CHAPTER 1 - DAWN

In the days following their exciting orienteering exercise, Class VII was shown the ropes around daily life at the academy. They were introduced to each of the academy's faculty and given the rundown of the basic materials of their respective courses. It was to be expected given the nature and prestige of the academy, but when Instructor Sara said that Class VII's curriculum would be tougher than those of the other classes, she wasn't kidding. On the academic side, each of the courses was filled with arduous material and coursework, with the teachers frequently calling on students in class for answers and giving out pop quizzes to make sure they were keeping up with the material. On the physical side of things, the students were subject to frequent combat training by none other than their own homeroom teacher, and though she was easy-going around 85% of the time, when it came to combat Instructor Sara didn't kid around. Even when she was teaching them how to make a simple combat link, she didn't go easy on, as she called them, "her favorite little munchkins".

All in all, though, the students were getting used to life at the academy.

There were, however, just two problems.

The first was in regards to the situation of food. The students themselves were responsible for providing for themselves, whether it be cooking their own food, eating at the school cafeteria, or ordering to-go from the local cafe. However, because they were constantly kept busy by coursework and the fact that some of them had little experience in cooking (Morgan herself was one of these people, although it was less that she didn't know how to cook and more that everything she touched would always turn into a weird, inedible mess), they all opted for the latter two options most of the time. Of course, eating out meant spending money, so to save themselves from possible financial crisis, Class VII resolved the matter by having two designated chefs rotate every week to decide the meal plans, with the additional requirement that they had to cook for everyone at least once during their shift. Overall, it wasn't a major issue, but it could become one in the long run unless someone like Jusis or Laura hired a maid to provide for them full-time, and considering how far both of them lived from the academy, they weren't comfortable with asking favors from their families for something that could easily be worked around.

Speaking of Jusis, the second problem was that the feud between him and Machias that started during the orienteering exercise didn't seem to lessen; if anything, the tension between them only grew with each passing day. From what Morgan heard from Rean, the two were able to call a ceasefire in the old schoolhouse using the points she made about cooperating to survive mattering more than fighting amongst each other. Unfortunately, that truce ended once the both of them didn't have to fight for their lives against monsters and things went back to the way they were. It didn't help that Machias's stubbornness got in the way from him thinking rationally at times and that Jusis seemed to enjoy provoking the bespectacled boy at every opportunity. In contrast to the little debacle between Rean and Alisa, there were no misunderstandings or unfortunate accidents; just two individuals locked in a contest of pride that neither wanted to back down from.

Morgan sighed upon thinking about this.

"Why the big sigh, Morgan?" Alisa asked.

"Oh, it's nothing," she lied. "Just thinking about which things I need to brush up on...which is a lot of things." That part wasn't a lie. Normally, Morgan was always enthusiastic to learn and read about new things. However, when she was pushed or forced to learn something as part of a graded curriculum, her enthusiasm and motivation would dwindle a bit. Of course, the subject had a lot to do with this as well. Military science, for instance, was always her favorite subject and she enjoyed learning about orbal science to become more familiar with orbal technology. However, subjects like art and biology, essentially things she would only dabble into out of curiosity or had no prior experience whatsoever, were harder to get into. All in all, Morgan found herself as more of a fan of the "practical" subjects rather than most "traditional" ones.

"Well, we have the entire day off tomorrow, so you have plenty of time," said Emma. "Just make sure to pace yourself, okay?"

"Yeah, I know." At the moment, Morgan was talking with Alisa, Laura, and Emma outside their classroom. Classes had just finished for the day and the four of them were talking about their plans for tomorrow. According to Instructor Sara, there were no classes tomorrow, which meant that the students were free to do whatever they wished on their "free day". "I still haven't picked a club to join yet," Morgan said. "I should probably fix that soon. What about you three? Found any clubs yet?"

"I've decided to try out for the Swimming Club tomorrow," replied Laura.

