Chapter 12: The Knight-Captain's Daughter

A few minutes prior to the incident in the classroom.

"I'm going to be late; I should have looked for my classroom earlier." Levik was running through the halls looking for his classroom. Though he would like to avoid admitting it, he had a poor sense of direction.

Levik had decided to skip the opening ceremony since it was only optional, however he underestimated how large the campus was. He had spent the majority of his life in his family manor and land and had rarely travelled even in the noble district. It was actually a surprise to many in noble circles that the "heir" to the dusk district had never even been inside it. This was a sign to some that the House of Layl was pivoting away from those kinds of endeavors.

"According to the campus map I saw at the entrance; it should be around here" Levik states to himself while looking around.

"Ah there it is!" Levik shouts internally after spotting a classroom that was labelled as his in front of a T-intersection in the hall. He begins running towards it.

"Alright then...almost there." Levik thinks as he reaches the door.

"Oh no, why did I wake up so late. Big sis is going to get mad!" A new feminine voice reaches his ears.

WHAM!

Levik sees the ceiling as he is knocked over onto the ground and he feels a weight on top of him.

When he looks to see what's on top of him, he sees long brown hair that covers a light-yellowish face.

"Ow! Oh no, are you alright? I'm so sorry." Says the petite girl with her chin on top of his chest.

Levik recovers from his shock and suddenly gets embarrassed after he realizes the position their bodies are in, especially with both panting in fatigue.

"Oh, yeah I'm alright. Are you okay?" He says, trying to sound unaffected, but his face is obviously blushing red.

"Ah, yes I'm okay too... Oh no, I'm so sorry!" The girl answers and realizes their problematic position. Consequently, she gets up and tries to help the young boy she toppled over and landed on while also hiding her reddened face.

As she helps him up, she looks at the boy's sharp features. Dark hair with brown skin, as well as a lean solidly built body. She suddenly remembers Ser Eva teasing her about getting a boyfriend on the first day of school and she gets even more embarrassed.

"I'm so sorry, I'm just rushing since I'm late for class." She explains herself hastily.

"It's alright... is this your classroom too?" Levik answers then asks.

"Mhm, oh I guess we're classmates. My name's Venia, how about yours?" Venia introduces herself after realizing that they were classmates.

"Ah, my name's Levik. We should get inside, we're already late" Trying to move past his embarrassment, Levik puts on a shy smile and invites Venia to go inside the classroom with him.

Unfortunately, despite how both try to act normally, their nerves get the best of them and they both push open the classroom door at the same time causing it to slam with a loud noise.

SLAM!

"Oh no!" They both think, then they panic and run inside.

When Levik was introducing himself, Venia was surprised.

"He's the heir of House Layl? Papa told me to be careful of them, he was so nice though." Venia thinks internally as she remembers her father's sole reminder, as well as the incident she had with the young master of the dusk district. Though she had no in-depth knowledge about it, she very well knew that the dusk district equated with the shady part of the capital. However, she had wondered why the House of Layl, which was always fraught with intrigue and suspicion could within just over a decade ago produce the kingdom's latest hero.

"I'm sorry Papa, but I'm really curios about this." Venia, unable to deal with the dissonance between Levik's demeanor and the existence of the "Knight of Cherry Blossoms" with the rumors and hearsay of House Layl, decides to do her own investigation before making judgements.

Lost in her own thoughts, she suddenly noticed that a few seconds had already passed, and the classroom was silent. Venia gets embarrassed and decides to introduce herself, though in a flustered manner which causes her to forget to address Ser Rheya by title.

Venia notices Ser Rheya close her eyes and make an expression which Venia recognizes as her internally rubbing her temples.

"Oh no, I'm so sorry Big sis." Venia feels bad and guilty and decides to try her best not to make too much trouble for Ser Rheya.

Venia had lost her mother at birth and didn't really have any mother figures growing up. They were one of the few noble families who did not have a large family tree, and by extension, an estate. Their family's fertility was not very strong and most of the other branches of the tree were extinguished due to one reason or another. This left the family being survived only by Venia, her father, and their grandparents who had retired to the countryside.

