Four months into training, the Sargeant informed them that they would get a week off because the war was in a bit of a lull and they needed to raise moral.
The issue with this was that since Cain spent every moment of his free time training, eating or sleeping, he had no friends. He had acquaintances, but he wasn't close enough to any of them to hang out for a week.
And so he did the only thing he knew. He roamed the streets of the Citadel.
The Citadel felt different then it used to. While before it had felt cold and unwelcoming, now it felt almost warm. The reason for this is of course status.
While before Cain was nothing but a dirty street urchin, now he was a soldier of the Holy Golden Empire. To be a soldier in the empire was a very honorable position, because of their religion, which was formed mostly around combat, the people of the empire had a great deal of respect for soldiers.
Thankfully, soldiers recieved pay during the training period, so Cain had some money to spend. He made about 5,000 crowns yearly,
And was paid monthly. Since it had been more than five months he had a little over 2,000 crowns to spend.
He was planing on buying some armor and weapons, since the military only provided basics after training. If a soldier wanted to have some nice armor or a weapon, they had to buy it themselves.
Cain wasn't sure if he even had enough money to get what he wanted, but all things considered, 2,000 crowns was a lot of money for someone like him. In reality, 2,000 crowns was quite a good sum of money, but it was not enough to buy both armor and weapons.
When Cain realized this he decided to focus on getting a sturdy weapon. The armor provided by the military wasn't amazing, but it wasn't terrible either. On the other hand if he wanted to get a decent Claymore, the military would not provide one until he reached a higher rank and they believed he was worth investing in.
He immediately headed in the direction of a well known smithy. Although it might not have been the best smithy in the city, it was the only one he knew. It took him quite a while to get to it, as it was in a nicer area of the Citadel and he was unfamiliar with the area as he had grown up in the poorer part of town.
When he arrived he observed the smithy for a bit.
It looked like a very busy place. Men and women bustled about, taking orders and forging iron and steel and many other metals Cain was unable to recognize.
The smithy had an open layout, with a desk at the front where a few men and women talked to customers and then relayed their orders back to the blacksmiths. The rest of the space was filled with different sized anvils, each with a corresponding bellows.
After observing for a good while, Cain approached one of the women at the desk and asked to have a weapon made. After some haggling, they settled on a price of 1,600 crowns, a very reasonable price. The woman said the sword would be done by the end of the week so for the next few days, Cain had time to focus on the other things he had wanted to get done over this short break.
His main goal was to find someone to teach him how to use his sword. Cain knew how difficult it would be because of how rare it was for someone to use a large Claymore like his own in the Holy Empire, but he was sure he could find someone with even a little bit of proficiency to show him a few tricks.
Over the next few day, Cain did nothing but search. He asked almost everyone he met if they either used a Claymore or knew someone who did. Despite this, his search was fruitless until the last day of the break. He had just picked up his sword from the smithy and was walking dejected back to the barracks. The reason he was so dejected was because not only had he not found a teacher, but he had also spent the majority of his money. He had only 400 crowns remaining, still a respectable amount, but not enough to buy any armor.
As he was on his way back to the barracks he heard a loud exclamation. He glanced back to see an old man with a cane limping towards him.
The man was covered in scars, seemingly a veteran of many battles. He had dark hair and a short beard covered his face. He was dressed in a simple tunic and pants.
He walked up to Cain and pointed at his sword, then gestured for Cain to follow him.
Cain, by now being completely desperate decided to follow him. "What's the worst that could happen" he thought. Eventually he noticed that they were walking in the direction of the barracks and grew sad once again. "This old guy must just be rounding up the trainees" and once again, all his hope went right out the window.
As they arrived at the barracks, instead of going to the trainee section, the old man brought Cain to a somewhat secluded courtyard. In it, there was a tree. At a glance it appeared to be a normal tree, but upon closer inspection one could see that hundreds of slashes had been made in its trunk. As the old man approached the tree, a middle aged man in soldiers garb rushed up to him and whispered in his ear. After a few seconds the man started to leave, but then seemed to notice Cain.
"Who is this, sir?" The middle aged man asked. In response the old man simply motioned to the sword at Cain's back and then made a shooing motion with his hand.
The man suddenly nodded and got a wistfully look in his eye. As he walked past Cain on his way out he whispered "I hope you realize how lucky you are for that man to be taking an interest in you" and then he was gone.
Cain pondered over that for a few seconds, before finally deciding to speak. "Excuse me sir, what is this place?" He asked.
In response the old man opened his mouth, revealing nothing but a stump where his tongue used to be.