Trails of Eastern Steel

by TF1990

This a rewrite of the first Cold Steel game, with some twists concerning Rean Schwarzer, the rest of the story will mostly follow canon. -Instead of training in Ymir, Rean left with his Master to travel the eastern part of the Continent. -Emphasis on Rean/Alisa -A more experienced, but still as dense and insecure (maybe a bit more than canon) Rean. -Can somewhat control his Power

8. The first field study in the Market Town

April 24 of the Septian Year 1204

Having finished putting his clothes on and having checked on his tachi, Arcus and items, Rean made his way downstairs to the lobby to wait for the rest of his group. Entering the kitchen, he prepared some tea for himself while thinking that he still hadn't resolved the issue between him and Alisa, (Honestly, I am starting to think that the Goddess herself is intervening to keep me from apologising. How come that every time during the last two days someone keeps getting in our way?!)

After the reveal of their field study, that they were starting today, Rean had made his resolve to properly apologise to Alisa no matter what, though that didn't happen thanks to a series of unfortunate circumstances. Instructor Thomas, who Rean was helping researching the old schoolhouse, called for him at nearly every moment that he was free for help in their research and the one time he was able to free himself, Alisa was called away for a lacrosse club meeting and in the dormitory, they were never alone.

Every time Alisa was alone and he tried to approach her, someone else appeared which caused Alisa to quickly leave the room, (I know that I am not the best at reading a girls actions or motives but even I can tell that if I want to apologise to her I have to do it someplace where we are alone but it is not like I have much time before we have to go.) Thinking of every possible way to apologise while drinking his tea and seeing the members of the other group leaving to go the station, he kept thinking until he sensed a presence coming down the stairs, leaving the kitchen he made his back to the lobby only to find that it was Alisa that had descended. They both stopped moving as soon they saw each other, for a time no one moved.

(Ok Rean, you can do this. Just walk up to her, start a conversation to get her to speak with you and then you apologise.) / (Ok Alisa, this time you are going to do it, you rehearsed this situation enough times just walk up to him, start a conversation to get things moving and then you apologise.) Not knowing what the other was thinking the two started moving at the same time in the direction of the other.

"Morning Alisa."

"M-morning."

"You are up early; we still have a good forty minutes until the appointed time at the train station."

"Well, I could say the same to you… What time did you wake up?"

"Around five, though I try to be always up by then."

"Oh really, that is pretty early, is it because of morning practice? Wait you haven't joined any clubs. So, I guess not. Hmm, could you just be an early bird?"

"(How does she know that I'm not in any club?) No, it is just an old habit of mine. I have gotten used to wake up that early for sword training. Speaking of morning practice, you are in the Lacrosse club, so I guess you must deal with morning practice sometimes?"

"Yeah, we have practice three times a week, but I think it is just a matter how getting used to it." Suddenly there was silence between the two of them, for a few seconds no one said anything until as if they had planned this beforehand, both bowed to each other and said at the same time "I'm sorry! / I'm really sorry!" surprised at the other actions they continued speaking in stereo, "Why are you apologising?! / Why are you apologising?!"

Silence returned until they both burst out laughing, Alisa was the first to regain her composure, "Haha, now that was certainly interesting. Nonetheless, I'm really sorry Rean, I knew that it was just an unfortunate accident from the very beginning, you were just trying to help me but I kind of lost my head when I realised that you were below me in that kind of position and before I could think things through, I had already slapped you. Thinking back during the fall you put yourself before me trying to protect me from whatever was going on. So, if anything I should be thanking you. So, thank you for trying to protect me, Rean."

Shaking his head at her, Rean tried to downplay his actions, "Don't worry about it, the trap door was obviously designed so that we wouldn't get hurt from the fall. If I hadn't tried to play the hero, I wouldn't have been pinned under you and this entire situation could have been avoided. So, you don't have to thank me or anything, I should be the one to apologise to you for all of this." Rolling her eyes at him, she continued defending his actions, "There is no way you could have known that no matter how you look at it, the one who is in the wrong here is me. So, thank you for trying to protect me and I am sorry for how I reacted."

Finished speaking she approached him with a smile and stretched her hand out for him to shake it, seeing this he tried once again to shoulder the blame but one look in her eyes and he couldn't bring himself to continue with it, taking her hand he gave it a slight squeeze, "You are welcome, Alisa. Sorry I am not used dealing with these types of situations." Having finally apologised Alisa felt far lighter than before, so she just shot him another smile while her eyes shined with a teasing light, "Let me guess, you aren't used to accepting thanks, you are more used to apologising for things that aren't your fault, am I right?"

Lips twitching upward at her teasing, Rean just rubbed his neck while looking slightly embarrassed that she was right, "Yeah, as much as I want to deny it, you are actually right." Chuckling at his admission, she continued teasing him, "So, like I said I am really thankful to you, Rean." Now it was his turn to roll his eyes at her, even though he wasn't aware that he had a small smile on his face, Alisa stopped trying to tease him and continued speaking, "I have been trying to apologise for the past weeks but every time I tried to approach you, I always just wound up avoiding you."

"Really? You did try to help me during the history class last week, though."

"O-oh, so you did notice it. I was hoping that would give us a chance to talk but, in the end, you didn't need my help at all."

"I still appreciate the thought, Alisa. While it didn't help with the question, it did give me a bit of hope that I would be able to talk with you again." Blushing slightly at his comment, Alisa tried to come up with a response she remembered something else that she wanted to talk about concerning the incident in the old schoolhouse, "Anyway, we have safely established that what happened wasn't your fault but the result of it is another issue entirely!" The sudden shift in the conversation left Rean a bit confused, "The…. result? What are we talking about now?" A bit of frustration appeared on her face now, "Oh, come on! You have to know what I mean!" Still not understanding what she was talking about he tried to clarify it some more, "This is still in regard to the accident in the old schoolhouse, right?"

"Yes! Specifically, the part where your face ended right in the middle of my…" suddenly understanding what she was referring to, Rean couldn't help but remember that soft feeling which in turn caused him to blush as red as a tomato, seeing that he was suddenly blushing, Alisa understood that he finally got what she was referring to, "Anyway, I forbid you from ever thinking about that, ever again! Forget it ever happened!" Narrowing her eyes at him, she took a step in his direction while looking him in the eyes, "ARE WE CLEAR, REAN?"

Overwhelmed by the sudden pressure that she was emitting, Rean took a step back while assuring her that he got her message loud and clear, "Yes, we are perfectly clear! (Trying to avoid thinking about it is just going to make it that much harder to forget it, though.)" As if sensing what he was thinking, Alisa took another step forward and poked his chest with a finger while smiling sweetly, though for him that smile was filled with a very dangerous feeling, at him, "But if you need help forgetting it, I heard that hard hits to the head can cause people to forget things and since I am the one asking you, I would be more than glad to help you with the hitting you part."

That just gave Rean the image of Alisa running after him while wielding a massive looking hammer, shaking his head to dispel that image (or very possible future) he shook his head at her with all his might to indicate that he didn't need that kind of help before Alisa could say anything else Rean was saved by the sudden appearance of Elliot and Laura coming down the stairs.

Quickly turning around, he greeted his classmates, "Good morning, you two." Glancing at him Alisa let it go and greeted them too, after greetings were exchanged, Elliot was the first to notice that the awkward air around the pair was gone, "Looks like you two finally managed to make up." A bit embarrassed Alisa just managed a weak nod while Rean spoke up, "Yes, I think we are on good terms now. Thanks for your concern." Giving the two a smile Laura added her own opinion on the matter, "I am glad to hear it. It has been a bit trying to watch the two of you simmer these past two weeks and I know Alisa has been desperate to apologise for her behaviour this whole time."

"Whoa! That is only because I thought it would be awkward for two people who aren't talking to work together in the same group! Don't go getting the wrong idea or anything!" The smirk from Elliot only seemed to unnerve her more, before the situation could get out of hand, Rean intervened "Since we are all already here, how about we all go to the station together and given that the train isn't due for some time this could be a good opportunity to pass by the shops to see if we need some things." Noticing what he was doing, Alisa was quick to support him, "That is actually a good idea! The academy's facilities are supposed to be open early today, too. That reminds me does anyone need to open some slots in their Arcus?"

Shaking their heads, the rest said they had already opened all available slots with the septih they had while talking they made their way out of the dormitory. Outside Rean tried talking about their formation, "Guys, how about we talk about our formation and positions in case we have to fight, I think by deciding that beforehand we can save ourselves some trouble." At the mention of a possibility to test out her combat skills, Laura eyes light up, "Do you think that we will have to fight on this field study, Rean?"

"Well, we are supposed to test out the combat links and their use is best tested in combat, so I think that is stand to reason that at some point we will have to fight." Seeing the logic in his words, caused Elliot to groan a little, "I really hope that this time you are wrong Rean but given our luck you are probably right, and I am still not used to fighting." Smiling at her classmate Laura tried to reassure him, "There is nothing to worry about Elliot, me and my sword are ready for anything thrown our way, besides given what I have seen at the practical exam, you aren't exactly helpless in a fight and since like Rean said we have to test the combat links you won't be alone on the battlefield."

"Laura is right, the three of you worked well together against that strange machine." Seeing that the girls were trying to cheer him up, caused to him to blush a little, looking at this scene caused Rean to give the two girls a grateful glance, (Elliot may not be used to fighting yet but his support and arts are very helpful in a fight. He helped me and Gaius a lot during the expedition in the old schoolhouse, now he only needs to gain some confidence in himself. Maybe working with someone else beside me and Gaius will help him in that regard.)

"Anyway, to return to your question, Rean. You already know that I use a great sword as my weapon and Alisa uses a bow, so I am best used at the frontline and she at the backline. Maybe you and I can link up at the front and Elliot and Alisa at the back. What does the rest of you of think of that?" This caused the rest to think about that possibility, "That isn't a bad suggestion Laura, but I think that it will depend on the situation. In case that there aren't a lot of opponents less than five we could use that or if there are more each of us could take on half while being linked up with Alisa and Elliot as support. In any case we should try link up with each other as often as possible so that we can get used to each other. I noticed that the more we use the combat links the smoother the use of them is."

"Well given what you, Elliot and Gaius showed us last Wednesday, I think that we can trust your expertise on the combat links. I have just a suggestion or more of a request for you, Rean." Blinking at her in mild confusion, he just nodded for her to go on. "If we are going to work together as a team, then I ask of you not to try anything reckless, ok? Not asking us to leave you behind in case there is a strong monster or running towards a loaded gun just to keep its focus on you." Alisa may have been smiling at him but that pressure from before was back, (Aidios help me, and here I thought only my mother was able to pressure me like that.)

The request caused Laura to raise an eyebrow in question given the specific things that were asked but she didn't say anything since they were reasonable while Elliot nodded in support of the Alisa's request even adding one of his own too, "Alisa is right, you know. For this field study we are a group so we should work together and since we are on that topic on you acting reckless, how about we add that you don't take on monsters while you can't see." This in turn caused some interest to appear in Laura eyes while Alisa just narrowed hers, turning to Elliot she asked what he was referring to with that, "Oohh really? Could you please explain what exactly happened that would to that specific scenario?"

Acting quickly Rean put his hand over Elliot mouth before he could answer that question at the same time he was whispering in his ear, "Elliot, the principal asked us not to talk about what happened in the old schoolhouse remember?" Realising that Rean was right, he didn't know how to answer without talking about all the changes that had happened there last Sunday. For a while the group stayed in place like that with Rean holding Elliot mouth, Laura looking at Rean with interest, (That is interesting, was he really able to fight monsters while being unable to see? I knew that he was somewhat strong from the few times I was able to see him fight but that indicates a high level of strength, I remember Father saying that a true master should be able to fight with and without his eyes. He uses an eastern sword could he be a practitioner of that sword style? If that is the case he would make for a good sparring partner, this field study will be a good opportunity to see how strong he is exactly.)

In Alisa's case she was getting more annoyed as time passed, (I knew that he was somewhat reckless given what I had already seen of him back in Roer and in the fight against the gargoyle but still fighting blind? Does he even think before he acts?) Seeing that there was no way out of this, Rean sighed and released Elliot, "Look we still have some time before we have to leave, so we should check if we need anything else while we have time and if we are ready, we should go to the station to buy the tickets."

The girls were still looking at him, so he let out another sigh, "If you really want to hear the story on why I fought blind against a monster, I will tell you during the train ride ok?" That broke their starring while Laura nodded at him, Alisa just hmped and took Laura with her to Brandon's General Goods leaving the two boys behind. "I guess, I owe you an apologise Rean. Sorry, I completely forgot about the principal's request, and it seems like I got you in trouble with Alisa again. I am sorry."

"You have nothing to apologise for Elliot, you were just trying to look out for me, and this situation is my own fault really, if I hadn't tried to fight the monster but retreat like you had suggest I wouldn't be in this situation." Rolling his eyes at his attempt to shoulder this on his own, Elliot let it slide for now since they had more pressing issues to deal with. "Putting that aside for now, what are we going to tell them?"

"The truth, of course." At the stunned look on his face, Rean continued, "We are going to tell them that a monster in the old schoolhouse got the drop on us with its breath attack, causing me and Gaius to lose our eyesight for a while. That I stayed behind to fight the monster so that you could heal Gaius and together we were able to defeat it. We just don't have to explain to them what exactly changed in the underground floor or what we found there. I know that it isn't exactly the best way to go about this, but it is our best solution for this." Taking a moment or two to think it through Elliot recognised that in this case it was their only option since the principal was clear regarding his request concerning their silence oo the truth of the matter.

"How about I go to the cafeteria quick and get us something light to eat during the ride while you wait here for Alisa and Laura." Another quick nod and Rean was on his way to the cafeteria, later the group made their way together to the station, like he had expected group B was already there waiting for their train. Jusis and Machias were jointly ignoring each other but at least they weren't bickering which in Reans opinion was already a good sign, the rest of their group were talking with each other, approaching them and greeting them both groups made some small talk to pass the time, until Emma realised something while looking at Rean and Alisa, "I guess you two were finally able to make up with, huh Alisa? I am glad you seemed depressed over this during the last weeks." Looking at the serene smile Emma was giving her caused Alisa to act flustered, "It is not like we were getting along that poorly. We just talked and decided to move past it."

Noticing that now Fie and Gaius were also looking at her with the same smile, in Fies case it seemed more teasing than serene, caused her to cross her arms and turn her head sideways while grumbling, "Why does everyone keep making a big deal out of it?" To her relief it was at that moment that the announcement came, that Group B train was arriving at the platform, Jusis began walking toward it while Machias followed suite after a moment, looking at the pair caused Rean to get the feeling that maybe Group B was going to have a really hard time on this field study. "Well, best of luck. Though I am hoping that you aren't going to need it." At his side Elliot couldn't help but interject, "Getting these two to work together isn't going to be an easy task."

"We will do what we can. Maybe I will take a page out of Reans book and hope that it works."

"What are you talking about, Gaius?"

"Well, you did manage to get me, you and Elliot to work together the first time we met pretty well, I am hoping that perhaps this will work here too." Remembering that Elliot chuckled, "Yeah, just define their positions before hand and if possible, make it as far away from each other as possible and you may have a chance that they will work together." This caused the rest to laugh until Group B left, with them gone Group A went to the counter to get their own tickets and waited until the train arrived. On board they found their seats and Rean shared with them what he bought earlier at the cafeteria, a few moments later the train began moving.

