Yvonne quietly read her notes on the classroom that morning, eventually, Axel crawled up to her lap. She quietly ignored the young dragon while continuing her notes and—

Crash!

“Hah! I won you owe me and Oscar 50 Thrones!”

Behind her, Oscar and Thomas laughed as Ren paid both of them as Oscar earlier claimed he can do a reverse tomahawk throw at the window while Ester and two other Mages proceed to repair the shattered window with their magic with ease.

“I’m really glad that we have mages here that can repair the Windows with ease,” Yvonne told Thomas as she focused on her own work. “But you bunch need to at least be more ‘presentable’ after all we are what many views as the chosen few.”

“I mean it checks out but,” Oscar spoke up with a frown. “But you don’t have to sound like a massive elitist for it.”

“We have every reason to act as such Leblanc.” She scowled at him as she and Oscar exchange heated glares at one another while Ester and Ren look at them worriedly. It was a common-place for Class 1-E for both Oscar Leblanc and Yvonne Sigris to be at each other’s throats, especially since Oscar has made an active habit of pissing her off out of spite.

“I understand how you feel Yvonne. But at the same time you don’t have to be so uptight you can always relax and fool around every now and then.” Thomas said frowning at her. But both of them had a point. Axis is after all one of the most prestigious Military Academies between Axis, and the two Kingdoms. With highly difficult entrance Exams, so it makes sense that they are fortunate and skilled enough to be part of the Academy. But at the same time, that didn’t mean that they needed to be arrogant for it.

“How did that worked out for Rise and Emma?” She immediately snapped at him, causing many to look at their direction.

Despite her cold personality, she had always been able to make friends. It was after all no secret that the two sisters were not only popular for their kindness but also for their beauty. However the Sakura Sisters were not only her first friends but also her closest ones, so she grieved for them the most compared to many who admired the two but their only coping mechanism was to blame Thomas for it, as did most of those who were close with the two sisters who grieved their deaths.

Thomas remained silent, but Ren and Ester noticed his fist was clenched tightly as Thomas avoided her gaze.

“Yvonne that’s enough,” Ren spoke up getting in between the two while Ester and Oscar looked around tensely. “What happened there wasn’t their fault—”

“But he was the leader of Team Aegis, so naturally whatever happens to him and his team is his responsibility,” Yvonne said angrily shooting him a glare, however, Thomas barely spoke a word but simply turned his back on Yvonne while Axel gave Thomas a worried look as he crawled out of her lap and made his way toward Thomas instead.

“They were just at the wrong place and at the wrong time Sigris. Besides they’re dead as if blaming him for what happened will bring them back.” Oscar said his glare at her intensified and then shot a glance at Thomas watched the two.

“Nor does constantly blaming yourself for their deaths will bring them back.” He added as he went back to his seat, this eventually made Yvonne quiet until eventually, Professor Pryce arrived to begin the class.

Later that day, Yvonne decided to let out her frustrations on the training grounds that afternoon. It was her habit of going to the training room when she’s upset as her way of venting out her anger, she was angry for multiple reasons.

The First is well, she is still mourning Emma and Rise’s deaths.

The second reason is that she is also angry at herself, yes she admits that Oscar is right but she still can’t bring herself to accept it.

And the Third Reason is the fact that she ended up lashing out at Thomas in regard to that idea.

“Having a rough day?”

She turned around to find Princess Charl walking to her with her Sledgehammer in her hands, Yvonne immediately bowed in front of her but she quickly dismissed that idea as part of the agreement to be treated equally.

“Yes, I ended up losing my calm around Thomas” Yvonne answered as she swung her Khopesh at another training dummy resulting it to be cut down in half. Despite being their ages, both Yvonne and the Princess are close friends since her family is one of the many Noble Houses within the Kingdom of Jorouse as a result she is part of an inner circle of students that are children of Jorousian Nobility.

“Is it because of what happened to the two siblings?” Charl asked as she also turned her attention towards another Training Dummy and took several swings at the dummy.

“Yes, I know that blaming him won’t bring them back but at the same time I can’t accept what happened with them.” Yvonne frowned as she watched Charl proceed to do several high mobility attacks on more Training Dummies as they arrived.

“I understand how it feels,” Charl responded as she put down her Sledgehammer placing it on the ground with a loud Clunk! As she turned her attention to Yvonne. “I had a similar experience with one of my early missions as a First Year.”

“What happened?” Yvonne asked but she took it back and was followed with. “—sorry if it’s alright for me to ask.”

“No it’s alright,” She smiled in amusement as she picked her Sledgehammer up and placed it on her shoulder. “It was one of my early missions for Team Justice, a joint operation with Prince Arthur’s Team Freedom, as well as three other Teams.”

“The objective was pretty straightforward, which is respond to this request for backup on a small fort near the Sharan Desert which is under attack by Insurgents, basically the Proto-ALC Soldiers.” She had a fond smile on her face, Yvonne likely guessed that it had something to do with working with Prince Arthur.

