First thing in the morning, Wolfe prepared a change of clothes for everyone in his room, intending to pack them into the last bag that Mary had picked up.
Once he opened it to organize and balance the weight of the contents, he found that there were smaller backpacks inside. Not full-sized travel packs, but enough to carry their own clothes, a canteen and an emergency kit with a few hard biscuits, bandages, minor healing potions, a knife and a fire starter.
With that, even if they couldn’t use magic, they should be alright for a little while.
He also added one freeze-dried meal to each bag from the extras that Curtis wanted them to carry and decided that things were reasonably well split up.
That left the fourth pack very light, which was perfect since it gave them room for the supplies that they were looking for.
The others joined them right on time, wearing their new travel armour and carrying a change of clothes. Wolfe passed out the smaller packs while the Witches looked at the two remaining larger packs after Wolfe and Curtis each took one.
“I will take this one.” Mary volunteered and grabbed the nearly empty one, which would get loaded with supplies later.
“You’re too short. It will interfere with your movement. Ella probably is as well, sorry Ella. Although you’re bigger than Mary, the pack is pretty tall. I will take one, and either Reiko or Cassie can take the last one for our gathered resources.” Parker volunteered.
“I will take the last.” Cassie agreed, then looked around for her change of clothes and found them hidden under Stephanie on the bed.
“Can I have my clothes, please?”
Stephanie didn’t even bother to open an eye in response, just enjoying the soft fabric as she napped. She was wide awake when Wolfe went to pick her up, though, easily climbing onto his shoulder to survey the room.
“I swear she’s as bad as Pup for playing favourites. But we’re all ready now.” Cassie announced after double-checking her pack.
“It’s a shame we didn’t have more noble daughters in our group with their own Guardians. In past years there would have been enough men around that none of the Witches carried anything, but this year is different.
I don’t think it will hinder our ability to fight too badly with this group, but it would be good to have the extra swords around.” Parker told them with a wistful note in her voice when she spoke about the men who were sent to guard or court the students.
“It was better at the start of the year if you ask me. No offence Curtis, but all these arranged husbands running around really distract the students from their homework, and I can already see the standard slipping.” Noor disagreed.
“My family pushed for us to be in the old dorms on the far side of the training grounds and only interact with the Witches during social events or by choice. But they also wanted all of us to have full-time combat training since all but a few of us will be accompanying our Witches into battle after graduation.” Curtis told her.
“Will the draft really be that heavy?” Noor asked.
“According to both my mother and Reiko’s, it should be every graduate below middle Nobility.
All of the dropouts will serve a two-year stint starting next week, and the others who don’t get high honours will follow at the end of the year. Or at least, that’s how I understood it. They were on the phone, so I didn’t catch everything.
I got a letter from each of them during the exams reminding me to practice hard since Reiko doesn’t want to follow her mother’s footsteps into the Council leadership position.”
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“We all know that honour is going to my oldest sister anyhow. Mother just likes to pit her children against each other to watch them fight.” Reiko replied with a shrug.
Wolfe thought how the Patriarch of the Noxus Family had often said that in order to be a politician, Manipulation and Greed had to be your strongest personality traits, but he refrained from repeating that out loud. She might be a top-level politician, but she was still Reiko’s mother.
Noor looked rather concerned by the conversation before speaking. “If they are taking that many students for the defence force, the plan to join the Wilderness Protection detail could become problematic. The city has never needed that many Witches for wall protection detail before.”
“All the more reason for us to take this mission. I know we’re after the zombie hearts for a healing wand, but it’s there anything else we need or should want? As second years is there anything else you wish you had?” Ella asked.
“I heard from my Familiar that you all have Elemental amulets, plus mana storage amulets, and those are the basics to get through class easily.
The healing wands really help if you’re in the wilderness or doing combat training, but other than that, it’s all just little things, like alertness aids and enhancement Charms, which we just began to learn this year.” Parker explained while patting her Imp on the head.
“This chat is nice and all, but can we eat first? Pup is starving.” Mary asked.
“Pup is always starving, but we shouldn’t delay. The recruitment officers will be out in full force soon, trying to get the second years to volunteer in advance, with the promise they’ll get a minor title at the end of their term.
They do the same sort of thing by offering guaranteed noble wages to the students at the Boys Academies in order to get volunteers to guard noble daughters whose husbands can’t fight.” Curtis sighed.
“It’s a good selling point for the Witches who won’t make it on their own. Practically handing them a guaranteed future and double the pay for the same jobs they would have been doing afterward.” Noor laughed grimly, then fell silent as she opened the door and led the way to the cafeteria.
It seemed to Wolfe that there was an unspoken agreement not to criticize the Coven in public in any way. It didn’t matter much to him, he was banned from the city, but a black mark like that would kill any chances that the Witches had of advancing later in life.
So, he changed the topic. “Care to make bets on how many people think we’re in cosplay instead of travel armour?” He asked as the first few Witches noticed their outfits.
“Could be hard to tell. There are a lot of cosplay fans here, and both judgements will bring envious responses that we managed to get permission and a task so quickly.” Mary joked, then waved at some of her friends, who were definitely envious of her outfit.