Chapter 4: Troublemaker

Adaria walked straight past all of them as if she couldn’t be bothered—which, indeed, she couldn’t. With a book at her side, she made her way around the desk situated at the front of the classroom. She stood behind the desk and looked straight ahead.

“Squires, assemble.”

None of the four squires knew what to do. They looked at each other with faces of confusion and uncertainty.

Adaria frowned slightly, her gaze glancing over each of them without breaking her posture. “When I say, ‘squires, assemble,’ I expect all of you to stand here in front of me, in a single row, feet apart, and hands formally behind your backs. Now, let’s try this again.”

She held her arms akimbo and fixed her gaze directly in front of her once again. Raising her voice, she commanded, “Squires, assemble.”

Noting her previous instructions, each of the squires scrambled into place in front of her desk. Leanne was first to assume the correct form, with Eoin following her example quickly after. Aoife and Zane fell in line in the moment that followed.

Adaria gave a curt nod. “Excellent. Now then…”

She brought the book at her side up to her face and cracked it open. After taking a brief pause to skim through its contents, she called each of them in turn.

“Leanne Bellameaux.”

“Present.”

“Zane Flanaweghan.”

“Hail, Ser.”

“Eoin Costigagh.”

“Here, Ser.”

There was a notable pause in the knight-mentor’s roll call. Her brows knitted, and the curious squires weren’t quite sure what to make of her expression. Before they could think too deeply, however, the knight took a loose page from the book and set it aside. Then her brief bout of perplexity faded back into its previously unreadable mask.

“Aoife Finnagh.”

“Y-Yes, Ser. Present.” Aoife hoped there wasn’t anything wrong with her name.

Satisfied with her squires’ attendance, Adaria nodded to herself and closed the book, setting in on her desk. Then she turned her attention back to them, pointedly examining each of them in turn. Leanne continued to face forward, unperturbed by their knight-mentor’s gaze on her; Aoife and Zane blinked but otherwise remained in place; Eoin shifted as discreetly as he could under the scrutiny.

“My name is Ser Adaria Delacroix,” she said. “I will be your knight-mentor for the duration of your attendance here at Dragonhead. My squires, I have an assignment for you all.”

Zane’s brow furrowed inquisitively. “Already, Ser? But we just got here.”

“And so, consider it your first lesson.”

Adaria held up the loose page she had taken from the book; it was a sketch of a female Hyur—no, perhaps a half-Elezen, given the presence of slightly pointed ears. The squires remained in their positions, but allowed their heads to turn and look at the page more directly.

“There’s a troublemaker on campus—a half-Elezen with silver hair. I want you to find her and attempt to detain her. At the very least, distract her long enough for me to come find you later.”

She put the page back down on her desk and looked at her students solemnly. “Bear in mind, however… She is not likely to surrender quietly.”

She took a step back and assumed the same position as the rest of them. “Those are your orders. Squires, dismissed.”

Zane turned to everyone else, pumping his fists in excitement. “Hear that, mates? We’ve got our first big assignment already! Let’s nab ourselves a troublemaker!”

Caught up in his enthusiasm, Aoife and Eoin pumped their own fists into the air. “Aye!”

Leanne, meanwhile, crossed her arms and muttered behind them. “Who put you in charge…?”

=-=-=

“A single mongrel that hasn’t been caught?” Leanne said candidly, once they were outside. “Is campus security here truly so incompetent?”

“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Eoin reasoned. “Ser Adaria said as much that she wouldn’t surrender quietly.”

Leanne was immediately in his face. “Which says nothing about her except that she’s causing a ruckus.”

Startled, Eoin shrank away.

“Lay off my main man, will ya?” Zane placed himself between the two, fanning his arms out to ward them off each other. Then he turned his gaze towards Aoife. “Where should we start looking?”

Stolen story; please report.

Aoife brought a hand to her chin thoughtfully. “Well, if Leanne is right about her causing a ruckus, wouldn’t we have encountered her already…?”

As if on cue, the sound of a ruckus could be heard from another part of campus. From the sounds of the shouting, it seemed that the guards were in pursuit of a trespasser. The four squires perked up and exchanged glances—then immediately began racing towards the commotion.

=-=-=

The young woman with silver hair and slightly-pointed ears was being chased through Camp Dragonhead. Although she had been allowed inside without much fuss earlier, she was now being branded as a trespasser. The nerve of these ironclad idiots. She supposed they didn’t quite like the fact that she soundly crushed them in each round of Triple Triad.

Racing along the edge of a wall, she evaded a couple of guards and vaulted over the side. She nimbly somersaulted upon hitting the ground, using her momentum to continue forward.

Unfortunately, there was another solid wall in her way. There was no other route for escape.

“She went this way!”

“Corner her in the courtyard!”

The young half-Elezen sighed and shrugged, seeming unruffled by the fact that she was cornered. She turned around and lifted the goggles off her eyes, ready to greet the guards approaching her with spears and swords.

“Easy there, fellas,” she said, raising her hands as if in surrender. “We can talk this over.”

“You swindled us out of a heavy coin, urchin!”

“You shouldn’t even be here! This camp is for the Holy See’s military—proper knights and academy squires—of which we’re sure you’re neither.”

The trespasser flashed a taunting grin. “Funny. You were singing a different tune earlier when I gambled ya some lip service.”

