Fie couldn't quite keep the annoyed twitch out of her eye as she and the other students of Class VII gazed upon the paper in Rean's hand. The words written upon the sheet detailed a very long and boring day ahead of them all. And to think their day had started so well, too.

It had surprised her just how liberating the short walk from the camp to Saint-Arkh had been. She was never one to consider herself a fan of traveling around, but after a full month stuck in Leeves the chance to stretch her legs walking down a highway was kinda nice. With Major Claire alongside them the group of six had made short work of the few monsters dumb enough to attack them.

According to Rean their first task upon entering the major city was to report to the marquis. Surprisingly the ranking noble of Sutherland had been a surprisingly chill seeming guy unlike most nobles she had had the misfortune of meeting, which made the encounter a lot more bearable. Rean announced that their exercises had begun, introduced them all to the marquis, and received their missions for the day.

And that led to the current situation. Fie had been a little excited. Surely a bunch of missions from Marquis Hyarms himself had to be important... right?

Collect herbs. Find a kitten. Catch a fish. Get dye materials.

It wasn't as if she wasn't used to doing a bunch of mundane tasks – The work she did after the war ended was a testament to that – but she had hyped herself up for so much more. This just seemed like a lot of traveling and tedious work for little reward.

At least the investigation of mysterious monsters promised to be a little more interesting. There were a few possible explanations in her head as to why the witnesses reported hearing the sounds of metal gears, but most of that was from rumors she had heard during Zephyr. It didn't escape her notice that both Rean and Altina seemed to have some suspicions about the possible cause...

That was when Rean told them it was their choice as to how many of the requests they did. Juna immediately proclaimed they should do them all, while Kurt exercised a little more caution. Altina had no opinion on the matter. And now all eyes were on her.

A part of Fie wanted to just blow off the optional stuff completely, but that lazy attitude warred with her jaeger professionalism of getting the contract done. The internal debate was settled as she glanced at the paper again. Someone was missing their kitten. That bugged her a lot. "These are easy. We can do 'em all."

Juna looked pleased by her decision while Kurt looked rather surprised. Altina continued to appear stoic and indifferent, something which impressed Fie a little.

"Great!" Rean too tried to appear indifferent too since he had left the decision to them, but he wasn't nearly as good at schooling his emotion as her classmate. "You four are in charge of today. I'm just here as backup."

Sounded like an excuse to be lazy to her, but she was forced to take him at his word as she knew just how much of a nosy pain he could be when pressed. Seeing how indecisive the others were looking she decided to speak from experience. "Probably best to do the requests in town first and save the monster investigation for later. Can't find herbs or fish without knowing what to look for, obviously."

"Good idea." Their teacher nodded in assent. "I'm sure the Archbishop will know where to find the medical herbs. As for the fish..." There was a strange glint of excitement in his eyes.

It was a good thing that Kurt knew the city well enough to give a tour as Fie had never been inside the place before. Although nobles absolutely adored using jaegers and mercenaries to do their dirty work it was usually done out of sight and with intermediaries. As the silver-haired student glanced at the rows of clean looking mansions she couldn't help but wonder what was going on underneath the surface of this place. There were definitely some skeletons in those beautiful houses.

She listened with half an ear as Rean regaled them with the history of this city and how it served as a temporary capital for Erebonia when a disaster occurred in Heimdallr, thus earning the place the nickname of the Old Capital. Not the most interesting story, but probably something worth remembering given how much pride the citizens seemed to have in their city.

Fie scowled as she realized that once again she had listened to a history lesson. What horrid changes were happening to her?

After briefly stopping in on one of the mansions to get more info about the fish request – apparently they needed a Red Perch, whatever that was – the class left the Noble District back the way they originally entered. The Cathedral Square featured its namesake cathedral, a large hotel, the airport and train station, and of greatest interest to her - a bunch of shops. Perhaps she would be able to fulfill Sandy's request after all, although best to wait until after they finished their investigations before going shopping.

