"I'd draw your soldiers out to this line here, then strike with an ambush team from the woods." The girl moved her miniature soldiers across the map.

"Hmm, an interesting move," the white-haired adult sitting across from her noted. "I would move...here. Now you find yourself trapped in a pincer movement. What do you say to that?"

The girl stared intently at the pieces on the board, trying to look for a way out, but much her dismay, she realized she had walked right into a trap. "No...I can't do anything! I lost again!"

The white-haired man gave a small chuckle. "Well, I AM always three steps ahead," he boasted, though the gentle look in his eyes indicated that he was just joking around. "I must admit, you're learning at an exceptional pace. There were actually a couple moments where I was one step shy of getting wiped out."

"Really?" the girl questioned the adult. "You sure you're not just saying that to make me feel better?"

"I promise. I'll even pinky swear, if you want." The older male gave a playful wink and ruffled the younger girl's hair. Just then, another voice echoed through the air, calling the girl's name. A fair distance from where the two sat, a group of children were running around in field of grass. The voice came from a boy around the girl's age who was motioning for her to come and join them.

"You should go and play with them," the white-haired man urged.

"Aw, but I want to stay here with you!" the girl pleaded.

"And while it's good to see that you're eager to study tactics, it's also important to act like your age sometimes. You can't hole yourself in a library and forget to socialize with others, especially when you have lots of people who want to get to know you better." The man waved his hand at the group of children in the distance. "Being a child is the best time of your life; learn to relish in it every once in a while." He then put his hand to his chest. "Take it from this weary old fool."

The girl laughed. "Come on, Father. You're not that old! But alright. I'll go and...relish in my childhood."

"That's a good girl. Oh, and one more thing…" the father added as his daughter stood up and dusted her pants. "Cherish the memories you make with others, because it's through those experiences that you begin to forge strong ties with each other. So long as you have those, you won't become a pawn of some scripted fate; the invisible ties you create will bind you all together forever."

"That sounds pretty ominous…" the girl said nervously.

The older male laughed. "Just make some friends and don't throw them away for the world. Can you at least do that?"

"O-Okay!" The girl smiled and moved forward to hug her father, who returned the embrace. After releasing her hug, she skipped along to the field to join the other children.

Morgan groggily woke up from her slumber. Sunlight streamed through the windows as the sound of birds chirping signaled the dawn of another day. Sitting up and rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she glanced over to the clock on her nightstand. It read 9:29.

"Yikes, that's pretty late!" she exclaimed to herself. "Well, for me, at least." Morgan was normally an early riser, often waking up around 6:00 in the morning so she could get herself ready for morning classes and, if time allowed, go over some of the course material. 'Then again, I was feeling a bit tired after what happened yesterday. Thank goodness today's a free day, or who knows what could've happened!' After saying a quick prayer of thanks to no deity in particular, she got out of her bed and walked over to her sink. 'So the entire day is mine, huh?' she thought as she put toothpaste on her toothbrush. 'Hmm, I wonder what I should do today…'

After she finished brushing her teeth, she turned towards her bookshelf. "Might as well hit the books."

Morgan spent the next half hour finishing any incomplete assignments and then spent another hour looking over material for the upcoming week. She tested herself on some of the vocabulary for political economics class, went over some of the key terms for orbal science class, and glanced through the biology textbook before deciding she was too bored to read further. Currently, she was perusing through the section in the history textbook that covered the War of the Lions. Learning about history normally wouldn't have been the first thing up her alley, but the way Erebonian history was structured almost made it seem like an exciting fairy tale, so much so that Morgan would often get a kick out of reading her history textbook rather than a regular fiction book.

