Following that eventful weapon combat class were a series of mundane lectures. Something something philosophy, history lessons, those sorts of things. Inconsequential ramblings that my brain tuned out while my body worked on autopilot to stay upright. And at least I made an attempt to seem presentable and diligent, even if I knew I was going to cheat through all of the written exams.

  My other classmates however? They weren't even trying, and the professor knew what they were doing but never bothered to discipline them. All except for one, and that was the lecturer for history class, Antoine.

  There wasn't any shouting nor did he resort to anything physical. It was a cheeky and simple punishment, a pop quiz that was worth about ten percent of our marks. Fitting, coming from someone with that sly appearance. Sleek, fox-like eyes and wearing that unsettlingly perpetual smile.

  He announced it so suddenly and casually, but it certainly woke everyone up and made them reared their heads towards the front of the lecture hall. And it even pulled me out of my trance in a cold sweat out of instinct, even if I was going to cheat on it.

  As the room fell into silence, the only sounds I could hear was my heartbeat racing in my ears and the chalk gliding across the smooth blackboard as he wrote down the questions. Three, to be exact. With the first two being relatively simple and straightforward, designed to test our memorization skills and therefore, our attentiveness during his class.

  However, the third and final question felt like a trap. It seemed a little too easy, and I don't doubt a lot of students had immediately jumped to scribble their answer down for this question thanks to how free it was.

  Form your own opinion about the aftermath of the Confluence Summit in regards to how it affects the Feuille of today.

  I didn't even know what that historic event was, let alone described how it affects my fabricated background. But that was a struggle nobody else in this room shared. Even so, I think writing down whatever without putting much consideration into it was a bad idea. Or maybe I was overthinking it.

  Yeah, definitely the latter, since I was cheating through it all anyways. With Mika feeding me the answer for the first two but paused at the last one.

  [That's a little specific...]

  "Everyone else don't seem to be having an issue though," I whispered.

  [I'm not saying it's hard]

  [Forming an opinion's always a freebie in a test]

  [But of all the things that had happened over the past century or so, he chose the summit?]

  He then excused himself for a minute to pull up any information Double had collected on it. And when he came back, there wasn't much for him to say, just like the answer he gave for the previous two questions.

  The basic run down he gave about it was that it was a gathering of kings from the three northwestern kingdoms: Feuille, Praia, and Catados. They were once locked in a seemingly never-ending conflict, mostly over territories. The summit, and the treaty that was signed during which was the beginning of the end of the wars in this region. And not long after kickstarted a period of exploration, whether that be the exploration of self through art, or the continent at large.

  Subsequently, it was followed by the age of unity between the different territories and kingdoms within Aegis, and then a period of advancement—this world's equivalent of the industrial revolution—which we were currently at and in its infancy.

  [But he asked for your opinion]

  [And to make sure that it tracks with your false identity, then the only relevant thing you can say about it is anything positive]

  [It's definitely much more complex, but to you, it's simply the reason why you could study here]

  So that's what I chose to write as my answer. With the first couple paragraphs recounting the brief history of the summit's aftermath, how it led to a more open border, and finally closing it off with a positive outlook on the subject.

  And after submitting it, that's it. Class was over.

  I was allowed to leave early and immediately head straight back to the girl's dormitory. Passing by students who were going to their afternoon classes or club activities. Once I reached the dorm, I walked up a flight of stairs to the third floor, through the hallways and finally stood at the door to my room.

  I looked left and right to make sure nobody was around, before inserting my key into the lock. It couldn't be turned just yet, and anybody who tried to force it with a spare key or lockpick would find it stuck. But it was just a mechanism Mika installed as another layer of protection, a way to verify that it was me who was entering the room through a magical sigil grafted onto my key. Though it takes a while for it too finally—

  click

  There it was.

