Caught a head cold during last weekend and focused on recovering. Only lasted a couple days thankfully. Held off on posting a chapter until the new week began.
Giliath demands your power stones! Let's try getting over 500 this week!
*****
S1200. January 1st. Morning
Valflame Palace.
A jam-packed day full of events and nightly activities have come to a close, not only to Valflame Palace but to all of the citizens. It was one worth remembering, as it was the arrival of the next century at hand. From here, the story would start shedding light into what was shown in the games. The entirety of the Liberl Arc, Crossbell Arc, and Erebonia Arc would play out within the next eight or nine years, with Reverie being its finale.
To put it into perspective, Naoto only has a mere fifteen months before he turns fifteen and begins his school life at Jenis Royal Academy. He had long since received his enrollment papers from the Dean. It did have entrance exams much like many other schools did, but given certain statuses of their country, being a prince had its perks. Both he and Kloe were already set to enroll next year in May. This would trigger the start of Sky FC, with Estelle and Joshua following suit to take the Bracer Exam under Scherazard's guidance.
Only this time, there may be a third person added into the mix, a certain violet haired girl who had entered a relationship with the aforementioned prince back during their hotspring visit in Roer a couple years prior, Angelica Rogner.
In just these few months, Angelica had excelled at her studies after Estelle and Joshua found a good wrapping up point with theirs, all thanks to Scherazard's guidance. Once Scherazard stopped tutoring the duo, she quickly found her place back in Grancel City to tutor Angelica.
Scherazard had also received a message to the Grancel line saying that yet another new arrival was set to come to take their Bracer Exam this year, a certain upbeat and spunky girl who loved all things cute. From Schera's eyes, happenings at the Bracer Guild branches were bound to get even more busy in the coming times.
Yet even with what was to come, Scherazard and Angelica took a slight detour to celebrate the new year at the Bright House, but didn't expect to come across two high ranking military figures in Liberl's Royal Army. It was one to remember, but laughs were shared nonetheless. If anything, Colonel Richard and General Morgan would end up spending an all-nighter after trying to calm down the army after hearing Erebonia's declaration.
As for what went down in Valflame Palace since the night ended, in a certain area within the few private quarters housed further within, a certain blonde haired prince woke up to the rays of the sun. Yet he couldn't even enjoy waking up to such a blissful morning before being greeted with a pounding headache. Prince Olivert indulged in quite a bit of alcohol, mostly drinking red wine throughout the night with the other guys. Mueller wasn't too far away and was able to see Prince Olivert waking up like this, both sporting a grin to his face while letting out a sigh at the same time, as if he had already experienced this before.
Thankfully there's always some maids on standby, considering it was Valflame Palace. They knew what to do, and already had some hangover medicine, as well as preparing some water to help drink it down. These maids also acted as if they were already used to this. Prince Olivert did like his escapades and would often divulge drinking together with Scherazard during the Sky arc. Yet outside of that, it would seem that he had already started to succumb to such behavior. At the very least, it wasn't on the level that Sara or Eina would often do, but it was enough to give Prince Olivert a hangover.
At the same time, a similar scenario could be seen being played out at the Bracer Guild in Calvard's capital city, Edith. Before she realized it, Sara found herself slumped over one of the toilets on the upper levels in the Bracer Guild, with Lavi at her side. Unlike Prince Olivert, Sara was knocked out to boot and could see her eyes spinning from being too drunk, thanks to celebrating the night out with a few individuals she had gotten acquainted with during her stay in Calvard.
Thankfully Toval was there to help ensure Lavi and Sara safely made it back to the Bracer Guild in one piece, and the student trio had long left after finishing up the celebration the night prior, considering they were currently living in the school dorms. Still, seeing Sara in this drunken state, it put Toval to shame, considering that they're currently working partners in the same line of business.
Regarding Van's trio, the three had to leave not too long into the night, considering they were still students who resided in the dorms, so Van hadn't seen the level Sara reached during her drinking. On top of that, Van had yet to move into his own place, which he would after graduating, only to create the future Arkride Solutions, basically a jack-of-all-trades that would accept any sort of request that the Bracer Guild would find hard to request. On the upside to living in Calvard, the lack of Jaegers was quite a presence here. That was potentially due to the fact that Calvard was home to one, if not the highest ranking corps of Jaegers of the entire Zemurian continent, and other Jaeger corps wouldn't want to dare tread on their territories. In a way, it was safe in the eyes of the citizens.
