Upon entering the classroom, the obvious became impossible to ignore. This would not be easy.

During the year 145 of the empirical calendar, the emperor’s troops defeated the southern kingdom, finally ending a war that lasted a decade. In order to present a united front against its future enemies, the emperor invited several young students from the recently defeated kingdom of the South to study at the imperial military school in the capital. This was necessary in order to create positive long term relationships with the newly annexed provinces, but the chosen students often had to go through harsh times at the academy before being accepted. Jacx was one of those students.

Despite me being early, the classroom was already half filled with students sitting behind their desks. Seeing the weird looks on people’s faces brought me back to last year. The winter holiday had lasted two months, and I didn’t miss the imperial school a single day. Someone went past me and randomly took a seat. I decided to do the same.

Sitting at the back of the class I had a view on all the students sitting in front of me. Half of the benches were still empty, but the teacher was not supposed to arrive in the next fifteen minutes. A pair of girls walked in the class and took seats in the front row. The other students were chatting amongst them, I realized being ignored was quite the step up compared to last year where I almost got into a fight the first day of class simply for being from the South. After a year of peace, the battlefields felt like a vague memory to me, only the nightmares would make sure I did not forget about the lost war just yet.

A familiar face entered the classroom. Narval walked straight up to me with a grin on his face. “So this year we are in the same class ? Sounds great to me.”

I smiled. I met Narval last year during a sports event at the school. Since his sister’s boyfriend was also a representant from a defeated nation invited by the emperor to study at the capital, he was more open minded about ancient enemies. We never really had the time to bond since we were from different classes and I didn’t have much free time trying to catch up on the different courses.

-“So it would seem, I didn’t know you were interested in tracking.”

He took the seat next to me and took his glasses out of his front pocket. “Well, I didn’t really know what to do and my sister told me tracking was an easy course so I figured I would take it.”

I nodded slightly. I took tracking for the exact same reason. Great minds think alike. He continued.

“How did your grades ended up being last year ?”

“Well, I had to work quite hard to get through theoretical chemistry and runes, but it ended up working. Without surprise I failed cartography, and the other courses went fine. How did it go for you ?”

He tried to hide his smile. “I passed everything, my sister had to help me a bit though.”

I started playing with my pencil. “Lucky you.”

While we were talking most of the students had arrived, leaving only one free chair next to Narval. He had put his bag on the desk as if he were booking it for someone. His eyes caught mine looking at his bag. “It’s for a friend of mine, she’s also in our class according to the lists.”

With a gesture of my hand I signified him it was all right and I didn’t really care.

The class suddenly became silent as the teacher came in. The teacher walked in the room closing the door behind him. He stopped in front of the black board behind his desk, taking a moment to look at us while we took a moment to look at him. He was an average sized brown haired man in his thirties. I realized that my previous years my teachers were all either old either partially disabled, since most of them used to be imperial soldiers.

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

I took a look at Narval expecting to meet his eyes, but he was looking at the empty chair near him. His friend still didn’t make it but Narval’s bag was still making sure no one else would take that bench. The teacher noticed.

-“I can see we have an absentee already.”

The class turned their heads around to look at the empty bench. I noticed a few familiar faces of students that were in my class last year. Luckily mostly people that did not really bother interacting with me. The teacher sat down.

-“Well, that’s fine anyway, we’re in contact with the parents so it should be fine. Make sure one of you helps her catch up on the courses she will miss today.”

I noticed Narval’s eyebrows frowning very shortly. The teacher went on.

-“As you all hopefully know, this is the tracking class. From now on you will spend half your time at school on common courses, while the other half will be spent on courses specific to tracking. Because it is a class with less pure theory content on one hand, and because tracking is usually less dangerous on the other, you will be assigned minor tasks within the imperial army throughout the year in order to make up some experience.”

According to Mr. Azim who was our previous principal teacher, the reason tracking was considered an easy course was because successfully realizing the practical task was actually enough to pass the year. You only needed to get through the final examinations if you had failed your missions.

After his short presentation on the tracking class, the teacher introduced himself as Mr Mawpach. He did not specify anything else about his personal life except for the fact that he liked cats. The day then went on as any school day. Four courses followed each from the morning until late afternoon, after which we were free to leave the school. When our advanced runes teacher Ms. Goil let us off for the day, I was exhausted. Narval quickly filled his bag back with his books. “I have to bring back the books I lend during the winter holiday to the library, want to come with me ?”

I started cleaning my desk and nodded. “Yes, not as if I had much to do at home.”

I realized Narval could quickly become a good friend, and since I didn’t really have any friends last year he could be a good opportunity at socializing a bit.

We left the classroom and started walking towards the library. The great halls were filled with students who had ended their courses. Narval moved to get slightly closer to me in order to make sure I could hear him.

-“Have you heard the rumors about the Verde Islands ?”

I answered accelerating my pace slightly. The noise made by the other students was getting annoying.

-“about their supposed fleet right ?”

He nodded. “Apparently your homeland won’t be the last enemies of the empire.”

I didn’t really enjoy talks about my homeland. It only reminded me of all the losses we suffered during the war. I swiftly changed the subject.

-“Do you know why your friend was absent today?”

Narval stopped walking for a moment, as if not moving made it easier for him to think. “I don’t know, but since the teacher was warned, I’m assuming it can’t be too bad.”

He started walking again. “Besides, I did not get any news from her during the winter holiday, one day more or less without seeing her doesn’t change that much.”

He was ahead of me so I couldn’t see what his face looked like. He didn’t seem too happy about not hearing from her during the winter break though.

We stopped walking upon reaching the library wall. The school’s library was a weird place. Students did not actually access it, we could only lend books by asking them. If we knew the title of the book, a clerk would check if they had it, otherwise we would have to specify what kind of information we were looking for, and a clerk would recommend a book to us. Because of that system, students never got to actually enter the library.

Narval went to one of the counters that were popping out of the wall. He put his books on the wooden plate in front of the clerk and waited while his returned books were submitted in the records.

“Her name is Elusse by the way.”

I slightly raised my eyebrows. “wasn’t that clerk a man ?”

His eyes went up. “Not the clerk, my friend who wasn’t there today.”

I felt a bit embarrassed. “oh her. Well, I guess you will present me to her, right ?”

He looked at his feet. “I certainly will, once she gets to school.”

Something popped up in my mind. “By the way, didn’t the teacher say we had to give her our notes from the courses we had today ? So she could catch up.”

He raised his head and looked at me straight in the eyes.

-“Do you want to do it ?”

I could feel where this was going. He was probably eager to see his friend he hadn’t seen during the holidays but was too embarrassed to openly admit he wanted to see her. Getting me to bring my notes to her was an easy way to go straight to her house today, since I would need him for the address. I decided to play along.

-“How about we give her your notes instead ? Mine are half written in Karles and I don’t think she knows the tongue of the south.”

He faked hesitation but quickly agreed.