It was now the last Wednesday of the month, which meant that it was time for Class VII's practical exam. The students gathered on the academy field with their weapons and orbments in tow like last time.
"I'm sure you don't need a refresher on how these things work," Instructor Sara presumed, "so let's just get started, shall we?" With a snap of her fingers, the scarecrow that the students fought the previous month appeared out of thin air.
Morgan squinted her eyes. "Is it just me, or does it look a little...different?" Indeed, the scarecrow's form had changed slightly since the previous month, with its "arms" being slightly longer and overall looking a bit bulkier.
Instructor Sara seemed impressed that she could notice the differences. "Fiddling with their settings changes their appearances too, apparently. I really don't know how they work…" She shrugged her shoulders. "But it's not like that actually matters!"
"You know, it's kind of discouraging when the instructor who's sending us into battle is so...unconcerned…" Rean commented, to which the other classmates agreed.
Sara cleared her throat to gather everyone's attention. "At any rate, let's begin! The first group is Rean, Alisa, Laura, Gaius, and Elliot!"
At the sounds of their names, the aforementioned students all took a step forward while the rest took a few steps back.
"Let's see…" Sara looked at the first group of students. "Elliot, I want you to take a step back for a sec. The rest of you, link up in these assigned pairs." She pointed two fingers to Rean and Alisa, then at Laura and Gaius. The students linked with their assigned partners while Elliot stood behind them, though they were all puzzled by the current formation.
"Now you're all probably wondering why I deliberately left Elliot out of the group here," the instructor deducted. "Well, one thing you may have noticed is that whenever there's an odd number of people in a group, the person that's not in a link is sort of left to fend for themselves. It's not so much of a problem in smaller groups, but in a larger group it gets difficult to keep track of everyone and coordinate with each other, and a lone spanner in the works can make or break a successful battle. So on that note…"
She pointed to the two pairs of students. "You two couplings? Your objective is to open with a link attack, then find some way for Elliot to follow up with his own attack." The pairs nodded in understanding, though Alisa elicited a noticeable blush.
The instructor then pointed to Elliot. "Elliot, your objective is to do the opposite: find an opening to attack, then let one of the couplings to handle the rest."
Rean raised his hand, confused. "Wait, so which one are we supposed to do?"
"Are you basically saying we have to do both?" Elliot asked.
The instructor nodded her head. "That's correct. You'll have to complete both of these objectives in order to pass this exam. An opening can come from anywhere, but in order to capitalize on it, everyone in the group needs to be involved. The better you can bounce off each other's cues, the stronger you'll be as a unit. Does that make sense?"
All the students, both the ones standing in the front and those waiting in the back, mumbled in understanding. It did make logical sense that the most well-oiled units were the ones whose members could synchronize with each other in any situation. The ARCUS units were simply a tool to help make this easier, but simply relying on them alone instead of fostering basic fundamentals like natural teamwork and awareness could prove fatal in the wrong circumstances.
As the gathered students drew their weapons, Instructor Sara raised her hand to get their attention. "Oh, and before I forget, there are two more restrictions for this exam." She held up her index finger. "First, none of you are allowed link up with Elliot; however, you're free to intermingle amongst yourselves. And second…" She held up another finger. "None of you are allowed to talk to one another. At all."
This shocked the first group. Taking away an extra member to link with was one thing, but taking away verbal communication essentially removed all the benefits of planning and giving orders mid-battle, making combat much more difficult.
"So we just have to rely on nonverbal cues instead?" Rean guessed.
"Thaaat's for you to decide," the instructor replied with a smirk. "From here on out, any violation of these restrictions will result in an automatic disqualification from the exam. Are you all ready?"
The students either nodded egregiously or gave a thumbs up. Sara looked pleased to see that they were taking the directions as seriously as possible. "Then show me how it's done!"
At her voice, the scarecrow began floating entered a battle-ready stance. The now-silenced group of students collected themselves and faced it head-on.
The scarecrow spun around violently with its new elongated arms, forcing Rean to back off. This, however, allowed Elliot a chance to sneak up behind the scarecrow and unleash a storm of bubbles from his orbal staff. As the projectiles exploded on contact, Rean took the opportunity ready his sword and deliver a two-handed strike. Immediately, he sidestepped out of the way for Alisa to follow up with a linked attack from afar. As her arrow hit the scarecrow, it slowly floated back to the ground and powered down.
