Though he had on some level expected that his reputation and status would draw the attention of others, one of the few things that Reginald did not expect was being accosted by a girl who was notably shorter than he was—moreso than most of the other students attending the academy, at least. Of course, that combination of height and hair in particular made it rather straightforward to discern who it was that was calling out to him—doubly so when he had heard a nickname being called rather than any sort of title.

"Lady Elastasia," he said, half as a response to her call and half as a reminder to himself as to her identity. "I apologize, but I do not think I have..."

It was at this point that Reginald slowly trailed off, the young man slowing his stride for a moment as he searched his recent memories. The brother in question was rather short as far as people went, and though he had for the most part brushed over most of the new students in his earlier scan, there did seem to be something or someone moving through the sea of students in a bit of a rush earlier.

"...No, I misspoke. It is quite possible that he was among the first to leave once the opening address had concluded," Reginald corrected himself (though never actually stopping as he continued towards the marketplace). "I saw a few students being pushed aside earlier by someone too short to see properly, so it is quite possible that he might have been in a rush to find you as well. Is it possible that he had presumed you would be elsewhere instead?"

@Raineh Daze

---

---

The sudden scream that had escaped from Anne's mouth had indeed managed to catch the Crown Prince off guard, but (in classic ikemen fashion) the young man simply smiled and nodded after the young woman agreed to his suggestion. Soon enough, the two students were carrying the unconscious Noctis off the courtyard and into the main school building. Large and grand though it was, the Prince seemed to have no trouble finding his way through (and even going so far as to help give a mini-tour on the way to the nurse's office).

Compared to how it was laid out within the game, Starveil Academy was far larger in person—sort of a given, of course, seeing as how it had to accommodate so many more students than were usually shown on screen—which meant that the walk over was far longer than a simple menu navigation would have taken. If that fact—and the fact that she was so close to Christopher—had shaken Anne, though, the Prince seemed to not take notice.

Or maybe he had and was simply not showing those feelings as much. Who could tell?

But soon enough, the group had arrived at the nurse's office; a quick knock at the door soon opened, and out came an older woman wearing a white coat.

"Is there a... Oh."

It didn't take long at all before the nurse's gaze fell upon the unconscious Noctis, and without any sort of fanfare she ushered the three in before laying the patient in question onto one of the nearby beds.

"Was there any sort of injury?" she asked, to which Christopher simply shook his head no.

"Not as far as I'm aware, no," the prince replied, shaking his head before turning briefly towards Anne for confirmation. "It is quite possible that his nerves got to him, but I'm not sure that'd be enough for him to lose consciousness..."

"You'd be surprised," the nurse replied, a smile on her face as she turned towards the young man lying down on the bed. "My assistant Johan was also a bit squeamish when he first started helping me out. It was so bad that the sight of blood would've made his soul leave his body!"

The nurse let out a small laugh here before shaking her head.

"Of course, I can handle things from here—unless you're worried about this young man, of course?"

@VitaVitaAR@MagusDream

"Noctis is my friend," began Anne, almost immediately. Not only because of the fact she was genuinely concerned with the state of the young man(she did actually know him, and he had suddenly fainted), but also because this was an excellent way to escape spending any more time with the Prince then absolutely necessary. She didn't need any elaborate excuse, she didn't even need to do anything particularly special.

All she had to do was what she already wanted to do, which was make sure that a friend of hers was okay.

It was a relief. A true relief that it was this easy to escape a flag.

"So, I need to make sure he's okay," she insisted, nodding her head as she did, looking the unconscious boy over. What had happened to him? She didn't remember anything like this happening in the game. Of course, now that this was all real, things didn't necessarily need to go exactly as they did in Cross Heart Academy. But at the same time, it only stood to reason that knowledge of the game's story could inform her of what could happen.

She didn't remember Noctis being sick, or nervous. And when she had spoken with him prior, she didn't remember him behaving like he felt at all unwell in any way. Neither her knowledge of the world as it was now nor her knowledge of the game explained the boy's sudden collapse.

Which made it all the more concerning.

