After a back and forth of saying "It is okay" and apology,they ate their meal with a few words in between as they need to get into their class soon and the farce that occured took way too much of their precious meal time.
The other three person in the room,first years liam assume threw occasional glance at him between spooning themselves with food as fast as they could.
The three consist of a girl who Amelia was talking with earlier before their entry,a brunette with short shoulder-length hair,a simple red hairpin with a small green gem was clipped on her soft dark brown hair.
But the part that attracted his attention were her eyes,a pair of milky lifeless eyes laid in her eyes sockets.Some people may find the sight strange,grotesque even but Liam find a sense of respect for her instead.
He can see the body of a trained warrior that slighly bulge under her uniform but did little to deminish her feminine charms ,her face was also comparable to a beauty.Liam find the fact that she manage to push herself this far and trained so hard despite the odds was worthy of deep respect.
The other two was a pair of boy who seems to be related by blood but not exactly twin like in appearance for their body and facial structures was a stark different.If not for their identical blue eyes and equally soggy ginger hair.
One was a behemoth of muscles with board statue for a teenager,his hair was woven and braided in parts but can otherwise be considered a bit messy,a style of hair preferred by some warrior who lived by their swords.A dark tattoo with lines of patterns was etched into half of his face.
Liam recognize those tattoo from Jerome's teaching ,the warrior house of Kingsley.The royal protector that guards the kingdom from any external threats and also lead the greatest knight order in the nation,responsible for most of the security and peacekeeping in various cities.
The powerful statue of a knight is already visible on the young man,the aura of confidence and untapped strength was strong in him as well.Liam believe the young knight have to be one of the strongest in physical close combat considering his heritage and physique.
The other boy next to him was an entirely different specimen all together,the difference was incredible to see for a pair of siblings.If not for the tattoo and ginger hair that was tied in a pony tails,anyone would be hard pressed to guess they were siblings of blood.
Instead of a strong board body that boarder to that of an young orc,the boy have a lean physique and much smaller statue.A oak staff lean at the side of his chair and a line of neatly arrange books can be seen in his satchel at the side of the long table.
This couple with his appearance gave him the very standard look of a arcane practitioners or a scholar.Liam wondered if the Kingsley decided to nuture him as a mage for the kingdom,because of the shortage or if there is other reasoning.
They finished their meal and the group swiftly leave for their arranged classroom or other facilities.Liam,Amelia and the young knight named colin was heading to the same session.
During their walk,Gareth and Amelia started their small talks which is mostly about their subject of interest Liam.
"Forgive me Liam, for I have to say I am more than a little curious,what is your profession in field?I am the standard swordsmen,but my heritage gave me a few blessings of our goddess Themis."Gerath roused liam's interest greatly with that last statement."Was he marked by his goddess like me?"He wondered but kept his suspicious to himself for now.
"It is alrite,I am a arcane archer with flame affinity."Liam stated plainly,he knows some people really seems to look down on the archer profession somewhat if not despise in some extreme cases.
Especally so now that their enemy are all capable of firing barrages of death at them in the safety of their bunker and trenches.
Liam understood the front runners like the swordsmen and pikemen must be furious and frustrated with protecting the backline of mages and archers and facing immense danger unlike any other war of standard equipments.
But this was his house's traditional profession that he will always be proud of.Even more so now that he was one of the handful of young heir in their profession,for winey have no talents in this profession instead opt to practice in the art of casting that she excel at.
The other heir were either way too young,unborn or simply not talented enough for the profession to have their full potential utilized despite all the trainings.
Besides,without the ranged fighter's massive support,damage and weakening their enemy forces in the frontline,the kingdom would have been in flames by now.So Liam believe he should be proud of it just like his uncle instructed.
"Wow, that is a real rarity amongst all the others.I am a battlemage of both flame and water by the way!"Amelia eyes shimmer with excitement,Liam can already tell she is a genuine person that express everything they felt at the moment on their face and words,which he didn't dislike at all.
Snort!
"Keep your arrows and bows to yourself and don't expect any of us to help you when you leave your formation.what good is a profession that can't even face their enemy on their own.A waste of resources we need for our warrior ."A bellow came from behind the trio in front of the group,Amelia immediately glare at the large brute who ridicule her new friend.And Liam can see a deep frown on gareth's gentle feature.
"You need to take that back Colin,without people like them our kingdom would have fallen long ago."Gareth retort along with amelia in liam's steed and a warmth spread in liam heart ,the feeling being care for by these two new friends were more than enough to calm his anger.
"Oh yes,please make me do so sir Gareth.For the day when you can properly strike your enemy with your sword might be after the war is already wrapped up."Colin the gaint young knight of the Kingsley laughed as he pushed past Gareth and headed for the classroom door.
Amelia and Liam were both immediately angered by his comments,although he was not so sure about the statement about Gareth,he won't stand as his friend were being ridicule.
"Thats it!That pretentious muscle brain need to be taught a lesson!Hey you God damn orcling come ba-"Amelia didn't got to finish her series of curses and retort,for the door of the classroom slammed open,almost knocking into Colin who took a few step back when he sensed the danger.
"Who the hell allowed you guys to shouts and picks fight outside my classroom?Do you officers cadets thinks this place is a children's playground?On top of being late at that!!"A lady with flowing dark brown hair that was tied in a long pony tail came through the doorway with large steps,She was wearing a suit of dark leather armor with the kingdom's crest and a few badges stitch into her chest plate,she bellowed as she stare each one of them in the eyes,the anger and annoyance in them apparent.
