I hope you continue to enjoy, and read, oh and review...maybe? XP No, but seriously, I'm glad you enjoyed it and I intend to make sure you and everyone else continues to have fun on the ride I plan on taking all of you.

Anyway, once again, thanks to all those who reviewed, and allow me to thank those who have added this story to their favorites and alerts since the last update. Korran01, Lyrista, MagneticDucky, Null-Nature, Weanuts, bri333865, FlawlessMirage, DarkMegaSF, Cloud5815, Insanity's Avatar, MaijinUroburous, Manu259, Unlimited Blade Works Ilya, Frostburn243, kight099, Erk Prower, soemitro212, grimofdeath, prodigisk, Shikyo no Kyoufu, Lady Vanatos, blahto, KirochkaSveta, TheWitchHunt, Shashenka, shanagan, Naofumi, Auditto, legok2007, doggy bye, zealousrean, thank you!

UPDATE

Said it before, I'll say it again. Touch-ups. Also, one extra scene. Nothing too important in the grand scheme of things, but it's been put there for continuity's sake and for the purpose of more NPC stuff.

Now then, let's get into it. Please read, review, and enjoy.

---

ACT I - CHAPTER II - PART I

...

Septian Calendar 1204
5/22 - Saturday

With the ringing of the school bell, another day of classes had come to an end.

"Good work today, class." Sara complimented her students. "Tomorrow's a free day, so do take it easy. You've earned it." She told them. "Just remember, next Wednesday is your second practical exam!" She reminded them, exponentially more excited about it than they were.

"I was wondering when she'd bring that up..." Alisa said with a sigh.

"Umm...will you be announcing the details of our next field study trip on Wednesday also?" Emma queried.

"Of course! You'll be leaving next weekend." The care-free instructor confirmed. "I'm sure you can hardly wait."

At this, Machias sighed and Jusis scoffed in almost perfect sync.

"I, for one, very much look forward to it." Laura put forth.

"Oh, and one more thing..." The jovial twenty-something started, getting the class' full attention. "Your midterms are scheduled for the middle of next month. So just...file that away, if you would." She finished casually.

"M-Midterms...?" Elliot repeated the word as if confirming an enemy was ready to attack, his concern quite audible.

"Sounds irritating." Fie opined.

"So we finally get to put all the knowledge we've gained throughout the past two months to the test..." Gaius remarked.

"Yes, and that's a good thing. You need to be thinking about your academic studies. School can't just be military strategy, you know!" Instructor Sara lectured them. "Because if it is, I'm going to get an earful from Vice Principal Heinrich." The small frown now present on her face made it clear such a thing was even more unpleasant than it sounded.

"Again." She added after a brief moment, a bit piteously.

Unable to help it, the entirety of Class VII proceeded to sweatdrop at this.

"Is that all you care about...?" Rean questioned.

"Sounds about right." Fie stated, clearly having seen that coming.

"U-Um, can we ask you if there's anything we don't understand?" The blonde archer inquired.

"Not if you care about the answer being right. I'm a combat instructor! Book smarts like that are well beyond me." Said combat instructor bluntly apprised, her frown gone at this point.

"Why does that not surprise me?" Jusis questioned rhetorically.

"Anyway, that's all for homeroom! Machias, if you'd please?" Ignoring the blond boy's comment, the jovial woman signaled the class vice-president that it was time to end homeroom.

"Yes, Instructor." Machias replied dutifully, before standing.

"All rise...Bow."

...

As half the class, instructor included, filed out of the room, Rean, Gaius, Machias, Elliot, and Laura lagged behind.

While Laura still sat at her desk, just as Rean sat at his, Elliot, Gaius, and Machias all stood to the right of the latter, engaging him in a brief conversation.

"Well, I'll see you later, Rean."

"Later."

"I'll be going as well."

"You guys heading for your clubs?" Rean queried.

"Yeah." Elliot confirmed. "Did you guys want to have dinner together later?" The orange-haired boy asked his friends.

"We've been eating in the cafeteria an awful lot lately, so maybe we could go to the cafe in Trista today for a change of scenery?" The soft-spoken nord suggested.

"That's fine with me." The bespectacled academic said with a nod.

"Sounds good. Meet there in two hours?" The Schwarzer heir posed to them.

"Sure!" The timid violinist chirped with a smile.

"See you then." The gentle spearman added.

The dark green-haired boy nodded in affirmation to this.

The three went on their way then, leaving the classroom.

As the three left, Rean took notice of Laura, who had stood from her seat and had come up to his desk.

"Oh, hey Laura. What's up?"

"Are you planning on going into the old schoolhouse tomorrow?" Laura inquired.

"Yeah, the principal did ask me to keep an eye on it, so I thought I'd make time for a quick look inside." The humble swordsman answered. "Why? Planning on coming with?"

The blue-haired girl nodded affirmatively at that. "Please let me know when you're planning to begin the expedition, if you would. Klein appointed me as Monica's swimming coach, but I'm sure she'd understand if I had to miss one session. The old schoolhouse takes priority, after all."

"Monica?" Rean repeated the name, a little confused. "Oh, right, the girl you said wanted to swim fifty arge in one go." He recalled then, putting a face to the name, the bubblegum-pink haired girl appearing in his mind's eye.

"That's her." The well-spoken swordswoman confirmed.

"Yeah, thanks. I'll let you know."

"Excellent. I'll see you tomorrow then."

With that said, she turned away and made for the door.

Last one in the room, Rean got out of his desk, stretched a bit, and moved to exit as well.

"Time to go find Fie."

...

It didn't take the raven-haired teen long to find her, having descended the steps down to the first floor and exited the building through one of the side doors that led to the courtyard.

That was where he spotted her, napping on the middle bench,

"That doesn't even look particularly comfortable..." Rean thought aloud.

"Oh, who am I kidding. I've seen her sleep in weirder places than this." He said with a shake of his head.

'My room, the pantry, the bench at the funicular station, the waiting area at the Phoenix Wings, in the pews at the church, the list just goes on. No matter how many times I told her it wasn't a good idea to sleep in such weird places, especially outside, she never listened.'

Walking over to her, he stopped for a moment, considering not waking her and letting her nap a little while. However, that wouldn't do, not with the dinner plans he had for later.

"Fie." He softly said her name, as he gently moved some strands of her hair out of her face.

That was enough to stir her, as her eyes fluttered open, yawning as she sat up.

"Hey, Rean." She greeted him.

"Fie, what have I told you about sleeping in odd places?"

"To not do it." She answered simply.

"And yet you still persist." He pointed out.

"Shut up." She replied, lacking any bite or vehemence.

"It's nap time. So either come nap with me-" She tried to exhort him, as she lied back on the bench. "-or go away."

"Come on, Fie." Her childhood friend prodded with a chuckle.

"Alright, alright." The stoic fifteen-year-old capitulated, getting back up.

"Let's get training."

---

The sun was setting in the distance by the time Rean arrived at the school gate, the horizon obscuring almost half of it.

His training session with Fie had just wrapped up, and he'd invited her to dinner with the guys. Yet, she was noticeably absent as the humble swordsman came to a stop at said gate.

'I'll wait here for her.' He decided.

The silver-haired girl had said she needed to check in with Beatrix first before they left, so the raven-haired youth opted to wait for her rather than go on ahead.

...

"Yo, Rean-Boy." Came the voice of a certain second-year.

Turning around, he saw Crow walking up to him.

"Oh, hey, Crow." Rean greeted his friend as he came to a stop in front of him.

"You're here late." The older boy observed. "What, Towa got'ya doing more stuff for the Student Council?" He presumed.

"Nah." Rean replied with a shake of his head. "Just a training session."

"Again?" Crow queried. "You sure are a work-a-holic, huh? If it's not schoolwork or studying, it's odd jobs for the Student Council, and if that's not it, you while away the time training. Don't you ever just kick back and relax?"

"I like to keep busy." The black-haired boy responded with a shrug of his shoulders, clearly not thinking of it as a big deal.