@PKMNB0Y@MagusDream

@AThousandCurses

---

"Potions, hm...quite lucrative indeed." A fairly easy and common way of getting money, really. It certainly wouldn't be too difficult if rules followed the same way alchemy happened in the game. Still...she lacked any actual alchemical skill herself, and didn't fancy learning truth be told. It'd be a lot of work, trial and error...haaa, she didn't mind hard work but she really didn't want more work. Still, maybe she could sponsor someone -

"Ah." Cervantes hit the nail right on the head. "How rude. I would like to inform you lord Reginald and the Von Afah family reward their maids with quite adequate pay." She'd respond. Well, she certainly liked getting paid more, but there was no need to start saying that the Von Afah family went around paying their maids barely enough to live on. "Still...mhm, you're not incorrect. I find myself needing quite a lot of money for certain personal reasons I am not at liberty to divulge." Mella's expression remained neutral and unreadable as she'd bow lightly. "Even if I were to invest in an inventor, that requires some form of capital to start with...haaa..." her unreadable expression shifted just slightly to one of mild annoyance. "Everything always comes back to money, doesn't it? Needing more to even get more...maybe I should just commit embezzlement or tax evasion and move Von Afah's funds to some island out of the country..."

Her voice trailed off for a few moments before she'd cough, shaking her head.

"...apologies, I should finish the shopping before lord Reginald starts wondering where I've gone."

With his business smile still on his face, Cervantes tilted his head forward. "My apologies for that remark," Though both of them knew that what he said was true. If a maid's income was all it took to get into the realm of business, then every servant would be dumping their cash into investment. Nobles were pigs, and the commoners were chickens. One fed with riches while the other couldn't fly off to greater heights.

If Cervantes heard anything Mella said, he made no effort to show it. "If that is the case, I wish you a good day, miss." With their conversation seemingly over, Cervantes was about to move and then stopped. "My shop is located nearest to one of the entrances. If there is anything you would like to inquire about, then you can head to my shop." With that, he finally turned back and began walking back to his shop. Perhaps he would charge that maid next time for advice.

He didn't get to meet the heroine, so that meant this reality was a little realistic. While a redundant thought, it still rang true. Not everything was pre-determined, though this was only a slight bit of evidence for that case. "Though, what should I do..." Cervantes muttered to himself. It still didn't change the fact that his future was uncertain.

Perhaps it was time for some exploration. Cervantes needed to restock items for his shop, and he needed someone to protect him if the need arose. If he remembered correctly, there was a bulletin board somewhere in the town square. That billboard was a quest-giver to the heroine if she wanted to gain experience. It often involved her helping the people on the school grounds with their errands or dilemmas. He'd just use the billboard to enlist some poor student to follow him around while he collected items.

"Though what should I give as a reward," Cervantes muttered to himself.

@rune_alchemist

Oh good, he'd slowed down. Excellent, she'd been having to practically jog to keep up and that was undignified and ridiculous. Stupid long-legged giants in a rush, they really didn't appreciate how much of an advantage those legs were in turning a brisk pace into an active workout for everyone else...

Maybe the best accident would be one that took advantage of that? Some sort of magical pit trap; it could be claimed that he was just in too much of a hurry to notice the hole in the ground or something before he fell in, how unfortunate that it happened to be full of deadly venomous snakes. But then she'd need to find a way to acquire snakes on-demand, otherwise it would just be Reginald standing around in the bottom of a pit until someone came along with a ladder.

The fact that he had replied took her a few seconds to catch up on as she followed along, thinking. "Um... it's possible, but that doesn't really narrow it down, because I don't think he'd be at all familiar with anywhere I could be in the academy, and there's so many possible places that it would take days to search them..."

It was a big place, there were plenty of out-of-the-way corners to sit and read, after all.

Though he seemed somewhat lost in thought as he proceeded forward, the concerns that Elastasia had were not necessarily ones that Reginald shared... Or, at the very least, not for the same reasons. Regardless of when he was meant to meet the heroine, the fact that he was a capture target to begin with couldn't be ignored...

