"General Raeder does it again! Completely wiping out three bandit camps just outside of Eden! More on this after this short break!" The radio cried out.
"Jeez, I'm so tired hearing about Raeder, met him before and I gotta say, he didn't do it for me," Auria complained.
"You do know we have to go meet with him, right?" Ross commented.
"Ha? Why's that?" Auria groaned, "He's such a buzz kill… 'Why do you still do all that Alchemy crap' or something like that, he's just gonna lecture me,"
"Well, to be fair, us four do answer to him, even if not directly," Rockwell replied, "Oh, but he's so amazing! Have you seen the things he's done?"
"Yeah yeah, bandit camps, fought in the war, stuff like that, I know it all already, you don't have to bring it up again," Auria said.
"I hear he's up at the Lameanr Military Academy currently," Senwell said, "We could probably find him there,"
"Then it's settled!" Rockwell exclaimed, "It's time to set off to the Lameanr Academy!"
"But my waffles…" Auria grumbled.
"You can finish your waffles while we walk! Let's get a move-on!" Rockwell said as she grabbed Auria and marched off.
The group stood outside of the pearly gates of the Lameanr Military Academy. A beautiful sight to behold, but Auria was too angry about not being able to finish her waffles to really care.
"Auria, how about you run around and have a bit of fun while we go have our meeting?" Rockwell suggested.
"Fine, I guess I can humor the idea," Auria replied, "Besides, it'll be a bit of fun to mess around with the people here,"
Auria, wasting no time at all, rushed into the building, completely ignoring everyone else back at the entrance.
Upon entering the building, she was greeted with a fork in the road, so to speak, but that wasn't what was important to her, in the center sat an enormous garden!
"Well, I'm somewhat of a nature lover myself," Auria remarked before she rushed to the door to the garden, opened it, and found herself rather immersed in the atmosphere.
The garden had so many students and faculty roaming about, some looked like lovers, some looked like a big group of friends, and others were just loners who liked flowers. It was easy to tell which person belonged to which group, just look at how they interact with people around them, and if there are any people around them at all. Most importantly though, was their eyes. How their eyes look at the flowers, how they react to seeing other people, that sort of thing.
Just as Auria was about to pick a flower from the garden, the bell rang! And ring it did, it felt like it was going to shatter Auria's eardrums, seriously, who makes a bell that loud?
The students all filed out of the garden, though one snagged Auria's collar and dragged her off.
"Hey, what're you-" Auria exclaimed.
"We gotta go to class, I know you first-years like to slack off and skip classes, but school is important!" The man said.
"I don't go to… What?"
"Hey hey, it's alright, I'll take you to class, just get marked present and I don't care what happens after that," The man explained, "Oh, I haven't introduced myself, that was a bit rude of me… I'm Claude Riesen, Representative of Class C…"
"Auria Crane…" Auria replied, crossing her arms as Claude quite literally dragged her off.
"Since you're a first-year… Hmm… I'm willing to bet you're in Class G, they're the ones with all the first-years,"
The two continued on for a while, not that Auria really had a choice, being dragged and all, but Claude regaled her with stories all throughout the walk. The halls were surprisingly empty for an Academy, though what could you really expect from a military place. What a hassle.
"And here we are! Class G! Based on your uniform and such, I'm willing to bet you're a late enroller, don't be shy, if this is your first day, nobody'll fault you for being a little late, and I'm sure people here are just dying to be your friend! I know a few of the people here, so if you have any questions at all, you can just come to me!"
"Thanks…" Auria murmured, "I'll be off to class then…"
"Right! Well, Auria, I hope we meet again sometime! I'll be waiting 'til then!" Claude exclaimed before trotting off, presumably to his own class.
"It'd be funny if he wasn't even going to class," Auria chuckled before entering the classroom.
She was met with stares from her peers as she entered and silently took an empty seat. She was already playing the role of a student, might as well go all out, though she had never really been to a school before, so she didn't know what to expect.
"Alright… Time to leave as soon as possible…" Auria said under her breath.
Auria looked to the front of the room, only to find the teacher wasn't there. She was right to the side of Auria.
"Oh, uhm… Hi Miss," Auria said, "I'm uh…" She coughed, "New here,"
"I can see that, what's your name?" The teacher asked, "And you may call me Miss Neuer,"
"Auria Crane…" She murmured, "I uhm… Don't really know what to do here,"
The teacher inspected Auria with her menacing glare for a moment before she tapped on another student, whispered something into his ear, and then walked back to Auria's desk.
"Come, we'll get you fitted with a proper uniform, since what you have on now is improper," Miss Neuer said.
Auria stood and followed Miss Neuer. They walked forever, this place was too big for Auria's liking! There was small, then good size, then big, but this place was even bigger than big! A big school, she could deal with, but not this big!
