The next month was filled with annoyance for Leo. Andrew and Faust's arguments only grew worse over time.
Leo tried to be on more friendly terms with his squad, as did Luke, but the fights were a bit too much for the two. There was really only one time when the two stopped fighting. It was when Faust would practice his instruments in the dorm and Andrew cleaned his guns. It was too bad it was an unnerving silence, almost like the calm before a storm.
But there were a few good things that happened.
The crows began to be friendly with Leo, especially the weird one. Leo had named it Bun after it stole a honey bun from a nearby student to give to Leo as a gift. Their days always ended with it always flying into the strange void. Because that kept happening, Leo had a short conversation with the woman in the bunny mask practically every day. They were short conversations and pretty boring ones at that, but it was nice to have someone who didn't shout in his ears inadvertently.
Leo also was at the top of his classes in terms of hand-to-hand combat, swordsmanship, and strategies, nobody really came close. Leo thought he was only at the top of the swordsmanship ranking because Evelyn wasn't allowed to participate in the training due to her being a grim.
Everyone had to train with guns which was why Leo was even on the leaderboards, but it was impractical to make everyone train with swords. In a world with guns and swords, it was obvious which one to train people to use when they didn't have access to their other weapons. Especially when your training people on a time-constraint. It's not like the students didn't practice at all, but it was mainly practice with knives during hand-to-hand lessons.
Leo was placed fourth for marksmanship, which confused him. He of course lost out to Andrew, by quite a lot at that, but he had also thought some others would be good at it, but for the most part Andrew and Leo were leagues above the rest. The two above Leo, third and second, both were left in the dust when compared to Andrew.
But Andrew had become just worse in general, he had even started lashing out at other people, including Leo. Leo never did anything whenever Andrew messed with him, instead he just ignored him and went about his day. This caused Leo to be picked on quite often, but then Faust would retort Andrew causing another argument. Leading to the cycle of annoyance to begin again for Leo.
Despite being the best squad individually, they were simply awful on the actual squad rankings. In fact, it was quite embarrassing to practically everyone involved, including the people who picked the squads.
"You dye your hair black? Probably to be like your father, right?" Andrew was speaking to Leo in their room, he had found some black hair dye boxes in the trashcan.
Like always, Leo ignored him and like always, Andrew continued, "Oh, sorry, to be like John. I forgot you were adopted. On the bright part, you got the pale skin part down. But did your daddy run away to get some milk or is he just dead or something?"
Leo stopped painting for a moment and for the first time since Andrew's antic started, he showed a reaction. But despite that, it was only a slight reaction. Leo had paused and slightly furrowed his brows before going back to his painting.
Andrew sighed and flopped back, ignoring Faust who was now yelling in his ear. Leo often felt bad for their dorm neighbors. While laying down and ignoring Faust, Andrew looked at the walls around the room which were adorned with paintings.
Leo just stacked them in the corner along with his few books. He didn't want to hang them up as he instead preferred to usually just look through them every once and a while, he only personally hung-up painting when he thought they were extraordinary. But Faust wasn't having any of that and hung most of them up. It was one of the few things Leo and Andrew agreed on as neither wanted the paintings hung, but Leo, just like with the arguments, ignored it.
As Andrew looked at the paintings, he saw those ever-familiar crows which Leo seemed to paint nonstop. He even looked out the window and saw that one weird crow practically striking a pose for Leo to paint. Andrew stared at the strange bird for a bit while shaking his foot, suddenly his foot stopped, and his eyes widened just a tad.
A knock was heard at the door, and it quickly opened. John waltzed through, he looked at Leo and spoke, "Hey, I need to speak with you really quick."
Leo nodded and started putting away his art supplies, he got up and went to talk with John. They started walking along the edge of the forest while talking.
"So, what did you need to talk about?"
"Your graduation, it's coming up soon and I'm pretty sure they'll be sending you to Riftmoor."
"Is that it?"
"No, the situation in Riftmoor has changed since you left. The Wolves are getting targeted by someone else besides the Eagles. I think it's angels but I'm not sure, I haven't been able to investigate it properly. So, if you do go back to Riftmoor, be careful when dealing with the Wolves if you do."
"I see. So, the Eagles rebuild themselves?"
"Montague stepped up to take the reins, but him alone probably wouldn't have been enough without a backer. That's why I think the angels are involved, whether by order or not. Of course, there's a bit more evidence than that but you catch my drift."
