'It's been a while since I've seen Liam, I wonder if he knew anything about what happened.'
'He could've known it from the start and simply lured us into a false sense of security.'
'No, Liam has shown multiple times that he isn't fully agreeing with Venion, he's also the only one that has shown remorse for someone his and the other's actions. He's also against the ranking system.'
'First of all, you don't know that for sure, and second of all, that could all be an act to have you follow and place your trust in him so he could manipulate you.'
'I don't agree'
Lucas' mindset was steady and firm even after enduring his torture, he was back to his usual self or selves, with a lot of mistrust and paranoia added of course, luckily half of him was already used to that sort of thinking so it simply absorbed the depressive feelings for itself so the other part could stay somewhat untainted.
Lucas went to the captain's quarters and knocked on the door. "Come in.". He opened the door slowly and saw his mentor sitting behind a small desk, writing something on a few papers. "Ah Lucas, you're alive!"
Lucas had to start laughing a bit, "What a way to start a conversation.", Liam stood up from behind his desk and started to hug Lucas in his warm embrace.
'For once, trust me on this.'
"What do you expect, you go with Venion away for more than a month without any communication. If I had known any better, I would've thought you escaped. Every time I asked the baron about you he simply said that you were working or playing, but not even the maids had seen you around."
"We'll see about that, for now, the baron has commanded me to follow your combat training in combination with magic training."
"Ah, so you're still going to become a knight, wait, hold on! Magic training? Did you awaken?"
Lucas was staring at the floor for a bit before taking a seat. "This is going to take a while."
He started his story about what happened without looking at Liam. When reminiscing about those insufferable experiments he started to almost cry again. He might have grown a lot, but he still had emotions like any other person. When he was finished he heard a single sound.
BAM
Lucas looked up to see Liam with his hand balled up in a fist on his desk. He hit it so hard that it seemed to have created a small crack in the wood. "Damn it! If I had known I would've rescued you. I'm loyal, but human experimentation was forbidden for a reason!"
"It's in the past, for now, I need to become powerful enough to void the contract and buy my way out of here somehow."
Liam looked a bit distraught. "Buying your way out of here is practically impossible, the only way is to run away or you need to be powerful enough to stop Venion."
'See? He is openly stating his disagreement with his own master, please tell me how he's still a puppet of a giant play.'
'I don't like you ridiculing me, he could still be on their side, you know that. But I do agree that we can place some of our trust in him.'
They stayed silent for a bit before the captain thought of something. "Now that I think about it, we were originally looking to conscript men from the surrounding villages to fight with us in the mines. There has been an infestation of certain monsters that need to be cleared out. The baron wanted to fix this problem as fast as possible but hasn't had any luck. If you suddenly disappear during one of those missions we can only assume that you have died in action."
Picking up on the hint of Liam, Lucas smiled in appreciation of his plan. "Thank you, Liam, you're the only person I can trust in this mansion."
"Don't overthink it, we'll get through this together. Let's start with that combat training shall we?"
They arrived at the training grounds together, picking a wooden sword from the rack. "Alright Lucas, what's the most important thing before a fight begins?". They positioned themselves apart from each other. Liam had one hand behind his back while pointing his sword toward Lucas.
"Your stance?" Lucas didn't know a whole lot about fighting with weapons. His only experience fighting was with the other soldiers. So he only knew how to fight dirty and unfair, actual swordplay wasn't a part of that exercise.
"Wrong, it's scouting your opponent's strengths and weaknesses. How can you fight without knowing where to strike and what to avoid? Come at me, try to strike me!"
Lucas started to run clumsily with his sword and raised it above his head, but Liam poked his sword in his stomach before he could do anything.
"Kuch, kuch"
"What were you thinking? Creating such a big target, anyone would hit you there. Remember kid, when someone starts to attack, they create openings. Now, again!"
The training was a lot easier compared to the brutal 'exercises' devised by Venion. He learned how to wield a sword and other weapons.
This type of training lasted for about a week and Lucas grew fond of fighting with swords. It was like his kid fantasy turned into reality. Together with Liam, they had fun fighting against each other and learning how to use the sword. He learned a ton about how to fight and certain tactics. It was peaceful for a while, Venion didn't show up with a new task, the baron was happy that he wasn't learning magic yet and Lucas was happy to spend more time with Liam. Eventually, this changed when the baron's son awakened.
The sudden fluctuation of mana in the surroundings gave away that someone awakened. While he was parrying Liam's sword he stopped in his tracks to look toward the source. "It seems I'll get magic training now as well Liam."
"Aha, you finally get to become a full-fledged mage huh? Great, great, there's actually a certain type of mage if I recall correctly. A mage that fights with magic, but also skilled in physical combat, a threat in close quarters and a disaster at a distance, a Mage Knight."
"As long as Venion doesn't make any impossible demands I'll gladly follow his lessons, and if that is a separate rank I'll go for it."
They had to laugh about the strange mage, their comradery grew even more after all they had been through. Their training almost made them seem like family, especially with their age difference.
"It's not really a separate rank, but you will be admired by the lower ranks, knights and soldiers appreciate a skilled comrade skilled. Oh, by the way, if that slimy dork ever tries to do something like that again, don't hesitate to let me know. I can't force the baron to do anything, but with enough evidence, I can get the Holy Order to come by."
Nodding, Lucas looked forward to seeing what the future held.
"Also, don't start any fights with the baron's son, he might be a bit annoying, but just endure it, okay?"