Basic training.
Something that she had done every single day in the academy, enough for her to be sick of it.
As expected of a group leader, Shuraina stayed at the front of the row and finished her training without any issue. Compared to the training that she had underwent with Hylli, this was basically child's play. 500 push-ups on her fist? It wasn't even with her fingers.
"..."
"..."
The knights had no words as they stared as Shuraina did her push-ups in perfect position in incredible speed, ran around the training hall, and heaved heavy items up and down without issue.
Her expression was so calm that it almost looked like she was joking, but her body moved swiftly.
It looked more like she was just going with it than undergoing harsh training.
When everybody began to pant in exhaustion, Shuraina didn't rest and continued on with the training. She finished before everyone was done. Everyone was bewildered, but it looked like Shuraina's group members weren't fazed. They had gone through the same process–they had mocked her and had paid the price during their training before the entrance ceremony.
They didn't want to get in trouble for not focusing during training by their group leader, so they focused on their exercises.
And then, the duel.
"Let the group leaders duel amongst themselves."
It seemed like all of the leaders didn't want to duel against Shuraina. Seeing her train earlier made it seem like she had some sort of hidden skill. If they tried to duel against her and lost, then that would be extremely shameful.
"No way, a knight is supposed to protect a lady. I can't attack her."
"That's what I'm saying."
"She can just rest in the back. She's probably exhausted after basic training."
The murmurs got louder.
Nobody thought Shuraina was weak, now, but they thought that losing to a woman would be embarrassing.
Their supposed 'caring' acts towards her began to rise to the surface.
Most of the knights were nobles who were taught manners from birth so their words were kind, but the underlying meanings of their words were different.
She tried to prove that she wasn't some weakling who never used a sword before through basic training and was another knight just like them, but they still tried to undermine Shuraina.
How hard had she trained to get to this level? If she let this behavior continue, then they would probably drag her down to the 2nd order.
So Shuraina pushed up her sleeves and grabbed her sword. Then, she headed towards a knight who placed her in the mold of a 'lady' and not a knight and threw her gloves at him.
"As a gentleman, I hope you do not reject the fervent hopes of a lady."
Shuraina said towards a knight who seemed fearful of dueling with her, stuck in his mindset of being a strong gentleman.
Shuraina thought that her bait was pretty flimsy, but the knight hurriedly said, "O-Of course." and accepted the duel.
'I've had to do some really uncomfortable things after entering the order…..'
Shuraina sighed.
She didn't like being confrontational. The constant happenings that forced her to act as such made her miserable.
When she was in the academy, she lived however she felt and wanted because it didn't matter what others said about her or mocked her for. It didn't affect her that much.
But now, when she was out in society, she had to be careful because others' opinions of her could negatively affect her life. If it had been like before, she would've just sat there and picked her nose or eaten a sandwich.
Shuraina thought she should shatter their stereotypes as she grabbed her sword.
And then, the first duel after the entrance ceremony happened began.
Others focused on their own duels before glimpsing back at Shuraina's duel out of curiosity. Shuraina, who had ended up dueling the 64th group's leader, took a step back and bowed respectfully for the duel.
They raised their swords and faced each other and walked in a circle as the duel begain.
"Hiiiiyaaaaap!"
The opposing knight let out a shout and launched into attack, desperate to keep his pride. The bigger his pride, the more desperate he was to win.
He had to let her lose easily while saying something cool like, "A sword doesn't suit your delicate hands," but he felt like hew as going to lose.
He could just say that he let her win, but she seemed insanely strong. If he made excuses after losing, then it'd just make it more annoying in the long run.
But if he tried too hard against a lady, then other knights would tease him about being too desperate to win.
The 64th group leader remembered Shuraina training earlier and assumed that her skills were similar to his.
What was he going to do? What could he do? No, why did that woman have to enter the 1st order to begin with? Why did she have to become the leader of the group?
He internally continued to complain as he ended up trying his best in his duel, swept up by Shuraina's resolve.
The man was her senior and someone she couldn't afford to be hated by, so Shuraina pretended to try her best. When he attacked, she frowned for him and when she attacked, she made it so that he had enough time to defend. Then, Shuraina's eyes met with Hylli's as he observed her from above.
"You earned your skills. Why are you pandering?"
