Morgan was being dragged along behind Marith, his mind a thick mess. He knew well that he did not have a talent for swordplay. His father had trained him since he was eighth and even he had said that Morgan would never be an astounding swordsman. In hindsight his father might have been a bit too kind. As Morgan was getting more and more depressed they soon arrived in the old part of the martial section of the Academy with Marith still dragging Morgan along as he spoke excitedly. Morgan had not heard any of it however as he had been preoccupied with his own thoughts and when they finally reached their destination Morgan was panting from the exertion.

The pair's destination was a building that unlike most of the buildings of the Academy it was not made from stone. Instead it was a somewhat dilapidated wooden building of old Imperial design with intricate carvings that had over the years been worn down beyond recognition. The lack of glass windows further cemented how old the building was and how little the Academy leadership cared about it.

Morgan was bent over, his hands on his knee as he was trying to catch his breath. Morgan had been tired before being dragged along with Marith due to his unusually lengthy spar with Louie and now he was spent.

“You really need to work on your stamina Morgan” Marith said with a chuckle as he patted Morgan’s back. The “pat” almost made Morgan fall over and had he not heard that there was no malice in Marith’s voice he would have thought that Marith was trying to make him fall over. “Then again, if he wanted me to fall over he would have used more force.” Morgan looked up panting and glared at the overly friendly boy who seemed completely oblivious to his somewhat resentful glare.

“Well let’s go.” Marith said confidently as he walked up to the building. “I heard that Adept Alina tends to be late and that her classes tend to run over time, but we should really make sure to get there before the class ends.” Saying this he strode off.

This time he did not drag Morgan along only gesturing for him to follow. Seeing this Morgan felt as if he did not have much choice in the matter anymore and reluctantly followed. The inside of the building was even worse than the outside. The floorboards creaked and some were even broken. Looking up there were plenty of cobwebs and he could see that only about half of the signs displaying the room numbers remained and most of them were incorrectly marked. Some doors were even barred. Only two rooms seemed to be marked correctly and had doors that were in good repair.

Those signs read ‘3105’ and ‘Office’.

“Why is there an office in this building?” Morgan wondered aloud, also looking around he saw no stairs despite it being a two story building.

“No clue.” Marith said and pushed the door open to 3105.

What they saw inside was a bit odd, it was a small about ten by ten meters and surprisingly the floor was half a step down and not boarded or tiled. It was in fact a dirt floor, which was very odd since even the roads were paved in the Academy. What was even more surprising was that inside was not a bunch of kids sparing with wooden swords but instead there was one boy and four girls that were doing their best to maintain balance while standing on the sides of different sized round bark less wooden logs. Their efforts proved to be for naught as the surprise of the door opening made them one and all lose their balance. Still some took the fall better than others.

“Saggy balls of the boneweaver!” The lone boy swore as he landed with his backend on the log.

The cursing boy who was dressed in the garb of a sailor with a sleeveless linen shirt and tightfitting leather pants got up slowly rubbing his behind. This was accompanied by laughter from a girl that must be his sister if not a twin. The two were simply that similar. Standing and brushing his sun bleached blond hair out of his face the boy glared at the girl.

During this commotion the rest of the students got back in order and seemed to simply ignore the two siblings in favour of studying the newcomers. As the silence stretched on the sound of a book snapping shut could easily be heard from the left of the door. Sliding down from the windowsill of a surprisingly large window was Alina adept of the Rising moon swords style. With short cropped platinum blond hair, well-shaped face, lithe body and customary loose red shirt she was a clear favourite among male students.

“What are you all doing? Get back to the lesson.” She spoke in a soft but commanding voice and the student grumbled but got back to balancing on the logs. “So what do we have here? It seems unlikely that the two of you ran away from your class only to end up here by chance.”

“Adept.” Marith said with a respectful voice and a deep bow. “My name is Marith Sian and this is Morgan… umm” Marith realized that he knew very little of Morgan and that he already forgotten his last name.

“Kiath, Morgan Kiath.” Morgan spoke in a low voice and gave a formal Imperial bow.

“Alina Emerth, so?” Alina gave her name and waited for the boys to continue with a raised eyebrow.

“We would like to transfer to your class!” Marith said with a big smile. Alina gave the two an appraising look before frowning.