While they were eating the girls starred at Rean as if waiting for something, realising this he sighed internally before gathering his thoughts to start his explanation of why he fought a dangerous foe while he couldn't see. As he was going to begin the door to their train compartment opened and Instructor Sara walked in, wearing a smile, in their direction, "Seems like Group A is all present and accounted for. Very good and I am relieved to see that the two of you have finally managed to make up. It is about time I say." The unexpected appearance of Sara managed to leave them speechless for a short moment until Alisa regained her bearings and glared at Sara, "You say that as if you already knew! Have you been spying on us this whole time?!"

"No, of course not. Who do you think I am?" Alisa's relief was short-lived because she soon followed up with the rest, "I just saw something quite cute and funny this morning while standing outside the dormitory door. I have to say that I really regret not being able to safe that precious moment for your classmates to see." Groaning out loud, Rean face-palmed while Alisa blushed and her glare intensified while the others shot them some looks filled with curiosity, noticing that the situation was quickly deteriorating, Rean tried to change the subject, "I thought you were planning on staying back at the academy given what you said at the practical exam?"

The way she was looking at him made it clear that she knew what he was attempting to do luckily, she didn't try to push it and answered his question, "Well, considering this your first time out in the field, I assumed you would be positively lost without me! So, I decided to stick around at least until you have finished checking in at the inn in Celdic." Elliot timidly raised his voice, "That is nice of you Instructor Sara, but I think Group B could have used your help more than us." Just to see her rolling her eyes at his statement, "Maybe, but that would be a nightmare to deal with and Parm hasn't a nice beer selection like Celdic has. I may still have to go in case these two go out of control but that is a bridge that we will cross later if it comes down to that."

The students could only sweat drop at their teachers' nonchalant attitude towards the problems concerning the other group, leaning towards Rean, Alisa whispered to him, "See? She knew full well that Jusis and Machias wouldn't be able to work together but put them in the same group anyways! Honestly, what was she thinking?"

"I had a feeling that was the case; still that she would admit it like that makes me really wonder how she got her job. Wait, did she just say that the other reason she came with us was because of the beer?" Ignoring the looks she was getting from her students, Sara went to sit down on the other side, "You kids can just keep on talking, I didn't get much sleep last night, so I am going to take a little nap right here until we arrive." No sooner had she finished speaking, than she fell asleep, leaving the others dumbfounded at the display, "She fell asleep just like that?!"

"Incredible…"

"I am starting to ask myself that question too, Rean. I don't think I have ever seen someone less inclined to be an educator than her." Shaking his head at Sara, Rean tried to keep the conversation away from their instructors questionable teaching qualities, "Maybe we are better off just letting her sleep than think about her. (Still, I better wake her up when we arrive.) How about we discuss what we know of Celdic?" Nodding at Rean, Elliot started with what he knew, "So I know that it is called the Market Town and that it is an hour away from Trista by train. If I remember correctly their main source of tourism was the Grand Market."

"That is correct Elliot. I had to change trains there when I originally came to Trista, so I was able to take a walk around town while passing time until it was time to leave."

"Oh, that is right you are from Legram, Laura." Nodding at Rean comment, she explained the journey she had taken, "I took the train from Legram until Bareahard, there I changed trains in direction of Celdic and changed again for Trista. My hometown is situated in a very remote part of the country." Smiling at her Rean, spoke about his own hometown, "Well, you could say the same for where I am from. I had to take a horse until arriving at Roer, from there the train to Heimdallr and from there to Trista. You were the same, minus the horse part, right Alisa?"

"Yeah, I live in Roer, so my way was the same. What about you Elliot?"

"Seems like I am the one that had the shortest route. I live in the capital, so it was just getting on the train to Trista." Noticing that the conversation was derailing from their purpose, Alisa put the conversation back on track, "Anyway, coming back to Celdic. As Elliot stated it is a merchant town at its core. It is in the eastern province of Kreuzen and has been a major trading hub for a very long time. It is also a major interchange station connecting the capital with Bareahard and even Crossbell." From there Laura took over with what she knew, "The area around it is known for having many granaries but that fact has been overshadowed in recent years by the Grand Market. It is said that virtually anything can be procured there, from farm products, jewels and furs from Bareahard to imported goods form aboard."

Rean couldn't help but be impressed about what he had heard, "That does sound awfully impressive." Elliot too was amazed, "I am kind of looking forward to this now! Maybe this field study won't be so bad after all." Seeing their enthusiasms, Alisa was loathe to dampen their spirits, "I would be too. If I knew we would have a chance to take in the sights, but there is no telling what kind of crazy things Instructor Sara has planned for us." Realising that she was right, Elliot sighed, "Boy, isn't that the truth. I honestly don't know what to expect given her track record so far."

Remembering his conversation with Georg during his free day, Rean tried to console them, "Being a part of our curriculum, it is safe to assume that this 'field study'' won't be easy but I got the feeling that while we may not have a time to take in the sights leisurely, we should be able to at least get a look around town." Finding that statement a bit confusing, Laura gave her own expectations for this journey, "If this was supposed to be easy, then it hardly would be worth a trip. Personally, I am looking forward to learn the true nature of our excursion."

"Well, we will find our answer when we get there. We are supposed to drop by the inn as soon we arrive to get our tasks for the day, maybe there will be some info or explanation concerning why we are doing this." Concluding that further speculation wouldn't amount to much, they passed the time with small talk until Elliot showed another deck of 'Blade' the same one Rean had gotten from the pawn shop, the group took turns playing it. After an intense game between Rean and Alisa, where he won with a one-point difference, Alisa finally remembered that before their instructor arrived, Rean was supposed to explain to them why he was fighting blind against monsters.

(It had slipped my mind completely given Instructor Saras unexpected appearance; I can't exactly fault him for forgetting since I did the same. Still, if he thinks that he is going to get away that easily, he has another thing coming. Just how am I going to approach it without sounding like I am demanding an explanation?) After thinking for a moment her course was set while it was now Elliot and Laura turn to play, she turned her head to speak to him, "When I came to the academy, I never thought I would find myself visiting the Grand Market of Celdic as part of my studies. I have read about it before, but this will be the first time that I'm actually seeing it in person."

"Oh, really? Field study or not, I guess it is still something to look forward to. Is there anything you are hoping to see?"

"(I should feel bad about using his friendly attitude against him, but he must learn to think before he acts or speaks. Now how to guide the conversation where I want it to go.) The gems and furs from Bareahard, perhaps? They say some of the best goods from Artisans Street are sold at the Grand Market."

"That does sound like it would be worth seeing, though I doubt that we will be able to afford anything there, especially if those are the best ones. Still if we get a chance, the two of us should go check it out while we are in town."

"(Urgh, he really needs to learn to think before he speaks, I know that he means just as friends but to random peoples listening in, that could be seen as an invitation for a date and given the glances from Elliot and Laura I know that I am not only thinking like that.) That does sounds like fun while we are there perhaps, we could use that opportunity to stock on more healing items just to be safe." A bit confused about the sudden change in the conversation, he didn't mind it and continued, "That is not a bad idea, it is better to be prepared for anything. Do we need something because I could have sworn that we got everything we need back in Trista?"

Rean didn't know why but he got a strange feeling of Deja-vu as he looked at Alisa, "Like you said we have everything we need but I want to stock more Eye Drops because I think that it is extremely dangerous to fight without seeing anything, wouldn't you agree Rean?" Not even thinking he just answered, "Of course, fighting blind is dangerous especially if you are against mon…. ste..rs…." He stopped mid word as he came to realise why he was having a feeling of Deja-vu, that feeling got stronger as he saw that Alisa looked like the cat that got the cream, chuckling to himself at the situation and at the memory of the last she had that look he raised his hand in surrender.

"Alright, I got the message loud and clear but, in my defence, I didn't do it on purpose I just forgot thanks to the instructor. By the way, I am starting to think that I have to be real careful speaking with you, given that this is already the second time you got me like this." Wearing a smirk, Alisa just looked at him smugly, "Perhaps you will finally learn to think before you speak then." The simile disappeared as she narrowed her eyes at him, "So Rean, I think you have something to tell us?"

Seeing that Laura and Elliot had stopped playing and were focusing on him, he just shrugged his shoulders and began telling the girls what had happened in the old schoolhouse last Sunday, minus of course the changes of the underground floor, the artifact and what they had spoken with the principal. Finished speaking, Laura like Gaius was extremely interested in his 'Inner Eye' technique while Alisa just sighed resignedly after glaring at him for a while but before she could start scolding him, the announcement came that they were arriving at their destination. Looking outside the windows they could vast fields filled with wheats, forests and windmills, in all it made for quite a spectacular view. "Well, I think I am going to wake up the instructor and then we should get ready to disembark."

"Alright, but don't think for a second that you have escaped, we will continue this later on." Giving Alisa a nod to indicate that he got it, he made his way to Sara to wake her up after arriving at the station and disembarking Group A got their first look at the Market Town Celdic. The scenery reminded Rean of his own hometown, (Seems like a relaxing little town kind of like Ymir) There are a lot more people here than I was expecting."

"I think they have come because of the Grand Market, even merchants from outside of the empire regularly come to see it."

"I guess you are right Laura. This place sounds as popular with the tourists as the capital but for a whole different set of reasons. Since we have you here Instructor Sara that saves us at least the time to look for the inn, I take it you know the way?" Looking at Alisa, Sara nodded, "Celdic is also famous for its local beer which they made using the rye they are growing around here. But since you are all minors, you will have to wait a few more years until you can taste it, don't worry I will drink this delicious beer on your behalf. Now then the inn is this way." Grinning at her students, Sara turned around and led them to the inn, sweat dropping at her comment, Rean muttered, "Is she trying to make us jealous?" Sighing Alisa gave him an answer, "Knowing her, maybe? Doesn't matter let's go and get settled down so that we can finally see what this field study is about."

Arriving at the inn, Sara approached a middle-aged woman, "Hey, Margot." Turning around Margot was a bit surprised to see her "Well, if it isn't Sara! What are you doing here? I knew that the kids were coming but I wasn't expecting you to come too."

"Oh, you know me. I was a bit worried about them so I figured that I would help them settle in before I left. Besides I couldn't stay away from your famous beer." Gesturing behind her, she stepped beside so that Margot could see, "This here are my lovely students."

"Well now aren't they a youthful looking bunch."

"It is a pleasure to meet you. We are first year students from Thors Military Academy, Class VII Group A. I am Rean Schwarzer."

"I am Alisa. Thank you for having us."

"I am Laura S. Arseid. It is an honour meeting you."

"I am Elliot Craig. Nice to miss you Ma'am."

"The pleasure is all mine, I assure you. The name is Margot, I am the owner of this humble establishment. Your school and Sara here have taken care of all your arrangements during your stay here. Breakfast begins at six in the morning until nine pm, lunch is from twelve pm to two pm and dinner is between seven pm and nine pm. Apparently you must be in your rooms after nine in the evening that is one of the rules Sara insisted on." At her side Sara was nodding in confirmation, "That is all for the rules. Come with me I will show you your room." With that done, Group A followed her upstairs while Sara stayed behind to sample the local delicacies.

Arriving at a four-person room, Margot opened the door and led them inside, "This will be your room during your stay here." Surprised at that Alisa couldn't help but ask, "Wait, are we going to stay all in one room?" Not caring about Alisa's question Laura walked inside to see the room, "This is more than enough space for our needs. Thank you very much." Following her were the rest, looking around they found four beds inside, they were grouped by two and situated on opposite sides if the room which gave Alisa her answer to her previous question, "You are really suggesting we sleep in the same room as the boys?!"

Which caused her to become very flustered, an apologetic looking Margot tried to calm her down, "I had my doubts too but Sara insisted that we do it this way, you can see that the beds are as far possible from each other but that was the best I could manage." Glancing at a shocked Alisa, Rean remarked, "This is going to be a problem."

"Personally, I don't have a problem with this, but I can't imagine that the girls will be quite as accepting." Standing beside Rean, Elliot gave his own comment on this situation. Coughing slightly to get Alisa's attention, Laura gave her own opinion, "Alisa, I think that we don't have a choice in this matter. We are military students and while we may not end up in the army, we shouldn't let the prospect of mixed gender accommodations faze us. In the army women share rooms with men all the time, that is a fact of life. We will need to adjust to this reality sooner or later and this seems like a good opportunity to get used to it."

Realising that Laura was right, she could just accept the situation for the moment, crossing her arms she turned around to glare at the boys, "While I accept that we have to share this room, that doesn't mean that you are allowed anywhere near our beds, are we clear?" Intimated by her glare, Elliot took a step back, "I wouldn't dream of it!" Which Rean followed up with a "Likewise."

"I wasn't talking to you, Elliot. I was referring to a certain somebody who already has a history with this kind of thing." To make sure that the certain somebody knew who she was referring to she glared in his direction before muttering to herself, "Maybe we can chain Rean to his bed, but where would we get a few dozen chains?"

(She may have forgiven me about what happened, but it seems like she still isn't over it.) He opened his mouth to suggest that he wouldn't mind getting another room if that allowed her to sleep better but she interrupted him before he could speak while looking him straight in the eyes, "Laura is right that I will have to get used to this situation, so I am going to put my trust in you mister, so don't you dare mess it up." To further intensify her point she poked him in the chest with finger while speaking. A bit surprised at the sudden turnaround, Rean gave her a nod to indicate that he got it, satisfied with that Alisa took a step back just find the rest looking at her with different looks, Margot curious, Laura satisfied and Elliot slightly smirking.

Thinking back on her actions, she found that she maybe acted a tad too intimate with Rean, that in turn caused a bit of red to appear on her cheeks, seeing this Rean thought it better to change the subject before someone could say something to set her off. "Margot, you said that you put the beds this way, I can help you put them back on their original places before we leave."

"That is kind of you, but you don't need to. Truth be told you are the second group that is using this room, that has boys and girls mixed together. The first group came by last week and helped me put the beds like that, for their own benefit and after that I thought why not leave like this in case another mixed group needed a room." Surprised at that bit of information Rean just accepted it, in any case the focus was away from Alisa so that was a task accomplished in his book until he saw Margot frowning a bit. "Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing I was just remembering the other group. I am bit annoyed at myself that I couldn't find out which country they are from." Seeing the confused looks of the youths before her, she explained why, "You know that we here in Celdic have the Grand Market and thousands of people come to visit it and we residents made it a point of pride that we can recognise where the visitors are from just based on their accent, we had people from Remeferia, Liberl, North Ambria, Jurai and even form Calvard. But these four young people spoke with an accent that no one had heard before, so everyone here tried to find out where there are from. At the end no one managed to find where there are from, we were tempted to ask them, but our pride prevented us from it."

Elliot was the first to speak, "Wow, that is amazing to able to recognise where someone is from just based on that." Laura on the other hand was more curious about the group themselves, "What did these people look like? I mean, did you notice something else about them that perhaps could be a clue?"

"Well, there were just two girls and two boys a bit older than you and they were dressed for travelling. The only reason they got so much attention was because of their accent, the accessories the girls were wearing and their names." Now it was Alisa's turn to be interested, "What did these accessories look like?" This caused Margot to close her eyes while trying to remember the details, "If I remember correctly, one was wearing a hair clip that had a shape of a weird looking leave and the other had some earrings with the shape that was like the Lino flowers, but it was pink instead of white. You don't see these kinds of accessories around here, so they did stick a bit out." She went on a bit giving more details that she could remember.

