Three hours since Gungnir ‘N’ left Blackbird.

Throughout the ride, Art had been looking out the window taking in all the things he saw. Although he had seen such views in his books before, it paled in comparison to seeing it with his own eyes.

Jean had mostly kept to himself reading his book. Though, halfway through the journey, Jean marked the page he was reading and closed the book. Reaching to the overhead storage, Jean placed his book inside and pulled out a different book from his bag.

Seeing this, Art thought about asking Jean to borrow a book but ultimately decided not to.

Jamie kept trying to talk to Art and Jean the whole ride, however the former only responded with quick sentences and gestures of his head for ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. And the latter was not paying attention most of the time, and when Jean did respond it was just a short quip.

Not the best of conversation partners.

Up until now, Jamie had been talking about Magic Knights, magical creatures, and random bits of information he had heard about. All of which Art and Jean either knew a lot about or just weren’t that interesting to them.

He even started talking about his life in his hometown, which interested Art a bit, but it was pretty boring

Art tried to be polite by listening to what Jamie was saying, but at some point, he kind of wished Jamie would be quiet for at least ten minutes.

So Jamie, in a last-ditch effort, decided to tell them something he knew not even Jean would ignore.

“Hey, Art. Did you hear?” Jamie leaned in and lowered his voice to a whisper.

Posed with another very ambiguous question, Art shook his head once again.

“Listen to this.”

Jamie paused for a moment until he was sure he had Art’s attention.

“I heard that somebody from the Weiss family will be in our class this year.”

This time, Jean was intrigued by what Jamie had to say and took his eyes off his book.

If what Jamie was saying was true, this was huge news and would impact their time at Edelweiss tremendously.

And before they could recover from his first bombshell. Jamie loaded up a second one.

“And that’s not all. I even heard that a kid from the Fortis family will be entering the academy too.”

Jean was shocked. If Jamie wasn’t just making this up for attention then the bar to stand out at Edelweiss would be much higher.

Weiss and Fortis.

Two of the biggest names in the Walpurgis Alliance. And those names weren’t for show. Members of those families almost always became influential figures.

“Can you believe it! It’ll be a battle between Light and Darkness!” No longer trying to build tension, Jamie raised his voice and talked enthusiastically.

The Weiss and Fortis families were masters of Light and Darkness magic respectively.

Art knew all about them, especially the Weiss family. The Weiss family were the descendants of the Hero Edelweiss.

And while not having someone as grand as Edelweiss in their lineage, the Fortis family were very well known. They have been around since Edelweiss was alive. But most importantly, they were the staunch protectors of the Walpurgis Alliance’s southern border.

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Jean had stopped reading his book and looked deep in thought.

“I could believe it if it was just one of the families, but two seem a little much.” Jean seemed skeptical of what Jamie was saying.

However, he had good reason for his skepticism.

While Weiss and Fortis were great families, the number of direct family members each had was quite low.

“Haha, you might be right.” Hearing Jean’s doubt, Jamie was forced to agree with him. The chance of two of the great families sending their kids to Edelweiss in the same year was quite low due to how few members the families had.

“Anyways, well know once we get to Edelweiss. It’s not hard to spot a member of a great family.” Jean sighed and decided to worry about it once he got to Edelweiss.

Jean wasn’t wrong. It was quite easy to tell if someone was from a great family because they all shared a distinct feature unique to that family.

“Well, if any great family comes to Edelweiss this year, I just hope it isn’t Sophos.” Jamie finished his sentence with a grim chuckle.

“Agreed” Jean nodded his head with a grave expression.

Art sitting right across from them broke out in a cold sweat.

—

It had now been four hours since they left Blackbird.

There hadn’t been much talk since the last discussion.

Suddenly, a sound came from the ceiling of the compartment.

Diiiiiing

[Food will now be served to your rooms shortly.]

“Nice! I was just starting to feel hungry.” Jamie felt relieved by knowing he could sate his hunger so soon.

While Art wasn’t that hungry, he felt like he could at least eat something. There was no need to starve himself, and besides he didn’t know when the next opportunity to eat would come.

Knock Knock

After two knocks the door slid open. An attendant pushed a cart into their room. On the cart were three plates, each covered with a metal cloche.

After locking the cart into place, the attendant pushed down on the cart. The cart lowered and the plates were now chest height while they were sitting. It seemed the cart also functioned as a table.

The attendant removed the cloches from the plates, revealing a steak and asparagus.

Knowing their job was done, the attendant stepped out of the room and closed the door.

“Nice!” Without another word, Jamie took his utensils and dug in.

Jean closed his book and placed it by his side. Grabbing his knife and fork, Jean began to slice the steak.

Art began to eat, switching between eating the steak and asparagus with each bite. Art ate his food with practiced eloquence.

If he was by himself, he would have eaten however he wanted, but for now, Art was in the presence of others.

After a couple of minutes, Art was halfway done with his food, Jamie had already eaten it all, and Jean had eaten his steak but his asparagus was untouched.

Art stopped eating and took a look at Jean.

He still had his utensils in hand, but for some reason, he was giving his asparagus a mean look.

“Hey Jean, if you’re not gonna eat that can I have it?” Jamie wasn’t even looking at Jean and was also eyeing his asparagus but with a much different look on his face.

“If you’re that hungry, I guess I could give it to you.” Jean quickly swapped their plates and put down his utensils.

“Yay! Thanks, Jean!” Jamie happily started to munch on his newly acquired asparagus.

For a second there, Art could have sworn he saw a relieved expression on Jean’s face.

—

It had been almost six hours since the train ride began.

They had long finished eating and at some point, the attendant came back and took the cart away.

Art was now extremely bored with nothing to read. To add to his boredom, the scenery out of the window had been nothing but dense forest for the past thirty minutes now. He even started to seriously contemplate asking Jean to borrow a book.

Diiiing

[We will be arriving shortly]

As if the world had sensed Art’s predicament, it had shown him the light.

“Finally…” Jamie started to stretch out his arms. He was getting stiff after sitting for so long.

Jean had closed his book after hearing the announcement.

A few seconds after the announcement, Gungnir had left the forest.

Looking out the window, the scene the boys saw was out of this world.

Floating islands, giant waterfalls, and lakes, and for a split second they thought they saw a volcano, but the main attraction was in the distance.

A giant castle.

This giant castle was none other than Edelweiss School of Magic.