"Swimming?" Emma asked. "That's an interesting choice."

"I used to swim back home," the swordswoman explained. "Legram has a lake that my father and I would often use. It makes for some good endurance training if I do say so myself, especially during the winter."

"I'm pretty sure only you would think diving into a lake when it's cold would make for good endurance training," quipped Alisa, "but it IS important to stay physically fit, considering we're in a military academy. I've been thinking about trying out for an athletics team myself. You want to join me, Emma?"

"Oh no, I wouldn't be any good at that," said the class president, shaking her head. A week prior, Emma was elected amongst the class to be their president while Machias was nominated as their vice president, which gave them additional duties outside of their classes. "Personally, I'm more into reading books than physical activities. I hope there's a literature club somewhere…"

"Given the scope of the school, I'd say there has to be at least one," Morgan guessed. "If you can't find any in the main building, you can always check out the Student Union."

"That's a good idea," Emma said. "In fact, I think I'll head over there right now!"

"I'll come with you," Alisa offered. "This'll be a good opportunity to see what other clubs the school has to offer."

"I should go to the gymnasium to see when are the swimming club tryouts," decided Laura. "I'll see you all later, then."

The four girls all said good-bye to each other and went their separate ways. Or rather, Alisa, Emma, and Laura went their separate ways while Morgan stayed behind. Since they travelled together in the old schoolhouse, the four girls had formed a little group of sorts and would often spend time with each other once classes ended. While Morgan was grateful that she had made some new friends, a part of her wanted to try branching out and interacting with the other students of Class VII, though she had trouble finding the right situation to try and do so. It didn't help matters that some people, like Jusis and Fie, constantly kept their other classmates at arm's length.

Her mind flashed back to what Instructor Sara said a couple days ago when they were being taught on how to make combat links…

"There's no one right way to form a combat link," Sara told the class. "In fact, it's theoretically possible for anyone with an available ARCUS to form one. However, the probability of forming and maintaining a link is dependent on a lot of things, the biggest influence being your feelings towards one another. Putting it simply, the more you learn to trust each other, the easier it will be to form a combat link. Conversely, the more you hate someone else's guts, the less likely a combat link will form, much less be maintained." She made an aside glance towards Machias and Jusis before continuing. "And how, you may ask, does one learn to trust one another?" she asked her students before shrugging her shoulders. "Well, how should I know? I'm a combat teacher, not a psychologist! That's for you all to figure out for yourselves!"

A bead of uneasy sweat dropped collectively from the students' heads at that moment.

'All joking aside, she does have a point,' Morgan thought. 'Sooner or later, we may be put into a position where we have to rely on people we aren't comfortable working with. If we want to make the most of our combat links, we'll have to learn how to support each other, and the best way to do that is spending time with each other outside of combat and classes.' She stopped for a moment. "Why is it that everything I think about always comes back to combat?" she asked herself. "I swear, old habits die hard…"

As she said this, she saw Rean step out of the classroom. Taking this as an opportunity, she walked over to him and greeted him. "Hey, Rean. What's up?"

"Hey, Morgan," the black-haired teen replied. "Nothing much. Just going to the Student Union to run an errand for Instructor Sara."

"She asked you to run an errand?" Morgan queried. "And she doesn't want to do it herself because…?"

Rean shrugged his shoulders. "Don't know, but from the looks of it, it has to do with our class. Something about picking something up and leaving everything in my capable hands? She didn't tell me what, though."

'It's totally a trap,' Morgan thought. "Mind if I come with? I was in the mood for some cafeteria food."

Rean smiled. "Be my guest."

"So, have you picked a club to join, by any chance?"

"No, not yet. I haven't found any that clicked with me."

"It looks like we're both in the same boat then," Rean chuckled. "Elliot said he wants to try out for the band tomorrow and Gaius is thinking about checking out the art club."

"Gaius does art?" Morgan asked, a bit surprised.