“You, you said Marith was your name? You seem to have trained, but your friend here doesn't look like much of a swordsman.” She said with a raised eyebrow and Morgan hung his head in shame at the implied criticism.

“Well I’ll admit that Morgan is a bit weak but that can be worked on!” At this Morgan groaned and Alina snorted and shook her head.

“Huu…” Alina sighed deeply. “I suppose that two more students wouldn’t hurt…” Trailing off she looked over at the five children struggling to keep their balance on the round logs. Brushing back her short cropped platinum blond hair she gave the two a shaper look than before.

“Now then go grab a log each and join the others. Also Marith since you seem to have dragged your friend along, you will be responsible for his additional stamina training which I will be giving both of you as homework for being late.” She gave them a fierce smile that forestalled any objections. Having said her piece Alina walked back to the window and found a comfortable sitting position and opened the worn book she had been reading once more.

Morgan expected that Marith would grumble about them not being friends or argue the fact that you can’t be late for a class you did not have but Marith did neither.

“Well, let's get to it I guess. Looks straight forward enough.” The tone of Marith’s voice was the same, casual and bright, if a bit heavily accented.

“Are you not upset?” Morgan spoke without thinking his voice a barely audible whisper. Marith was looking at the pile of logs with far more seriousness than was entirely reasonable and Morgan thought that he might not have heard. But after a bit he spoke.

“About what?” He gave Morgan a confused look. “Getting homework for classes is quite normal and it is quite clear that you need to work on your stamina.”

“What?” Morgan thought taken aback. “Does Marith not mind Alina calling me his friend? Does he simply not care? Or is making friends so simple for him that he really considered me his friend?” Morgan shook his head and picked a log. “No way… that can’t be it.”

After a long time of hemming and hawing Marith finally picked a log that looked in no way different from any of the others. Morgan just picked the closet log and walked over to the others. He was surprised to find the other students were all sweating profusely and were wobbling precariously on their logs. Morgan chose to ignore the rest of the class in favour of focusing on his task. He looked at the log sceptically and stepped up on his log. His scepticism turned in surprise as the world suddenly tilted and with a thud he landed on his arse.

“AHHAHAHA! You think that we would be struggling so for no reason... dughahaaa!!!” The boy in the sailors clothing was gloating only to find himself in the same pitiful position much to the delight of his sister.

“For a newbie to fall off is nothing strange brother but aren’t you ashamed of yourself?” She giggled in a way that would have been graceful had she now been waving her hands around trying to keep her balance as she laughed. The boy growled and dusted himself off before getting back on his log.

“This… huhh, was harder than it looked” Panting Marith was just barely managing to stay on his log and was already panting.

“Was that not obvious from watching?” Said the sailor boy in a disgruntled voice. Morgan didn’t have time to listen to the conversation and did not understand how they were able to find the required energy to speak while still managing to keep their balance. Morgan himself had already fallen off a handful of times while ignoring the conversation and keeping his mouth shut. There was one thing he learned quickly. “There is something seriously strange about these logs! It is as if something is pushing me whenever I get on them!” At least now after keeping at it for a bit he no longer fell on his ass every time. Standing back on the log the strange pushing sensation came back, as if a strong wind had pushed him from behind. He leaned back slightly to correct and in the next moment he was forced to place a foot behind him lest he fall again. Morgan gritted his teeth.

“What’s going on?!” Standing on the ground he looked around and saw that Marith was wild swinging his arms and by moving his body in baffling ways in his attempt to stay on the log. His form was far less graceful than the other five students but he was almost staying on the log as long as the others with the exception of the twins who were doing slightly better. “Marith can do it yet I can’t stay on for more than a moment?” Morgan Bit his lip and got back on the log. The round surface of the logs was smoother than one might imagine from normal logs and in truth just keeping the balance on logs such as these would be good practise. Yet there was that damnable pushing.

Morgan was drenched in sweat by the time he heard Alina’s voice and had yet to manage to stay on the log for more than a handful of breaths. So as he listened to Alina he gave the log a frustrated glare.

