Candoran Calendar, Year 1887.

“Kato! Wake up, Kato!”

“It’s time to go to school, Kato.”

Kato stirred as he slowly got up from his futon. The calls of two very familiar voices from outside his room beckoned him.

Kato was a light sleeper, but he was not a morning person either. It took him several moments, but he was finally awake enough to recall yesterday’s events. Kato and the owners of those two voices had completed their lifelong martial arts training with Master Chang and performed their personal graduation rites last night.

It meant that Kato and his two sisters are finally freed from training and can go to school full-time.

“Kato, breakfast is already ready.”

An older male voice echoed through the apartment. Upon hearing this voice, Kato quickly readied himself. This was his last year of senior high school, and would be the first and last time he would be able to attend it full-time. With a quick smile he left his room, filled with anticipation for his long awaited golden year.

Kato Danubius lived in the border town of Livia, which was enclosed in a valley in the great Mid-Ranges mountains that spanned the continent of Candor. The valley had once separated the two former kingdoms of Auxiria and Ava, until the union of the two crowns in the early modern era. Today, Auxiria’s empire spanned the entire continent of Candor, having conquered and united the continent under a single dynasty.

The town itself should not be called a town, however. It has grown large enough to be called a city, and the progress of science and alchemy together can be seen through the tall apartment buildings that now flooded the city’s skyline, a scene that would have not been possible a mere thirty years ago. The town was founded by Yue refugees who travelled here after Auxiria had conquered their homeland long ago, and even today the locally spoken language is Old Yue. Many Yue migrant enclaves like Livia exist all over the empire.

This particular valley in the Mid-Ranges, the Tyrolian Pass, was blessed with fair soil as well as warm weather all year round, perfect for human settlement. The valley’s winds were gentle, its rain came often, and it snowed only for a couple of weeks a year. Most of the city rests on the valley floor, though it has since expanded into the hills surrounding it. The city was multinational in nature, as many migrants from other lands settled in Livia due to its high tolerance for foreigners, and many learn the local vernacular language of Old Yue as well as its language of education and administration, New Yue. The national language of Auxiria was Standard Candoran, but due to Livia’s autonomous status, the local languages were preserved alongside the use of Standard Candoran.

Kato lived in a relatively spacious flat with his younger sister Teto Danubia, his stepsister Evianna Misaya, and their guardian Karl von Habsburg. In fact, it was two flats merged into one, effectively doubling the living space of his small family. They lived immediately above the shops, on the second floor. The building was on the edge of the valley floor, in close proximity to the hills and mountains.

For most of their lives, the three of them spent the majority of their time with the martial arts expert, Master Chang, who oversaw their training to become talented fighters. The temple grounds were some thirty minutes away up in the hills behind them by foot. There with Master Chang, they trained in various aspects of combat to become “deities”, a highly skilled individual fighter.

This is due to their disposition as being “physically superior”, a term used to refer to those who have predisposed superior, perhaps superhuman, physical ability. More specifically, they were people who had significantly higher upper limits to their physical abilities compared to your average human limits. People who could be considered physically superior were rare, and so those who could become deities were even rarer. It took years of training to climb above your natural limits, so even if you were physically superior, most only end up having above average abilities because most could not handle nor even encounter such training.

“Kato, which afternoon classes did you decide to take this semester?”

Teto, his cute younger sister, asked as she glued her whole body onto his left arm. Her cheerful voice rang through the warm late summer air like chimes, and her short hair tied in twin drills bounced softly as she walked in step with her dearest brother. She was the spitting image of Kato, and if she had cut her hair and grew several inches taller, no one would be able to tell the difference between the two. Still in the summer uniform, it accentuated all of her curves which have matured greatly in a recent growth spurt. Teto was one year behind Kato, in the second-year class.

“I’m interested in it as well. You haven’t made your choices until the very last day.”

Walking together with the two of them on their way to school was Evianna, their stepsister, who was in the same year as Kato. Her outer appearance was quite impressive. She had pure silver-coloured hair in a bob cut, with her bangs held to the sides by hairclips. She stood almost as tall as Kato, who was at an average male height; Evianna was always the tallest girl in her year. In addition to having the perfect supermodel face and body, her chest size was the biggest of her year as well, to the envy of her peers.

“I picked the sciences, Evie. Just chose the things I’m good at.”

Evie. Evianna’s pet name, called by those close to her.

“But why did you wait until the last day to mail in the request forms?”