"'Taking into account where and how Emperor Dreichels was able to gather his army, explain why you believe there hasn't been another civil war in Erebonia since the War of the Lions.'" Morgan read a question from the textbook. She pondered the question in her head and took out a piece of paper, deciding to write down her answer for fun. "Most of the aristocrats in the War of the Lions hired mercenaries and other soldiers to do the fighting for them," she wrote. "In fact, one could technically argue that Dreichels was no different, seeing as he gathered warriors from across Nord and later the Eisenritter to aid him in his quest to fight the other factions. However, it was the manner through which he gathered his forces that set him apart from the other aristocrats. The textbook stated that he 'won over influential supporters with his charisma' and 'treated each of them as equals'. I believe that it was through this attitude of treating soldiers as more than just tools of war that Dreichels was able to leave a lasting impression as he did, as it was through forging those strong ties with others that he was able to maintain a positive influence for generations to follow. Civil wars are brought about by a number of factors, but a big driving one that is present in the start of many of them is a difference in opinion between multiple factions. If their difference in opinions is so great that people refuse to back down, tensions will inevitably rise to the point where clashes in ideals would lead to clashes with...violence and lots of blood. Dreichels was able to counteract that after winning the war by creating and maintaining a stable net of relations with the band of supporters he gained across multiple provinces before and during the war. Of course, these provinces would later grow their own opinions over time and eventually new factions would be created to counter said opinions (e.g. the Reformist Faction) but that is beside the point.

"So in conclusion, Dreichels made a lot of friends and didn't throw them away for the world even after they fulfilled their initial purpose, and that is why the empire was able to stay connected for this long. Moral of the story: don't underestimate the magical bonds of friendship."

Morgan snorted as she wrote the last line and couldn't help but let out a laugh. "Even I can't believe I just wrote that…" She leaned backwards in her chair and arched her back so she could see her clock behind her. "It's...11:15, I think?" She then heard her stomach rumble. "And it's almost time for lunch." Morgan stood up from her desk and took a look outside her window. 'Wow, now that I look at it, the weather's beautiful today!' She strolled on over to her closet where she kept her uniform. 'I think I'm in the mood for some pizza today.'

The good thing about the location of the Class VII dormitory was that it was closer to the suburban area of Trista compared to the dormitories for the other classes, which meant that a trip to Kirsche's Cafe and Inn for a quick bite to eat was only a short distance away. Such convenient access to food meant that the students of Class VII had become frequent customers at the cafe in the brief couple weeks they were at the academy. Thus, when Morgan opened the door to the cafe and entered it, she was immediately greeted by its employees with a sense of familiarity. Though the academy cafeteria still had faster service, it was the atmosphere and variety of food offered at Kirsche's that kept Class VII coming back as their diner of choice.

"Hey, Morgan," Fred, the orange-haired barista by the counter said. "What can I get ya today?"

"Oh, nothing much, Fred," the black-haired girl replied. "I think I'll have a Crispy Pizza."

"Sure thing." Fred quickly scribbled her order on a piece of rectangular paper. "Extra meat on yours, right?"

Morgan smirked. "You know me well. Oh, can I also try some of your Passionate Soup? I've been meaning to order that for some time now."

Fred nodded. "Got it. That's all, right? Feel free to take a seat anywhere."

"Actually, can I sit outside this time? I feel like taking in nature today."

"Sounds like a plan." The barista nodded and smiled. "It IS pretty nice out today. Dolly'll bring your food out in a bit."

After thanking Fred once more, Morgan stepped out of the cafe and sat at one of the outdoor tables. She took a deep breath and basked in her surroundings for a moment. The lino flowers that once grew plentifully in the trees were now starting to wilt, but that did little to diminish their overall beauty. Aside from that, Morgan could also spot some Thors students mingling with the locals and clearly enjoying their day off from classes. She found one brown-haired girl in particular who seemed to be chatting and doing some window-shopping with an elderly lady. Morgan smiled and closed her eyes, waiting for her meal to arrive. Just one bite of that crispy, cheesy, meaty pizza and this view would be perfect!

"Um, excuse me?" asked a young woman's voice.

