Hello everyone here is the part of one of the fifth Free Day, I hope you all enjoy it!
Like always some info:
Spoken words are between " "
Thoughts are between ( )
The days passed slowly after the addition of the two new members of Class VII, at first no one was sure what to make of Crow Armburst and Millium Orion's sudden appearances, but within a matter of days, it almost felt like they had been there all along. Though it did take some time getting used to Millium calling out Airgetlam in the middle of their classes or when they were in the cafeteria or at the dorm. On the day before the next Free Day, Class VII had their second to last lesson for the day, History.
"I am sure none of you need to be reminded that it was none other than Emperor Dreichels who ended the War of the Lions. Records show us that in the beginning he had amazingly few solider under his command, which only included a few confidants and several warriors from Nord. However, he managed to gather supporters who rallied around him in each region that he managed to free from the oppression of the other princes armies. Half a year later, he met his most famous supporter do you know the name of that person….. Millium?"
Raising her hand in the air, Millium also jumped to her feet in excitement at the same time, "Sure, do! Lianne Sandlot, also known as the Lance Maiden." Instructor Thomas gave her a nod, "Right you are, well done! Sandlot was the daughter of a count who ruled over a remote region and accounts tells us that she showed great martial skill from a young age. In particular her skill with the lance was unparalleled, no records exist of her ever being bested in combat. The lance maiden also had a group of mighty warriors under her command, who fought alongside her in battle, perhaps you would like to illuminate us to the name of this famous band, Rean?"
"They were called the Eisenritter, also known as the Iron Knights. They were a band of knights said to be able to charge across the battlefield like lightning, cutting down all that was blocking their path."
"Correct, you have clearly done your homework. The wandering prince met the Lance Maiden one day during a prolonged conflict in a remote region of the country, after recognising each other as reliable and trustworthy, they pledged to fight together under a united banner. With their addition, Dreichels army swept through one region after another until a year later when he was able to defeat the other princes and free the imperial capital, Heimdallr. As an interesting footnote, the castle the Eisenritter used as their base of operations 250 years ago just so happens to be only a hop, skip and a jump away from Laura's home in Legram. Care to introduce that base to us, Laura?"
The swordswoman took a moment to gather her thoughts before she answered Instructor Thomas request, "Indeed, it is known as Lohengrin Castle, it is a beautiful old building situated on the shore of Lake Ebel, to the west of Legram. Due to the dangerous terrain there, no one goes near it, these days it exists simply as relic of a bygone age. My family is just responsible for the care and maintenance of the castle, though it is just the bare minimum." The rest of the class, besides Crow who seemed to be napping, listened with fascination as Laura talked more about the castle along with some more information like that her ancestor was the second in command of the Eisenritter and so on.
"Legram, huh? Never had a mission there, so I have never been able to go maybe I should have stopped by when I went to Fort Aurochs a while back." Millium casual remark made the others sweat drop at how easily she revealed her mission, while ignoring the fact that Jusis was glaring at her. The rest of the lesson passed quickly, shortly after Thomas left Instructor Sara made her way into the classroom, to talk about their upcoming free day and practical exam, "Ok, tomorrow is a Free day and you all know what that means, that next Wednesday is your next practical exam and this one will be quite tough, so you better bring your A-game to it. Oh, I nearly forgot, Millium and Crow a few must-haves instructional materials you two are going to need as part of Class VII have finally arrived. As soon as we are done here, you should come with me to the faculty lounge to receive them, ok? Now let's get this lesson started because I have things to do later, which include some tasty beer."
After Sara was done with her lesson, she led Millium and Crow away leaving the rest of the class alone, it didn't take long for them to start swapping their opinion on the two newcomers, "Well, regarding Millium, I don't think we have to keep our guard up against her, though I wouldn't mind if she kept that 'Lammy' of hers hidden from the rest of the school."
"Really, Elliot? I think Lammy is kind of cool, she even let me fly with her for a bit and the other day I was taking a nap in the courtyard, and she came by and just fell asleep next to me. I would say that we can trust her."
