Seven years had passed since Briar met Anemone. The time had truly flown by. Briar now attended Rosas des Sommers Academy. It was a prestigious academy meant specifically for the upper class. Over seven years, Briar had made many attempts to bond with both Canterburys. Calliope turned out to have a cute side, and she just did not like Anemone. Briar had asked about it once, while they were at a department store.
"Oh, her? Well, she's not really a bad perso- what the hell am I talking about? My mom died just days after that cockroach arrived at our house," Calliope had scoffed. "Mom was perfectly healthy too. We think she was poisoned, but no one will listen when I say it's Nemo's fault."
"For real? Anemone seems normal to me," Briar replied absentmindedly, eyeing a stuffed animal. Since when were seals so cute? "Although… I can't really be talking, since the only time I ever really talked with her was when we met, haha."
"That girl sure as hell is not normal," Calliope snapped. Something Briar had neglected to mention was that, while Calliope was generally normal, she had a tendency to be very moody.
"She's a street rat! A nobody that just happened to be picked up by my father! Why should she get to be the special one?! It's my dad's fault!" She ran her fingers through her hair agitatedly- a habit that Calliope had developed and likely inherited from her father.
Briar was taken aback by this response. Calliope was by no means spoiled at all, so such an intense reaction… she must have truly detested Anemone. A burning anger, festering in darkness like a disease for years…. Briar hoped she would never experience this.
As Briar and Calliope walked back towards the dorms of the Academy, they were greeted by the Headmaster of the school with a detention for leaving campus without prior notification.
"Dammit! I'll get that old bag someday!!" Calliope declared as the two walked to the detention classroom. "But, like, why do we even have to have a detention on the weekend?!"
"Good question," Briar sighed. "I really hate sitting in a classroom for too long."
"Better than going back to that roommate of yours, huh?"
"Ahahahaha….." Briar's roommate was a Sevetsiyan cadet soldier by the name of Kafka "Vodka" Volkova. According to Volkova, she was on a "deployment" of sorts- in order for education. The two got along decently but not well.
"So, like… did you see that they have new sweets in the cafeteria?" Calliope asked.
"Nah, I didn't. I thought you don't like sweets?" Briar implored.
"I mean, no, I don't. Nemo likes them though, and that means I have to deal with her bullshit every day," Calliope replied. "'Calli, pleeease buy me a slice of cake! Please!!' I'm really shocked she doesn't gain much weight."
"That's true. Maybe she does, but hides it." The two girls spent their whole detention chatting away in an absentminded manner. Throughout all this, Briar had an indescribable sense of déja vu. Now that she thought about it, didn't she do this once before? Briar vaguely remembered a feeling of frustration and… time reversing from when she had first met the Canterbury family. It felt like this wasn't her first time living this life, but why? Something told her that she was forgetting something important.
"Welp, there's the two hour mark. I'm getting outta here. See you, Bri."
"See you, Calli!" Briar walked in the direction opposite of Calliope. While walking, she passed by many cliques hanging out. She felt something on her foot, so she looked down. There was a bird pecking at it. Unfortunately, stopping in the middle of a hallway is never a good idea, even if it was the weekend.
"Edison, what are you doing? Let me through," It was a clear voice. Slightly androgynous but on the feminine side and low. It could only be Anemone Canterbury, the very subject of Briar's curiosities. "Let me throu- is that a bird? You're always getting into weird stuff. Are you gonna fight in the Sevetsiyan War next?."
Was this girl's sole purpose to be a dick? Even if Briar was blocking the hallway, there was literally no reason for Anemone to react with this extreme level of hostility. Usually, Anemone would only make a snarky remark or two, but she never reacted like this.
"Ah, my bad," Briar said. She looked up to meet Anemone's eyes. They were a striking, piercing blue that seemed to stare right into her soul. And yet, there seemed to be something off. Something that suggested that, deep down, Anemone felt human emotions too. One could only imagine how she would interact with Briar's quiet roommate.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Uh, so what were you planning to get at the cafeteria?" Briar's attempt at making conversation was an instinctive reaction to the awkward silence between them. "I was just on my way, too. Let's walk there tog-" Briar was cut off by the look in Anemone's eyes. They were clearly telling her something along the lines of "Shut the hell up or I'll make you". That single gaze sent chills down Briar's spine. Such malice in one person's gaze.