"That's just fine and dandy and all, but take some time out of your day for yourself, man. You've been here nearly two months, and all I've ever seen you do is keep busy. Have some fun, live a little. Join a club, take up a hobby, kiss a girl, doesn't matter what, just do something fun!" The white-haired youth insisted.

"I have fun." Rean calmly contended.

"Oh really?" Crow questioned skeptically. "Name one fun thing you've done in the past week." He challenged his younger friend.

"Easy. I hung out with Machias, Elliot, and Gaius yesterday." The Schwarzer heir two put forth.

"Uh-huh. And what did you guys do, exactly?" The second-year inquired.

"Chatted, had some coffee and tea, listened to a bit of music, you know, just hung out." The diffident swordsman explained.

"You call that fun?" Crow questioned with a quirked brow. "That's nothing. Parties, dates, a night out on the town; concerts, panty raids, a day at the races, now those are fun." He gave a mirthful grin as he listed his examples.

"P-Panty raids?! Just what the hell do you do in your spare time!?" Rean demanded with incredulity.

"Oh, don't go getting your panties in a twist." The red-eyed boy waved his friend's reaction off. "If it makes you feel better, someone, a girl in fact, if you can call her that, helped me plan the thing. We kept each other in check, so it's not as bad as it sounds."

"How does that change anything or make it better in the slightest!?" Rean demanded exasperatedly in response to his friend's absurd reply.

Before the two could continue their back and forth, a new, third voice, proceeded to interject. "What was that remark about me not being a girl?"

"Oh crap. It's the she-devil." Crow bemoaned said female's sudden presence aloud.

"What?" Was Rean's response, having no clue what the other teen was talking about, until he realized someone was approaching them, rolling a purple-colored contraption along with them.

'A...bicycle? No, it looks like it's powered by orbal energy...' Rean thought to himself, as the young woman strolled up, stopping beside them.

"You're Rean, I take it?" The Leather-Clad girl said then, clearly addressing him. "I've been hearing all about you from Towa and George. Even this louse has been talking about you." The magenta-haired girl gestured to the white-haired teen with a tilt of her head.

"Hey!" Crow objected, only to be blatantly ignored.

"Sounds like you got into a bunch of trouble on your field study last month, and still managed to come out looking good. Not bad." She complimented the younger teen with a wink.

"I'm...surprised you know my name, actually. I didn't think I'd been doing anything worthy of such attention." Rean admitted, thoughts of Crow's extreme impropriety pushed to the back of his mind for the moment.

"Guess I should still officially introduce myself, though. I'm Rean Schwarzer. It's nice to meet you." He gave his introduction with a friendly smile.

"Same." The Leather-Clad girl returned his smile with one of her own. "I'm Angelica. Angelica Rogner. Glad I could finally make your acquaintance."

"Rogner?" Rean repeated with a bit of shock. "As in...Marquis Rogner? Head of one of the Four Great Houses!?"

"Haha. Same reaction every time, I swear!" Angelica exclaimed with a chuckle. "Yeah, I'm his unworthy daughter. But he doesn't really want anything to do with me since I go around dressed like this."

"I think it's less how you dress and more how you behave." Crow interjected. "Where are you going on that bike at this hour, anyway?"

"Oh, George finally finished tuning the orbal engine." Angelica informed him. "So I figured I'd give it a run to the capital and back to see how it holds up."

"Sure must be nice not to have a care in the world." Crow replied with a sigh and a shake of his head.

"Haha. Look who's talking." She shot back.

Angelica climbed onto the metal contraption then, giving one of the handles a few good turns, before what sounded like an engine came to life.

"Hehe. Well, catch you later."

Before leaving though, she looked back at Rean and addressed him once more. "I'm thinking of putting in a request for you sometime. If I do, I'd sure appreciate a swift response."

With that, without giving him a chance to respond, she proceeded to drive off, leaving school grounds entirely.

Rean just stared after her, slackjawed, completely floored.

"Heh. I take it you liked the orbal bike?" Crow asked needlessly.

"I want one. I want one right now." Rean blurted out without thinking.

"Eh, can't say I blame you. It is pretty damn cool." Crow opined. "It's a little something George put together a while back."

"I'm guessing that means you can't buy it in any shops, huh?" Rean questioned, disappointment already present in his tone as he turned around, the look on his face giving away that he already knew the answer to his question.

"Yep." Crow confirmed for him anyway. "The Roer Institute of Technology started putting that one together as part of a test, then George finished it off." He explained. "'Gelica put up the money for the parts herself. Oh, but Towa and I helped out too." He elucidated.

"Sounds like it was a pretty challenging project." The humble swordsman said. "So I take it that means you're pretty good friends with Towa and George, then? Angelica too?"

"Well, we're all from different classes, but we've kind of stuck together for a while now. So, the short answer is, yeah."

That's when a thought struck Rean. "Wait a sec, what you said a minute ago, Angelica reacted like it was her you were talking about."

"Yeah, and?"

"That means..." Then it clicked. "She was the one to help you orchestrate a panty raid!?"

'A stiff reminder that first impressions aren't always the best things to go off of, I guess.'

"Yeah, that was her." Crow affirmed casually. "Snagged even more panties than I did, in fact." He mentioned. "I'll never give her the satisfaction of admitting it to her face, though." He added as an afterthought, sounding almost resentful when he did.

Words failed Rean in that moment, unable to properly articulate his feelings on the matter. He simply sweatdropped.

'He certainly sounds bitter about that.'

"What's this about panties?" Fie inquired nonchalantly from her spot behind Crow, having just caught a few words of the butt-end of their conversation upon her arrival at the school gate.

"Whoa, you sure know how to sneak up on a guy, don't ya?" Crow said as he turned around, having nearly jumped at the sound of the younger girl's voice.

In an hasty attempt to clear the air about the panty thing, Rean immediately jumped into trying to explain the situation. "W-Well, about that, it's-" Before he could actually explain things, his upperclassman cut in.

"Oh, Rean-Boy here was just wondering what kind of panties you wear is all." Crow lied smoothly, snapping to it almost instantly once the opportunity was presented.

Rean was so taken off guard, so flabbergasted, he neglected to form a verbal response to such a claim, his only reaction being to stare at his white-haired friend like he'd just seen him kill a puppy.

Said look only served to cause Crow to burst into laughter.

Fie's reaction to this statement of Crow's would have knocked Rean for a loop, if he'd been focusing on her rather than the man who was, in the humble swordsman's opinion, trying to get him killed.

"Oh really?" She queried with a quirked brow, sounding none too upset.

"Wha-What!?" Rean finally found his voice, as red began color his cheeks. "That is so not true!"

"You're right. I made it up." Crow confessed rather easily, after having finished his bout of laughter.

Rean nearly faceplanted at the ridiculousness of this.

"Yeah, I already knew that." Fie informed the two then, sounding bored.

"Girl, the two of us need to have a talk. You need to learn how to tease someone. Because you just missed a real golden opportunity. You could have done far more than just gone along with it." Crow gave his two cents then, having picked up on the fact that she didn't take him seriously from the get-go.

"Dude, that was so not cool!" The raven-haired boy exclaimed then, clearly none too happy with the older boy.

"Yeah, but it sure was funny, huh?" The red-eyed teen replied cheekily.

"N-No! No, it was not!" His younger friend denied vehemently.

"Alright, alright. I can see you're not okay with that kind of ribbing." Crow conceded to some regard. "I won't do anything like that again." He assured. "Probably." He affixed that to his previous statement, still grinning mirthfully.

Rather than let himself continue to get worked up, Rean just let it go with a sigh. "Whatever."

"We should get going. Don't wanna be late for dinner." Fie reminded Rean.

"Dinner plans? Don't let me hold you up then." Crow told them, stepping back as he did. "I need to be heading back to the dorms anyway. So, later."

As he turned and walked away, leaving school grounds, Rean sighed once more.

"You shouldn't let him get to you so much." Fie advised her childhood friend. "He's just trying to get a rise out of you."

