A high iron fence surrounded the Sword Mastery Academy grounds and a dense forest made up close to thirty percent of it. The stretch of old trees, with moss of a golden tint growing on them, and the sunlight that filtered through the swaying trees, dappled the green undergrowth, reminding him of the forest back home, but as Central Centoria was far south of Rulid, there was quite an abundance of small animals living there. Some that he had never set his sights on in the northern region, such as exceedingly small foxes or long and slender snakes in a shade of turquoise, basked in the sun everywhere and caught his eye despite it being over a year since he had come. "Eugeo-senpai, are you listening?" Hearing that voice from the side all of a sudden, Eugeo turned back in a fluster. "Sorry, sorry, I'm listening. ...So, what was it?" "You weren't listening, were you!" The girl who shook her hair, its color that of ripe apples, while protesting was the one who served as Eugeo's valet trainee, Tiezé Shtolienen. Avoiding her eyes which were in a shade much like that of her hair, he tried to think up of an excuse. "We-Well, the forest was so beautiful that I just... There are rare animals around too..." "Rare?" Tiezé followed Eugeo's sight and shrugged her shoulders in disinterest. "Eeh, it's just a kintobi fox, isn't it? There are plenty of those even on the trees growing around the districts." "Heh... That reminds me, you were born in the central, huh, Tiezé. Is your home nearby?" "My home is in the 8th district, so it's a little far from the 5th district that the academy is in." "I see... nn, eh?" Eugeo turned to look again at Tiezé who was walking by his side. Even the novice trainee uniform that he wore and thought was a little tasteless last year looked strangely refined when worn by a girl. That was only to be expected; if Tiezé wasn't a student of the same academy, she wouldn't be someone Eugeo could even hope to talk to, as the son of peasants. "Well, Tiezé, you were born as a noble, right? I thought that I heard that the residences for noble families were gathered in the 3rd and 4th districts, though..." When he asked somewhat humbly, Tiezé's head drooped as though she was embarrassed and gave a small nod before shaking her head countless times. "Father is a sixth class aristocrat at the very least... but being in the lower ranks of nobility is good too. Living in the residence streets close to the Imperial Administration is only for fourth class noble families and above and there's various limits to the rights held by the fifth and sixth classes. That father of mine has a habit of saying, 'It's way more relaxing being a commoner, being able to speak as they like without fearing the upper class nobles with the authority to judge'... ah, I-I apologize, I just..." Apparently thinking that she spoke of an impolite matter to Eugeo, who was of commoner parentage, Tiezé bowed deeply while walking. "Don't worry about it. Rather than that... what about that authority to judge, don't all of the nobles have it?"