Leon was in a great mood as he walked back to the inn from the Heaven’s Eye Tower.  The sight of Elise smiling at him as he left was going to be something that stuck with him a long time, he could tell.

Unfortunately, his good mood was soon ruined when a certain demon decided he needed to speak up.

[Can’t believe you didn’t make a move.  Well, I take that back, a little cherry boy like you would never make a move.  What I can’t believe is that you hardly spoke more than a few sentences to that girl.]

Leon didn’t respond.  Xaphan was clearly trying to bait him into being mocked, but Leon refused to bite.  But a poor demon Xaphan would be if he stopped with only a single attempt.

[I honestly don’t know what she sees in you.  Some virginal weirdo who barely talks hardly meets my standards of attractiveness, but maybe I just have high standards.  Hey, you’re incredibly lucky, meeting such a gorgeous woman with such unique tastes.]

Leon gritted his teeth and kept quiet.  His hands were no longer shaking with excitement, but rather from anger, and he unconsciously curled them into fists.

[Or, maybe she’s just into charity, right?  She might see you, an obvious novice when it comes to women, and feel some kind of pity, and decide to at least give you a taste of what you’re too hopeless to get for yourself.]

One of Leon’s eyes began twitching in anger, but he held his tongue.  Barely.

[… Really?  Nothing?  You’re not going to give me anything?  Just going to sit there and take it?  Fine, whatever, way to just suck the fun out of it.]  Xaphan dejectedly sighed and stopped talking and turned his attention back to trying to recover his power.  There still wasn’t much he could do right now, but he was getting rather bored watching Leon go about his day.

Leon relaxed now that Xaphan wasn’t talking, but his good mood had been nearly ruined.  The memory of Elise’s smile put the spring back in his step, though, and he had an uncharacteristically broad smile on his face when he finally returned to the inn.

---

The next week proceeded much like the previous two had gone.  Leon and Charles would eat a hearty breakfast, then spend the morning and much of the afternoon doing physical training, with Leon helping Charles in some basic combat techniques.  They would then return to the inn and rest until dinner.  After eating, Charles would meditate, and Leon would either read or meditate as well.  A simple schedule, and before they knew it, the day had come to return to the Knight Academy to see if they’d passed or not.

Charles felt himself getting a little nervous again as they walked to the Knight Academy, so he decided to try and strike up a conversation with his taciturn companion.

“Soooo, looking forward to seeing if you passed or not?  How do you think you did?”

“Satisfactory,” Leon replied.

“…  Right.  I suppose a third-tier mage would have to actually try to fail for the Academy to not let them in…”  Charles said, looking a little more nervous than before.  A moment of silence followed before Leon glanced at Charles and decided to engage in the conversation a little, if only to keep the other man from depressing everyone around him with his puppy terror.

“The written test was a little hard.  Maybe not so satisfactory on that.”

Charles livened up a little at the chance to talk, and said, “What?  There’s no way you didn’t get through that!”

“The Knight Academy expects their knights to not be just soldiers, but also have some knowledge of culture and history.  I can fight well enough, but I’m… not so good with the cultural stuff.”

“…  Huh.  I didn’t get that feeling from the written test.  It just asked us some basic questions about history and geography.  Things like, ‘Name three Bull Kings who have reigned in the last millennium’, or ‘In which of the Five Territories is *whatever famous fortress or landmark*.  A few history questions, but nothing I would classify as being ‘culture’.”

“Really…  I had questions about works of art and literature, and very specific questions related to magical theory.  Hmmm…  Perhaps the written tests are different for every tier.  Since third-tier applicants are almost universally the children of higher nobles, it makes some sense that there would be slightly more in-depth tests for them.  Though, I find it hard to see why they’d bother.”

“I guess…” Charles hesitantly agreed.

The two discussed some of the finer points of the written test for a while longer.  Charles cheered up after finding something to talk about, and before long, they arrived at the main administration building of the Academy, not far from the mustering field where the enrollment test took place.