"I know that." Rean admitted outright. "And I don't really know why he gets to me so much, but he does. I mean, I know he doesn't mean anything by it, he's just joking, but somehow, that just makes it worse." He continued with a shake of his head.

"I can deal with disrespect, derision, and even outright contempt. Most nobles had nothing but those things for me while I was growing up in Ymir." He confided, though she already knew this. "But him, I don't know how to handle. Not yet, at least."

Fie was silent for a few moments before responding with, "Take it from someone who knows you, Rean. You'll figure it out soon enough."

"Yeah." Rean agreed with a nod of his head. "I guess."

---

Gaius, Machias, and Elliot occupied the table closest to the stairs leading to the second floor of Kirsche's Cafe and Inn. They had arrived a few minutes ago and had just placed their orders, now they were just waiting on their swordsman friend.

Not that they had to wait long, as Rean proceeded to enter the establishment in that moment, Fie in tow.

Upon being sighted, the raven-haired youth was warmly welcomed into the cafe by Fred, the owner himself, the man's cheery mood somehow amplifying.

The three at the table were able to pick up something about the owner thanking the black-haired teen for something or other, though they weren't able to hear exactly what he was grateful for.

After Fred spoke with Rean for a few moments, he returned to his spot behind the counter, and began working on the other three teens orders.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late." Rean apologized with a bit of a sheepish smile, as he and Fie approached the table.

"Don't worry about it." Machias waved his friend off. "You could hardly be considered late. Especially for a casual dinner like this."

"We've only been here a few minutes ourselves." Gaius mentioned.

"Will you be joining us Fie?" Elliot inquired.

"Yep. Rean invited me." Fie answered, straight and to the point.

"Pull up a chair." The bespectacled teen gestured to one of the few empty seats around the establishment, the place rather full at the moment for the dinner rush and whatnot.

"It's nice to have you join us." The soft-spoken nord said pleasantly to Fie, to which she responded with a simple nod of the head as she got herself a chair.

"We saved you a seat." The orange-haired boy let his swordsman friend know, indicating it with a glance.

"Thanks."

...

After pleasantries were exchanged, and Dolly, the waitress, had come by and taken the two newest customer's orders, the group fell into an easy flow of conversation.

They started by discussing their clubs, going one by one and talking about their clubmates and such, while Fie noticeably remained silent on the matter. Soon enough, it got back around to a certain swordsman.

"What about you, Rean? Have you finally joined a club yet?" Elliot queried.

"No, I haven't." Rean answered simply. "I'm usually too busy with helping out the Student Council, and besides that, honestly, I just don't have any real interest in any of them." He elucidated as he shrugged his shoulders. "I like things like horseback riding, music, and cooking just fine, but I don't have a passion for them. As for the other clubs, well, I can't say I know a whole lot about painting, or chess, or photography for that matter, so they're out. And that doesn't leave me a whole lot of clubs to choose from..." He explicated.

"Perhaps you don't need to join a club." Gaius put forth then. "While the task load seems heavy, assisting the Student Council seems to give you the freedom to move about the campus, even the town, as you wish." He pointed out. "That doesn't seem like a bad thing, considering it allows you to get to know the student body as a whole, and the citizens of Trista as well. Getting to know everyone, even becoming friendly with them, that doesn't seem so bad, does it? I mean, we will be living here for the next two years. It couldn't hurt to be on good terms."

"He's got a point." Machias agreed. "It would make your life easier in the long run, for sure."

"Everyone seems to be fond of the Student Council around here. Forgoing joining a club to help them out will probably win you some points. At the very least, it's good practice for our field studies, right?" Elliot remarked.

"That's what Instructor Sara said too..." Rean stated with a sigh.

'I'm pretty sure it's a safe bet that Towa's the reason for the Student Council's seemingly glowing reputation around here. How does she keep everyone happy? Especially with 'certain' instructors pushing their workloads off onto her?'

Shaking his head clear of these thoughts, Rean continued, "Whatever, you guys are right. No need to worry about it. I'll just go with the flow."

"How about you Fie? You're in the gardening club, aren't you?" The timid violinist queried the silver-haired girl, attempting to draw her into the conversation.

"Yeah." Fie confirmed simply enough.

"Is that so? What kind of flowers are you growing?" The class VP asked.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to know myself Fie." Rean said, clearly curious.

"Nothing." She disclosed bluntly.

The boys at the table, with the exception of Gaius, proceeded to sweatdrop at this.

"Nothing?" The orange-haired boy questioned, sounding unsure.

Fie simply nodded her head at that.

"Like nothing at all?" The bespectacled academic requested clarification.

"That's what I said." The former jaeger replied curtly.

"Fie, you're a part of the gardening club. Why aren't you growing anything?" Rean posed to her, getting right to the point.

"Don't feel like it." She confessed with a half shrug, looking as bored as ever.

With a sigh, Rean began trying to convince his childhood friend to see reason, in that if you're a part of a club, you should participate. She wasn't so easily convinced however, and they basically went around in verbal circles for several moments. And the other three teens at the table just sat back and watched as they did.

It was definitely amusing to watch them, but they also didn't quite feel like getting involved. As, frankly, it seemed like a futile endeavor, seeing as the silver-haired girl didn't strike them as the type of person do something she didn't want to do, no matter how much convincing was involved.

...

It didn't take too long for Rean to give up, as he knew all too well that if Fie didn't want to do something, she wasn't going to do it. He had just been hoping that she would be more willing to participate in her club activities is all.

"Well, if you do end up growing something, I'd love to see it." With that remark, he let it go. He had no intention of pushing her, after all.

As the raven-haired youth turned his eyes to the others, he failed to notice the sudden look of contemplation on the fifteen-year-old's face.

"Speaking of extracurricular activities, what have you guys been up to lately?" Machias questioned the pair of childhood friends.

"What do you mean?" Rean asked.

"I mean, you two are always the last to return to the dorms. Consistently, every day. What have you guys been doing?" The bespectacled teen inquired. "If you don't mind me asking, that is." He affixed to his inquiry.

"That's a good question. I've been wondering about it myself. Has the Instructor had you guys running more errands?" The timid violinist queried.

"We could always assist you guys, if that's the case. No need to do it all yourselves." The gentle spearman offered.

"Training." Fie interjected then.

"Training?" The three curious teens repeated with a questioning tone in tandem.

"We've been training." Fie told them simply, not offering much in the way of an explanation.

Rean proceeded to elaborate. He did, however, keep the more personal details out of it.

...

"Ah, gotcha." Elliot said with a nod of his head.

"You could've just said that in the first place." Machias commented with shake of his head.

"I see. How's the training been going then?" Gaius inquired.

"Heh, to be honest, day in and day out, Fie here keeps kicking my ass." Rean informed them humorously with a chuckle.

The other three boys laughed at this.

"Ignore him. He's selling himself short. He's doing well." Fie stated stone-faced, contradicting Rean.

The rest of the table was prevented from responding, as that was when Dolly arrived with their orders. As such, everyone's attention shifted to their food. Dinner was on.

The topic of training was forgotten, as they all began to eat. The conversation would resume, with the boys prodding Fie every once in a while to bring her into the discussion, at least momentarily.

All in all, they had a good time.

---

5/23 - Sunday

With the exception of further investigating the old schoolhouse, which would clearly be a continuous thing in the months to come, only two tasks were on Rean's agenda for the day.

First, he stopped by Keynes' bookstore, where the owner informed him that he had lost the order sheet he had received from the academy, the staff having put an order in with him, which in turn meant he had no real idea which piece of literature to deliver to whom. Seeing as the raven-haired youth was a student at Thors, the brown-haired man thought he might be able to deduce who ordered what, seeing as he was far more familiar with the instructors. Seeing the logic behind this, and just simply wanting to assist the man, Rean gladly took the books off his hands, five of them in total.