Miss Neuer stopped rather suddenly, so Auria almost bumped into her. Thankfully she didn't, even if it was her first day, a Military Academy probably wouldn't forgive some errors.
The two of them entered into a room to the left of them and Auria was greeted with the largest fitting room she had ever seen.
"The first uniform you receive is free of charge, naturally, though if you damage or lose this one, you'll have to pay a fee," Miss Neuer said, "Now try one on and see how it fits,"
Auria complied. Honestly, Miss Neuer was a bit scary. She wore rank insignias on her collar, but Auria wasn't well versed enough to know what the hell that meant. She could be a Private for all Auria knew, or cared to know.
Auria tried to put on the uniform on her own, but the more she put on, the stupider she felt. Her collar was choking her and there was this stringy thing that she didn't know what to do with, what the hell even was that?
"Hey, uhm… Miss Neuer, what do I do with this stringy thing? It's just sorta hanging there and I dunno what to do with it,"
"Pin it under the fold of your overcoat," Miss Neuer responded.
"Uhm… Yeah, alright, I think I got it!" Auria exclaimed. Soon after, she finally exited the fitting room and faced Miss Neuer.
Miss Neuer sighed and facepalmed, "You got it all wrong, here let me," She said, quickly fixing up Auria's uniform, "There, now you look just fine,"
Auria took the military hat and put it on, "How's that?" Auria smiled.
Miss Neuer had a face of disgust and quickly took the hat from Auria's head and threw it to the side, "No hats indoors!" Miss Neuer yelled.
"Fine, fine, no hats… No need to yell…" Auria murmured as she went to retrieve her hat, "I'll just… Hold it, like this,"
"Now then, I hope you'll find your way back to class properly, if you need to make a few last-minute adjustments, do so quickly,"
"Yes ma'am…" Auria responded.
Auria did not in fact go back to class. She decided to take this freedom to explore! Because that's what heroes do! Well, at least in all the storybooks it is, just walk around and explore until you find the antagonist.
"No, I'm thinking the wrong things, not storybooks, those are fairytales!" Auria reprimanded herself.
She wandered about, putting her ear up to doors and eavesdropping on random rooms, though being a school, there wasn't too much interesting going on. How boring!
She stumbled around for a bit longer until she saw him! General Raeder! Auria hid around the corner and waited for him to disappear into another room.
This was the perfect opportunity to eavesdrop on someone who might be at least somewhat interesting, even if she didn't really like him. Stupid Raeder.
Auria trotted over and placed her ear on the door and listened in. She heard two voices, his and someone she didn't recognize.
"So… Greed, did you call me out here for any reason in particular?" General Raeder asked.
Greed? Auria thought, One of the Deadly Sins!
"Yeah yeah, always to the point with you…" Greed said, "Just had to tell you about Pride the other day, though I'm pretty sure you already know all about that,"
"Ah yes, I heard about Pride… Being Pride…" Raeder said, "Would you mind filling me in on the details? I don't believe I've been given a full report,"
"Ah, not much to tell, he got in a fight with the Godless Alchemist and got his ass handed to him! Pretty funny if you ask me," Greed remarked, "Oh! I almost forgot, may I interest you in some tea? You must be parched, traveling so far, I mean, it must've been at least ten minutes to get here from Central,"
"Surprisingly generous of you, Greed," Raeder remarked before what Auria assumed was a sip of tea, "Thank you very much,"
"So, what do we do about Pride?" Greed asked.
"Nothing, it isn't a well-known event, so we need to do nothing," Raeder replied, "What is the saying they always say? Don't fix it if it isn't broken?"
"Yeah, speaking about fixing things, how do you like the tea I fixed up?" Greed asked.
"It turned out surprisingly well, thank you, Greed," Raeder replied, "What is in this? How did you make it?"
"Oh, a little something called… Alchemy," Greed sneered, "How do you like it now?"
There was the sound of glass shattering as the entire building began to rumble! It was like an earthquake!
"Greed…" Raeder started, though Auria couldn't hear the rest because she stumbled onto her back and lost focus.
Auria backed away from the room and got just out of sight as Greed was flung through the door and into the wall!
Auria held her hand on her heart and peered out from her corner just in time to see Raeder unsling his sword and point it towards Greed!
"Pull a joke like that again and I will free your head from the rest of your body," Raeder threatened.
"Right right, point taken, jeez… Always so serious, never taking a joke," Greed sighed, finally standing on his feet.
Auria's heart was racing, she wasn't sure what she had just witnessed, but it was huge! The General talking with homunculi! It wasn't an accident either! He knew.
Auria skipped steps on her way down a flight of stairs and was soon positioned again at the entrance of the Academy.
At that moment, Seven came from nowhere, "Hey, went to the bathroom and nobody was there anymore, what's up?"
Auria looked to Seven, "I think I just found out more than I ever intended to or wanted to know,"