“Oi! Move it, you dullards! If any of you make my sister late on her first day, so help me…” 

“Huh?! P-Pardon me!” 

“O-Oh! S-Sorry, Sir…” 

“It won’t happen again!” 

Emi spun around, eyes focused on where she’d heard the voices. Standing outside of Class 1-D yelling at a group of freshmen was a tall human boy with short auburn-colored hair. His orange necktie donned the “III” numerals, indicating that he was a junior. He had a nasty scowl on his face, serving as a warning to everyone around him that he wasn’t to be trifled with. 

“What’s a junior doing here?”

                                               “Wait, isn’t that Valcour Harvester?”

“Yeah, it’s gotta be.” 

                                         “Oh, man. Who’re those cuties with him…?”

Many students spoke amongst themselves as they eyed the situation from afar. With Valcour were two female students. On his left stood a human girl with long curly hair that was an identical color to his. She was rather pretty with soft and bright facial features. The kind of looks that certainly caught the eye of many boys in passing. Judging from the numerals on her necktie, she was a freshman, just like most students present. 

 Emi deduced that this girl must be the ‘sister’ that Valcour was making such a fuss about. She was blushing heavily and mussing her hair nervously. Her brown eyes wandered around the halls as her brother continued to rip into the panicked freshmen. Given how boisterous he was being, Emi could hardly blame her. As she assessed the situation more thoroughly, Emi came to realize that some of the frightened students weren’t even looking at Valcour.

“Come now, Lord Val. Can’t you see you’re embarrassing poor Lady Jessica?” 

Emi’s gaze flicked over to the taller girl on Valcour's right, who had long flowing pale green hair. Unlike her companions, she wore a Taqoran-style maid’s uniform; a black knee-length dress with a white ruffled apron with a matching headdress. Judging by this attire coupled with the way she’d addressed the siblings, it was safe to assume that she belonged to them. It was here upon further inspection that Emi noticed something rather unique about this girl. First, it was her eyes. They were an aqua color so bright that her pupils were barely visible. Next, two large silver antennae were protruding from where her ears would’ve been, had she been human. Emi gaped in awe. 

An automaton? Wow…

That alone meant that she was probably their bodyguard as well. Nobles often purchased automatons to protect their children while in public as they were more cost-effective than employing natural-born servants. No weekly pay was required and the only replenishment they needed was manatite to keep their cores running. This, however, only applied to noble families that were pro-magitech. There were still many others that condemned its existence entirely, the natural enemy of any aspiring technomancer.

“Gah!” 

It then hit Emi that she’d been staring too long. Jessica was the first to notice her, eyeing her with alarm and confusion. Then the automaton maid met her gaze as well, looking back at Emi with a frigid calm. 

“U-uh…”

With her breath catching in her throat, Emi quickly turned on her heel and scampered away. Looking straight ahead, she noticed that Cady and Katsumi had already reached their destination. Not wanting to be left behind, she dashed for the classroom without looking back. Just as she’d stomped through the door… 

DING!

         DONG!

                      DONG!

                                 DING!

◆◇◆

Unlike their rival schools—Requiem School for Girls and St. Magnus Academy of Scholarship and Knighthood—Phoenix Military Academy’s interior took on a more Eastern-inspired architecture rather than the traditional Taqoran approach. Class 1-A was no different. The floorboards were crafted from Everwoodian Oak, buffed to create a nice glossy effect, reflecting the fluorescent light tubes hanging from the fixtures on the ceiling above. Forty desks, made from the same oak, were rowed up in tens, each in a single file line facing a wooden podium adorned with the PMA insignia and long, rectangular blackboard.

Class started fifteen minutes ago, yet Emi, Cady, and Katsumi sat with thirty-four other students with no instructor to speak of. With nothing left to do but wait, most of the kids engaged in idle chatter to kill time. Seated by the window, Emi turned her attention outside. Her eyes lit up with wonder as she saw a flock of spear-beaked herons flying over the now-empty fields. She’d seen plenty of them in New Dragonia during her travels with her mother. That nation had a lot of creeks and rivers teeming with aquatic life, the perfect nesting spot for birds such as these. 

As Emi continued to admire the mabeasts from afar, she felt a tap on her shoulder from behind. She turned to see the Boonean canine girl smiling back at her. 

“So, whaddaya think our instructor will be like?”

Emi shrugged. “Beats me. Although, it is a bit odd. Normally, an academy of this caliber would only employ the best mages for the job. Competent and punctual. So either something came up, or we’ve got a wild card on our hands.” 

Her mother had warned her about these types of instructors. They were a mixed bag. Unconventional, frequently marching to the beat of their own drum. While few have proven to be clever enough to produce some of the greatest mages in past generations, others have gone down in academic history as the continent's biggest laughingstocks. Put simply, many young mages were apprehensive to place their future in the hands of such a figure. 

Just then, Cady perked up, ears twitching.

“Ooh, ooh! Someone’s…”

The door flew open with force, drawing every eye in the classroom towards the sapphire-haired boy standing there. He was doubled over, panting heavily as he tried to catch his breath. 

“...coming.”

Oh, gods… Emi groaned. Yet another thing she dreaded had become a reality. 

“I…I made…it!” He surveyed the room and furrowed his brow. “What…no instructor?”

“Hasn’t turned up, yet,” a large orcish boy replied. He was sitting at the first desk by the door. His eyes were laser-focused on his knitting. “Can’t be marked late if there’s no instructor to call it. Consider it a win.”

“Heya, Sapphie! Guess Yu-Yu’s finally let ya outta timeout, huh!” Cady called out, waving to him. 

Gayle’s eyes found the trio. He stood up straight and scoffed. “Sapphie? What the hell happened to ‘blue hair’?”

“Cady had chosen a more fitting nickname in your absence,” Katsumi explained, sitting at the desk across from Emi. Gayle walked over to an empty desk in front of his childhood friend and sat, crossing his right leg over his left. The other students were now speaking in hushed voices, all the while shooting glances in the foursome’s direction. Due to the ruckus from earlier, it wasn’t too far off to assume they’d gained quite a bit of a reputation among their peers. 

Emi covered her face in embarrassment. This was the last thing she wanted. And just when she thought things couldn’t get any more awkward, Cady addressed the mammutusk in the room.

“Emi’s got something to say to ya, Sapphie!” 

“Huh?”

“What?!” Emi whirled around to eye the dog girl with a look of apprehension. “C-Cady! What are you…” 

“Listen,  Emi,” she said, lowering her voice. “When Mr. Kitty cleared Sapphie’s name, ya seemed awfully glum. That’s a look of guilt if I’ve ever seen one. Sooo, why not take this chance to set things right?” 

“B-But…!” 

Cady just smiled back at her. The kind of smile a person made when they knew they’d won. 

“......” Emi was dumbfounded. She’d only met this girl earlier this morning, yet she already seemed to know what was on her mind. Was she that easy to read? If so, she was glad her mother wasn’t around to see her crumble like this. 

She heaved her heaviest sigh of the day.