Once at the square, Johann took a seat on one of the benches before opening the tool case and beginning to fiddle with the clock.

As he disassembled the clock, he found many tiny cogwheels and a few axles, as well as a smooth stone disk of a dull, greenish white color behind the central plate of the clock face.

The stone disk was resting on an inscribed brass plate connected to one of the axles, from which Johann detached the disk. Feeling it in his hand, he was impressed with its light weight, as well as its smooth surface and its mild, pleasant temperature.

As Johann was focused on the trinket he was studying, he didn't notice as two people stealthily inched closer. The two pairs of eyes exchanged a glance before pouncing simultaneously on their unaware target.

"Gotcha!" two children's voices yelled as they grabbed Johann's shoulders from behind. He yelped, startled and almost dropping the pieces he was holding, before turning back and staring at his friends with fake annoyance barely covering a stifled laughter.

"Guys, come on! Don't startle me, I almost dropped my stuff!" Johann complained, showing the pieces to his friends.

The boy, a well groomed boy with brown hair and simple yet well tailored clothes, looked at the clock pieces inquisitively, almost as interested as Johann, and they started discussing the pieces and their use.

The girl, who had curly hair like a cascade of flames done in a ponytail and was wearing very clean and easy to move in clothes, looked at her friends with mild, yet disguised, disinterest, but she still let them go on for a while.

As the boys' discussion slowed down, the girl called out to them to change the subject.

"Johann, Leon, let's play already! You've rambled on enough already!" she said pouting, trying to pull both of their hands to a more open area of the square.

"Okay, okay! Easy, Martha, we're going, there's no need to pull." Leon, the boy in higher quality clothes, called out to calm the girl.

"Sorry about that, Martha. So, what did you guys want to play?" Johann asked, and Leon gestured towards Martha to let her decide.

"Let's play tag! I feel like running today!" Martha answered exasperated, immediately starting to assign who would be it. Johann was the slowest to respond, so he ended up as the first it.

*****

As Johann got completely exhausted and couldn't run anymore, he called out to his friends in surrender. They had been running around, in short bursts, nearing on two hours already, and Johann wasn't nearly as well trained as his friends.

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When they settled down on a bench, Johann decided to ask something that had been bothering him since earlier, when Martha had practically commanded them in an irrefusable bad mood.

"Martha, what's going on? You seem way more... grumpy, I guess, than usual. Did something happen?" Johann inquired. As the words left his mouth, Leon's face tensed, and Martha's snapped towards Johann.

"No! Nothing at all. I have no idea what you're talking about!" she denied, looking almost desperate to hide something. Leon sighed before speaking.

"She had 'book classes' today, and no training, so..." Leon trailed off. Johann 'oof'ed with a scrunched up face, now getting the full picture.

"Shut up! Why did you tell? Can't you keep your friends' secrets at all?" Martha accused him, with her face flushed in embarrassment.

"Come on, Martha, it's not that big of a deal! Besides, we both already know you don't like 'book classes', so we wouldn't belittle you or anything" Leon patted her shoulder to try to comfort her. Her face tensed in anger for a bit, before she let it go to try and calm down.

"Yeah, Martha, even if you're not as good at 'book classes', you're still amazing at swordplay and physical activities!" Johann added to boost his friend's confidence, which seemed shaken.

"You say that, but you're both good at those kinds of classes, so I lag behind. It's really unpleasant to be 'less' than you guys" she complained.

"Well, if that's the case, think about this: Johann is good at book classes, but he's awful at physical activities, so he lags behind us there. I'm worse at swordplay than you, and worse at studies than him, so I also lag behind. We're all the same, just in different fields" Leon pointed out their equivalence to Martha.

"Huh. That's a good way to put it. I guess it makes sense. Sorry for lashing out without need" she said sheepishly.

"Besides, Martha, you could bring to us what you are taught in 'book classes' for us to try and help you understand whatever stumps you." Johann suggested a way for them to help each other.

"Nah, I don't want to owe you. You know what they say, 'when friends you owe, strife you sow'. I'd rather not risk our friendship" Martha said righteously, puffing out her chest in pride.

"What if you guys teach me swordplay too? I'm really curious about it, but I don't really have the chance to learn it" Johann added to his proposition.

"I like that idea! I could learn more difficult stuff from Johann, and get tips and practice with Martha. All the while, I'd help each of you with what you want to learn along with the one who's best at that." Leon supported the idea, raising his hands to high five both of his friends.

Johann immediately got ready for the group high five, and Martha joined in after a very short hesitation. They then followed up by discussing and explaining the subjects of Martha's classes for the rest of the afternoon.

*****

In the evening, Johann bade farewell to his friends and returned home to the Frontier Hügel to eat his meal and help his parents.

The dinnertime service went along mostly like the lunchtime one, minus the commotion, and work was over without a hitch.

As the family finished cleaning the dining hall and was enjoying their relaxing family time before bed, they started hearing indistinct shouts in the distance. The voices were drawing closer, and eventually they could hear the urgency in them.

Jules quietly gestured for his family to hide deeper in the building before he walked quietly to the front door to see what the noise was all about. A bit later, he ran out the door before coming back followed by a few soldiers carrying what looked like a bundle.

"Quick, place him on that table, gently. Honey, please boil a few pails of water. You there, grab a few clean sheets over on that closet! Johann, please run over to Mister Peter and tell him there's an emergency at the Hügel! Then tell Sir Sieghart to come as soon as possible!" Jules instructed with a quick pace but a firm and stable voice, directing the efforts to handle the apparent 'bundle'.

The Inn burst into activity as Johann left running in the direction opposite to where the soldiers came from, towards the healer's house, to do what his father told him.