Machias looked at Fie with an eyebrow raised, "What does that have to do with whether or not she is trustworthy?" Just for Emma to giggle in response, "Heehee. They looked like a couple of kittens curled up together. Their personalities may be worlds apart, but they are both rather cat-like in their own ways." The rest of the girls agreed with Emma, while the boys just shrugged their shoulders, "She can't be more than twelve or thirteen years old, still practically a child. In fact, she reminds me of my youngest sister Lily."
"Yeah, I don't think I could bring myself to spurn her, she got this natural charm, I think." Watching his classmates warming up to her Jusis couldn't help himself from reminding them of a simple fact, "Be that as it may, her presence here reeks of blood and iron, if you catch my meaning." The others understood what he was implying, "And don't forget that while she may be young, she still is a member of the Intelligence Division and an Ironblood. You just have to remember her actions during our time in Nord against Bugbear to understand that she is without a doubt a used to such situations and let's not forget that Lammy of hers."
"It doesn't look like anything you could make even with the most cutting edge orbal technology that we have at the moment, that and I am sure that it hasn't escaped your notice how much it resembles the Combat Shells that we use in our combat training. I think that they share some kind of common origin, I tried to see if Reinford had built something like that or even knew about it but no luck, rather they were the ones who asked me if I could explain what it is to them."
Rean could only try to calm the annoyed Alisa by, "Now, now, no need to be upset about that. Either way, she is technically our classmate now, like it or not. It may be a little early to tell whether we can trust her as a friend, but we should be able to figure out pretty quickly whether we can count on her as a member of Class VII."
The rest agreed with the fact that for now the most important issue was if they could count on her during a fight or not, "You are right, though I would prefer if we all got along considering that we all live in the same dormitory and I don't want her to feel unwelcome there either. As for Crow, you know him best Rean what can you tell us besides the fact that he likes to make illegal bets and skipping school."
Rean choose his next words carefully, "Well, I wouldn't count on him with anything regarding money, schoolwork or any work at all. He is more likely to escape from any hard work than do it." He watched how the others grimaced at his descriptions, but he continued, "But you can count on him when the chips are down, no matter the situation. From what I heard from Towa, and the others, he is good in a fight and pretty handy with the Arcus too." They still weren't convinced about their oldest classmate but decided like with Millium that they would give him a chance, after that they split up leaving Rean and Alisa alone in the classroom.
"You know perhaps it is my imagination but are the others making sure that we are alone more often than not the last few days?" Alisa rolled her eyes at him, "Really? You just noticed that now? Whatever happened to that 'Unclouded Eye' of yours?" Rean just smiled sheepish at her not saying anything at all, seeing that Alisa just snorted, "Putting the behaviour of our classmates aside for the moment, what are you planning on doing regarding Millium and Crow?"
Rean understood immediately what she was asking, "You mean if I should tell them about the Ogre, right? Well, to be honest I am torn, on one side I feel like since I shared with you and the rest that secret, I should do the same with them. On the other side, I don't know how they will react knowing that their classmate is a demon that…ouch! What was that for?" He rubbed his shoulder where Alisa had punched him, narrowing her eyes at him the archer was lifting her hand for another punch, making him back away from her.
"What did I tell you what would happen if I caught you or anyone else calling you a demon?"
"That you would deal with them. Geez, I already told you so many times that you don't have to do that, it isn't like I am saying something that isn't true…wow. I see that your hand-to-hand combat is improving." Rean dodged the punch this time by stepping to the side, "Alright, alright. I got it. As for the matter with Crow and Millium what do you think that I should do?"
The look she gave him in return told him that she knew that he was changing the subject but decided to humour him for now and deal with him later, "Just tell them that your 'Spirit Control' is a secret technique of the Eight Leaves School and leave it at that for the moment. If they ask why your appearance changes so much, just say that it is a side effect of your Craft, and you can tell them the truth after knowing if they are trustworthy or not. Though I am not sure that Millium will keep it to herself or tell the Intelligence Division."
"To be honest, I wouldn't be too surprised if they didn't have already an idea on what I can do."
"What?! How would they know about that?!"
