As Sisi had explained, the third-year classes participate in a physical competition, the Class Wars, to determine the strongest class of the year. The Class Wars were a martial tradition of Korolev Senior, as historically this school was the alma mater of many legendary deities that fought across the continent for various causes, chiefly the secret society of Eternia, who was the sole patron of this school for the entirety of its existence.

The other martial institution that produced enough deities to challenge Korolev Senior was the Central Imperial Academy of Military Arts, the prestigious officer school for the empire. Central Mil produced many deities that went into service for the empire’s army. In a sense, Central Mil was the rival of Korolev Senior, as historically many of the deities who graduated from these two schools often fought on opposing sides during times of conflict.

Almost the entirety of the school grounds was enveloped by a magical barrier, which functioned as a defensive shield against trespassers as well as alerting the school of an intrusion. Moreover, the barrier serves another purpose in the Class Wars. During a war in the Class Wars, cleanse tags would prevent injury to the wearer while within this barrier, permitting an all-out physical brawl without fear of injury.

The headmistress of the school, the mysterious three-hundred-something-year-old Lady Eterna, maintained the barrier around the school as well as restoring any physical damage done to the school building during a war. She was also responsible for the protection of people who did not wear cleanse tags during a war. Eterna was an extremely gifted alchemist, and together with her two sisters, founded Eternia as an underground secret society. She based herself in this school precisely to produce talented fighters to fight for Eternia.

However, in this day and age, the rapid progress of society and technology required a shift in focus to the rational subjects of the day, such as mathematics and science. In the past, Korolev Senior was a very martial school that taught a variety of specific fighting techniques, but as time passed the curricula evolved into something more like those in commoner schools. Today, martial arts were non-credit afternoon classes that did not contribute to the Standard diploma credit requirements, so they were classes that ultimately got skipped over by many students aiming for post-secondary education.

“No one brought lunch, right? Aight, we’re gonna go to the caff to get some food. Sit tight here, brothers.”

With that, Franco got up from his seat along with Evie and they both ran out the door for the cafeteria. Unlike a typical school cafeteria, this school cafeteria was famous for its traditional Oriental-style food from the Yue homeland, and would always attract long lines of students every day. There have been many Class Wars fought over the privileges in this cafeteria.

“And there goes the finest man I’ve ever met.”

“You mean the fattest man you’ve ever met.”

“Eon says it every time Franco goes to fight that long-ass line to get food for us. You don’t need to correct him every time too, Caius.”

Kato rolled his eyes at the in-jokes exchanged between the remaining two boys. Franco used to be a chubby boy when they first met, but after meeting his goddess Evie, he finally got the motivation to get rid of the extra fat.

Eon and Caius, however, were not perturbed at Kato’s complaint.

“Heh, and now that Franco’s gone, his role goes back to the original straight man, Kato.”

“Heh, it’s time for some callback humour.”

Eon and Caius grinned at each other. They were not going to be pulling any punches at all. Kato knew the routine already though, and usually the easiest way to get out of it was to segue the topic at hand to something else. Later, when the Elites look back on their year, they would come to laugh at how the future came to be from this little twist of fate.

“Hey, Yui, are you all right? You’re bruised everywhere.”

Kato called out to a classmate sitting in front of the Elites. Yui Tereshkova. She had been in the same class as them since primary school, so she was no stranger to the Elites. She had shoulder-length red hair with ends curling inwards and her eyes were light indigo, an eye colour of the Avian people.

“Eh? Um, yeah, I’m all right. It happens when you live in the ghetto.”

Yui smiled weakly at the three of them. The ghetto. Yui lived at an orphanage that was based in the city ghetto in the heart of the city, an area where people lived in near-poverty. Unfortunately, one of the side effects of a rapidly developing city was the widening gap between the rich and the poor, segregating areas of the city by economic class. Although across the city there were several areas that could be considered ghettos, only the one in the city centre was called a “ghetto”.