These descriptions made Rean remember some adornments he had seen in the eastern part of the continent, (Huh, the way she is describing them make it sound like that the leave was a maple leave and the pink flower a sakura petal. Could they have been visitors from there? If that is the case, no wonder no one could recognise their accent.) Curiosity getting the better of him, he tried to copy the eastern accent, "Margo did they sound something like this?" Eyes wide open she just looked at him, as she realised that he did sound like the ones from that group, "No way, it is really similar to it. Wait, but you are from the empire could it be that they too are from Erebonia?"

The rest of Group A looked now similar astounded as they turned around to face Rean, who hurriedly denied that. "No, no. I was raised here but these people weren't if they sounded like this. You don't have to feel bad that you didn't recognise where they are from because it is rare that people from that part of the continent come to visit here."

"So where are they from?"

"From the eastern part of the continent but from where exactly I can't tell you." This piece of news caused no small amount of astonishment for the rest since like Rean said it was extremely rare that people from there came to travel through the western part of the continent. "How did you realise that they could be from the East, Rean?" He looked at Laura as he answered her question, "When Margot was describing the accessories that the girls were wearing, they sound like some of the eastern variety that I had seen, so I made a guess that they could be from there, seems like I was lucky."

"Now that I think about it, you did say that you had an acquaintance that travelled to the East regularly at that time you gave Emma and Elliot that tea after our first combat lesson." A bit surprised that Alisa remembered that he gave a short nod as confirmation. Margot having finally found where that group came from was visibly relieved, "Well now, no one would have thought that they came from beyond Calvard, thanks for helping clear this up, Rean. This had been stuck in my head for a week and I know some other people who will be relieved to finally have an answer to this. Anyway, now that this is all sorted out and you kids have put your stuff down, it is time I give you this."

With that Margot took out an envelope and gave it to Rean who accept it, "This contains the details of your assignments during your stay here. If you need anything while you are here, just let me know. For now, I will leave you to get settled in and get ready to begin." Looking at his friends, Rean opened it and put the papers that were inside on the nearby table so that everyone could read it. He found it in similar form to the requests he had got from the Student Council during his free day with some that were required and other that were optional.

The requests were the elimination of a monster that was terrorising a farmer on the east highway, the replacement of some ornament lights for a road lamp and helping the church with the gathering of some herbs, at the end of was the description of the area that the students could visit during this field study and that they had to write a report of their activities during their stay which they had to be submitted to the Instructor afterwards. Not having expected that these were their tasks, the group didn't know how to react for moment until Elliot spoke what they all were thinking, "This looks like a list of menial tasks to me."

Looking a bit disappointed, Laura commented, "There is a monster elimination request, at least. But that is the most of what I was expecting." Remembering his conversation with Georg made Rean realise something, "…I see. So that's her angle." Hearing this made the rest turn to him with a questioning look in their eyes, "Did you figure something out?"

"It is nothing. We should go talk this over with the instructor, she may have stayed behind specifically to answer any question that we might have." Noticing that he wasn't going to share what he knew, Alisa tried to steer to conversation in another direction, "You may be right, and we can grill her about this co-ed room she assigned us too while we are at it." After getting ready for their assignment, they left their room in search of their instructor, which wasn't difficult given that she was the only one at the bar drinking beer in the morning. "Ahhh, nothing hits the spot like a good cold beer. Margot keep them coming."

Turning around Sara saw her students making their way towards her, "Oh you kids are still here? You don't have to mind little old me, you can go ahead with your assignments." Slowly getting annoyed at the utter lack of care from her, Alisa nearly growled out, "We have some questions for you. What is up with this field tasks and why are we sharing a room with the boys?!"

"It makes sense that you would have some doubts concerning this. For your tasks you only must do the ones that are marked as required, if you want to do the rest that is up to you. Do the minimum or go completing everything, the choice is yours. Now regarding the room arrangements, I think that I don't need to remind you that you all are students at a military academy, do I? Besides what is the harm, it isn't like you are all alone here and these are Rean and Elliot we are talking about, I can't think of two more harmless guys than them."

Speechless for a moment regarding her comments, the rest didn't know how to react, seeing that even Laura was starting to get a bit annoyed, Rean thought that it was time to intervene before this could spiral out of control. "Guys, I think these kinds of decisions are much a part of our field study as the tasks themselves. So how about we go outside so that we can discuss what we are going to do?"

"Hehehe. Seems like you already have inkling of what is required of you, Georg was right you are a sharp one." Adopting a more serious face she continued, "You have a time window of two days. Trista isn't far from here so, tomorrow evening you will go back until then you can spend your time here however you want. Every decision will depend on yourselves, no one is forcing to do a thing during this time." Finished speaking she took the new beer and drank it in one shoot, realising that they weren't getting anything else out of their Instructor, Group A made their way outside where they asked Rean about what he had figured out with Alisa making the first move followed by Elliot.

"So, Rean what is going on?"

"You have this look in your eyes like you have figured something out, like the instructor said." Before Rean could answer, Laura made her own assumptions, "Does this have anything to do with what you were doing during the free day last week? I heard that you were helping the student council out with some request concerning the townspeople." That got the attention of the other two, especially Elliot who now remembered what Rean had told him and Gaius concerning what he had done that day.

"That is right. I spent that day doing various tasks on behalf of the Students Council and while one was investigating the old schoolhouse, the rest were just simple requests from the locals. Like the ones we have here, I think these requests are designed so that we can learn more about our environment during the time we stay here, it is like the old saying, 'It is better to travel thousand miles on you own feet than to read ten thousand books' and regarding Instructor Sara saying that we have to make our own decisions in this. I think this is to help us develop the ability to make decisions and act on them on our own."

The rest of the group began thinking about Rean had said and found out that he made sense, after all he was right by saying that it was better to see with their own eyes instead of hearing or reading about a place and its people. With that done they decided that they would do every request on the list while taking in Celdic and its culture. Their first shop was the Orbal factory for two reasons, the first to see what kind of quartz they had that could be useful and second, one of their requests was from there.

Inside they met Samos the one who gave them their task, he explained that a road lamp on the west highway wasn't working correctly, and he wanted them to go there to replace the orbment light inside. He also explained that the road lamps worked as a deterrent against the monsters roaming the highway and they should be prepared to be attacked while they are changing the lamps. For safety reasons a code was needed to open the road lamp, after having bought some new quartz and noting down the code, they made their way to the church to talk with the father there regarding another request of theirs.

Apparently, the church was running low on healing herbs that were effective against the common cold, they lacked two ingredients an herb called Bear Claw and some Imperial Carrots. The herbs they could get in the Grand Market from an herb seller called Flint and the carrots from a farmer called Paul that lived on the West highway, finished gathering the necessary info they left the church to discuss how they should process.

"So, the last request is from a farmer that lives on the East highway, and it concerns a monster that is wreaking havoc on his fields. We have two request that requires us to go west and one that is on the eastern side of Celdic. How do you guys think we should process?" Having finished summarising what they had got so far, Alisa looked at her classmates and asked for their opinion. Laura was eager to get started on the monster request, "We are already near the East highway, so how about we go quickly take care of it?"

"I'm fine that. What about you Rean and Alisa?" Thinking for a moment, Rean gave his own proposal on what they should do, "I think we should let the monster request for last, since I think it will take the most time. I rather doubt that the monster will be too strong or else the provincial army would have taken care of it already, but we will have to track it down and fight it too and that can take time. If we are unlucky, we won't have enough time left to do the other requests but if we take care of them first, we can use the rest of the time with the monster."

Seeing the logic behind his reasoning the rest supported his suggestion and made the monster the last request, with that done they went in the direction of the Grand Market to get the Bear claw. Arriving at the entrance to the Market they were stunned at the sight before them, as far the eye could see were stalls selling their variety of products while the customers were walking around searching for something to buy. "Wow, look at all these people here."

"Yeah, it is really bustling here, no wonder people all over the empire come here to visit it." Closing his eyes, Elliot seemed to listen to something, "There are even people performing here. I could see myself spending hours walking around and listening to the music."

"Hmm, that is not a bad idea Elliot. There is no harm in a little sightseeing if it is done while we are working in completing our field study tasks. How about we split up and search the market for the merchant Flint so that we can acquire the Bear Claw?"

"That is not a bad suggestion, Laura. (Seems like the Grand Market managed to charm even her into a bit of window-shopping.) How does half an hour sound to search around for it? When we are done, we meet here at entrance and if someone manages to find it, we can call each other with our Arcus Units so that the others don't have to buy again in case they find the stall too?" Everyone gave their consent to Rean suggestion and the four went each their way to look around. On his own Rean wandered through various stalls, (Wow, the Grand Market is fully deserving of its reputation, I may have seen a lot of markets in the East that were bigger than this one, but this has its own charms. Hmm, wait a moment this smell… I know it from somewhere.)

Following this smell, he managed to find a merchant who was selling eastern spices, feeling a bit nostalgic he bought some of them to add to his cooking in the dormitory, to make sure that they remained well preserved he asked the merchant to hold on to them until he came back later in the evening when he was done with his tasks. Returning to looking around he managed to see his classmates enjoying the atmosphere, Laura was observing some keychains that had a grey and white cat with a large head on it, Elliot was enjoying the music of a man playing in a small resting place and Alisa was looking at some clothing store that seemed to have lace-based fabrics, cashmere shawls and some other types of clothes.

Thinking for a bit, he decided to approach her to see what she was looking at, he approached her slowly from behind and tapped her shoulder lightly, on hindsight it may have been better if he had called out to her given that she jumped up in alarm. Seeing this he quickly stepped back, "Whoa, Alisa. It's just me." Putting her hand over her fast-beating heart, she calmed herself and glared at him, "Aidios, Rean! Did you have to sneak up on me?"

"Sorry, I should have called out to you. I didn't think that I would scare you like that."

"Scared me? Please. I was just surprised that is all." In a rare moment of insight Rean kept his tongue instead of commenting how high she had jumped up, though the amused look on the old saleslady made it clear that even she didn't buy it for moment that she was just 'surprised', "Again, I am sorry. I just wanted to see if you had found something interesting."

"You don't have to apologise again, just don't sneak up on me anymore, ok? I was looking at this lace, it has a really pretty design, but the price is a bit steep, and I didn't bring enough mira with me."

"I can buy it for you if you really want it."

"What? I couldn't make you do that. (Grrr, can't he just think before opens his mouths, why does everything that comes out of it sounds like that. Is it just me that he is like this with, or does he speak like that with any girl?) The last part of that thought caused Alisa to become even more annoyed though she couldn't tell why, before Rean could open his mouth to ensure that she could simply pay him back later, the saleslady made her own move to try and sell her wares to them, "This lace has a good quality and like you noticed the design is exquisite, you can use it for almost any type of clothes. The price is maybe a bit high, but this lace is worth it besides your boyfriend is clearly trying to please you with helping you buy this."

Leaning a bit closer to Alisa she whispered something in her ear, that Rean couldn't hear but he got some parts of words like 'underw' or linge', whatever it was made it Alisa go so red in her face that Rean feared that steam would be coming out of ears. "He is not my boyfriend or anything like that! And I never thought of using the lace for that either!" Not knowing what the lady had said for Alisa to react like that, he tried to calm the situation, "I meant that I could lent you the money, you can just pay me back later when are back at the academy or whenever you want."

To the old lady, he said, "We are just classmates on a field study for our academy, I am not her boyfriend, just a simple friend." Hearing that he would only lend her the money and that she could pay him back later, made her reconsider on buying the lace even after hearing the suggestion from the saleslady, coming quickly to a decision, she turned to Rean to clarify somethings, "Are you sure that lending me the money wouldn't put you in a tight spot later on?"

"Don't worry, I brought enough mira with me to buy something like this easily."

"Ok fine, I will take it and as soon we are back in Trista, I will give you your money back." Taking the correct amount out of his pocket he put on the table while the saleslady began warping the lace up, "Like I said, you can pay it back whenever you want, I am not in a hurry." Like Rean, Alisa left her purchase at the store to pick it up later when she had time, leaving the stall together Alisa tried to ignore the wink and smirk on the old lady's face , "Honestly, thanks Rean. You didn't have to do that for me."

"What are friends for, besides take it as an apologise for 'surprising' you a moment ago."

"Didn't anybody ever tell you that you are too nice sometimes?"

"Nearly everybody that I know, why?" Deciding that they didn't have enough time to get into that, she just asked something else, "So should we see if can find the herb together or should we continue looking for it separately?" Looking at his clock, he found that they still had a good ten minutes until they had to meet with the others and since neither Elliot nor Laura had called that means that they hadn't found the merchant called Flint yet, "I think we should split up, we still haven't been able to get the herb." Before he left, she suddenly spoke up, "Can you believe that she thought that we were a c-c-c-couple?"

Like always Rean didn't bother thinking before speaking, "I can't believe that she would have thought something like that, someone like you deserves someone far better than somebody like me. I guess the correct saying is, 'you are too far out of my league'. Well, I better get going, see you in a bit Alisa." Turning around he left in another direction, not seeing that Alisa surprised face turned quickly into scowling one, (Wait, what does he mean by I am too far out of his league, does that mean he thinks that I am too good for him?….What did he mean be someone like him? Argh, ok calm down Alisa. You know that Rean is like that, so don't overthink and concentrate on doing your tasks, you can get to the bottom of this latter.)

After leaving Alisa behind, Rean asked a stall owner if he knew where Flint was, as luck would have it, he wasn't far away and he still had some of the herbs the church was looking for. After paying for them, he informed his classmates of it and managed to meet up with back on the entrance, the next step required that they made their way to the west highway, on the way there they met the provincial army of Celdic, who questioned them a bit given that they had never seen someone wearing a red uniform from Thors. Afterwards they finally entered the highway, likely the one they had seen from the train before their arrival, the scenery was relaxing even if there were some monsters crawling around, "Now that I think about it, we never got to finish our discussion regarding our position in battle." Rolling her eyes Alisa quipped, "Geez, I wonder why."

"Since you and Elliot managed to reach Level Two in the combat links how about the two you decide our pairings?" Quickly waving his hands, Elliot denied it, "Oh, I am not good at that. Me and Gaius just listened to Rean on this subject." Having thrown this responsibility at his friend, Elliot looked at him to hear his decision, groaning a bit internally he gave the same answer that had given this morning in Trista, "Fine, we will use what we agreed on, me and Laura on the frontline while Elliot and Alisa support us from the backline, for the pairings we should switch after every fight, so that can get used to working together. Maybe we can have some practice on our way to the road lamp and the farmer further in. From what I can sense the monster around here aren't very strong, still we should keep our guard up. In case one of us gets injured during a fight, we should prioritise helping that person. How are your quartz setups for Arcus you two? I know that Elliot focuses on support with a few quartzes for attacking from afar while mine is for close-combat with a few fire arts thanks to my master quartz." Laura explained her first, "Mine is like yours Rean, the focus is completely on close-combat, and I have just one attack art and one support given to me by the master quartz that I am using. I was never any good on using the orbal arts, so I focused on strengthening my crafts and physical abilities."

"Mine is more of attack arts mixed with some supports art. As long the targets are in a radius of around a fifty arge, I am confident that I can hit it with pinpoint accuracy." Taking in this new information, Rean tried to formulate a formation that would make the most of their strengths, "Seems like we are pretty much balanced, we have close-combat fighters, a long-range attacker and one for support. The best way to use these, would be me and Laura in front, Elliot in the middle and Alisa on the backline. This way no monsters should be able to break through the front, Alisa should be able to support us with her arrows while Elliot casts his arts from the middle. Since this area is pretty much an open space, it should be unlikely that the monsters would get the drop on us but that doesn't mean we should let our guard down. Alisa, we will let you take control of our surroundings if you see a monster approaching you should deal with it before it gets too close to us."