  Swinging the door open, I was first greeted by the sight of Phae with her eyes glued to a marathon of wrestling matches projected from a holographic screen. She had gotten addicted to television during that short period on Earth, and I was glad she did. Finally there was something that could this minotaur occupied.

  "Welcome home sweety," Mika spoke up. Turning away from his setup to face me with that irritating grin on his face. "How's your first day of school?"

  "Ugh, stop that," I shuddered at his patronizing tone. "You know how it went."

  "Aww... Lighten up. You're not the one who had the displeasure of setting up reconnaissance drones while simultaneously watching over a rookie."

  He had set up more cameras while I was gone? That would certainly explained why there was more than one monitor showing different parts of the academy. I walked closer to inspect what the drones were capturing.

  There was one stationed near the main entrance. One was high in the air, circling the campus borders to check on its surroundings. And the rest were scattered at random places all over.

  "Hey, come check this one out," he gave me a light smack on the shoulder and gestured towards one of the monitors. It showed both teachers and instructors—some I recognized from the classes I've attended today—sitting around a long rectangular table. Their lips were moving but no sound were coming out.

  "Oops, my bad. Juuuust a second," his fingers fumbled with the controls before finally finding the button to connect the output to the built-in speakers.

  It was just casual chatter, and not the ones that were mildly interesting. Something to pass the time while they wait for the meeting to start, or more accurately, for that unnecessarily big and opulent seat at the front to be filled.

  Between now and then, new faces would enter the room from time to time. Like Antoine, who probably had just finished putting away our answer sheets. And finally, once everyone else had settled down on their seats, the long-awaited figure arrived to claim his place on his bogus throne.

  Nobody said anything as he slowly made his way across the table and took his rightful place, though their expressions said it all. Exasperation, exhaustion, disgust; everyone has some hint of those emotions etched onto their faces.

  "Now," the man huffed as he finally took his seat. "I have called this meeting to discuss a matter of great importance."

  "Headmaster, if I may?" One of the teachers stood up to interrupt. She never waited for a response before continuing on. "I think we've all heard the news about Ms. Marchal, and we can all tell that we're here because of her misconduct. It's a new one every week with that girl. Some of us have classes to teach after this, headmaster. So please, just say the verdict so we can go on with our day."

  She sat back down and gave him a knowing look, as if she could already tell what the outcome was going to be. But the way she kept her gaze fixed onto him suggested that she was still interested in what he had to say, perhaps even hoping to hear something different this time. And there were others who had followed suit, turning towards the headmaster expectantly.

  But the first to respond to her was Mr. Boucher.

  "Don't get your hopes up, we all know she's not going anywhere so long as she has that Marchal name attached to her."

  "The difference is that now we have eyewitnesses that could testify Mr. Boucher," the headmaster added before turning to the weapon combat instructor to further elaborate. "Instructor Jacques?"

  "Yes, her entire class and I were there to witness it. After her match with Mr. Pinto, she suddenly raised her voice and proceeded to struck him unprompted."

  Murmurs then flooded the room as they all fell into an argument. Although they already had the grounds to build a solid case, the main point of contention shared amongst at least half of the people in that room was her family.

  "Order," the headmaster demanded. Plunging the room into another bout of silence. "I understand better than anyone here the support the Marchal's had provided for our academy on top of the tuition fee they've given. Alicia had always been a... problematic kid, so is it not up to us to teach her to become better? Is that not what Duke Marchal was hoping for when he entrusted his eldest daughter to us?"

  The contempt a few of them had been holding back finally boiled over. His argument, though factual, was obviously made in bad faith. And they were not voicing their anger through passive-aggressive tones and subtle jabs. The sense of courtesy that once held the room in order had been thrown out the window, and they were letting the headmaster know the depths of their pent-up frustration.

  "Easy for you to say! You're not the one teaching her! Let alone having to deal with the aftermath of her outbursts!"

  "Just say you only cared for the gold the Marchal's had given to support your lavish lifestyle!"