"And that's it!" Instructor Sara called out. "Well done! All that hard work during last month's field study, and in the old schoolhouse before it, has clearly paid off! You all passed this exam with flying colors!" She expected the students to start celebrating as soon as she said that, but to her surprise, the only reactions that were being shown were a few smiles and nods. Realizing this, she started making a shooing motion with her hand. "Oh, you're all free to talk now, by the way."
That relieved the air of tension and allowed the students to start celebrating proper. Sara snickered to herself as she knelt by the scarecrow to see if there was any noticeable damage. Fortunately, it looked no worse for wear and she stood back up. "Okay, next team! Machias, Jusis, Morgan, Emma, and Fie! Step forward!"
The first group promptly stopped their celebration once they realized what this meant. It was to be expected, since Class VII was divided evenly into two groups of five, but even still…
"Ugh, let's just get this over with!" Machias growled through his teeth.
Jusis scoffed. "Hmph. I don't need you telling me what to do."
The noble's comment caused the class vice president to angrily turn and face him. "Wh-What was that?!"
Instructor Sara sighed loudly. "Yes, yes, you hate each other, we get it. Are you two done or do you want to keep bickering?"
Grumbling, the two male students begrudgingly stepped forward to join the other members of their group.
"I'm assuming we don't need to go over the details again, so I'll just skip to assigning your teams." Instructor Sara paired Morgan with Emma and Fie with Machias, leaving Jusis by himself. This caused the mood to lighten somewhat, since there was no longer a need to worry about the two most irritable people in the class linking with each other.
"Now that I think about it, this is the first time we've fought together, isn't it, Emma?" Morgan asked her partner.
"It certainly is." Emma nodded. "I hope we can get through this smoothly."
"We won't," Fie bluntly said. "Not when we have those two on our team."
"Oh, come on." Morgan smirked. "What's the worst that can happen?"
"Uh...we fail?" Fie raised an eyebrow. "Obviously."
To that reply, Morgan wagged her finger and made a tsk-tsk sound. "That's where you're wrong, little Fie! The worst that can happen is that we get disqualified for talking! If we're bound to fail, let's at least put up a decent fight first."
The silver-haired girl gave the most deadpan of stares. "And our probabilities of that happening are…"
"Ninety-nine percent!" Morgan proudly stated. "That is, to say, the chances of us losing are almost guaranteed!"
Machias angrily glared at her. "Hey, don't count me out that easily! I'll make sure we pass, no, ACE this exam, even if I have to do all the work myself!" He loaded his shotgun.
"Please, that should be my line." Jusis drew his sword. "I'm the only one who can't use an ARCUS link, remember?"
"Okay, that's enough chit-chat!" Instructor Sara clapped her hands. "You've got your teams, you know your objectives, now let's see if you can prove Morgan wrong! Begin!"
As the instructor gave the signal to begin, the rest of the students watched on from a distance. "She's awfully chipper for someone who's literally walking into a minefield," Alisa noticed.
"You mean Morgan?" Elliot asked. "Now that you mention it, she does seem a little more upbeat than usual."
"She's always been the optimistic type," Gaius commented with a chuckle. "Not many people would be able to accept this particular position with ease."
Laura hummed to herself. "No, I don't think that's all there is to it."
"What do you mean?" Alisa wondered aloud.
"We all know that Morgan is very smart," the swordswoman explained. "She's likely already realized that the chances of succeeding are very slim, and with the added restrictions, those probabilities diminish to almost nil."
"So you're saying...this is her way of resigning herself to her fate?" Elliot said morbidly.
"I think so." The group turned to the direction of Rean's voice. To their surprise, they found that he had moved a small distance from them and was squatting by a few strange markings etched onto the field. Huddling around him, the students noticed a small diagram with an "X" in the middle and several assorted letters surrounding it. Below the diagram was a list of those same letters next to a number and a percent sign. There were a few other scribbles and unintelligent markings here and there, but there was one thing that stood out: a series of words and letters that were connected into one long, underlined equation.
"If 1 = J → -Range + -DEF + (Restrictions) = chance of success = 1%"
"All right! That's enough!" Instructor Sara yelled.