Even though she came from the ghetto, if one examined closely, her face was very impressive, perhaps enough to be second in their class behind Evie. As her emotions animated her face, the allure of her various expressions was truly something to behold. But alas, her natural beauty never surfaced within the boundaries of this school, nor did she ever try to do so.

“I’ve lived in the ghetto as a kid, but did things get even worse over the years?”

“And there’re no plans for gentrification either.”

“The ghetto is a lost cause, my friends. There’s no other place that the people of the ghetto can go, so it’ll be here to stay.”

“It’ll be fine. Yui’s taking afternoon classes, right? D’ya have any plans after graduation?”

Kato, Eon and Caius quickly roped Yui into their conversation, and though it wasn’t often she get to talks to them, it was often enough to know their individual tendencies, so in a sense she was already used to their mindless banter. She turned around in her chair and faced the boys in their conversation.

“We brought back the best of the best, my little piggies. A fitting feast for the return of us, the legends, to this great institution.”

Evie appeared in the doorway, triumphant with a lunch box in her hand. Franco followed her inside, clutching onto everyone else’s lunch boxes with his life.

“Ah, the fight to the front of the line was a long one, but we got’em in the end.”

Franco struggled with his five lunch boxes as he stumbled inside.

“Oh, Yui’s joining us for lunch too? Sorry about that, we didn’t get enough boxes.”

Evie asked as she saw Yui talking to the boys. As Yui replied, she took out a cloth-wrapped box from her bag.

“It’s all right. I’ve brought my own lunch.”

Yui again smiled timidly as she spoke.

“We’re not your little piggies! We are the greatest beings to have ever lived!”

“So same thing as being my little piggies. No difference.”

Evie brushed off Eon’s objection easily and sat back down at her desk. Then, another familiar figure appeared at the door.

“Hey everybody! I’m gonna be eating lunch with my friends from now on, so can I have my lunch box now~?”

Teto appeared at the door waving her arms at the crew with very unfortunate news for Kato, who instantly started bawling his heart out.

“Enjoy yourself! Remember to come back once in a while to entertain us.”

Franco, who was still standing up, tossed one of the boxes over to Teto and gave her a wink and a thumbs-up. Teto winked back at the crew and immediately skipped away, headed back downstairs to her classroom.

“It’s all right, Kato. Your little sister won’t be coming here anymore, probably because she wants to avoid your sister complex. But at least we still got Yui here.”

Eon pretended to console Kato, of course. There was not a moment that Eon wouldn’t take to take a shot at Kato.

“Hey, I’m not Teto’s replacement!”

Yui pouted at Eon’s last remark there. She managed to settle in among the Elites and speak more confidently.

“And no one’ll ever be. I only have one little sister, now and forever.”

Kato laid his face onto his desk, not wanting to see a world without his dear little sister.

“Eheheh, Kato’s taking it a bit too hard this time around.”

Caius poked at Kato’s cheek, the man still unresponsive to the world.

“The moment he sees Teto again, all will be forgotten. We can just start eating lunch without him. And if he still doesn’t eat his lunch, I can eat his for him.”

Evie shrugged at the antics for once. She took the boxes away from Franco and passed it to the boys who stayed behind in the classroom. Kato immediately sat back up as Evie threw his box in his direction, allowing the box to land gracefully on top of the desk instead of on top of his head.

“Evie!”

Kato stared at his stepsister wide-eyed, who also matched his critical gaze. The staring contest continued for about three seconds before Kato broke off contact from Evie’s eyes, which were slowly turning into the dead, hollow eyes that pierced right through his poor soul.

“Th-thanks.”

Kato choked on his words as he came off of Evie’s intense gaze. The rest of the crew laughed at their incredulity as Evie recovered and smirked at Kato, claiming victory once again. Kato bowed to Evie in defeat and opened his lunch box along with everyone else.

After the end of the afternoon classes, the Elites met up in the locker area to change from their indoor to outdoor shoes and close out their first day of third year. The lockers were where students would pass through first when they arrive, and then pass through again as they leave. Traditionally, the locker area was where corporal punishment was carried out. As such, a hole in the barrier was intentionally created here in the locker area to allow corporal punishment, even when people wore the cleanse tags.