From there, he went from one place to the next, hunting down which teacher he figured ordered which book. First he delivered a book on the War of the Lions to Instructor Thomas, then he brought Vice Principal Heinrich his book on extremely advanced and intricate economics, followed by giving a compendium on all the works of modern art to Instructor Mary. After which, he put the latest issue of a science magazine in Instructor Makarov's hands, before getting the last of the literature to it's destination, a tourist magazine on the Empire's hottest spots, which he gave to none other than his homeroom teacher, Sara. He would then return to Keynes', but not before questioning his instructor on why she was so drunk so early in the morning.

After Keynes' expressed his gratitude, the Schwarzer heir moved onto the next task.

Meeting at the lower-class dorm, he spoke with Klein, the one who made the second request in the first place. There had apparently been some kind of family emergency regarding his mother and he needed to get home to check on her. As a result, he needed someone to fill in for him as a tutor for a child, named Emile. Simple and straightforward, Rean agreed and went straight there.

After a productive two hour study session, the job was done. The boy's mother, Melissa, thanked him and even gave him a fair amount of Mira for his trouble, in spite of the fact that he had tried to refuse the compensation at first. Seeing as the woman might be insulted by continuous refusal, especially considering her confusion the first time he rejected the money, he ended up just taking the bills with a smile and sincere words of thanks.

Just like that, excluding the old schoolhouse of, Rean was done with his Student Council work for the day. And seeing as the teen had gotten an early start, the time barely past seven in the morning when he left the dorm, it wasn't even noon yet.

Since that was the case, a break seemed to be in order.

...

Stopping in at Kirsche's, Rean figured he'd buy himself something to drink. The moment he entered the establishment though, he noticed the presence of a certain second-year, sitting all by his lonesome at a table.

Putting the act of purchasing a beverage off for the moment, he approached said second-year.

"Enjoying a little tea in peace and quiet today, Crow?" Rean inquired.

"Nah, I'm just waiting around for an appointment." Crow answered, pushing his half-empty cup to the side as his eyes shifted focus onto the younger boy. "But man, they're sure taking their sweet time. Way to keep a guy hangin'!"

Rean couldn't help but chuckle at his fellow teen's complaint. "I get the feeling you've done the same thing at least a couple times."

"Oh ho, feelin' cheeky today, are we?" Crow queried with the beginnings of a grin. "It's about time. You need to learn to go with the flow and let loose man. Don't be all stiff and reserved, there are plenty of other people to do that for ya." He advised the humble swordsman.

Said swordsman was noticeably shocked by the slacker's words.

'Is he just messing with me, or did he really notice...?'

"Oh, by the way, I'm sorry about yesterday." The white-haired youth suddenly apologized, his grin fading, surprising his fellow teen and getting him to momentarily push his previous thoughts aside.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Rean questioned.

"I really wasn't trying to get you into hot water or anything. If she had believed me, I'd have immediately explained that I was bullshitting." Crow assured him.

Now Rean knew what he was talking about.

"I wouldn't really do something like that to you. We're friends, after all. And that's not what friends do. I was just trying to mess with ya is all." The slacker explained himself.

"Yeah, I kinda figured that." Rean replied while letting out a small laugh. "You really got me flustered, that's for sure. But it's fine, no need to worry about it. I know you didn't mean anything by it." He reassured his senior, a small smile on his face, having appreciated the apology.

"Y'know, you should express yourself more. It would suit a guy like you." Crow abruptly exhorted his junior. "It'd probably help you with that girl you're so head over heels for too. Fie's her name, right?" He requested confirmation of this fact.

Like someone with the experience of having done so their entire life, Crow, once again had Rean blushing as he spluttered. "Wha-what!? Head over heels!? I don't-I mean, I-What does that even have to do with-"

Rather than letting him continue to go on, the older teen proceeded to interrupt him. "Oh and I'll admit, I can't really deny that you're right about the being late thing."

This seemingly off-topic remark confused the black-haired teen for a moment, until he realized that the slacker was referring to his previous comment. Akin to rapid fire, the older boy had shocked him, embarrassed him and confused him, in the span of only about a minute or two.

Groaning at the realization that he had just been played for a bit of a fool, again, the teen couldn't help but facepalm, while simultaneously sweatdropping. "You...you're too much." He remarked with a shake of his head, taking a second to calm himself.

"So, am I to assume you mess with all the first-years like this, or is it just my buttons that you like to push?" Rean inquired dryly.

"It's just you." Crow bluntly disclosed, a wry grin stretched across his face.

The humble swordsman couldn't help but let out a heavy sigh at this. "Of course it is."

"Lighten up, Rean-Boy." The second-year told his junior with a chuckle. "I'm just tryin' to help you out. It won't do anyone any good for you to go around keeping everything bottled up all the time. That's true for anyone, doubly so for you. It's just not healthy." The slacker counseled his younger friend.

At that, Rean was momentarily rendered speechless.

'How in the hell...!? Can he read me?!'

He wasn't given more than a few, short moments to contemplate, as Crow snapped him from his thoughts on the matter. "Why not pull up a chair and sit a spell? Not like you got anything better to do, right?"

The proposition did appeal to the younger teen, as he had already intended to get something to drink, and this would provide him the chance to try and figure this guy out, even if only a little.

'It shocked me that Fie could see through me, however with the life she's led, I honestly can't say I'm surprised by it. I should have expected it, in fact. But Crow? How could he possibly...?'

So, he accepted. "Yeah, sure. Just let me go order something first."

"Cool. And hey, once they get here, maybe you can even join in."

---

They, as it had turned out, were the neighborhood kids Kay and Rudy. And the appointment was actually a game of blade they had scheduled. Innocent enough, right? Rean had thought so, that is until it became clear that Crow had them betting with each hand.

He was gambling! With kids!

Rean had been just a little aghast at this fact. It was, admittedly, with candy, but still. And yet, the swordsman found himself engaging in it as well, after much prodding from Crow, of course. After all, it was just candy, not that big a deal.

As the Schwarzer heir quickly found out, it was far less shady and concerning than he had originally thought, for the simple fact that Crow clearly threw every other round, at the least. Kay and Rudy were oblivious to this however, allowing them to revel in their victory over the teen. Rean followed his senior's lead and continuously allowed the younger boys to clean house, while feigning a fight, of course. Didn't want them figuring it out.

During the course of the dozen or so rounds they ended up playing, Crow mentioned how he'd been trying to get anyone who would listen to play Blade, clearly passionate about the card game, having gone so far as to give a deck to Micht to 'spread the love' as he called it. Rean didn't have the heart to tell his friend that the old man had just turned right around and dumped it on him.

Shortly after, the final round came to an end, and every piece of candy laid out on the table belonged to the two young kids, leaving the two teens broke and all out of 'chips' to bet. The teens congratulated them on their victory, and the two boys went on their way, all smiles as they did. Needless to say, Rean felt good about that, and his opinion of Crow's character improved.

He definitely considered the second-year a friend, that didn't quite mean he thought all that highly of his proclivities though.

In the time he had known him, he'd become aware of the fact that he regularly cut class, slacked off when he was actually in class, attempted to butt into people's personal relationships, tricked people out of their mira; even if was just the one time. And, more recently, found out he liked to conduct panty raids.

None of these were outright heinous, not by any means. Still, they certainly weren't the most...upstanding activities to be associated with.

"Whatever." Rean said with a shake of his head, as he exited Kirsche's.

'I'll worry about Crow being a bad influence another time.'

...

That was when he caught sight of a certain silver-haired girl to his left, standing in front of Jane's Gardening Shop.

She was clearly looking for something, judging by her wandering gaze, scanning over the entirety of the contents of the store.

Curious, he walked away from Kirsche's and approached his childhood friend.

"What's up, Fie?" Rean questioned the younger girl.

The fifteen-year-old didn't bother to look back at her older friend, having been aware of his presence before he was aware of hers.

"I changed my mind, decided I would grow some flowers for the club. So, I'm here to get the tools I'll need." She answered him.