"Yeah, Elliot and I were surprised, too. Apparently he did a little bit back where he came from. You know, if you can't find anything you want to do, you could always try and find an activity that you're not good at and try to improve that way."

"A good idea, but not one that some clubs might be okay with," Morgan countered. "I'm not sure if the Cooking Club's ready for me to turn everything I touch into an inedible mess."

"Is your cooking really that bad?" Rean questioned. "Or do you just not taste your food when you're cooking? I find that that's the first mistake most people make."

"I've had royal maids walk me through a recipe and it still ended up tasting weird," she stated. "Sometimes I think I may be cursed in the culinary arts."

Rean chuckled. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see for ourselves when it's your shift in a couple of weeks. Oh, here we are."

Their conversation was brought to an end as they stopped in front of the Student Union building. "So where are you going again?" Morgan asked.

"The Student Council room," Rean replied. "Now where did the instructor say it was located again?"

"Hey there, first years." A carefree voice interrupted Rean's train of thought. Turning to the left, the first years in question saw a boy walking towards them. He was a bit taller than them, had silver hair, wore a bandanna on his head, and was carrying a bag over his shoulder. He was also wearing the green Thors uniform, indicating he was a commoner from either Class III, IV, or V. "How's it going? Academy life been treating you well this past half-month?"

"Well, when I'm not getting swamped by coursework, yes," Morgan answered.

"Same," Rean said. "It's not easy, but I'm managing, though I have a feeling it's only going to get harder from here on out."

"Oh, don't worry; of course it will." The second-year gave a small chuckle. "Your class is going to be more intense than the others, too, but you two just hang in there, okay?"

'How does he know that?' Morgan wondered.

"You're a second-year student, aren't you?" Rean asked. "Do you mind if I ask your name?"

"Hey now, let's not get ahead of ourselves," the bandanaed second-year replied, dodging the question. "First things first: how about you let me show you this cool trick I've been practicing?"

"Trick…?" Rean said, intrigued.

"Yup." A sly grin grew on the second-year's face. "You got a mira coin I can borrow? Anything is fine."

"I think I do. Give me one moment…" Rean immediately started checking his pockets.

'Wait, he's just going to give him money like that?' Morgan thought. 'It's clearly going to get him robbed.' Meanwhile, Rean brought out a 50 mira coin and handed it over to the bandanaed boy, who gleefully took it. Morgan sighed. 'Might as well see how things play out.'

The second-year put his drawstring bag on the ground in front of him, its top opened. "All right, watch closely." The bandanaed boy flipped the coin into the air. When it came down, he quickly moved both of his hands in front of it to catch it. "Now!" He put both of his closed hands in front of him. "Which hand is the coin in? Left or right?"

"Hmm…" Rean thought for a moment. "It's in your…left hand."

The silver-haired teen turned to Morgan. "And you, young miss? Care to give a guess?"

"I think I'll pass," she responded.

The older teen nodded and turned back to Rean. "Well, too bad for you, first year!" Smirking, he opened his left hand, revealing nothing but an empty palm.

"Guess you win," Rean relented. "Though, wait. You said this was a trick, which means…"

"You catch on quick." The boy nodded approvingly and opened his other hand, showing that it was also empty. "Well, keep up the good work, man," he said to a confused Rean. "You're gonna need to be pretty tough to get through a year with Sara as your instructor."

'So he does know her after all,' Morgan deduced.

The bandanaed teen grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulder. "Oh, by the way. The Student Council room is on the second floor. Furthest room back. Well, see you two around. Have a good weekend, and all that." As he left, he winked at Morgan in a way that totally didn't seem like he was trying to hit on her.

Rean suddenly realized something after he was gone. "Wait! My 50 mira!" he exclaimed.

Morgan couldn't help but burst out laughing at the male teen's shocked expression, the realization that he just got robbed written clearly over his face.