And, as he wished to do for most of the people of concern, Reginald wished to keep tabs on as many of those as possible. The fact that he was also fundamentally tied to one of the best generalist magic units in Cross Heart Academy—in other words, the girl following behind him—only meant that trying to maintain a decent relationship during his time here was of a rather high import.

Not that he shouldn't have already been worrying about such a thing; keeping up airs was rather important despite the "equal" footing the school tried to place on them in terms of status.

"Well, if you are to search, I suppose starting here is as good a place as any," he said, the streets abuzz with chatter as the pair walked into the markets proper. "Though... Hm. That might prove difficult, given the crowds."

With the flow of students constantly shifting about them, it would indeed be rather difficult for anyone to spot anything, regardless of their height—but through the smallest of gaps, a fleeting glimpse of some rather distinctly familiar white hair could be seen before it disappeared back into the sea of people.

@Raineh Daze

---

---

With all of the people moving throughout the marketplace, it was but a given that people would end up bumping into one another on occasion. The streets were not so crowded as to outright hinder movement, but with all of the new students eager to explore the academy's town-within-a-city, it was difficult to not expect at least a little pushing and shoving here and there.

What would likely not have been expected to Mella, though, was a full-on collision with a certain overeager white-haired boy. Nary had a moment gone by since Cervantes had said his farewells did the maid find herself run into at full force by the new student. The boy had fared no better, of course; rather than landing on top of her, the momentum he had built up dodging through the crowd had left him unable to properly maintain his balance once he had failed—which, in this case, had led to him rather comically tripping over himself before tumbling onto the ground.

"...Ow..." he groaned, slowly pushing himself off the cobblestone below with a few more cuts and bruises than he had moments ago.

@Rune_Alchemist@AThousandCurses

---

---

Christopher looked at Anne with mild surprise at her near-instantaneous declaration to stay behind before smiling and nodding.

"Your friend is very lucky to have someone so concerned about them at their side. I would certainly like to stay and make sure he is well..." the prince began to say before shaking his head, "but I do have other things I need to attend to. We should speak again in the future, though; in the meantime, I hope your time at the academy serves you well."

And with that, the prince promptly left the room—only for a brief knock on the door and the nurse's motion to open it reveal someone else of import. With a somewhat gloomy atmosphere about him, a young man with dark purple hair walked into the room, a crate of bandages in hand.

"Master, I've brought the bandages you requested," stated one Johan Kyrman, his gaze slowly panning across the room before landing upon both Anne and the unconscious Noctis. "...I see we already have a patient, though."

"Oh, thank you, Johan! You can put the bandages over there," the nurse said, gesturing off to an open area to the side. Though his gaze lingered upon the pair for a moment, the young man simply followed his "master's" orders before promptly walking over to the unconscious Noctis and checking the student's temperature and vitals.

"...Hm. No sign of any irregularities..." he muttered to himself before turning towards the nurse for a moment, then towards Anne. "What happened to him?"

Needless to say, the nurse's sigh rather than any attempt to stop him would have made it clear that the young man at their side was more than a little "eccentric".

@VitaVitaAR@MagusDream

@AThousandCurses@PKMNB0Y

---

"Thank you for the help, sir. I shall come inquire again if there is anything I need for the foreseeable tenure of lord Reginalds enrollment in the academy." With potential money opportunities possibly gained, she needed to now just come up with a good plan to start saving. Sponsoring someone would certainly be a good idea and could reap great benefits...but that still left the issue of gathering enough capital to do so in the first place.

Perhaps she should approach lord Reginald with an idea of her own...?

Hm...if she could get his ear on some inventions from the modern day perhaps she could turn quite a profit indeed...though that meant trying to get him to agree to give her a share of the profits and not take it for himself. So caught up in her thoughts, she was completely surprised as she'd feel someone just run into her.

"Oh dear-" She'd exclaim, stumbling backwards and landing a bit awkwardly on her arm, sustaining a few minor scrapes for her troubles herself as she'd sit up, rubbing her arm a bit where she landed on it. "Haaa, you really should watch where you're going." Mella grumbled as she'd get to her feet. "Are you alright, young sir?"