'Wow, already? That was fast!' Morgan turned to face Dolly the waitress, though she immediately noticed two things. Firstly, she wasn't holding any food, and secondly, she had a concerned expression on her face. "You ordered the Passionate Soup today, right?"

"Yeah, that's right." Morgan nodded.

"I'm terribly sorry, but we can't actually make any of those right now," Dolly apologized.

"Is that so?" Morgan blinked. "In that case, you can just forget about that order then."

"That's very kind of you to offer, but this does present a problem…" Her voice trailed off.

'A problem?' That piqued Morgan's interest. "Mind if I speak to Fred about this?"

The brown-haired waitress nodded and motioned for her to go in. Morgan did so and saw Fred mildly panicking at the counter. When he noticed that Morgan was walking towards him, he immediately recomposed himself. "Hey. Look, I'm really sorry about this. Your pizza's almost done, though, so don't worry about that."

"Glad to hear it, but I'm not here for that." Morgan waved her hand. "What's the problem?"

The orange-haired barista sighed. "I've got a little stock issue on my hands here, by which I mean that I'm all out of a certain seasoning."

"And I take it this seasoning is necessary to make the Passionate Soup?" Morgan guessed.

Fred nodded. "Wouldn't be called 'Passionate Soup' if it wasn't there, if we're bein' honest. The seasoning is made from passion leaves, a rare kind of spice from the south of Zemuria. Brandon from the general goods store usually orders 'em for me, but it usually takes at least a business day for them to come if they're ordered in advance."

Morgan crossed her arms. "So you can't just swap out the spice in the meantime?" she asked. "Or put up a sign that says that you're not serving it today?"

"That's not the issue here," Fred said, shaking his head. "The Passionate Soup is one of our more popular items, and since it's almost going to be lunch time, I'm sure we're going to have a lot of customers come in with that dish in mind. To make matters worse, today's a free day for the students, which means we're probably going to be getting some students wanting it as well. Lost stock leads to lost sales, then lost sales leads to less money earned!" Fred started pulling his hair. "Gah, if I'd just kept an eye on my stock, I probably wouldn't have run out! This one's totally on me!"

"Hey, calm down." Morgan told him. "Let's just be glad you found about this before the lunch rush started." She cupped her chin with her fist and started thinking of a solution. 'If the spices can't come until at least a day later, then the only way for Fred to get his hands on some right now would be to get them directly from someplace in Trista that carried individual ingredients,' she thought. 'We can rule out Brandon's General Goods, since he probably doesn't have any on hand right now, so that would only leave…' She lowered her hand. "Say, why don't I go to the school cafeteria for you and see if they have some passion leaves?"

Fred perked up. "For real? You'd do that?"

"Well, I don't know if they actually have any today, so don't get your hopes too high up, but it's the only other option. There aren't many other places in Trista with a kitchen, and we can't just go door-to-door asking for ingredients."

The barista chuckled. "Hey, a small chance is better than none, as they say! I really hate to ask, but...can you check with them for me?"

Morgan eagerly nodded. "Of course! Just make sure my pizza comes out looking alright and we'll be even!" After Fred gave another thanks, Morgan turned and left the cafe. Making a hard left, she set her sights on the academy and started running as fast as she could.

When she got to the Student Union building, Morgan asked the lady at the cashier if she could speak to one of the cafeteria's chefs. The lady was puzzled at first, but after Morgan briefly went over the situation at Kirsche's, she nodded understandingly and called for a tall mustached man in a cook's uniform to talk to her. After explaining the situation in greater detail to the chef, he asked her to wait a moment and left to check some of the food boxes in the back of the kitchen. When he came back, he handed her a bundle of passion leaves. As it just so happened, one of the sides for the daily special was using passion leaves, so the cafeteria had plenty to spare. With leaves in hand, Morgan rushed out of the cafeteria to head back to Kirsche's.

By the time she made it back to the cafe, Morgan was panting from all the sprinting she had to do. "Morgan!" Fred called to her as she stepped into the cafe. "You okay there?"