Grabbing their personal belongings, the Elites were satisfied with their first day of school and began to walk home, five o’clock on the dot.

The road home was a bit long, and unfortunately the paths home between Franco and Caius versus the other four would diverge. As they did from last year and the year before, they all agreed to make the split-off at the old playground they and the Jupiter sisters used to frequent, which although it made the way home a little longer for everyone, the extra distance was reasonably short enough to take it. If they needed to, they could all meet up here in the morning on the way to school. They passed by many apartments, shops, a factory, and up a very long hillside path before reaching the playground at the top.

The playground grounds were not made of sand, but of rubber mulch, as the city is essentially devoid of open grass or soil; a city of pavement. Behind the main playground were a jungle gym, then a fair amount of space, and then a large chain-link fence with a locking door that shielded it all from a narrow road, lined on the opposite side with many short apartment buildings with small shops on the street level. Turning around from that road to face the direction of the hillside road they came from, there was a very clear and majestic view of the city below, as well as the hills and mountains that surrounded it.

“See you guys tomorrow.”

“Eon, we have student council duties starting tomorrow, so we won’t be heading home immediately, guys. It’ll probably last an hour after school if you guys want to wait around.”

Franco and Caius called out and waved to the siblings and Eon as they parted ways at their old playground.

“Got it, shorty.”

Eon responded with a simple quip as they all waved back at Franco and Caius, bidding them farewell as the cloudless sky began to turn slightly orange. They went in opposite directions along that road beyond the playground; the siblings’ party towards more apartment buildings in one direction, Franco and Caius toward the more suburban-like area with large houses in the other. As a side note, the Jupiter sisters’ home was also in the direction of the suburbs.

Passing by many apartments and a few more lights, the four had come back to their familiar road. Eon’s building was the first, so he broke off from the party first.

“I’ll see everyone in the mornin’ then.”

The brother-sister duo saluted the bespectacled man, while Evie flicked her hair as if she was in a commercial for a hair product. Eon replied with a similar salute, opened the steel doors to enter the apartment and disappeared up the stairs. The siblings walked on for only a few buildings before they also reached home.

As noted before, they lived in a doubled-up flat; two flats combined together by removing a part of the wall that separated them, connecting the two living rooms together. The second flat’s front door was then sealed so that only the door into the first flat remained open to the apartment’s stairs. In the first flat there was a living room complete with colour TV and couches, an Oriental-style kitchen, an indoor balcony with the washing machine and laundry tools, Karl’s home office and bedroom, and two guest bedrooms. To the children, the first flat was Karl’s territory, and referred to the rooms in the first flat as “Karl’s kitchen” or “Karl’s washroom”, etc.

So the three of them entered the first flat, called out to Karl to notify him of their return, threw their schoolbags on the couch, sped past the living room, and into the second flat. There was another kitchen but much less equipped compared to Karl’s as it only ever cooked instant noodles and had a microwave oven. The living room and bedrooms were carpeted in comparison to Karl’s tiled floors. Their living room had couches and a large old radio atop an expensive stereo sound system that played records and cassette tapes, as well as a messy array of clothes and other personal effects among the three of them strewn across the floor and furniture. The siblings’ flat had separate rooms for the large bathtub and the tiny shower, whereas Karl’s side only had the shower.

There were only two bedrooms in their flat, but the bedrooms were big, and they only used the larger of them; the three of them all shared one room ever since they were children, and it had not changed to this day. The carpeted room had one huge bed that Teto and Evie slept in, while Kato had a futon set up on the carpeted floor next to it. The wallpapers were blue on one side and pink on the other, reflecting Kato and Teto’s favourite colours. Each of them had a small office desk to put away their possessions if they ever wanted to. Like the living room, their belongings were laid out in the open for the world to see, especially Teto’s clothes.

The slightly smaller bedroom, though it also had a large four-poster bed, was not occupied and was left as-is for a long time. It did not have as much furniture as the siblings’ room, save the small counter for the bed light. When the day comes to clean house, they would clean it up, but for whatever reason they never used the room for something else.