As Cervantes bid the maid farewell, he heard the sound of crashing from behind him. It couldn't have been more than a few seconds when they decided to part ways. What could have happened in that short period? With his curiosity getting the better of him and no sense of urgency, Cervantes turned back around to see the maid and an unfamiliar student laying on the ground. It didn't exactly take a genius to tell what had happened.

"Are you two alright?" Cervantes said as he walked over. He lent a hand to the maid first, though he couldn't decide whether that was the right move. If this was a snobby noble, Cervantes would never hear the end of it. There were a lot of noble characters that hindered the heroine's progress because of their royal background and sticks up their asses. While Cervantes hadn't paid much attention to the side characters, he did read enough manga to get a general idea of certain stereotypes.

If Mella accepted his hand, he'd pull her up and then walk over to the student. On closer inspection, this kid was a lot more familiar than unfamiliar now that he had a closer look. White hair, small structure, looked like if someone blew wind at him, he'd collapse. Yep, Cervantes recognized him. It was one of the male leads, Terys, who Cervantes quite frankly did not care about. As far as he could remember, Terys was practically there for shotacons. His older sister, Elastasia, was much more helpful in combat scenarios. Having a superb magic stat and being a guaranteed recruit on Tery's route, Elastasia was a better unit overall.

While Cervantes did not remember much about Terys, he'd like to assume that Terys had a temperate personality. Based on first impressions, Terys would often chase after his sister to stop whatever she was doing. If he was like that, then Cervantes hoped to assume that he didn't do anything particularly wrong.

"Oh, I think I see him! Come on," Elastasia said, seeing said flash of white hair... and promptly grabbing Reginald's hand without giving him a say in the matter. She could apologise later, but right now, the girl needed someone tall and intimidating to help make a path through the crowd rather than being walked into by everyone too busy talking to notice her shortness. Sometimes, all the white hair was a dead giveaway, but...

"If you'd just stayed put, I would have found your right away," she admonished, helping the younger boy to his feet, "I may miss a lot of things, but I'm still your sister, and I was going to show you around."

Of all the people he had managed to run into, it was quite interesting that Terys had found the tutorial shopkeeper--someone that she was intimately familiar with, needing to make sure that she'd not strayed onto some already-completed route by accident (or even cataloguing how easy it was to wind up on some of them through unexpected means). The other had been similarly a background NPC back when this was a game, identifiable as the maid of the man she had just tugged through the crowd...

Not that she was actually just a maid, Elastasia averting her eyes as if Mella would add mind-reading to her list of talents. Which probably looked like avoiding her for another reason, but then again she was quite pretty (and having a thing for taller women also didn't help, even if that amounted to 'most people').

"Of course, I'm sorry for doubting you, Elly," Terys managed, now standing at his full height... still shorter than the heroine, but nowhere near that short. He turned, giving an overly-deep bow to the maid and the shopkeeper given the rank differences, "I'm terribly sorry for running into you; I wasn't looking where I was going at all!"

Serrica had examined the surroundings a small bit. Watching the students co-mingle after the speech. It was fairly lively now, with everyone looking forward to the new school year. As she studied all these students, she noticed a small bunch of them being rather rowdy and one of that group smack into some girl she hadn't recognized. A commoner girl perhaps. Well, that didn't matter all too much. What did matter was the girl falling down and scraping her hands as she caught her fall. It was only slightly bloodied but a cute girl didn't deserve such a thing.

Serrica walked her way over with purpose and came to stand in front of the girl. "Let's get you up. Your palms look a small bit bloodied. Let us get you to the nurse station so they can get you healed up, alright?" The girl merely nodded. Perhaps because a stranger was helping her. Perhaps it was because she knew Serrica was a noble. Regardless, the noble lady helped her up and guided her to the nurse's station. It was a short enough trip though there was a slightly annoying sight.

"Hello, Your Highness. A pleasure to greet you." A certain prince was walking down the hallway. Well, she didn't plan on talking to him much, instead, she kept walking with the girl, who was struggling to get out the words to greet the prince as the Duke's daughter pulled her along. Soon enough, they noticed a guy walk into a room which, just so happened, to be where they needed to go. They sauntered up to the door and Serrica pushed it open. "I have a student here that needs her hands healed."