"Got to admit, he got me good," Rean sighed. "I'm usually good at following moving objects too…"

"Not to mention, he seemed to know about our class," she pointed out once she stopped laughing. "Like how we have a tougher curriculum and how you were heading to the Student Council room."

"That's true. You think he knows Instructor Sara?"

"That's what I figured, too," she nodded. "By the way, the coin was in his bag."

Rean stared at her blankly. "What?"

"The drawstring bag by his feet. He missed the coin on purpose and let it fall into the bag."

After a few moments to process the information, Rean groaned and proceeded to give himself a facepalm as Morgan started to giggle again. "Why didn't you say anything?!"

Morgan put her hands behind her head. "Hey, it's not my fault you're so gullible."

Rean grumbled, giving what could best be described as a cross between a fierce mien and an angry pout. "You can be a bit mean, you know that?"

She sneered playfully at him. "Unlike a certain gentleman, I'm not an ordinary, well-mannered lady. Come on, let's go in."

Once they entered the building, Rean left to go to the Student Council room on the second floor. Morgan, meanwhile, went to order something at the cafeteria.

"Hello, there!" the lady at the cafeteria greeted her. "What can I get for you today?"

"One meat-and-tomato sandwich and one whole juice, please," Morgan responded.

"Alright…" the lady took a moment to write down her order. "That'll be 800 mira."

Morgan gave her the designated amount and began to wait. A couple minutes later, she picked up her order and sat down at an open table. She immediately began munching away at her sandwich.

'For something so simple and cheap, they still manage to make it taste good!' Morgan remarked in her head. As she slurped her juice, her mind wandered to the silver-haired teen she and Rean encountered earlier. His laid-back personality aside, she couldn't help but notice that whoever he was, he possessed an incredible dexterity. If Rean was as good at following moving objects as he said he was, then the bandanaed boy must have been very skilled if he was able to fool him. In truth, the only reason Morgan was able to deduce that the coin was in his bag was because she looked at the picture from an outside perspective; if she were to make a guess in the heat of the moment, she probably would have guessed wrong as well. 'He's quite the trickster,' she thought. 'I suppose that goes to show that even the easygoing ones should never be underestimated.'

Her line of thought was interrupted when she heard a voice call her name. She looked up to see her classmate walking over to her carrying a stack of notebooks. "Hey, Rean!" Her eyes then wandered to the petite brown-haired girl who was walking next to him. "Oh! And Towa!"

Towa giggled. "Hello, Morgan! It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Rean looked between the two of them. "Wait, do you two know each other?"

"Only from the first day of school," Morgan explained. "I asked for her name and everything."

"I remember because she was the first one to check in by a long shot," Towa commented. "And in contrast, Rean was the last of Class VII to check in! What are the odds?" She looked up at Rean. "Anyways, I'll go grab something for you. Wait here, okay?"

"You don't have to treat me, you know?" Rean said, putting the stack of books onto the table.

"Think of it as my way of thanking you for agreeing to help the Student Council," the petite girl replied, not wanting to take no for an answer.

"Ooh, can I have something, too?" Morgan literally jumped at the opportunity. "I want another meat sandwich!"

"Sure thing!" Towa rushed to get in line for the cafeteria. Morgan couldn't help but let out a small "Yes!" as she left.

Both members of Class VII sat down. "So she's part of the Student Council?" Morgan asked Rean.

"Not just any part," he said. "She's the Student Council president."

"Seriously?" Morgan started eating the rest of her sandwich. "First she's in her second year, now she's the biggest student authority? That's impressive for someone of her...well, you know."

"Yeah, it is." He nodded his head in agreement.

Morgan finished her food and washed it down with the rest of her juice. "So, what's this I hear about helping out the Student Council? Has our instructor been signing things up for you behind your back?"

Rean was surprised. "How did you know it was Instructor Sara?"

"Because it totally sounds like something she'd do." she fired back.