Kato shrugged and gently pushed Evie with the back of his right hand, as though he was waving her away.

“Eon and I were talking about which classes to take. We didn’t come to a conclusion until the last day.”

“So you’re going to be taking the same classes as Eon? Will you even pay attention in class?”

Kato sighed, realizing that Evie was already starting the day off by picking him apart. Just as he thought he’d avoid some of Evie’s antics this early in the morning, a fourth voice called out to them.

“Nonsense. Even if I were to horse around in class with Kato, I would still be at the top of the class.”

“I have no doubt you’ll be on top of the class academically and physically and in whatever manner else there is too. But unfortunately Kato can only manage one or the other.”

Evie responded to Eon Koziko, who had just appeared around the corner, also on the way to school. Eon was a childhood friend of the trio and lived only a street and a few apartment buildings over, so it was only natural that they walk the same way to school.

Kato let out another sigh as Evie struck at him again. He thought that he might as well join the fray too.

“Evie, it doesn’t matter because I’ll be skipping most of them. If I don’t skip my classes, how else would I be able to watch over Teto while she attended her classes?”

Eon turned his head away immediately, almost as though refuting Kato’s existence and his little sister complex entirely. He placed his hand on Kato’s shoulder with pretentious exaggeration.

“There are some things that should be kept out of the light of day, for the good of humanity. But rest assured, young one, one day your stalker skills will be just as good as mine.”

Eon readjusted his glasses and replied in such a serious voice that if you didn’t know him well enough, it was hard to tell if he was joking or not. Kato let out a groan of disapproval in any case, while Evie and Eon both grinned widely. With their morning banter routine over, they proceeded onwards to school.

Kato had auburn-coloured hair, short, unkempt, and slightly curly. Teto’s hair mirrored her brother’s, except with more curls. Wearing a simple dress shirt, it was his preference to never wear the tie. As a typical young lad, this was his idea of looking cool given the limited wardrobe options for school. In contrast, Eon unexpectedly always wore his uniform properly despite his personality.

The girls, on the other hand, were allowed much more freedom in their choice of attire. Teto’s shirt was sleeveless in comparison with Evie’s sailor uniform with long sleeves and length, extending over her miniskirt. Interestingly, Evie has not always wore pantyhose, but ever since she was put on exemption from Master Chang’s training last year, she began pursuing fashion as a hobby to occupy the extra time, and has since wore them outside of training. Teto, however, has a habit of wearing as little as possible, to the point where she sits in her undergarments at home. It was all it could take to get her to put on her socks.

“I’ll see everyone at lunch!”

Following Teto’s exclamation and parting with his dear sister, they have arrived at the 3-F classroom of Korolev Senior Secondary School, and despite being in a different classroom from last year, they have come upon a familiar scene. It seemed that most, if not all, the students from last year’s 2-F class has remained in Class F. Not everyone was here yet, but there was some time before homeroom started. The arrangement of the desks was as per normal; individual seats in rows and columns.

Second from the back of the classroom sat two very familiar faces. Caius Evans and Franco Atkinson both sat there with their usual demeanour; Caius with his blonde curly hair and a soft expression, while Franco had a red bowl cut with an excited and slightly goofy air around him. However, their builds were polar opposites; while the feminine Caius was short and had a cute baby face, the masculine Franco stood tall and was very handsome, making them both a target of affection for the ladies in the class. Like the contrast between Kato and Eon, Franco wore no tie while Caius did.

“Welcome back, guys.”

“Ayyy, the crew’s assembled now.”

Caius and Franco greeted the trio.

“‘sup, brothers.”

“Yo.”

“Good to see that the Elite Four is here and accounted for.”

Kato, Evie and Eon responded as the men gave each other high-fives. The trio moved into their usual seats behind Caius and Franco, and all five youngsters gave a satisfied expression. The unholy alliance has been assembled once again this year; and perhaps for the very last year as well.

Caius was the last member of the original group of childhood friends; Kato, Evie, Eon and Caius were a tightly knit group ever since the siblings moved into Livia at the start of primary school. As kings and queen of the playground, Eon nicknamed their group the “Elite Four” to face off against their archrivals, the Jupiter sisters. The Jupiter sisters were another group of four children who challenged the Elite Four at school and in play, and thus grew up together with the Elites.

Today, all four Jupiter sisters are executives on the student council. Interestingly, though the moniker “Elites” included Teto in the label as well, they specifically use “Elite Four” to refer to the four older children when contrasting with the Jupiter sisters, especially in a four-on-four competition.