Well, there were already a number of people in there already. The nurse and her assistant, an unconscious person and a rather cute girl. "Oh my, are we interrupting?" She had to ask, looking between everyone, though her eyes stayed on the girl. Did they deceive her? Was that the Heroine? "Rather cute, aren't you." She absent-mindedly stated, looking Anne in the eyes now with curiosity.

"A-ah, er, he fainted, suddenly..."

Of course. Of course this was a situation where one of the game's love interests walked right in immediately after the other walked out. Why wouldn't her?

Through her frustration, Anne couldn't help but note to herself that there really wasn't any reason why he wouldn't. This was, after all, where he volunteered. It stood to reason that he'd walk in at some point. But regardless of that, it was still extremely inconvenient for her! This placed her in far too dangerous of a situation, accidentally triggering a flag of some kind would be way too easy! She already had the Crown Prince wanting to talk to her again, which was a difficult request to turn down in a society like this. The last thing she needed was to immediately trigger another flag...

Which is why she almost audibly sighed in relief when a clear route of escape came. Now that there were people to care for her friend, she didn't have to stick around. And this was Serrica, wasn't she? It was hard not to recognize her given she was usually the heroine's friend in most routes.

"S-since you're here with the nurse, I feel comfortable leaving hi-eh? Cute? Eh?"

Wait, what?

@PKMNB0Y@Pyromania99

---

He twitched his eyes as his consciousness finally returned to him. As he opened his eyes, he saw the roof, reminiscent of a nursery. He didn't look at the sides but was slowly regaining his place.

(D-Did I... fall unconscious?) He thought.

As he got up and sat on the bed (still not looking at his sides, mind you.), he looked at his hands and moved them, thinking he might have possibly escaped back to wherever he wanted to be, not the actual academy.

(Wait... if I'm in a nursery right now... could it be that it was a dream after all? Was I falling unconscious the key for me to wake up?) He thought.

Noctis' Theme: Berry Berry Cue! (Counter:Side)

And then he finally looked at his sides. And the ones standing there weren't his mother, his brother, or any doctors. It was a nurse... Anne Marielle, the heroine... and Serrica Francesca Haldblum, one of the important characters in the story. What this all meant? That he never left Starveil Academy, and was now surrounded by three of the game's biggest characters... as if being one himself wasn't enough.

"A-Ah... hahaha! I-I'm so sorry for the blunder back at the entrance, I was... just in so much shock for actually being in the a-academy and... t-to start studying that I fell blank... hehe, you know... it happens..." He said.

This was his best attempt to be... well, himself. Or who he was right now. After such a slip-up like falling unconscious and probably creating an event that never, ever happened in-game, he had to buckle up and try his very best to not commit these sorts of slip-ups again, for as long as he can to actually survive his new life.

"I-In any case, I'm... o-once again, I'm sorry for the trouble. This isn't how I wanted the year to start, I swear." He said.

Given that he was more searching for his maid than Elastasia's brother, Reginald was caught completely off guard when the white-haired girl opted to start pulling him down the street. Though taken aback by the sudden pull, the black-haired student quickly regained his composure and followed his companion's lead without too much hassle.

It was convenient, then, that finding Terys would also incidentally lead him to Mella. There was a brief moment of contemplation as his eyes glanced at the scene in front of him before a sigh finally escaped his lips.

"I suppose this works just as well," he remarked, nodding towards the smaller boy as he gave his apologies in turn. The humility, at least, was a nice change of pace from some of the more indignant nobles that would frequent social gatherings. "If that is all, then—"

Though the black-haired student was apt to take his leave, the sound of some chaos nearby quickly pulled his attention. There were a few more mischeivous students running off in another direction, for what little that was worth, but the real commotion seemed to be coming from where they were running from—that is, to say, the group of shopkeepers and students trying their hardest to catch a few creatures that were scrambling about.

"...Well. That's... Something," Reginald said, frowning as he took a step forward. "I suppose it's only right to try and help resolve the situation."

