Academy, first week

As the time crept closer and closer to 5 in the morning, the lights around the bastion kept increasing in intensity, emulating a feeling of day. As she woke up, Uria felt restless after the few hours of sleep she got; after all, it had been a while since she felt any excitement for something that wasn't fighting. She looked forward to her first day in the mech academy, which reminded her of her younger days when she was attending the Silverlight Royal Academy for the most promising genuises and purebloods of elvenkind, as a mere commoner at that, due to her incredible magical talent.

Fondly looking back at that time, she hastily grabbed a new uniform that had arrived before her door and went to the women's washrooms in the recovery facility. Having washed up and changed into a proper mech trainee suit, she quickly navigated the Last Bastion and found it.

In the spacious concrete and steel underground cave, it was the only building that touched the ceiling. A cylindrical main building where most of the learning happened and two smaller annexes made up of the Practice Arena and the dorms for those who had lost their parents and couldn't go anywhere else, the place where Asa spent most of her time due to being an orphan.

Going past the gate, Uria felt familiar with this place as if she had been the one who spent two years here, not Asa. Trying to feel where her body wanted her to go, she quickly approached one of the people on guard duty and asked him where her class was. She was short on time, after all. Turning around and walking down the second corridor, she quickly found the third classroom and opened the door.

As soon as she entered, she was greeted by a dozen pairs of eyes, some curious, some disinterested, some jeering, and some pitying her. The room was built and organized like a theatre, much better lit than her room during "day" and only losing out to the inspection room. The further away you stood from the one presenting, the higher up you were so you could see what was being taught. Taking a quick glance at everyone, she quickly became disinterested; most of them didn't seem to be above 20 years if she was generous, and she wasn't interested in beating up kids. She didn't know if she'd get in trouble for it, after all. Finding a fairly remote spot out of the 80 spots that was somewhere in the middle and on the side, she sat down.

After sitting down, she turned to look at the 14 kids in front of her that kept looking at her, 13 of whom wore blue uniforms just like herself, and one wearing a ornate red robe who was frowning while looking at her. "Are you not going to greet a noble?" said one of the henchmen, looking at her with displeasure.

"Who?" replied Uria.

"The magnificent heir of house Orleton, young master Erst von Orleton!" proudly introducing his master, Henchman Nr. 1 was looking at Uria, awaiting her response and wanting to see her bootlick his young master.

"Hello, nice to meet you, I'm Asa. Oh, and I don't remember anything, so don't expect me to know things."

There was only silence as a reply, and Nr. 1's face turned sour. However, before he could start yelling about how important nobles are and how their sacred duty is protecting the Arcology and whatnot...

"She's lost her memory, don't bother with dead people," came the lazy reply from Erst.

"Understood." Nr. 1 and the rest simply followed his instructions and only occasionally looked at her with some pity or gloating afterwards. Still bored out of her mind, Uria kept scrolling her watch, learning whatever other things she found interesting, like reading about which abilities Quietus can manifest and such.

A few minutes later, a head peeked out of the doorway, and with a smile on his old bearded face, the professor said, "Haha! Seems like there's a new person to today's lectures!" As the old man wearing a white coat and fedora walked into the classroom, he took another glance at Uria and said, "I'm your xenology professor who's going to teach you everything you need to survive once you get back out there, hopefully! Ah, right, my name is Frederick, and let's start today's lecture. Today's topic is the surface's flora. More specifically, things you could find in relative proximity to the tunnel exit to the surface. Open page 120, that's the flora chapter, and newbie, here is..." As he was saying that, he kept typing something into his watch for half a minute, and Uria got a package sent to her watch, a digital book with a wide assortment of flora and fauna listed in it, "...Your book. Anyways, where was I... Right, 120, the flora chapter."

As the professor started explaining he occasionally fiddled with his watch, letting images of the things in question show up on the wide screen behind him.

The professor's explanations for the flora listed in the book were much more summarized and highlighted the key things to memorize. After an hour in the lecture hall with a small 5-minute break in between, the professor put his hands in his pockets and walked out of the classroom with a smile on his face. Having only somewhat paid attention, she got up and was ready to head to the practice field inside the arena. She had to familiarize herself with controlling an armor, after all.

After a quick 5 minutes of walking and asking for directions, she found the armor test site. Unfortunately, due to it being her first day, she couldn't really practice with them, so she went instead to the new cadets' virtual training facility down the hallway, where pods could simulate what controlling a mech feels like. Looking at the coffin of steel and glass in front of her with faint expectations in her eyes, she hopped in after she got permission from the facility manager. 

An hour later, she walked out of that facility after realizing that it was almost the exact same thing as controlling her skeletal guardian. Well, except this was a steel guardian; it wasn't ugly, and it was also slightly less responsive due to being inorganic.

In addition, having realized that controlling Quietus felt somewhat similar to controlling her mana, she decided she should prioritize knowing more about her enemy than herself for now.

Training her mech control could wait until the second week where she can practice in the actual armor, not a simulation. 

Exploring the rest of the academy and seeing there wasn't anything interesting going on, she decided to head home early. After coming home, she spent the rest of the day studying the book about mutant wildlife, memorizing as much as she could in preparation for the future.

Quietly like that, one week passed without anyone bothering her... Except Anne who occasionally came to say hi and treat her to dinner and to talk about whatever interesting is going on.