Chapter Text
Rhea pulled to a stop, the orbal bike stopping right at the entrance to the field exercise camp. She heard the whistle by her ear, “Wowwww, Ouroboros really did a number on the camp.”
“Hold up! Who are you?” A blue haired girl with a spear, obviously on edge, glared at the pair.
“Whoa whoa whoa there, little lady Schleiden. We’re here to talk to your instructors.” Lechter got off the bike, holding his hands up in peace.
“Major Arundel, First Lieutenant Schwarzer, what are you doing here?”
Rhea giggled and noted that the rest of students (minus Carbide hanging out over there in a corner of the camp) all made surprised noises at her name, I see Rean’s already made an impression on them.
Getting off the bike, Rhea patted Altina’s head, “Good to see you again, Altina. And I told you, Rhea is just fine.”
“…First Lieutenant Schwarzer? Arundel?”
Standing straighter, Rhea nodded to the RMP major, “Oh, Major Irving, good to see you again.”
“I wasn’t expecting you this early, or with that.” He walked up gesturing at the orbal bike.
“A certain someone was impatient and dragged me out super early this morning.” Lechter made a show of yawning, “I was sleeping so peacefully too.”
“You were already up and scheming, stop messing around.” Rhea crossed her arms, sighing, “Miss Russell, can you please take care of my bike? I promise to talk with you more after dealing this.”
“Deal with? I’m not that much trouble, am I?”
“Are you really asking that, Arundel?” Rhea winked, noticing that the rest of the branch campus instructors had stepped out of the Derfflinger, and started dragging Lechter by the collar, “Now come on, we have a meeting.”
“Rhea?!” Both Rean and Towa’s surprise was obvious on their faces.
“Hey Rean, Towa!” She waved, “And pleasure to meet you, First Lieutenant Orlando, but let’s head inside, we’ve all got to talk.”
“W-what. Why are you-?”
Reaching her brother in the middle of his stuttering, she used her free hand to drag Rean with her inside the train, “Inside, all will be explained."
A little bit later...
After the orders had been handed off and Fie, Elliot and Laura had made their intentions clear, Randolph was the next one to speak, looking directly at Rhea, “So I think I’m the only one in the room who doesn’t know who the lovely lady over there is…I’m guessing she’s another one of your Class VII compatriots, Schwarzer?”
Rhea pulled away from the circle of her old classmates, grinning with a small wave of her hand, “Yep, but you might want to specify which Schwarzer you’re talking about. I’m First Lieutenant Rhea Schwarzer of the Imperial Intelligence Division…and your future colleague.”
“What?!”
There was a collective shout from everyone but Michael, who facepalmed, and Lechter who held out his hands and shook his head, sighing.
Randolph furrowed his brow, “Future colleague?”
“Oh, the major mentioned that we were getting someone from the Intelligence Division. Is that...?” Rhea only smiled at Towa's incredibly hopeful and overjoyed tone and she was glad to answer.
“Yep!” Rhea winked, with a snap of her fingers, “Sorry about being so late, I got delayed majorly cause a certain someone decided to give me a mission from Gehenna.”
“Sorry, sorry! I didn’t expect it would be that bad!”
“Well, now you get to deal with all the paperwork yourself.” She sniped back to her superior, before turning back to everyone, “But yeah, after the end of this field exercise, I’ll be returning to Leeves with you all. I’m set to teach Orbal Sciences for the kiddos.”
“Unbelievable…” Laura held a hand to her face, Fie and Elliot also shaking their heads with a smile on their face, “…This is what you were planning.”
“It wouldn’t be Rhea if she didn’t have some plan in her pocket to mess with Rean.” At Fie’s comment, Rean let out the biggest sigh he could muster.
“Rhea…”
The said woman kept a grin on her face, giving a full salute, “I’ll be reporting to the Intelligence Division part-time as well, but my priority is the Branch Campus and the future of the students here.” She relaxed, “But for now, we’ve got an Ouroboros plot to deal with. We can go into more details later.”
“…are all members of the intelligence division like this? Between your two classmates and Arundel…”
“They’re the exception to the norm.” Michael pinched the bridge of his nose, “Either way, the Schwarzers have their orders, so we should focus on that for right now.”
“Right!”