The lunch bell rang and the three Exalt kids met up with Seren and Owain. Owain let out an incredibly heavy sigh and shook his head, raising his arms. "This is all so absolutely trite, Morgan. Why did you force us to go into debt to the Church again? Oh right, because you thought it'd be a good way to learn about Fodlan." The orange-haired man folded his arms and looked at Morgan, expression dour.

  "Oh, be quiet, Owain. It is a good way to learn about Fodlan. Though... It is pretty obvious we aren't accepted here and might never be." The way the students avoided them made it pretty clear just how utterly xenophobic the country was. The ones that spoke with the different Fodlan accents made it incredibly clear they weren't exactly welcome there. But what else were they supposed to do...? They had spent close to six months combing the Outrealms. It wasn't like they could stay in Ylisse without messing up the line of succession. They were trying to do their kingdom a favor even if their parents would disagree... He could only imagine what Robin and Chrom were going through even now…

  Owain sighed. "Well, we're stuck here for the next year now. It's so demeaning having to use wooden weapons when we grew up on live steel."

  "I feel the same way; trust me," he said, starting toward the lunch room. It did make sense since most of the kids here had never used live steel. But this was a military academy. Why not just introduce them off the bat? They would be having a mission at the end of the month. It wasn't supposed to be dangerous, just a camp out. Most of the noble brats here had never slept outside in a tent, let alone in the frigid open. They were surrounded by stuck up, insincere, self-absorbed brats that didn't know the first thing about true hardship. They had never known war. He didn't doubt some of them had known adversity in their own ways, but for combat and war? Even the mock battles wouldn't prepare them for the hard realities of killing others. Morgan knew the hardship of taking life far too young…

  "Anyway, how about we get some grub? I'm famished." Owain grinned and elbowed Seren who rolled her eyes and sighed.

  "I mean I'm kinda hungry too..." The brown-haired girl folded her arms.

  They started walking, chatting idly about classes when they saw another trio. "Oh, Cami-san, Takumi-san, Oboro-san." He was a little surprised to see them but not at the same time. They were in the Iris Warblers as well, so they had all their classes together. But the trio seemed about as peeved off as the rest of the Ylisseans were.

  "Morgan-san, hello." Cami, the white-haired girl, offered the best smile she could muster. But it was pretty hollow and didn't reach her eyes. He felt bad for her. She kept fidgeting with her hair in class, seeming to not want it down at all. But something was obviously telling her to have it down. The style was very cute, but she seemed to absolutely hate it. "Heading to lunch?"

  He nodded. "Wanna join?" The Ylisseans had no issues with accepting the Hoshidans into their little fold. The Fodlaners really seemed to not care one way or the other if they lived or died. Simply because they were strangers... Did they not realise that pulling together was truly the only way to survive? He didn't understand how they could turn away from others so much... It was really the best way to survive. Then again, with as close as Ylisse and Ferox had been in his time, it only made sense that he would see it that way. And with how humanity had been pushed into a corner.

  "Sure, I suppose." They started heading toward the lunch room, Cami looking utterly dejected. Her gaze remained down, her shoulders raised, and arms folded across her chest. Something was clearly wrong, but he really didn't have enough rapport with her to ask what it was. He often didn't care what other people thought about him, but it wasn't like he was heartless. He still cared about people.

  He did notice Elgar looking around awkwardly as they started gathering their food up, but an orange-haired guy and a purple-haired girl invited Elgar and his vassal over. Elgar obviously wasn't very good with people, so it was good he had people standing by him... He wished that he could say the same, but all he had left were his sisters, cousin, and Seren. Well. Naye was down in the town near Garreg Mach but she had opted not to attend the academy, not wanting to be involved in further fighting. She'd had enough which...he couldn't blame her about. The war had tired all of them out.

  Well, with that settled and out of the way, they gathered their trays and found a table in a corner, tucked away out of the prying gaze of most of the student body. They were pretty much the only foreign students to his knowledge. Though it wasn't like he had extensive knowledge on Fodlan and all of its idiosyncrasies. They were just trying to find somewhere to settle following leaving Ylisse. They weren't nobles or royalty here, but maybe they could make friends with the nobles here and find somewhere to go. If not... Well. There were countless other Outrealms they could check out and maybe settle in. Then the Church would have no idea where they went for collecting debt. But they'd give it a shake here.