Before they entered junior high, Franco, after emigrating with his parents to Livia from the Kingdom of Rine, joined this group of hooligans in their adventures. Though they immigrated here recently, the distance was in fact not very far and they, perhaps not coincidentally, came from a city with a majority Old Yue speakers.

As the newest member of the group, he was on the receiving end of the many pranks that Kato and Eon devised. Similarly, his advances on Evie were met with constant rejection as he was smitten by Evie’s beauty. When together with the crew, Franco would assume the straight man role that Kato had previously occupied. Though thoroughly tossed around by the others, they nonetheless proved to each other, on many occasions, that Franco was a kindred spirit and joined the ranks of the Elites.

“So Teto’s on afternoon classes this year too?”

“Everyone’s on it. There’s no more training left for us to do.”

Caius inquired the newly arrived siblings for their confirmation, which Kato gave. For every year up until this year, the two peas in the pod did not attend afternoon classes, which were elective classes. Evie, as well, did not take any afternoon classes until last year. This was due to their continued training to become deities.

If a student does not attend enough afternoon classes over their senior high career, they will miss the requirements for a Standard diploma and instead be granted the People’s diploma, which would be what the siblings would graduate with. The difference between the two was that only the Standard diploma would allow advancement into post-secondary education, and for the siblings, this was not needed. But to bring their golden year to a memorable close, they have decided to take afternoon classes along with the rest of the Elites.

“Kato decided to take extra sciences, Eon again with the advanced math, and I settled on home economics and extra phys. ed. like last year. We’ll see what we’ll take next semester.”

The morning classes were on a regular schedule of compulsory classes running throughout the year following their homeroom classes, with the final exams for them at the very end of the school year. The afternoon classes were divided into two semesters, running on a course selection schedule.

“Hey, I’m taking home economics again too! That makes two of us once more!”

Franco held his fist out to Evie for a fist-bump, which she completed with matching grace. Though Franco may be infatuated over Evie’s looks, they actually complemented each other’s mannerisms and got along quite well.

“I’m guessing that no one wants to take classical literature with me this year either. Kids these days, they just don’t understand the beauty of great cultural works.”

Caius shrugged lightly in disappointment. Out of the Elites, Caius probably had the least interests in common with the rest of the group.

“No one’s gonna just take doubled-up classes, dude. That’s too brutal. Three straight hours of literature, every day? For real?”

“Math is where today’s at. We’re in the age of science now, grandpa. No one has the attention span to appreciate great cultural works.”

Both Kato and Eon shrugged off Caius’ complaint and smirked at each other. Typical.

The bell rang for homeroom, signalling the end of the idle banter between them. However, something was seemingly wrong with the scene in the class.

“Mr Constantinus is supposed to be our homeroom teach, right?”

Franco asked out loud. Looking around the classroom, it seemed like most of the other students were also confused about the absence of the homeroom teacher. Caius replied to Franco’s question.

“I’ve heard Mr Constantinus went on leave back to Hellenia for this year. If that’s true, it’ll mean that we’re gonna get a new teach.”

“Really, Caius? That’s interesting. Wonder who it’ll be.”

“Caius, how d’you even know about this? Student council?”

“Eon, you’re on the student council too, you dumbass. Not only that, you’re an Assembly member too. After the Jupiter sisters were elected into office last year, you were really gung-ho about joining the council to undermine their rule.”

“And now that I’m a student council and an Assembly member, literally a member of the hierarchy, I may have forgotten about the plight of the lower plebs. I’ve become a hopeless scum of the earth now.”

“Don’t lose hope, Eon. That’s why I’m here. To lose hope for you. Every little misstep you take, I’ll be there to remember your failures forever.”

As he finished that sentence, Caius smirked at Eon, who in turn proceeded to gratefully clasp Caius’ hands in dramatic fashion as the other girls sitting near their area started giggling. It did help the reputation of the Elites that Caius was a very cute boy; otherwise they would really be written off as a ragtag band of hooligans, albeit law-abiding ones.

Kato slapped at Franco’s head for his attention.

“And Caius’ shots are still, amazingly, on-point as always. Franco, it seems like you’re destined to eat our dust forever.”

“I think I gave up trying to catch up to you guys a long time ago.”

As Franco responded in desolation, the classroom door suddenly opened up, immediately silencing the entire class.