“That’s enough for today, since we have some new blood I will tell you once more.” She looked over her enlarged group of students, her emerald green eyes gleaming in the light of the setting sun. “The Rising Moon style comes from balance, balance of the mind, the body and the sword. Unlike other styles the Rising Moon will always be with you, giving you an edge over those who simply swing their swords around all day.” She made sure everyone had listened before passing a folded note to Marith and dismissing the group with a wave before heading back to the window. All except one pair of eyes were drawn to the sight of Alina perched on the windowsill one leg pulled close to her chest the other dangling freely inside the room. Her shape was backlit by the setting sun, she almost seemed to glow and someone gave a love-struck sigh. Yet it was impossible to tell who. Breaking the silence Marith spoke in a strained voice.

“Umm adept…” Having all the eyes in the room turn to him Marith blushed a bit and picked his words carefully. “I don’t think this is possible…” He trailed off unsure of what to say. Morgan was sure that Marith had glanced at him as he spoke but couldn’t figure out why as he had just now been lost in the moment with the others.

“Of Course not!” Much to Marith’s surprise and everyone else’s delight Alina spoke with a giggle. “If it had been possible I would not have to give you that homework. Thus, until he can do that, training him will be your homework.” She smiled and gave both Marith and Morgan meaningful looks.

“…” Marith frowned and after a few moments of consideration he spoke. “Alright, I’ll do ma best mam!” Marith said while thumping his chest.

“Yes, yes, now go and wash off and get some dinner. You will have an early morning tomorrow.” She snorted in amusement and gave the group a dismissive wave going back to her book. On the way to the baths Morgan found himself surrounded by people. Or well surrounded might be a bit of an exaggeration but compared to his previous loneliness the hallways felt absolutely crowded. What surprised him more was how easily the group conversed, well Morgan excluded.

“So you have already been going to Alina’s class for a week?” Marith said in a surprised voice.

“Five days, so almost yeah.” Ross said with a grunt, dressed in the armless garb of a sailor, his voice was just as rough as one might imagine of a sailor.

As it turned out the arguing pair were twins from Seawall, the greatest city in the east and the home of the Imperial navy.

“Five days.” Rina said with a click of the tongue, dressed similarly to her brother and her tongue was equally rough. “Yet we are still on those blasted logs, Alina has yet to teach us anything!” Rina continued where her brother left off. It was such a natural transition that Morgan wondered if his relationship with his siblings were strange. What was almost stranger to him was that her Rina was obviously of noble birth yet she spoke incredibly roughly which was completely unlike the few other noble girls Morgan had met. The silence that followed stretched and became somewhat awkward when the last person in the group spoke up.

“Well… since none of us have managed to stay on the logs for a full hour it is hard to complain.” She spoke in a low timid voice that together with her short stature, petite build and curly hair left the impression of a small animal. “Especially after that second day…” She trailed off looking away. The twins groaned and Marith turned to the girl whose name Morgan hadn’t caught.

“What happened?” Marith spoke with great interest.

“Umm well...” She glanced at the twins.

“We complained.” Said Ross bitterly.

“Saying that she had set up this rigged game so that she could read books all day and still get paid.” Rina continued heaving a heavy sighed.

“So what happened then?” Marith spoke with eyes gleaming and even Morgan felt his interest spike, talking back to a teacher could land you in serious trouble.

“She just told us to pick up our practise swords then she got up on my log and told us that if we could force her off the log she would ‘teach’ us.” Ross said in a sour voice.

“I still had welts on my wrist until yesterday…” Rina spoke with a pout as she unconsciously rubbed her right wrist.

“It was absurd!” Ross interrupted. “She barely moved on the damn thing! And still every time we attacked we struck air and she would in turn whack our wrists with her damn branch!”

“All while lecturing us about the importance of practice and repetition.” Rina said and seemed to deflate a bit. “As if we were no more than flies…” At this she sighed and Ross groaned.

“Wow… sounds incredible, I had heard that Alina was close to Mastery of the Rising Moon but maybe she is already at the level of a Master?” Marith said, impressed and nodded in approval.

“That’s your take away?!” Ross snapped at Marith and gave him an exasperated look.

By now they reached the baths so the girls split off from the boys and entered while complaining about how late it had become. Entering the baths Morgan felt two pairs of eyes on him and did his best to cover himself with his towel.

“You really are a skinny one arn’t ya?” Ross said giving Morgan an appraising look.

“He is right. You are even skinnier than you look.” Marith seemed surprised.

