The sun has risen and shines brightly into the island of Olympia. Many alarms rang in unison with the morning bell that signifies the start of the brand new day that has arrived. Somme students who just woke up went to their balcony to greet the rising sun, while others who’s been awake for longer kept their pace in their daily lives.

At this time in the morning is about the time for Julia August to finish her early morning jog all across the streets of Olympia, her sweat glistening from the rays of the sun as she entered the hall of the Rank 10 students.
“Good morning!” she cheerfully greeted as she passed through Gavin, who’s coming out of the elevator she will be taking, likely on his daily routine to pick breakfast up for his mistress, Venus Marigold. Julia’s not really sure of their relationship, but it doesn’t really seem to be anything romantic.

As the elevator went up to her room just above the ground floor, Julia finally found her rest and took some time to relax her breath. While she has been jogging early in the morning for as long as she remembers, she’s still ways off from the athletes of older times or the soldiers of today.

Finally, the elevator door opened, leading to her own personal hallway in the building.

The first thing she did upon arrival is to head straight to the bath, where she stripped and cleansed herself of the dirt she accumulated during the morning jog. Following this, she changed into her uniform, consisting mainly of a simple white blouse and black slacks, along with any other additional articles of clothing she may want to add. Finally, she made herself a sandwich from her own personal stash of food, which she usually buys every weekend with Gavin and Louis, though those two don’t seem to get along well. She doesn’t blame Louis, though - Gavin can be a bit hard to communicate with.

With her morning rituals done and dusted, Julia heads back into the elevator, which opened just as she arrived. Inside the elevator waits Venus Marigold and Joseph Gavin, both of which live in a floor above her.

“Good morning to you two!” she said.

“Good morning as well,” Venus smiled at her.

Gavin, on the other hand, simply nodded to acknowledge her presence.

The three of them usually leaves around the same time, and so they usually go to the academy proper together. Many people from various classes would gather in the streets to watch them as they go off into the class, which might be a bit tiring, but it’s the life of a celebrity so Julia doesn’t really mind herself, except for times when some onlookers would stop their progress for a picture or two, in which case Gavin would tell them to be off.

In class, the various subjects would put the students to the test, especially since the Class A students are considered to be the best of the students in the world, and best candidates to become polymaths and leaders not only in their field, but in the world stage as well. As the Rank 10 student, Julia usually doesn’t have that hard of a time in classes, though sometimes she wonders how much of it is because of the times she spends studying after class, with or without Louis and Venus helping her.

She wonders about it, except in a single subject where she excels far above others, barring Venus Marigold herself. The subject is that of history, which greatly fascinates Julia. She has always wondered how life was in different times, back before World War 3 started in 2037 and before the Gracian Empire managed to establish a global hegemony by the end of it. Sadly, many of the data about life back then where deleted in the great internet collapse of 2036 - millions of historical videos from a platform called ‘YoTube’, anecdotes from threads of ‘Read It’, and various photographic and video documentaries from ‘Facebooth’ were all lost to time, with only a few surviving in hard disks downloaded by the masses prior to the collapse. However, from what she does know, she can tell that people back then used to be more active than they are now - they would jog, run, and exercise daily, most of which is done only by those in the military these days.

These stories from the past inspired Julia to be a ‘fit and healthy’ person like they are, so she joined her father and his regiment for daily training, running along the streets of Rio de Janairo for hours at end. At first, she’s barely able to keep up, but the more she ran, the more she managed to keep pace until, one day, she even managed to be just a minute slower than them. She still has a lot of ways to go before she can be like them, though.

Finally, once the classes are over, Julia either heads to Louis’ dorm for a group study with Venus and Gavin, or heads out to go with Micah, her girlfriend of 5 years. After that, she’ll head home back to her dorm, maybe right another entry in her diary, take her dinner in solitude, and finally go to sleep to prepare to face the next day that arrives.

***

Charles stared at his computer, repeatedly watching the video sent to him. It seems that his spy is captured, though, so this is likely the only one he will have. But it is good enough. He has seen enough. His eyes focused only on one thing - the boy sitting across his sister, Louis Monet. “What does she see in you?” he asked no one but the wind. “It does not matter. I will break you anyways. Then she will see how fragile her freedom really is.” His eyes then shifted towards the girl who arrived mid-way through their date. A dark skinned woman who’s body seemed rather toned, her gift proudly presented through her skin-tight clothes.

His trance that kept him staring at the video is finally broken, however, when his HLD flared up as he received a call. It is from Louis Monet.