"That's great. It's good that you're taking an active part in your club." Rean expressed his contentment that she was actually participating in something for once. After all, as the teen had found out through personal experience, getting Fie Claussell to participate in anything, at all, was a feat in it of itself.

"Want some help?"

At that question, the former jaeger did turn to face him, lime-green orbs meeting his fuchsia. "Anyway I can just ditch this whole thing and let you take care of it?" She inquired, sounding ever so slightly hopeful for an affirmative answer, even in spite what she knew he'd say.

"Not a chance." Rean shot her down without a second's hesitation.

"Aww." Fie verbalized her disappointment at that, before giving a sigh of acceptance. "I figured as much."

"Given how many types of plants there are, you've got no shortage of options. Any idea what you want to raise?" The dark-haired boy asked, getting right back into the subject.

"Yep." She replied, as she pulled out a small sack of seeds from her skirt pocket and showed them to him.

"Oh, what're these?" He queried, his curiosity piqued.

"Flower seeds. Dunno what they're called though." Fie responded with a half shrug. "Someone gave'em to me when I was in the corps. Had'em ever since."

"Gotcha." Rean said with a nod. "You helped Mom with the flowers, but you never did plant any yourself, did you?" He questioned then.

She simply shook her head at that.

"Do you know how to raise them?" He questioned further.

"Yeah. They told me how." She confirmed with a nod. "Said I'd have to raise'em with love though..." She trailed off, averting her eyes as she did.

"And what's wrong with that?" Rean inquired, brows furrowing in confusion.

"I don't know a whole lot about love. Not really." Fie confessed, eyes downcast, suddenly sounding rather subdued.

"Now that's not true." Her childhood friend immediately disputed such a claim.

The silver-haired girl brought her gaze back up at that, resting her eyes on the older teen once more, as she gave him an inquisitive look.

"What you did for Elise and me..." He began, the image of her, still a little girl; yet standing strong, acting as their protector flashing before his mind's eye. "...you protected us with everything you had, no matter how much pain you were forced to endure. Even in spite of the agony you were in, and the fact that you knew you would die if you did, you still tried to defend us. You were willing to lay down your life for us. If that's not love, then I don't know what is." Rean professed with the utmost sincerity, holding her gaze all the while, his honest eyes conveying the fact that he spoke from the heart.

Fie's eyes widened considerably at this, words failing her temporarily, unsure of how to respond in that moment. She was just so taken aback.

"In fact, I think you might know more about love than anyone I've ever met." Rean stated with a smile, proceeding to pat her head as he did.

Once he was done doing so, Fie managed to overcome her speechlessness, finally getting her mouth to work. "You are so damn sappy." And proceeded to insult him first thing once she had.

Then again, considering she hugged him right after, maybe it wasn't an insult after all.

...

The childhood friends were currently preparing one of the flower beds at the garden for the seeds they desired to plant. With the pond near by and optimal levels of sunlight at the spot they were at, they would grow just fine.

As Rean helped Fie begin planting her flower seeds, a comfortable silence fell between them.

They planted the seeds one by one, making sure that they had just enough space between each individual soon to be-flower, and that they all were buried the same depth in the empty flower bed.

Once they were all planted, the two covered them back up and patted down the soil to an even level, to the point where you couldn't tell the dirt had been disturbed at all. With that done, they began the seeds first watering.

As they did, Fie stepped back for a moment, allowing her friend to do what needed to be done unimpeded, simply observing him.

Rean was still crouched down, making sure they had covered all their bases while watering the seeds, and therefor failed to notice how the younger girl watched him. Her eyes were glued to his back, more specifically his right shoulder. She was, of course, thinking about the bullet he had taken for her.

'I messed up. That's why he got hurt. I wasn't alert enough, didn't have my guard all the way up. That was stupid. And as a result, he ended up having to save me.' In her book, there was no other possible interpretation of this event, it was fact. Her jaeger training and lifestyle taught her to always be aware, and the one instance where she wasn't as aware as she could have been, the only family she had left suffered for it.

She wouldn't make that mistake again.

The ex-jaeger had gone to the swordsman with the offer of training, so that he could become stronger and protect those he cared about, in return, he would disclose exactly what burdens he had come to carry in her absence. Still, there were other benefits to this arrangement aside this trade.

First, it would allow her to spend time with the boy she considered family, the one who stirred her emotions when no one else seemed capable of affecting her in such a way. This was always a good thing. And second, it would afford her the opportunity to sharpen his senses and hone his skills, to the point where he would be as skilled and battle ready as she ever was, perhaps even more so.

Such a thing would help further insure his well-being into the future. And that, more than anything, was what she desired.

Fie's train of thought, travelling along this line of thinking, brought a memory to the forefront of her mind. One none too pleasant.

'That wasn't the first time Rean had to save me.' She thought to herself, as her eyes wandered to his left shoulder.

She had caught sight of it in the nurse's office three weeks ago, that accursed scar, however faint it may be; it was the first time she had seen it in years. Even still, she remembered vividly how he had attained it.

And with disturbing detail, the memory played out before her mind's eye...

---

It was the dumbest thing you could think of. They had gone too far along the path, too deep into the mountains. They had wanted to play a little and had just happened to go past the point where they were used to horsing around at, taking a wrong turn in doing so, having thought they were going to one specific spot and had just happened to be wrong. Because of something so insignificant and arbitrary, they found themselves surrounded by a small pack of hungry snow-wolves.

They were, understandably, taken off guard, Rean and Elise even more so than Fie. She'd been living in Ymir for roughly three months, while they had been there for years. The siblings had played along almost all the paths they could access from Ymir, and not once had they ever run into a hostile creature. Oh they were aware of their existence, they just tended to lurk in the corners of the mountains, only venturing out onto the main paths during the night. Their father's frequent hunting trips also attributed to the fact that the paths were always safe and monster free.

For the quarter of a year she had been present, Fie hadn't come face to face with any creature that wasn't docile in nature either. So she hadn't expected such an occurrence anymore than the brother and sister pair, even though, as she would later tell herself in her life, she should've known better.

"Run, Elise! Go get Dad!" Rean suddenly shouted at his younger sister, the nine-year-old unable to keep the fear and panic out of his voice.

"O-Okay!" The seven-year-old girl replied, before taking off and running back along the path they had traversed, unimpeded by the wolves, who were focusing in on the other two children.

They had just happened to be caught in the wild animals' encirclement, while Elise had not, allowing her to escape the dangerous situation. Which Rean couldn't be more thankful for.

Now they just had to survive until Elise returned with help.

That was far easier in theory than actuality, however. With four starving snow-wolves spread out in front of them, covering their left, right, and front flanks, and a wall of solid snow-covered rock at their backs, they were completely trapped.

With a few rocks within reach and the odd large stick or two as their only possible choice of weapons, well, their chances of coming out of this alive weren't good.

The two children backed up, pace by pace, closing the distance between each other, as well as drawing closer to the cliff-face behind them. This forced them further into a tight spot as the wolves approached, closing the half-circle in on them. The beasts had entrapped them with nowhere to run, even still, their instincts were screaming at them.

GET AWAY!

As the rabid animals drew ever closer, the tension, and the air of fear and hopelessness around the children, grew thicker. The stakes were their lives, and one wrong move could cost them.

They had to buy time until help arrived, or somehow manage to escape. Both of these scenarios seemed woefully unlikely.

Little Rean understood how desperate and hopeless their situation was to some degree, but couldn't fully comprehend it, his child brain overloaded with the terror and panic he felt. His heart pounded in trepidation, as his mind struggled to figure what he was supposed to do, what he could possibly do to fix this; thoughts a jumbled mess, he drew nothing but blanks.

Little Fie was different. She felt the same fear, the same panic, however, she had been exposed to the hell of war and the brutality of battle the entirety of her short life. Her time with Zephyr, as well as her first hand experience with death and destruction, afforded her the ability to think clearly in such dangerous situations, allowing her to reason in spite of her state of fright.