Not that they really had much of a choice, though—not with a few of the beasts making their way towards them. Whether or not this was event that had occurred in the original work was less relevant now, though, given the absence of the heroine... Though maybe something like this always happened, regardless of what she had chosen to do?

@Raineh Daze@Rune_Alchemist@AThousandCurses

---

---

"Suddenly... Fainted? Interesting."

There was a pause as Johan considered Anne's words before he drew back and squinted at the unconscious Noctis.

"Well, he seems to be in perfect health otherwise. No signs of heatstroke or the like..."

It wasn't long after that, though, before the activity within the nurse's office promptly tripled. Another student—this one, with somewhat more tangible injuries—was brought in, which swiftly drew the nurse's attention towards her instead. Following her, of course, was a noble lady of rather noble make, and following that came the revival of the young man whose consciousness had escaped him. Rather than try and make a fuss about things, though, Johan simply stared quietly at the one who had just awoken.

"...Well, I'm not quite sure that'd be a reason to pass out, but for the moment, I'll not pry further," Johan stated before standing up and dusting himself off. "Though I suppose you should be wary of sleep deprivation regardless; learning is rather difficult without proper sleep... Not that I'm one to talk."

Rather than linger ere long, though, the nurse's assistant simply made his way back over to what he had been carrying earlier and began to sort what he had out. The other students, he reasoned, could do well enough among themselves; so long as they didn't treat this place like their personal hangout, then he could care less.

@VitaVitaAR@Pyromania99@MagusDream

@AThousandCurses@PKMNB0Y@Raineh Daze

---

Wait, this was...oh, she recognized this klutz now. One of the capture targets, wasn't he? Mella frowned, just slightly, as she'd consider the implication of this. Was the heroine near? She'd place her hands in front of her, folding them together as she'd behave a bit more maid like both in front of Lord Reginald and...oh dear, was that Elastasia? An interesting development. Terys and Elastasia. What were they doing here? She didn't remember an event like this in the game...

"Its quite alright. I've suffered worse. Lord Reginald works me so hard for so little pay." Mella replied with a mildly dry tone making it a bit difficult to tell if she was joking or not as she'd glance towards Elastasia. "...is something the matter young miss? I assure you I am fine, though if you'd like to check for injuries I wouldn't mind."

A few shouts caught her attention. Chaos in the streets. Some students running from what looked like some sort of petshop? A few creatures were running rampant, and towards them while also running towards them. She couldn't remember an event like this either. Had there been? Irrelevant. Mella's money gears were already turning, and if nothing else Reginald could likely already see little dollar signs in the maids eyes as she was already considering some way to make money from this.

"I agree with Lord Reginald. T'would be quite a shame to see these little creatures running about and getting hurt." She said, while looking for the most exotic and rarest creature she could find.

Huh, that was a little rude but Cervantes didn't mind the slight. Seeing as Terys's sister was now here, Cervantes retreated his hand took a few steps from the group of nobles and Mella. He was starting to dislike the fact there were a group of notable characters starting to gather around. As quickly was he came back, Cervantes started to follow Reginald's lead of leaving the area before something happened.

Something happened.

"What a situation," Cervantes said no one other than to himself. Now he needed to take in mind that students could potentially sabotage his entire business. Another worry on his evergrowing list of concerns. Though he needed to tackle the first one on. Dealing with the animal fiasco that was occuring right in front of him. During his time in this world, he had actually become friends with a few shopkeepers. Jessica, Azel, Darren, and co were pleasant company to be with.

Now they were running around like headless chickens trying to capture the released animals. "I guess I'll have to work harder." Sticking his hand into his bag, he fished for an item. While he had full faith in all the character's abilities to solve the situation by themselves, Cervantes was sure that he had made contact with a few of his 'friends.' Mainly Jessica, who was chasing down a strange avian creature, who glared at him before returning back to catching animal.

Drawing out a capture net from his bag. It was one of the items he planned to sell today, but it would have to be put to use. Cervantes tested the weight of net before getting into a 'stance.' "Don't worry, I'm coming guys!" With that, Cervantes dashed off to help. Seeing a relatively small creature fly by, Cervantes slammed his net down to capture it in the net.

