It added up though, with the kind of enigma that Malcer was, he would definitely know a lot of the elite personally and even have them owe him favors.
Captain Gautier's sharp, little, dark eyes looked past Malcer to bore into him where he stood stiffly. "I see you brought someone to me." Captain Gautier noted blandly.
Andras could see Malcer's shoulders straighten at this, he was ready to discuss business. "Yes, I had a distant nephew come stay with me for a while, his dream is to work in the Royal Palace, could you perhaps find some place for him amongst the Royal guards."
Gautier looked thoughtful, his dark eyes roving from Andras to Malcer and back to Andras again.
Andras knew that the Captain wasn't buying Malcer's story but that hadn't been the point of it. The reason was to deter Gautier from prying into his past and where he came from.
"Step forward, lad." He ordered in his booming voice, his eyes looking Andras over critically like he could see right through his robes.
"Fancy weaponry you got there." He noted, leaning back to study Outlaw even better. "Do you know how to use it?"
"Enough." Was all he said, never one for too many words.
"Well, what do you say?" Malcer prompted, antsy at the way that Gautier eyed up Andras and his swords.
"He is a fine young man indeed and would make a great addition to the Royal Guards." Captain Gautier finally decided after a couple more lengthy seconds of deliberating.
Malcer's shoulders remained tense though, he could tell that there was more to come.
"But, those swords will have to be put away for the time being, you may be allowed to have your own type of custom weaponry when you rise higher in rank but as a mere guard in training, you will be required to use swords crafted at the Royal smithy."
Malcer swerved around to get a look at Andras to see how he would react to this condition.
Andras bowed deeply. "I accept and would be honored to be accepted into training." He said formally.
Gautier looked impressed by this. "He's a sturdy one clearly, you may put your mind at ease, Malcer." He added to the merchant seated across from him. "I'll take him in, you may return to your stores now because he will be put into training right away."
Malcer looked slightly skeptical at this but held back his words and got to his feet instead. "How kind of you, Captain, I'll make sure to prioritize your wife's purchases whenever she chooses to drop by." He said without mincing his words, almost like he was reminding the Captain to be nice to Andras.
Andras bowed deeply to Malcer as he made his way out of the Captain's chambers, leaving him behind. "I hope to see you again," Malcer said seriously.
He gave no response to this, knowing that that wouldn't be happening. Soon, it was just him left behind, Captain Gautier had resumed looking at the files spread out on the low table in front of him.
He didn't have to stand awkwardly for very long because a couple of guards came to take him away. They walked for a while longer to a considerably larger house, guards in training all lived here until they were assigned posts in the palace.
Andras had no problems with this and was given a few hours to settle in but he had to join in the midday training. His uniform would be brought to him as well.
They weren't even provided beds as training guards, instead, mats were lined up all along the large room. There were mats on each side, facing opposite each other. There was spacing between them to fit in a small locker which was for storing personal effects.
Andras worried briefly where he would keep Outlaw for the time being and came up with a perfect solution. The room was currently empty because all the other guards in training were outside busy with their duties.
He could safely store Outlaw under the somewhat thick mats that had been offered to them as bedding. He placed it at the head of his bed so that his pillow could hide it properly and it wouldn't be a burden to sleep on.
A quick tour of the place showed that it wasn't structured for comfort, merely convenience. Apparently, they didn't have to bother about their feeding just as Malcer had said because there was no even provision to prepare meals.
The only other part of the house provided were bathrooms, considering that they wouldn't spend a lot of time in the living quarters, it was a reasonable arrangement.
Just as he had been told, a guard came over with three pairs of uniforms for him, he could tell from the color of his headband that he wasn't a guard in training but not very high ranked. Perhaps he was fresh out of training.
He received the bundle of clothing and folded the other two into his locker with the rest of the stuff he had gotten from Malcer and went to get changed.
The uniforms were actually better than he could have imagined, made out of a light material to ease movement. It was a dull grey with the King's insignia printed behind the outwear.
He had even been given a pair of boots which made him wonder just how they were able to guess his size so easily. Or had Malcer given them his measurements? That didn't seem unlikely, the merchant had proved himself more than efficient. He had also gotten his headband, a matching dull grey to go with his uniform.
After getting ready, he sat cross-legged on his mat and waited. It was already about noon time so the other guards in training should be showing up soon.
Just as he had predicted, soft conversation filtered into the brightly lit room which slowly got louder. The doors swung open and the rest of the guards in training slowly filtered in.
Most of them ignored or walked right past him and that was just fine with Andras, he didn't come for the people here.
He let his eyes slip shut to block out the noise even as they readied to go for lunch, he would go along with them when they did.