The former jaeger was definitely not a follower of the Goddess so the number of times she had set foot inside a church were few. Of those few none of them had been nearly as massive or as gaudy as the cathedral in Saint-Arkh. She couldn't help but marvel at the sheer decadence of the place as Rean guided them to the room of the Archbishop to hear about the herb mission. It seemed they needed something called Erynflower that could only be found inside the Isthmia Great Forest that dominated the region.

Great. Trudging through a monster-filled forest looking for a weird plant. Not exactly her idea of a good time.

But before they had to do that there was a far more important mission waiting for them. With a little extra pep in her step Fie followed the others as they entered the Residential District. Houses, a few minor shops, and a small cafe were about what she expected from a district with that name. It was the last of those that drew their attention, as the cafe was where their most crucial task awaited them.

Sadly, instead of immediately beginning the missing cat request like she wanted, Rean got distracted upon entering the cafe. The reason being another girl with obnoxious pink hair who claimed to be a fellow student of Thors' main campus and graduated alongside him. Before Fie knew what was happening the group had found themselves a large table while her instructor chatted excitedly with his old friend.

Or at least Fie was pretty sure they had just been friends. The girl who introduced herself as Vivi seemed to claim otherwise, but something about her was too suspicious to take seriously. There was an air of chaos around the pinkette that put Fie on guard for reasons she wasn't sure of.

A feeling that only grew in intensity when the strange girl turned and shot her a mischievous wink.

Vivi claimed to be a new reporter for the Imperial Chronicle, but didn't have much info to assist in their investigation. Just a vague rumor about some suspicious characters seen around the same time as the monster sightings occurred. Probably connected, but Fie knew as well as anyone that the world was filled with lots of suspicious characters. That didn't really help narrow it down much.

Finally after what felt like ages they were allowed to go to the second floor of the cafe where the clients were located. These being an old man and his granddaughter. The story they told was a common one: They were travelers who brought their kitten Felix into town, but some dumb drunk knocked over its cage and spooked the little guy.

Fie could only roll her eyes as the others seemed pessimistic at their chances. Did they really know nothing about cats. "Tch. Amateurs."

She hadn't meant to say that out loud, but with all eyes on her she was forced to elaborate. "Cats are creatures of habit. He probably went somewhere you have already been. Any place that comes to mind?"

It was fortunately pretty easy to ignore the awed looks of her classmates as the little girl lit up with realization. Apparently they had been playing in the plaza in the Noble District. Since they had just passed through there she was pretty certain the kitten wasn't there anymore, but hopefully someone had seen it.

Something which the others must have realized as Juna announced that as their next destination. Having to retrace their steps through the city was a pain, but since it was for a good cause she didn't complain. Instead she kept her eyes focused for any signs of the lost feline, even if she doubted it would amount to anything.

One advantage of having classmates was that the more outgoing members were more than willing to chat up every random passerby looking for clues, something which she had absolutely no intention of doing. It didn't take long for them to strike gold either as some wandering noble claimed to have seen the cat just recently before it departed towards the airport.

Class VII split up as they explored the path near the airport itself – hoping that it hadn't gone into that vast area. The former jaeger was content to look for clues away from everyone else. Sadly she had little luck-

She froze as she felt it. Barely contained bloodlust. A feeling she hadn't experienced since leaving Zephyr. And it was coming from where the others should be!

With hands on her gunblades Fie sprinted back to Class VII. She was expecting to see them locked in a perilous battle, but instead they were just... chatting animatedly to themselves? "Oh, Fie!" Juna called out to her. "A girl spotted Felix headed back towards the Residential District!"

She had so many questions she wanted to ask, but kept her face masked in indifference as a part of her wasn't sure she wanted to know the answers. That this mysterious person had made her move after Fie left the group was worrisome. None of her classmates seemed to notice anything amiss, but Rean's posture was guarded as he looked where the mystery girl had left. That he was keeping silent was enough for her to do the same. Maybe it had just been some skilled traveler passing through?

And maybe it wasn't who she was afraid it might have been.

Best to just focus on the present. And right now that meant finding the cat. As the group of five completed their lap of Saint-Arkh by returning to their starting district she turned towards the others. "It probably fled somewhere quiet. Let's check out any abandoned areas."