Rean paused for a moment before nodding his head in agreement. "Fair point."

"So? What's the story?" Morgan pointed her index finger at him. "I want to hear every juicy detail."

"Actually, I think it's best if President Towa explained it herself," he said. "Speaking of which, here she comes." On cue, Towa arrived at their table with sandwiches, drinks, and even some chips for all of them to share. As they ate, the petite president explained the gist of Rean's situation. With the Student Council being as busy as it was, Instructor Sara approached Towa some time in the past week and offered the assistance of Class VII to help ease their workload under the pretense of "wanting to better themselves" and "proving that they were worthy of being part of a prestigious new class". Thus, Rean was ringed in to help them during the free day tomorrow by fulfilling some requests from people in the academy and in Trista, and with Rean being the gentleman that he is, he couldn't find it in himself to turn down the president's pleas for help.

Okay, that last part Morgan made up, but she couldn't help but picture that was the case.

After they finished eating, Rean and Morgan thanked Towa for paying as she went back upstairs to the Student Council room. The two students of Class VII then exited the building.

"It's dusk already?" Rean noticed. "Not only that, but she still has more Student Council work to do? Just how busy is she?"

"Probably very busy," Morgan responded. "I'll bet that if anything student-related in this school is running smoothly, it's because of her." She then pointed to the stack of books Rean was holding. "By the way, what's with those books?"

"Oh, right! I forgot about these." He moved away from the Student Union building so he wouldn't get in anybody's way and set the stack of books down on the ground, with Morgan following close behind. He opened up one of the of the books and nodded. "Yup, this one's yours."

Morgan took the book from his hands and looked inside. "Oh! The student handbooks! I completely forgot we had these!"

The black-haired male nodded. "Apparently, these ones took more time to write since we're using the new ARCUS orbments." Before he could say anything else, his ARCUS started ringing. "And speaking of these orbments, I think I know who this call is coming from…" He brought out his device and flipped the cover open. "Hello? This is Rean Schwarzer speaking."

"Guten Tag, my favorite little Wunderkind!" said Instructor Sara's voice. "I hear you had a nice little dinner date with the perky Morgan AND the Student Council president! Ooh la la!"

"Hey, she was paying!" Morgan shouted back when she heard her name.

Rean let out a sigh of exasperation. "If this is how you treat your 'favorite little Wunderkind', I dread to think how you'd treat people you don't like," he said. "Would you care to explain why you've been signing me up for things behind my back?"

"I'll skip the details for now, but it's got something to do with the other part of your curriculum that I'll be announcing next week." That got Rean and Morgan's attention. "I thought it'd be a good chance for one of you to do a little rehearsal before the main event. And since the Student Council truly is busy, I figured, why not kill two birds with one stone?" The instructor gave a huff as if she was pushing her chest forward with pride on the other side of the line. "A fine plan, if I do say so myself."

"I have a feeling half the reason they're as busy as they are is because of certain instructors…" Rean retorted with a deadpan expression on his face. "But all right. I'm happy to play along. Basically, you just want me to spend my free day tomorrow helping the Student Council, right?"

At this point, Morgan thought it would be best if she didn't listen in on their conversation any further. She motioned to Rean that she would take the notebooks and wait by one of the nearby benches at the front entrance. After Rean nodded his head. Morgan picked up the his stack of books and walked to find a bench to sit on. As she left, she heard Rean ask their female instructor a question. "...Why me, exactly?"

"So what'd she say?" Morgan asked as she and Rean were walking back to the dormitory. At her insistence, she was also currently holding half of the student notebooks. "If you're willing to say, that is."

"She just gave an explanation as to why she wanted me to be the Student Council's gofer," Rean said. "I don't mind this time, though, seeing as I haven't found a club to join yet. She gave me some sound advice too...or at least it would've been sound if she wasn't drinking beer at the same time."

Morgan stopped to look at Rean weirdly for a moment. "She's drinking beer right now?"

