Pendleton Revolution
Chapter 2

[Dear Mr. Benefactor,

I was not confident I would adjust to my life here, since I thought only the children of prestigious families came to this academy. Perhaps I chose the wrong thing to study. Or are all schools like this?

One thing led to another, and I ended up knocking down thirty-seven classmates within four days of starting school. These bastards looked down on me because I was different and insulted me at every chance. I should not say this about my fellow students, but truth be told, not a single one of them seems at least half-decent. From morning to evening, on my way to and from class, they do not cease to challenge me to fights.

I might as well knock down fifty of them and make a name for myself, but worry not, for I will not tarnish your honor by killing any of them.]

* * *

Ed Yuriness was one of the few orphans who had a vague idea who her parents were. Unlike the other children who were abandoned at the orphanage or lost their parents from famine or illness, Ed ended up there for a different reason. She was neither a tragic, illegitimate child of some noble family, nor anything of the sort.

Her father, whose name she did not know, was apparently a pirate who was quite infamous in his day. Regardless of how great of a pirate he was, he was a villain who was immediately sentenced to death by the Crembell Empire. The empire rarely implemented the death penalty. Word had it that in his prime, he could break a man’s bones with the sheer strength of his arms. He was the kind of man who would appear in mysterious, swashbuckling stories of the sea. However, Ed didn’t care much for the details of her father’s past.

Her mother, whose name she also did not know, was a gangster who had the capital in the palm of her hand. Usually, the nuns were careful not to bring up Ed’s parents. According to rumors, even the imperial family knew her mother’s name. It was safe to assume that she used to rule the underworld. Apparently, she was a master of guns, daggers, poison, and drugs.

In her later years, she was sentenced to life imprisonment at Saint-Murschla Prison, where the foulest of criminals were held in solitary detention. She had operated in wicked and underhanded ways to erase any physical evidence of her crimes, and this helped her avoid capital punishment. Ed never had much interest in her mother’s past, either.

Saint-Murschla Prison was located on an island and held the continent’s worst criminals. Only two ships visited the island every week, and word had it that those who went to the island never left. It was a mystery how a child could have been conceived there. Yet, two notorious criminals managed to fall in love within the walls of Saint-Murschla and give birth to a child.

That was how Ed Yuriness came into the world. With a mother serving a life sentence and a father sentenced to death, she was an orphan from the start. It wasn’t simply luck that she was assigned to the Kalabasta Orphanage. Those who knew Ed’s parents all agreed that raising her properly would be the most remarkable feat the empire’s education system could possibly achieve. Situated between the Agelta Abbey and Convent, the Kalabasta Orphanage was chosen as the most suitable for her childhood and education.

Their efforts were not in vain. Ed Yuriness grew up into a bright, healthy young woman. Like her parents, she was robust and had a strong build, which no one complained about since she used her strength to help with the difficult tasks around the orphanage. She had a short, fiery temper—due either to her father or mother, but which, they did not know—but one that was still acceptable within society’s standards. Only after Ed turned sixteen was Mother Superior Martina able to breathe a sigh of relief.

As a result of her upbringing, Ed set the following three goals—be good, be just, and respect the law. As a result, she grew up to be a trustworthy warrior that one might read about in chivalric romance novels. And what was a knight without her lady? For Ed, the lady she served was her childhood friend, Maria Helezen. Maria came from the most unique circumstances at the Kalabasta Orphanage

Her ebony hair flowing down in curls and delicate features like a doll, Maria was an extremely beautiful girl. Even the distinct freckle on her nose was elegant, making her look even more dazzling. With porcelain skin, slender limbs, and an alluring face, she constantly exuded the kind of grace that simply couldn’t be put into words. Her azure eyes glistened like magnificent gems, with a touch of mysterious loneliness.

Rumor had it that an unknown lady of noble origin was suddenly sent to the convent next door nineteen years ago, while the higher-ups stayed silent on the matter. The very child that lady gave birth to in the convent was Maria Helezen. After delivering Maria, the lady was ill for a long time, until she eventually died while locked up in the tallest tower of the convent.

According to Mother Superior, the noble lady had been assaulted and impregnated against her will, which was why she was sent away to the convent. However, too many questions remained unanswered to lend credibility to the story. It wasn’t every day that someone of authority could order another to be confined in secret and hide their identity from being discovered.

What made it even stranger was that Mother Superior forbade Maria from going out into the nearby village with the other children. Whenever they had guests, she would hide her in the deepest sections of the orphanage. She even left Maria’s information out whenever potential benefactors demanded a list of children to sponsor. There was no mistaking how eerie it all was.