A very young-looking girl walked in with a small wheeled luggage as the whole class stared at her in silence. The little girl was obviously the new teacher for their class, but the class was obviously put off by her extremely short stature, no taller than a middle-schooler. She wore a white dress shirt and pencil skirt, resembling an office worker. Her shoulder-length blonde hair was partially tied in the back in a small pigtail, finished with a large Oriental style hairpin, possibly custom-made in the homeland of Yue.

She started writing her name on the chalkboard, which to the students’ surprise was a name in High Candoran, the national language of the Kingdom of Candor. While the continent was named after this kingdom, to distinguish between the two, “Candor” by itself refers to the entirety of the continent, while “Royal Candor” refers to the kingdom. Today, the kingdom is a constituent of the empire after it was conquered earlier in the century.

“Good mornin’, everyone. Elizabeth Romana is mine name. For this year, you shall be mine students, and as a graduate of this school myself, Romana expects every one of you to put in your best efforts to make your final year of high school as enjoyable and memorable as possible. Romana shall be in your most gracious care.”

Elizabeth bowed to the class after a very formal introduction, and the class was immediately surprised at her accurate pronunciation of Old Yue. She used the prestige dialect of Kwangchow of the Yue homeland, the same dialect in use in Livia and many other similar exclaves. Though many people graduated from Korolev Senior, it was a multiethnic school that took in foreign students, so it wasn’t guaranteed that everyone had perfect Old Yue.

“Romana knows she must explain this, but if anyone is surprised at mine appearance, Romana unfortunately has a condition of stunted growth, which means that she shall forever be a short girl. Romana does not remember, but Romana is probably approaching her seventieth day of birth by now.”

And then the class rose up in bewilderment. Conversation sprung up spontaneously amongst the students, including the Elites.

“We got ourselves a loli grandma as our teach!”

Eon shouted out with gusto as he raised his fists in the air in a victory stance, and Kato proceeded to stand up and high five Eon.

“Silence!”

She was not amused at the class’ response, especially from Eon and Kato. The class, unexpectedly, gone back to complete silence once again.

“You two at the back! Come to the front this instant!”

And so they did. Eon and Kato stood at the front of the class facing Elizabeth, both grinning at their new teacher with amusement. Seeing how they were not scared by her anger and how the class behind them were all watching with a curious attitude of anticipation, she immediately realized that these two were the troublemakers of this class, and probably along with the three other children sitting with them as well. She sighed in helplessness and she shook her head in disapproval.

“Your names?”

“Eon Atelier Koziko.”

“Kato Amero Danubius.”

Elizabeth raised her eyebrows at the second name.

“Although Romana could guess what kind of students you are, Romana still needs to remind you that that was not proper etiquette in the classroom, especially in the presence of a teacher. No standing up without permission and no shouting out vulgarities, understood?”

Then Kato decided to pick Elizabeth up off the ground and hugged her tightly.

“Got it, teach. Anything for a cute little girl.”

“She’s actually so cute, we should think of a cute name for her too.”

And not a second too soon after Eon’s suggestion, Kato immediately nicknamed her.

“Sisi will be our teach’s name from now on. Sisi, we heard your concerns and will be good children from now on.”

Kato said those corny things to her with no shred of shame. Sisi, who turned scarlet with embarrassment, did not regain her composure in time and habitually started to stutter under her breath instead.

“Y-you are, no, th-this is, v-very awkward indeed. Sisi--”

Then she realized that she used the pet name as her first-person pronoun and she snapped out of her trance.

“Do you know what you are doing?! Let go of Romana this instant!”

Sisi complained loudly as Kato lets go of Sisi from his bear hug. Setting her firmly on the ground, they saw that her head had barely reached his chest. She was a short girl indeed.

“I’m glad you like the name.”

Kato smiled brightly at Sisi, letting her know that he had heard her murmur that name by accident.

“Ahhhh! Romana doesn’t know anymore! As long as you two remain behaved while class is in session, then it is fine.”

Sisi shook her head furiously and dismissed the two of them, clearly still red-faced at the physical contact between her and Kato. Despite her actual age, her heart and mind was racing as if she was at the age of her appearance. She pinched her own cheeks and turned once again to the class, which had watched the situation unfold in awe. The two boys had already returned to their seats and sat in obedience. Taking a deep breath, she continued to address the class.

“You all are entering the third year of school in Korolev Senior, and many things shall change from your previous years here. Romana has won the Class Wars of her year, thus Romana expects the same result from this class as well.”

Sisi cleared her throat as she addressed the class once again, but the class was no longer just in silence. They were in silence and also very sombre. The class was not very enthusiastic about the Class Wars.