"That was what the other girl said." Altina seemed amused by that. Fie was not. That the mysterious person knew a lot about cats only aroused her suspicions more.

With Juna and Kurt once again acting as intermediaries with the local populace they were soon in possession of the locations of a few abandoned buildings. The closest of which was an abandoned music company office, so that was their next target.

The gates to the building were barred and the others were ready to move to a different place, but that idea was put on ice when the briefest flash of cream-colored fur moved from behind one of the boxes, something which perfectly matched the kitten's description. A closer look through the bars indeed confirmed that the kitten was there.

The others seemed to buy onto Rean's suggestion that they call the owners and have the girl lure Felix out, but that was risky. There was every chance that the tired and scared feline could make its departure before they arrived. With that in mind the cat-loving former mercenary decided to take matters into her own hands.

"Hup!" Leaping the gate was no issue for her. Making sure the landing was silent enough to not spook the feline was a little more of a challenge, but it was a simple matter for anyone with the moniker of Sylphid.

"Wait. Fie you can't-" Naturally she tuned her classmates and teacher out as she slowly approached the little kitten.

"Here, Felix." She called out softly to the wary cat, lowering her hand to his level. It was a shame she didn't have any food on hand to coax him out with. "I'm not gonna hurt you. Come here, Felix."

Slowly but surely her quiet words bore fruit as the kitten took a wary step forward. That was followed by another. And another. Soon enough the little guy was nuzzling against her hand. Happily she scratched behind his ear, earning a contented purr in the process.

"Kinda jealous of you." She murmured even as she picked up the cat. "Even though you ran away there's a home and people waiting for you to go back. I wish-."

No. What had happened had happened. Dwelling on it would only hurt her more.

With the target safely in her possession the former jaeger retreated back out of the property. This time she decided to be boring and used the gate to exit seeing as how there was a latch on that side. Juna and Altina were quick to approach and give their own pats to the now happy cat, but Fie made sure to keep him entirely in her hands.

"Good job, Fie, but you really shouldn't have snuck onto private property like that." She responded to Rean's lecture with a simple shrug, taking delight in his annoyed look. Once he understood that his words were falling on deaf ears the teacher turned to the others. "Right. Let's get him back to his family."

And that was exactly what they did. It made her a little sad when the kitten leapt out of her arms the second they returned to the owner's room, but she knew Felix belonged with them and not her. There were smiles all around upon seeing their kitten again. It was an odd feeling for the girl who normally only enjoyed the more serious and dangerous missions.

This was... nice.

Fie was so caught up in her thoughts about the just completed mission that she completely ignored the argument between Kurt and Juna about their next destination. Given that they were now taking the west exit out of the city she could only assume that whoever was championing the herb request had been the victor. Although she had never been this way one didn't need to be a local to know that the massive forest they were soon entering was the Isthmia Great Forest.

Everyone knew that forests tended to be dangerous places – few humans patrolled the area leaving monsters free to spread – but even she hadn't been expecting the place to be so deadly. Little light shone through the dense canopies and the place was filled with monsters as far as the eye could see. The ominously large webbing on the trees only served to increase the unease she felt.

Still, she was a former jaeger and all of her classmates were at least acceptably skilled. What monsters they couldn't avoid were dispatched by the group. There was a close call when a moth monster got the jump on them and made it impossible to see thanks to all the dust it let into the air, but they were spared the agony of fighting impaired thanks to Sammy not needing eyes to clobber the monster.

Altina didn't seem all that impressed when Fie used the name Millium provided to praise the combat shell, but that was her problem. It was far easier to say than Claiomh Solais.

"Grr. How come these stupid herbs are so far in!?" Juna complained as their trip into the forest neared the hour mark.

"Well, it would stand to reason that any herbs closer to Saint-Arkh would have been harvested already. Normal civilians wouldn't want to go this deep into the forest, after all."

"I know that!" The girl was quick to counter Kurt, even if she looked away with an embarrassed blush. "Still annoying, that's all."