Eyes shifting all about, she weighed their options. The cliff-face was too tall for them to possibly climb, they lacked the proper upper-body strength. For them, it was insurmountable, and to even attempt to scale it would be suicide, seeing as the wolves would rip them to shreds after they inevitably failed and fell back to the ground.

The few rocks and sticks within their reach were hardly enough to keep the carnivores at bay for more than a few moments, so fighting them off was completely out of the question.

Which left them with only one, real path of recourse...

"Rean, we have to run." Fie let the older boy know, managing to keep her voice from quivering.

"But they have us trapped! We won't make it!" He responded, voice shaking with fright.

"It's our only choice." She insisted, still fighting back her primal fear. "They're just gonna keep squeezing us tighter and tighter together until we have nowhere left go. They'll be able to eat us easily then." She reasoned, clearly having experience with such animals and their hunting habits. "We have to run while we still have room left to move!"

Panicked, unsure, and scared, Rean could only capitulate. "Y-Yeah, o-okay, l-let's do it!"

It was because of this, that as the wolves drew too close for comfort, the children made a break for it, sprinting forward together in an attempt to escape.

Or at least, that's how it should have gone.

The beasts didn't flinch as they were rushed, and attempted to buck their prey back into place, stopping them momentarily, the two quickly halting. But as one of the animals shifted forward and snapped their teeth at the kids, they were met with force.

Fie snatched up the biggest stone she could, three times the size of her hand, and chucked it at the animal's face, hitting it between the eyes, causing it yelp in pain and jump back. And that, was their opening.

"Rean, go!"

"Fie, wait!"

The tiny silver-haired girl was already moving, paying no heed to her friend's warning; she expected him to follow her regardless. What she failed to notice, until the very last moment, was that one of the wolves had moved; the biggest one, most likely the alpha.

She wasn't given time to locate it, as it was instantly upon her, knocking her to the ground, snarling and teeth snapping.

It had lunged for her, and now had her pinned to the ground, where it would surely tear her face off.

Disoriented, all the six-year-old understood in that moment was that she was about to die. As a result, her survival instincts kicked in, and her hands immediately shot up and latched onto the wolf's throat as best they could.

She was trying to keep the thing from tearing out her throat, as it was attempting to do. Unfortunately, she didn't have the strength to hold the creature back for more than a few, short moments.

"FIE!"

Rean didn't even think before acting, rushing to his friend's aid.

He grabbed the largest stick within reach and, putting as much force behind it as his little arms were capable of, he swung it, hitting the alpha wolf in the side of the head as hard as he possibly could.

The animal yelped and shifted focus to the young boy, growling dangerously.

The other three wolves, the one hit with the stone having recovered from it's daze, had closed the encirclement to the utmost then, restricting the children to a circle of roughly an arge of space.

Rean took note of this, looking behind him at the wolf nearly breathing down his neck through blurry vision, thanks to the tears of fright and anxiety in his eyes. Glancing at the wolves to his sides as well, his breath hitched in his throat, and a whole new wave of fear washed over him, causing his grip to slacken and the stick to fall from his grasp. As a result, he didn't see the alpha return it's attention to Fie.

"Run Rean!" She yelled, hoping against hope he would listen.

Alpha wolf didn't take kindly to this, as it attempted to sink it's teeth into her face. It was denied, as at the last moment she brought one of her arms up in an attempt to defend herself, causing it to latch onto the limb instead, sharp teeth piercing flesh.

The young girl's scream rang out, echoing through the immediate area, as blood flowed from her extremity, coming out through her shirt and jacket and running down the arm of her outermost layer of clothing.

It was her scream that caused him to act.

Rean tackled the alpha wolf, knocking it off of her, the animal kicking wildly, bewildered as it was taken to the ground with the boy; they landed in the snow and skidding an arge.

Seeing their alpha attacked for a second time, the other three carnivores acted, lunging for the downed boy.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Rean cried out, as the wolves mauled him, biting and scratching, tearing away at him.

"REAN!" Fie, despite the pain she was in, was quickly on her feet, grimacing as she forced herself up.

She ran to him, having every intention of saving him, getting the wolves off of him, somehow. She honestly had no clue as to how she would accomplish that, as she wasn't thinking clearly, not anymore. The pain and the newfound level of fear managed to keep her from doing so.

She snatched up the stick Rean had used and attempted to swat the animals with it, but they were far too involved in their mauling to heed her attempts, especially since, with her injured arm, she couldn't put all her power; as small as that amount might be for a girl her age, into it.

After one too many attempts, one of the predators simply bit it in half, knocked her away, and returned to the boy.

Rean continued to scream, agony coursing through him as the feral animals tore into his body, his thick layers of clothing providing only the slightest resistance in keeping them from his skin.

The alpha had regained its bearings, having gotten back up.

Its brethren pinning its attacker down face first in the snow, it quickly took advantage and joined in on the assault. Biting down with all the ferocity its hunger provided it, the beast sunk its fangs into the young boy's left shoulder.

Blood ran from the newly inflicted wound, flowing down his back to mingle with the rest of the red liquid the wolves were causing him to shed, as they ripped into his little body.

The small boy continued to wail in agony.

Terror and panic ran rampant through Fie, the life of one of the only two friends she ever had now in her hands: the one who had found her that night in the blizzard, who brought her home so she could have somewhere safe and warm to stay. He was the first friend she ever had. If she didn't stop them, he would die a horrible death, all because he wished to save her from the same fate.

All caution had been thrown to the wind when the wolves had pinned Rean to the ground, now, as desperation overcame her completely, Fie threw all reason to the wind as well.

Scrambling to her feet, Fie rushed back over to the wolves and threw herself at the alpha. She failed to build enough momentum to dislodge him, but that hadn't been her intention anyway. Grabbing hold of the fur on the back of its neck, she began to pull, using all the strength she could muster with an injured arm to try and get the animal to remove its teeth from her best friend's flesh.

It failed miserably, of course, as the beast ignored her entirely. This did not deter her efforts.

"Let go of him! Let go! Let go! Let go, let go, let go!" She chanted, continuing to try and manually remove the carnivore's teeth from her friend's body, to no avail.

Changing the positioning of her hands, she took hold of the white wolf's ears and began to heave and tug with as much oomph as she could muster.

"I SAID LET GO! LET GO!" She shouted, tears in her eyes.

As if to spite her, the alpha wolf clamped its jaws down tighter on the young boy's shoulder, bearing down as hard as it possibly could, even grinding its teeth inside his flesh.

Muscle tissue being torn at, the flow of blood coming from Rean's left shoulder increased, and his screams redoubled, a blood curdling cry ripped from his throat due to the anguish of the wolf's fangs meeting bone.

"STOP IT! STOP! JUST STOP IT, PLEASE! LET GO OF HIM!" Fie screamed at the top of her lungs, a bundle of fright and frustration, tears streaming down her face.

When the alpha failed to comply, Fie did something crazy: lunging forward, she bit down on the side of the animal's neck with as much force as her jaws could muster. It caused the creature to whimper, but it refused to unlock its jaw, simply shaking its head in an attempt to get the girl off.

Recognizing the futility, Fie backed off, her vision blurry, heart racing.

That's when she realized Rean wasn't screaming anymore.

His eyes closed, he lie there in the crimson tainted snow, completely silent.

Either he was unconscious, or...

She had entered a state of hysteria in that moment, no longer capable of rational thought. Terror, anger, and desperation consumed her.

Face scrunched up, the little girl's emotions overflowed; she grabbed the nearest object, a rock twice the size of her hand, and smashed it down into the alpha wolf's head with all her might. It collided with the beast's skull with an audible thunk, breaking the skin, dying some of its white fur red as the ruby substance trickled down from the impact point.

The wolf let out a yelp, yet still persisted in its grip.

Fie continued her assault, slamming the rock into the creature's head again.

And again.

The animal could no longer see through the blood that coated its face.

And again.

Alpha wolf let out a howl of pain; this violence attracted the attention of the other three wolves, the creatures abandoning their task of mauling the small boy, eyes focusing on the one assaulting their alpha.