He gave further advice on what they could do in different situations until he realised that his classmates were looking strangely at him, sheepish rubbing his neck, he asked, "Sorry, did I say something weird?" It was Laura that answered, "No, I think I speak for the three of us when I say that we are just impressed by the way you are able to think of these strategies."

"Yeah, she is right. I was already impressed by the ways you came up of using my orbal staff and Gaius spear in the old schoolhouse, but this here is something else since we have now two new people with completely different fighting styles." The sudden praise caused Rean to become slightly flustered, "Come on, you two. I don't think this here is anything impressive, anyone….." Before Rean could finish that sentence, Alisa cut in, "Stop right there Rean, drop the humility and just take the compliments. I am starting to think that you don't like getting praised."

"I just don't think that this anything praiseworthy, there are lot of people that would have come up with better strategies than mine." Deciding to take a different approach, Alisa just shrugged her shoulders while looking at him, "I will believe that they are better people than you on planning things like this, but none of this people are here now, are they? Neither me, Laura or Elliot could have come up with these ideas, am I right?" The two in question nodded at her, before she continued, "So, since no one here is better at coming up with strategy than you, you should just accept it and move on."

Seeing that he couldn't exactly refuse her logic, he just rolled his eyes, "Ok, ok, I got. How about we get started then, we still have a monster extermination to deal with later?" Feeling a bit proud of herself that she got him to accept it, she along with the others started to take her weapon to get ready for the fights to come.

Fighting with Alisa and Laura was a completely different experience than fighting with Gaius and Elliot, Laura unlike Gaius was more of a power fighter that was able to defeat the monster sometimes with only two to three hits, Alisa proved that she was really good with that bow of hers because unlike in the old schoolhouse the flying monsters had more room to fly around, if Alisa hadn't been there some of this monsters would have been really difficult to deal with since casting and aiming arts up high wasn't exactly easy and Elliot was improving nicely, at the beginning it took him some time to adapt to the girls styles but after some fights he was able to keep up with them.

In Reans case he was able to weaken the monsters enough so that the others could kill them completely in one shot, even their ability on using the follow up attack was improving no matter the pairing, the only bad thing to note was Rean and Elliot inability to use the Rush Attack. Instructor Sara had explained to them that this ability couldn't be used whenever one wanted, but that they had to 'charge' the combat links before they had enough energy to unleash it though she hadn't really told them the way to 'charge' them.

After walking and fighting for some time they managed to find the road lamp that they were searching for, remembering Samos warning regarding that a lot of monsters would attack while they were changing the lamps, made them come up with a plan to deal with it. One person would quickly change the lamps while the other three would take on the monsters, they decided that the one changing the lamps would be Rean since he had mentioned that he had already done this type of work back in his hometown.

Kneeling in front of it, he quickly began working after putting the correct code in while working he continued sensing his surroundings in case his friends needed his help, luck was on their side as he was able to finish without needing to help. He stood up just in time to see Laura unleashing her Ki as she coated her entire sword in it making it appear even bigger than it already was and jumped straight into the group of monsters, using her full strength to swing her enlarged sword around she was able to eradicate the monsters without even breaking a sweat leaving Alisa and Elliot stunned at the display before them, "That was amazing Laura!"

"Laura really deserves her title as the strongest student in our year." Approaching them, Rean added his own praise, "The Arseid style is even more impressive in person that I had imagined." Keeping her cool amidst the compliments, the Arseid practitioner just humbly said, "I appreciate it, but I still have long way to go before I am fully versed in this technique. I am also quite confident that the rest of you are capable of similar feats." For some reason she was looking at Rean as she spoke that last part, he was a bit confused as he didn't know what she was expecting from him.

Not explaining further, Laura just stayed quiet while the other two looked at them, deciding that it was better to get moving before this could turn awkward Alisa spoke up, "You were quite quick with that switch, Rean. I was expecting that it would take longer but now we can report that we are finished with this to Samos and give him the old lamps back, as proof."

"Yes, but we can't forget that we still have to get the imperial carrots from the farmer, if Father Zirbel directions are correct, we shouldn't be too far from the farm." Noticing what she was doing Elliot tried to help her. Putting Laura strange behaviour for latter, Rean led them back to the road. Sometime later they were able to find Paul's home and after explaining what they needed the carrots for he gave them an entire box full of them with this they were nearly done with two of their tasks, they had just to turn them in to finish them properly. Outside the farm, Elliot noticed a sign that said that the Lunar Nature Park was nearby, out of curiosity the group decided to take quick look around to see that park, unfortunately the park was closed off to visitors and the nearby rangers that were guarding the entrance chased them away. Not putting much thought on their rude behaviour, they returned to the road back to Celdic all the while fighting some of the nearby monster to hone their combat links, but Rean was able to sense that Laura was watching him for some reason though he couldn't come up with a reason on why that was the case.

As soon they arrived back in town, they reported their success to Father Zirbel and Samos, noticing that it was already lunchtime they returned for a quick lunch to Margot who offered them some of her specialities and since the academy was paying for everything the teenagers took advantage of it to eat some of the pricier meals. Finished with eating, they quickly made their way to the eastern Highway this time, like before they fought whenever they had the possibility, thanks to their constant battling they noticed that their use of the combat links was already smoother than before.

Rean and Elliot had even managed to use their Rush Attack, noticing that some type of energy was stored whenever they used a follow up attack made them start trying to store that energy in case the monster in their request was stronger than they expected. Soon they arrived at another farm, this one was the biggest one they had seen until now, looking around they could see several animals, like cows, chickens, pigs etc, they also saw the damaged fields the owner had mentioned in his request. Knocking on the door, an old man opened it, "Hello, can I help you kids?"

Getting the feeling that the others were waiting for him to speak, Rean asked his questions, "Hello, sir. Would you happen to be Syro? We are here for your request concerning the monster that has been destroying your fields, as such we like to ask for some additional information regarding it." The old man wasn't clearly expecting that the help he would get were just some teenagers, "You kids are the ones tasked with dealing with that monster? Anyway, I am the man you're looking for. Hmmm… Otto did say that it would be some students that would take care of it, I wasn't aware that you would also have young ladies in your company and the rest of you are even younger than expected. I think that it would be for the best if you didn't take this monster on, it would be too dangerous for you." Steeping bedside Rean, Alisa addressed his concern, "Thank you for your concern, however there is no need to be worried. All of us here have combat experience already and if the academy didn't think that we were up to the task, it wouldn't have suggested that we take on this request." Laura followed up with her own request, "This also serves as part our combat training too, so please allow us to undertake this task and help you get rid of the monster plaguing your fields."

Seeing the determination in their eyes, the old farmer gave up on trying to dissuade them for doing this, "Very well, since you insist. If you continue down this road, you will come across a plateau of sorts. The monster you are looking for was last seen roaming there, so that would be your best bet to find it. That monster is truly a ferocious one, so much so that even passing by the area is impossible, as it attacks everything it sees. Please promise that you will be extra careful and if it gets too tough just run away as quickly as you can."

After asking for some more details regarding it, Group A left the farm to plan their move against the ferocious monster. "After hearing that description, we really can't be careless with this one." Elliot may seem timid but Rean could see that he had already gathered his resolve to fight, even Laura was acting a bit cautious while making their attack plan, perceiving that a tense mood was spreading in the group, Rean tried to think of something that would make them feel less tense, "Putting that monster aside for now, would guys mind if I asked you all a question?"

The rest turned towards him with some curiosity in their eyes, "I noticed that you all were waiting for me to talk with Syro concerning this request, is there a reason why?" Their curiosity turned to confusion, as Alisa answered, "Because you are the leader, of course." Not having expected that answer, he didn't know how to react for moment, "Wait a minute, since when am I the leader here? We never decided on something like that."

Thinking of a certain possibility he nearly growled the next sentence, "Could it be that the instructor decided that behind my back or something?" Trying to calm him down, Elliot tried to explain, "No, no, Instructor Sara didn't do anything like that, it is just… How to explain, it was only natural that would be the leader?"

Rean could only stare at them in confusion, "Natural?" This time it was Laura who spoke up, "Since the beginning you have taken care of problems that the rest of us hadn't even notice it or thought about, like the positions during combat situations, you managed to see through the instructor's intention concerning our tasks and so on." Talking to this point, she stopped and looked at Alisa to continue, "To you it may have been natural to take care of such things but that the made the rest of us look at you as a sort of leader, for this field study. We may have not decided this or even talk about it, but it just seemed natural as time went on. So, there you have it, Mister Leader."

Hearing this explanation caused Rean to groan out loud, "I didn't do all that just so that I could be leader, I just wanted to help." He was feeling embarrassed since he never had the idea of leading anyone during this time, he had never expected that his intentions back then would lead to this. Rolling her eyes at him, as she saw that he apparently thinking of ways to get out of this, Alisa interrupted him before he could speak, "Come on, Rean. It isn't like this a bad idea, from the four of us you are clearly the most experienced with this type of thing, besides given what you have just tried to do, I don't see why you would think that you aren't suited for this position."

"What do you mean, what I have just tried to do? I don't think that I did anything right now?"

"Really? So, you didn't just see that we all were a bit tense and tried to change it?" Surprised that she had seen through him, he didn't know what to say for the moment, so Elliot took this opportunity to insert his own opinion, "Alisa is right, Rean. You may not have realised it but in a sense, you are looking out for us. You did the same thing with me and Gaius in the old schoolhouse and it is because you do things like this so naturally that we can't help but look at you as a leader."

"I share the same opinion as these two, Rean. But if it will make you feel better, in case that we see that you are doing something wrong or taking an approach that we are uncomfortable with we will speak up in that moment. From what I have seen so far, I don't think it will come to that but if this make you more comfortable with this, we can do this, right?" Looking at Alisa and Elliot who nodded at her in turn, she continued, "Besides you are clearly more used with fighting in groups or leading them than the rest of us, so it is really just the right man for the right job." Realising that they wouldn't accept any refusal on his part, he had no choice but to reluctantly accept this, "Fine, fine. I will take this position on, for the time being. Like Laura said if I do something that you don't like or if you have something to say, you better speak up." Seeing that he had accepted this, the rest promised him while Alisa added, "As long you don't do anything too reckless, I don't see any problems with this."

(Isn't it normally the leader's job to protect his teammates in case of dangers even if it means that he must do something reckless.) Noticing the dangerous light in her eyes, he wisely kept his thoughts to himself. Done with this conversation, he saw that the previous tense mood was swept away by it. So, they made their way back onto the highway to search for their target, sometime later they managed to find it on the plateau like Syro had told them. It looked like a big lizard standing on its feet, to Elliot and Alisa it seemed quite intimidating, "I-is this the monster we are looking for?"

"It looks pretty tough, any ideas on how to deal with?" Looking at Rean, they waited for him to speak, "It may look tough, but we have no choice to kill it since it has been terrorising the farmers around here. For now, it looks content lying there, so we have some time to prepare ourselves for this fight. Everyone double check your equipment and make sure that you are ready for this. For this fight me and Laura will link up to attack it in close combat, Alisa will support us with her arrows from afar, try to hit its eyes while we attack its lower body. During this time Elliot, you analyse it for its weakness or strengths, as soon you are done with it support us with your arts by strengthening either me or Laura followed up with attack arts. The combat links can be changed to adapt to the situation but after Elliot is done with his analyse the primary links should be Laura with Elliot and Alisa with me, this way the combat strength is balanced."

After fighting together for the entire morning, Rean had a clear picture on the two girls abilities, so he could come up with ways to utilise them the best way which he proved as he went on with possible scenarios for this fight. The others were clearly impressed by his strategies which showed up on their faces he noticed, "Is something wrong?" Smiling slightly at him, Alisa answered, "It is nothing we are just impressed with all of this, and you wondered why we wanted you as our leader."

Seeing the same smile on the other two, he just rolled his eyes as answer, "Next comes the unpleasant part, what we will do in case that the monster is too strong for us. If that is the case we will retreat, I will stay behind distracting it" He raised his hand to stop any protest, "The reason why it should be me staying behind is because I have the most agility and speed from us, I can keep it occupied for the moment while Laura leads the rest of you out here, in the case that other monsters attack you, Laura has enough power to deal with them on her own, if we add Alisa arrows to it there shouldn't be any problems on your side, as soon you are all a safe enough distance away, I will run away on my own."

Like he had expected his friends weren't happy at all with this proposal, but they couldn't refuse since it was the most logical one and they couldn't think of a better way, "Of course that is only in the case if we have to retreat but since the academy saw fit to gives us this task, I don't think that we can't overcome it. The only thing that remains now is to see this through and since this is the last task for the day, afterwards we can use the remaining time of the day to use as we see fit." Glancing at each the other, the rest gathered their resolve and gave him a determined nod, returning one his own he started checking on his tachi and Arcus while the others did the same thing.

Done with their preparation they attacked the monster, sensing someone approaching caused it to wake up while releasing a roar at them. Not wasting time Laura and Rean started attacking the monster supported by Alisa arrows, the monsters hide didn't only look though it was though, their swords were barely able to cause some light wounds and Alisa's arrows didn't fare any better. Angered that it was being attacked it released another roar that seemed to affect the two swordsmen, feeling a bit sluggish they raised their guard against its attacks.

The monster primarily used its teeth as a form of attack the first time it attacked, it nearly caught Laura, if Rean hadn't interrupted its attack with a quick slash with his tachi which led to Laura using this opening to follow up with another attack against one of their opponent legs. After Elliot finished analysing it, he discovered that it was weak against water-based arts which luckily happened to be his speciality, so he focused on his Aqua Bleed as his form of attack. The fight continued for some time and while there were some close calls, the group of four found that they had entered a rhythm that allowed them to fight without worry.

The end of the fight came as one of Alisa's Flamberge arrows managed to pierce the monster's eye, seeing this opportunity the two swordsmen attacked, sensing death approaching caused the monster to unleash everything that it had, using its tail as an attack it managed to cause its attackers to jump back. Utilising its momentum, it tried to bite down on Laura who was the closest to it, but it was stopped by a well-timed art from Elliot. Not contend on letting this chance slip by, it tried to use its tail again to smash Laura to death, acting on instinct Rean used his full strength unleashing the sixth form Scarlet Sky, the slash-shaped energy blade managed to cut the attacking tail leaving the monster to roar in pain.

Not missing this chance, Laura used her strongest move, the Radiant Blade Dance, enlarging her sword with her Ki she managed to cut the monster into various pieces. Seeing the various monster parts disappearing into thin air, everyone sighed in relief that the fight was over, sheathing his tachi Rean turned around, "This takes care of that. Well done everybody." Using his staff to remain standing since the fight was over Elliot could feel the strength leaving his legs, "I don't know how we managed it, but we won. It doesn't matter how many times I go through a fight but every time we are done, I feel relieved." Giving his friend a smile, he turned his head to see that Alisa seemed in deep thoughts, before he could ask if something was wrong, she murmured," This would have been a lot harder to do, if we hadn't been using the combat links. I hate to admit it, but the Arcus Unit does seem to have a lot of potential."

"You hate to admit it? Why?" Realising that she had spoken out loud, caused her to become flustered, "Never mind that! We should go tell Syro that we took care of the monster he had reported." The rest could see that she was clearly trying to change the subject, but they didn't mind so they went along with it. Along the way back, Rean sensed that Laura was once again starring at him but when he asked if something was wrong, she just answered that it was nothing, puzzled by her behaviour Rean didn't know what to do.