The scarecrow, which had yet to be defeated, powered down at her voice.
The teacher looked to the second group of students, who were all in various states of fatigue. "Well, I think we all knew this was going to be a struggle, but I had no idea it would be like this. Some members clearly did better than others, but as a whole your performance was...unremarkable. So, you all failed." She crossed her arms. "I expect a report from each of you by the end of today detailing all the things that went wrong. That goes double for the ones who were largely responsible for this outcome in the first place." She glared disappointingly at Machias and Jusis. "Are we clear?"
"Crystal," Fie stated bluntly.
"Y-Yes, Instructor," Emma tiredly but dutifully replied.
"Gah…" Machias gritted his teeth.
"Hmph." Jusis begrudgingly nodded his head.
"A spectacular failure," Morgan said knowingly. "Nice work, everyone!" She forcefully reverted her weapon from its bardiche form to its one-handed form and turned to rejoin the other students. To her surprise, they were standing near the patch of ground she used to draw simulations.
"What?" she asked them.
"You don't need to force yourself, you know," Rean tried to console her.
Morgan simply smiled serenely. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Well, that concludes today's practical exam," Instructor Sara finally said. "Next, I'll be announcing the details of this weekend's field study. Each of you, please come forward and take one of these." Producing a stack of papers from her jacket, she handed one to each individual student. The information on each paper read the following:
[Field Study: May]
Group A: Rean, Morgan, Machias, Jusis, Fie
(Study Location: Bareahard, the Verdant City)
Group B: Alisa, Laura, Elliot, Gaius, Emma
(Study Location: Saint-Arkh, the Old Capital)
"Bareahard and Saint-Arkh…" Gaius read. "Both very well-known cities here in the Empire."
"Bareahard's the capital of the Kreuzen Province in the east, right?" Elliot recalled.
"And Saint-Arkh is the capital of Sutherland in the south," Alisa recognized.
"Two provincial capitals…" Laura mused over the cities. "They seem like fair choices."
"I...guess they are," Emma hesitantly agreed, "but…"
"That's the least of our worries," Fie said, finishing Emma's sentence.
"Is this some kind of sick joke?!" Machias fumed, flailing the paper in his hand. "Instructor, what are you trying to prove? Do you have some sort of personal vendetta against us or something?!"
Jusis reined his emotions in, but nonetheless looked very much insulted. "For a change, I agree with him. This is ludicrous." He crossed his arms defiantly. "I refuse to accepts these group allocations. Change them at once."
"I don't know…" Instructor Sara scrutinized her copy of the handout. "They seem pretty perfect from where I'm standing. Besides!" She pointed to Jusis. "You're from Bareahard, so putting you in Group A was a no-brainer!"
"Then put me in Group B!" Machias angrily pointed to Jusis. "I'm not thrilled at the thought of going to Saint-Arkh either, but it's better than gallivanting off to HIS hometown. Besides, everyone knows that Bareahard is like a breeding ground for nobles and their dusty old ideas. The place is crawling with them!"
"Which is precisely why I also put you in Group A to begin with!" the instructor fired right back. Her quick response made Machias briefly go silent.
"Look, I'm no army officer, so I'm not about to go telling you that my orders are absolute and such. That's much too military for my liking. But…" Sara cleanly folded her copy of the handout and put it into her jacket pocket. "I am your instructor, and it's my duty to look out for your best interests, which, I feel, is exactly what I'm doing here. So if you have any objections…" She presented the students with the widest, most sincere smile they had ever seen. "Then how about the two of you try to make me listen to them by force?"
The ultimatum that was presented made the entire class go silent. The thought of going toe-to-toe with their own combat instructor, as silly as she usually was, was downright terrifying. Like it or not, she was still the main combat instructor at one of the most prestigious academy in the empire; anyone in their right minds would buckle up and back out as soon as possible.
...Which made it all the more surprising when both Jusis and Machias started walking towards her with their weapons drawn.
Rean couldn't believe his eyes. "Y-You're not seriously going through with this…!"
"C-Come on, don't try it!" Elliot tried futilely to reach out to them, but his classmates refused to listen.
Instructor Sara, meanwhile, elicited a sigh. "Male pride is so predictable, you know that? I knew you couldn't possibly turn down an offer like that. But you know what? Something about this doesn't seem fair…"
"What are you implying, Instructor?" Jusis asked, furrowing his eyebrows. "You'd rather it be a one-on-one duel instead?"