They kept that bedroom closed to prevent spreading the mess that is the siblings’ flat. However, that bedroom’s door that was usually shut, was mysteriously open today, which caught the siblings by surprise. Slowly and quietly, as though they were sneaking upon an unsuspecting victim, they peeked through the doorway from behind the wall, standing right outside of the bedroom door.

Upon the old four-poster bed laid a small girl with blond hair, her person somewhat obscured by the mosquito net that hugged around the bed. Though she seemed to be still wearing a dress shirt, a sign that she had went to sleep without changing, she seemed to be sleeping peacefully nonetheless.

“Wait a minute…”

Kato murmured to Evie as he pointed to the roller luggage that was tucked away in the far corner of the room next to the bed. They had both seen it before. It was within their view for the entire morning in fact.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…”

Suddenly, hands belonging to their guardian, Karl, clasped on Kato’s and Evie’s shoulders. They were a bit too focused on the girl in front of them to notice Karl coming into their flat.

“I forgot to mention it to you guys, but we have new orders from the top. I’m sure you’ve already seen her at school, but she’ll be staying with us for the coming year, until the two of you graduate.”

“Nyaa~”

A cute sound came from the direction of the bed. The girl slowly got herself up and out of bed, parting the netting around it away. She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand before she stepped onto the carpet and faced the people standing in the doorway. Those people in question stood in silence as they watched on and waited for her to address them.

“Kato, Evie, Teto. Sisi shall be in your care for this year.”

She smiled radiantly as she said it simply and honestly. Sisi did not wear any of the pompous attitude she gave to her students at school, and not only that, her dialect changed slightly as well. Though she still spoke in the same archaic style, the intonations were less perfect than before.

Her dress shirt was unbuttoned completely, to the horror of Kato at first, but immediately realized that besides her lack of development in the women’s department, she also had a lengthy scar down the middle of her chest. On top of the scar, squarely between her breasts, was a tattoo in the form of a stylized unicursal hexagram, which designated her status and allegiance: a Guardian of Hearts for Eternia.

Since long ago, Livia was famous for being a base for the secret society of Eternia, which has in recent years became a public secret. Eternia was an underground organization that essentially operated as a shadow government over the continent of Candor, in direct opposition to the imperial government in Auxiria proper. Livia was able to maintain its autonomous status due to Eternia’s influence here. Similarly, the neighbouring city of Lien, the origin of and a major centre of research for Western alchemy, was able to do the same.

It was estimated that Eternia controlled at least a third of the Auxirian economy and maintained its own underground paramilitary forces. Eternia was headed by a mysterious group, the “Three Eternal Leaders”, who wielded exceptional alchemical and magical abilities, both in their genius as well as their bodies being powerful alchemical catalysts themselves: Eterna and her two sisters. Eternia espoused of an egalitarian utopia on earth, held together through authoritarian rule by the Eternal Leaders and supported by alchemical and scientific progress.

The siblings’ final destination would be to join the prestigious group of deities that stood above all others inside Eternia, the “Guardians of Hearts”, whose members are referred to as “Hearts”. As orphans, Kato, Teto and Evianna were taken in by Karl von Habsburg, an Eternian agent, due to their physical superiority. They were then set to train with Master Chang over many years of their youth to become Hearts candidates. Ever since they became part of the von Habsburg household, they have aimed to become such, both to repay Eternia for their lives to which they owe, and to use such a position as a means to their own ends, whatever they might be. From the very beginning, they did not believe in Eternia’s ideological theory.

So once they graduate from high school, they would be formally inducted into Eternia as deities who would fight for Eternia’s interests across the empire. Eventually, they would join the ranks of the Hearts to fight against Eternia’s strongest enemies. Nearly all of the Hearts, past and present, graduated from Korolev Senior, and as headmistress of the school, Eterna essentially handpicked the Hearts herself.