"Just a feeling I got from meeting the Chancellor back then, he seemed to be to quite informed about me but perhaps I am wrong, and he doesn't know anything. I will cross that bridge later." Alisa didn't quite believe that the Chancellor knew about his power but like he said that was a worry for the future, but she did make a slight change to his sentence, "We will cross that bridge later, I am not going to let you deal with that alone if it happens and if you try to deal with it alone, so help me Aidios I will…..." She may not have finished her sentence, but the implied threat made him shiver in fear, from there they talked some more about the two newcomers until they went their separate ways, Alisa to meet up with the girls and Rean to make his tour of the campus seeing if people needed help.
During that time Towa called his Arcus to ask Rean to pass by the Student Council Room saying that she needed his help with a small errand, there he asked her if she knew something more about Millium or not. Towa explained to him that Millium was accepted into the school with the Emperor backing her, though the Academy did test her if she did have the necessary knowledge to attend the school but the moment the conversation turned to Crow, the petite girl was both worried for and angry at her friend.
Thinking that perhaps remaining in the room with the agitated girl wasn't a good idea, he asked what the errand was, and he got asked to give Millium her school notebook. Outside the building he thought about going to the faculty room to see if Millium was still there and if not, he would give her the notebook back in the dormitory, on his way there his Arcus rang again, "Hello, Rean Schwarzer here."
"Hello, Rean! It is your favourite instructor here. Are you still on the academy ground, by any chance?" The swordsman could practically see the headache forming the moment he heard her question, "….As much as it pains me to say it, I am. What do you need Instructor Sara?"
"Haha, no need to be so suspicious. It is just after I gave Millium all the things I had for her; she just took off somewhere. You know how she tends to be kind of a mischief maker, so could you find her and drag her back to the dorm for me?"
"Sigh…..Very well. I will see if I can find her, before she once again flashes that silver puppet of hers, again."
"Yeaaaaah, I would rather avoid a repeat of the Vice principal's lecture. Anyway, I will leave this matter in your capable hands, brave leader of Class VII. See you later." Resigning himself to this matter, Rean was going to start searching immediately but he thought of something, (Wait, perhaps I should ask someone for help and since they are always on my cases for not asking, I already know who to call. Of course, that is if they want to.) Two calls and some minutes later, Rean saw the two blondes of Class VII approaching him, "You know, when I told you that you should ask for help, I didn't mean for you to drag me into searching for that hyperactive menace."
"Ah, come on Jusis. He did the first step by asking for help, now we just have to make sure that he doesn't return to his old ways. Besides what do you think is better, letting Millium go around unsupervised and clean the mess up latter or go search for her now and hope that she hasn't done anything yet?" Jusis glared at the smiling archer but took a moment to think about she had said, "Fine, you are right. Let's go search for her and keep her under our watchful eyes."
"Alright, how about we split up and search the campus for her. Jusis, you look for her at the Academy Field, Alisa you go to the gymnasium to see if she is there, while I will look for her in the library." Done with that, the three went towards their destinations to try to find their classmate, it didn't take long for Rean to see that Millium wasn't present in the Library, so he went and try to search the school building, in the meantime the other two had more luck in finding her but weren't fast enough to stop her from leaving, leading Jusis and Alisa to chase after her while she used Lammy to escape.
The moment Rean stepped on the roof he saw Millium landing on it without noticing him, erasing his presence as best as he could he approached her while she looked at the old school building with curiosity in her eyes. Making sure not to startle her too much he put both his hands on her shoulders making her stay in place and not giving her a chance to summon her doll, "I think that is enough playing around Millium how about coming back with me to the dorm for the rest of the day?"
The tiny girl barely twitched at being caught by him and just looked at him innocently, "Sure thing! I can't wait to see what Sharon has made for dinner this time." Rean looked at her with disbelief in his eyes, "OK? I was expecting a little more resistance from you, but I won't complain. Let me just call Alisa and Jusis, that I found you and we can go back." The girl just smiled at him and pointed past him to the door where the blonde duo appeared, "No need for that, there they are. What took you two so long?"