Arriving once again at the farm, they gave their report of their success to a very relieved Syros who in turn offered them some his freshest products as thanks. Staying behind for a time, they found out that the Provincial Army that should have been the one to take care of the monster hadn't been interested in aiding the farmers of Celdic for quite some time now and the problems some farmers had selling their products since the trains had made the import of product to the capital a lot easier. Outside of the farm, Elliot stretched his arms, "I don't know about guys but I'm pooped …..At least we are done with our tasks for today." Alisa joined him, "Me too, I don't venture onto the highways very often, I didn't know that it could be this exhausting." Looking at the two swordsmen, she couldn't help but comment, "The two of you on the other hand seem like you could go on."

"My hometown is in the countryside, so I am used to this and with all the training Laura does, I imagine that this is nothing to her."

"Indeed, I find this level of exercise to be quite manageable, however….." Stopping mid-sentence, she looked at Rean again, which confused him once more. Noticing it, Alisa tried to ask, "Is something wrong?"

"No, I am sure that it is nothing. I believe we should return to the inn now, maybe Instructor Sara is still there? If that is the case, we can give her our report and ask her some more questions about the purpose of these field studies." Hearing that they would go back to the inn managed to perk Elliot up, "That is a good idea. Let's head back then!" Elliot and Laura began walking ahead, leaving Alisa and a confused Rean behind, (Did I do something that upset her?), apparently sharing the same concern as he, Alisa asked him the same thing, "Did you do something to upset her?" Thinking back on their interactions, he couldn't come up with anything that could have upset Laura, "I can't think of anything that I could have done besides in class, today is the most I have spoken with her. Did you perhaps notice anything that I could have done?"

Shaking her head, she too couldn't find any fault with him concerning Laura, "No, I don't think you did anything wrong today. Thinking back now after listening how you fought blind against the monster; she looked kind of excited at you but following the fights that we went through today her excitement seemed to turn into confusion." Having noticed the same thing though he didn't know why, he couldn't understand what was going with Laura. "If I get the chance, I will try to speak with her and if I did something to upset her, I will apologise to her." Frowning Alisa looked at him, "Not everything is your fault, Rean. Maybe there is an explanation for this, don't just assume that you are the one at fault. Come on, we wasted enough time here. Let's catch up to them before they start asking questions." Pushing Rean from behind, the two went after their classmates.

Returning to Celdic, they heard some shouts coming from the Grand Market, that sounded like people were fighting, deciding to see what was going, Group A found two merchants shouting at each other. Asking around they discovered that the two merchants had apparently acquired the permits for the same spot which resulted in them accusing each other that the other was lying and that they were the one in the right. It didn't help that one was a local merchant and the other was from the capital, the situation soon escalated as the two grabbed each other by their clothes.

Rean and Laura acting quickly by separating the two be taking them in a hold and tried to calm them down, realising that they wouldn't be released if they didn't control themselves, the two suppressed their temper. Seeing that they had somewhat calmed down, Rean and Laura let them go but it didn't take long before the two adults turned their irritation towards the students, "What are you, high schoolers?"

"This has nothing to do with you meddling brats! We are having a mature discussion here and that has nothing with do with you, so I will thank you for not to interfere!" Trying to calm their rising tempers, Elliot attempted to reason with them, "Since when has grabbing a person by their clothes been considered mature?" Alisa added her own attempt, "If you truly intend to have a mature discussion, perhaps you should try acting more like adults."

They may have had good intentions, but it seemed that their attempts just irritated them more, one even tried to advance menacingly towards Alisa. Acting on instinct, Rean blocked his path and came face to face with the angry man, remembering the times had to deal with angry people, he looked the man straight in the eyes while releasing some of his aura like his master had taught him and it may have not been intentionally but the colour of his eyes changed for a moment to red. Suddenly feeling as if he was in grave danger, the merchant couldn't help but take a step back while paling even the other merchant felt that something was wrong as he looked at the young boy standing before him, shaking his head for moment the retreating merchant found that the feeling had disappeared and the eyes had returned to their usual lilac colour, thinking that it had been a trick of the light, he put these thoughts away.

Noticing that they had calmed down now, Rean introduced him and his friends, "We are students from Thors Military Academy. We are currently visiting this town on a field study, and I am afraid that we can't ignore a fight in such a public place." Finding out that the ones standing before them, were soldiers in training doused the last of their anger before anyone could speak further, a tired voice sounded out behind them, "Sigh, what in Aidios name is happening here?" Turning around, Rean found that an elderly well-dressed man was approaching them, giving the students a nod as a greeting, the old man quickly took control of the situation by settling the dispute between the two merchants by inventing them to discuss this matter in private instead of shouting and disturbing the other merchants and visitors.

Glad to see that someone in charge had appeared Group A took a step back and let the elderly man handle this, "Well, that was a close one. Seems like everything is going to be fine now. By the way, Rean what was that all about just now?" Not understanding her question, Rean looked at Alisa, "I am sorry, I don't know what you mean?" Narrowing her eyes at him and putting her hands on her hips, she clarified her question, "When that man tried to intimidate me, you stepped in and scared him away."

"Oh, that. Sorry, seeing what he was trying to do, I acted purely on instinct."

"You have seen me fighting the entire day, so you must know that I would be able to handle him just fine and if he tried to get physical, Instructor Sara didn't teach us hand to hand combat for nothing." Thinking back on his actions, he noticed that his actions were somewhat lacking in trust in Alisa's abilities, not giving him time to apologise she snorted, "I know you were just trying to help me out Rean and I am thankful for it but I need you to trust me that I can handle something of this level on my own, alright?"

"Sorry, you are right."

"Like I said, I know you meant well, just try to let me handle it myself next time, ok? If I need help, I will ask for it." Detecting the slight disbelief in his eyes, caused her to become a bit irritated, "You don't believe that I would ask for help?" Now it was his turn to narrow his eyes at her though he was smiling, "No offence Alisa but I think you are more likely to try to solve the problem on your own no matter what than to ask someone for help."

"What?! What gave you that idea?!" Now he smiled wider while approaching her, "Just a feeling. Correct me if I am wrong but when was the last time you asked someone for help?" Trying to remember when she had asked for someone's help she drew a blank, noticing his growing smile bordering on a smirk just caused her to become more flustered, she was saved from answering by the approaching elderly man, "I really appreciate the four of you steeping in to help defuse the situation, though I suppose I should have expect no less from the infamous Class VII I have heard so much about." Spotting their surprise of his knowledge he introduced himself, "My name is Otto, I am the manager of the Grand Market. I have some things to discuss with you all, if you would be so kind as to come along. I will treat you to some tea and pastries while we talk."

Not having a reason to refuse and curious they followed him to his house. There they learned that Manager Otto was an old friend of Principal Vandyck, who had asked him to select a few tasks for Class VII to complete and the reason that the merchants had been so irritated was because of the higher taxes the duke, that ruled over the Kreuzen province, had issued on the Grand Market a few months ago which led to lesser profits for the merchants. Coincidentally it was the duty of the same duke to issue the permits for the spots in the Market which had caused the fight that just happened, Otto had already tried to appeal to the duke concerning the higher taxes, but he was always turned away at the front door.

Furthermore, it was normally the provincial army duty to handle fight like that but since the day Otto had tried to petition the duke, they had stopped caring for their normal duties. This strange situation caused Class VII to suspect that the duke was either getting sloppy with the management of the Grand Market or that he was trying to cause problems on purpose so that the merchants had no choice to accept the tax increase, Otto confirmed their suspicions by admitting that the captain of the army had made some comments regarding the situation. Finished with their tea, they left Ottos house while thanking him for his hospitality, outside the group noticed that the sun was setting down.

The mood was a bit sombre concerning what they had just learned but their hands were tied regarding this problem since the right of raising or lowering the taxes belonged to the head of the ruling house and no one besides the head of the imperial family, the emperor himself, was allowed to intervene. Their mulling was interrupted by a cheerful sounding voice, "I see that you are all busy mulling things over. Excellent, excellent!" That voice belonged to none other than their instructor, surprised at her sudden appearance Alisa couldn't help but question her, "What brings you here?"

"It is about time for me to get going. Group B isn't getting anything done, as expected. So, I am off to help them a bit." No one was surprised at this since she had put Jusis and Machias in one group, "You four are more than capable of looking after yourselves. My advice, put your heads together and think of what you are capable of and can do and I am certain that you will figure out what you need to do. Aidios be with you. I am looking forward to reading your reports." Not giving her students any time to digest what she had said, she left in the direction of the train station while waving them goodbye. "Unbelievable, it is like she knows exactly what is going on." Rean found that he understood his instructor less and less while his friends shared his opinion, putting these thought away for later, "Looking at the time dinner is still some time away, how about we take another stroll through the Grand Market to relax and pass the time."

They accepted Rean suggestion, this time they stayed together as a group instead of separating, they got their purchases they had bought in the morning and saw some more of the Grand Market wonders. In the middle of their stroll, a merchant recognised that they were from Thors, he explained to them that his eldest daughter was also attending the academy as a first year and asked them if they were interested in learning how to run a stall. Seeing this an opportunity to learn some new skills, they accepted and after explaining some of the ground rules, he let each student try their hand at being a merchant. The results were interesting as they reflected somewhat the personalities of the group.

-Eliot had the least sales but he had made a good amount of money, that meant he hadn't given much in the way of discounts which reflected his timid nature.

-Laura was the opposite, she had made the least amount of money, since she had given too many discounts, but her numbers of sales had been higher thanks to her forwardness.

-Rean had managed to keep a good balance of both sales and discounts and attracting customers, earning high praise from the merchant.

-Alisa managed surpass the others in everything be it sales, discounts or customers, she managed to earn almost as much as a skilled merchant on a good day.

Done with the experience of doing business, the group made their way back to the inn since it was time for dinner. Like lunch the meals served by Margot were incredibly fresh and delicious, after they were done eating their conversation turned to topics like Group B and so on until their attention turned to the one question that has been bothering them since the first day, they arrived at Thors, "I can't help but question what the true purpose for Class VII is. Instructor Sara says it is about testing the Arcus, but I don't think that is the only reason this new class was established." Nodding in support of Elliot, Laura added her view, "If that were all, then today's field study tasks would have served little in that regard while I don't mind experiencing and testing the combat links, I still would like to know the purpose behind this new class."

"I think it is safe to say, that the Arcus Unit is a pretty big part of the purpose of Class VII, but it can't be the only reason for creating this new class. It seems like the instructor is trying to make us experience various things, no matter how big or small, what makes me the most confused is the why." Glancing at Rean, Alisa found that he seemed to be in deep thought, "Is something wrong, Rean?"

"Sorry, I was just remembering something the instructor once said to me. Concerning the question of Class VII, how about we consider this from another angle. What do we have to offer one another when our reasons for enrolling at Thors in the first place are undoubtedly very different?" Realising that hadn't considered that angle, the rest thought back on why they applied for the academy, Laura was the first to reveal hers, "My reason for enrolling was quite simple. I thought that Thors Military Academy was the best place for me train so that I can grow closer to my goal or rather the person who I regard as such. What about you, Alisa?"

Taking a short moment to think Alisa answered her, "To be honest there is no one single reason for why but I think that I wanted to establish my independence. My situation back home isn't exactly ideal, and this seemed like a good way to get out and try to learn and do more." The others seemed a bit surprised to hear that but didn't ask more since they could see that she seemed a bit uncomfortable with the topic. Elliot was the next one, "Seems like I am in the minority here, especially since I wasn't intending on coming here at all originally. I wanted to do something completely different." Remembering something he and Elliot had talked about some time ago, Rean gave the answer to the girls unasked question, "You said you were hoping you would get into a Music Academy, right?"

"Well, I wasn't that serious about it or anything…. What about you Rean? You are the last one and since you were the one who brought this the up, it is only fair that you answer the question too."

"Me? I wanted to find myself, I guess." Alisa seemed to have expected that since they had talked a bit about it in Roer but seeing the confusion on Laura and Elliot faces, he tried to explain himself, "Sorry if that sounds a bit strange but it is the best way to put it. I came to Thors so that I could find the path that I want to take in life and find more about myself as a person, I guess." He felt a bit embarrassed after he finished, a fact that wasn't missed by Elliot and Alisa who teased him about what a romanticist he was.

Done with eating the group asked Margot to wake them up at six in the morning so that they could use the early start as much as possible, but it would still be a while before they could go to sleep since they still had to write their reports for the day. Luckily for Rean, Alisa seemed to have forgotten their sleeping arrangements, thanks to the events of the day and he wisely kept his mouth shut regarding that. They started to make their way back to their room until Laura called out to him while the rest continued, "Rean? Could I have a moment of your time, please?"

Turning around he found Laura looking directly at him, "Sure, is there something I can help you with?" Taking a moment, to compose herself Laura asked the question that had been bothering for the better part of the day, "I was unsure whether to ask or not, but I have decided that this question is worth asking. Why have you chosen to hold back?" Not having expected that, Rean could only utter a simple, "What?"

Before Laura continued speaking, "Your sword style and technique belong to the Eight Leaves One Blade school which has been created by the Sword Hermit Yun Ka-Fai, it is said that it combines the best elements of other eastern sword styles. Furthermore, it is said that if one has mastered any of its forms, they are granted the title of Divine Blade and are said to understand the true nature of all things." Recovering from his initial surprise, Rean was certainly impressed, "You certainly know a lot about it. I didn't think that it was particularly renowned here in the Empire."

"The followers of the Arseid School consider the studying of other sword styles as an essential part of our training and my father once told me that as long as I walk the path of the sword, sooner or later I will meet a follower of the Eight Leaves."

"Wow, it is honour to be acknowledged by the Radiant Blademaster himself." Noticing that she still was looking at him with all the seriousness that she could muster, he decided that he would answer her question as best as he could as someone who also followed the path of the sword, "To answer your question Laura, I am not holding back. What you saw today was the best I could do right now."

"That doesn't make any sense, Rean. Form what I saw of you, you should be able to do lot better. Be it in form of experience, battle sense, technique, or physical strength, I would even go as far to say that you are somewhat stronger than I am in certain aspects."

"Laura please don't take this the wrong way, but you are too 'pure' regarding the sword which is not a bad thing I assure you. To you the path of the sword is straightforward without any distractions, as long you have a sword in your hand, you should be able to cut anything down that blocks your path, but this also makes your view too narrow."

To his surprise she didn't seem offended at what he said, if anything she looked a bit amused, seeing the confusion on his face she dispelled his doubt with a little smile, "You know, my father said something familiar to me once, that somethings regarding the sword could only be found outside of the path of it. If even you are saying this then it must be true, maybe my view is truly narrow."

"Like I said, it is not a bad thing, if you are capable of truly broadening your view, you will have made a lot of progress in your swordsmanship, enough that you will leave anyone in our generation in the dust. But we are getting side tracked, returning to your question. Before coming to Thors, my Master raised my rank to the Intermediate level, to be honest I still don't think that I deserve that but that won't stop me from continuing training so that one day, I am worthy of that rank and the trust of my Master. My sword is weighted down by something, that much is clear to anyone who studied a bit of swordsmanship but that is something that only I can deal with. The only thing that I can assure you off is that I am not making light of the sword, never have and never will."

The honesty and determination in his eyes, caused Laura to feel a bit ashamed of her actions of questioning him, "It seems like I overstepped my bounds a bit, just answer me this Rean. Do you like the path of the sword?" He didn't even need to think about his answer, "It is not matter of liking it or not. The way of the sword is an inseparable part of who I am and of my life." Satisfied with his answer Laura gave him a radiant smile, "That is all I wanted to hear. Evidently, I still have a lot of growing to do be it as a person or as a swordswoman I hope that one day we can spar with one another, so that we can help each other grow but for now I will go train for a bit outside. See you later, Rean."