Moving the coffee table and various pieces of clothing aside, the three children were on their knees on the carpet floor in their living room, folding their legs underneath their thighs and resting on their heels in seiza style. Kato occupied the centre, flanked by his two sisters. Facing them was Sisi, who sat on the couch in front of them with an Oriental teacup in her delicate fingers. Meanwhile, Karl stood to the side in wait, giving off the impression as though he was the butler to Sisi instead of the homeowner. It made it the more realistic as he usually wore a vest with his dress shirt and black pants, giving off the appearance of an attendant.

Sisi got up from her seat to move to the coffee table at the side, pour more tea into her cup, and sat back down with it in both hands. Her eyes and facial expression relaxed as she began to speak, almost as though she was a grandmother speaking gently to her grandchildren.

“Sisi shall introduce herself once again, this time in full. Mine name is Elizabeth Miklos Romana, one of the deities of the Guardians of Hearts. Mine title is the ‘Two of Hearts’, as in the second in command of the Hearts. In the past, Sisi contemporaneously served in the multinational unit of deities, the Winged Emissaries, who fought in the Candoran War many years ago on Eternia’s behalf.

“It is mine understanding that the three of you shall join Eternia in official capacity as well as the ranks of the Hearts in the near future. To facilitate your entry into our ranks, Lady Eterna has decided that Sisi shall return to this institution to observe your abilities for the year.

“Though Sisi says she shall be assessing your abilities, Master Chang and Karl are already very well-versed in your physical capabilities as well as personalities, so that is not part of mine assessment. There is only one criterion for your assessment; Sisi’s judgment. If you are able to impress Sisi, then she has no doubt that you shall be able to join the Guardians of Hearts.”

As Sisi had been sipping away at her tea, she paused here to get up once again to move to the coffee table. This time, Karl had offered to refill her teacup, to which she accepted graciously. She sat down once again in the same fashion.

“While Sisi may be your overseer, unless Sisi needs to assume the role of the Two of Hearts, Sisi is merely your teacher and guardian. In other words, you can treat Sisi as you would a normal teacher or guardian. That is all.”

Sisi smiled innocently again. She did not mention when she would need to assume that role, but regardless the children nodded at her respectfully. Though she was clearly finished, the air in the room remained light and pure, almost as if they were at a temple praying at a goddess’ altar. It was most definitely Sisi’s doing, as her demeanour up to this point had been one comparable to her actual age. As Sisi remained a grandmother, the siblings remained obedient.

“While Elizabeth is staying here, I’ll be staying away from home more often to wrap up the work needed to get you guys out of here safely when the time comes.”

Karl spoke in his deep voice as he scratched at his thick moustache. His long black hair, tied in a small ponytail, had grey streaks in them for as long as the children had known him. It was only at this moment, as he declared that he would be away from home for some time, that the siblings realized the grey had spread tenfold. It has been almost twelve years since.

The children also knew what kind of ‘work’ Karl was talking about. The work referred to the efforts to erase the children’s existence within this community. Once they become deities, it was imperative that enemies of Eternia could not find any evidence of their pasts. In other words, iconoclasm: destroying physical records and memories of their existence. The only evidence expected to remain of them in Livia would be in the memories of the people they were close to, and the class victory photograph, should they win the Class Wars.

“Thank you, Karl. Sisi shall leave those matters to you, as mine own guardian had done for Sisi so many years ago.”

“How often will you be gone?”

Evie was the first to speak among the children, maintaining the politeness and formal atmosphere that lingered.

“I hope not too often. There will definitely be some nights or weekends where I’ll be gone, but if meals are what you’re worried about, I’ll make sure arrangements are made ahead of time.”

Karl smiled as he gave a vague answer to Evie, as he did not and would not know the scope of his work and where it would take him, but he patted the side of her head all the same as Evie closed her eyes. While Evie was slightly upset, the other two looked a bit distant as well. Karl was obviously loved by the three of them.

“If that’s the case, then Sisi’s arrangements too have already been decided with it together some time ago, I take it?”

Kato asked his question carefully. His implicit question was to confirm if Sisi would take over his role as their primary chaperone.