Confused at that question, his doubts were soon cleared as he listened to Jusis scolded the cerulean haired girl while Alisa explained to him that they had been chasing her for a while. Persuading Jusis to hold back until they were back at the dorm, the four made their way towards their destination. Once inside the dorm Jusis was going to continue his lecture if he and the others hadn't caught sight of Crow and Sharon talking with each other, "Man, Sharon you sure make some amaaazing coffee, if I had known about this before, I would have been banging down the door to join Class VII months ago."
"You flatter me, Lord Crow…..Ah, welcome back everyone. If you would excuse me, I must look after the dinner preparations now, it shouldn't be long until the food will be served." With another bow, the maid left the students behind and entered the kitchen, "Anyway, sorry for dropping by so suddenly but it was decided that I would live here during my time in Class VII. But man being in this class does have a lot of benefits, a maid to carter to you every need, field trips around the country and the best thing is that I can slack off as much as I want."
Millium laughed at that description while the other three just sweat dropped at that, "Putting your delusions aside for the moment, I guess I should welcome you to the dormitory and knowing Sharon she is already cooking up a feast to welcome you like she did with Millium last time."
"No need for all that formal crap, Rean. I just finished hauling most of my stuff from my old dorm into the room in front of yours, looks like we are going to neighbours from here on out and if you need anything from your old pal Crow, you now know where to find me." The grin he gave the swordsman made him realise that things around the dorm were going to be pretty lively in the future, shaking his head to dispel those thoughts, "In any case, since you are already here, I can ask you two about tomorrow. Every Free Day our class goes into the old school building to investigate the new floor that appear there, want to join us? It is not obligatory, but those trips are good training for the combat links."
"Oh,oh, I wanna go! I heard already about that place; I can't wait, and you don't have to worry about anything. As long we have Lammy, it will be easy peasy!" Millium was already jumping up and down in excitement, "Settle down, that place is not some playground! If you are to accompany us, you have to follow us calmly and not going off on your own, do you understand?" The girl stuck her tongue out at Jusis patronizing tone, leading him to try and lecture her again, leaving these two aside for now, Rean and Alisa looked at Crow waiting for his answer.
"Sure, count me in, but in that case, I better give my guns some TLC tonight and upgrade my Quartz setup. Any ideas, on what I should expect?"
"Sorry but that place throws us curveballs every time we think we have it figured out, last time it managed to create a copy of Rean and made him fight it on his own, so better prepare for the unexpected."
"Alisa is right, you told me that you primarily use Time Quartz, keep that setup if you want to and if you need any quartzes, I still have some of that element left." Grinning widely at that offer, Crow nearly swooned, "Not only do I get free and delicious food offered here but also free quartzes. This place is the best!"
"Slow down, there Crow! Of course, you are going to pay for them, Rean here isn't a charity and as for you what did I say about making quartzes that you don't use?" Both boys took a step back away from the archer's glare, Crow took it even a step further and used that opening to leave the room letting Rean deal with her, with Jusis and Millium doing the same thing. Sighing Rean tried his best to calm her down, though he wasn't that successful afterwards Class VII enjoyed the welcoming dinner for Crow, welcoming him into their dormitory. The next day Rean started the Free Day like usual getting the requests out of his mailbox, this time he had three, one was the usual request for the investigation, the other was to help George and Angelica with the orbal bike and the last was to research the seven mysteries of Thors.
He had to take another look at that request making sure that he had read it right, (From all the possible requests that I was expecting, one where I had to chase down rumours about the supernatural wasn't anywhere on my list. From the looks of it, Beryl was the one who made this request…hmm who know perhaps there is a possibility that these seven mysteries contain some information about the old building however unlikely that seems, it is worth a shot. Perhaps I should start with this one and see where it takes me.)
After planning his routine for the morning, he returned to his room to get his items, there he found out that Crow still had some stuff left at his old dorm, Rean being Rean offered to help him with moving them into his new room. Inside the dormitory for the commoners, the swordsman was surprised to see how many friends and acquaintances the second year had, they even offered to help him out with the moving. After they were done both sat down on his room, "I am surprised that you had that many people showing up to help you, I guess you are pretty popular around here."