“I umm… I was not a very healthy child…” Morgan hurried off to the bath. Ross gave Marith a look before shrugging and following Morgan into the bath. Being left alone Marith hurriedly removed his underpants and entered the bath too. Morgan washed up quickly but his heart fell when he realized he had gone straight from the afternoon class to the bath without collecting a change of clothing. He looked at his sweaty clothes.

“Forgot your clothes?” Marith voice startled Morgan.

“Umm… I normally go back by my room before going to the bath.” In reality he generally did not get very sweaty during the day so he normally ate and then either washed up in his room or simply left it for the morning.

“Wanna borrow my extra set of clothing? They might be a bit large on you but you're not going to a ball or anything” Ross was wiping his hair and reaching out for the cloth bag he had been lugging along with him. Emptying the bag he took out two standard Academy outfits and handed one to the surprised looking Morgan. The robes and pants in the Imperial blues and yellows were basically unused and Morgan looked at them in surprise.

“It will probably be a bit big on you but it should be better than wearing your sweaty clothes right?” As he said this he tossed the clothes over to Morgan who dropped his towel to catch it.

“A-are you sure?” Morgan said in a fluster. A set of Academy clothing was not free, not that it was terribly expensive either.

“Yeah just have them washed and return it to me in class, I have eight pair anyway. Or well…” He turned his head away looking embarrassed and spoke in a low voice. “Well I have seven now…”

“Umm thanks!” Morgan gave Ross a shy smile.

“Ohh! The boy can smile!” Marith said delightedly slapping Morgan’s back hard almost sending him sprawling to the ground. “Let's get some food I'm starving!” Marith said dressing himself.

Morgan was feeling a bit uncomfortable, he did not have any previous acquaintances at the Academy and during his three months at the Academy the other nobles had barely looked at him. Morgan was after all only the third son of a Baron and from a small and distant domain. This paired with his poor skill with the sword and pitiful magical capacity his value was rather clear, or rather the lack thereof. Thus the noble children had simply chosen to ignore him. The commoners for their part had either been picked up by influential nobles or formed close knitted groups of equals. This inevitably had left Morgan completely alone. At the time he had just been grateful that he had not been bullied like back home but now he thought. “Maybe I won’t be alone anymore?” Even if it felt a bit strange to suddenly be around people this though surprised him with how hopeful it felt.

Turns out Ross had been right and the clothes he had borrowed Morgan were indeed rather large. Luckily for Morgan it was not too bad. With some folding of shirt arms and pant legs he was good to go by the time the other two finished dressing. When the three were ready they exited the bath and started walking towards the cafeteria, but as Morgan turned Marith’s voice stopped him.

“Wait, where are you going?” Marith gave Morgan a puzzled look before frowning. “Wait, don’t tell me… You eat at the fourth cafeteria?”

“W-wha… Umm yes?” Morgan felt confused, it was well known that the fourth cafeteria had the best food.

“No wonder you’re so skinny! You don’t even get a full plate there!” Marith said it like he had heard the stupidest thing ever.

“You can’t even buy a second plate.” Much to Morgan’s surprise Ross chimed in nodding his head. As Morgan was about to argue Marith grabbed him by the arm and dragged him off towards the second cafeteria.

“We need to get some meat on your bone or else we will never be able to finish our homework!”

“Wait! What is our homework?!” Morgan was a bit afraid about the seriousness of Marith tone when he mentioned the homework.

“Ehh not much, we just need you to run two laps around the Academy in one hour.” He said it with a shrug not even noticing how Morgan stiffened.

“Bububu-but it takes almost one hour to walk from one side of the Academy to the other!” Morgan almost screamed.

“Yeah but we are not going to walk, duh!” Marith said it so matter-of-factly that Morgan groaned and Ross laughed. In this way the three arrived at the second cafeteria and unlike the fourth where Morgan had eaten all his food thus far the atmosphere here was not calm nor was the food very fancy. Instead what was served was a large lump of potato mash and a large unidentifiable slab of grayish meat covered in butter.

“Aww, Stormbringers waterlogged socks! It's a bloody seacow again…” Ross gave a disheartened grunt and took his place in line. Apparently this meat was rather infamous but what Morgan’s thoughts as he looked at the oversized portions that were being served at the head of the line was simply: “Do I have to eat all that?” Morgan was hungry but the portion looked far too enormous for him.

