Chapter III: Cognizance

Congratulations Graduates!

The hallway was filled with noise and laughter as students came rushing to see their parents, guardians and friends. Walls were decorated with banners and different spectres of light. Confetti was blasted from above, that left the ground scattered with small pieces of squares with different colors.

An announcement was blasted by the speakers attached on the walls.

"Greetings Imperial Grand Academy graduates! Please proceed to the auditorium for the Ball."

The place seemed to get noisier as people squeezed their way to the venue of the ball. Near the corner of the Left Wing, a small crowd of newly graduated students gathered in front of two adjacent rooms. They were chattering and were in glee as they surround a red-headed girl wearing a student uniform which was in gray and gold. She wore a sash from her shoulder down to her waist and was smiling vibrantly to everybody.

"The Advanced Military Officer exams are just right around the corner," a short guy with a bowl cut exclaimed. He was nudged by a girl with braided curls beside him, who was a few inches taller than him.

"If it's you, I think you will definitely pass that test. You're the top student afterall," she grinned.

The red haired girl placed her right hand on her chest and did a slight bow with her head to all of them.

"I gladly accept your advice," she replied and smiled charmingly, her eyes sparkling with vibrance to everyone that surrounds her.

The group cheered and continued their laughters as they chattered mirthfully. While they were happy mingling around in the middle of the hallway, a middle-aged man wearing a red turtleneck shirt with golden rose embroidery, approached them. His narrow, deep set eyes looked at them and squinted as a smile curved his lips.

"Oh, look at you! Lady Iktanne, congratulations on your graduation!", he greeted, grinning from ear to ear while waving his wrinkled hands at them. He briskly approached the girl as the students paved his way for him. Stretching out his left arm, Iktanne leaned forward and gave her right hand for a handshake.

"As expected from the top student! Say, are you putting a similar result for the advanced officer test, too?," he asked eagerly.

"I will make every effort to meet expectations, Professor Magnus," she replied.

Meanwhile, in the room across the hall, a blonde guy sat on a couch with his legs crossed as he watched the crowd lazily. Finding the crowd bothersome and boring for him, he did a gesture of shaking his head while clicking his tongue. He had another thing in mind which is way interesting than anything else for his world: food.

Grabbing hold of the leg of the whole roasted chicken on his plate, he ripped it apart from it's body nastily. He held the drumstick near his nose and sniffed it's scent, filling his nostrils. Drool came out from the sides of his mouth as he feasted on the food before him, like an ancient starved Viking lost in the sea for months. Some students were eyeing him for his lack of etiquette, but he didn't care.

"Damn, those people do sure know how to meddle too much."

He jerked his head up to see who interrupted his peaceful dine, and saw a girl with jet black hair tied up in a high ponytail. He knew her but he couldn't remember her name, as usual. He wasn't good with names. The girl had thick mascara and sharp eyebrows, and had them furrowed deep on her forehead. She rolled her eyes and walked towards the green Victorian couch and plumped to it's seat.

He stared at her for a few seconds but just shrugged his shoulders and continued to where he left off. The girl ignored him and kept chewing a gum. She was trying to form a bubble when a sudden pop! from it stopped her. A parrot came and flew over as it teasingly poked it's beak on the gum. It let out a mocking laugh as it flew away across the room. It landed on top of a gentleman's shoulder, wearing a skintight suit in chestnut color and leather boots. He was smirking as if to hide the laughter he's holding in, and brushed his slicked brown hair with his hand. A thin, silver metallic headband wrapped his forehead, bearing an eagle insignia in the middle. He entered the room and let out a mischievous grin as he approached the two individuals sitting beside each other.

"Even on your graduation, you still choose to chew on those, noisy, bubbly, gross gums of yours, Luisa," he remarked, his voice raspy and heavy with British accent.  He stepped back and thought of something which made him chuckle. His eyes were of the same color of his hair, and it stared directly at the woman on the couch which made Luisa blush furiously. She stood immediately and grumpily walked out of the place.

"You stupid...freaking British cunt! Fuckin mind your own business William!," she hissed as she stomped her way into the crowd and vanished.

The blond guy sighed as he watched the scene that just happened before him. Shrugging his shoulders again, he took one last bite from the chicken leg he's been feasting on and placed the remains on a plate on the coffee table. He stood up and straightened his faded uniform. Brushing his straight blond hair that falls just an inch above his broad shoulders, he dragged himself out of the room and into the bustling hallway.

"Pug!," he said as he yawned, stretching his arms above his head.

A puff of smoke appeared and enveloped his feet up to his lower legs. It slowly thickens.

"What do you want?," a grumpy voice resonated from it, giving off a deep and strong accent.