"Well, I have been here for two years now, you know? Who knows perhaps if you keep it up your 'gopherring' around here you will be just as popular as old Crow here, though for a different reason of course." Rolling his eyes at the smirking second year, Rean quipped back, "You are talking with Alisa too much besides I only said popular to be polite because let's face it you are more infamous in town than popular, or am I wrong Mister Bookie?"
A scandalized look appeared on his face at that accusation, making a show of gripping his heart Crow fall down on one knee, "What a grave allegation, my young friend! How could you say something like that, I am the very picture of an upstanding students who has no ties to any bets or anything similar to such endeavours!" Snorting at the over-the-top show, Rean had the urge to clap his hands at him but refrained because he didn't to encourage him further, "Do I need to call Towa, to remind you of your past transgressions?"
That was enough for Crow to threw himself at Rean's feet and beg him not do that, savouring his pleas he let him cook for a few minutes more before letting him off the hook, "Alright, alright. No need to beg so much, just try to do less of that from now on and you will be fine. Anyway, since you now have everything in your room, let me once again welcome you here." Shooting to his feet so quickly that Rean swore he saw an afterimage, Crow slung his arm around his junior's shoulder, "Aww, no need for that, Rean but thanks man. Don't forget to call me when it is time for that so called investigation of yours, can't wait to see what kind of trouble we are getting into."
Sometime later Rean managed to find Beryl to get more information about the seven mysteries that she wanted him to research along with the possible locations of them, however he was disappointed that not one of the mysteries was about the old schoolhouse. His first stop was at the library where Instructor Thomas shedded light on the so-called forbidden grimoire, it was simply the so called 'gentleman books' for young teenage boys who tried to smuggle them into school. With that revelation the next few were also of similar disappointing explanations, the only good thing that came out of the request until now was the fact that Rean managed to attend the Orchestra Clubs concert at the church where Elliot played along with the other members as he asked Hibelle for his input reading on the of the mysteries.
After congratulating the redhead on his performance and talking with him for a bit, Rean made his way towards the barn in the academy field where the last mystery was waiting for him, though he didn't make it very far before he heard shouting coming from the left side of the field where the Lacrosse Club was training. His curiosity getting the better of him, Rean changed his direction towards the shouts just to find that Ferris had once again challenged Alisa to one of her competitions, (I don't know why I am surprised, Alisa has told me that lately Ferris had challenged her at every possible moment and in every competition, Alisa managed to win them every time further infuriating Ferris. I think that perhaps I should watch how this one goes.)
Alisa managed to catch a glimpse of him and gave him a nod as a greeting before focusing on the noble girl in front of her explaining the rules for this challenge, from what he could see it turned out to be a racing competition. The second years were overseeing this making sure that no one was hurt, after stretching their limps both girls went to the starting line and got ready, a moment later both sprinted forwards. Thanks to her constant training with Rean, the archer's physical abilities were better than Ferris which was proven when Alisa manged to win the race with a wide gap between them, not willing to accept her loss, Ferris challenged Alisa again and again to rematches where Alisa won every single one until Ferris collapsed on the ground.
"Impossible…..How could I be defeated after all of my practice? This doesn't make any sense!" Approaching the fallen girl, Alisa stretched her hand out to help her up, "You aren't the only who is training outside of the Lacrosse Club, I have to say though, you have gotten a lot faster than you were before. It clearly shows the effort you have been putting in, doesn't it?" The noble girl grimaced at what she was hearing and glared at the hand in front of her, getting a slight feeling of deja vu Rean took a step forward but at the same time Ferris stood up and yelled at the archer, "D-do not belittle me! I refuse to accept this! I REFUSE to accept this!"
Done yelling she ran out of the field towards the highways outside of Trista ignoring the shouts from both second years and Alisa, getting a bad feeling Rean picked up speed and ran after her along with Alisa. The moment they managed catch up with her she was already surrounded by several wolf monsters, yelling at them of all things, "Do you know who I AM? I am the daughter of Count Flora….." Just to stop as one monsters approached her while growling, "Help Vincent…..! Alisa…!"