It didn’t end there. Unlike the other children, Maria was raised confined in a tall tower located deep within the convent. She was the only one with a room to herself until she was given permission to share her room with Ed, whose goodness had been confirmed by the time she turned sixteen.

Naturally, other children Maria’s age at the orphanage made guesses about her backstory. Maria wasn’t particularly happy about it, but immature children often didn’t consider other people’s feelings and circumstances. Only Maria knew how difficult and how much of a struggle her childhood was. That was precisely when a knight in shining armor appeared before her. The knight rescued her by teaching the gossiping orphans a lesson with her knuckles. Maria’s Prince Charming was none other than Ed Yuriness.

In young Maria’s eyes, Ed must’ve looked more dashing than anyone else in the world. From that day, Maria, who usually kept to herself and treaded carefully around people, began following Ed everywhere. Ed, in turn, felt proud to have Maria trust and depend on her. Naturally, their relationship developed into a close friendship. They would tease each other and lie on the same bed, chatting all night with pillows in their arms.

Maria Helezen’s story is necessary to understand. When Ed Yuriness entered the academy and began the student life she had always dreamed of, she ran into an unexpected hurdle. One might say that it was because she missed Maria or because she was homesick. Others might argue that Ed was deeply moved to tears upon realizing again what a good person her benefactor was. In any case, the issue arose as a combination of many things. The bullies were the least of her problems. They occasionally picked fights with her, but they were simply no match for her. Rather, it was an issue of student life and interpersonal relationships.

The problem began when Ed took her first class in the Military Studies Department. The day was off to a good start. Within the first hour, she hit it off with a freckled boy from a commoner family sitting beside her. During lunch, he introduced her to three seniors from his homeland and two burly students from another class. The new acquaintances explored the school as a group—Ed’s first taste of student life. She explored a rose garden, discovered a beautiful crystalline fountain, found herself some lunch mates, ate a delicious and bountiful meal, and took some excellent classes, all on day one. Everything was perfect.

Ed had no problem keeping up with her classes, either. In fact, on the first day of her swordsmanship class, the drill instructor called her to the front of the class and gave her a special compliment. Back at the orphanage, she could throw a punch hard enough to become the king of the streets. She was praised for her sword skills here, even though it was her first time brandishing a real sword. It was also her first time holding a gun. After the initial struggle, she soon got the hang of it. She would probably learn to hit the target in no time. Ed had always had outstanding physical abilities, and instinct told her she would be a good shooter.

Feeling happy about herself, Ed and her classmates ran laps around the training ground as they carried a log on their shoulders. After that, the first day of school came to an end. They poured each other a little beer, toasted with their wooden cups, and headed over to the shower stalls together. Ed was in the middle of telling her new friends the stories of her father and mother that she had heard from the nuns when the problem began. It was a trivial problem, but one that was bound to come up.

“Huh?” Ed came to a halt.

“What’s wrong, Ed? Hurry up. I can’t wait to wash away this filth. Anyway, you were saying your mother was probably a crime lord. Does that mean you’re not exactly sure who she was?”

“Wait, I’ll get back to the story later. There’s a more pressing matter right now. I don’t have anywhere to wash.”

Ed thought the problem was plain for everyone to see. The boys, who had become her friends in less than a day, stared back at her in confusion. They pointed at the shower stalls, dismissing her concern.

“You can wash right there.”

“They’re for men!” she cried.

“Exactly! Let’s go!”

“Yeah.”

“Come on.”

The military academy’s training grounds were not equipped with shower stalls for women, and therein lay the problem. That wasn’t all. Her classmates and even the drill instructor, urging Ed to the shower stalls, stared back wide-eyed and released audible gasps.

“Wait, you’re a girl? What the...?”

“How could this beautiful, slender frame not belong to a girl? Why are you so surprised that I’m a girl? I’ll give you three seconds to explain yourself, or I’ll beat your ass, Francesca,” she snarled.

Of course, that was not to say she ever had a beautiful, slender frame to begin with. The point was, within thirty hours of the entrance ceremony, Ed found herself grabbing a classmate by the collar.

“I’ve never met a girl who threatened to beat me up...” Francesca said weakly.

“Who do you think you are to make assumptions about girls?” Ed barked back. “You have three seconds to apologize, or else.”

“Help me understand how your frame is ‘beautiful and slender’ then.”

“Who are you to comment on my bone structure? I haven’t heard an apology yet. You have two seconds left.”