"...I'm goin' ahead. Don't follow me. I'm sure you and Calli can just sneak out of school like you two always do," Anemone's tone left no room for arguments. Briar's two options were to nod and head back to her room or follow Anemone and have some godforsaken event happen to her.
She's so hard to talk to.
Anemone was so ridiculously closed off. As a matter of fact, Briar had never really seen anyone even talking with Anemone or acknowledging her existence. Maybe the occasional girl or two, though, since her hair color stood out greatly. In Magnaziane, strange hair colors were common, since it tended to be a hub for stragglers from other nations and the like. Briar had once seen someone with almost fiery orange hair. Anemone, however, was on another level.
Even in Magnaziane, it was never common for anyone to have that bluish-purple hair color. Perhaps it was one of those "mutations" brought up by Briar's biology class? Those were rare, but not impossible after all!
"Um… have fun, I guess…?" As polite as Briar was trying to be, it was really difficult with how Anemone was acting. She was distant. No problem with that in particular, but they simply didn't mesh together well. No problem. It was fine. Why was she even trying to get close to a person she'd only seen from a distance for so long?
Since there wasn't much else to do, Briar made the decision to sit in her room for the rest of the weekend.
That's what she would say, if her roommate wasn't a scary-ass soldier. Sure, she was small, but Briar had seen this said roommate beating the living hell out of someone who had tried to harm a nesting bird. Scary. With good purpose, but scary.
The rest of the weekend went by uneventfully. The following Monday, Briar swore she felt her brain leaking out of her ears from how boring math was. Er, my bad. Geometry or whatever they wanted to call it. Why did SHE have to find the angle's ABC or the equation's X? Wasn't the whole point of moving on acknowledging that the X was gone?
Anemone sat in the very back of this classroom as well, so it was even worse knowing that if she messed up Anemone would see it! Graghghhhh, curse this stupidly pretty shortstack! Stupid eggplant-head!
"Miss Edison, are you following this lecture properly?" The teacher loomed over Briar in a way reminiscent of an extremely wrinkly and skinny vulture with glasses. "This material will be on the test, so I suggest you stop daydreaming and pay attention."
Oh, how embarrassing! Briar could hear the snickers of her classmates from a mile away! Strangely enough, she didn't hear Anemone. Argh, but as if they weren't slacking off too!! Briar was an idiot for getting caught in the act!! Luckily, at that moment, the bell rang and class was dismissed.
"Saved by the bell!" Briar ran away. Her next class was… Oh, science? That was simple. Last time she had been in that class, they were simply discussing how Favillite was a valid and renewable energy source, but hard to come by, while Astrite was easy to come by but was non-renewable.
"Bri, wait for me!" Calliope was dashing down the hallway. "Grahh, help me run away from this actual spoiled brat!" Calliope was being chased by one of the students from the lower-level education classes.
"Come here, you stupid-ass nepo-baby!"
"Who're you calling a nepo baby?! You're the one whose dad is a politician or somethin, aint'cha?! If you're that jealous of me being smarter than you, I'm gonna blush!"
"Run, Calli, run!!" Briar called, running alongside her. "Hey, gen ed, what's 1 to the power of 10?!"
"1, o'course! I know what you'd pull if I said 100 again!!" For context, Briar had once overheard this same kid saying 1^10 was 100 and had corrected her politely. Since then, that student had been uselessly attempting to harass Calliope and Briar, which often resulted in Calliope beating her up.
"Geez, you're annoying! Bri, run as fast as you can!" Calliope took off even faster. She was truly an amazing sprinter, especially given the fact she was wearing the fancy school loafers.
Eventually, they reached the classroom and closed the door on the kid chasing them.
"Saved by the classroom, eh, you two?" The speaker was their teacher, Miss Jeanne Newton. The students called her Tachyon as a nickname, since she had a tendency to appear out of nowhere as if she was teleporting. "I'm not supposed to encourage this, but if she does that again, give 'er the ol' one-two combo. I won't tell a soul."