As she thought on the situation, Serrica was quite sure that nothing like this happened in game. A closer look at the now conscious boy's face revealed him to be that helper NPC right? How strange. "Well, regardless of what's happening, Nurse, would you be so kind as to assist this girl's scrapes on her palm? It was an unfortunate situation where some quite rude boys knocked her down." She patted the girl's shoulder and pulled in somewhat close to her ear, "And if you need assistance with anything, feel free to ask for me, Serrica Francesca Haldblum."

Finishing her sentence, she pulled away and turned her attention to Anne and Noctis. The boy had just mentioned something about not wanting to start the year like this. Well, that much was understandable. "It's understandable, boy. Not many can boast of being stuck in an infirmary immediately after the start of year speech. Truly, we should all be glad to not have been afflicted in such a way from it." She teased, poking some small bit of fun at him. "I'm sure none would fault you for needed to rest longer if needs be."

"With that said, girl there, were you on your way out?" Serrica asked, though she had not given the girl time to truly reply. "I cannot say I recognize you with these eyes of mine but I can feel you are quite talented." It was at least true. Serrica's eyes had never seen the girl, though it could be said otherwise for her time as Serika. She was almost certainly sure this girl was the protagonist of that game. "Are you a commoner? No, a lower ranked noble that integrated rather poorly into high society." If this girl was the protagonist as she had thought, she was capable of legitimately anything she put her mind to. That was a boon to any investor. "Tell me, would you like to come work for the daughter of a Duke? I can pay you better than even that unpleasant von Afah brat." Serrica mentioned, taking Anne's hands in her own.

"I would even offer to put you up as the queen of high society but, well, it would be difficult to train you to out-do myself. If you would come and work for me." Serrica said in a way that it made it difficult for Anne and Noctis to tell if it was confidence or arrogance. Anne made Serrica crave bringing the girl in under her wing... And then she turned to Noctis. He was to be a powerful mage too, wasn't he? Well, perhaps she would watch his progress and see how he would go. If she tried snatching him up too soon, he might divert from his path too much. "Can you sense the raw potential this girl has, boy?" She asked calling him boy once again.

"N-No, nothing's the matter!" Elastasia squeaked, grateful for the distraction of... hmm, a whole bunch of furry creatures being released at once? Her memory of the game wasn't completely perfect, but she was sure this wasn't part of the usual course of events that had ever been covered... although, there were occasionally references to strange things happening off screen to establish the tone of the academy portion, so maybe this had happened, albeit never in detail.

The question was, what could she contribute? She'd just get in the way trying to catch them by hand, and magically snagging one at a time would be... well, difficult, and inefficient, and it wouldn't even help much as someone would still need to grab them.

Still, she had an idea! Sliding one hand into a well-hidden pocket, the white-haired noble pulled out a relatively simple wand--a basic focus, and not the best she had access, but definitely the best she felt comfortable carrying around for schoolwork... along with not being specialised for any particular task.

It was more than adequate for the task at hand, concentric circles of a deep blue appearing in the air ahead as she pointed, spinning counter to one another. Just a few seconds later, and two shimmering barriers appeared both behind the stampede... and directly ahead of them, ahead of those who had gone to help capture the creatures. Not the most solid of barriers, any serious attempt to break them would shatter the things like glass, but the pearlescent blue should hopefully deter any creatures from escaping further down the street. Especially as the two barriers steadily pushed closer and closer to the centre of the road, narrowing the space further... and pushing anyone who didn't notice insistently along.

Terys appeared to have joined the attempt with nothing but his hands, helpful as he ever was. All it seemed that he'd caught was a dire hamster.

The moment of utter confusion was briefly derailed when Noctis awakened. In spite of the situation, Anne couldn't deny her sense of relief that the young man who was her friend, regardless of her previous life, looked like he was going to be okay. Still, he hadn't fainted in the game, and nothing had happened to him that could have caused it as far as she could tell. So had something else happened that she didn't know about? Everyone did have lives of their own outside of the game's screentime, after all, so did that have something to do with it?

