Nicholas has been appointed to a post he likes, with a uniform he doesn’t.
"I don’t care what our historical ties to the Magyar are. I don’t care how symbolically significant it is. I am not wearing that lavender velvet top hat!"
Ludwig
As the new Strahl are inaugurated Nicholas watches the upsets among his fellows.
Nicholas had seen a younger student thrown from his horse, earlier that year. The boy’s leg had been broken. He’d sat and stared at it, face perfectly blank while everyone else ran around shouting.
He hadn’t screamed until they’d moved him.
Nicholas didn’t think Lui would ever scream. He respected that. But he didn’t like the way both Helmut and Camus were watching Lui lately.
