As shocked as Cain was by the old man's lack of a tongue, if he thought about it, it made sense. He hadn't heard the old man so much as mumble under his breath since they had met. The only time he had made a sound was when he yelled at Cain outside the smithy.
Unfortunately, this only raised more questions. Who was this strange old man. Clearly he had some status as he was able to waltz right into the military barracks and that middle aged man from before had called him 'sir'.
Regardless, it was clear the old man was not in the position to answer any questions, so Cain decided to just wait and watch until something happened, and happen something did, because not 5 minutes later the old man gestured for Cain to follow him again.
This time though, the old man only led him a short distence before entering a room on the far side of the courtyard, behind the massive tree.
The room was barren except for a table woth a weapon on it. It was a Claymore, much larger than Cain's and decorated with gold and other metals.
Seemingly oblivious to its weight, the old man went to pick it up with one hand, and as a shocked Cain looked on, succeeded.
The old man heated the sword over his shoulder and began walking back to the courtyard. When they arrived back in the center of the courtyard, the old man pointed at a spot on the ground. Cain went and stood there but the old man gestured again and Cain realized the old man wanted him to sit down.
Once Cain had sat the old man gestured him to watch and began to swing the massive sword. As Cain watched he felt like a fool. The way the old man swung the sword was genius. He used every part of the blade and even the hilt in some scenarios.
Cain began trying to learn the old man's style. In his free time, he practiced what he had seen the old man do, and after training every day, he went back to that courtyard to watch the old man train.
Why an old man was training never even crossed his mind, and he continued to learn for the remainder of the training period.
By the end of the training period, while Cain could not yet be considered a master, he hadn't lost a sparring match in the last four months. As things stood, he was among the top five most combat proficient among the recruits. There were three people above him in terms of skill. A young man by the name of Blake Johnson who wielded a sword an shield with deadly efficiency, a man who was probably in his late twenties who used a massive mace and shield, and finally a young woman who used two long daggers.
Cain hadn't had any interactions with the top two recruits, but he had spoken to Blake many times, and he was a perfectly nice young man. The reason for this is because the training was split into different sections based on weapon of choice and gender.
Blake and Cain both chose swords, albeit swords of a different type, so they were in the same barrack and socialized quite frequently. They sparred occasionally, but Cain was never able to win. He came close a few times but always fell short.
Although this might cause a lingering resentment in some, Cain was unbothered. He understood that this a man who would be fighting alongside him once he became a full fledged soldier, so wasn't it a good thing that he was strong?
On the last day of training, the recruits were formed up in front of a small stage on one side of the training grounds outside the barracks. The Sargeant walked onto it and began yelling. "I BET YOU THOUGHT YOU'D GET SOME KIND OF SPEECH WHEN YOU BECAME A SOLDIER, WELL, YOU WERE WRONG. THIS IS IT, YOUR A SOLDIER NOW" and with that he walked off stage.
Now that they were soldiers, not much changed except that they were moved to a different barrack. They would be stationed at the Citadel for the time being so they could pretty much just continue to train for the next year aside from doing regular patrolling throughout the city.
Although there was no way to be sure they would be transfered by the end of the year, garrisons were changed pretty frequently in the Capitol, so that if there was a spy, they wouldn't have enough time to get much of a foothold before being transfered elsewhere.
Cain continued training in between his shifts on the wall, and he continued going to watch the old man. Over time his skill grew and grew until the day he was finally able to beat Blake in a spar.
He had been training as usual, using the old man's style, when Blake had come up to him and asked to spar. He had, of course excepted, and they went to the sparring circle. At first it seemed like a normal spar, and Blake seemed to have the upper hand, but as the fight went on, he seemed to slow down and Cain started to gain the upper hand. The strain of having to block Cain's heavy sword was slowly wearing Blake down until eventually, it broke.
A loud crack could he heard throughout the training area, along with cries of pain from Blake. His arm had broken under the weight of Cain's sword and he was in immense pain.
As Blake writhed on the ground, Cain felt strangely happy. This was his first taste of power, after all. Instead of going to get help like any normal person might have done, he simply watched with a faint smile on his face.
He had never considered himself to be a sadistic guy, and even when he had seen people in pain back when he lived on the streets it had never made him feel happy.
Maybe it was the fact that he was the one who cause it that made him feel the way he did. After a few minutes, he suddenly realized that he should probably get help and wandered off to find a Sargeant or a knight or something, he was still unsure of what ranks where above Sargeant, as that was the highest rank he had ever interacted with.
Eventually he found someone and managed to get help for Blake, but an injury was still and injury, and it took time to heal. Even magic could only speed up the process by a little bit if one didn't want to break the bank.
And so Blake was forced to leave the military. He was unable to pay for the treatment and since he wouldn't be able to do his duty, he wouldn't be getting paid. Unlike Cain, he had a family to support, and so he was forced to find another job until his arm was healed. Though he would likely never fight as well as he once had again.
After that day, people started avoiding Cain. It's not like they went out of their way to be far from him, but they didn't try to get close to him either.
This didn't mean much to Cain for now. He just continued training.