Growing up, aside from the rare visits where she would be spoiled by her caring grandparents, Venia was mostly in the care of maids, butlers, and her father. Though her father was frequently approached with marriage invitations growing up, it was obvious to many that the head of house Asa was unable to get past the loss of his wife. Sometimes, Venia also felt that her father did not want to marry because he felt that he would be betraying her, this caused her sadness whenever she would think about it but Venia decided to keep it in for her father's sake.

Her father the knight-captain was aware of the problems of Venia growing up with few female figures to look up to. Thus, when the trio of knights Ser Rheya, Ser Fae, and Ser Eva had just joined the knight order around a year ago, he thought they could be people who his daughter could befriend and relate to. Instead of the usual rookie work of cleaning latrines or carrying bags, the knight-captain asked the then-rookie knights to watch over Venia.

The trio for their part were glad to avoid the usual grunt work assigned to rookies and were happy to help take care of the cute little girl. Aside from their usual training and patrols, the three knights would keep Venia company whenever they had time. They would even train her in swordplay whenever Venia's father was not around. This eventually led to them seeing her as a little sister, which led to Venia calling all three of them "Big Sis".

Back to the present time, Venia was seated listening to Ser Rheya discuss the logistics of their homeroom class. They would be meeting once at the beginning of the week where they would have check-ups and activities to build the cohesiveness of their class.

"Finally, all the different classes will be introducing a 4-person squad system. You will all be randomly assigned into groups of four, these groupings will be used whenever we have an activity. In addition, this will ideally be an opportunity for all of you to make friends and help each other. Are there any concerns?" Ser Rheya introduces the final topic of discussion.

"..." The class looks at each other and silently shrugs, no one objects.

"Alright we will be drawing lots, all of you will be drawing a number. The number you draw will be the group you will be staying with in the near future. If you have any concerns in the future, please inform me." Rheya explains how they would be grouped. She places a small bag on the table in front of class with the different lots inside.

In order, Rheya then begins calling different members of the class to come forward and draw their group number. Eventually, Venia is called forward to the front to draw from the bag. As she walked, some of the other students including Levik passed a look at the student who had called their homeroom teacher "Big Sis". Venia had been given the list and description her classmates ahead of time by her father, thus she had recognized the silver haired princess and noticed when she had nodded with a smile while the red-headed duke's son had chuckled when she introduced herself. She guessed that they also already knew the identity and general relationships of everyone in the class.

Once she was in front of the bag, she bowed slightly towards Ser Rheya apologetically and then picked a lot from inside the bag. Then she returns quietly to her seat and looks at the number written on the piece of paper.

"1" Is what's written.

"Now, that everyone's gotten their numbers. Please go and meet your groups and get acquainted, we will be having an activity 30 minutes from now."

Venia looks around from her desk to find her groupmates.

"Group 3 over here!"

"I'm Group 2!"

Different students call out their numbers to make it easier for their other squad mates to find them.

"Group 1 over here!" Yells, the red-headed boy from earlier.

Venta sees the heir of House Robur and heads towards him.

"Hi, I'm Venia. Nice to meet you." She introduces herself politely.

"Hey! I'm Calid, nice to meet you too." The tanned stocky northerner introduces himself energetically.

"Good morning Calid and Venia. My name is Belle, I hope we'll have a wonderful time working together." The silver-haired and fair skinned princess walks towards them and introduces herself with a polite warm smile.

"Good morning princess Belle." Both Calid and Ventia reply in a polite formal tone.

"Oh, can we please drop the titles for now. I think it will be easier if we treat everyone as equals." The princess immediately tries to breakdown the distance between them due to their difference in standings. Though Venia would likely be the most prominent member in some of the other classes, she was a tier below Levik and Calid, who were themselves a tier below the princess.

"Ah, good morning princess Belle. Hello everyone. My name is Levik, I hope we can all get along." Levik suddenly also appears and introduces himself respectfully.

"Hello Levik, like I just told Ventia and Calid. Please just call me Belle, we are going to be squad mates after all." Belle reiterates her request to Levik.

"Ah alright then Belle." Levik nods and agrees.

Once they were all fully formed, it did not take long for the whole class to notice something was interesting about the groupings. Which was that the three main political powerhouses of the class were grouped together: the Princess, the duke's son, and the dusk's heir.