“I’m sorry. For everything.”

Francesca ended up apologizing earnestly, but the issue still remained. Ed had revealed her gender to the drill instructor and her classmates right then and there. She then went on a tirade about how the Military Studies Department was behind the times for lacking women’s shower stalls. As for the jerks who argued that a woman should never even have been admitted to the department in the first place, Ed didn’t hesitate to punish them with her fists.

This wasn’t to say that she went completely feral. She had no intention of breaking the law. As a law-abiding student with a strong sense of justice, Andrea was not going to commit murder. She simply put the jerks in headlocks, careful not to harm the reputation of her mysterious benefactor. Unfortunately, one of them passed out in his headlock.

At first, the students were frozen in shock. Eventually, save for a few pricks who still hadn’t learned their lesson, everyone expressed their support for Ed. They agreed that a student of Ed’s caliber should be welcomed to the Military Studies Department. Of course, that was only after Ed had launched a series of slaps to wake the student who had passed out.

Now that the first issue was resolved, the next followed. The drill instructor belatedly studied his new student’s records with a sour expression. When he confirmed that Ed was indeed a woman, he became visibly flustered.

Ed politely talked to her drill instructor.

“Sir, the fact that no female student has ever enrolled in the Military Studies department until today is a problem in and of itself. Now that I am here, should the bare minimum not be provided? Even the convent has a men’s bathroom these days. How could a co-ed academy not have women’s shower stalls?”

Most drill instructors were fresh graduates from the Military Studies Department and were commoners, meaning Ed’s drill instructor couldn’t walk all over her. Even though she was also a commoner, she was also a special scholarship student sponsored by a nobleman. So, in response to Ed’s reasonable request, all the drill instructor could do was plead ignorance. Not once had anyone in the Military Studies Department thought of setting up facilities for women before. That was certainly a problem.

“The thing is, the female dormitories we provide are equipped with shower stalls. S-so it is actually a privilege that...” the drill instructor fumbled over his words.

“It is none of my business whether it is a privilege. According to your logic, are you saying female students must go back to their dorms to shower after all the sweat from training? Are female students barred from enrolling in the Military Studies Department? As far as I am aware, the answer is no. Did I not get an excellent score on the physical evaluation and follow the proper procedure to be admitted into this department? Does this academy accept female students but draw the line on sweaty female cadets who just want to wash up like the rest of their peers?”

The drill instructor cleared his throat. “I-I’ll bring this matter to the heads of the department. This matter has never come up before, so it certainly is an oversight. As you know, female officers usually come from aristocratic backgrounds, so they usually avoid shared facilities such as public shower stalls, which explains why—”

“Yes, yes. In any case, I recommend that you bring up the matter quickly. I am a woman of action, you see.”

“Wh-what kind of action?”

“Would you like to guess?” Ed smiled insidiously.

Only moments ago, she had been telling horrific tales about her vicious, criminal parents. Using the same hands she had used to make stabbing and slicing gestures as she told the stories, she jabbed her chest with her thumb.

The drill instructor replied without delay, “I’ll talk to the leadership about it first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Thank you, sir. You have my respect.”

The drill instructor cleared his throat and looked away.

Once again, Ed had three life goals—be good, be just, and respect the law. There was no way she would break the law, especially not at the risk of harming her benefactor’s reputation. She had her reasons for her threat. Since she happened to be in the middle of telling the stories of her infamous parents, she simply decided to leave the rest to the imagination. Indeed, she was a good, righteous, and law-abiding citizen, but she was also a woman of action.

In any case, she heard the answer she was looking for, and it was enough. As for whether the drill instructor would follow through on his words, she would find out later. Having earned his cooperation, Ed had no choice but to return to her dormitory in her filthy and stinking state. That was when she ran into the second problem.

Ed came face-to-face with her roommates. They had started their semester at the academy a day later because they were enrolled in the Department of Arts. The female dormitories at the Royal Erta Academy each had four bedrooms and one communal living area. The bedrooms could barely fit two beds and two closets. In fact, they were so cramped that even changing in them proved to be a problem. Most students ended up using the living room as an extension of their own room.

When Ed entered the living room, her newly enrolled roommates had already finished their introductions and were changing into new clothes. A heavy silence filled the room but only briefly. One of the girls was stripping down to her underwear. She dropped her skirt and let out a shriek.

“Wait, I can explain! I’m a girl too! Feel my breasts! Please!” Ed cried.

Unfortunately, she only ended up sounding like a pervert.