One of the guards made an embarrassed flinch. If he hadn’t been wearing his helmet, his face would surely have shown a bright shade of red. Two more guards joined the two that were already on the scene. Four total. The half-breed made a mental tally.

“So. You think I don’t belong here, do ya?” she drew a sword from beneath the hem of her raggedy longcoat and smirked. “Let’s play another game. I knock each of ya on your butts, and you let me off the hook. Sound good?”

“Hey!”

The sound of a new voice to the scene caused the trespasser and the guards to turn and look. Ser Adaria’s squires hurried into the courtyard.

The half-breed quirked an eyebrow at the newcomers. “Looks like things are getting interesting.”

“Ser Adaria would like a word with you,” Leanne said, taking her position in front of the guards.

Zane walked up beside her, crossing his arms with a confident smile. “And when a full-fledged knight asks for you, you ought to feel honored and come quietly.”

Aoife walked up to the guards. “We’ll take it from here. Ser Adaria says this one is an assignment for us.”

“All right, but have care. This one’s more slippery than a slicked toad.”

The trespasser watched as the guards left these innocent little squires to fend for themselves against her. One look at each of them told her all she needed to know. She pointed her sword at them in challenge.

“Four against one? I’ll floor each of ya and still be done in time for lunch.”

Leanne drew the spear from her back. “Such crude speech. You are, without doubt, nothing more than a lowborn con woman.”

Zane and Eoin looked at each other and nodded. Syncing their intentions, the two boys sprang towards the trespasser. Zane met her head-on, swinging his greatsword. But the half-breed nimbly dodged his heavy, predictable attack patterns. The moment he was off-balance, she kicked him to the side.

Just as she did, Eoin appeared at her flank. His agility momentarily caught her off-guard, and she found herself having to fend him off sword-to-sword. But her form was much scrappier than his. The moment Eoin stepped the wrong way, she grabbed him by the wrist and swung him away.

Just as Zane was starting to get up, a stumbling Eoin crashed into him and sent them both toppling over.

The half-breed flashed a cocky smile and pointed her sword at Leanne. “Next challenger?”

“These lowborn men are even more useless than the noblemen…” Leanne heaved an exasperated sigh, shaking her head. Then she drew her spear and brandished it, completing her show by pointing the tip towards the half-breed. “I daresay you’ll find me a more worthy opponent.”

The trespasser’s smile hardened into a smirk, her green eyes narrowing as she honed her focus on her opponent. The blue-haired lancer inched towards her, displaying proper caution as she approached. Once they were an arm’s length from each other, they engaged.

Leanne showcased her prowess with her spear, deftly knocking away the trespasser’s strike attempts and throwing counterattacks immediately after. And yet, even she couldn’t seem to land a hit on the slippery half-breed.

Suddenly, the trespasser slid out of sight for the space of a moment. When she reappeared, she was right in Leanne’s face. The blue-haired noble Hyur didn’t even have time to be startled; she found herself taking a boot to her ribs and stumbling back without the slightest bit of balance. She landed right next to Eoin and Zane, who were still recovering themselves.

“So that’s what a ‘more worthy opponent’ looks like?” Zane said, his sarcasm made plain.

“I need not hear that from a bumbling oaf like you…”

Three down, one to go. The trespasser turned to Aoife, pointing her sword at her in confident challenge. “Looks like you’re the last one.”

Aoife started to get nervous. Unlike her fellow squires, she didn’t come to Dragonhead with any kind of weapon. Even if she had, she had never been in combat before. There was no way for her to beat this intruder one-on-one.

But as the half-breed got a good look at her, she unexpectedly lowered her sword. “Hey, aren’t ya that girl from the tunnel—”

THONK.

The bottom end of a polearm rammed into the back of the half-breed’s head while she was completely focused on her last foe. In a comic-worthy moment, she faceplanted into the snow-covered ground.

Ser Adaria planted the polearm at her feet and looked down at the trespasser. “I think you’ve had enough fun avoiding the inevitable.”

=-=-=

Adaria gently but firmly nudged the captured half-breed into the classroom. The former fugitive was still nursing the back of her head from the impact she received, ruffling her mess of silver hair. She made no attempt to escape this time as she stood in front of the knight’s desk, surrounded by her squires.

“Good work, squires,” Adaria said, walking around behind her desk. “That’s the last of you.”

It took a moment for that remark to register. When it did, Leanne was the first and loudest to react. “The last of… You mean this mongrel is part of our class?!”

The half-breed flashed a cocky grin at her, then bowed to her in facetious chivalry. “Allegra Hartlock. At your most humble service… princess.”

Leanne scowled, but her fellow squires snickered behind her back.

“See? I’m not the only one who thinks so,” Zane whispered to Aoife.

Adaria placed her hands on her desk and addressed this situation—directing her words particularly towards Leanne. “Miss Bellameaux, you’ll quickly learn that Ishgard’s Holy See isn’t the only pool of talent in the region.

“Each one of you here aspires for something more. Over the course of the next few years, you will learn what it means to be a knight of Ishgard—a knight of Coerthas—in the context of this new world through which we tread.”

Adaria erected her chin. “I will be serving as knight-mentor to each of you. And so, my squires…”

She offered them one of her rare smiles. “…I bid you welcome to Dragonhead Academy.”

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