Instead of answering his question, Sara snapped her fingers and pointed to Rean. "Rean! Get your butt over here and give these two a hand! I'll take on all three of you!"
The swordsman blinked. "H-Huh? Er, I mean, yes! Of course!" He hurriedly rushed to his classmates' side without giving a second thought.
"This won't end well," Fie remarked.
"How come?" Morgan asked her.
"Cause when she starts looking like that…" The silver-haired girl looked to the instructor's expression. "That's when she brings out Diablo and Pain."
"Wha…?"
As if on cue, Sara swished the flaps of her jacket and brought out her personal weapons: a deadly-looking orbal gun colored violet and a just-as-lethal broadsword, also of the same color. Everyone let out a collective gulp.
"Having second thoughts?" she asked Machias and Jusis. "If you think you can 'convince' me to change your assessments, then you'll need more than just words to get me to listen." She motioned for the rest of the class to step back, which they did without question. "Now let's get right to this extra credit session, shall we?"
Needless to say, neither of the boys were able to land a scratch on her. Thus, the decision was final: Group A and Group B would stay as they were originally assembled.
"Here you go, Instructor." Morgan handed Sara a piece of paper. "I wasn't sure how long you wanted it to be, so I filled it front and back with everything I could think of."
"Thank you very much." The violet-haired woman took it with gusto. "I'm sure you jotted down all sorts of good details. So, what'd you think?"
"Think of...what?"
"Working with our two bickering lions," Sara clarified. "Now that the decision's final, this won't be the only time you'll have those guys on your team. So, what were your initial thoughts? No need to mince words; just say what comes to mind."
"Hmm…" Morgan took a moment to gather her thoughts. "If I'm going to be honest, having one of them as the outside attacker made things more difficult than it should have."
"Oh?" Sara raised an eyebrow. "What makes you say that?"
"If they were part of the paired groups, we could have solved having the two of them working together by simply keeping them in opposite pairs," Morgan reasoned. "There'd still be a few problems, yeah, but at least they wouldn't have to focus on what the other is doing; they'd be preoccupied with helping their teammate to notice. By making one of them the independent attacker, you deliberately forced them to be aware of each other, which increased the chances of them running into each other and coming into conflict. Not making matters better were the restrictions; no linking meant we couldn't do anything about the issue, and no talking meant they couldn't let each other know if one of them was about to attack. And on top of that…" She stopped herself. "Sorry, I started rambling, didn't I?"
Instructor Sara smiled. "No need to apologize. I'm just impressed you were able to point out all the little kinks in my exam."
"So you planned for all of this to happen?" asked Morgan.
"Well, I wouldn't go that far," the instructor admitted. "I did want to drop some foreshadowing since those two were going to be in the same groups again, but assigning those roles during the exam was something I came up with on the spot. I didn't realize I ramped up the difficulty until after your group started fighting." She raised both her hands. "That one was on me."
"Well, like Instructor Beatrix said: 'If there is ever a time to fail, it is now.'" Morgan shrugged her shoulders. "Honestly, the sooner we get these problems out into the open, the more cautious we can be during the field study."
Sara looked on with approval. "I like your attitude. Keep up the good work."
With that, Morgan left the faculty lounge. As she was about to leave the building, she ran into Machias.
"Hello, Morgan," he greeted her. "Is Instructor Sara in the faculty lounge?"
"Uh-huh." She nodded. "Just turned in my report to her. You doing the same?"
"That's right." He held up a sheet of paper with his handwriting all over it. "As much as I hate to admit it, this is one mistake I have to live up to."
As he turned around to leave, an idea sparked in Morgan's mind. "Say, Machias?"
The bespectacled teen turned around. "What is it, Morgan?"
"I heard from the others that you play chess?"
"Um, yes, I do. I'm a member of the school's chess club."
"Do you have a spare chess set I can borrow?"
"A spare set?" He thought about it for a moment. "I do have one back in my dorm room. What do you need it for?"
"I want to borrow it for the night," Morgan responded. "It's for research purposes."
"What sorts of research?"
"Simulational research." She clasped both of her hands together. "I'll bring it back by tomorrow, so pretty please? With sugar on top?"
