“I spent the past week finalizing the details with Lady Till. As long as I fulfill my assigned tasks, I will be allowed to graduate next spring,” said Vincent.

Luca let out a long sigh. “I still can’t believe you’re graduating early. I thought we’d be able to spend more time together.”

“It can’t be helped,” replied Vincent. “The only way I can avoid conscription is to apply to university as soon as possible. This way I am both a qualified paladin and I am able to fulfill my family duties.”

“Your family should’ve fulfilled their duty of not disowning Philomena,” grumbled Alton.

A group of them were sitting at a table outside of Braytons. Luca was sitting in between Alton and Vincent. Chester, Mila, and Basil were sitting at the other end.

A selection of pastries and fruits had been laid out on the table, along with bottles of drinks. They were to greet applicants and guide them to where they were supposed to be. The crowds had slowed down since Satyrday mass was scheduled to start soon.

Luca agreed with Alton about Philomena, but he wasn’t going to say it. “Do you think your girlfriend is going to wait a year for you to get back?”

Vincent hung his head off to the side. “I doubt that she will.”

“That’s not such a bad thing, right?” Asked Luca. “Wasn’t she from one of your marriage interviews?”

“No. Oscar introduced us.” Vincent let out a sigh. He actually liked her, but he knew he would regret it if he didn’t graduate from Braytons.

“Ah, shame.” Luca smiled nervously. He wanted to cheer Vincent up, but he didn’t know what else to say.

Alton was also upset. Vincent’s early graduation meant that he would be minimizing his overall role at Braytons. He had no urge to take back the commander position, nor would he take his place as captain of Baron squad.

Silence hung over the group. Luca couldn’t take the tension any longer. “All of these baked goods remind me of our Honey Bandit days!”

“Don’t bring that up,” snarled Alton.

“How could I not?” Luca said with a laugh. “We were warriors of justice during dark days. It’s what set us on the path to be squires!”

“You incited a riot,” replied Vincent.

“It wasn’t a riot,” argued Alton.

Mila disagreed. “A fire broke out in the cafeteria.”

“We weren’t the ones that started the fire,” spat back Alton. “There just happened to be a fire there at the same time our protests were happening.”

“Well, now I have to hear this story,” quipped Basil.

Chester let out an annoyed sigh. “Why am I here again?”

“You’re supposed to cool the drinks,” Alton blurted back. “And we’re not going to waste our time on stupid stories. We have work to do.”

“Because so many people had been by,” retorted Mila. No one had been by in over a dozen minutes. “And you’re here because you’re my friend, Chester. I enjoy your company.”

Chester begrudgingly looked off to the side. “... Fine.”

Basil picked up a walnut and prune muffin. “There’s a few minutes before you’re done with your shift, Alton.” He took a bite out of it. Why not tell us about it?” Alton glared at him. “It’ll help pass the time.”

Luca’s eyes lit up at Basil’s request. “It was when we were thirteen.” Alton let out a loud groan. “Parents had complained about the dietary choices the school was providing us. They removed all wheat and sugar from our menus. Every meal was a combination of beans, rice, and a seasonal vegetable. Sometimes we’d get duck or chicken, but meat was mostly gone too.

Honestly, the kids in the dorms had it the worst, because they got cabbage and rice porridge every morning and bean stew at night. They ended up getting a bad reputation from how gassy all of them became. Everyone was miserable, so after a month of this, me and my best mate, Oscar, decided to do something.

Once a week, we’d use our allowance to buy as many pastries as we could and hand them out at school. Mostly it was charity for the dorm kids, because they really had it the worst. We’d run around and shout, ‘Fart if you want a cookie!’ It was all in good fun, and we weren’t taking it seriously…” Luca’s tone suddenly darkened. “But then the curry bun incident happened.”

“The curry bun incident?” Basil took another bite of his muffin.

“Aye… That was the darkest day in Starsons history,” replied Luca. He signed Mart’s holy sign with his hand and dipped his head in prayer.

“Missus Ruskin confiscated my curry bun,” clarified Alton.

Luca held up a finger. “Missus Ruskin confiscated the curry bun your mother had made you because you were feeling under the weather.” Alton glared at him. “Then found out that she ate it for lunch.” The corner of Alton’s eye ticked.

Mila was alarmed. “Not one of Miss Iofea’s curry buns! It wasn’t one of the rabbit ones, was it?”

“It was,” replied Luca. Mila gasped with horror. “Alton invited us over to his house and we spent hours baking. We started to do it every Satyrday so we’d have enough baked goods to last us a week. In order to get around teachers, we set up passwords and we even made up a jingle! Come for-”

“Don’t sing the code song,” interrupted Alton. Luca frowned. “I will walk away if you start singing.”

Luca pouted for a moment longer before continuing. “We ended up with a network of pawns who passed out food for us. Barcus and Silas, our elementalist friends, became our muscle. Vincent was our lookout. Alton’s house was our base of operations. It didn’t seem fair that he was covering the costs of supplies for the baked goods, so we started to charge a couple of cents for items. We didn’t earn anything out of it.