Rean nodded. "And she was about to get plastered from the sounds of it. I guess that's one reason why she acts so carefree all the time."

"I thought it was against school regulations to bring alcohol into a lodging filled with underage students."

"Well, given how she has the entire first floor to herself, I'm sure she has lots of ways to hide her stash." The two laughed at that and continued walking.

"So just so we're clear…" Morgan said after walking a couple more steps. "You sure you don't want me to help you as your fellow undecided classmate?"

"I'm sure," Rean assured her. "I want to see how things play out first. Plus, I wouldn't want to distract you from any plans you may have tomorrow."

"Plans? What are those?" she asked innocently, prompting Rean to chuckle. "No, I don't have anything in particular planned, so if you're ever in need of some help, don't hesitate to call me, okay?"

The black-haired boy nodded. "I'll keep that in mind, thanks."

An idea popped into the girl's head at that moment. "Actually, why don't I help you out right now?"

Rean looked confused as Morgan motioned for him to follow her into the park. Immediately, she began opening the student notebooks in her pile. "I'll take the girls' notebooks with me to the third floor and deliver them myself. It'll save you the hassle of going up there yourself."

Rean's eyes widened. "Wait, you sure? I wouldn't want you to do more work for me than you already have."

"Oh, this is nothing," she assured him. "Besides, what if you were to go up there and find someone coming out from the bathroom? You'd be labeled as a pervert before you'd get a chance to explain!"

The black-haired boy's face turned red. "You just had to place that mental image into my head, didn't you?"

The axe wielder gave a snicker. "Quit your complaining and give me those books."

Rean relented and put the stack of books next to hers. They each looked through their stack of notebooks and placed them in a stack based on their gender. Eventually, they got down to the last book on Rean's end, but for some reason he was hesitant in opening it.

"What's wrong?" Morgan queried. "We don't know whose book it is if we don't open it."

"It's not that I don't know whose it is," Rean clarified. "it's the fact that I know whose notebook it belongs to that I don't want to open it."

"Let's see here…" Morgan took a moment to look at the two stacks of books. "All of the guys are accounted for in this stack here, and I know for a fact that Laura and Fie's notebooks are here, so that only leaves Emma and…" Her eyes widened at the realization. "Alisa."

Rean nodded. "The girl of the mysterious letter "R". I don't know why she wants to keep her last name a secret, but I don't want to intrude on her privacy. Honestly, I'm surprised that she was the last one in my pile."

"You say that, but I bet you really want to know about her true identity, don't you?" Morgan teased as he put Alisa's notebook on the top of the girl's pile.

Rean hesitated for a moment. "Okay, yeah, I do," he admitted.

"Right?" the girl said with a mischievous grin on her face. Suddenly, she grabbed Alisa's notebook.

"H-hey!" Rean tried to reach for the book. "You can't do that!"

"You will not stop me!" the girl proclaimed. The two chased each other around in the park for a bit with Alisa's notebook in tow until eventually Morgan did a somersault through the air and landed perfectly on her rump next to the two stacks of notebooks, giving her just enough time to pry open the notebook and read its contents. Immediately, her face went from playful to surprised as she read the name written on the first page. Rean, in an attempt to grab the book from Morgan's hands, was leaning over her shoulder and thus couldn't stop himself from reading the name.

The name of the owner of the student handbook was printed as follows: Alisa Reinford.

"Just so we're clear, this is a secret between the two of us, agreed?" Rean whispered.

"Agreed," Morgan complied. "Both this conversation and what occurred at the park never happened." With that, the two accomplices shook their hands while holding onto their stack of notebooks and went upstairs.