“We eventually made our way towards a nearby ridge where we saw a handful of them are waiting for us and we offered to help out in fighting them.” She continued but her smile was replaced with a frown. “But midway through the fight…the other Teams went rogue and turned against us, turns out the other Teams were, in fact, collaborating with them and tried to kill me and Prince Arthur.”

“What happened afterward?” Yvonne finally asked.

“We survived,” She said but she was a lot more dejected at the idea of surviving as her right hand suddenly shook causing her to rub her right wrist. “But our entire team didn’t, took us days after the three left us for dead in the Sharan Desert, by the time we got to Axis in one piece everyone assumed our teams died and the whole thing was cleared while the last thing I heard about the three other Teams is that they were expelled and were to be imprisoned.”

She kept quiet as she rolled up the sleeves on her arm revealing a tattoo showing a list of seven names on her forearm, it was an option for students within the Academy for Team Leaders to have tattoos of their fallen teammates listed upon their body as a means of reminding them of their failures.

Though it was discouraged by the entire faculty as it is considered damaging to the Morale of the academy. Yvonne notes that either she used her Royal Authority to have her be excluded from that rule, or she kept it a secret to everyone.

“At least until I heard about the Embassy Incident.” She concluded in a low voice. “And much like what Thomas is going through, no one took their deaths well to the same extent as everyone did. Royalty or not.”

“How did you two managed to get past it?” Yvonne asked one more time, at the same time she can’t help but be surprised at the idea that even these two are also subjected through the same treatment.

“We didn’t, to this day there are still some students that mourn for their deaths and some still resent us for it at one point both of us even contemplated on Dropping out since we couldn’t handle the situation,” Charl shook her head noticing that there are. “Eventually it took a handful of support from others to help us cope. But even today, their deaths still weigh on both of us.”

“Long story short,” Charl turned her attention to Yvonne with a small smile. “You may be mourning for their deaths, but Thomas is most likely taking it worse.”

“I see your point,” Yvonne concluded, but she groaned inwardly. She was honestly worried about how to face him afterward, after what she said to him is more likely to have more damaging effects on him more than she thought. “I guess I owe him an apology then.”

“That’s a start.” Charl smiled as she gave her a pat on the back as she walked away.

[Axis:Legacy]

“I see,” Said the voice on her phone that night. “To think even someone like her would be shaken up by the events from years ago. I guess she’s still human despite being royalty.”

“Is there anything else I should do?” Yvonne asked in a low voice in her room. She tried her best to keep a low voice as she once spotted a handful of mechanical bugs crawling around the Campus and any attempts to try and destroy the bugs could raise some eyebrows by whoever sent those.

“No, just keep going. Make sure to gain her trust and report back to me again once you find any updates.” The Voice said ending the call. Yvonne let out a sigh as she looked at the contact ID of her caller. Alice Lark, one of the Top Students like her and Thomas as well as one of the few Jorousian Royalty that is within Princess Charl’s inner circle. Despite being part of Nobility as well, the Sigris Family has sworn loyalty to the Lark Family as such they were ordered by the Larks to not only enter the Axis Academy to gain the trust of Princess Charl Noctria and then inform her everything she needs to know about the Princess as her family has always held a deep resentment over the Noctrias after the Axis Conflict.

Yvonne sighed as she sat there remembering the smile that the Princess had for her without her realizing that she is silently betraying her. But she shrugged, remembering that nothing is fair within Politics.

Later that evening, Yvonne was wandering around the library to ease off her problems. The best part of the Academy Library is that it’s open 24/8* as a result some Students and Teachers that would go and Study. But along the way she spotted Thomas sleeping on a nearby table while surrounded by several books.

(*There are Eight Days in the Calendar within the series)

“Orphen?” She asked in a low voice as she walked towards him and noticed that there was a Jorousian Uniform Coat draped over him to keep him warm while the books around him were about Leadership, Medicine, Magic, and a handful of notes from the class from Earlier.

“Just let him sleep.”

She quickly turned around to find Petra, who was suspiciously lacking the Coat as part of her Jorousian Uniform, leaning on a shelf looking at Yvonne with a questioning look. “How long…has he been here?” Yvonne asked her in a low voice to make sure that she doesn’t wake him up.

“He’s been here since Class had ended, he said he needed to study for a bit.” She explained walking past her and fixed the coat that was draped over him to make sure that he doesn’t get cold. “That bit took him a few hours, with him only leaving to eat or for training with his ‘Lady-Friend’ or to use the Toilet.”

“Was he always studying this hard?” Yvonne asked as she picked up a book on Leadership.

“Not since the Embassy Incident, he asked me to tutor him since that incident and I intend to keep my word for it.” Petra sat next to him as she looked at him worriedly. “So I intended to teach him more than just leadership that way he can be more flexible.”

“Should I just leave him like this?” Yvonne asked putting the book down.

“Just let him rest.” Petra resting her head on her chin. “Ever since the incident he’s been visiting here more than he should in between classes to the point of overworking himself.”

“I see,” Yvonne said quietly walking away making a mental note to apologize to him at a later date in regards to the whole issue.