"...Well? How do you explain this incident?"

Fear ran down my spine as I watched into her gaze. If looks could kill someone, these eyes would have annihilated an entire army by now.

I should elaborate on what happened, which lead me to this mess.

Yesterday, Ralph and I had our unofficial Match in the training facility. Before we finished that fight, however, the academy system gave alert to the staff because we had no official permission to hold this Match.

We managed to escape from there before any teachers could arrive and we thought that we would be safe.

I mean, how should they know it was us, right?

Yeah … about that...

“Did you really think that we could not trace back the data, that has been entered into the console at the training facility, young men?”

This time, it was the academy principal who scolded us.

Right now, Ralph and I are currently in the Academy Directorate. In front of us is the big desk of the Academy Principal, who is still giving off his intimidating aura.

...But that is not the main cause of the intense atmosphere in the Directorate...

Next to him, sitting on the edge of the desk is a woman we know too well.

It is the same woman, that can give you a feeling of security, or everlasting nightmares just by looking her into the eyes.

“I thought, I would pay the academy a visit after my last mission to look after the newbies. Yet, the first thing I am hearing is that apparently, two members of Squad 10 have violated the Academies Rules by participating in an illegal match. How exactly do you want to explain that to me?”

Her gaze has become sinister again. I am fearing for my life right now, no, even Ralph next to me is losing his composure.

My mind went completely blank. It is as if the prey takes a last look at his predator before it gets torn into pieces.

“E-eh, w-well you see, Vinelda … it was a test! Yeah, a test!”

I started to blabber something out, hoping that it would work out. I gave Ralph a small knock with my elbow so that he would catch onto it.

“-Uh? A-ah! Yeah, that was it! We wanted to try something out, we learned in the lecture!”

“Oh? So that was it? I see, so you just practiced a bit, right?”

Vinelda's voice became softer and the intense atmosphere lifted for a moment.

Good job, Ralph! I think we can pull out of this one!

“Yeah! It was just practice! Haha!”

I laughed nervously. Ralph, who stood next to me, also felt some sort of relief at her response.

“And you want me to actually believe this stupid lie?”

There it is again. That dark aura of hers as well as those sinister eyes.

Yep, we are screwed. No doubt about that. We are going to die here.

The thing is, she is never getting loud or aggressive when she is angry. However, her voice becomes cold, the eyes radiate darkness and she simply puts a hand on her hip. Normally, the last thing should not be threatening, but in her case, that exact body posture signals that she is in control of the situation and no one else.

“...No of course not, Vinelda...”

“Now, now, Vinelda. They are still new to the Academy. I think that they simply did not know that it was prohibited.”

“If you say so, Principal.”

The principal then turned towards Ralph and me again.

“I am willing to oversee this incident, just this once. It is remarkable, that you put the effort into your training and at getting better. However, for the next time, please stick to our Academies rules. They exist to regulate order here and to ensure your safety. I hope that we have an agreement, young men?”

“Yes, Sir!”

Ralph and I saluted to the principal and Vinelda in unison.

“Very well. You are free to leave now.”

“We'll excuse ourselves then.”

Both of us bowed towards them and then turned around to leave the directorate.

“Who would have thought, that the principle is actually a pretty decent man?”

“I know, right? That atmosphere around him gave me a completely different impression of his personality!”

At that moment, the now closed-door behind us opened again. It was Vinelda who came out of the directorate.

“Adel, I'd like to talk to you a bit. Ralph, you can leave.”

Ralph just looked at me and whispered:

“...Good luck, pal'...”

After that, he went on and left me with Vinelda alone.

Thanks for the well-wishes, Ralph.

Vinelda then closed up to me from behind as I watched him leave and put a hand on my shoulder with a firm grip.

“Please don't kill me...”

“Calm down, I am not mad anymore.”

I exhaled in relief and turned around to her.

“...Then why?”

“I actually want to praise you, Adel.”

“Huh?”

“Come on, I see it in an instant. You actually managed to befriend Ralph.”

“I would not call it befriending... but I guess the distance between us shortened.”

Vinelda simply put a faint smile on her lips and looked pleasingly.

“Even so, you still did well. I thought you would need way more time for someone as stubborn and hot-headed as Ralph. That is why I also will oversee the incident this time, as a little gift from me.”