This thing wanted to eat him. It wanted to eat her friend. The boy who had saved her.

The small girl was blind to the danger the other wolves still posed, suffering from tunnel vision as she, screaming in hysterical rage, beat the alpha wolf's head in.

She brought the rock down hard again.

And again!

And again!

And again!

And again!

And again!

The child's arm was numb, her throat raw, and her voice gone when she finally realized the wolf was dead.

Its carcass lie in a bloody heap on the ground; she had bludgeoned it to death; blood spattered painted both her body and the snow around her.

Huffing and puffing from her overexertion, her breath coming out in visible wisps, the rest of the world finally came back to her.

Spotting them out of the corner of her eye, she saw the other three wolves had backed off of her friend, and were currently cowering in fear of her, shaking like mad.

She was exhausted: physically, mentally, and emotionally. She couldn't feel her good arm, and she couldn't so much as whisper, her voice was so shot. In the state she was in, she was a sitting duck.

It was inexorable that the wolves would eventually overcome their fear of her, or grow desperate because of it and lash out.

Her life, it quickly turned out, was in no danger, as Baron Teo Schwarzer quickly arrived on the scene, striding in on horseback.

Arthur came to an elegant stop, as the Baron dropped from his saddle and landed in the snow, brandishing a sword.

"Hyaa! Get the hell out of here!" The Baron menaced the three remaining wolves, sending them running off with their tails between their legs.

With them gone, Teo turned his attention to the children.

"Dear Aidios..." He quietly gasped.

Little Rean lie face down, in a small pool of blood. His clothes were a mess, shredded all to hell, and he was covered in nasty bite and scratch marks. Many were visibly shallow, only just bringing blood. However, there were several that weren't so superficial, deep enough that it would take at least a month to heal. And as they would later come to find out, the wound in his left shoulder was the worst of it, as it would leave a permanent scar.

Experienced with wounds such as these, Teo Schwarzer could tell immediately that most of it wasn't too severe, or at least, none of them were life threatening. The main problem, the immediate concern, was how much blood his boy was losing. He needed to get him treated ASAP.

Taking notice of the blood spatter on the Fie's clothes, the young girl by his child's side, as well as the bite wound on her left arm, he knew he'd have to get her medical attention as well.

He took note of the corpse of the wolf, putting the pieces together pretty quickly. She had protected his son. Needless to say, he would always remember that.

...

Teo whisked them back to the village then, where they would receive the medical treatment they needed. In the end, no loss of life occurred, and the whole thing was treated as random occurrence, a freak accident of sorts. Rean was taken care of and doted on until he recovered, Teo increased his number of hunting trips, and Elise became rather clingy for some time, but otherwise nothing really changed or happened in the aftermath of it.

Fie didn't speak of what she had done in an attempt to save Rean, nor did anyone press her on the matter. She made it clear she didn't wish to talk about it, and they respected her wishes. Because of this, only she knew of the entirety of the incident, and she had no intention of ever disclosing what had happened, especially to Rean.

She knew exactly how he'd react...

He'd be shocked, but would quickly recover and smile at her, before thanking her for saving his life. And she didn't think she could handle that, she couldn't stand the thought of him thanking her, when he'd been the one to save her first.

He was nearly mauled to death because of her.

Because of her silence, the incident was all but forgotten in a few months time.

However, it would stay with the young silver-haired girl for years to come...

---

"Something wrong?" Rean's voice suddenly reached Fie, snapping her out of her state of recollection.

The diffident swordsman was now facing her, having stood up and turned to her once he noticed she was no longer assisting him at the flower bed.

"No, nothing. Was just thinking is all." She assured him.

"All right, if you say so." He accepted her words at face value, not picking up on anything more than an honest answer in her tone.

"Here, let's finish up." She said as she rejoined him at the flower bed.

...

"That should do it." Fie said, as they finally finished. "They should bloom in a few months if I raise them right." She added.

"I'm sure they'll grow up big and strong with you looking after them." Rean stated with confidence.

"I hope so." The silver-haired teen went quiet for a few moments, before speaking softly once more, "Thanks for the help, Rean."

"Anytime, Fie." Rean assured her with a smile.

They spoke for a few more moments, before Rean took his leave; Fie watched after his back.

'If being willing to lay your life down for someone is love, then that means he's wrong: he would know far more about love than I do. He's saved my life three times, he's saved Elise, and Elliot too. And he's only known him for a little while... I've no doubt he'll continue to save people in the future. That's all he seems to want...to protect others...'

---

It was a little past noon when Rean decided to stop by the library, thinking he'd relax with a book for a bit before it was time to head into the old schoolhouse.

After greeting Karol, he spotted a certain blond from his class sitting in the left corner of the first floo, sitting at a table with nothing but a book to keep him company.

This was most certainly not the first time the swordsman had seen his fellow noble here in the library, in fact, it was a common occurrence. This was the only place he ever saw him actually, outside of class and the dorm, at least. He was always by himself as well, never even bothering to look up when someone would walk by him.

'With the exception of a couple weeks ago in the computer room, I've never seen him talk to anyone else in Class VII when he didn't have to. The time we all tried to hash out a course of action over the practical exam notwithstanding.' Rean thought to himself.

'He helped me out, and it would do for me to get along better with my classmates. Maybe I can't get him to become a friend, but it wouldn't hurt to get to know the guy a little better at least...'

With that decided, Rean approached the table Jusis occupied.

"Oh, it's you." Jusis acknowledged Rean's presence with a neutral tone as he raised his head.

"Hey there, Jusis." Rean greeted pleasantly. "I see you here pretty often, I guess you must be quite the avid reader, huh?" It was a somewhat poor attempt at starting a conversation, and they both knew it.

'Well, that was a lame way to start things off. Great job, Rean.' The swordsman mentally chided himself

Even still...

"Heh. I wouldn't put it like that, exactly." Jusis replied, humoring his classmate and the shoddy conversation piece he had thrown out. "There's not much else to do, so I just came to pass the time."

"Right..." The dark-haired teen said with a nod of his head, unsure of how to continue this conversation for a moment. "Say, would you mind if I joined you?"

"Hmph. You needn't ask for my permission." Jusis responded bluntly. "You can do as you please." The blond boy stated the obvious.

"Well then, I hope you don't mind my company." The raven-haired youth said simply, before moving away for a moment to grab himself a book, returning to the table afterward to sit down.

...

After a number of minutes of reading in silence, Rean decided to make a second attempt at conversation with his fellow noble.

Putting his book down for the moment, he looked toward his classmate across from him, and asked, "What is that you're reading, anyway?"

"It's a book on the many legends that are told throughout the Empire." Jusis informed him.

"There's certainly no shortage of those, is there? I've heard stories about witches, gnomes, spirits, and even vampires. Hold on...are you into those kinds of stories, Jusis?" Th Schwarzer heir inquired with curiosity.

"These are merely a means to a fuller knowledge of the Empire." The aloof blond answered his classmate with a scoff. "Though, I can't deny that they make for interesting reads." He added at the last moment, apparently genuinely interested in the subject matter.

"Hey, look over there...!" Came the sound of a hushed feminine voice all of the sudden, interrupting the two teens' conversation.

Rean spotted them then, standing halfway up the stairs to the second floor of the library, the girl who had caught their attention along with her two friends. He chose not to look directly at them, lest they become aware of the fact he and Jusis had heard them.

They wore green, so they weren't of the noble class. Their only real defining features were their hair colors. The first girl had long, fuchsia colored hair, the second short, brown hair, and the third medium-length red hair.

Unbeknownst to these three girls, the two nobles they were all but gawking at could hear their every word.

"That boy's from one of the Four Great Houses, right? House Albarea?" The brown-haired girl queried her friends.

"He totally is! And by Aidios is he hot." The redhead stated, her voice still hushed, but noticeably louder than her two companions. "It should be illegal for a boy to be that handsome." She added, sounding a tad titillated.