Morgan held up her index finger and took a moment to catch her breath. "I...may have underestimated the distance between here and the cafeteria." She then brought out the bundle of passion leaves. "But hey! I found some leaves! They're all yours."

Fred took the bundle out of Morgan's hand. "No way...I can't believe you actually got these!" He inspected the bundle to see if they were the real deal. "And there's so many here, too! Just how much did all of these run you?"

The black-haired girl shrugged her shoulders. "You'd have to ask Ramsay from the cafeteria that. He's the one who gave them to me. He also said that if you're ever low on those until you get your next stock, go talk to him."

"I see. I'll have to be sure to go thank Ramsay next time I get the chance." Fred set the leaves aside. "But I can't forget to thank you, either! It's kinda flattering that you went to all that trouble just to get these leaves for little ol' me."

Morgan let out a small laugh. "Don't mention it."

"Say, I may as well ask you now…" Fred continued. "You're not part of the Student Council, are you?"

Morgan tilted her head in confusion. "Uh…no? Why do you ask?"

"Oh, it's just that they've helped everyone here in Trista out quite a bit over the years, us included," the barista explained. "Seeing you try so hard just kinda reminded me of their style. That's all."

Morgan hummed to herself. "Well, I guess you could say I'm a bit used to running around doing errands. People sometimes called me "shamelessly self-driven", whatever that means." A thought occurred in her mind. "But actually, there's this one guy in my class who's helping them out today with fulfilling requests from people. Do you send requests to the Student Council regularly?"

Fred nodded. "Yep, they're like our personal problem-solvers. It's probably a ton of work for them, but I think they all feel like it's work worth doing. Oh yeah! I almost forgot." He walked over to the furnace and pulled out a pizza with lots of meat on it. "Here's your pizza."

Morgan's eyes lit up like a hungry carnivore, all questions regarding the Student Council promptly vanishing from her mind. "Yay! I've been waiting for this!"

"There weren't any other people ordering a pizza so I was able to keep yours nice and toasty," the orange-haired barista said as he placed the pizza on a plate. "I'll have Dolly bring out your soup in a few minutes, and as thanks for pulling me outta the fire today, this meal's on the house."

"Aw, you don't have to go that far!" Morgan said. "At least let me pay for the pizza."

"Consider this 'owner's orders'." Fred insisted. "Now go out there, sit at your table, and enjoy your lunch. You're gonna start hoggin' up the line!"

Morgan turned to see a group of Thors students coming in. She saluted the barista behind the counter in an exaggerated fashion. "Yes sir!" Taking her pizza off his hands, Morgan walked out of the cafe with a spring in her step and sat down at her table. She picked up a slice and squealed giddily as she took a bite out of it. Several minutes and a few pizza slices later, Dolly came out with a bowl of Passionate Soup, but not without thanking Morgan for her help. Morgan proceeded to take a sip from the fruits of her labor.

Needless to say, it tasted very satisfying.

"I stayed a bit longer than I expected," Morgan remarked as she left Kirsche's. She had insisted on at least paying for the tip and left some mira on the table. "I wonder what everyone else is doing right now…" she wondered.

At that moment, Morgan's ARCUS started ringing. She brought her orbment out and answered the call. "Hello? Who is it?"

"Hey, Morgan," answered a familiar male voice.

"Oh, Rean!" she recognized. "How are things going with the Student Council?"

"Pretty good," he replied. "Mostly just going around the academy and Trista running errands, just like President Towa said I'd be doing. It certainly tests your endurance, though…"

Morgan laughed. "I can relate to that. Anyways, what's up?"

"I'm sure I already know the answer to this, but I might as well ask again: are you free right now?"

"If by 'free' you mean 'taking a walk and doing nothing in particular', then yes, I am."

"Good," Rean said, sounding relieved. "Can you come meet me in front of the old schoolhouse?"

"The old schoolhouse?" Morgan was puzzled. "You mean the one we went to on the first day of school, right? Why there?"