Oh wow, thanks for this extraordinary gift! I brought myself into danger, fighting Ralph, exactly for the reason to be treated like a delinquent from all!

-is what I would have liked to say...

But there is no way I am going to do that in front of her.

Vinelda then walked past me in the hallway.

“I am going to stay at NEAS for a few days. The Stormtrooper Unit has a week of rest before engaging in a new mission.”

I was dumbfounded by the words I heard.

“...You're going to what?”

“Did you not listen to me? I said I will be staying at this academy for a few days!”

You're kidding, right? Of all the places to spend her free time, she chose our academy?! ...Just thinking about the fact that she will be at all times nearby...

“Instead of dozing off in the hallway, you can help me to bring my luggage to my room, Adel.”

I looked to the end of the hallway and exactly as she said, there were two large bags at the corner.

“...Sure thing, Vinelda.”

There was no point in telling her off, so I just grabbed the bags and followed her lead.

 We walked outside of the Main-Building. It was a sunny July-day and we could see many students walking around the campus and enjoying the weather. Of course, some of them looked at me as I followed the renown Vinelda Katsumi with two bags in my hands.

What would they be thinking now? That I am some kind of personal butler of hers?

Our tour ended at the girl's dormitory. Vinelda walked before me inside.

“-Eh, you know that I can't enter this dormitory as a boy, right?”

“It's alright if I am with you. Now, come inside already.”

“...Yes, Ma'am.”

I followed her inside in the dormitory. It does not look any different from the boy's dormitory. The floor had the same red carpet and the wood from the doors and the ceiling were alike.

If I had to spot any difference, it would be that there was that sweet scent of perfume in the air.

After walking a couple of stairs up, we arrived at the highest floor. It looked vastly different from the ones before, as there was only one room up here.

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“We're here. Right through this door.”

There was only one which was, unlike the others, completely white and looked smoother. As Vinelda unlocked the door, we entered her room.

“-Wow!”

I was amazed. “Room” was an understatement for what I saw. It was pretty much a suite already, with expensive and modern decoration. Behind a big and black table, the wall was made out of glass, allowing to have a panorama view across the academy campus.

The view was quite similar to the one on the rooftop, but it's, even more, relaxing to see it from inside.

“Thanks for the help, Adel. You want something to drink as thanks?”

“-Eh? No, it's alright, I don't want to bother you any longer.”

Vinelda just went into the kitchen and grabbed something out of the fridge, without saying anything.

When she came back, she grabbed my hand and gave me a bottle of soda.

“My bad, it was not supposed to be a question. What are you looking so confused? I always repay a favor.”

Huh, she is a nice person after all... even though I don't get my say in any of this.

“Well, I'll take you up to the offer then. Thanks.”

I drank the soda while checking out the furniture of her suite. All of it was of high quality and there were even some great paintings on the wall from the capital and the landscape around us.

In the meantime, Vinelda sat down on the couch and held a glass of wine in her hand. I did not even notice her going into the kitchen again to get it.

“Adel, about the match...”

Shivers rain down my spine as I heard those words coming from her.

She is not going to scold me again, is she?

“Who won in the end, actually?”

“-Eh?”

“Did you not understand my question?”

I felt the relief inside of me. So she was not going to get mad again, lucky me.

“N-no, I did. The match was interrupted by the alarm before we had the chance to finish it. I had a really hard time at the beginning, but after that, I managed to turn the tables. I was actually about to end the match at that time and secure victory.”

Vinelda smiled a bit and took a sip from her wine.

“You should not jump to conclusions like that, Adel. A fight is not over until there is a clear winner. You can never know what might happen, maybe he still had an ace up his sleeve.”

At that time, it did not look to me as if he could counter my attack in any way, but I guess it's true that I should not take that victory for granted.

I finished my soda and put it in the kitchen where the empty bottles belong to.

“Thanks again for the drink and the advice Vinelda.”

“No problem. Make sure not to cause trouble again with your Squad while I am here. Next time, I will deal personally with it.”

“-Urgh... Yes, Ma'am.”

With that, I left her room and made my way outside again.

 After looking a bit across the campus, I saw Jonath and Rie sitting at a fountain.

