“It sure is gloomy today, isn’t it, Caitlyn?”
“It sure is gloomy today, Catherine!”
Embroidery had ended, and the girls had made it to the Monster Studies classroom only to discover over half the students were in tears.
“Did something happen?” Francesca asked William. The boy was draped over his desk in exhaustion after Hunting Techniques, but that was normal for him.
“Huh? Uh... Well...”
William was awkwardly shifting his gaze, so Marion assumed he didn’t understand the question and directed her clarification at George. “Well, the mood in the class just feels awfully grim...”
“Hmm? You sure it’s not just everyone being tired after Hunting Techniques?” George looked around and saw the other students all averting their eyes, unable to even look at them through their sadness, and pressing their foreheads to their desks. Everyone was usually like that after Hunting Techniques. To George, who was the only one still fit as a fiddle afterward, this was just more of the usual.
“No, that’s not... Ugh, never mind.” William was going to say it was something totally different, but he figured since class was about to start, there was no point in getting into it.
“Hey, Caitlyn? It had to have been something those two did, huh?”
“Hey, Catherine? They are Lady Emma’s brothers, and they’re totally alike when it comes to this sorta thing...”
The two twins giggled, laughing at how similar George’s confused expression was to Emma’s. Then the bell rang, and the terrifying Monster Studies teacher entered the room. He was so intimidating that the entire gloomy room sat right at attention again.
“I’ve got some extracurricular activities to talk to you all about before class starts today. It’s dangerous work, so you’d better tighten your belts.” Just by bringing up this extracurricular, the already-intimidating professor became even scarier. All the students audibly gulped, realizing that this wasn’t something they could take lightly. It was only then that they could force their minds away from the poor, sickly Lady Emma.
✦ ✦ ✦
“What’s the meaning of this?” Prince Edward furrowed his brow at the report from the knights who’d returned from the Skyte region.
“There’s no shelter anywhere near the border of Skyte where a human could possibly live. We asked people in the nearby villages, and they said they’d never heard of anyone living in the forests.” The knights who had gone to investigate had found no evidence that Juana had ever lived in the forest with her grandmother. None of the nearby villagers had even seen them. “That forest has always been practically uninhabitable as well. There are too many distortions in the border leading to monsters wandering about. The hunters of Skyte have had their hands full with them.” The knight giving the report seemed anguished. He’d been heavily wounded by monsters and his left leg was completely wrapped in bandages.
“So you’re saying that Lady Juana lied?”
“There’s no way anyone could possibly live out there. Especially not an old woman and young girl. They’d be eaten within minutes.” The knight stood, taking extra care on his leg, and exited the room. The vast majority of knights who had been sent on this investigation had encountered monsters in the forest and suffered grave wounds. Their appearance alone was enough to lend veracity to their reports.
“What do you think of this?” the prince asked Arthur, who had been listening to the report with a stern expression.
“I’m more concerned that there are monsters wandering about inside the barrier than any of this business with Lady Juana. We need to figure out how to deal with that at once.”
As soon as possible. Before one of those monsters left the forests and attacked a human. Before it became a problem they couldn’t undo. They had no time to waste.
Arthur continued, “But it would be too difficult to dispatch any more knights at the moment. My father says we’ve spread them too thin, and none of them have the training necessary to fight monsters. We’d just be sending them off to turn right back round and limp home... And what’s more...” Arthur stared at the door where the injured knight had left, further racking his brain.
“Are you concerned about this year’s field trip?”
“Yes. It’s to take place in the Skyte region.”
Each year, after the social season and just before exams, the school would hold a field trip. The participants would mostly be students taking Monster Studies and Hunting Techniques. The students would be sent off to lands where monsters were likely to show up in order to give them some hands-on experience. There, they could see the forests near the border of the barrier, witness hunters at work, and learn how to process monsters for themselves.
The current king had begun the program when he’d been officially crowned. He believed that by letting the youth of the kingdom (who would inherit it in the future) experience the threats for themselves, it would foster their ability to handle themselves in a crisis.
Unfortunately, many parents were displeased with these extracurricular programs. The school had received a flood of complaints from parents who demanded to know what the king would do if anything should happen to their precious sons, so the program became voluntary.
Notably, the Pallas region where the Stewarts ruled was unfortunately too far from the kingdom, so it was never picked as a location for the program.
“There are usually only a few people who choose to participate each year, but the burden the Skyte hunters face is particularly high. Even so, as someone who’s already come face-to-face with monsters myself, I feel like maybe it’s the kind of opportunity the class should be taking... It’s hard to say what’s best.”
With Lady Juana and now the Monster Studies field trip...there was really no end to the problems.