To make things as smooth as possible on her end, Morgan visited the other three girls' rooms in alphabetical order so Alisa's notebook would be the last one delivered. She first knocked on Laura's door, though it took multiple times as the swordswoman was in the middle of some self-practice. After apologizing for interrupting her during her moment of focus, Morgan went over to Fie's room diagonally across from Laura's. Fie showed up after one knock and received her notebook, her face as stoic as ever. Next, she went to the room over and called for Emma to answer the door and pick up her notebook. The two struck up some conversation afterwards, with the class president revealing that she did find a literature club at the Student Union building and would go to check it out tomorrow, to which Morgan congratulated her. Finally, she found herself in front of Alisa's room. After taking a moment to compose herself, Morgan knocked on her door.

"Yes? Is that you, Morgan?" Alisa's voice called through the door.

"Correct! I come bearing gifts from afar!" she responded.

"Give me one sec, okay?" After a rustling sound, Alisa opened the door. "So? What's up?"

Morgan handed Alisa her notebook. "We just got our student notebooks. Here's yours. You may want to check the inside though."

Alisa took the book from Morgan's hands and opened the cover. "Yup, this one's definitely mine." She then looked up at the black-haired girl. "You didn't...look into it, did you?"

"No," she answered bluntly. "And if you're asking how I figured out that was yours, it's because I when I got them, I was told the books were sorted in alphabetical order by last name. I remembered your last name was an "R", so I saved it for last."

"Oh, that explains it." Alisa breathed a sigh of relief.

"But just asking out of curiosity," Morgan continued, "is there a reason why you want to keep your last name a secret? Is your family notorious or something?"

"Well, I wouldn't say that…" Alisa began twirling her finger through her hair. "Actually, scratch that; they've definitely done some notorious things. Most of that is subjective, though, and since the school is so divided between commoners and nobles, I'd rather not get myself into unnecessary trouble."

'So that's it,' Morgan thought. 'It makes sense, though, given how the Reinfords are basically commoners with more wealth than some of the nobility. She probably wouldn't fit well into any social class.'

"Um...you're not going to ask further?" the blond asked. "About my family name?"

"Well…" Morgan scratched the back of her head. "If I'm being completely honest, I may have some ideas in my head," she answered vaguely. "In fact, the things you just said in addition to your origins and affinity for orbal technology all seem to point towards you having connections with a...certain famous group from Roer, but hey, I could be wrong." She shrugged her shoulders. "Either way, that's doesn't change the fact that you're you. A name didn't stop us from talking to Jusis or Laura; I'm sure Class VII won't make an exception for you."

Alisa eased up a bit. "Thanks, Morgan. That's nice of you to say. But just so you know, if you tell anyone else about this, I swear…"

"Oh?" Morgan raised an eyebrow. "So you admit that I'm on the right track, then?" She knew she was supposed to keep her knowledge a secret, but Morgan couldn't help but pounce at the opportunity to indulge in some light teasing.

Alisa, meanwhile, realized what she had just said and put her hand over her mouth. Apparently trying to deliberately keep a secret wasn't such a strong suit of hers after all. "Y-you heard no such thing!"

Morgan raised both of her hands. "My lips are sealed," she assured the fuming blond. "And if someone else does find out about your little secret, it won't be from me." Morgan wondered whether that was technically a lie or not, but she perished the thought for the time being. She gave a playful wink and stuck out her tongue before making a mad dash to her room to turn in for the night.

It wasn't the way she expected things to go, but Morgan could feel herself growing closer with two of her classmates, and that, if anything, was a start.

Author's note: To those of you who have played Trails of Cold Steel before, you may have noticed one of the changes I have made to the narrative thus far, that change being the fact that Alisa's identity has been revealed early! Originally, it didn't take until Chapter 3. Well, it's only to Morgan and Rean, so it won't make too much of a difference right now, but you'd be surprised at how differently you see the game if you go through it a second time with all the reveals in mind.
Anyways, congratulations on making it to the end. If you enjoyed what you read, that's good to hear! If you didn't...eh, at least I tried. Fortunately, we're still in the beginning phases so there are plenty more opportunities to improve myself.