“Well look on the bright side!” Marith said, mistakenly thinking that Morgan’s trouble look was due to the type of meat smiled. “You won’t have to pay for a second portion!” He grinned and took a tray before scanning the tables. As they were about to be served Marith waved and Morgan could see the tall Louie stand and wave back at them. Morgan almost dropped his tray when the massive mound of mash was slammed onto his plate. His portion was even larger than Marith’s! He looked up startled and saw the old serving lady give him a wink and Morgan looked back down at the massive serving with a groan. In a daze he walked up to the next station and was once again startled as he once again got a significantly larger serving of sea cow than Marith. He looked at the serving lady with an almost pleading expression only for her to laugh heartily. He was sure she would have ruffled his hair if they had been in any other place. Dazed Morgan walked over to the table where Louie was waiting under the constant cackling and jesting of Marith and Ross.

“I didn’t think you would be so popular with the older ladies.” Ross said laughing. Morgan really wanted to retort but did not know what to say and was in truth more worried about how he would manage to eat all of his food. A small part of him was thinking that he could eat enough to fill his stomach and it would be okay to throw away the rest. But his father's word echoed in his mind. ‘Never waste food, for the gods will surely punish those who do.’ he had always followed this up by telling a story of his campaigning days, where there was never enough food and what little they got was cold and tasteless at best. So he swallowed those thoughts and prepared himself for a long dinner.

“You're late.” Louie said while giving the group a confused look. “It looks like the Kitchen staff really like you, do you come here often?” He added raising an eyebrow at the very large portion on Morgan’s plate. Louie’s honest question made Ross and Marith break out in uproarious laughter. “And they had finally settled down.” Morgan though as hh felt his face grow hot. Marith and Ross laughed so hard that Ross almost fell off the bench and Marith was pounding the table and having a hard time catching his breath. Louie was giving the two an exasperated look and Morgan was bright red, trying his best to focus on his food and ignoring the laughter and the many looks they were getting from the adjacent tables. Morgan quickly found out why Ross had groaned when he found out that it was seacow for dinner. The texture was close to that of beef but it had the distinct taste of the sea as one might expect of a beast of the ocean, making for a rather unpleasant combination. As the laughter slowly quieted down and the three began to eat Louie finally found the opportunity to talk.

“I take it that you managed to join Alina’s class?”

“Uhhruh” Answered Marith with a mouth full of mashed potato.

“Yeah… I might have understood you but maybe next time finish eating before speaking?” Louie gave Marith a flat look making Marith forcefully swallow his food.

“You asked when I was eating.” He pouted slightly before stuffing his mouth once again.

“No one is gonna take your food from you…” Louie was more than a bit troubled by Marith’s table manners. “I know you aren't a noble or even from the empire but people will look down on you if you act like a pig.”

“Don’t care.” Between bites Marith gave his thoughts in no uncertain terms. Louie could do nothing but sigh and instead of arguing he opted for retrieving a book from his leather bag.

“Your friend is an interesting one.” Ross said with a wide grin. “I'm Ross by the way nice to meetcha.” Saying this Ross presented his hand to Louie.

“Louie Brea’am.” Louie looked up from the book and shook Ross’s hand.

“I gotta say you three are a rather odd bunch.” Ross said looking over the three and Louie could not help but to chuckle.

“Well…” Louie looked over at Marith and shook his head. “A week ago this guy just sat down at my table during morning math and said I looked smart and asked me to teach him.” Louie laughed.

“That so?” Ross said, looking very surprised. “And how did ya meet the hunter over here?” He gave Morgan a smirk and held back his laughter when Morgan almost spat out his food and gave Ross a hateful glare after he finished coughing.

“Not sure what you mean by hunter but we ran into Morgan just today…”

“You're joking!” Ross just stared at Morgan slack jawed. “I thought for sure he and Marith went way back, seeing as he basically dragged Morgan along to Alina’s class.” He looked at the two and chuckled.

“Haha that’s just how Marith is.” Louie laughed and wore a somewhat troubled look. “He simply drags everyone around him into his pace not paying any attention to the trouble he causes.”

