There was good and bad to most things in life, Lucy thought.

Much like any other event, the same was true of joining the magic knights.

For one, she would get the open chance to help people in need, something she could never resist. On the other hand, she was in a squad full of stubborn nobles not so accepting of her. None of her upbringing in the Heartfilia Konzern could protect her. There was much more to being noble than just having the mannerisms, or the power, or the blood. It was a ruthless group consisting solely of those who willingly use that power to oppress others. How else would they maintain their high standing for thousands of years? Even the Heartfilias weren't always rich, that was a new accomplishment by her father who married into the family. No, these nobles were far separated from whatever ancestor was 'noble' enough to gain the title. All they had done so far was shove it in her face that she had no such status here, not that she even used it in Earthland to begin with. At least she had the training and a friend in Mimosa to protect her somewhat. The royal girl was truly kind, a rare kindness for someone born into her status. Yuno had no such luck. He was born into peasantry, so he didn't have the training she received, and his status was much more commonly beat down on. The first day spoke enough of this.

That day, Klaus, who I'd seen before on my first day, gave us a tour of the base. He did remember me but gave me only the expected courtesy of his position. Yuno was hit with quite a few insults. When I got to see my room, I was shocked by its size. This one room had more elaborate decorations than my whole apartment in Earthland, and almost matched it on size too. Well, if this was a squad of nobles, it had to be lavish. Even this could hardly compare to her room in the estate.

The next day couldn't come any faster, the rest of the new members and myself were up early. I met up with everyone in the cafeteria, where it was just us three so far. For now, I just wanted to get to know them a bit better.

"Good morning you two! Did you sleep well." I asked.

"Surprisingly well, I've never slept on a bed by myself before, and my room is so big," Yuno replied.

"Right, it must be a ton different than your home, right?"

"It is, I'd never been this alone. Almost feels strange not having Asta's screaming around."

"Asta, that's your friend with the sword, right. The one who Yami tried to intimidate?"

"That's him. Loud and obnoxious, but a good person."

"Almost reminds me of someone back home. I spent a few years in a wizard's guild and one of my closest friends was just like that. I still miss them everyday I spend here."

"Uh Lucy, do you mind telling us a bit about where you grew up. You've heard from us, so why not share. I want to get closer to both of you," Mimosa asked.

"Sure, the memories do hurt sometimes but I'll share."

"You don't have to if you're not comfortable," Mimosa said.

"No, it's better I share. I'm fine, really. So where do I start. Right. Fiore was the country I grew up in. Unlike here, magic isn't a tool everyone can use. Instead only 10% can use it to any significant margin, the majority are much like Asta, magicless."

"You're saying he's not the only one without magic?" Yuno asked.

"Back home, no. There's plenty of things a magicless person can do. My own father was magicless. Most mages join guilds, which usually do all the jobs in a city requiring magic and get paid by the people for it. That was my life for a few years until I got here. As for where I came from, I was born as a noble heiress to the Heartfilia fortune. We were an old name but new to wealth, as well as being one of the few nobles to have magic. Most others, including the King, weren't mages. I guess it's from that time that I'm so critical of the nobles here in Clover. Over there, they had power, sure, but not as drastic as in Clover. We also didn't have feudal peasants the way they do here. Instead, nobles were simply the wealthy class. Back to myself. I grew up as a happy kid for about 9 years, until my mom died. After that, my father grew distant. He tried to stop me from using magic, then eventually when I was old enough, tried to marry me off to increase his standing. That's when I had enough and ran away, putting the noble life behind me."

"That's so sad! Even here nobles don't marry off kids against their will. I can't believe your own dad would do that!" Mimosa exclaimed.

"Sounds like something a noble would do. It's in like with how I've been treated. Good on you for running away," Yuno said.

"Yeah it was hard for a few years, but I finally found a new family in my guild. In a way I was hoping I could do that here too. The magic knights aren't too different than the guilds back home, just more closely linked to the government. What about you two, why'd you join?"