Finished with their conversation Laura left the inn, on the second floor were Alisa and Elliot watching the two swordsmen talk, sharing a concerned look Alisa was the first to speak, "Seems like there is a lot that he doesn't want to talk about, huh? I can see it in his eyes sometimes that he is bottling something up and trying hard to keep anyone else from noticing."

"You noticed it too? Then again from our class you two are the only who knew each other before enrolling, so maybe it makes sense that you would notice it even though you hadn't talked at all during the last weeks." Flushing a bit, she tried to defend her actions, "It is not like I have been paying attention to him or anything. Honestly! I was just looking for the right timing to apologise and just happened to notice it…..Wait a minute, how do you know that we knew each other before coming to the academy?"

Scratching his cheek, Elliot explained how he knew, "Well, during the orientation exercise at the beginning of the year, he seemed well informed about your archery skills, so the rest of us made the assumption that you knew each other, and he confirmed that you had meet before coming to Thors though he didn't give us many details regarding it. Nonetheless, Rean isn't the only one bottling up his feeling, is he? You have been doing the same thing."

"I…. I guess I have." Not bothering to deny it, Alisa just closed her eyes and stood there in thinking about it, noticing someone approaching, out of the corner of his eyes, Elliot made his way into to the room, but not before giving her some well-meant advice, "You know, sometimes it helps just to talk about it, especially with a person doing the same thing." Not opening her eyes, Alisa just stood there without noticing that someone else was coming closer to where she was standing, said person just stood beside her while leaning on the rails of the stairs. Sometime later she opened her eyes to find Rean standing next to her, surprised she nearly jumped back, "Rean?! Since when have you been here?"

Chuckling a bit at her actions, he just shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know the exact time, but it should only be a few minutes. Is everything alright, Alisa?" Taking a deep breath to calm her herself, she shoots him a glare, "Honestly Rean, you gave me quite a scare. Next time don't just appear out of thin air." Still a bit amused at her, he couldn't help but tease her, "So next time, I see you in deep thoughts, you want me to tell you that I am standing next to you?"

"Yes! I mean, no! That would be rude." Realising that he was teasing her she shoots him another glare and turned away from him while slightly pouting. Stopping his teasing before he took it too far, he looked at her and asked, "Is there something that you want to talk about? I may not be the best person for this, but Elliot is right that sometimes talking about it helps." Surprised at that, she turned around to stare at him, "Did you hear what we were talking about?"

"Not everything but when I was coming up the stairs, I heard what he said to you and since he was looking at me, I thought he was referring to me as the person doing the same thing though I have no idea what that same thing is. Of course, if you don't want to talk about it, I won't force you but sometimes it really helps just to talk with someone even if it isn't about what is bothering you." Sighing, she just stood next to him while looking down on the patrons on the first floor, "You know Rean, you don't have to try and solve every problem that you came across."

"I know that I just chose to." Shaking her head at that, the silence continued until Alisa released the breath that she was holding, "I don't think that I am ready to talk about it just yet, maybe someday I will be but not now. Besides I don't want to distract you or the others from our field study, just that you can hear me whining about my troubles." Before he could say anything, she continued, "Don't even try to say that it wouldn't be a problem, Rean. For now, let's just concentrate on this and forget about our troubles for some time."

Done speaking she opened the door to their shared room while giving him an encouraging smile, "By the way, this goes both ways, Rean. If you want to talk about your troubles with me, just say the word." Leaving the door open and a slightly stunned Rean behind, she stepped in the room. (Well, talk about turning the tables, I was the one who wanted to help her and now she is offering the same to me though there is no way in Gehenna that I will trouble her or anyone else with my problems. I must be the one to resolve them, besides I don't want to scare her away with the knowledge that I am some kind of demon.) Vowing to himself that he would keep that bit of information away from her forever, he entered the room to join them in writing their reports and when Laura returned and finished her report, Group A went to bed so that they could be well rested for the next day.

Rean was the first one to rise, since he was used to waking up early, grabbing his Arcus he found that he still had a good ninety minutes left until the time Margot was supposed to wake them. Not used to simply lying in the bed, Rean decided to go for a short jog at the eastern highway, making sure that he didn't wake up his classmates who were still soundly asleep, he sneaked out of the room with his clothes in hand. Margot and her employees were surprised to see him already up, declined their offers for breakfast he stepped outside to see that the sun was slowly raising, basking Celdic in her lights.

(It has its advantages of waking up so early, there is just something soothing in seeing the sun raising with this silence around. I have my tachi and Arcus in case I run into monsters this early on the highway. Maybe going to where we fought that monster yesterday and coming back will be a good start. I don't want to tire myself out too much since we still have to do our tasks for the day.) Finished with his preparation, Rean began running towards his goal for the day.

Besides some unfortunate encounter with a few early raising monsters the jog went smoothly, that is until he returned to the inn before he could go back inside, he heard some kind of commotion from the direction of the Grand Market. Thinking that maybe it was just the merchants getting ready for their day, he ignored it for now and went inside after asking Margot to prepare some breakfast for him and the others. He went inside their room to grab some clean clothes without making a sound since the others were still sleeping and made his way to the bath to wash away the sweat he had worked up during his run.

As he returned, he found Margot leaving the room, inside his classmates were slowly getting up, well Laura and Alisa were while Elliot kept trying to keep his eyes open, upon seeing this he greeted the girls and went to help Elliot in getting up. After everyone was up and awake, they went downstairs where their breakfast was waiting for them. Done with eating they helped Margot clean the table despite her protests and accepted the requests for the day from her. This time they had only two requests to fulfil, returning a lost wallet to his owner and eliminating a monster at the western highway and both were optional, that caused some surprise for the group, but they surmised that Otto gave them less to do since they had to leave in evening.

Suddenly Louise came running into the inn, "Margot, we got trouble! Big, big trouble!" Margot seeing how flustered she was, tried to calm her, "Slow down, Louise! It is still too early for this kind of noise, are you trying to wake the dead with such a commotion?" Taking several deep breaths, Louise managed to calm down and went on to explain what she had seen, "I am sorry, but something terrible happened at the market during the night, some stalls were destroyed and the merchandise that was stored inside was stolen!"

"Oh my! A robbery?! I suppose that means the market might be opening late today which means that we might end with more customers than usual, while they wait here for a resolution. Louise let's get this place ready! I need you to….." Finished with giving Louise her orders, Margot turned around to Class VII, "As for you four, this is our problem, not yours. Just focus on your field study and leave this incident to us locals. You have your own tasks to worry about after all." Giving her some nods in return, Group A left the building to talk outside about what they should do, deciding that looking at what happened wouldn't take too much time, they decided to go to the market.

Approaching the place they could hear some familiar voices shouting, remembering who they belonged to, they exchanged looks of dismay and began running toward the voices. Like they had expected it was the same merchants from the day before that were yelling at each with Otto trying to pacify them, like yesterday the situation seemed to escalate quickly to violence, deciding to step in Rean and Laura held them back again. This time their intervention only seemed to make them angrier instead of making them reconsider things, as they tried to break free, tightening his hold on the merchant Rean tried to persuade them, "Come on, is this really the right way to solve things, with violence? Why don't the two of explain what is going here?"

"Explain? EXPLAIN?! Why don't you meddling brats look around what that bastard did to my stall?!" Looking around the students could see that only two stalls were completely smashed, and they belonged to the arguing merchants before anyone could say or do anything they heard a loud shout from behind them, looking at the source they saw that the Provincial Army was fast approaching them. The leading soldier which must be the captain marched to Otto and started demanding an explanation, "What is going on here? It is the middle of the morning! Stop shouting immediately and Otto I demand to know what happened here."

"Well, the stalls of these two merchants were destroyed and their entire stock of merchandise was stolen during the night. They think that the other did this, so they have arguing for a while now….." Otto continued explaining what had happened, strangely the captain didn't seem very interested in listening or even taking notes after Otto finished his statement, he shouted to his men, "Alright, I see what is going on. Men, take these two troublemakers away." Everyone was stunned at the order, the two merchants couldn't understand why they were being detained by the soldiers, puffing his chest out the captain and stated his reasoning, "The truth is clear as day. These two were resentful of each other, so they both committed the same crime at the same time to damage the other."

Once again everyone listening in was stunned at the arbitrary decision of the captain, Laura couldn't hold herself back anymore as she stepped forward, "Isn't it premature to come to such a conclusion without even investigating what exactly happened?" Turning to her, the captain looked down at her with disdain, "Hmph, what does a child like you understand. The Provincial Army doesn't the time or the resources to waste solving the insignificant squabbles of merchants, but I am not an unreasonable man. Cease your dispute and you will be left alone. Continue with this and get thrown in jail, the decision is up to you."

Having no choice left the merchants bowed their heads in submission, smirking in satisfaction he turned to Otto, "Now if will excuse me, I am a busy man and have far more important duties than this. Otto, I want this mess cleaned up and the Grand Market operating as soon as possible." Not bothering with anything else, he and the other soldiers left. Otto could only helplessly look at them leaving, gathering himself he tried to console the downcast merchants and asked the people around for help cleaning the broken stalls, Class VII shared one look and started helping without being asked. After the clean-up was done, Otto invited them to his house again for some tea as thanks for their help.

"I know that this hasn't anything to do with us but is there any way we can help with this robbery?" Gently smiling at Rean for his offer, Otto shook his head, "That is very kind of you, but I can't ask that of you. You are students, you have your own tasks to worry about and I wouldn't feel right in interfering with them." Now it was Reans turn to shake his head, "We are students training for the military, we can't just stand by and ignore somethings like this happening in front of us."

The others seemed to share his feelings as they looked at Otto with determination in their eyes. Seeing this, Otto couldn't bring himself to stop them, "Alright, then. The four of you do what you think is best. But there are two conditions for this, the first is that you will finish all your tasks for the day before starting meddling in this, second your safety is the most important if you happened to find any danger in this, you will step back and let this go. Do we have deal?"

The students nodded their heads as one, afterwards they asked him some questions concerning the merchants and their stolen goods and the monster they had to slay. Done with this they said their goodbyes and left the house to start their tasks, outside Rean stopped his friends, "Guys, I know what I said but Otto is right this could turn dangerous very quickly, especially since I am sure that the Provincial Army is behind this given the circumstances but no matter how they are behaving they still belong to the army. There isn't a need for you all to take such a risk." Noticing where he was going with this, the rest quickly put a stop to it, "If this is going where I think it is, then just stop Rean, because there isn't no way in Gehenna that we are going to let you handle this alone."

"Exactly, we are in this together and besides seeing the soldiers who are supposed to help and protect the citizens behave like this, isn't something that I can tolerate."

"Alisa and Laura are right. We are a group and should handle this like one and did you perhaps forget what we said at the beginning of this field study. Don't try to do anything reckless." Knowing when he was outmatched, he could only bury the rest of what he was going to say, "Fine, then this is what we are going to do. First, we are going to do our tasks like Otto asked and while are at it, we will try to ask around if anyone else knows something or seen something that can help us. In cases like this there are three important points to focus on, 'Why was this done?', 'How was it done' and 'Who did it'. The why part is easy since the captain is clearly trying to force Celdic to accept the raised taxes. The how part is fairly simple too, looking at the stalls, the most important part is the who since I rather doubt that the Provincial Army would be stupid enough to do it themselves, in case it was discovered which means they had to hire outside help and since this is the Grand Market where hundreds of people come visit every day, no one will notice some strangers." Rean stopped speaking as he noticed the stunned looks his friends were giving him, "Is something wrong?"

"Ehh, Rean do you perhaps like reading mystery novels or are you just used to solving things like this?", Elliot asks.

Rubbing his neck, he was a bit embarrassed that he had rambled on like that, "Well, I like a good mystery novel every now and then, but I guess you could say that this isn't the first time I am dealing with something like this." Now the stunned looks turned to curiosity as Alisa spoke with a teasing smile on her face, "So, does that mean that you solve crimes as a hobby?" Rolling his eyes at her, Rean tried to steer the conversation back on track, "No, let's just say that I have come across some situations like this and leave it at that. One of the requests was returning a lost wallet to his owner and this should be a good cover for us asking questions around town, we should split up in two groups for this. Elliot you are with Laura and Alisa you are with me; we should also be careful of our surroundings since we don't want the Provincial Army to know that we are looking into this."

After getting the wallet from the person who found it, they split up and went around town, thankfully the person who lost it didn't seem to stay in one spot for too long which gave them enough reason to ask around, they spent over two hours before they were able to track the owner, a woman named Annabelle, down. The search had allowed them enough time and opportunity to ask around though they didn't get as much information as they had hoped besides the locals had searched the entire town looking for the stolen merchandise and they didn't find anything.

After a short discussion they went to fight their target on the western highway, this time it was Alisa and Elliot turn to shine since the target was a flying one and besides Rean using the sixth form a few times, it was the arrows and arts that decided the fight. The two swordsmen had to act as defenders of their respective Link partner by interrupting the monster's attacks or by being shields for said attacks. Sometime later they managed to defeat the monster and made their way back to town, at the entrance they stumbled upon a drunken man named Johnson who provided them the necessary clue to find the culprits, following that they helped the man to the inn, so that Margot could take care of him afterwards they went to report to Otto that they had defeated the monster.

"Well done Class VII. Let me thank you all for the help you haven given Celdic, and it seems like you are all done with your tasks for the day, too."

"Please Sir, we have only done as asked of us. We should be the one to thank you for giving us the opportunity to gain this valuable experience." The other shared Laura sentiments, as they bowed to Otto as thanks. "Please, the feeling is more than mutual. So, I take it that now that you are done, you will try investigating what happened?" Seeing that his friends were looking at him, Rean explained what they had found so far, "We have reason to believe that the culprits are the new rangers that were hired some days ago, we found that Johnson had seen them leaving the town during the night with a loaded cart but since he had been drinking a lot last night, we can't be sure that he didn't imagined it but for now that is our best lead. We will be going to the Lunaria Nature Park to see if we can't find them or the stolen merchandise."

Rubbing his head, Otto appeared even more tired and weary than he had been this morning after dealing with the captain and the incident, "I had been wondering why they had fired poor Johnson so suddenly but to think it had just been a ruse to get these new rangers close to town, sigh." Adopting a pleading expression, he looked at the students before him, "I know I said this already but please do be careful. I don't know how I would explain to Vandyck if something happened to you all, but I can see that you are determined to solve this. So, I can only ask again that you all put your safety as the important thing in this situation." After promising him that they would be careful, Alisa, Elliot and Laura left the house while Rean stayed behind.

"Sir, I know that you are worried but please rest assured that nothing will happened to my friends, I will make sure of that. Just to be safe I would like to ask a favour of you."

"Of course, if I can help in any way just say the word."

"We both know that the Provincial Army is behind this, so I would like to ask you to keep an eye on them. If you see them leaving with a squad in the direction of the park, please contact Instructor Sara or someone from Thors immediately and explain the situation to them."

"They wouldn't dare to harm you students, right?"

"I'm not worried that they would harm us, but I suspect that perhaps they would try to pin the crime on us instead of the fake rangers they hired, I can only hope that they didn't sink that low yet, but it is better to be safe than sorry." If Otto had looked worried and anxious before it was nothing compared to now, so Rean gave him a reassuring smile and left to join the others waiting outside.