“Yes, this entire arrangement has been decided a while back, though I’ve only been informed of this recently. It’s not like I’ll be a delinquent and disappear for days on end. From what I expect, I’ll be working out of Aunt Maddie’s place.”

Karl confirmed Kato’s suspicions. Though the sudden change of life circumstances were not unfamiliar to the children, who had went through their own troubling and uncertain times before coming to the von Habsburg residence, it was not something that anyone got used to.

“Aunt Maddie? That is Madeleine di Parma, Sisi presumes? Sisi did not know that she owned property here in Livia.”

“It’s more like a safe house that Madeleine and we use on occasion. She does own it, but she doesn’t live here of course. She has much better things to do as a cabinet.”

Madeleine di Parma, known to the children as Aunt Maddie, was Karl’s direct superior for his assignment as the paternal guardian of the siblings. Almost like a typical eccentric relative, Madeleine occasionally visited their residence to play with the children and shower them with gifts. The visits were quite involving, usually amounting to staying over at the safe house for a week or two. To the children, it was an exciting time to temporarily stay in a different home, do different things and eat different foods, so they always looked forward to Madeleine’s visits.

Madeleine was a member of the Eternian cabinet, the uppermost echelon of Eternia that ruled over all of it. In essence, the cabinet was the Eternian equivalent of the Auxirian aristocracy. As a member of this elite class, it was not surprising that she owned this property on top of probably many more. While Madeleine lived on the top of the Eternian hierarchy, Karl was part of the nomenklatura, the bureaucratic middle class in which Eternia governed its organization and territories through. The nomenklatura, while not purely equivalents of civil servants, they resembled more of the Auxirian landed gentry: the bourgeois middle class and lower nobility.

“If you’re going to be using the house, is Aunt Maddie not coming to visit us this year then?”

Teto asked out of curiosity. Out of the three, Teto liked Aunt Maddie the most.

“She won’t be affected by my use of the house. Aunt Maddie is going to be visiting us during the usual time of the year, so don’t worry about that.”

Karl said gently as he ruffled her hair lightly. When indoors, Teto would take off her hair ties so her curly hair flowed freely around her.

“So all in all, we’ll be doing the same things as planned, then?”

Kato asked his two elders in the room. “We” referred to him and his sisters, while “the same things” meant going to school as planned, staying away from the Eternian life for the year. Because of their exemplary performance, which was immortalized through their formal graduation rites at the Chang temple just a day ago, the three of them insisted that they stay in Livia for one more year to complete their secondary education without disturbance from Eternia’s side.

“Exactly as planned. Up until the moment you graduate, there’ll be not a single expectation for any one of you.”

Karl nodded in assurance. While Karl and Sisi handled their own respective assignments within Eternia, the siblings were going to live this year as normal people.

“Wait, I thought Sisi was going to be assessing us for our Hearts candidateship.”

“Ah, that’s right. Is there something more about the assessment?”

Kato questioned again, which Evie also wanted to know the answer to as well. Evie was easily the strongest of the three of them, and was expected to become the future leader of the Hearts.

“It is Lady Eterna who decides the membership of the Hearts. So while Sisi shall be assessing you based on mine personal preferences, in the end Sisi can only recommend to Lady Eterna for your initiation. So Sisi’s assessment is merely a formality Sisi must perform.

“Sisi was one of the Hearts who agreed with your request to stay in school for the year. Sisi believes in having a fulfilling life if you are to join the Hearts. Sisi does not believe in a Heart without a heart. Thus, that is mine criterion for your assessment. If you can show Sisi that you can live your life, then Sisi shall most delightedly recommend you to the Hearts.”

Sisi laid down her teacup on the coffee table for the third time, went up to the three of them and pulled them all together in a warm hug.

“Even though it actually is an expectation, it is an expectation that you shall, without a doubt, be able to meet. Is Sisi not correct?”

The large balcony-windows, secured with the usual iron cages to prevent unwanted entry, were open, letting in the summer air which blended splendidly together with Sisi’s warmth as she closed her eyes and asked of the children in her embrace. The children could only nod in response.