  "So what exactly brings you to the Officer's Academy?" He'd been introduced to Cami, Takumi, and Oboro beforehand, but they hadn't had too much room to talk. Be introduced and that was about it. All he knew was they spoke a language very similar if not the same to Mizuki's from Chon'sin. The telltale honorifics really gave it away. Mizuki had used them at first with the Ylissean kids but once she'd gotten close enough with them, she'd dropped them. They didn't understand all of the intricacies of honorifics, but it seemed like a relief to the Hoshidans to hear them to some degree.

  "Well, we live an ocean away and we were hoping to establish trade with Fodlan. I'm the White Queen of Hoshido... The Black Queen of Nohr, my older sister, Camilla, is in dire need of supplies. From what we know of Fodlan, the Empire is bursting with supplies, though Faerghus struggles. We were hoping to establish some sort of political alliance, but with as closed off as Fodlan seems, we may not see that come to fruition." Cami sighed. A queen, eh? She didn't seem it. He couldn't comment on her age, though. He had been on the throne of Ylisse as Exalt at age seven. Late teens did seem a little young to be on the throne, but again, he had no room to talk. He'd been there in the single digits. Her sister though? How could the queen of an opposing nation be queen...

  Probably best not to delve into that right now.

  "We're just disenfranchised royalty. We left our home nation. But so I see... I can't say I know much of the Empire or anything like that outside of what we're learning in classes." Admittedly, it was hard to be put into fourth year without any sort of backing in Fodlan's history. But they could start a study group. Maybe he'd go to the library after classes and really start digging stuff up... The native nobles obviously knew what they were doing. He and his sisters and friends, on the other... Not so much.

  "The Empire is abundant in many different resources to our knowledge. Hoshido is large and also abundant, but trying to support the whole of Nohr is a strain on us and the other eastern nations of Falos. We spare what we can, but we still need supports for our people. It's a nasty balancing act... If we could get some of the Empire's abundant resources, it'd be so much easier... But with how the archbishop acted when I suggested it...I don't see it happening." Cami frowned. Poor woman. She really was a queen. Struggling to manage resources and support of other nations. He had never had to deal with other nations since what little remained of humanity in their time had existed in one city. Ylisse had been abundant at one time, but by time Grima started its reign of terror, that abundance had been stripped and decimated. All he could do was do his best. People often went days, weeks without eating. He and Lucina skipped on meals so that way their people could eat even if it was meager. The injured needed the energy far more than he and his sister did.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Well, Miran disagreed as a trained healer, but they were Robin and Chrom's kids, all of them. Feroxi women were known to be stubborn beyond reason and that had transferred to all of them.

  "We're just hoping to find somewhere to go. All we know is combat, so changing that is...difficult." They had known nothing but war more or less their whole lives. Maybe the Officer's Academy could rehabilitate them into being able to handle peace in one way or another. He didn't know. But sitting around didn't work well with them. They felt like they ought to be doing something, saving somebody, protecting resources... Morgan was a tactician. He felt so empty and hollow without having tactics to do. He just wanted something to do...

  "I can understand that in a lot of regards," Takumi commented, Oboro nodding in agreement. Oof, that was rough. Understanding combat from a young age wasn't something he wished on anybody. He really, really didn't wish being a child soldier on anybody. But he knew he couldn't press right now. They had really only just met. He wished he could take all their pain and suffering away from them... Nobody deserved the fate of war at a young age. He'd been through it for too long. He and his compatriots truly did know almost nothing but suffering.

  "My condolences." That was all he could say.

  "Anyway, I'm getting close to done, so I think I'm gonna head to check out on my pegasus," Takumi pointed out.

  Morgan's eyebrows shot up. "What?"

  Takumi stared at him. "What about it?" No aggression, just confusion.

  "Pegasi don't like men. They only like women."

  Takumi shook his head. "Not in Nohr and Hoshido. They're fine with men. Why are you so adamant they don't like men?" Again, just a question, curiosity.

  "In Ylisse, they hate men. Sometimes individuals can learn to tolerate the touch of a man like Seren's falicorn tolerates Owain and a couple others of our generation, but I've never known a man to handle pegasi without their primary handler there." That...really made no sense to him. How could a pegasus tolerate a male handler? Takumi wore the men's uniform... Though he did look and even sounded a bit more androgynous. He wondered what he would look like in a dress... His long hair would definitely help add to the image of a woman if he ever decided to cross dress.

  Seren nodded. "I was head of the Sisterhood of the Pegasus Knights in our time. My girl will tolerate Owain, Inigo, and a couple others as long as I'm there, but that's it. It was rare for any of our pegasi or fallicorns to tolerate anybody else. Granted, the Sisterhood has always been pretty small since we have to tame our own mounts..."