Just to the side of the walkway leading to the building was a small table covered in papers with several Legion administrators staffing it, the strongest of whom was a third-tier mage.  Seeing nowhere else to go, Leon and Charles made for the table.

Seeing that the two of them clearly weren’t nobles by the way they were dressed and lack of entourage, one of the young first-tier bureaucrats called them over rather than the third-tier knight, despite Leon’s power.

“You two are here to see the results of the enrollment test, right?”

“That we are!” Charles replied, his tone bright and upbeat, but wavering enough that Leon could tell that it was mostly a front.

“IDs,” the bureaucrat tersely demanded, not wasting any time at all with small talk.

Charles presented his first, and after a few minutes of searching through the papers he had in front of him, the bureaucrat retrieved Charles’ results.

“Looks like you passed,” he said, handing Charles the paper.  Then, his eyes landed on Leon.  “And you?”

Leon silently handed over his Heaven’s Eye ID.  One of the man’s eyes twitched as he examined it and he stared at Leon as if he were contemplating something.  Whatever that something might have been, though, it didn’t seem to matter much, for a moment later, he moved again to find Leon’s papers.

“Huh, wouldn’t have guessed.  Looks like you passed, too,” he said as he pulled another sheet of paper from his stack and handed it along with the IDs to Leon as dismissively as if he were giving a filthy beggar a token silver coin.  “The two of you can head on in, about half of the rest who passed have arrived already.”  The bureaucrat pointed over his shoulder to the mustering field where the test had taken place in an obvious dismissal.

For a brief moment, Leon considered taking more offense at the man’s attitude, but the urge quickly passed.  The bureaucrat meant nothing to him, Leon had no reason and quickly vanishing desire to escalate things just as he was about to enter the Knight Academy—besides, the memory of his duel with Gaius was still strong, and he wasn’t in the mood to repeat that and make an enemy.  He’d passed, and that was what counted.

Leon just sighed and tried to put it out of his mind.  About five minutes later, he and Charles were stepping back out onto the grassy field.  Unlike the week before, though, this time the field was almost completely deserted—or so it seemed.  There were only a few hundred people there, maybe five hundred at the most.  Compared to the thousands that had come out to take the test, the field might as well have been empty for all the space they took up.

As Leon and Charles walked over, another Legion soldier called out to them, “Check your papers!  They’ll tell you what unit you’re in!  Go stand by them!”

The two paused in confusion before checking the paper they’d gotten from the bureaucrat before, and sure enough, they both had their units clearly printed at the top.

“Where are you?” Leon asked.

“Looks like the ‘Snow Lions’,” Charles said apprehensively.

Leon almost smiled.  “Same here.”

With just those two words, almost all of the anxiety that had entered Charles’ expression dissipated, replaced with a wide smile.

“Come on, let’s keep moving.”  Leon said, cutting off whatever Charles was going to say and leading them onward.

There were ten wooden signs posted around the small field, each with the name and sigil of one of the training units burned into them.  Everyone who had arrived before them had already been grouped up in their assigned units in front of their signs by the handful of Legion knights who were there wrangling everyone together.

Leon took a quick glance around and saw a white lion’s head emblazoned on one of these signs, and his lips curled upward.  If he believed in destiny, he would’ve taken this as a great sign.  As he and Charles walked over, he had half a mind to fish his snow lion coat out of his bag and put it on, just to complete the picture he was painting for himself in his head.

He stowed those thoughts when he suddenly became aware of just how many stares he and Charles were attracting.  More than a few people were staring as they joined the Snow Lions, perhaps even as many as a dozen!  Not too many in the grand scheme of things compared to the hundreds who were present, but for Leon, that was still about a dozen too many.