It did not take long for him to notice me and as soon as he did, Jonath waved at me.

“Look who came back from the dead!”

“Very funny. You do realize, that it could have cost me my head?”

Jonath just laughed at my response and gave me a clap on my back.

“Well, what matters is that ya' managed to get out of there alive!”

“Yes, we were worried about you, Adel.”

Rie smiled gently at me. Her cuteness never fails to impress.

“We got some other problems, however.”

“What do ya' mean?”

After explaining the situation to Jonath and Rie they certainly looked surprised. I went on about how Vinelda was going to stay at NEAS for a few days and what happened in the directorate before.

“Woah, ya' serious?! She's gonna be here at all times?”

“Seems like it.”

Jonath was unsure how to think of that, but I think that he is taking it way better than I did.

“But you were also lucky because the principle helped you out! You could have been in serious trouble if it weren't for him.”

Rie talked as if she was scolding a younger sibling. Did you forget that it had been your guy's idea from the start to have that match against Ralph?

“Where did Ralph go anyway? Is he still avoiding us?”

“I don't know. It is probably not a good idea to pursue him any more, or he might snap at us again.”

“Sounds about right. We don't wanna ruin our progress with him.”

After looking at them both I realized that there was another member of our missing.

“Is Leyrid not with you, today?”

“She was here a few minutes ago with us. A few girls came, I assume friends of hers, and she left with them.”

Rie leaned backward and swung a bit with her legs. She seemed pleased that Leyrid made friends.

“I see, that's good then. How about we go to the library and prepare ourselves a bit for tomorrow?”

“For tomorrow? Why that?”

Rie and I looked at Jonath annoyed. Is he serious?

“Jonath, are you telling me, you forgot that we have an exam about the various swordsmanship battle-styles and basic war-tactics?”

He just simply sit and stared at me with an empty gaze for a couple of seconds.

“-Shit, ya' right! How could I miss that?!”

Yep, just as I thought. He totally forgot it.

“That means, that you are not in the slightest prepared, right?”

“-E-eh... yeah....”

I sighed and Rie giggled at Jonath, who just realized that he did not even think of studying for the exam.

“Well, let's go then. We've got a lot of rehearsal to do. Can't let a fellow Squad-Member fail, after all.”

“Adelii!”

Jonath looked at me again with his puppy eyes. It is really uncomfortable to watch him doing that.

He then jumped up from his seat and stretched himself a bit.

“If we're gonna cram the day before the exam, it'll work out somehow!”

“That depends on you, Jonath.”

 The three of us went to the main building for the library. When we arrived, there were some other students present. We are not the only ones to cram before the exam, it seems. The look on the student's faces differs, one looking confident with what he's reading, while some others were stressed out.

That is to be expected before the exams. The stakes are quite high because if you can't pass the exams, there is no way that you will graduate being an elite-soldier.

I think it is said that you just become part of the regular army. Normally, all students here want to avoid this and become an elite.

And then there is Jonath, who, without a care in the world, lays back and enjoys himself.

The library was quite huge, filled with many shelves and books from different time-periods.

“Let's look for some books about our topic. I think the teacher mentioned that the ones from Karlsenstein would make good learning-materials.”

“Gotcha', leave it to me!”

Jonath was all fired up for the cramming.

Rie got affected by his enthusiasm too.

“I will take a look as well~”

We then split up and wandered through the library, gathering books for the study session. I found some quite interesting ones, that covered topics like efficient timing and retreat-operations.

“-Hm? What's this?”

One specific book cached my interest. It was a history book. I took it from the shelve and looked at the cover.

“[The History of the Great Empire] it says...”

I opened the book and quickly scanned through the pages. Most of them explained the various ruling periods of the Royal Family and the different Emperors. On the page, however, there was a map of the continent. It depicted the various countries and land-borders.

Based on the colors of the provinces, one could tell in which year they belonged to a country. The Great Empire lost a lot of land in the past centuries. We were told as far as I can remember, that the other countries feared our strength and united against us with the goal in mind, to weaken the Empire and its might. I can tell from the depicted years and colors, that the Empire lost about half of its territory to the enemies. The war then ended about a hundred years ago, leaving the Empire as the defeated nation.

