"With all the hat thing made, we'd better start walking," Oliver expined.

  Katherine nodded again at what the boy said. But something had been b her the eime. She was grateful for being saved, but the way the boy spoke was informal, something she had never experienced before. She didn’t dislike it, but she couldn’t uand why he spoke like that.

  "We weren’t in the river for long, maybe 5 to 10 minutes. We must be just a few miles away from the bat area," Oliver tinued, pointing toward the top of the river.

  He moved to the ter of what could be called their camp and used his boots to extinguish the remaining embers. Meanwhile, Katherine picked up her clothes, which were almost dry by now.

  She was at an impasse. It would be important to wear her clothes before returning to camp, but she'd have to deactivate her armor and be left in her underwear again. Oliver noticed the girl staring ily at her clothes.

  "Um," he cleared his throat softly before tinuing, "I'll go check ahead while you get ready."

  The boy didn’t know how long he should keep walking, but expl was importaher way. Following the riverbank, he walked for a few seds. When he finally felt he’d given her enough privacy, he started looking around. The forest didn’t seem to get denser, but its opy and leaves spread even more overhead, blog most of the sunlight. The ground was littered with dead leaves and scattered branches, and with every step, he could feel the ground give slightly uhe pressure of his boots.

  After a few more minutes, he heard the girl’s footsteps approag.

  “Shall we go?” she asked cheerfully.

  “Yes,” he nodded and began to take the first steps.

  The two walked carefully through the forest, trying to stay close to the riverbank and avoiding making hat could attract monsters. The battle with the Carrion had been more than enough.

  Once again, silence huween them.

  “I don’t mean to be ungrateful, but why did you jump in to save me?” Katherine was still fused about that part. In her reality, no one did something without expeg something iurn. Of course, she was someone important, but she couldn’t uand what the boy expected to gain from it.

  “It might sound pretty stupid,” the boy paused, gathering his thoughts. “We were in the first group when we arrived to take the tests. For some reason, watg your bat inspired me. It gave me anoal of what I wao achieve.”

  The girl thought about his response while looking at Oliver’s face. She could uand what he was describing, but not with the same empathy. Katherine couldn't imagine jumping in to save any of her teachers who had inspired her when she was younger.

  “Um,” he cleared his throat again before tinuing, “then we ended up in the same Ranger on bat css, and I finally got to test myself. Even though it was one-sided, I saw you as a rival. When I saw you jump into the water… I ’t give you a logical expnation. I just felt like I had to jump in, too,” Oliver tinued walking, his eyes ahead, avoiding looking at the girl’s rea.

  Katheri walking, following Oliver’s footsteps, but at the same time paying close attention to his facial expressions, trying to find some fw, some lie in what he was saying.

  “Like I said, it was stupid. I’d never done anything like that, but… it retty cool to say that I saved someone,” he smiled proudly. “I never imagined I’d say something like that.”

  “I see. Well, thank you very much for saving me.” Katherine replied.

  They kept walking for a bit longer until the girl stopped. She scratched her head, seeming to want to say something but was holding back.

  “Huff…” Katherine exhaled. “Something is still b me. Who are you? Which House do you belong to?”

  “House? Well, none. I don’t have a surname; I’m what you’d call Nameless,” he turo answer her.

  “Oh! … sorry.” Finally, it felt like a puzzle piece had clicked into pce for her. “Usually, there are many people trying to get close to the Great House York, so it’s hard to know who is who or what they’re after,” Katherine expined, a bit ashamed of being so direct.

  She started walking again, following the boy.

  ‘He has enough talent to be in the First Battalion, but he’s in the Sed. Is it because he’s Nameless?’ She thought. While others might pity Oliver’s situation, she saw it as an opportunity.

  ‘The Sed Battalion must have other talents ignored simply because they were Nameless.’ Oliver couldn’t see, but Katherine smiled slightly while greedily analyzing the Sed Battalion.

  “Sorry for being so direct. I’m just not used to people talking to me without all the pomp and ceremony, at least not outside the family.”