If it wasn't immediately obvious, Tachyon tended to be a bit of a quirky teacher with a disregard for rules. She was probably really fashionable in her free time, but as of right now she simply had slacks, a dress shirt, and a lab coat. She even kept her hair short so that she adhered to Magnaziane's lab safety policies. As boring of a rule it was to follow, if she didn't follow them she would likely be fired. Tachyon was noticeably young too, maybe around 23-26 years old.
"Ooh, Miss Tachyon! Is Nero here today?" Calliope was asking about Nero Alcott, a classmate of theirs she had a prominent crush on. He was kind of feminine, honestly, and that gave him a certain sort of charm
"Oh, that kid? Yeah, he is," Tachyon replied. "He always comes to my classroom early in the mornings to cram his work before first period starts. The guy's a slacker. I dunno what you see in him."
The day was divided into six periods, seven if you counted the homeroom period towards the last half of the day. Actually, homeroom was the only class that Briar, Anemone, Calliope, and Alcott had together. Quite boring, to be honest. Alcott was a prickly one that was difficult to get close to, but not as closed-off as Anemone. The best way to describe him was like a doberman. It was hard to explain, but it would make more sense if Briar actually spoke with Alcott.
"Ah… You two're here already?" The speaker was Kafka Volkova, the soldier roommate of Briar, characterized by the heavy Sevetsiyan accent and monotone she carried. "That was quite a bit quicker than expected out of the two of you. Ah, right. Marie Newton. I will be making my return to Sevetsiya next month."
"Kafka, I've been telling you since literally the moment you stepped in here to call me 'Dr. Newton' or 'Miss Tachyon'... Listen, I can respect that you've been able to stay true to your Sevetsiyan roots, but think about me a li'l bit. How would you feel if you'd been addressed as Kafka your whole life but everyone suddenly begins calling you Vodka?"
"Captain Morozov only refers to me as Vodka due to the fact I have a 'bitter but boring personality only useful for special occasions'."
"No, what I'm trying to say is that I probably won't respond if you call me 'Marie Newton'. Here in Magnaziane, middle names are like the tails of fried shrimp over in Ōzuki. They're useless," Tachyon explained. "Try to remember that."
"Yes'm. I had assumed that calling you Newton would be overly familiar or casual."
"I'm literally a teacher. Half the kids don't listen to me and think I'm a pushover."
"In that case, I shall force them into respect."
"No, don't do that…"
The conversation was akin to witnessing a parent arguing with their kid.
"Miss Tachyon, it's useless arguing. You've tried before," Calliope reminded her. "And you, Vodka. I recommend you sit down. The flood of people's gonna come soon."
Surely enough, Calliope's warning was perfectly timed. The said "flood of people" appeared. In the crowd of about 25 students, Vodka quietly slipped into her seat in the craze, evading notice as she usually did. Briar sat next to Calliope, but they were almost completely across the room from Vodka.
The science class itself was quite boring. Briar understood everything quite quickly. The same could not be said for Vodka, however. She frowned at her papers and erased her mistakes several times.
"Aaaaand that's class. Bye bye, you guys. Shoo. Off to homeroom," Tachyon ushered everyone out. The next period was homeroom, which was convenient for Briar and Calliope. Their homeroom was just next door to their science class.
"Bri, let's go… I guess," Calliope was likely disheartened by the fact that the two of them had Anemone in their next class and ran off.
"Take your time, Calli!" Briar called. "It's just next door, after all!!" Due to Briar's medical condition, she was heavily restricted in terms of strenuous physical activity. However, even with this handicap, she was able to run in short bursts as long as it was not at full speed. This allowed basic P.E. participation and the little shenanigan earlier.
As Briar and Calliope stepped into their homeroom, they were greeted by their "class president", who was a girl named Irene Holmes.
"Good afternoon, Briar! Calliope! Today's just going to be a work day. If you're wondering where Mr. Doyle is, he hopped over to the bathroom since Miss Tachyon slipped something suspicious into his lunch."