“The Class Wars, as you should already know, is a year-long competition between the third-year classes. Many of you most likely have seen it in action already in the last two years. You shall be competing for a limited number of points distributed across the classes throughout the entire year, with the victorious class all graduating with the Standard diploma waiving the academic requirements. Not only that, your final scores shall be granted a fixed boost of points.

“With the appropriate casus belli, a war can be declared on another class. A physical battle between the two classes shall commence, and victory shall be granted when one side’s class representative’s cleanse tag is fully saturated to the opposing class.”

Sisi grabbed out of her baggage a roll of what looked like bandages, tearable into long strips at fixed intervals.

“All of you shall be given cleanse tags. Without a cleanse tag, you cannot participate. These cleanse tags shall protect you from physical injury at all times while within the barriers of the school grounds. However, the more damage you take, the further the cleanse tag shall be saturated.”

She took a strip of the bandage, tied it around her wrist, and proceeded to kick the wall and stub her toe. Showing the bandage again to the class, the bandage that was originally white, began to slightly colour black.

“A completely saturated cleanse tag turns completely to black, signalling the retirement of your participation in this battle. Our headmistress, Lady Eterna, maintains the barrier around the school during a war, so you can do as much physical damage to the school as you want; she can reverse all the damage you make. Those who happen to be in the barrier without a cleanse tag during a war shall receive divine protection from Lady Eterna through the barrier, but of course, no cleanse tag means no participation in this war. If you’re too late to put on one, then it’s too late.

“In this new age of widespread use of alchemy, while we do not allow any use of alchemy itself, we have added the academic Duel element to the Class Wars. In Romana’s time, a war was merely a massive physical brawl between the two classes. Today, teachers or any other Supervisor can adjudicate a Duel between two fighters, which can be a competition of any kind, including academic competitions. The loser of the Duel shall get their cleanse tags artificially saturated.

“Once a war concludes, the peace terms shall be negotiated between the fighting parties and a peace treaty shall be put into force. The peace shall be as binding as any policies passed by the Assembly.

“We can go over more details later, but Romana wants to remind you again that Romana’s class had won the Class Wars and Romana’s class photograph is hung on the Wall of Victory in the West Hall. Now that Romana has become an educator, albeit a temporary one, the title shall not be lost as long as Romana lives.”

Revelling in her moment of glory, Sisi puffed out her small chest with pride while the class remained stoic.

“Sisi, we’re Class F because we suck. How are we going to be able to win?”

Franco voiced his and the rest of the class’ concern out loud, and immediately a slap on the back of his head by Kato followed.

“Worry not. By our first war, we shall already have the advantage. Romana can make sure of it.”

With these words of reassurance from a cute little girl, Eon’s tendencies once again got the better of him and stood up. Kato, unsurprisingly, followed suit.

“Everyone, we have the goddess of victory on our side! This year is it, boys and girls. We’ll beat the shit out of the other classes and win the Class Wars!”

“And there’s no need to worry, because the Elite Four is here to stay. With us here, victory is nothing less than assured.”

And so the class started to be riled up with this morale-boosting speech. Though the class may see the Elites as a bit eccentric, they didn’t have anything to lose anyway, and with the Elites here, it would be at least very entertaining to watch their spectacle.

“Have no fear, everyone. I’m still here; ready to brute-force all our victories.”

Evie chimed in as well, not letting only the two of them have time in the sun. Everyone else in the class also knew that both Kato and Evie were physically superior, and not only was Evie a beauty, Evie already had a reputation to solve problems by physical force, so her reassurance garnered many cheers from the boys.

“You girls can help out too, can’t you?”

“If we can get your support, then there’s nothing that can stop us.”

Caius and Franco both appealed to the female crowd as well. It did help them that they were cute and handsome respectively, so the screams from the girls in the crowd weren’t too surprising.

With the class up in arms only after a mere half a minute, Sisi was impressed by the band of delinquents that sat at the back of the classroom. Though she has already heard of the reputation of this group of children from the other faculty staff, she got to witness their flair first-hand on the first day of classes.

“All right, enough of this already! Romana have just told you to stop misbehaving, Koziko!”

Sisi let the class cheer for about ten seconds before she declared silence again, to which the class was unusually obedient to. After the noise subsided, she smiled to the class and bowed once more.

“This is your most important year of your life. But it is up to you to make it the greatest. Romana has faith in each of you to make it so, and she looks forward to being your teacher for this year!”