"It's expected of me as a royal to join, there's not too much else I can say. Everyone in my family has done it and I'm supposed to as well," Mimosa said.

"I'm sure you can find your passion here. What about you, Yuno?"

"I'm sure you heard Asta talking about how he wants to become the Wizard King. Back home, we always had very little and were struggling to just live, so we wanted to join to help everyone back at the village. Eventually, Asta and I became rivals, both aiming to become the Wizard King, somewhat to compete with each other but also to improve the lives of our family back at the village, and maybe improve the situation of the peasants."

"That's a great goal Yuno, I can respect getting strength to help those in need. It's been great getting to know you two better, we should go see what the superiors want. They should all be giving jobs for the day."

"Right," Both Mimosa and Yuno responded.

In the corner of the room, Vangeance walked past a door through a hallway, somewhat catching everything being said. He remembered what Julius had told him yesterday. These new additions would go a long way towards achieving Lord Julius' goals. It was exciting to see. Now, if only the rest of his squad could see that. He knew it would take them time, however. That kind of trust couldn't be built immediately. It would take months of fighting together on missions to build.

Lucy headed up the massive hallways of the base to the main hall. This was an ornately decorated room with a grand staircase leading up to a balcony where the captain stood. Down with her were a few other members all kneeling. She took the hint and did the same.

"Lucy, it's good that you're here. I was giving out tasks for the day. Klaus, I'd like you to take the new recruits with you. There's been a few reports of a dark magic item smuggler being spotted near the strong magic zone at the Spade kingdom border. I'd like you four to take care of it. Klaus, you're in charge. That means training the recruits and protecting them, understand?"

"Yes, captain."

"These reports are quite old and don't have to be taken care of today, maybe it'd be better for them to get used to the magic knight's life first. For today, do patrols of the capital. Go on the mission at the end of the week."

"Yes, captain."

"Lucy, while with him, he is your superior. Don't disrespect him, and I'm sure he'll come to see the best in all of you new recruits. I selected you all because I saw your potential, despite your standing."

"Of course, captain."

The next week went by relatively normally. I managed to get even closer to Yuno and Mimosa and find out a bit more about where they came from. Klaus, on the other hand, was still a stubborn ass who couldn't get past his prejudice of peasants and foreigners. I really hope he can get past it soon. It seemed like no time had passed and it was already time for our first serious mission. We were also going pretty far north so there was a chance we would pass by Yuno's village. It would be good to see just how bad it is over there and help if it's needed. Besides, Yuno would enjoy seeing his family in all but blood.

The day of the mission was here, and Mimosa and I were in the back of Klaus's chariot. Yuno decided to show off a bit and fly by standing on his broom. "I'll never get boys," I grumbled. Mimosa could only giggle. Soon enough we took flight and stayed our course for the next few hours. I chatted a bit, but even that had its limits.

A few hours later and we were nearing the border, the same place this smuggling ring was supposedly set up. The sky here was dark, which was pretty odd. "Yuno, go check out that cloud," Klaus ordered, and Yuno followed. Yuno attacked straight into the clouds, firing on some unseen enemy to us. He quickly cleared the enemies it seemed, the clouds did clear up showing bright blue, but Yuno was nowhere to be seen. "Yuno, where'd you go!" I called out. I got no response. "How did they know we were here, were they following us," I asked.

"It's possible, they didn't target us at all even though we just sat back here. It almost seemed like Yuno was targeted, but why?"

"His hometown is around here, could they have some plot against it?"

"Once again its possible, there's too much we don't know yet. We'll continue this path and stop the operations in the strong magic zone, that's likely where they set up their production. Yuno better be trying to find us and not go off on his own, or getting sidetracked by his village." Klaus said.

"He's strong. I'm not too worried about him facing a few goons, I'm more afraid if they did target him, they'll use his village against him. They probably know about that too. We'll just have to do our part and trust in him.

And so it was, Klaus, Mimosa and myself headed into the strong magic region, ready to arrest a few petty criminals. Yuno was on his own.