But! Others saw what we were doing and they decided to get into the illegal food trade. Not out of the good of their hearts, but because they were after something sweeter than Miss Iofea’s sticky caramel rice pie… Profits! And so, our peaceful days became threatened by the vile force known only as the Dairy Knockers!”

Mila frowned. “I was a Dairy Knocker.”

“I never said you weren’t evil,” spat back Luca.

“I needed money for our squire program supplies,” argued Mila. “I was responsible for providing my own bow and Talwyn Cully’s weapons are expensive.” Luca glared at her. Mila took her bow and held it to her chest as though it were a precious child.

Luca waved his hand in the air. “Anyways, some kid whose parents owned a dairy started to bring in products at marked-up prices. Suddenly, it was nobles versus commoners! Low born bread versus the succulence of dairy!”

“Then the riot happened,” added Vincent.

“We held a peaceful walkout in order to protest the school’s dietary restrictions,” argued Alton. “It was our attempt to stop the brawling that happened whenever bandits crossed paths with knockers. We wanted to end the sales for everyone.”

“Someone still set part of the cafeteria on fire,” replied Mila.

“That wasn’t us!” Alton exclaimed.

Basil finished off his muffin with a swig of cider tea. “If there’s one thing that I’ve learned about Alton, it’s that he’s often at the center of catastrophes but always claims to not be directly responsible.”

“That’s a nice way of phrasing that his squad is a shitshow,” replied Chester.

“No one figured out how the fire started,” quickly stated Luca, despite knowing full well that the culprit was Barcus, “the school relented and added more options to the menu. We were allowed to bring whatever we wanted to school. There was no point in having either the Honey Bandits or the Dairy Knockers around after that.

But I think that’s how I ended up wanting to come here. It’s the reason why Oscar and I applied for the squire program… We wanted to take action and help out people. I may have stumbled a bit, but I’m at the same place with both Alton and Vincent. I used to admire the both of you a lot.” He then let out a sigh. “... And I guess Mila is here too.”

“Me and my limited edition Talwyn Cully Windcutter,” quipped Mila as she hugged her bow again.

“... And Naiov,” added Luca. The former Starsons squires shuddered at the memories of tyrant Naiov’s training sessions. “But I’m really happy that Duke Rubire twisted Lady Till’s arm until I was accepted.”

Chester didn’t believe him. “Were you paying attention to anything that’s happened over the past month?”

“Yeah! It’s been really fun!”

Chester narrowed his eyes. “Bryn Saxifrage is at the entrance exams. You can ask him how much fun we mages had.”

“No thank you!” Exclaimed Luca with a wide grin.

Alton checked his pocket watch. “That’s time.” He stood up. “Mila, Evan and Peter are taking over for you and Chester after mass is over. I’ll be in the library to help with written exams shortly after that. Come to me if you need help with anything.”

Mila nodded. “Tell Zaniyah good luck on my behalf.”

He nodded and went back into the barracks. It was easy for him to find Sybil. She was running past with a bundle of papers in her arms. Lady Till had made last-minute changes to the written exam early that morning and Sybil had spent the past few hours at the printing press because of it.

Sybil stumbled on a rock and Shaw was the one to catch her. “Sorry,” she blurted out.

“The outdoor mass is scheduled to start in five minutes,” he replied. He then nodded at Alton, who had caught up with them.

“Go ahead without me. I’ll run there after I drop these off.”

She had spent the past week burying herself in work. Whether it was her studies, planning the entrance exam, or fixing Foggy, Sybil was more dedicated than ever to get the job done. Alton frowned to himself. He knew what it meant. She was stressed out by something and was trying to run away from it all by distracting herself.

“I’ll help her out,” he said. “It’ll only take a minute. We’ll get there on time even if I have to carry her.”

Alton helped Sybil drop off the papers before they left the barracks again. There was an odd moment of serenity as they walked together. This was probably the last chance he’ll get to talk to her in private for the next week or so. Might as well make use of it.

“Are you happy?”

Sybil stopped walking and looked up at him. “Hmm, what?”

“Are you happy here? At Braytons?”

She blinked quickly several times over. “Eh? Why wouldn’t I be?”

Alton hung his head off to the side. Maybe she hadn’t realized that she was depressed yet. If he pointed it out now, she’d only get mad at him. “Nevermind… I love you.” He went to hug her, but was surprised when she was violently yanked out of his grasp. “Hey!”

Veximarl had run by and grabbed Sybil by the wrist. “There isn’t any time! We have to run!”

“I thought you were in the main church today!” Sybil exclaimed.

“I have enough time to watch the sermon, but I have to help with confessions afterward,” he replied.

Alton had caught up and was now jogging beside them. “Oh? Confession duty? Look at you, climbing up in the acolyte ranks.”

“I have an immense fear for when Zaniyah reaches this level,” muttered Veximarl.

“She’ll do fine,” replied Sybil.

Alton laughed at the idea. She might not be bad at it. Most of her advice was blunt and to the point. It would be nice if more people thought the same way.

“I can’t wait!” Alton called out to the two. “Zaniyah’s first sermon is going to be something that none of us are going to forget!”