On a sunny spring day, in Kane's last moments in the orphanage where he spent the last four years of his life, the last views before he left were soldiers closing the cart and in the background, priestesses waving to the children who had been taken away, along with curious little orphans peeking in from behind the door. The sun's rays falling on Kane, warm and pleasant, reminded him of his mother's love and his happy days in the village. He closed his eyes, and with a deep breath, brought back his memories of his mother's smile, the children of the village with whom he went out to play in the wheat fields, for which they were scolded by their neighbors, and the wooden houses lined up along the sandy road leading into the distance, invisible to the eye. The rustling of tree leaves and deep, tall grass calmed Kane.
He opened his eyes when he felt the cart begin to drive away. Having never left his village and later his orphanage, it was the first time Kane had ever seen so many people and diverse, unfamiliar places as he traveled through the Kingdom. He spent most of his time in the wagon, watching the scenery pass behind them. After leaving Millwood, the oldest in the group, a 13-year-old child, overcame his distrust of the soldiers and dared to ask a question that had been on everyone's mind but was afraid to ask.
"Excuse me, where are you taking us? How far are we going to go?"
Asked the boy, proud of himself for being able to speak up to the soldier. Commander Rayder, disrupting his chat with the rest of the messengers, glanced at the bunch of children looking in his direction and reluctantly said after a sigh.
"We will be traveling for about three days, we are taking you near the capital to Byrock, where the soldiers of the Forsteck Kingdom are training, You will hear all the details on the spot, now sit quietly and do not disturb."
He finished his information, not hiding the fact that he doesn't like children.
The children, finding out where they were going, only had more questions. Even Kane, who had not been interested in anything until now, had unanswered questions in his mind when he heard about the capital. Continuing their journey in stunned silence, hearing only the creak of the carriage and the stomp of the horses, the orphans watched the passing scenery.
"Did you see that kid, with such a dead look? What's the matter with him?"
"They lived near the border, so some of the children were survivors of the Empire's attacks. Adults would still somehow endure such events, but them? They haven't even seen the world outside their village, and they managed to see a true hell with their own eyes..."
"Although in just a few years they will be able to take their revenge, if they succeed."
"We'll see, maybe at least one of them will have a talent worth attention."
He summed up the conversation, sighing.
Kane, bored, watching the wheat fields and forests spread before his eyes, and listening to the soldiers' conversations about politics, fell asleep. After 3 days of boring and drawn-out travel, the children of the orphanage finally heard from one of the messengers.
"Get up everyone, here we are".
Exhausted by the journey, the children, with slight nausea, slowly picked up their stuff and climbed out of the cart, covering their eyes from the sun's rays hitting their faces. The first thing they saw when they arrived was the Forsteck Kingdom's military academy, located just outside the city walls. A place full of wooden dummies for training in swordsmanship and archery, bamboo stands for polishing sword skills. Kane noticed more carts in front of him with children coming out of them; they were not the first to reach this place and probably not the last. Everyone's observation of the area was interrupted by the orders Rayder Warlash gave to his subordinate.
"Knight Jamel Pieren, lead everyone to the dormitory, have them settle in and put away their belongings."
"Yes sir!"
The soldier saluted, striking twice with his fist on his armor, making a metallic sound like a drum, then took Kane and the rest of the children to the place where they were going to live for the next few years.
On the way to the dormitory, Kane continued to look at the area in wonder, passing crowds of teenagers as they trained and ran around the square, which only deepened his curiosity about what awaited him, though he's still taking a cool approach to the situation and not allowing himself to stimulate feelings of excitement, having an attitude of what will be, will be.
The messenger with whom Kane arrived brought them to the building after a short walk through the training grounds.
"We have arrived, go inside and get the details from your new tutor"
After which, the soldier walked back to his commander.
The dormitory turned out to be the largest building the children had seen in their lives, surpassing the orphanage by several times in size. A large, rectangular old building with 3 floors, with boulder foundations and damaged walls that were once white, stained with mud and dust.
They all went inside, seeing only upon entering a teenage boy, who was muscular for his age and had a sword at his waist.
"You're the last group, all of you go to the dining hall through the passage on the right, that's where the tutor is waiting with the rest."
Then the soldier walked back out to the training ground after escorting the last group.
The dining hall turned out to be large enough to fit all the residents of the dormitory at the same time. The place was full of wooden tables, at which were sitting frightened or excited children who had come from all over the kingdom from their orphanages or were sent by their parents. Suddenly, all of Priestess Corinna's charges stood scared, hearing a shout directed toward them by a nervous tutor at the entrance.