Not a moment too soon Alisa's arrow managed to hit the wolf stopping the others from moving forward and turning their attention to both Alisa and Rean, who quickly used their combat link to dispatch their adversaries while keeping Ferris safe from harm. The moment that they were done with fighting Alisa turned towards Ferris to see if she had any wounds, "Looks like you are alright. Honestly, did you have to choose the highway to do your sulking?"
"…F-For what purpose did you chase me out here? Are you here to laugh at me?! Belittle me for losing to you?!" Rean saw the exact moment Alisa's patience snapped, "Of course not! There is no way I would ever do something like that! Why is it so hard to believe that I just want to be your friend?! That I want to train and get better with alongside you?!" Ferris was shocked at what she was hearing, remaining quiet and avoiding the blonde's eyes until she finally gathered her courage to respond, "In all honesty, I wanted to become friends with you as well, however….I could never once bring myself to admit that out loud, my pride kept me from it."
Alisa's glare relaxed at her admission, though it didn't stop her from shaking her head and both Ferris and her, "I know what that is like, in your head you know what you have to do but the moment you opened your mouth to speak something else comes out. I wish I didn't, but unfortunately, I do." At that she shoots Rean a glance who just gave her a smile back, rolling her eyes at him, she turned her attention back to the noble girl, "We both have a lot learn in that regard, so how about this? We can keep competing against one another, but this time as friendly rivals who inspire each other to be better? There is after all nothing wrong with some competition between friends."
"Alisa….! You right there is nothing wrong with that,….thank you." Smiling at the teary-eyed girl she lead her back to the academy field where Ferris apologised to the second years about her behaviour just now and for the last months, watching this Alisa looked at Rean who was at her side with a smile on her face, "Thank you, Rean. You really helped us out with this matter."
"Come now, I didn't do much here. You did most of the work by helping your friend out and give her the push she needed."
"Hehe, I mean it. You are always there for me when I need you the most, be it in helping during fights or just listen to me. I don't know what I would do without you sometimes, so thank you." Following Ferris example, she also gathered her courage and gave Rean a small peck on his cheek as thanks for his help, however she couldn't avoid her own turning red though it was nothing compared to Rean's flustered face, "I…..uh….Er….You are welcome." She wouldn't never admit it out loud but seeing him like that filled her with both pride and a mischievous need to tease him, "Are you alright, Rean? Your face is quite red, are you perhaps coming down with a cold? Let me take your temperature, can you come a bit closer?"
He didn't know what to do at the moment, so he remained rooted on the spot, giggling at him Alisa stopped teasing him, "I mean it when I said that I am thankful for you but now I should go back to practice. See you later, Rean." Turning away from him, she joined the other girls and resumed their training, remaining in the same place it took him more than a few moments to regain his bearing, (Seems like she did pick up some habits from Sharon after all. Aidios help me if she keeps doing that to me, I don't think my heart can take much more.)
Willing his body to move he went towards the barn to finally solve the last of the seven mysteries and give Beryl his report, like the mysteries before this one could easily be explained. To his surprise Beryl didn't seem that upset about his findings, still she seemed to mutter something under her breath but something inside of him told him that it was better for him not to know what she was muttering, after wishing her a good day he left the union building and went towards the engineering club to help George with his request.
Like he had hoped, he had once again the chance to ride the Orbal Bike and this time the bike had something that George called a sidecar. The idea for it was to give an additional seat, besides sitting behind the driver, to a second person ridding the bike, both Angelica and George had convinced Towa to take a short trip with him to escape her duties and to relax for a bit.
He listened to Angelica explaining the changes the sidecar brought with him, after making sure that he had memorised everything he needed, Rean and Towa got on the bike and went for a drive. Feeling the wind against his face, along with riding the bike relaxed him immensely, of course he did keep his attention on his driving first. Along the highway, they started talking with each other to pass the time there he found out that Towa, thanks to her action of rescuing the tourists in the capital, got an invitation for attending the conference in Crossbell next week.
"Wow, I guess you must have really impressed a lot of people back there, though after hearing of what you did back there from Angelica, it shouldn't come as a surprise."
"Oh no, no. I didn't anything special, everyone would have done the same thing."