"It's for one of the Student Council tasks," he explained. "I'll go over the details once you're there, but this one came from the principal himself, so I figured I'd get as much help as possible."

"From Principal Vandyck?" Morgan reiterated. "That sounds important. Tell you what, I'm walking towards the Class VII dorm right now. Could you give me around 10 minutes to get my weapon? I have a feeling I'll need it just in case."

"That's a good idea. By the way, I asked Elliot and Gaius to start heading over there as well, but they're finishing things up with their clubs, so take all the time you need. I'll give you all the rundown once we're all accounted for, and then we'll head in together. Sound good?"

"Sounds like a plan. I'll see you later."

"Right. See you there." After that, Rean hung up.

Morgan put her orbment in her skirt pocket and made a quick dash to the Class VII dormitory. After running up the stairs to her room, she grabbed her axe from the weapon display and lengthened it to its two-handed form to see if there was anything wrong. Once she was satisfied, she walked over to her desk and opened one of the cabinets that contained her other tactical orbment on top of her father's strategy book. After hesitating for a moment, she picked up the orbment and put it into one of the pockets inside her blazer.

"'A good tactician has nothing to fear', right?" she told herself. Double-checking once more that she had everything she needed, she reverted her weapon to its original form and started making her way to the old schoolhouse.

By the time Morgan made it to the entrance of the old schoolhouse, all three of the other boys were already there, huddled up in a tight circle and discussing amongst themselves. Morgan called out to them to get their attention.

"Hey!" she greeted them. "Hope I didn't keep you all waiting."

"Not at all," Gaius replied. "I just happened to get here myself."

"Same here," Elliot said.

Seeing that everyone he called was gathered, Rean cleared his throat. "Anyways, now that we're all accounted for, let me explain why I called you all here today." And so, Rean gave the rundown on his request from Principal Vandyck, explaining how Class VII was tasked with investigating the old schoolhouse to see if there were any truths to the strange rumors that were floating around as of late.

"Alterations in the building, you say?" Gaius asked to make sure he heard that correctly.

"Not only that, but the schoolhouse is apparently a nesting place for fiends?" Morgan also added.

Rean nodded. "That's what the principal told me, at least."

"I-I really don't think this is a good idea…" Elliot whimpered.

Rean gave a small chuckle to lighten the mood. "Well...that's because it probably isn't. Honestly, I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to turn back now."

"N-No thanks, I'll come with you," the red-haired boy replied. "We've got that practical exam next week, after all." He brought out an orbal staff that was like Emma's, except it was white and green and had a slightly different design. "I need to familiarize with this orbal staff as much as possible before then. Besides, if I turned back, I'd just wind up worrying myself sick about the three of you!"

Gaius nodded and brought out his spear. Now that Morgan had a better look at it, the spearhead had a unique cross shape that made it seem useful for thrusting and slashing, kind of like her own weapon. "There are currently four of us right now, which means there are enough people for each of us to form a combat link. However, we'll still need to watch each other's backs and proceed with caution."

Rean put a hand on his sword that was in a sheath by his waist. "Are we all ready, then?" he asked the others. Elliot, Gaius, and Morgan all nodded. "Well, let's head on in then." The group proceeded to walk up the stairs to the old schoolhouse. Once they reached the front doors, Rean retrieved a key from his pocket and unlocked them. After taking in a collective breath, the four students walked into the building to begin their investigation.

Author's note: I was originally planning for the entire day to be one big chapter, but then I got the idea of incorporating some of the hidden sidequests from the original game so Morgan had something to do instead of twiddling her thumbs until the old schoolhouse investigation. As you can see, the result is a bit of a slow first part, but I'm hoping to make that up with the second part, which includes a proper boss fight! Look forward to that. Or not. The choice is yours.
Also, apologies with the bland-ish chapter titles. Coming up with names was never my strong suit. ｍ（｡≧ _ ≦｡）ｍ