"Is everything alright, Rean? Did Otto say anything else?" Alisa asked as soon he joined them, "No, he just asked that we are careful with this. (There is no need to worry them about my suspicion about what could happen. Better let them focus on this for now instead of fretting over what could happen.) Alright, we should do a check-up if we need to stock up on items or anything else afterwards, we will leave for the park."

After walking for a while, they arrived at the front gates to the park to find it closed with a thick lock, Laura stepped forward to check it, "This lock can only be opened form inside and it seems quite solid, but I should be able to destroy it. The only problem is that perhaps the resulting noise will alarm them." Looking close at it, Elliot couldn't help but wonder, "That is quite a lock, are you sure that you will be able to destroy it?"

Laura's answer was a smile filled with confidence as she took her great-sword and raised it above her head, but before she could swing it down, Rean put a hand on her shoulder stopping her, "Wait, Laura. Let me do it. I should be able to deal with this more quietly." Steeping aside for him, Laura put her weapon away and joined the others, to watch Rean. Taking a quickdraw stance, he positioned himself before the gate, taking a deep breath he quickly unsheathed his tachi in a smooth motion resulting in a quick flash of light appearing, nothing seemed to have happened leaving the others to wonder if perhaps he hadn't been successful until the lock slowly fell apart.

"Wow, Rean! You cut it right in two." Elliot was the first to voice his amazement while Laura looked at the fallen look with praise, "Amazing, it is an honour to see one of the skills of the Eight Leaves School in action."

"Thanks for the compliments but it wasn't anything special. Anyway, let's head inside and see what we can find, be careful though I can sense several monsters inside the park." Opening the gate, they began their trek through the forest, the atmosphere inside was quite gloomy and it didn't help that they had to keep their guard up against the monsters or the fake rangers that were lurking somewhere inside. Elliot feeling the tension in the air tried to distract them with some small talk, like they had done the day before.

"Rean, I have been meaning to ask this for a while but what exactly do you mean when you say that you can 'sense' things?" Realising what he was trying to do, Rean answered, "Well, how to explain? It is like knowing if there are people or living things in my surroundings without actually seeing them with my eyes. Does that make sense to you?" Taking a moment to think about it Elliot could only nod, "I think it does? Does that mean that you can 'sense' where everyone is when we are in the dorm?"

"Yes." Seeing the alarm on Alisa's face and Laura raising her eyebrow, he quickly added, "Though I really have to concentrated to cover the entire dorm and it isn't like I can actually see what you are doing, that wouldn't be 'sensing' but looking through walls and that is something I definitely can't do." Relief could be seen on their faces, though Laura seemed interested on it, "My father can do something like this too, unfortunately I don't seem to have an aptitude for it. Is there perhaps some training you could recommend, Rean?"

"My Master made me meditate a lot before I was able to begin 'sensing' anything at all. I can give you some of the exercises he gave me when we return to the academy, if you are interested."

"Yes, please. I would be most thankful for any help that you can give me." The tension seemed to ease up somewhat while they were talking, even Elliot and Alisa joined in the conversation regarding meditation. A thought struck Alisa, "You know Rean, isn't meditation good for raising your self-awareness?"

"Yes, it is. Now that you mention it my master, did say that I should try to improve in that regard, though I think that I have enough self-awareness already." The following snorts from his classmates seemed to deny that statement very quickly, "What? You don't think so?"

"Rean no offence but your master was right in that regard." An amused Alisa explained to him while holding back a smirk, "I think the reason behind that was to make you see that you are definitely too reckless with yourself. (And let's not forget that you should learn to think before speaking some cheesy lines that people could misunderstand as something else entirely.)" Thinking back on these moments, Alisa blushed slightly before continuing, "I don't want to nag or anything Rean but are far too reckless with your actions sometimes."

Feeling the need to defend himself, Rean protested, "Hey, I don't think I am that bad." The looks of disbelief on their faces told another story entirely, arriving at a stream the group took a short break. Eating the snacks that Margot had given them this morning, they tried to recover their energy before moving on. Alisa seating next to Rean continued with their previous conversation, "I am kind of curious how many times you were reckless, maybe if you wrote a list, you would perhaps realise how bad you are." Thinking that she was joking, he went along with her, "Why not? Just to be sure should I write down the times other people thought that I was reckless or the times I thought that I was?"

"Is there any difference between these two?"

"Well, the list containing the times that I thought that I was too reckless would be pretty short, the other I could easily write a book or two." Still thinking that she was just joking he began chuckling only to stop seeing the glare she was sending him, "Are you being serious right now?" A sudden feeling of danger came over him, as he realised that she had been quite serious with her suggestion, "Well, maybe not enough for two books?"

The pulsing vein on her head seemed to grow bigger which spurned him even more to try to defend his actions, "It wasn't that bad, besides some scratches here and there, I am still in one piece right?" Before Alisa could speak, Laura put a hand on her shoulder to stop her, "While I think that this is definitely something worth discussing, I think that right now isn't the right time for this. Let's wait until we are back at the academy for that." Besides her Elliot was nodding in support, taking her advice Alisa stood up, "Fine, but we will definitely talk as soon we are done here.", finished speaking she gave him a glare before getting ready to go on.

(Me and my big mouth. Note to myself, learn finally when to shut up.), a resigned looking Rean took the forward position and began walking in deeper into the forest until they reached a clearing where they saw the four fake rangers and the stolen goods. The fakes were bragging of their robbery the previous night, so distracted were they that didn't notice the students approaching them until they were in the perfect position for attacking them. Giving his Rean a signal, Group A rushed out quickly before the fakes could react, they were surrounded by all sides, "Alright, gentlemen. How about you put your hands in the air, and you all follow us back to Celdic, so that you can apologise to everyone in the Grand Market for what you did and where you will be detained until the proper authorities can take care of you? By the way, a no isn't acceptable."

One of the fakes tried to move but was quickly stopped by an arrow flying right past his face, "And as you can see, I don't recommend resisting." Seeing no way out, the robbers did as Rean had said and didn't resist at all, as they were apprehended. Elliot oversaw the binding their hands together with some rope that was lying around, finished with his work, he made his back to the rest suddenly he stopped as he heard the faint sound of a flute, noticing his behaviour Rean called out to him, "Elliot is everything alright?"

"I just thought that I heard a flute…", The rest of his sentence was interrupted by a cry that sounded like it belonged to an enormous monster, that feeling go stronger as the earth started shaking and they could hear something fast approaching them. Turning to the direction where the sound came from, they saw a huge baboon like monster running towards them, to their dismay the beast blocked the only way out of the clearing leaving them no choice but to confront it, if they wanted to leave in one piece. "Rean any ideas how to handle this and I don't want you doing anything reckless, by the way."

Seeing the nervous appearance of his classmates, Rean tried to make a joke to relax their nerves somewhat, "Awww, so I shouldn't heroically charge forward while they rest of you take the robbers and run for your lives? Where is the fun in that?" A resounding, "NO!" came from behind him, Laura added her own opinion on the matter, "If he tries do something like that, I suggest that we knock him out and take on this monster by ourselves."

"How about I use my arrow to pin him down, instead of taking the trouble of knocking him out?"

"That is a good idea, Alisa. I can heal his wounds afterwards with my new Healing Arts."

"Why do I get the feeling that you guys aren't joking about that?" A glance behind was answer enough that they weren't joking, at least they were less nervous than before, "Geez, I was making a joke, guys. Since this beast is blocking the way, we will take it down and this is how we are going to do this. Elliot, you are on full support duty, analyse it for weakness and cast only support and healing arts. Alisa, you try to limit its movements with your arrows, try to hit it with your flaming arrows as much as possible. Laura, you are with me upfront, we will concentrate on its legs and arms. You all should pay attention in case it grabs something and throw it at you. Group A commencing assault on the enemy."

No sooner had he finished giving orders, than the beast released a battle cry and charged at them. It was intercepted by Alisa's arrows before it could come close enough to attack them all, that short time-window was enough for Laura and Rean to charge forward. As soon they both were close enough, they attacked his arms with their swords, crying out from the pain the beast started trashing around with his arms preventing further attacks. Luckily Alisa was able to hit it with her arrows despite its movements which stopped whenever it was hit, giving the two swordsmen a brief moment to attack. They had managed to avoid a direct hit from it so far but the shockwaves from its attack were able to disturb their stances for a short moment, only the timely assist from Elliot was able to save them from getting hit.

After Elliot had managed to learn that it was weak against fire and wind, Alisa became the major damage dealer while Rean and Laura kept it from getting closer, this continued until Rean suddenly shouted, "Laura, get back to Elliot and Alisa, I am sensing two monsters approaching us from behind." Trusting him, Laura didn't even hesitate and dashed back to their friends, taking a stance to face their incoming foes. Not a moment later two primate like monsters appeared from the forest and started attacking Laura.

Their rhythm broken, the group went from an active position to a passive one as the monsters went crazy with their attacks, (This can't go on like this. Laura should be able to deal with these two on her own, so I will have to hang in there for some time until she can re-join me. The problem is that I am not sure how long I can keep it from charging over the clearing. For now, I have been able to keep it contained but it won't work for much longer. Wait, maybe I can try that new technique out and since it is fire based, the damage on the monsters should be enough to turn this around and if we can time this right, Laura can follow up with her Radiant Dance attack which if we are lucky enough should kill them all in one go.)

Deciding on how to do this, he gave his instructions, "Alisa, Elliot, start moving towards the centre of the clearing, Laura the two us will try to converge the monsters in one place where they are close enough to hit them all with our attacks. I will weaken them with a technique of mine, and you prepare your strongest one to follow up." The rest followed his orders until they had achieved their goal of getting the monsters in one place, Rean closed his eyes for a short moment to gather his Ki together with the energy of his master quartz, "Flames, gather on my blade." His sword erupted in flames as he dashed towards the monsters, using two slashes to hold them in place he raised his flame sword in the air and put every ounce of his strength in a downward strike as he passed by the monster hitting them with it. That was enough to kill the two primate monsters and heavily wounding the big one, to the extent that it chose to flee as quickly as he could before Laura had the opportunity to finish it off.

Feeling a bit exhausted from using his new finishing move, Rean was slightly painting as his friends joined him, "Well, seems like that worked. Let's get the robbers and the goods out of here before something else comes along." The excitement turned to exasperation as they heard what he said, as once again Rean was downplaying his achievements, not contend on leaving matter like this, Laura asked, "Rean, what was that skill that you just used?"

"Hmm? That was something I had been working for some time, it uses a combination of Ki and the energy of my Master Quartz together, to create flames on my tachi. This was the first time I was able to use it in a fight though." A grinning Elliot couldn't hold back his praise, "You are really amazing, Rean!" Followed up with some from Alisa too, "Yeah. You are always there to help us when we need it the most." Getting the feeling that they were waiting for him to say something to deny it, he said instead what he thought was the reason for their win, "There is only so much I can do on my own. We wouldn't have been able to scare that beast away, if we all hadn't worked together as a team. So, this victory goes to all of us."

Not having expected that the others could only nod to him. The robbers who had been watching the entire fight from beginning to end where dumbfounded, that a bunch of brats were able to beat something huge like that. Suddenly the sound of a whistle was heard, followed by the appearance of a squad of provincial soldiers lead by the captain from this morning. This time it was Group A that was surrounded, the others didn't understand what was happening only Rean was able to remain calm, (Here I was hoping that I was just being overcautious, but it seems like I was right to ask Otto for help. The question now is when will Instructor Sara or another person from Thors come here. Fortunately, Trista isn't that far away by train, so I only have to buy us enough time for our 'reinforcement' to arrive.)

"Well, well what do we have here? The stolen merchandise, our new rangers tied up and the troublemaking students that have arrived yesterday. Seems like we have our culprits for damaging the stalls and stealing their goods. Men, release the poor rangers and apprehend these students!"

Not believing what they were hearing, Laura was the first to protest, "What are you doing?! They are the thieves; we were the ones who found them and caught them. You should be apprehending them not us!"

"And where is your proof how what you are saying, little girl? These rangers were approved and employed by us, so we know that they wouldn't break the law, you on the other hand have been making trouble for us since you set foot in Celdic." Overcoming her surprise, anger soon clouded Alisa's face as she shouted at the smirking captain, "What trouble have we given you? The only things we have done were helping the townspeople with their requests. Requests I might add that should have been done by you since they are your duty!"

Unfazed by her sudden outburst, the captain continued smirking at them as the soldier released the fake rangers, Elliot suddenly realised what was going on, "So that is why, everything they have done was for the sake of forcing Celdic to accept the raised taxes and now they are trying to shift the blame of this to us." Disgust appeared on his face, as he stared at the approaching soldiers, that disgust was soon shared by the girls.

"Such a vivid fantasy students nowadays have. You shouldn't have stuck you nose where it doesn't belong, children. Now you have to pay the price for meddling in matters of the adults." Be it the soldiers or the robber they were wearing gloating smiles as they approached them, Alisa noticed that Rean hadn't said a word this entire time, glancing at him, she saw that he was extremely calm as he was dealing with everyday matters. Sensing her looking at him, Rean gave her a reassuring smile and opened his mouth, "Are you sure that we will be the ones paying for this? I am rather sure that it will be the other way around."

Stunned at this for moment, the captain laughed out loud while looking at him with disdain, "Ohh? So, you are saying we will pay for this? Pray tell how that is going to happen?" Raising his finger, he pointed at the horned lion crest adorning his uniform, "You do know what this represents, right? You are currently trying to arrest four students from Thors Military Academy and accusing them of theft and destructions of property. Do you really think that the school will allow that to happened without launching an investigation of their own?"

Surprised at that, as he hadn't thought of it like that, the captain tried to open his mouth to say something, but Rean didn't give him the opportunity, "And let's not forget that it is the imperial family that owns the school. They too will probably launch an investigation too, since this concerns the image of the academy. Correct me if I am wrong but during these investigations, they will probably find the same thing that we discovered and that you haven't been doing your jobs properly and that will lead to some very uncomfortable conversations between the Emperor and the Duke, no? I wonder how his Majesty will react to the raised taxes that have no actual reason behind them?" The further he went on, the paler the soldiers were becoming as they finally realised the consequences their actions could have while his classmates were surprised that he been able to resolve their situation in that manner, what they couldn't understand was the reason why Rean still seemed ready to fight.

(Now that they realised this, I can just hope that they will not making things more complicated for us and just let us go while sacrificing the fake rangers to save themselves in this situation but looking at the captain it doesn't seem likely.) The face of the captain was unsightly as he glared at Rean until a cruel light shone in his eyes which caused Rean to get ready for the worst. "That is some solid logic young man but what if they four of you had an accident here in the park with the monsters, we could just say that you left in direction of the western highway and that no one saw you after that. The school should be occupied then with looking for four students that ditched the range authorised by the school without a reason and leave us alone, no?" Gasps sounded in the clearing as both students, robbers and soldiers realised what the captain implied. The soldiers seemed to come to the same solution as they slowly started to inch closer to Group A.

Elliot, Alisa and Laura were now pale as they noticed the situation, thought to their credit after a short moment of panic they took out their weapons and prepared to fight for their lives. Suddenly they felt that the temperature around them had dropped, glancing around they found that Rean seemed to be the cause, they couldn't see his face since he had his back turned to them but now there seemed to be a slight dark red aura surrounding him. Rean for his part was looking at the captain with an expressionless face and calm eyes, finding the look and aura intimidating, the captain didn't know what to do until Rean opened his mouth, "That would be unfortunate…"

Thinking that the brat before him was finally scarred, the captain tried to take a step forward to him scare him some more but he stopped mid-step as Rean finished his sentence, "….for you, that is." You could feel the temperature drop even further as everyone on the clearing could feel the sudden change on Rean, gone was the friendly looking young man in his place was something else entirely, his appearance remained unchanged but that didn't stop the feeling that something had changed completely in him.