On one hand Fie agreed with Kurt. His reasoning made perfect sense. But since the guy refused to talk to her she was more than willing to ignore his point. Plus, Juna was right. This was getting annoying.

"That's enough, you two." Rean put a halt to their argument. "And besides, I think we're getting close."

"Is this something you can sense?" A curious Altina asked.

"Haha. No. It's just that I think those flowers ahead of us match the description the Archbishop gave."

A glance ahead confirmed that the little clearing they found themselves approaching did indeed contain the herbs needed. The others started forward in excitement, with even Rean seemingly letting his guard down as he approached the flowers. But something about the situation sat wrong with Fie.

She wasn't a jaeger anymore and they certainly weren't facing jaegers right now, but a situation like this just reeked of an ambush. Perhaps it was simple paranoia, but she was unwilling to let go of those instincts that had served her so well-

A slight rustle to the side. "Everyone, get back!"

All of them – including Kurt – showed their worth by immediately heeding her words, even if the students were confused by the order. That confusion lasted until a trio of massive spiders emerged from the trees. Fie wasn't sure if the monsters had enough intelligence to coordinate an ambush or if it was simply bad luck, but had she not spotted them in time they would have been surrounded.

"Weapons at the ready!" Rean's command snapped them out of the stupor and Class VII prepared for battle. While you couldn't become a jaeger if you were squeamish, Fie couldn't deny how unsettling the giant spiders were. Still, the best way to get rid of something creepy was to make it dead and so she turned her gunblades upon the lead spider and opened fire, annoying the monster with her bullets.

The fight was five verse three, which immediately became four vs two when Rean drew the attention of the biggest looking arachnid, leading it away from the others. A quick link with Altina ensured that she would be working with the classmate she felt most comfortable with while Kurt and Juna were left with the third spider.

"Claiomh Solais!" Fie was just barely starting to get used to the combat shell appearing out of thin air so needless to say the spider was caught completely unawares. Instead of firing off its powerful laser Altina opted to order her machine to punch the flat-footed creature. Fie could respect that.

The spider screeched as it stumbled back in pain, presenting an opportunity that the former jaeger couldn't pass up. Approaching from the side she brought her blades to bear, slicing through one of the front legs with contemptuous ease. A shame it still had seven more.

Eight eyes trained themselves on her and Fie prepared herself to dodge. She expected it to lunge at her with those deadly fangs, but instead it began to spit out webbing towards her. Although she managed to get out of the way before getting stuck she couldn't help but grimace. Some of the webbing had gotten onto her clothes and in her hair.

Now she was angry.

Foolishly it decided to ignore her for the moment, instead turning its attention towards Altina. Seeing the giant spider bearing down on the tiny girl would have been concerning, but Fie could only feel calm radiating through the ARCUS link. She would simply place her faith in her teammate and use its blind spot to approach sneakily.

"Ebon Shade." The barrier the girl erected in front of her was enough to stop the arachnid completely, even if the spider hadn't been fooled by the stealth functionality. Angrily it tried to get at her with its remaining front leg, but the shield held up, leaving it open for Sammy to blast it with a brionac.

Screeching angrily as it took the attack head on the spider redoubled its efforts to get at the girl. Fie knew the barrier wouldn't last forever, but with the enemy in such a mindless rage it didn't need to. There were so many openings for her and it was simply a matter of picking which one to exploit.

Instincts told her that the best solution was the fastest, and that meant using her Scud Wing. Dashing forward at lightning speeds Sylphid leapt onto the back of the unawares arachnid. Doing her best to brush off the uncomfortable sensation of spider hair she sought out the most vulnerable looking location: The spider's neck.

One thrust and it was over. Instant death. Hurray.

While the immediate threat was dealt with she wasn't ready to rest on her laurels just yet. That wasn't the only spider, after all. She was prepared to go help Juna and Kurt against their own foe when she witnessed something that gave her pause.

Rean was silently watching the battle.