There was a common rumor around the school that Tachyon and their quirky teacher William Doyle had once been dating, but the actual truth was that they grew up together. Tachyon and Doyle were notorious academic rivals, and were currently battling for their doctorate degrees.
"Wha- everyone's here already?" Doyle walked into the class, wincing from his stomach pains. "Damn that Jeanne… Either way! Get your pencils out, everyo- hey, wait. Where's the purple Canterbury? Do you know, Cal?"
He was obviously referring to Anemone. Calliope was visibly confused as she looked around.
"Eh? Nope. I don't think she's sick, so she's probably just cutting class," Calliope was suddenly very interested in her fingernails. "Seems like something she'd do. She really seems to hate things that are useless or waste time, since she's always on top of her assignments for some reason. Hey, now that I think about it, isn't she in your Geometry class, Bri?"
"U-uh… Yeah, she is. She was there earlier. I wonder where Anemone went."
Doyle sighed.
"Well, no use. If Anemone's absent, she's absent. Holmes, take the attendance down to the office," Irene promptly made her exit.
"Miss Edison, take your seat, please," Doyle requested. Briar hadn't realized she was standing.. "Anyway. You guys know what to do. I've gotta go give Tachyon a nice piece of my mind."
The homeroom immediately became chatty. Calliope was talking with Alcott, while a fellow student joined in. In truth, none of them ever actually had any work to do. They usually finished it all in their classes. Truly a classroom of weird, "nerdy" kids.
Since literally nothing went on during this time, it was safe to say Briar's life was quite peaceful.
Sure, Anemone had mysteriously cut class. Sure, it had never happened before. Even though that was true, Anemone had always been quite mysterious, as if she had been seeing something beyond their understanding. Calliope thought it was just a phase.
Briar returned to her dorm, where Vodka was dressing some nasty-looking wounds.
"Ah. Briar Vega. Apologies for the inconvenience, but these wounds simply refuse to close. The school nurse refuses to look at it and states that I should simply have it amputated," Vodka seemed casual, but Briar could see how tense she was.. "These wounds are stubborn. It is concerning and I may not be able to return to the battlefield in a fully recovered state."
"How about we let me see those for a second, Vodka?" Briar suggested. She complied. After examining it for a moment, Briar came to a conclusion. "Um… Is this a gunshot wound?"
"Yes. In the area of southern Natsiya, I was shot. While I was able to avoid fatal injury, I have slowly been losing feeling in my arm."
"Hmmm. Seems like you didn't sterilize it properly. Oh, man, it's festered into an infection! Luckily for you, I've been getting some medical supplies in my room," Briar winced. "C'mon. Let's go to an empty room." She grabbed her supplies and stood up. Vodka followed hesitantly. It was visible in her body language. Her face didn't say much, neither did she, but her demeanor said everything.
"Um… so.. what will you do?" Vodka asked.
"Hmm… Assuming you came to Magnaziane around a month before our semester started, this's been here for about four months?" Briar inquired. It was incredible that Vodka's arm was still here.
"Yes. I've been routinely disinfecting it, but today was the first time you caught me. Perhaps I simply lack the materials," Vodka said nervously. "When I was shot, the Captain initially played it off by simply bandaging and sterilizing it in our campfire. However, he sent me back to the nearby village of Gornaya once it had shown signs of being serious. Perhaps I am simply too valuable to our militia. Either way, Ivanov Ivanovitch, our physician, stated that I should momentarily be sent to Magnaziane in order to receive proper medical care.
"That somehow ended up in my arrival in this godforsaken school. I question your traditions, but perhaps I am the outsider here. I know the Commander was simply trying to care for my wellbeing, bu- ouch."
"A-ah! Too deep?" Vodka hadn't shown any outward emotion, but her eyes said everything. "Sorry, I'll use a basic anesthetic."
After a while and probably some excruciating pain for poor Vodka, the wound was cleaned out. Briar handed Vodka some antibiotics.
"Here, take these. Every day, after lunch. Also, take them in order. They vary in strength and the bacteria will rapidly evolve. Don't worry 'bout it too much, okay?"