"Well, I suppose there's no harm…" Machias mumbled to himself. "All right, let me hand this in to Instructor Sara first. Then, we can walk back to the dorm and I can give you the chess set then. How does that sound?"
"Sounds good!" Morgan pumped her fist. "Thanks, Machias."
Machias adjusted his glasses. "It's the least I can do to make up, seeing as I dragged you all down with me."
After Machias left to turn in his report and came back, the two students headed back to the dormitory, chatting about various miscellaneous subjects that weren't related to that afternoon's practical exam. Once they returned and went up to the second floor, Machias told Morgan to wait outside his room while he went inside to find his chess set. Less than a minute later, he came back and handed her a folded chess board.
"All the pieces are inside," he told her. "Just don't lose any of them and bring everything back by tomorrow."
"Roger!" Morgan gave a small salute and left him to go upstairs. Once she was in her own room, she immediately went to work in setting up the board and gathering a few sheets of paper.
"Okay!" She laced her fingers together and stretched them outwards. "Time to get some work done-zo!"
After a long while, a knock came from the door.
"Yes?" Morgan called to the direction of the door. "Who is it?"
"It's me." It was Emma's voice. "Would you mind if I came in?"
"Not at all."
"Sorry to barge in." Emma opened the door and came into the room. She was still dressed in her uniform. "Fie and I were just about to go and grab dinner soon. Do you want to come with us?"
"Dinner?" Morgan looked to her clock, which read 7:57. "Whoa! Time sure flies, doesn't it?"
"You've been up here for at least four hours," the class president noted. "I heard from Machias that you asked to borrow his chess set, and after he gave it to you, you went up to your room and stayed holed up there for the remainder of the day. Did you even take one break?"
Morgan had to give that question some serious thought. "Guess it slipped my mind."
"You should learn to pace yourself," Emma said worriedly.
"S-Sorry," Morgan apologized. "Whenever I get focused, my self-care habits can become pretty atrocious."
"At least you know what your flaws are." Emma walked closer to where Morgan was seated. "Now, what was so important that you needed a chess set and a good portion of the afternoon?"
"I've just been running some simulations." Morgan showed the board to Emma. In the middle of the board was the black king, with the white pawn, knight, bishop, rook, and queen scattered around it. The rest of the chess pieces lay neglected in a pile off to the side.
"So you weren't playing chess by yourself…" Emma adjusted her glasses by the corner and took a closer at the board. "Hm? I don't know if it's just me, but this layout looks a bit familiar…"
"It's from earlier this afternoon." Morgan pointed to the black king. "The king in the middle is supposed to be the scarecrow."
"Oh! Now I see it!" Emma nodded in understanding. "So the five pieces surrounding it are…"
"Yep. They're us." Morgan waved her hand to each of the pieces. "Little Fie is the pawn, noble Jusis is the knight, stubborn Machias is the rook, smart Emma is the bishop, and…" She picked up the queen. "I'm the queen cause that's the only other piece that's distinctly female."
Emma giggled at that. "This is quite the setup," she remarked. "So? Did you find anything interesting?"
Morgan hunched over the board. "Well, it should come as no surprise, but under normal circumstances, we should've had no problem taking the thing down." She started rearranging the pieces on the board. "If we have Fie and Machias attack from this angle with their bullets and you cast arts from somewhere on this side, you could create a large-enough distraction for either Jusis or me to blindside it with a pincer movement, at which point completing the objective becomes a fifty-fifty on who attacks first. It's just that when you take the restrictions into mind…"
Emma grimaced. "Yes. Not being able to talk severely hinders our ability to coordinate effectively with one another."
"That's the big flaw," Morgan affirmed. "Unless we specifically point to who should attack first, we need to rely on our knowledge of each other's strengths and weaknesses to work together. Problem is, not all of us are at that level yet; I don't want to sound condescending, but some of us are too caught up in their own biases to try and understand each other." She put her hands over her head. "Like Instructor Sara said, a single person who's out of place can make or break a successful fight. There are ways to work around it, but they won't work towards solving the main issue. Any serious improvement to our team means Machias and Jusis have to stop getting on each other's nerves. If they don't, it could spell big trouble when we're fighting monsters on our field study."
"Are you going to be all right for the trip?" Emma asked.