"I think I am starting to understand what the others feel, when I say that. You should hold your head high with what you have accomplished, your actions were recognised by important people as evident with that invitation. You can take this opportunity to expand your horizons and who knows, this could be something that will help you out later in life." They continued talking with each other about the conference however the end of their time was coming up, so he turned the bike around towards Trista. Back in the Engineering Club Rean gave both second years his report regarding the changes that the sidecar brought with it, along with some suggestions on what he thought could be improved.
Looking at the time, he still had a good two hours before Class VII was supposed to meet for the investigation in the old schoolhouse, thinking that perhaps he could make another tour around campus to see if he anyone else needs his help with anything, however before he could come to a decision, Sara called his Arcus and asked him to meet her in the faculty room saying that she needed help with something that only he could do. He was already done with his requests for the morning, so he told her, that he was on his ways and hung up, once he arrived, he saw Sara smiling at him even so he got a dangerous feeling from it.
Reacting on instinct he turned around to leave alas it was too late for that since she had already seen him, "No need to leave, come and take a seat here, Rean. You and I have a lot to talk about!" Not seeing any way out or what he could have done to piss her off, he went and sat down on the chair she pointed at. She put a paper in front of him, on it where the times of Class VII during their last swimming lesson were written, "You know, you boys have really improved your times during the last few weeks. Here I was thinking that you really put your all into it and feeling proud of you, but do you know what I just found out?"
The feeling of being in danger suddenly got a lot stronger, still not knowing why or what Sara had discovered Rean could only shake his head at her, Sara's eyes flashed dangerously while grinding her teeth together, "Neithardt just let it slip that he gave you some kind of special training for swimming last month when I bragged to him that my darling students had improved so much. Do you know how much I was fuming inside when he told me the real reason of your improvement? Let me tell you, I…still…..am!"
Small sparks of purple lightning started to appear around her as she vented her frustration, "And then he had the gall to say that it was thanks to him that the boys of MY class were going to surpass the times of the girls. Well, if that is how he wants to play then fine, I will also give the woman of class VII a special training!" Rean was starting to sweat under the amount of Ki she was starting to release, "(What is up with those two? It is like they are locked in some mortal struggle to outdo each other.) Is there a reason for me to be here besides confirming that we had those lessons?"
"Of course there is, Rean" The sweet smile on her face gave him a far more dangerous feeling than the one from before, "You are my lovely informant that is going to tell me everything that Neithardt has been teaching you so that I can take those lessons and improve them to further enhance the girls times. So, go get your swimming trunks and meet me and the girls at the pool." Not even waiting for a reply Sara stormed out of the room leaving a stunned Rean behind, (If these are supposed to be lessons only for the girls why is she including me in them?!) Seeing no way out of this without facing Sara's wrath later, he could only go to the dormitory to get his swimwear and meet up with the girls at the pool.
Alisa and the rest (besides Millium who looked at the water with excitement in her eyes) were rightly confused on why their teacher called for only them and Rean to come here, "Alright Ladies, time for some special training and Instructor Rean here is going to tell us ALL about the SECRET training Neithardt decided to give the guys. Can you imagine that the boys held their own special training without any of you being included? So, we are going to do our own and pay them back for going behind our back!"
Perhaps it was a trick of the light, but they could have sworn that Sara was literally on fire with all that desire to beat her fellow instructor, looking at each other the girls decided that the only way to get answers was for Rean to explain what was going on here, "Ok…Care to tell us what she is talking about?"
"To make a long story short, Instructor Sara over there is angry that Instructor Neithardt gave us boys training to become fast swimmer and now she is sulking that it wasn't her help that helped us achieve our current times." They could only roll their eyes at their childish teacher, who after hearing his explanation tried to defend herself, "Nonsense, it is nothing like that, at all. I mean he gave only the boys that special training and not you girls too, doesn't that vex you? Being excluded like that?"
Another glance the girls decided to leave it to Alisa to explain it to Sara, "Instructor Sara, you may not know but Rean and the rest did tell us about their training and the so-called Manway Method. Heck, Laura here is using it every time she trains with the swimming club. So, there is no need to make it sound like Instructor Neithardt is favouring the boys over us."