“You make it sound so bad.” Marith pouted at Louie. “I can read the room.” He said with a scoff. “I just choose not to.” He huffed looking oddly pleased with himself. At this point they were much to Morgan’s astonishment joined by the two girls. He could not help himself from looking around only to confirm his earlier vague notion that there were very few girls in this cafeteria.

“Did you even take a bath brother?! You still smell!” Rina scrunched up her nose and slid further away from her brother after sitting down.

“Ohh come off it sis.” Ross said so as he swallowed the last piece of seacow with a grimace.

“Ross finished already?!” Morgan looked down at his less than half eaten plate and groaned internally as he was already way beyond full.

“Well I’m sorry for caring.” Rina said angrily. “I bet you didn’t even use soap.” She muttered, shaking her head in disgust while slowly picking away at her food.

“Why would I use expensive soap when I'm just gonna get sweaty the first thing in the morning? It’d just be a waste.”

“No wonder you can’t get yourself a girlfriend with that attitude.” Rina clicked her tongue.

“Like I could get a girlfriend even if I tried…” Then in a voice too low for his sister to catch he added. “Every time I speak with a girl you give them a death glare anyway…” He stealthily gave his sister a bitter look.

“Wow” Morgan thought. “Those two seem so close.” Thinking of his own family he felt gloomy. “The only one in my family I ever fought with was my sister and I’d always just be forced to leave the room or one of my brothers would end up scolding me… well Liam would scold me. Arthur was just as likely to give me a beating.” Morgan sighed and forced himself to eat despite feeling as if the food was about to rise up out of his stomach. His food somehow tasted a lot worse suddenly and the task ahead of him suddenly felt impossible as a sudden bout of nausea swept over him. He really did not want to think about his siblings. Liam had been indifferent, Lilith had enjoyed making Morgan’s life miserable and Arthur had adored his little sister such as when she was involved his customary restraint had broken like thin ice.

“I suppose I am mostly at fault for being so useless...” Morgan felt tears coming on and had to fight hard to keep them from falling. He looked dully at his food and mechanically got back to eating his surroundings completely forgotten. Only to suddenly and rudely be brought back to the conversation by a kick to the chin from Ross.

“Ouch!” Morgan whined and rubbed his chin glaring at Ross.

“Morgan! Are you even listening?!” Ross glared back at Morgan. “You just kept staring into your food looking ill. We were trying to see if you were okay but you didn’t respond and just sat there.” Looking around the table Morgan saw that they were all looking at him, Marith looking worried and the rest wore expressions a mixture of confusion and amusement.

“Umm… umm… s-sorry. I was just a bit lost in thought.” He couldn’t say that he was feeling a bit jealous of the twins and got depressed thinking of his own family.

“Uh Huh.” Ross gave him a strange look. “I thought for sure you were feeling sick from eating all that seacow.” Ross shrugged and stood up taking his tray. “Well ladies, gentleman. Me and sis got Acrobatics with Mistress Cormora in the morning so unless I head to bed now I’m probably gonna die.” He gave a wave and Rina groaned before focusing fully on her food. Morgan managed to get through two thirds of his meal before he felt that if he took another bite he would throw up. Leaning back from his plate he had to force himself not to push the plate away. Marith laughed.

“You ate more than I’d guessed. Keep this up and you won’t be such a bean sprout in a year or two.” He laughed at the terrified look Morgan gave him.

“I-I don’t think I can handle eating this every day.” Morgan gave his remaining dinner a frightened look.

“Don’t worry! They only serve seacow once in a while.” Marith said nodding to himself as he once more misunderstood Morgan. Looking up Morgan saw that Louie was reading a book and the girls had already left. Surprisingly the cafeteria was almost as full it had been when they got here even though that sun was about to set. An even more shocking realization was that before Marith sat not one but two empty plates. As Morgan’s eyes shifted back to his own plate he had to fight back a gag, he could not say that it was a good meal but it was not too bad. However having eaten a serving more than twice the size of his normal dinner he was feeling rather sick simply due to the volume.

“You don’t like leaving food. Do you?” Marith said while giving Morgan an approving look.

“No… my father he umm…” His further explanation was forestalled by Marith holding up his hand.