Hylli muttered to himself from his spot. Shuraina had no way of hearing his words from so far away, but her attacks suddenly became vicious. As if her movements from earlier were nothing than a joke.
"Uh, um…. Wait, hold on…."
It wasn't exaggerating to say that she was flying around.
Even still, her opponent was the strongest of the 64th group, so he was still able to calmly block her attacks even as her patterns changed.
And then…. That was it. He blocked a few times and then fell down, just like that. Even though she hadn't even used any magic. Shuraina just showed off her abilities as a swordsman–nothing more, nothing less–and ended her duel.
Shuraina dusted off her training uniform after throwing her opponent down. When she turned her head, the 64th group leader looked miserable as he blankly stared at his sword, which was now sliced in half.
He had lost, clear as day, against Knight Shuraina. He wanted to hide away.
Shuraina brushed her hair back and wondered what she had to do, now that she had crushed his pride.
"If you shove something into a mold, you're unable to see its true form. We are not ladies or gentlemen, but knights who have proved their skills through rigorous tests. It is not embarrassing for a knight to lose to a stronger knight."
She said, running her hand on the handle of her sword as she shot him a mocking look.
"To be honest, I didn't expect much of your skills, but your reflexes are surprisingly agile, Sir Rickton. If you fix your habit of stretching your leg to the left whenever you attack, it might be more effective. Even if the improvement may be miniscule."
Shuraina decided to act high and mighty against those who looked down on her skills.
"Do I have anything to improve upon?"
"….T-that's. There was. There has to be."
"Mm, if you can't find any faults, it means that your skills are below mine."
Her opponent hung his head low at her words. His shoulders were shaking.
Now, there was nobody who would be able to look down on Shuraina. There might be people who thought that her personality was as mean as her face, though. That was what she had wanted.
"I may say this, but everyone sucks equally unless they're a swordmaster like our royal highness. Let's stop measuring each other through means other than our sword."
Hestia was really good at making a fool out of others in public like this. She smiled as she imagined Hestia, who was living her life proudly and with vivacity out there somewhere. She missed her.
Seeing the man shaking and embarrassed made her feel bad, so she ended up being nice to him towards the end.
But at this moment in time, what she really needed to do was embellish her skills and show off as much as possible. She needed to do something that would make everyone forget about her supposed 'weaknesses' and make sure that she became someone memorable and unforgettable. That meant that she had to make herself important.
Shuraina wanted to stay as a knight for a long, long time. She ignored the looks of shock that everyone threw at her as she twirled her sword and spoke.
"Who's my next opponent?"
The leader of the 68th group, Shuraina West, became famous as the 'Senior Crusher'.
Usually, newbies tried to look good to those in other groups and gave presents and pandered to them, but that tradition soon turned its head.
Seeing how prideful the 68th group's leader was made the other members of the group just as high and mighty as they trusted their leader.
The members of the group didn't care about other groups or group leaders and only followed their leader.
They didn't pander to others to earn prestige–instead, they focused on improving their skills or matching their talents with other members of their group.
At first, everyone felt uncomfortable at the culture shift–it was obvious to pander to seniors and be pandered to by newbies, after all. But they really couldn't complain–their skills backed up their actions. They were prideful but just as strict and disciplined.
Whenever there was a group training until the dead of knight, it was always the 68th group. When they woke from the raucous noise of people training early in the morning, it was the 68th group.
Seeing how hard they trained made others feel ashamed. The older knights gave up on their pride as knights and came back to their roots as they quietly listened in on the orders of the 68th group's leader and added it to their own training regimen.
That naturally increased the capabilities of the overall order. As time passed, she automatically became someone irreplaceable within the knights' order.
"Knight West! Can you duel me just once after training? I think I finally fixed the things you mentioned last time!"
"Knight West, that magic thing that you installed in the training hall door is incredible! I'll pay however much you want, so can you install that in my estate too?"
"Knight West! There's going to be a meeting where knights from various regions come to meet, and I want you to join too. Won't you attend?"
Shuraina was in a conundrum. Revealing her abilities was all good and dandy, but she had showed off a bit too much. Life was becoming a bit more difficult nowadays. She was just on her way to eat a delicious meal served by the royal palace when people kept blocking her way.