Only the captain was able to see the one visible change Rean hadn't been able to suppress, the blood-red eyes with slit pupils looking at him like he was less than nothing, just one look was enough for him to feel like his continued existence was depending on the whims of the being standing before him. (I didn't want to resort to this, but I don't have a choice anymore. I am not going to let them harm my friends no matter what, I will just use enough of my power to knock them out and then take them to Celdic so that the authorities and the academy can sort this out. In the worst case, I will shoulder all the blame as I was the one who attacked the soldiers.)

Before he could act on his plan another whistle was heard as another platoon approached, the only difference between the provincial army was the uniform that they were wearing, musing for a short moment Rean decided to see who they were and what they were doing here, pushing his power back down, his eyes and the aura around him returned to normal, which caused the people around him to release the breath they hadn't even noticed that they were holding. Soon the newcomers had everyone in the clearing surrounded while a blue haired woman approached them.

The soldier recognised the woman which caused them to gasp, while Elliot managed to identify them, "The RMP!" The woman approached the captain who hadn't moved an inch the entire time and was still starring in fear at Rean, "I'm Captain Rieveldt of the Railway Military Police, the manager Otto has informed me of the happenings here in Celdic and given our own investigation these students are innocent, and the true culprits are these new rangers. I would suggest that you take your own men and get out here and let us do our job. Are you listening to me?"

Noticing that the man before hadn't even acknowledge her presence and just continued starring at the students caused her to frown while stretching her hand out to touch his shoulder. A sudden jerk caused the captain to finally snap out his stupor and finally look at her, so she repeated what she just had said, to her surprise the man didn't even contest anything and just called to his men to return to base and left as fast as he could walk. Claire wasn't the only confused with this reaction, running after their captain the soldiers of the provincially army left too, leaving only the RMP, the thieves and Group A in the clearing.

Not understanding what had happened before she arrived, she turned to the students who were as confused as she was, safe one the black-haired student who was holding a sword in his hand while the other was hovering over the hilt of the sword with an expressionless look on his face that someone of his age should never have. Deciding to ask what was going, she approached them while her men were taking the rangers in their custody. After introducing herself again, she started questioning them on what was going on, though they couldn't answer her why that man had reacted like that, the rest of the story was as she had expected, so she escorted the students back to the town though she could see that the girls and orange haired boy were looking at their remaining member with worry and some confusion.

On the way back, Rean could see that the sun was already beginning to set, (Seems like we spend a long time in the park but at least this incident has been resolved. Now I have just to worry how I am going to explain this to them while they luckily didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, they must have realised something since the captain had been terrified of me. Even this Captain Rieveldt seems to have figured out something though she isn't sure what I did to scare him that badly.) Since they had left the clearing, he could sense the glances his friends were giving though they were filled with worry instead of the fear he had been expecting which caused some relief for him. (What should I do now? Playing dumb? No, they deserve at least a part of the truth after all we have been through on this field study.)

Steeling himself for that conversation he clenched his fist as an unconscious reflex which caused him to hold back a groan of pain, (Ouch, even if my power just coursed through my body without me using it, the pain that comes from calling it always remains, though it isn't as bad as it could have been.) Unknown to Rean the flinch didn't go unnoticed by his friends and Captain Claire. When they arrived, they found Otto already waiting for them at the entrance of Celdic after reassuring him that they were fine, he and Claire left to discuss the incidents of the past months and how the RMP could help with the security in place of the provincial army while Group A returned to the inn, to get their belongings and say goodbye to Margot.

As soon the door to their room was closed, Rean could feel the activation of an Arcus and before he could turn around, he was hit by an art, recognising this as a Tear art, confused he turned around only to find the concerned faces of his classmates looking at him. "Is something wrong, guys?" Rolling her eyes at him, Alisa stepped forward, "That should be our question, Rean. Be honest, how are you?" Still confused, he could only answer with, "I am fine?" Now it was Laura turn to roll her eyes, "Rean, we noticed you flinching on the way back and the way you move now is a lot more careful than before, like you are injured."

Activating his Arcus again, Elliot started to prepare another healing art, "Laura is right. So just tell us how really are, so that we can start treating you, if not I will just empty my entire EP on casting healing arts on you." Feeling moved at their concern, he relaxed somewhat, "You can stop, Elliot." Seeing the glares, he was receiving he quickly added, "It is just some light muscle pain, you don't need to cast anything for this. Give it some hours and it will go away on its own." Looking him in the eyes they decided that he was telling the truth, "Fine, we will believe you for now, at least." Smiling helplessly at them, he could just let it go, before steeling his resolve for the next part, "So, I guess, I own you all an explanation for what had happened back there in the clearing."

Taking a deep breath, he tried to explain just to be interrupted by Alisa, "Well, I would be lying if I said that I wasn't curious, we all are but only if you want to Rean tell us about whatever it is, neither me, Laura or Elliot will force you to explain anything that you aren't comfortable with." Behind her Elliot and Laura were nodding in support, seeing this he couldn't help but feel warm at the support they were showing him, "It is alright, after all we have been through the least, I could do is explaining what happened. Let's see the best way to describe it was that I used a craft to strengthen myself, by using that technique I am a lot stronger than usual and my aura changes somewhat like I am a different person and the price that I pay for it is that afterwards, my body is in pain. That would be the best to describe it." Now Laura eyes lit with interest, "The Arseid School has some similar techniques though none who could change a person's aura like that. I assume that technique is from the Eight Leaves school?"

"No, you could say that it is an original of mine. Admittedly I am nowhere close to mastering it, it is more like a last resort like technique, when all else fails." The respect that appeared on Laura face, made him feel very guilty, so he added quickly, "Like I said, I am really far from mastering it and by the looks of it I never will, given that it has been over eight years that I have been trying." The bitter look he had was enough to make the others understand that there was a story behind it, though they knew that now wasn't the time to ask.

Glancing at each other, they decided that they should change the direction of the conversation to something else, putting his Arcus away since it apparently wasn't needed, Elliot looked at the others, "Since he has only some muscle pain, we should start packing our stuff, the time for our departure is fast approaching. Besides I want to thank Margot and the manager for their hospitality and help before leaving." Agreeing with him, the rest started packing until they were finished afterwards, they cleaned the room and made the beds as best as they could.

Satisfied with their work, they went to say goodbye to the owner of the inn, "There isn't any need for this, children. It was my pleasure to have you all here, besides you all have helped us enough during your stay here, so if anyone should be saying thanks here, it should be me. So, thanks for your help, you all." This caused Group A to be a bit embarrassed, "Nonsense, we only did as it was asked of us."

Smiling at Rean, Margot only laughed in response, "I don't remember that any of your tasks was to help arrest some thieves and not to forget telling me where my previous guests came from." She continued mentioning how they went beyond their duty in helping the townspeople, trying to find a way to escape her praise Rean asked something that he remembered from yesterday, "I nearly forgot, you did say that one of the reasons that group drew so much attention were their names, you wouldn't perhaps remember them?"

Taking a moment to try to remember, "Well, let's see I think the boys they were called Haru and Itsuki. The girl's names were, if I remember correctly…" Before she could finish, Rean couldn't help but blurt out, "Yui and Akari?" Ignoring the stunned looks he was getting, he just stared at Margot with his mouth open, recovering from her surprise she nodded at him, "Exactly, those were the names of the girls, could it be that you know them?" It took Rean a moment to recover from this revelation, "No way, what are they doing in the Empire? Could it be for work, but…."

Shaking his head to clear it, he answered Margot's question, "If they are the same people that I am thinking of, then yes, they are some of my old friends." Still reeling from this, he began describing them from the time he had last meet them nearly four years ago, even after Margot confirmed that their appearances were like what he had described, he still couldn't believe in this coincidence.

Recalling these four who had been some of the first friends he had made in the East and how they had parted ways in the end caused him to be absentminded until he felt Alisa hand on his shoulder, turning around he saw that his friends were looking with curiosity in their eyes, "I am alright guys, was just surprised to hear that these visitors from afar were some acquaintances of mine. Anyway, sorry for derailing the conservation like this but like we were saying thank you for allowing us to stay here and for the experience that we were able to gain here." The others followed his example and thanked the owner and so they left the inn while Margot was waving at them, though no one could hear her murmur, "Now I am curious what kind of life that Rean had, those weren't they eyes someone his age should have…."

Once again, he could feel the gazes of his classmates on him as they made their way to the train station, (Everyone would be curious after hearing that, I guess it wouldn't hurt to explain to them.) Slowing his steps, he fell beside Alisa and Elliot, "So I take it that you guys are once again curious?" This caused them to chuckle, "Well, can you blame us? You seem like you have a lot of interesting stories to tell, Rean. Since this field study began, you have managed to surprise us at every turn and now this."

Rolling his eyes at Alisa's teasing comment, he looked at the rest and saw them smiling at him, before anyone could say anything like, 'You don't have to tell us if you don't want…etc' or something similar, he just went ahead and told them, "I first met them while I was travelling with my Master, we were somewhat close in age and were interested in the martial arts. So, we challenged each other to improve ourselves often and from there we became friends. I didn't expect to hear from them again, especially here in the Empire."

"Ahh, I remember you telling me and Gaius that you once travelled together with your Master." Elliot soon thought of something else, "I am kind of amazed that you managed to meet people from the East as you were travelling through the Empire." Raising an eyebrow at that, but before he could clarify, Laura asked him something else, "Is there some place where practitioners from the East meet here in Erebonia? I would love to go there and see them for myself. I wonder why I haven't heard of a place like that before?"

"Probably because a place like that doesn't exist." Three pairs of eyes looked at him in confusion, "I never said that I travelled through the Empire." That seemed to confuse them even more, until Alisa realised what he was implying, "Wait, you don't mean?" Giving her a small smile and a nod, as an answer she looked at him stunned, "You went travelling through the eastern part of the continent?!"

"For around three years, my Master and I went through a lot of the countries there and I learned a lot while I was there."

"Wow, that would explain why you could recognise the accent and the accessories. It is amazing that you travelled there. How was the music in the East? I heard that they have a lot of different music instruments compared to us here?" A bit surprised at Eliot's enthusiasms, he started to explain what these instruments were, hadn't he caught sight of Laura looking at him with eyes filled with envy and pouting, "Laura, is something wrong?" Shaking her head at him she returned her normal look, though there was still some envy remains in her eyes, "I am just feeling a bit jealous of you Rean right now. The furthest of my travels was the capital and even that was just for a day, you must have seen a lot of different sword styles during your travels."

Chuckling Rean tried to console her, "There is nothing stopping you from doing the same when you are older, Laura. I can give you the locations of some dojos that you should visit if you decide to travel there, if you are interested, of course." It was somewhat cute how her eyes lit up at that and Eliot eyes soon followed as he explained what kind of music there was in the eastern country. A moment later Rean noticed that one member of their group had been silent during the entire conversation, a look over his shoulder and he found Alisa in deep thought, feeling his gaze she raised her head to look at him and he in returned just raised an eyebrow as a question which caused her to roll her eyes at him, "Just out of curiosity when did you returns to Erebonia?" That question caused him to smile as he realised where her thoughts were going, "I think you know the answer to that, Alisa."

"So that was the day that you came back? Then how old were you when you left, because you didn't appear older than fourteen at that time."

"I left when I was elven and returned when I was fourteen."

"Unbelievable. I can't believe you went on such a journey when you were still so young, seems like I was right back then. You did have the look of a traveller back then."

"It was thanks to that journey that I am who I am today and besides if I didn't go on that journey, we perhaps wouldn't have met that day and just the fact I was able to meet you, is something that I am grateful for." Looking ahead he found that the station was already in view, and he saw Otto and Captain Rieveldt talking with each other, Otto waved at them as he noticed them. Rean started walking forward to talk to them when he noticed that he suddenly was alone, turning around he found his friends starring at him in different states, Alisa was red as a tomato and Elliot and Laura were whispering to each other while their cheeks were a bit red.

"I think I'm starting to understand Alisa when she says that he doesn't think when he speaks, how can he say something like that with a straight face?" At her side Elliot was nodding in support while at the same time Alisa was taking deep breaths to calm down, Rean couldn't understand what had happened that would lead to this, though from the glares Alisa was sending his way, he understood that he had apparently once again put his foot in his mouth and the only thing that saved him was the appearance of Instructor Sara. After speaking with Otto and Captain Claire, (she had told them to call her like that) Group A followed their instructor inside the station, where they took the train back to Trista, during the journey Sara told some of the things that had happened with Group B and in return they told her what had happened after she had left.

Though the conversation was cut short when Rean remarked that he had noticed that they had been basically Bracers during their field study which resulted in their beloved Instructor falling asleep as soon he finished his sentence. Sighing in expiration at her behaviour, Group A let it go and just relaxed in their seats. Thinking back on these weeks since Rean had started at Thors, made him realise something, (Now that I think about it, this next class will at least stay together for a year or more and since arrived here I have been telling lot of half-truths like not mentioning my social status to them or like yesterday morning telling the girls just about the monster but not the changes in the old schoolhouse or about my so called 'craft'. The last one can't be helped but the other two that is something I can set right, just have to ask the principal for permission first and the other I can do now.)

Gathering his resolve, he spoke up, "Everyone could I speak with you all for a moment?" The others turned to look at him, "There is something I would like to say to you all and apologise for. It has nearly been a month since we were put in the same class, and I have been keeping you all in the dark about something. It concerns my social status." That raised some eyebrows, "My hometown is Ymir, in the northern mountains and I am the son of its ruler, Baron Schwarzer." He let that sink for a while, at his side Elliot looked shocked, "I didn't expect that you too were a noble."

"How could you? I know that I don't act like one and my parents are pretty easy going, they don't behave like your typical nobles at all. Furthermore, I am their adopted son, so I have no noble blood in my veins and am just upper-class in name only. I just didn't want to keep this longer a secret, after everything we have been through these two days, I owe you guys that much. You and the rest of Class VII are going to be a major part of my life from here on out, so at the very least I feel that I should share this much with you."

The three shared a look, while Elliot just said, "I don't know what to say to this." Followed by an amused Laura, "You consider us a major part of your life?"

(And there he goes again with his cheesy lines, honestly how does he come up with these? If this goes on, he will give me a heart attack one of these days, he came damn close back there in Celdic with what he said. I will have to keep an eye on him because of the way he is, he will mislead a lot of girls, thanks to how dense he is.) For an unknown reason that thought annoyed Alisa a lot, though she couldn't find the reason why. "Just make sure that you share your 'true' identity with the rest of the class, by the way we should have some forty minutes until we reach Trista, right?"

Suddenly shuddering for no reason, Rean got the feeling that he was in some serious trouble, even if he didn't know the reason why but after having spent time with Alisa, he knows that this feeling came from her, so he braced himself, "Yes, why?" The smile that followed his answer was both beautiful and filled with a feeling so dangerous that made him want to run away, "We have been putting this off for a long time, but I think it's time for you to understand how reckless you are sometimes. Let's start first why fighting blind is very dangerous no matter what and go from there to what you were going to do in the clearing against the soldiers because you never said what you were planning when you used that technique of yours and I have a feeling that the answer is going to piss me off very much. So shall we start, Rean?"

For the first time in his life, Rean Schwarzer really regretted, from the bottom of his heart, how reckless he had been while he was listening to Alisa scolding him with some help from Elliot and Laura, not knowing that this wouldn't be the last time that he got this kind of treatment from her.