"He fits the noble archetype to a T, doesn't he?" The fuchsia-haired girl said then. "Dignified air, dashing good looks, the whole shabang."

"You have no idea. He's incredibly refined. He carries himself with such grace and confidence. Not to mention his voice, ah, makes you want to melt." The red-haired girl continued to gush over the blond.

"I won't lie, I wouldn't mind getting him alone for a few minutes." The fuchsia-haired girl confessed, a slight blush staining her cheeks.

"You don't suppose he's friends with that guy next to him, do you?" Their brown-haired, and clearly more level-headed, friend interjected then.

"I was guessing that he was...you gotta wonder what kind of people a big name like that would hang out with." The long haired girl replied, blush having faded, sounding a little curious.

"Oh, it's almost time! We've gotta get back to the dorms!" The short-haired girl told them hurriedly, as she moved to descend the steps.

"Hey, wait up!" Her friends called after, at a much higher volume than they had been speaking at moments before.

This earned them a warning glance and a polite hush from Karol. So they muttered quick apologies, and speed-walked down the steps and right out of the library.

...

Now that they were gone, Rean couldn't help but sweatdrop.

"So that's what it's like to be famous." The diffident swordsman observed a tad humorously.

"Hmph. This is a daily occurrence." Jusis enlightened his fellow swordsman to this fact as he put his book down.

He clearly didn't care for it judging by his almost sour-looking expression.

"Honestly, I'm not really surprised by that." Rean replied with a shake of his head. "Though I will admit, I'm almost jealous. I mean, I know it must get annoying after awhile, but it's not the worst thing in the world to have girls fawning over you, is it?"

"I think a certain silver-haired maiden would be more than a little upset to hear you say that." Jusis softly remarked with a small, mirthful grin, as he returned to his book.

"What's that?" Rean questioned.

He'd only faintly heard him, not able to make out everything said.

"My, you are oblivious, aren't you?" Jusis noted, eyes returning to the face of his classmate, his brow quirked.

He was, understandably, disbelieving of the fact that someone could be so dense.

"Oblivious? Oblivious, how? What do you mean?" The swordsman questioned further, confused.

In that moment, Jusis caught himself getting too friendly, and quickly reigned it back in. His grin, small as it was, faded and a neutral expression returned to his visage once more.

Rean took notice of this immediately, and found himself disappointed.

'We were getting along there for a moment...'

"You're a noble yourself. Such occurrences as these would happen to you if you ever acted like one." The aloof noble told him, now back on topic.

And yet, despite his return to form, there was a slight air of...pleasantness in his tone that wasn't there before.

'Better than nothing.' Rean thought to himself.

"Fair point." He conceded to his fellow noble with a chuckle. "That said, not sure I'd want that, as tempting as it might seem at times. Still, maybe I could stand to learn a lesson or two from you." The raven-haired youth confessed without thinking.

The faint undertone of insecurity did not escape Jusis' notice.

Once more, the esteemed noble to lower his book. However, he didn't respond, at least not right away. He was silent for a few moments, seemingly thinking through what he was about to say, perhaps considering whether he should actually speak or not.

He decided quickly enough, as he met his classmate's gaze and said, "One cannot escape their nobility. As such, it should be worn with pride."

It was a simple phrase, yet in that moment, it held great weight.

Rean found himself without a reply to that, unsure of how to. He hadn't meant to say as much as he did, but seeing how Jusis was and how people reacted to him firsthand caused him to slip up, even if only momentarily.

"Someone told me that when I was a child." Jusis divulged then. "Someone very close to me." He further disclosed, almost an air of melancholy around him in that moment.

"Jusis..." Rean spoke his classmate's name, concern in his voice.

"Perhaps you should consider those words yourself." Jusis advised his fellow noble, before returning to his book once more.

The humble swordsman remained quiet for a number of moments then, before eventually, "Yeah, I'll do that." He softly confirmed he would.

No more words were shared between the two, as they went on to read in silence.

---

Rean breathed a sigh of relief, as he exited Towa's office, closing the door behind him.

'She had a bunch of paperwork today, too. And even with my help, it still took nearly two hours. This is just ridiculous.'

With time to spare, the Schwarzer heir had decided to pay Towa a visit and see if she needed any additional assistance. Having seen the piles of paperwork on her desk, he resigned himself to the inevitable.

She made it clear he didn't have to help her with them, as she was more than grateful for him doing so last time. But a desire to lessen her burden, combined with the feeling he owed her for lying to her face the month prior, made it impossible for him to walk away from the mountain of paper.

He recognized the fact that he was under no obligation to share such personal matters with her, however, that didn't stop him from feeling bad about being dishonest. Even if it wasn't any of her business.

...

Walking away, he'd intended to make for the stairs, when something in his peripheral vision caught his attention.

The unused club room from last month: its placard was no longer blank.

"Huh?"

Curiosity getting the better of him, Rean decided to check it out.

...

The moment he stepped into the room, he was struck by how dark and barren it was; the only source of light being the sunshine that leaked in from the window at the back.

There were a few chairs, and a large desk with a crystal ball placed in the center of it. Behind this desk sat a girl with pale skin, long, black hair, and yellow eyes; she was dressed in the green uniform. Upon further inspection, there were bags under her eyes.

"Welcome... to the Occult Research Society. I am Beryl." The eerie looking girl introduced herself. "You're puzzling over why such a club was founded, are you not?"

"You hit the nail right on the head." Rean came right out and admitted.

"Heh heh... I understand your amazement, but you need not look so surprised. I can read your mind as if it were a book, Rean Schwarzer of Class VII. Mwahahahahaha!"

"Riiiiiiight." Rean drawled, somewhat perturbed by her little display. "I'll just be going."

"See you soon."

...

"There really are some eccentric people who go to this school." Rean said beneath his breath, closing the door behind him.

'I wonder if that was some sort of act she was putting on, or if she's just a few cards short of a deck?'

"Doesn't matter." He told himself with a shake of his head.

"I'll just put this out of my mind, and head on over to the old schoolhouse." The swordsman decided, pulling out his ARCUS and flipping it open.

---

The time had come to continue the expedition into the depths of the old schoolhouse, so, after the five classmates that wished to accompany him arrived, Rean led them inside.

"It's been about a month already, huh?" Elliot began to speak as the doors behind them closed. "I'm still kind of scared, but we can't just leave this place locked and pretend nothing weird's going on in here." He acknowledged aloud.

"Yes, especially with the principal himself requesting we continue our investigation." Machias mentioned.

"We'll just have to take things nice and slow; I'm counting on you guys for backup." Rean told the others.

"Understood." Laura responded firmly. "I wish to do everything I can to assist in the name of Class VII. Even if more fiends were to appear, I'd relish the chance to test my mettle against them." The well-spoken swordswoman stated with confidence.

"Ahaha...I feel a lot safer with you around, Laura." The timid violinist confessed with a smile.

"While we should still be on our guard, I truly don't think there is much to be concerned about." Gaius asserted then. "After all, we have the the top three warriors of our class with us."

"Heh, you're right. Guess I'm all nervous for no good reason." Elliot replied with a chuckle.

At the soft-spoken nord's assertion, Laura found herself glancing at the silent silver-haired girl out of her peripheral vision.

It was far from the first time she had done so over the past weeks.

Fie took notice of the sideways look sent her way, having seen them many times before in her life, from people of all walks of life. This wasn't the first time she had caught Laura looking at her like this either. That agitated her.

"Got something to say?" She questioned, her tone taking on the slightest hint of uncharacteristic hostility.

"No, nothing." The blue-haired noble girl responded automatically, sounding a little cold.

Gaius, Machias, and Elliot looked toward the two with concern then, but chose not to verbalize their worry, thinking that not to be the best option.

'This could be troublesome.' Was the immediate thought that popped into Rean's head.

After all, the last thing they needed was more conflict inside their little class. Still, they had a task, from the head of the school no less, to complete. That took priority. At least for the moment. So they would simply have to push on.

"Come on, let's go."