Superbia.

It was very early in the morning and there were many things to do, but the redheaded Major Suzuki didn't carry himself like he had responsibilites. His posture was slouched and suffered from a severe case of bedhead that he never attempted to tend to in his normal routine. He wore a rather simplistic and basic variation of the Rune Knight uniform, making him appear unimpressive in the midst of his colleagues if not for the ribbons decorating it. He wasn't an incredibly tall man—standing at only five feet and ten inches—and was so soft spoken that he was oftentimes unapproachable. And, truthfully, he was. He had quite the temper even though it wasn't obvious he did and was rather an eccentric man with no filter to his comments, normally.

Despite his eccentricity and irritability, the redheaded Major was indeed a Major and the person many of his juniors, somewhat regrettably, reported to for a plethora of situations. His responsibilities didn't vary too greatly from what anyone else did, except the difficulty of his duties seemed to expand nowadays, and he was responsible for managing groups of people big and small now and then. In this case, today was the day where he was, essentially, going to greet and help new recruits get settled in.

It wasn't until the late morning that they were supposed to report in—so Doppo expected them to arrive at that point and spent his morning tending to other things. To his dismay, all of them seemed to arrive several hours earlier and all congregated in a room together. With grave disappointment, Doppo dragged him down the corridors and into that room with high and unspoken expectations.

Click! Doom!

The door swung open and then swung closed as the messy haired Major entered with a clipboard and pencil. The paper attached to the clipboard was a list of names and brief overviews of, supposedly, the men and women in the room with him. It provided ages, names, places of origin, and so forth.

"G'mornin, everyone. . ." Doppo finally spoke after staring at this clipboard for some time now, "you're all quite early. We weren't supposed to see each other until later—but oh well, what the hell. . ." Doppo, as mentioned before, was very soft-spoken and spoke with an acute weariness in his voice. Underneath his shock of red hair was a pair of bright blue droopy eyes with distinct bags underneath them. He seemed clearly deprived of sleep no matter how much he slept. It was, unfortunately, simply a characteristic of his magic, it seemed.

". . . Ah, right, so, let's get started. . ." Doppo ruffled his hair absent-mindedly and began to read down the list, "Alicia Williams. . ."

A brown-haired girl no older than twenty-three stepped forward with a stiff and strict posture, "Here, sir!"

"Louis Bernam."

"Present, sir!" a stocky, broad-shouldered, beady-eyed man in his late teens mimicked Alicia.

"Rune Felcrest."

Doppo droned again as he read down the list of names, finally approaching the last one. His pen glided over the paper as he descended the list, tapping the private's name. "Buck Vigil."

"Here, sir!" Buck replied passionately.

Doppo, subsequently, hummed dispassionately, slipping the butt of his pen in between his lips and gnawing on it absent-mindedly. He didn't seem to share the excitement and anticipation of his juniors before him—that much was obvious. He seemed disinterested and detached, his feet glued to the floor by obligation alone. He quickly briefed over the list again before raising his gaze from the sheet and to the spread of young men and women before him. He ruffled his red locks again and cleared his throat, "Ahh. . . right, so—I'm Major Suzuki of the Combat Corps and your superior officer. . ." he started quietly, "I know some of you will end up in special operations or engineering, but make sure to acquaint yourselves with your colleagues. . . it isn't—" he yawned midsentence, "—it isn't uncommon to end up working with people from other corps, so. . . yeah. Do that."

It's true that the three corps ended up working together most times and were hard to differentiate from one another if not for their ranks and appearances. After all, when out on the field, the responsibility to resolve incidents and investigate cases was shared between all Rune Knights, regardless of branch. But the knights had their own distinctions as well. The Combat Corps tended to be "the loudest" and most passionate of the three, while those in Special Operations were comically more aloof. The Engineers were weirdly enigmatic and distant, making them somewhat difficult to find when not out on the field. But this was only from Doppo's experience, but he believed it to be an accurate generalization of each corps. He, of course, and as usual, kept this to himself.

"You're all likely to be dispatched soon, so. . . be prepared, I s'pose. . . it only makes trouble for other people if you're not. . ." he trucked the clipboard away between his armpit, rubbing the nape of his neck awkwardly, his voice low and unimpressive, "Any questions. . .?"

For a moment, no hand was raised, no foot stepped forward, and Doppo was inclined to assume that there was, in fact, no questions needing his answering. So, sluggishly, he was beginning to turn and walk away. It was at this point that one of the privates stood forward. It was Private Niklas Menser whose face and figure weren't nearly as pretty and light as his name. He had short blonde hair, small black eyes, and a tall, broad body build like a bear. He was actually the biggest out of everyone there, and his deep, throaty voice rumbled throughout the entire room.

"If I may, sir!" Private Menser requested accompanied by a firm, textbook salute. Everyone, while maintaining their position, eyed him from every corner of the room.

Doppo paused and nodded. "Go ahead. . ."

"I believe the Rune Knights to be fair, just, and heroes of our time, sir! I would even go as far as dying for the Rune Knights if it meant saving a single person or helping our cause, and I trust that almost every single person in this room can be trusted with each others' lives!" Private Menser announced thunderously.

Doppo stared at him lazy-eyed, "Almost?. . ." he cooed noncomittedly.

Private Menser nodded and pointed to Private Felcrest, "Rune Felcrest is a noble, sir! The same type of person that we are expected to protect! How can we trust him with our lives and the lives of others with his sort of background? He has probably had everything given to him! I cannot accept this, sir!"

The moment Private Menser spoke of Private Felcrest, every other private suddenly looked anxious. They looked at each other and nodded agreeably. Some of them who were behind Private Felcrest glared at him with the same anxiety of everyone else, and seemed to silently come to the same resolution as Private Menser. Doppo, while noticing this, only smirked quizzically.

"Oooh. . . I see, I see. . ." he nodded, looking over to Private Felcrest now, "What do you have to say to that, Private Felcrest?"

"Tsk." Private Menser clicked his tongue indignantly, as if suppressing something from leaving his lips. But this seemed to be the case for the majority of the Privates here, who, even after Private Felcrest's speech, seemed rather split about him. It was clear that cliques were beginning to form between those who agreed with Private Menser, those who didn't, and those who didn't even care to begin with. Private Menser didn't shake Private Felcrest's hand when he extended it. Instead, he glared at it and turned away to return to his spot in line.

After this incident that seemed to resolve on its own, the unworried Major slid his clipboard between his arm and side while continuing to nibble on the butt of his pen. Again, he addressed the testy Privates in his usual quiet stupor. ". . .That's enough talking for one day. . ." Doppo started, "If you haven't been oriented with your branch or departments yet, go do that. If you have, you have probably all recieved your orders by now. . . alright—dismissed. . ."

With that, the new recruits dispersed to where they were supposed to be. The privates from one of three branches went to their respective departments, some leaving out to complete their first patrol, althought the likelihood of anything happening so early in the morning were miniscule. The lineup of recruits grew thinner and thinner as the yawning, fatigued, redheaded Major watched them depart.

Doppo's baggy blue eyes wandered over to Private Felcrest, who he suspected would end up ostracized at this rate. He didn't particularly care about the problems or animosity his colleagues had with each other, but he also didn't care for draining arguments that he would inevitably have to deal with. Doppo, while sometimes confrontational if driven to that point, preferred his workplace be as tranquil or serene as possible if he could help it. So, seizing the opportunity, he called over to him before he could leave with the others.

". . .Private Felcrest, do you have a second. . .?" Doppo softly beckoned to him.