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  He tried to quell the situation, but the only thing they wanted to hear from him was a definitive answer that would satisfy them. Thus all of his excuses or feeble attempts to calm them down were met with an even louder protests until the whole room was engulfed in a chaotic shouting contest.

  Luckily, it came to a halt as Antoine scratched his nails along the blackboard stored in the corner. The grating sound causing everyone to cringed and turned towards him. Most were annoyed, those that had abstained from the arguments since the beginning cared very little about the sudden intrusion, while the headmaster looked at Antoine hoping he would dragged him out of this hole he had dug himself into.

  Antoine smiled even wider as everyone begrudgingly settled back down on their seats. Moving the blackboard before the table and then wrote two simple words on opposite sides—pros and cons—and divided them with a straight line in the middle.

  "Such uncouth display in unbefitting of us academics, wouldn't you all agree?"

  Those who let their emotions get the better of them earlier hung their head low in shame. Antoine stood silent to give them a moment to reflect on their outbursts and cool their heads for what he was about to suggest next.

  "Alright, I assume we're all in an agreement and can continue on," he then turned to the board and added "Scenario A". "Let's weigh our options equally and then come to a consensus, any complaints?"

  They all turned to one another and nodded. Afterwards, he began to explain the specifics of each scenario and how it might played out. Scenario A was letting Alicia stay and attend classes as normal. A majority was itching to give out their biased take on the matter, but abstained in honor of the agreement.

  Starting out with the positives, there wasn't a whole lot they could came up with. If she were to stay then the academy secured a steady influx of gold for the entire duration of her enrollment. Plus untold benefits that may come their way if they managed to educate her into a proper noble.

  The Marchal duchy was the largest in Feuille after all, and ninety percent of its produce were sent out all across to feed the entire kingdom. They were practically Feuille's silo, who knows what sort of favors they could land if they did this properly. Though Antoine circled this point as a reminder that this wasn't a set outcome, and that started to turn everyone off from the prospect of scenario A.

  "Don't look so gloom. We still have the crown prince as a deciding factor—"

  "Let me stop you right there," Jacques interrupted. "Though it had yet to be made official, you might as well just ruled his highness out altogether when discussing Ms. Marchal."

  Everyone unanimously nodded their heads, and Antoine had to stop what he was writing and wiped it off the board. His shoulders sagged in defeat, and it made me think he had something to say—probably an objection—but found no concrete points to back his arguments up.

  Which led me to become even more curious about who Fiona was. A girl that seemed so inconsequential in the eyes of Double, yet her influence here proved that she was anything but. If even the adults here agreed that this budding relationship between her and the crown prince was here to stay, then who was she to be able to overrule an engagement set by two of the highest standing family in Feuille by simply being there interacting with him?

  "I suppose that is to say whatever's involving her engagement does not concern us, correct?" Antoine waited for everyone else to nod before continuing on. "Then we can move on to the negatives, which I'm sure you all are happy to fill out?"

  Their main complaints can all be traced back to the core issue with Alicia which he wrote plainly on the board, her outbursts. He then asked if anyone else had anything further to add that wasn't related to her temperamental and cold nature, to which they have none. He was quick to move on to the next scenario before Boucher stopped him to interrupt.

  "Hold on a second. I was waiting for one of you to say it, but since it's not brought up then I guess the honor is mine. Have none of you witness the mistreatment Ms. Marchal has been experiencing?"

  "With that personality, I'm not surprised that she does, honestly," one teacher replied and others agreed. To which he responded by giving them a glare to show that he did not tolerate the dismissive answer. "Apologies. What I meant to say was, yes, we've seen her attend classes looking worse for wear. But we've never seen the act itself, and nobody even herself had bothered to report it."

  "Bureaucracy, huh? But to a father blinded with rage, would he really care about that? To learn that the academy never stepped in when his daughter needed them most?"

  And if Alicia were to stay, the harassment would most likely worsen over time. Slowly whittling down her will until either she or the students bullying her crossed over a line and did the unthinkable.