“Give it here.” Marith leaned over and grabbed Morgan’s plate. Morgan felt his jaws growing slack as the almost normal sized portion rapidly disappeared. Morgan’s eyes flickered between the plate and Marith. “Is his stomach bottomless?” Morgan stared in wonder at Marith who burped and patted his gut as he finished.

“You done?” Louie shut his book and rose. “Have you finished your homework for modern history?” Marith looked away pretending to not have heard Louie and Louie could not help sighing. “You know that you will be forced to take supplementary class this Sunday if you don’t finish it right.”

“It would hardly be the first time. Besides, why do I have to know Imperial history?! I'm not even an Imperial subject!” Marith gave a derisive snort and gave a dismissive wave of the hand to emphasise his point.

“Haaaa…” Louie gave a deep sigh. “I knew you would forget, don’t you have a date with Kaya or whoever you are courting now on Sunday?” Marith grew pale. His mouth opening and closing but no words were forthcoming. Louie just shook his head and was about to leave when Marith managed to speak again.

“Ohh great Louie the most steadfast of friends! Please help me finish my homework!” Marith launched after Louie grabbing his shirt with tears in his eyes.

“Ohh by the gods get off of me!” Louie looked around in a fluster at the thoroughly amused peanut gallery and with his entire face turning red he pushed against Marith. Louie gave Morgan a pleading look as the nearby tables began laughing at the hilariousness of the situation. Morgan just looked at him with a blank expression. “What does he want me to do?”

“PLEASE STOP!” Not finding any help from Morgan, and being unable to push the much stronger Marith off himself Louie shouted in a pleading voice. With his face and ear tuning redder and redder with Marith still clinging on to him Louie’s mind raced to find a way to get out of this horribly embarrassing situation. At this point he suddenly seemed to realize something.

“I'm barely any better than you are Imperial history!” He shouted and Marith seemed to flinch, seeing that he got through to him Louie gave Morgan a terrifying smile. “But I don’t think I have seen Morgan in class, so he must have either passed the class already or be confident that he could pass without going to any classes.” At this Marith’s head swung around to Morgan with eyes gleaming like those of a predator who had found its prey. Morgan ran. He did not even make it out of the cafeteria before Marith caught him.

“Please help me Morgan! If I miss another date with Kaya she will cut my manhood off!!!” He was one the edge of tears.

“Why would you want to date someone who would do that?!” Morgan was more than a little terrified at the thought.

“What’s the point of dating anyone if they aint got some spirit?!” Marith said in a serious voice as his eyes gleamed. Morgan could not help but to recoil at the fervour in Marith’s eyes.

“Fine! I’ll help! Just let go of me! You’re getting snot on Ross’s clothes!” Morgan suddenly found sympathy for Louie’s previous struggle as laughing students past him as they left the cafeteria

“Really?!” Marith wore a smile like he had just been saved from a bottomless mire.

“Yes, but only if you let me go!” Morgan’s voice turned pleading at the ends as two girls passed them giggling. Marith let go of Morgan and gave him a wide grin causing Morgan to sigh heavily.

“So when is the due date?” Morgan asked in a tired voice.

“Tomorrow evening!” Marith said happily.

“...” Morgan just looked at him. “How much have you done?” he really did not want to ask as he was sure he knew the answer.

“Haven’t started.” Marith said a bit sheepishly. “Sort of forgot.” Morgan grabbed his suddenly aching head. He looked out the window and wondered if the library would be open at night.

“Well let's head to the library I guess, what task were you given?”

“I was told to hand in a brief summary of the succession wars.”

“Pages?” Morgan offered a silent prayer to Isani, the goddess of wisdom.

“Two! Would you believe it?! Even my tutors wouldn’t dump such a harsh task on me when I misbehaved…” Marith trailed off in a grumble. Morgan blinked. “Only two pages? …That should be easy enough.”

“I’m not sure if the library is open at night so I guess we should meet up in the morning, I’m free in the morning if that works for you?”

“Humm…” Marth grabbed his chin and got a thoughtful expression. “I wonder if we will have time tomorrow...” Marith spoke in a low voice but continued before Morgan could ask what he meant by ‘we’. “All right see you at dawn then.” Marith nodded and then jogged off without waiting for a response. “Dawn?!” Morgan thought horrified. “One of the best things about the Academy is that I don’t have to get up at dawn.” Morgan sighed deeply thinking about the rapid changes in his life.