"...Thank you, Briar Vega…" Vodka mumbled. "I'll repay you someday if I survive the war."
"Eh?" Briar was momentarily stunned. They went from talking about medicine to talking about the Northern War? "Um… thanks?"
"No problems here. However I'd like to inform you of something I'd seen going on lately. Anemone Canterbury has recently been leaving the campus for some strange reason. I recommend you stay out of this. Something tells me it won't go well."
"Huh? Oh…" Briar looked down nervously. "I suppose Anemone does have her own things going on. She does have quite the mysterious background, after all…"
"She was seen reentering campus with a young Far Eastern woman later."
"How do you know all this?" Briar inquired. This wasn't something that was spreading like wildfire, now was it?
"I was staring outside my window for a while after the science block ended. After all, our room does face the entrance of the Academy."
"Ah." That was true. Vodka was indeed resourceful in ways Briar could not fathom.
"Well then. I shall go down to the mess hall for dinner." Vodka left. Briar had eaten a large lunch earlier, but Calliope would be lonely, so she followed Vodka downstairs and got herself some spaghetti.
"Heeey, Briar! Over here!" Calliope sat at her usual spot with Alcott and surprisingly, Anemone.
"Um… Anemone's here?"
"Well, we can see that, dipshit." That response could only be Alcott. He looked up at Briar. "Sit down already." Briar sat across from him.
"Edison," Anemone was speaking? Rare. "Um… I missed homeroom because of some personal stuff… Did Doyle say anything about that?"
"Er… He didn't really seem to mind too much. Just brushed it off as a typical absence. Why?"
"It's just that it wouldn't be great for me if Doyle sent mail to Inspector Canterbury about it."
Calliope glared daggers into Anemone from across the table. It sent chills down Briar's spine. Hopefully, Briar never did anything to warrant that same rage from her.
"U-uh, anyway, let's eat..? Bon appetit?" Briar began eating, but the tension was palpable.
After dinner was over, Briar was about to leave the mess hall when she saw Anemone discreetly exiting the building.
Huh? That's not the way to the dorms, Briar thought. Wonder where she's goi- Oh, wait. Vodka said she was going somewhere suspicious…
Briar was aware of how dangerous it could potentially be if she followed Anemone, but could you blame her? She just had to. She was too curious.
Briar followed Anemone down a backwater alleyway, fully expecting a typical escapade. The school's dorms were not the best, and Anemone surely despised living with Calliope. However, Briar was instead met with Anemone meeting up with a young Far Eastern woman.
Speaking of which, Vodka did say she saw a Far Eastern lady.
If future Briar had had the ability to tell past Briar not to follow Anemone, she surely would have taken the opportunity.
"Oi, Ackerman. I thought you said you'd prevent anyone from following us," Briar was immediately on guard after hearing Anemone's voice echo down the alleyway.
"My bad, Nemoppe. I didn't think you'd care, since it's-" The voice of the foreigner was clear without any accents hinting towards her ethnicity. Without an accent, she had to have been in Magnaziane for a majority of her life. How was this possible? Most Far Eastern countries had been closed off for about 15 years after conflicts with the Northern Kingdoms.
"I specifically told you not to let anyone follow. No exceptions, even if it's her," Anemone's voice was strained, as if she was wincing. "Send her back to the Academy."
"Alright, then."
The woman, now identifiable as "Ackerman", turned towards Briar.
"Eep-!" This was terrifying. Briar could not move a muscle.
On the contrary, Briar was able to get a closer look at Ackerman. She was tall, maybe about 170 cm, with a bandage over her right eye, a pair of oval-shaped glasses, and an old fashioned but pristine coat. This, paired with the dress shirt and slacks she was wearing, led to her giving the impression of a very professional woman.
"Sorry, kid. This isn't the kinda place for the privileged and sheltered," Ackerman shooed Briar away, while Anemone stood in the darkness, her back turned.
What was Anemone doing in this kind of environment? More importantly, was it better for Briar to simply stop trying to get involved with Anemone?
Just what was going through Anemone's head, with her back turned to the world?