  But unlike the rest who had stiffened as if they've been doused with cold water, Antoine remained calm and proposed a different perspective.

  "All the more reason to keep her here then. We cannot go back and undo the past, but we can learn from it to shape a better future. What would you prefer? For Alicia to return home with bitter hatred for this academy and report that to her father, or graduate properly as an upstanding noble?"

  He moved back to add further emphasis on the circled point. That possibility of being rewarded handsomely for a job well done. But the confident delivery he gave definitely made it sound like it wasn't, that it was at arm's reach if they put a little more effort into this. And it had skewed the argument into Scenario A even after they've moved on to discuss Scenario B; if they chose to expel Alicia.

  Riding the high of a hypothetical future success, the discussion surrounding Scenario B was less heated and enthusiastic. The points were just thrown onto the board without much consideration, and there was only a single cons for scenario B that was written down for the sake of having one. If those weren't enough evidence to suggest the outcome of this meeting, then I didn't know what would.

  They held a voting afterwards, and those in favor of keeping Alicia enrolled won by a landslide. There were those that were clearly still hesitant but chose to ride the bandwagon, and a few like Boucher and Jacques stood firm on their beliefs that they all should've chosen the contrary. But still respected the result nonetheless.

  "I sincerely thank you all for sparing a moment of your precious time," the headmaster slowly stood up. Formally putting a close to today's meeting. "I understand that some of you have classes to teach and supervise, therefore this meeting is adjourned."

  Though the ones that needed to leave didn't stay to listen in full and discreetly left the second the vote had been casted and finalized. And a few more left before the headmaster finished his closing statement. So when all was said and done, he fully stood up to a room half-empty. And those still present had completely ignored him, too preoccupied on checking their belongings to care.

  The sound of Mika's laughter brought my attention away from the monitor. Seeing him found humor in another's embarrassing and pitiful display left a bitter taste on the tip of my tongue as I held back a retort. Instead choosing to watch in silence until his laughter died down.

  "Was that necessary?" the words came out much more meekly than I liked.

  "What? Eavesdropping on their meeting?"

  "W-well... that too. I don't see why that was so important that I had to hear it."

  "Then maybe you weren't hearing it properly. Because there's so many things you could take away from it."

  He stood up and started pacing around the room while trying to explain his reasoning.

  "Have you ever played a board game before? Then I'm sure the first thing they ever told you before playing is what the conditions for victory are. It's lazy, straight to the point, but it gets the ball rolling."

  He then paused as he noticed a box with a checkered pattern engraved on the top tucked away underneath one of the nightstand. He moved over to pick it up and dusted its surface before pulling the latch and pushed it open. There were many pieces inside, as many as those used in chess. But unlike the chess that we knew, the pieces were carved into an unfamiliar silhouette. Nonetheless, he folded the box and placed it flat on an empty table before arranging the pieces.

  "But just knowing that you need to go for a checkmate isn't enough to win, is it?" he asked as he started to move the pieces in turns. "A beginner is tempted to just go for the throat. Stumbling and failing to recognize the extent and limits of each piece."

  He mindlessly moved the white pawns forward in hopes to promote them into queens no doubt, but each attempt was met with either an interception or by discreetly moving the black bishop and knight for a positional play.

  "You're only focusing on satisfying the winning condition; on the king. And you forget that the other pieces are just as relevant."

  The pieces kept moving in turns until the white pieces were mostly exhausted, and the black queen moved for the check. Flicking the piece in his fingers to topple the white king down and usurped its position.

  "We don't know how big of an issue this is going to be. As much as I wanted to believe that this is all just some stupid soap opera that'll blow over once that Fiona chick chooses her hubby, I know better than to not expect fate to put a cruel twist that works against our favor."

  "Hearing you say all that only reinforces my belief that we should just deal with the bigger threat on our own."