A few moment later ,they strode into the classroom with head hunged in embarrassment.
The groups of trainnee stared at them with hidden emotions,some were more apparent as their face contort with efforts to not laugh at the earlier scenes.
As Liam,Amelia and Gareth took their seat next the side of widows,the lady whom Liam assumed to be their teacher gave a deep sighs and rubbed her temple in frustration.
"Anyway,because we have two new faces today.we will do a basic introduction of myself and them for formality.I am your weapon master captain Ivy Marfont and my work here is to arrange and designs specific training programs for each groups of different professions.The officer cadet will have Another personal and group training session with me for their programs as well."With a nod of her chin,Liam know it was his turn for introduction.
"I am Liam Massoutré from the northern border,my profession is arcane archer.I will be in your care."Liam introduced himself with practiced ease and confidence,A feat that earn some nods of acknowledgment from others new faces,mostly because they thought he was a talented but gullible child.
Smirk
A chair was pull back from a seat behind Liam 's own,the fluttering of silvery white hair as Liam turn his head over his shoulder made him froze in shock,but soon that ease into a grin that match the smirk from the girl behind him.
"Nice to meet you seniors,I am Layla from the house of Albrecht and a battlemage in training.thank you."Their eyes met for a moment as Layla took her seat and winked at Liam in a mischievous tone,some of the boy's stole glances at the new girl with obvious interest and frowns as they saw her teasing with Liam.
Liam was joyful at the turns of event,For layla was wearing the same black uniform that Liam have on him.She was a officer cadet as well and she will be training alongside him and the others in the near future.An idea Liam welcomed with opened arms
"With that out of the way,we will proceed with our battle session today.We will start implementing our sparring session as of today for the tournament next month as you should already know about."Ivy pause and oberved the groups of trainnee,their expression ranged from fright,nervous to excitement and resolved.She sighs and continued her explanation.
"Now,I know a lot of you here haven't ever hurt someone with anything bigger than your fist or a stick and that is exactly the problem you will need to solved during the sparring session.Our enemy,the lopis empire will not hesitate to pull their trigger at the sight of us and it will be easy as breathing for them to do so."ignoring some of her trainnee's gasping ,she strode to a corner of the room on her side and picked up a rolled up scroll from a piles of others.
"The tournament's details will not be disclosed but we will let you know that it is consist of three sessions including a obstacles challenges,group battle and individual duel.And as a word of encouragement,everyone here will have the chance to be promoted as a officer cadets if your overall grading is optimal.But for the officer cadet…if your grade is subpar then it will be in our consideration to strip your status instead."
At that,eyes of the common cadet shimmer with excitement and determination, the officers cadets however immediately frown as their mood turned somewhat sour but nevertheless strengthen their resolve further.A result that made Ivy nodded with approval.
Liam understood this was to give cadets with potential a goal to strive towards and improve themselves with greater focus.It will also serves as a reminder that officers needs to keep improving themselves and not be satisfied with just their status alone.
After that,the group of students moved to the back of the castle under ivy's commend,the entire backyard was made for a battleground with various weapons for practice and training purposes lined up in racks.
A the place was consist of a long track that circle the entire yard,a clearing of grass in the middle made for mutiple dueling rings.And lastly various magical tools made for training purposes were store in crates,some Liam recognized from freya's brief training session with him such as the gravity bracelets.
"Alrite! 20 circles around the the yard under 25 minutes,move it!"Her shout filled various students with dread,surprise and fear aparent on their face.But a glare from Ivy and they start their warmup for the day in a hurry,afraid of making the situation worse for themselves.
Liam,Layla,Amelia,Gareth and colin were already running ahead when most of the others were stunned at the order.It was understandable that the general program would include stamina training,being one of the most essential trait for surviving on a warzone.
As Liam was running along with his three friends,he suddenly felt he was forgetting something important.He racks his brain thinking about it while keeping up with others with relative ease,as impressive as their speed was this was not a race so no one is trying to empty their strength as fast as possible and Liam with his much smaller statue and trained body can keep up with others if not surpass them in agility and speed.
He threw a glance at Layla thinking about asking if there was something we were supposed to do first here in the academy.But that is all it took for it to clicked in his mind and he curses himself for it.
"The lich!!"Liam hissed
"Captain ivy!I have something important I needed to report!"He shouted when he is near ivy who was standing at the side anx supervising them,hoping to tell her about it before it might become too late.The lich could spell doom for the kingdom in its current vulnerable state.
"Save it,I don't care how young you are,you need to finish your warm up.You are a officer cadet,not a child here."Ivy didn't even glance at him as he ran pass,instead she opt for trimming her finger nails with a throwing knife.
"But!-"A glare from Ivy made him shut his mouth,he didn't made a good impressive during their first meeting this morning,if he continued with his bellowing he might really get in trouble.Good reasoning or not,letting a cadet disobey her order infront of so many other trainnee will tarnished her authority and Liam think getting the knife in her hands threw at him will end very poorly.
"It is okay,I just need to finish this as fast as possible…"Liam nodded to himself and start his sprints,aiming to finish it in under 10minutes.Of all the teaching his uncle bestowed upon him,their house breathing techniques was one of the most essential skills for a tracker.