Looking down with a bored face, the smoke sufficed and revealed an Egyptian Sphynx cat looking back at him with an annoyed face.

"Quit it, Pug. This is important," he answered and continued walking down the hallway, passing by the crowd earlier.

"You know I heard, the second serving of ice cream is here so let's go. It'll be a great opportunity."

"Uh-huh...," Pug replied sarcastically. "So you summoned me, awoken me from my sleep. Just because of an... ICE CREAM?"

The cat's eyes narrowed in slits as it stared at him, completely annoyed. He just smirked back at him as if to annoy him even more.

"Ice cream is definitely something, Pug. Milk and honey are quite costly these days, if I miss out then this year's ice cream will be..."

He stopped dead in his tracks as he was welcomed by an empty serving bowl of ice cream.

"No...This can't be happening," he gulped.

"Almost finished already?! Wasn't it put out just now?!"

Pug watched in disbelief as the guy ranted and wailed about the disappearance of his ice cream. The others, who were also getting food from the buffet table, were looking at him with disgust and disbelief that made them walk to the other side of the table, farther away from the distraught blond guy.

"What a scene we have here, don't we?," a voice said, coming from behind.

The cat didn't bother to look behind him as the redhead from the crowd earlier walked towards them, shaking her head while doing so.

"You sure do have a headache to handle here, don't ya?," she remarked. Her voice was soft yet it somehow have a strong Slavic accent in it.

❇❇❇

"Hmmm... This is great!"

Iktanne giggled as she took a bite from the cake she got from the buffet.

"Yeah, mmhmm. Good for you. But it sucks for me," the blond guy groaned as if in pain, and stretched his back.

Iktanne looked at him and handed him the plate of cake she's holding.

"You're exaggerating. There's still lots of food you can enjoy here, right?"

"No thank you...," he grunted.

"Compared to last year and the year before, the portions are in constant decline and the food tastes like shit."

She watched him rub his nose as he said these things and remembered some rumors and gossips she heard about a blond guy from the senior years of the Academy.

"You're that guy. Anthony Reeves—the Yankee?," she asked but was answered with silence. She sighed and leaned back.

"You... haven't shown up at the graduation ceremony, have you?"

Anthony looked at her and frowned.

"Yeah! Yeah. What a sad story...blah blah," he replied sarcastically as he lay on his back at the other end of the couch, putting some distance between them.

"I didn't mean it like...that," Iktanne gasped as she stared at him, wide-eyed.

He stared at the ceiling and seemed to be plunged in deep, faraway thoughts. There was a sudden awkward silence between them, but Iktanne didn't seem to be bothered by this and instead, sat there at the other end of the couch, observing him. Realizing this, Anthony jerked back up and sat in an uncomfortable manner and cleared his throat.

"So... I was saying... the quality of the food provided by the academy is getting worse each passing year. I think, this is a grave omen for the dignity of the Empire."

Iktanne was about to say something as a reply but they were cut off by two Japanese girls that came running towards them.

"Iktanne-sama!," a girl with flowing straight hair called. She was accompanied by another girl in pigtails. They're twins.

"If it is Iktanne-sama, I know it won't be long before you make it to the actual combat but I hope you can make it in time," the girl in ponytail said cheerfully and twirled.

"What are you talking about?,"  Iktanne replied, completely baffled.

The girls looked at her with a bit of confusion at her remark but wasn't bothered by it.

"You see, Iktanne-sama, some of our relatives live in the northern province of Japan. Right now, our Empire's northern barracks have detected anomalies that involve about one and a half dozen of Giant bandits attacking villagers from there. Remember the sudden appearance of a tsunami a couple of weeks ago? General Gary of the North barracks sent a report to the Academy that those bandits were the ones responsible for that happening," the girl in pigtails explained.

"About three thousand people died in that town because of the sudden calamity. The military forces are trying to figure out their purpose for going that far as summoning a tidal wave, forcing the flow of nature against it's own. But we've heard...," she said and leaned towards Iktanne's ear and whispered, "... we've heard a few days ago in the library from the proctors that the Giants were collecting gold and souls from the normals. They said that there was an insignia left on the shores of the north... which might cause a great trouble because it links back here in the Academy and the Empire."

Iktanne's face was wild with shock.

"What insignia was it?," she whispered back.

"Well, we don't know for the bell started ringing for our next class so we weren't able to get what they were saying."

The blond guy, Anthony, stood up from the other end of the couch and interrupted them, saying he'll be away to get some food. He looked at Iktanne's eyes and spoke telepathically.

"It was an insignia of an eagle. The mark of the House of Wales."

Her eyes went wide as she watched Anthony put his hands on his pockets and walked away with Pug.