"Oi, you in the passage! Sit down immediately in your seats and don't talk!"
Everyone immediately ran to the nearest empty seats, looking with fear in their eyes at the tutor, the first person to yell at them in several years.
"As far as I know, it's already everyone.... My name is Lorenz Shaster, former Attack General, currently, I am one of the tutors in this dormitory. As of today, you are recruits of the Forsteck Kingdom's military, For the next few years, you will be trained here by your tutors until you reach the rank of knight. All your questions will be answered by the tutors to whom you will be assigned, and now that all of you have lined up, I will write down your names and allocate your rooms."
Everyone lined up in one long line, and conversations could be heard echoing in the dining hall as they waited for their room. Lorenz began writing down the names of the children one by one with his pen, immediately assigning them rooms in the order they were all lined up. Kane, who, along with the rest of the children from his orphanage at the entrance, ran up to the random places closest to them, realized they would be living with unknown children.
When it was Kane's turn, the tutor did not even look in his direction, only asked without taking his eyes off the list.
"Name, surname, age."
The boy answered without a moment's hesitation
"Kane Gawter, age 10."
"Room 173 on the 2nd floor, your tutor is Nilon Sager, you will recognize him by the scar on his right cheek, put your stuff in your room and go out to the training ground to see your tutor. Next!"
The boy headed toward the exit in search of the stairs upstairs. Looking for his room, he looked at the area, unconsciously memorizing the way to his room and places in the dormitory, as he have a good sense of direction since birth.
Being already on the 2nd floor, after walking up the creaky wooden stairs, he heard battle screams from outside the window. He looked outside in search of the source of the noise. He saw training teenagers doing sparring, only the stomping of the shoes of lost children looking for their rooms distracted Kane from the spectacle, and walking along the corridor, he counted down, mumbling under his breath, the placards with the room numbers.
"169, 170, 171, 172... here."
He sighed to himself, tired at the thought of having to talk to anyone inside. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes, waited a second in front of the door, then went inside.
In the 4-person room, there was only one boy besides him, a bit older than him. Full of enthusiasm, immediately approached Kane upon seeing him.
"Hi, I'm Daren, from today on, we will live together".
He raised his hand to greet him with a smile on his lips. Kane looked at him frigidly, not reacting to Daren at all for a few moments, then shook his hand, answering only.
"I am Kane."
After looking at each other in awkward silence for a while, the new roommate finally mouthed off in an attempt to keep the conversation going.
"Eeem... I heard that you all came from orphanages, is that true? I just happened to be sent to the military academy by my parents, because my uncle is a defense general in Faywyn province in the north."
"Yes, I'm from an orphanage in MillWood."
He replied without enthusiasm in his voice, then headed to the free bed in the left corner of the room that was by the window. Throwing his bag and taking a moment to look around the dusty, cramped room, then without a word, walked out to the training ground, ignoring his roommate.
Daren, seeing his roommate and his behavior, realized that this was going to be a difficult relationship, and followed the boy out to the training ground.
As Kane walked through the hallways, he passed tens of children running around in panic, watching them behave and run into their rooms, and make new friendships. Although they had just been sitting quietly frightened in the dining hall, they were now running and shouting around the dormitory, bringing their attention to the older former recruits preparing to leave from dormitory, annoying each of them with their yelling.
Walking out into the yard, he looked at the overcast sky, foreshadowing rain, and looked around the yard for a man with a scar on his cheek. In the crowd of senior recruits, he spotted a man matching the description. A tutor in light armor, with a sword and dagger at his belt, a scar on his right cheek and short black hair with an unkempt beard, around whom children were beginning to gather.
Upon seeing him, Kane walked closer and lined up with the rest of the gathering peers. In the background, the children could be heard running out of the dormitory, out of breath, looking for their tutors. After a moment when the tutor counted the number of children in front of him to match the number in his group, he spoke.
"In line, gather!"
The children rushed to line up in a crooked row.
"Welcome everyone to the Byrock military academy, I am Nilon Sager, from today I will be your tutor. In the past, I served the kingdom as an attack general, just like Lorenz Shaster, whom you have already met. Over the next few years, I will be training you as knights to decently teach you the basics of swordsmanship and discipline. If you have any questions, this is the moment to ask them."
Momentarily, the entire group except Kane raised their hands to ask a question. The tutor, seeing the flurry of questions, only spoke with a slight smile.
"In that case, we'll start from the right and one at a time."
Children full of curiosity began to ask questions
"Are we going to use real swords!"
"Yes, but only after we reach the rank of Lower Knight, next."
"How long will we be here?"