  "You have to tame them? That's...absolutely bizarre. We have large domestic stock in Hoshido. Nohr has to tame them but it sounds like Ylisse should've had domestic stock."

  Seren shook her head. "That's never been a thing for us. Domestic pegasi... That would've been a dream in our time." She sounded wistful which Morgan couldn't blame her for. She had worked hard to get to where she was now. Of course, being head of the SIsterhood following the deaths of people like Philia hadn't been easy. She'd been just a child as well, but her stubbornness, tactical mind, and ability to learn anything through sheer force of will had pushed Morgan to make her the head of the Sisterhood. People thought it favoritism since she was Lucina's retainer (even though she was now married to Owain... Their family was complicated) but it wasn't. She had simply been the best choice for the job. It had nothing to do with her being Frederick and Crodelia's daughter. She simply knew what she was doing especially as a Falcon Knight. She commanded her mount and spear in a way that few could. And with the tactics training she'd received from Robin as well as Morgan and Lucina, she was quite the force to be reckoned with.

  "It would've been useful to have male pegasus knights and Falcon knights..." Morgan sighed. That would've been a major tactical advantage to them. But when pegasi would only tolerate the touch of a woman, it made it hard to train any for the Sisterhood and get them up to snuff. And with pegasi populations on sharp decline following Grima's rise, well, the Sisterhood had unfortunately become less and less reliable, being down to a small core of only a couple dozen people. All of them child soldiers, born under Grima's hell. Most of the senior members had died earlier in the war against the Risen.

  "If you end up not finding a place in Fodlan here, you can come with us back to Nohr and Hoshido. We're at peace now, so that might be difficult for you to handle, but you're obviously pretty hardened veterans. Never know when something could rise." Takumi shrugged. "Plus, someone as obviously skilled as you with tactics would be a major advantage for us. What do you think, Cami-nee?"

  Cami nodded. "We could definitely use people to train troops. With Anankos dead, there isn't much use for armies and we've drastically cut the sizes down, but for corps like Takumi's Snow Wings, training is forever ongoing. We can still run into skirmishes with bandits and such, so having small, mobile units like the Snow Wings is a benefit. They would definitely welcome your expertise." She bowed her head a little bit, obviously making the request as humble as she could. She was queen, so for her to humble herself like that... It spoke to her character. Most rulers wouldn't be willing to do that. Even the khans (at least, before their deaths) wouldn't ask for help unless absolutely necessary even though they'd had such close contact with Robin. She was basically adopted into both Khan Basilio's and Khan Flavia's families…

  "Well, you won't get much better than us. But we have an entire year. A year is a long time and a lot can change in that time. We'll just see where we end up after graduation." Morgan shrugged. He wasn't sure what would come of them being in Fodlan. Nothing may come of it. But he did have an offer from Elgar if nothing else... A coup, huh? Bold man, offering that in a place such as the Church headquarters... For all Elgar knew, he was some foreign spy sent by...somewhere else. But it did sound like the man legitimately needed help wresting the court back from whatever had gotten it away from him.

  Cami nodded. "Yeah, we will just have to see. But you have a home in us if nothing else happens." She smiled at them warmly. She seemed legitimately warm and kind. But still... The fact she had her hair down and seemed uneasy with it bothered him. He knew he needed to play his cards carefully to get close to anybody. At least Cami and Tkaumi seemed relatively kind and relaxed. The Fodlan students didn't seem to like any of them. Elgar was searching for a way to make his own gains, but he hadn't had the same look of hatred in his eyes for them that the other native students did. If anything, he had seemed a bit interested…

  "I hate these stupid dresses though," Lucina complained out of nowhere. Yeha, the uniforms were beyond stuff; he could agree with that.

  "If you're from another realm, do you think you'd be able to talk fashion?" Oboro perked up and Morgan tilted his head a bit. Uh oh. Once Lucina got started on fashion…

  His sister nodded, brightening up a fair bit. "Yes! I love combining Ylissean and Feroxi fashion. I could show you some prints and stuff if you'd like--" The rest of lunch devolved into excited squealing between the two women, Morgan, Takumi, and Cami just looking equal parts amused and exasperated. But, eventually, the lunch bell rang again and signaled the end of the period. "Aww." Lucina frowned as did Oboro. "Well, I could stop by your dorm sometime and we could talk fashion more..."

  "I'd like that! Plus, it could give me some ideas for Takumi-sama and Cami-sama!" Oboro clapped her hands together and smiled. These two were going to be a force to be reckoned with…

  They took their dishes up to the turn-in area and headed back to their droll classes.