  "And where's the fun in that?" he chuckled as he moved to store the folded chessboard back where he found it. "You were a hero once, seen for yourself how hard the job was. The kid's gotta learn to know that as well, because it's not a good hero's journey without the struggle, is it?"

  Again with that shitty attitude. With every ounce of wisdom I hear coming out of his mouth, the more my opinion of him sunk lower.

  I needed to cool down and think about what I can do, because right now I didn't trust him to make the right decisions that'd led to the wellbeing of everyone involved, not just Zefer. And clearly he had shown that this just another job, another story to sit through.

  "Hmm... Where are you going?"

  "To the library," I tried holding back some of the irritation from creeping into my voice, but there was no denying that there was some edge to it. "You nor double have the complete background on this world, right? Might as well learn some more while I can."

  "Ugh... booooring! But that's good, stuff rarely happens in the library after all," he added the last part much more quietly. "I'll be out in a bit until late at night, I think? So you're on your own til then."

  I nodded before walking out and closing the door behind me.

  The library was much closer to the dorms, practically neighbors. Perhaps to encourage students to visit it more often in their spare time? Even so, it was sparsely populated when I arrived. And the few students that were here huddled in into small groups at tables scattered all around.

  Intentionally choosing the ones that were isolated and far away from the librarian's desk. Not that she cared about enforcing the "keep quiet" rule due to the lack of urgency with how little people there are. And none were here to actually study, so again, why bother?

  I found the section for historical texts and mostly picked the ones that seemed interesting to me. Before I knew it, I already had a stack of books and scrolls in my arms. Yet I still reached for one more, the one detailing the bloody conflict between the northwestern kingdoms predating the summit.

  But just as the tip of my fingers brushed against the rough leather cover, a hand had already reached it first. I staggered back in surprise and almost dropped the stack of books I had. Slowly turning to face the person once I regained my bearings, only to find Alicia standing there with one brow raised, scrutinizing me from top to bottom.

  "You're the transfer student."

  "Y-yeah... Nice to meet you?"

  "You're seriously going to read all that and this book to top it off?"

  "I'm new here, there's a lot more stuff that I need to catch up on."

  "Fair enough, if it weren't for the fact that you got one of the highest grade in class for that pop quiz earlier."

  I... what? She has to be bluffing right? But that flat expression of hers suggested otherwise. Though I could never know for certain since I immediately head back after class.

  "He couldn't have graded it that quickly."

  "Oh, Mr. Antoine does. History is a pretty straightforward subject after all. And the grades are always posted in the halls a few minutes after the exam."

  Because of course they were.

  "Well, like you said, it's a straightforward subject. I might be a newcomer here, but my uncle filled me in on the basics."

  "So why the books?"

  This girl was persistent. Were this questions purely came out of curiosity, or was she starting to grow suspicious of the transfer student that came from a continent shrouded in mystery?

  "Why else? We are studying in an academy, aren't we?"

  For the very first time since I saw her, her prominent scowl twitched into a smile as she laughed heartily. Echoing across the spacious building, catching everyone's attention yet she didn't care.

  "Ah... I'm sorry," she wheezed. "I think that's the first time someone had actually said that."

  Now I really want to know why the hell this place was even established in the first place.

  "You want to read this book, right? Well I need it too. So how about a trade? You read whatever you can from that pile in four hours, and summarize it for me. Then you can have this."

  She waved the book around in her hands like someone dangling a keychain over a baby. Didn't know whether it was more insulting to me for being patronized or her for thinking it actually would have the intended effect. I wouldn't die over a book, and I have enough to keep me company for the day and the next few days after. But...

  "Deal, but you can keep the book. I can read that anytime, and there's something more substantial that you can offer to me."

  "And that being...?"

  "Everything about this continent, country, academy... I rather hear the personal accounts of someone who had lived through it."

  "Alright then, Ms. Tojou... was it? Let's find ourselves somewhere nice to sit."