"Until you reach the rank of Knight, that is, it is up to you how much time you will spend here, some with more talent take, for example, a year or two, others spent 3 or even 5 years each, next."
"What's the whole thing about ranks like attack general or local defense commander?"
"In our kingdom, I have a system of ranks that categorize the military according to skill, starting from the very bottom, we have recruit, which is your current rank, then lower knight, knight, after which you can serve in the military.
After reaching the rank of knight, before going to serve, you will all be tested for your talent in the use of Ren, if you have the right aptitude, you can continue your training and become, in order, lower swordsman, Swordsman, Master.
If you have no aptitude for the Ren, you will simply serve as a knight, in the future, if you are lucky, you can advance as follows: Local Defense Chief, Defense General, Local Attack Chief, Attack General, Royal General"
Most people got messed up in their heads after such a lot of information, but Kane, took an exceptional interest in the mentioned power and raised his hand to ask a question. Instantly, both Nilon and the other children, noticed Kane's icy gaze, and moved on to his question.
"What is Ren?"
The group's tutor sighed, scratched his head and answered with some reluctance.
"Ren is a power that people with the right aptitude for it, you could say talent, are capable of mastering. It involves using the energy stored in your body, to increase your body in all kinds of ways, giving you superhuman abilities.
As I said, I was an attack general, which means I didn't get a chance to learn how to use Ren, so I won't give you any more details. Any more questions?"
He looked around the group, and seeing no questions, concluded the meeting.
"Now I will introduce you to your new daily schedule. Starting today, you will wake up at 8:00 in the morning, and start your day with a morning running session, which you will finish with breakfast, followed by strength training, break, another run, lunch, learning swordsmanship then sparring, which you will finish with last, short run and dinner, then you have time to rest.
Due to your age, you start your day's schedule relatively late compared to those with the rank of lower knight. You can disperse to your rooms, 8 a.m. I see you there."
Everyone was stunned by the exertions ahead of them. Even Kane was shocked upon hearing about the 8 a.m. wake-up call, having slept half his day for the past four years at the orphanage. The tutor, seeing the shocked children, merely laughed and said in passing.
"Good luck."
The group began to slowly disperse, but Kane stayed to look at the other groups, whose reactions upon hearing the day's schedule were similar to theirs. It began to rain from the cloudy sky, so the boy returned to his room.
When Kane arrived at the door of his room, he heard conversations from inside.
"Have you met the fourth one who lives with us yet?"
"Yes."
Kane recognized Daren's voice in response to the question, as he spoke to a person he didn't know.
"And what is he like?"
"I don't know, he's kind of strange. Although I tried, it was difficult to talk to him properly. He constantly walks around depressed and cold, by the way, you'll see for yourself."
He heard the boy's quiet voice coming from behind the door, but without a moment's hesitation, he opened the door, interrupting the conversation, and measured the two new roommates with his eyes, who sat in silence looking at Kane. Finally, one of them mouthed, after a subtle signal from Daren to speak.
"Hi, will you be living with us?"
Said one of the new boys, pretending he hadn't just talked it over with Daren
"Yes."
Kane replied briefly, walking over to his bed and unpacking his stuff.
"I'm Collin, and this is my brother, Auren."
He introduced his latest roommate, pointing a finger at him.
"H-Hello."
Auren shyly greeted after seeing Kane's cool demeanor.
Out of the corner of his eye, Kane glanced at Auren once more, then, without a word of response, opened the room's window and lay down on the bed, trying to go to sleep, so he wouldn't have to talk to anyone.
However, Daren, Collin and Auren, did not plan to go to bed yet, so they tried to talk to Kane and keep the conversation going with him. Daren, as the oldest in the room, was the first to start the conversation, asking everyone.
"Then why don't we get to know each other better? I come from the town of Raychill in Faywyn province. And you?"
"We're both from Benlof, a village below the border with the United Kingdoms to the south."
Collin replied for himself and his brother. After which, all three looked at Kane.
The boy, knowing that he would not be missed anyway, reluctantly joined the conversation
"I'm from an orphanage in Millwood, a town near the border with the Empire."
Daren looked curiously at the brothers and began to inquire about their whereabouts.
"You said your town is on the border in the south, by the united kingdoms, right? Then what are you doing here, Did your parents send you like me?"
"No... they took us from the orphanage just like Kane, when I saw the other boys in the dormitory, they took everyone from the kingdom, not just those from under the border with the Empire"
Continued Auren, as Kane wondered if he would be up to the fencing exercises, and analyzed what he had seen so far. As they talked in the room, the boy took advantage of the inattention of the rest and slowly began to fall asleep, ending his first day at the Byrock military academy.