With things calming down in Calvard for the time being, those who celebrated in Crossbell didn't go all out like certain individuals did back in Calvard, and kept most of their fervor in moderation. That was likely due to the fact that these were off duty cops and they had certain practices to uphold. Apart from a Septian Church Squire, Crossbell's Mayor, and an off-duty Nurse that is.
It was unfortunate, but at this time two certain groups of rowdy delinquents have yet to make their first debut, but these cops have been receiving warnings that Crossbell's Downtown District had started becoming unsafe to wander in certain areas. Still, it was uncertain that a certain Dominion of the Septian Church was wandering around Crossbell City. Elie had come to learn of this individual, but unfortunately, during her stay in Arteria she did not meet this person. Aside from Kevin, she only came across a couple other individuals, one being Van's teacher, so likewise, she had come to learn of Van's existence. It triggered her memory again, letting Elie recall she did in fact see Van once before, during her travel to Arteria.
There were a couple of individuals that Elie had no clue about as she chance upon seeing Naoto that day, during her traveling to Arteria, so learning one of the individual's circumstances was nice to her. There was Sherryl's situation as well, but Elie had stayed quiet on the matter to not disrupt Jillian's current state of mind. She was able to express her gratitude during the new year's celebration and Elie was happy for her. As far as Elie went, she kept things in moderation making sure to watch over her Grandfather. She was curious how she would spend her next year, but at least it would be beside him to help him with his office work.
After all, Elie would become busy yet again once S1201 May hits, for she too received her enrollment papers to Jenis Royal Academy in Liberl. She would be one of those foreign exchange students, but presently, Naoto hadn't a single idea that Elie would be meeting him again to spend one to two years at Jenis. Having a look of anticipation, things quieted down quite quickly in Crossbell after the new year's night had passed.
As for those in Liberl, they too experienced a similar fervor, much like celebrating the new year in both Crossbell and Calvard. Kloe had returned from Leiston Fortress, together with Hearts and Julia to relax over a few days, having a mini vacation of their own. Ever since Naoto had 'vanished' from the castle again, Kloe returned to the military grounds of the Royal Army and continued her swordsmanship, mainly with Julia's guidance.
Every so often Cassius would drop by to give a pointer or two to not only the princess, but to the rest of the soldiers, despite not being part of the military anymore. Cassius gave pointers on his style of the Eight Leaves One Blade School to Kloe, Julia, Richard, and even Cid, as well as Hearts. Hearts didn't have much technique since he used to be an assassin designed for killing, so it was a surprise to see the Eight Leaves One Blade in action for the first time. None of them became proper disciples of the School, but it wasn't easy to earn the guidance of an active Divine Blade.
If there was someone who benefited the most out of that, it was definitely Estelle and Joshua, considering they were Cassius's children. Along with their studies while staying in Rolent for the time being, Estelle had been learning pole arts directly from Cassius himself.
Kloe and Julia parted ways once that group returned to Grancel Castle, to which Kloe and Julie remained in the castle, and subsequently came across Jayna Storm as a newly hired secretary of sorts, while Richard, Hearts and a newly added General Morgan made their way to Rolent, only to find themselves celebrating the new year at the Bright House with that news drop.
As to what Hearts' specific role was on the matter, he was on guard duty during it. It hadn't been long since he successfully got inducted into the Royal Army, even earning praise from Colonel Richard. He wasn't one to doubt the monstrous strength Hearts has been showing during many military drills.
Even Ennea decided to take a bit of time to drop by Grancel Castle, making sure that Kloe wouldn't be alone to celebrate the new year after receiving news that Kloe was on her return to the castle.Ouroboros as a whole was quiet during the festivities, each member mostly going about their own devices. Even the likes of the Steel Maiden drifted toward Legram for a bit, seeing the castle she had once used to occupy as a base during her active duty as an Eisenritter.
It was a rare moment where all countries across Zemuria experienced a day of peace, not shedding a single drop of blood from a lost life. Even the renowned Jaegers across the continent bundled together with their individual crops, drinking away to their heart's content, or experiencing the nightlife of wherever they currently resided at.
Time, however, was forever a cruel mistress, not showing any signs of stopping to anyone who dare tread her path. With the sun rising up from the Eisengard Mountain Range, a new day started for Zemuria's people. And that included a certain prince who seemed to forget that he had passed the night in an unfamiliar room, only to quickly realize the position he was currently in...