About 60 years ago, the people in our country rose up and demanded justice for the cowardly nations of our continent as they all had united against us, in order to outnumber our army. Thus, with the support of the Emperor and the Royals, the [Redemption War] started.

A war, to regain the land that was once ours. The war, that should bring us back to being the most powerful nation, so that no country would oppose us ever again and its people.

Basically, the war to end them all.

“...This is strange...”

While the provinces, marked as former territories, certainly seemed to be part of our country, I never heard of them in our history books. They are a bit far away as well from those I know about and which are in our possession currently.

Well, maybe they were not that historically important to tell anything about them. For now, I'll keep what I found for myself. Just to be safe.

I put the book back into the shelve and went back to the table we agreed on meeting at later.

Jonath was already sitting there with Rie and a couple of books.

“Did ya' get lost in here or something?”

“No, just looked at some interesting books.”

As soon as I sat down, we exchanged the books we found with each other. Rie got a couple of books, that covered our topic pretty well.

“Ahh... I said that I wanted to cram, but this is way too much, man...”

“You got yourself into this, Jonath! Now you have to bear with it!”

Rie looked at Jonath in a serious manner and managed to intimidate him pretty well.

Huh, did not know that she could be that demanding. The more you know...

“F-fine, no need to look at me like that...”

Rie smiled again cutely, seemingly pleased that he gave in to her order.

“Then let's get started right away, we got a lot to cover about this topic.”

“How about we start with timed decision-making on the battlefield?”

“Got no objections against that.”

We started by looking at moments, where an assault is considered as effective and when it is not. I would consider most of it as common knowledge, but it is always good to cover that an attack is suicidal if there are no advantages whatsoever for our own troops.

“Eh? Why shouldn't ya' pursue the enemy when he is fleeing out of a clearly lost battle for them? It would be way better to chase them and finish them off, wouldn't it?”

I shook my head, denying his statement.

“No. You can never know whether a retreat from the enemy is a strategic trap or if they have reinforcements nearby to cover them. Therefore, chasing after them blindly would only put you and your comrades in possible danger.”

“...I see, then it really is a dumb idea after all...”

We continued our scramming and answered all kinds of questions that we had for each other. Especially Jonath had a lot, ranging from reasons for retreating to immediate decision-making on the battlefield.

After a lot of time has passed, the library got more and more empty as the students left one by one.

Before we knew it, dusk set on the horizon behind the academy.

“Man, I am tired out! How long have we been sitting here for exactly?”

“A couple of hours I'd say, Jonath.”

Rie closed her book and folded her hands.

“Okay guys, good work today~ I think we should call it a day.”

“You say it, Rie! I can't get a clear thought anymore!”

I chuckled while looking at the defeated Jonath.

“Let's just hope you can make the exam tomorrow.”

Jonath grinned at me and pointed at me with his finger.

“You bet I will! In fact, you better watch out, 'cuz I will get even better scores than you!”

“Sure, I hope you will! Then we don't have to be concerned about a failing member.”

“...You were actually supposed to tell me that you are not going to let that happen, Adel...”

Rie and I laughed with him and then left as the last ones the library, making our way back to the dormitories.

After bringing Rie home, Jonath and I went to our room.

“Do ya' think Leyrid and Ralph gonna' be fine on the exam?”

“I'd say that you don't have to worry about them. Ralph may seem like the kind of guy who takes things lightly, but we saw that he is quite serious about improving himself.”

They both got great results on the examination for a reason. Ralph is quite the hard-worker and Leyrid seems to be way more skilled, than what we saw from her up until now.

But I guess that is going to confirm itself tomorrow.

Vinelda is also here for the next few days, so we should better avoid failing, or she'll deal with us personally as she said before.

I looked out of the window at the moon which illuminated the campus. On peaceful nights like these, you might forget that this country is involved in a horrible war.

I don't know what will await us in the future, but the way things are right now won't last forever.

No matter how much we enjoy ourselves currently, the day will come where we see the end of our life as it is up until now. Thinking about it makes me uneasy.

“Yo, Adel! Ya' going to sleep or not?”

“Yeah, yeah, don't worry.”

Jonath was already in his bed in our room. No wonder, after our cramming session.

Well, even though I don't know what is going to happen in the future, I can be quite pleased with our current life.