"Alright, thanks John."
"No problem, buddy, I'll let you get back now."
They parted ways and Leo went back to his dorm. After eating dinner, he worked out for a while before going out for his evening walk. While on his walked he saw Evelyn and Kyle walking around together.
In the past month the two got closer and Evelyn managed to get through Kyle's dense skull that she liked him. Once that happened, they started hanging out much more, which was saying something, they had even ended up on a squad together. Leo froze for a moment and realized most groupings were based on the people they hung out with rather than who they synergized with. Or maybe it was just his squad that didn't synergize.
He mumbled, "Just who put these teams together?!"
Evelyn and Kyle noticed Leo and headed over to him.
"Hey teach! We're just hanging out!" Evelyn shouted, which was something she had started to do constantly as a joke, even though it had been a month since the joke originally started. Needless to say, it grew stale very quickly.
"Want to hang out with us?" Kyle asked, Leo was going to decline but decided to actually join them for once.
They walked around talking about this and that, but Leo mainly kept to himself walking slightly behind the two. He interjected every once and a while with a joke, or sometimes to expand on the topic. But besides that, he just thought about random things, causing him to zone out frequently.
"Oh, I've got an idea!" Evelyn suddenly turned and said to Leo, snapping him out of his stupor, "Why don't we have a spar and then we can explain it to Kyle to help him out! He'll be able to beat you in a match one day!"
She was referring to the fact that Kyle was a dealer, and because of that the two often dueled in their class. They were ended before he could ever learn anything though. He wasn't all that good at using a sword but that's an unrealistic expectation from someone who's never used one in their life. All things considered he wasn't that bad either, his talent was alright too.
Leo agreed, he had nothing better to do after all. They both went over to the field and Kyle pulled two wooden swords out of his pocket dimension and handed them to the two. Leo thought it was ironic that between the three of them, the only one who could use the powers of a dealer was the weakest swordsman, causing him to laugh under his breath a bit.
They stood opposite of each other on the dirt patch and stared at each other as the sun set in the background and the insects chirped rapidly. Like it was a director signaling the start of a scene, the wind blew slightly down from the trees, onto the grass, before reaching the two on the dirt, causing the two sprang into action.
Once they reached each other, Leo ducked and Evelyn swung, missing him completely before getting poked in the chest by Leo, ending the fight before it even began.
"W-what just happened?" She muttered while looking at Leo.
"Did you forget the most important rule? You're a grim and I am partially a dealer. You get countered and I get premonition."
"O-oh." Realizing the implications of what Leo said, she actually started tearing up. She had just realized that no matter what she did, against dealers she'd always be fighting the future and if she used a sword, her future was sure to be sealed.
But she was more depressed by the fact that she wouldn't be able to duel her family on the same footing anymore. This was because they'd be able to see whatever she tried to do, before she had been a grim, she didn't provide any premonitions at all.
Kyle went over to cheer her up and Leo apologized. She told him it was fine, that it was better to realize it here than on a battlefield. They parted ways as Leo decided to give them some alone time, partially feeling guilty for giving her a reality check.
Leo walked around for a bit more around the edge of the forest eventually making his way to the void. Bunny popped out and looked at Leo.
"Doe, I thought I'd let you know that I found something while patrolling."
Over the past month Leo had come to learn that the girl in the bunny mask was simply referred to as Bunny. Leo hoped he would stop getting put in situations around people who had animal personas. It wasn't her real name, but John had told him she was a Hunter which was like the special, special forces. She had been sent here to manage security at the school, but John was outranked by her, so he didn't know much. Hunters all wore animal masks and were referred to by the animal that they adorn, and their identities were strictly kept under wraps.
"Yes? What'd you find." Leo wouldn't say they became friends, but they were on friendly terms. It would be accurate to say they were acquaintances that actually like each other's company, but not enough to be friends. Neither wanted to be friends either.
"A shrine, its crumbling down, but it's still there. It's relatively far and was hidden in a little crevice. Maybe the crow wants you to restore it or something." She shrugged.
"Interesting. Is it made of stone?"
"Yep, I couldn't make out what it was, but it was definitely made of stone. If I had to make a guess it's of a person, it seems to really only be their legs."
They discussed the statue a bit more before they parted ways and Leo headed back to his dorm and went to sleep practically immediately. He had started doing this because the arguments usually stopped when the lights went out.