"Er, are you sure you're okay, Noctis?" she asked, hesitatingly, after a moment, "Suddenly fainting out of no-where isn't really... normal..."

And that wasn't the only thing that wasn't normal.

Anne definitely didn't remember Serrica acting like this, or making any of these offers.

"W-work for? I-eh? Eeeeeeh?"

It was a lot to take in all at once. There definitely wasn't an event like this in the game, no matter what you did! What the hell?

It wasn't enough that she got that close and whispered in her ear, it was everything else too.

"E-er, I d-don't really know what you're talking about, um..." Anne trailed off with weak, nervous bit of laughter, scratching the back of her head.

At this point it was all she could really do.

@MagusDream@Pyromania99@PKMNB0Y

Reginald paid his maid a slightly curious sidelong glance as she commented on the oncoming chaos before deliberately acting as if he hadn't seen the glint in her eye. Over the past few years the young man had grown somewhat accustomed to his maid's odd lust for money, and so as long as she didn't attempt to actively undermine his family's finances Reginald himself had no reason to intervene.

Of course, the others nearby had also chosen to jump into action, each moving to help stem the chaos in their own way. The shopkeeper had whipped out a net from his bag—one of a surprisingly sturdy make, if the way he swung it around was any indication—while Elastasia had begun to funnel all of the creatures into the road and towards them.

That would certainly help his plans along, if anything. Though he had no weapons upon him, injuring the animals likely wouldn't have done him any favors with the shopkeepers attempting to rein the situation in anyways.

What was to be done instead, then, but simply work to try and catch the animals just barely too far out of reach for the others to capture? After a deep breath, the black-haired student sprung towards one of the barriers the mage had erected before leaping towards it. There was a brief pause as Reginald shifted his body around in mid-air before turning to use the very same barrier as a springboard to push himself even further into the skies. A pure-white bird that was just barely about to pass just overhead was soon caught within his hands as he descended to the ground.

"...Hm. I suppose that I should've considered what to do if my hands were full..." he mused to himself as the bird—which would be somewhat notable to both Melia and Elastasia given the holy aura it seemed to faintly exude—continued to struggle away.

With that said, the menagerie bearing down on everyone was not exactly without any other noteworthy creatures. There were a variety of smaller magical creatures trying to shove their way through despite the narrowing corridor, but a few seemed intelligent enough to attempt to double back...

Or, as in the case of a smaller kittenlike creature, leaping straight at Elastasia's face in what seemed to be an attempt to break the spell blocking it's path of escape.

@Rune_Alchemist@AThousandCurses@Raineh Daze

"Ah, ha!" Cervantes to said to no one other than to himself. The net fell upon the enemy and was slammed back to the ground. The creature tried to budge against its restraints, but Cervantes tried his hardest to keep it down. All he needed to do now was bring the creature back to a shopkeeper and cage it up.

"That was easy." He didn't break a sweat, yet, though the critter sure was strong. It took all he had to keep the animal down in his net. Though Cervantes was curious to what he had even caught. Looking down at it made him surprised. It was a wyvern, well to be more precise a wyvern whelp. Creatures with a similar appearance to dragons but more common and less strong than their cousins.

Said wyvern whelp was now trying break out the net by gnawing it. "Not today, I'm afraid!" Cervantes as he shifted the net around. The net entangled the wyvern, but that didn't stop the little thing from being ferocious. It was letting out strange cries as it tried to get out of its trapping.

"Jessica! Where are the cages!" Cervantes yelled to his shopkeeper friend.

She seemed currently preoccupied trying to throw some sort of dust at a boar that was trying to maul her. The boar took a sniff out the dust before promptly going slack on its side. When she was finished, Jessica yelled out, "Somewhere in there!" With a gesture she nodded towards the run down store. Then she went back to trying to get more of the creatures.

Was it legal to use unknown substances on animals? Cervantes didn't know and didn't seem to want to as he had a wyvern to pin in. "Welp, in you go!" Cervantes said as he dragged the wyvern. Hopefully there was an intact cage for this feisty critter.