"Honestly? It's hard to tell," Morgan admitted. "Jusis is from Bareahard, so we have the home field advantage, but the fact that it has lots of nobles means it's bound to set off Machias's short temper. How were you able to keep them in check last time?"
The class president pursed her lips. "We did try to guilt trip them into helping us on multiple occasions, although by 'we' I mean mostly me. Really, everything was falling apart until Instructor Sara showed up."
"If that's how it was in a town of spinners, I hate to see what would happen in a town full of nobles…" Morgan leaned back in her chair and groaned. "Guess that means it'll mostly be up to me and Rean to keep everyone in check."
"I'm sure the two of you will do fine," Emma said encouragingly. "With Rean's proactiveness and your problem-solving skills, you're probably the only ones who can get those two to make up."
Morgan felt flattered. "Well, if this is coming from the smartest first year in the academy, then surely there has to be some truth behind it."
Emma started giggling again. "Come on, Morgan. I was being serious!"
At that moment, there was a loud gurgling sound.
Morgan held her stomach. "Hey, is that offer for dinner still open?"
"It certainly is." Emma smiled. "Let's meet up with Fie downstairs, shall we?"
As Morgan stood up from her chair and stretched, she thought of something else she wanted to talk to Emma about. "Speaking of Fie, I've been meaning to ask: you got any tips for looking after her?"
"Tips?" Emma reiterated. "Why are you asking me?"
"Well, you're always looking out for her and tutoring her," Morgan reasoned. "Plus, you probably shared a room with her last month. You're practically her babysitter by this point."
Emma became flustered. "I'm just doing my job as our class's representative…" Morgan snickered a little bit at the sight of the normally-composed class president trying to recollect herself. Eventually, Emma gathered her thoughts and cleared her throat. "Well, if I had to say something, it's that Fie's actually very self-sufficient. You can't tell by looking at her normally, but she's actually very perceptive of others. She looks like she's doing her own thing, but it's all within good reason. If you give her the right amount of warmth and independence, she'll stick by you."
"So she's like a pet cat?" Morgan analogized.
Emma opened her mouth to speak, but she stopped to reconsider the statement. "You know, I haven't thought about it like that, but when you put it that way, I guess she sort of is. I'm not sure I like the analogy of her being a pet, though…"
"Cats ARE pretty smart. Like taking naps, too."
Both girls jumped in surprise to find Fie standing in the doorway. Just like how she first appeared to them in the old schoolhouse, they didn't even notice she was there until she revealed herself.
"You were taking too long, so I came to look for you," Fie explained.
"S-Sorry, Fie," Emma apologized. "We were just finishing up."
"I heard it's rude to talk about people behind their backs," the younger girl added. "Well, doesn't matter to me. I'm used to it." With a shrug of her shoulders and an apathetic expression, she headed back downstairs.
Emma had tried to reach out her hand, but she ultimately abstained. "Unfortunately, that's been the extent of most of our interactions so far."
"So I see…" Morgan commented.
"I've tried getting closer to her, but there's something that's making her keep others at an arm's length. Granted, all of us can be guilty of this when we meet new people, but it's almost as if she's guarding herself…" She then realized her statement and shook both her hands. "Uh, that isn't to say that you're like that, Morgan! You're more open than I could ever be!"
Morgan laughed. "It's fine. I get it. We've all got our fair share of skeletons in the closet."
"Well, the bottom line is: don't be too discouraged if she brushes you off," Emma summarized. "That's how she acts."
"So the only way to get through to her is by being honest, then?" Morgan mused. "This field study's going to be an interesting one…"
Author's note: It's finally time for Class VII's second field study to Bareahard, and I've decided to switch up the teams again. In the original game, Emma was part of the group that went to Bareahard; here, I've replaced her with Morgan while keeping everyone else the same.
From this point forward, I'm going to do my best to take some advice to heart and start mixing in some original content while still remaining true to the nature of the game. To that end, I should ask: how long should each day of the field study be? Do you think I should keep it like the first chapter as two long parts or divide it up into three smaller parts like with the free day? I would very much like viewer input on this so I know how much to condense into a single part for future reference.
At any rate, that's it so far. Thanks again for reading this part through to the end. If you enjoyed it, great! If you didn't...well, I tried. Until next time! (*^^)v