That he had crushed his own spider was no surprise to the former jaeger - He wouldn't be much of a hero if he couldn't do that much. What did surprise Fie however was the fact that he wasn't rushing to help. Given his annoyingly earnest nature she would have figured he would be the first to reenter the fray instead of letting them fight on their own.

Well, that was fine. If he wasn't gonna intervene she wouldn't either. With a yawn she sheathed her gunblades even as she continued to watch the two students do battle.

"Huh..."

"What is it?" A curious Altina asked from her position beside her.

"They're doing better than I thought." She admitted as she watched Kurt dance through the sea of legs with ease, a move that allowed Juna to charge in and bash the spider's head with her gunbreakers. The loud crack as weapon met skull made Fie rethink her opinion of the surprisingly powerful weapon. "They'll probably kill it soon enough. We still won though."

Her fellow silver-hair looked at her in confusion. "I was unaware that this was a race."

Fie shrugged easily. "It's not, but a little friendly competition never hurt anyone. Gotta have pride in your skills and all that." Altina was still staring at her in confusion, causing Fie to take a different approach. "Imagine if it was Millium instead of them. Wouldn't it feel good beating her?"

"...I see your point." The tiny smile on Altina's face made it clear that her words had gotten through. Maybe she should teach her how to trash talk in the future? "Oh. It appears they have finished."

Refocusing her attention confirmed the observation was right. One of Kurt's swords was lodged into one of the spider's eyes, all the way to the hilt. A messy but very effective way of putting down the monster.

"All right." Rean clapped, drawing all eyes to himself. "Good job, everyone."

A panting Juna merely glared hotly at him before shifting her eyes towards Fie and her partner. "You guys could have helped you know!"

"Haha..." The teacher sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "We could have, but I had faith that the two of you were more than capable of winning."

"Grr..." While Kurt nodded in easy acceptance of that answer Juna still fumed. That lasted only as long as it took for the girl to slap her cheeks. "Fine! Whatever! Let's just collect the Erynflowers and get out of here! This place gives me the creeps."

"Understood." Altina must have already planned ahead as she immediately walked towards a group of said flowers. Fie and the others split up as they worked to complete the request and within ten minutes they had amassed a large supply of the herbs. More than enough for the Archbishop's needs.

"Great. Let's make our way back, but don't exit the forest just yet. There's something I want to check out before we-"

Their teacher's words were interrupted by him falling to one knee grimacing in pain. Altina was quick to his side with uncharacteristic worry marring her features. "Instructor! Are you alright?!"

Fie wasn't sure what to think. Her initial thoughts were that maybe the spider had gotten a hit on him. Venom, maybe? But no, that would make little sense as a couple seconds later the swordsman seemed to recover and was back on his feet like nothing had happened. "I'm fine. Did any of you notice someone in this clearing with us?"

His question had been directed at all of them, but his eyes were focused on her, placing his trust on her senses. Still... "Nope. Just the five of us." She wouldn't say it was impossible that someone could sneak up on her, especially during the heat of battle, but she found it highly unlikely.

"Hmm... Alright. As I was saying, I think it best if we stopped just before exiting the forest. There's something I want to check out."

That was an odd request. A glance around showed the others were just as confused, both by his words and his previous action. Still, he was technically their commanding officer so she accepted the delay simply enough. With a worried Altina at his side the five of them made the return trek. Thankfully it seemed the monsters were more inclined to give them a wide berth as they exited, perhaps understanding at a subconscious level that they had just vanquished some of the forest's apex predators and were not to be messed with.

Upon reaching the forest's edge Rean detoured them to a side path towards a small pond of water. Fie shared a confused look with Juna when the older man seemed to stare at the water with an uncharacteristic intensity on his face. After a few seconds he perked up. "Perfect!"

"Um... Instructor?" Kurt called out. "Is there a purpose to this?"

"Indeed there is, Kurt!" Alright, now he was just being weird with a big dumb grin on his face. "I'm positive that this pond has Red Perch in it, so..." In an instant he pulled a long object out from his jacket. "Do any of you want to learn how to fish?!"