That reveal struck Sara like a lightning strike, her mouth wide open she looked at her girls with betrayal in the eyes, ignoring that look Alisa question Rean, "Why didn't you explain that to her? We could have avoided wasting our time coming here." Raising his hands up he tried to defend himself, "Hey, she didn't give me a chance to do that at all. I barely got there, and she started grilling me with questions and accusations, and then she stormed out of the room before I could explain to her that you already know about that training. I thought it was better for me to be here and let you explain it, than risk her anger and her trying to hunt me down and drag me here. I am innocent in all this."
"How about we all forget about training or whatsoever and just jump in the water already? We can play around until we must leave for the investigation." Following her shouting Millium didn't wait any longer and waterbombed into the water, recovering from her shock Sara just shrugged her shoulders and followed suite, leaving the older students rolling their eyes at her behaviour, "Well, a bit of fun before we go into the old schoolhouse doesn't sound like a bad idea, what do you think?" Facing Laura's question, the rest of the girls gave their ok, seeing this Rean decided that now would be a good time to leave, "OK then, I will see you in a bit. Have fun."
"What? Aren't you going to join us Rean?" Snorting at Fie inquiry, he didn't turn around and answered with just, "Nope. That is just asking for trouble."
"Come on, I am sure that Alisa wouldn't mind at all if you cope a feeling or two." Fie dodged the blonde's arm as she tried to twist her ear for making that statement while going red, Rean knew better than to even turn around, "First, I wouldn't to that. Second, I am a hundred percent sure that you would spend the entire time trying to make me do just that, so once again have fun and I am out of here." Fie pouted at the missing opportunity to mess with these two all the while Alisa was chasing her, "FIE! Get back here, this instant!"
Putting her hands behind her back she once again dodged Alisa's attempt at catching her, changing the pout to a smirk, thinking that she at least could have some fun with the blonde as for Rean she would come up with something later, "Come on, Alisa. You should make a move already instead of waiting for him to make the first move, who knows if another girl won't make a move and claim him for herself."
That brought a stop to Alisa, though her glare intensified at that possibility though she made sure to deny it, "What the hell are you saying, Fie?! I already told you that Rean and I are just friends, I…."
"Yeah, yeah. We all heard that already, but we also know about your crush on him, so what is wrong with me giving a bit of friendly advice?" Fie had the audacity of trying to appear innocent of any other intents, nonetheless no one was fooled that the silver haired girl was just trying to have fun with the blonde for her own amusement though she didn't have any malicious intent. If this didn't concern her, Alisa would have been happy to see Fie behaving like a normal girl, having fun teasing her classmates, after making up with Laura in the capital she noticed that Fie tried to interact more with her and the other girls trying to do stuff that a girl her ages should do.
However, that didn't mean that she was going to let her tease whenever she wanted to, before she could say anything else Emma stepped forward to try and diffuse the situation, "Come now, Fie. It isn't nice to tease Alisa like that, she should move at a pace that she is comfortable with. Besides do you really think Rean has eyes for any girl besides Alisa?"
"EMMA?!" Alisa whipped her heads around to stare at her but before she could say anything to that, Laura cut her off, "Now, now you two that is enough teasing. We have the pool for ourselves and should try to enjoy it." Feeling grateful that she had at least one friend who was on her side, Alisa repeatedly nodded her head with enthusiasms to make the rest drop the subject, that is until the swordswoman added one more sentence, "Besides, I think that the pace they are moving at is just fine, why just this morning I saw her kiss Rean's cheek at the academy field."
Alisa stiffened with mortification and slowly looked at Laura smirking at her before she shrieks, "YOU SAW THAT?!"
"I was just passing by at the time and you did it right in the open where everyone could see you."
Alisa could practically feel Emma and Fie's eyes on her bursting with questions, so she did the only thing she could do in that situation. Jumping headfirst in the water to avoid any questions, vowing to herself to not come up until they all forgot all about that little reveal or perhaps she could start living at the floor of the pool until she died of old age, yeah that seemed like a good idea.