  “I uand, but what are the Houses? I’ve heard people in the Sed Battalion talk about them, but we never had any lessons on that,” Oliver took his turn to ask.

  However, the answer was quite different from what he expected. This time, Katherine looked at him with disbelief.

  “Are you serious? You don’t know what the Houses rand Houses are? What do they tea schools?!” she started firing off question after question, breaking the image of a calm girl.

  “Maybe they do teach it. But I stopped going to school after I was eleven.” Oliver expined.

  “Still, why they don’t teach that in Middle School?!” Katherine pined, unaware of what they were teag in an ordinary school. But Oliver's Middle School had been a hundred years in the past when the cept of a House didn’t eve yet.

  “Humm… where should I start?” She used one hand to support her head as she thought. “The first Wave was the world’s greatest shock but wasn’t the greatest devastation. The attack was only from a reaissance Ork ship.”

  Oliver could uand, though it was hard to believe that a ship capable of devastating a city was just for surveilnce.

  “It was from the sed Wave onward that things began to ge. Many tries couldn’t sustain themselves, especially with so many cities destroyed and refugees everywhere,” Katheriried to recall everything she had learned long ago.

  Oliver began to see an area in the forest with fewer trees, though it was still a few minutes’ walk. He was too ied in uanding what had happened while he was i.

  “Between the sed and third waves, govers worldwide were colpsing. To survive the battle, they formed h, a tralized goverhat oversees all tries. However, each region still had iial military and political families, which became even more powerful with the discovery of Z-Crystal.”

  The boy g his gau. He had heard a lot about the crystal but still didn’t know much about how it worked or was created.

  “To maintain their power, these families started verting intanizations. Each of them has a different focus, but the main one is Z-Crystal extra and batant development. That’s how they maintain political power within the empire. Houses and Grand Houses are just a way to differentiate the anizations by power, and a Grand House is expected to supply at least 1,ers during a Wave.”

  Oliver nodded, abs the critical informatioe the amount of detail. But ohing still puzzled him.

  “I uand that you e from a Grand House and, therefore, must have a lot of power, but I remember other cadets also ing from them,” he recalled hearing other boys talk about some of the rand Houses.

  “Still, you seemed to react as if you were more important. I’m guessing you don’t have an infted ego, so what makes York so special?”

  She smiled and scratched her head. “It’s really different having someone who doesn’t know my House, so I fot to introduce us.”

  “Well, some Houses work with other things besides Z-Crystal extra and soldier training. There are some that manage prisons or os. In our case, we are one of the few responsible for pary ma.”

  She chose not to give all the reasons but felt this was enough to expin the level of the Grand House.

  “… like aire p is yours?”

  “Yes and no, we pay the empire to have trol over the p.”

  “That’s awesome!” the boy said, his eyes shining. Oher hand, Katherine didn’t share the same enthusiasm. It was an enormous responsibility, and at any moment, h could take away their powers.

  “Do all Grand Houses have duties of that size?” Oliver asked, trying to uand more about the world he was noart of.

  “Not really. Each House tends to focus on what they’re best at, but many specialize in some industry. You’ve probably seen brands managed by them.”

  Finally, they were emerging from the forest. Oher side of the river, they could see the area where the battle had takehousands of Crabit carcasses were still scattered around, but no one remaihere.

  “They’re probably still figuring out which students are missing so they form a seard rescue team,” the girl fidently stated what the Academy’s steps would be.

  “We ’t cross the river here. If we go in, we’ll be swept away by the current again and likely end up on this side of the bank.” Oliver ented.

  Looking further upstream, they saw the river climb a hill he horizon.

  “Let’s keep going uphill. There must be a calmer spot up there where we cross to the other side.” Katherine proposed.

  They tinued moving forward, now out of the forest, fag an open field simir to the opposite bank.

  They stopped talking momentarily as they observed the sery around them, at least until Oliver's curiosity resurfaced again.

  “ does your House manage?” he turo the girl as he asked.

  She kept looking ahead and answered, “Mars.”

  GCLopes