She glanced at Altina, Juna, and even Kurt. All of them were as befuddled as she was. "Uh... What are you talking about, Instructor?" It was Juna who elected to speak for all of them.

"Fishing. One of my favorite hobbies. And something I want to teach to you four."

"This is a forest infested with monsters. Isn't this a dumb idea?"

"Nah." He was quick to wave off her concern. "Monsters don't usually attack fisherman. I think they respect the Angler's spirit too much."

"Uhh..." Someone was verbalizing their confusion aloud. It might even have been her. The dumb smile never left their teacher's face.

Eventually the bravest of them stepped forward. "I accept. Please teach me how to catch fish."

"Hehe. Attagirl Altina."

"I guess I'm kinda curious..."

"It is one of our requests..."

Fie didn't say anything, but she too was a little interested and so followed her classmates into the insanity of an impromptu fishing lesson in the middle of the dangerous forest. For his part Rean proved himself capable of teaching stuff outside the classroom and had plenty of bait to spare, so before long the four of them found themselves taking turns casting the line into the water, starting with Altina.

The former jaeger's first attempt... ended poorly. She had been so impatiently waiting for something to happen that the instant she felt the tiniest of movement she reeled it in, revealing absolutely nothing. Rean's advice to relax and enjoy the moment rang in her head as she stewed over her failure while the others took their turn.

The second attempt went a lot better as she took her time. In all honesty the activity was kinda relaxing. It was like taking a nap while staying awake. Just her, the rod, and the water. She was so relaxed in fact that she nearly lost the rod when something finally bit. Willing away the shamed flush she recovered quickly and began the battle of battles against the enemy fish.

The end result was a victory, but it wasn't the one she was looking for. The fish in her hands was kinda big and she felt proud of her accomplishment, but it wasn't a red fish. Since their target was a red perch...

The others were having similar results and even her third attempt ended the same way. She was just starting to believe that Rean had no idea what he was talking about when Altina proved them wrong by reeling in the fish they were looking for on her fourth attempt. The youngest member of the class stood there with a proud look on her face as the instructor began patting her head. "Good job, Altina!"

A young Fie panted with exhaustion as she tried to recover from the ordeal. The training course she had run was the most basic one Zephyr used and she hadn't hit all the targets squarely, but considering her age and inexperience she couldn't help but feel excited at her success. Most of the adult recruits struggled on this one their first time!

She was so engrossed in her success that she didn't notice the approaching figure from behind until his shadow blocked out the sun. She was about to turn when a large hand placed itself on her head. "Nice work, kiddo." Pat. Pat. Pat.

The silver-haired girl forced herself to look away from the scene lest it cause her heart any further pain. Were the memories of those halcyon days gonna haunt her for the rest of her life? Dammit all.

A quick glance back at least let her know that nobody had seemed to notice her moment of weakness.

"I'm proud of you guys." Their teacher proclaimed as he put away his fishing supplies. "I gave you the option to choose which missions to handle and you went above and beyond to take care of all of them in the area. Good job." Despite herself she couldn't help but accept the praise with the tiniest of smiles. "Now let's turn in these requests and get started on the monster investigation!"

The positive atmosphere lingered around them well after they left the forest. Sure these missions weren't the most important ones ever, but success always felt good, especially since they had to work hard for it. Not even the few monsters bold enough to attack the class on the way back were enough to dampen their spirits any.

"Ah. Fie?" Her attention was drawn to the oldest member of their group. Rean had a crooked grin on his face. He didn't say anything further, but he did nod his head towards the still cooling corpses of the most recent monsters they had just slain.

Monsters that were almost entirely plant-based.

Her good mood died as she shot him the fiercest glare imaginable. Didn't he say he was gonna help her out?! "Let's keep moving, class. Fie has something to take care of so she'll be catching up with us in a minute."

She did her best to school her expression in front of her three curious classmates lest she give her anger and annoyance away. She probably failed miserably. Instead she could only watch on in detached horror as the others eventually heeded his words and left her vision.

With a sigh she turned to the grisly work ahead... Was he gonna do the same thing when they found some bee larva?