The people who were staring were, for the most part, the nobles who had been there for the combat test, the third-tier mages who would be, as far as Leon understood it, the most prominent trainees during the year-long cycle in the Knight Academy.  He recognized several faces, but he wasn’t able to place many names to them.  The two young men who sparred first, though, he remembered: Marcus and Alcander.  The former’s eyes glittered with intelligence—or so it seemed to Leon—as they followed him over to the Snow Lions, while the latter was just as large and imposing as ever, made only more so by the massive ax strapped to his back.  Alcander stared at Leon like there was nothing he wanted to do more than charge at him, ax in hand, roaring his challenge, but Leon did his best to ignore the two of them—though he noted that they both seemed to be in the same unit.

He also noted the two ladies who Elise had accompanied to the enrollment test, the bronze-skinned woman dressed in yellow and the silver-haired woman dressed in blue.  They were dressed quite similarly today, and the yellow-clad woman shot him a dazzling smile and an energetic wave as a greeting, while the silver-haired woman watched him with the kind of disinterest that led Leon to believe she was bored out of her mind waiting for everyone to arrive and didn’t consider him more than a passing curiosity.

Fortunately, after a few minutes and a few more arrivals, the nobles stopped paying much attention to Leon.  Charles barely noticed Leon’s anxiety, though, consumed as he was with introducing himself to many of the other first-tier trainees in the Snow Lions.  Leon just stood off to the side, quietly watching the rest of the trainees arrive.

One person who stood out to him, though, was Gaius, the noble he sparred against during the combat test.  The young golden-haired man walked onto the field as if he owned the place, smiling at everyone and nodding at many of the other nobles as if the last time he’d been here, he had to be carried out unconscious.  However, when his eyes met Leon’s, for just a moment Leon felt a quiet thread of killing intent, making it clear enough to Leon that he had not forgotten that duel.

Leon fought the urge to smile back at the young nobleman.  The rational side of him was desperately trying not to escalate the situation, but the words that Gaius had said to him during the test still rang loudly in his ears.  He didn’t regret kicking Gaius’ teeth in during the test, and if Gaius wanted revenge… well, Leon was willing to give him a good fight anytime he wanted one.

It wasn’t too much longer until everyone finally arrived.  By Leon’s estimate, the ten units that they had all been separated into had roughly one hundred people apiece.  The only exception to that was the unit under the banner marked by a red tiger, which only had about half as much as everyone else.  More notable, however, was the fact that this unit was all-female, whereas the rest of the units were all-male.  Leon figured the higher-ups in the Knight Academy didn’t want their trainees ‘mingling’ with each other, and so separated the relatively few ladies who joined the Knight Academy from the men.

Apart from them, the only differences of note between the units he could see were the number of third-tier trainees assigned to each one.  Seven of the units had four third-tier trainees, while his and Gaius’ units only had three, and the ladies’ unit had only the two young women that Leon had noticed before.  He found it just a little discouraging for his unit to be so short staffed when it came to relatively higher-level mages, especially since many of the other third-tier nobles were shooting each other challenging looks.

Leon subtly gave the other two third-tier noblemen in his unit a once over, trying to gauge their capabilities and attitudes.  From the moment they arrived, however, they deliberately ignored him, preferring instead to quietly chat with each other than with him.  He could only mentally shrug and turn his attention elsewhere, hoping that if things went poorly for their unit during the yearlong training cycle, they wouldn’t maintain that attitude.  Beside him, Charles was already talking quite animatedly with a pair of other first-tier mages, whose names Leon gathered were Henry and Alain, so Leon just relaxed and waited for whatever came next.

---

Not too much longer after the last few stragglers arrived, the same Legate who had come to watch the combat test arrived, walking out of one of the nearby buildings and making for the stage that the trainees had assembled before.  He brought an entourage of over fifty knights, and silence descended over the field upon his arrival.

Wasting no time at all, he got right down to business as soon as everyone’s attention had fallen upon him.  “Welcome, everyone, to His Majesty’s Knight Academy!”  The Legate’s booming voice easily traveled over the entire field without the aid of any enchanted object sound amplifier, and no one had any trouble hearing him.  “All the finest knights of the realm were trained here!  If you graduate from this place after your year of training and subsequent squireship, then you will have proven that you have what it takes to join their ranks!”

He paused to gesture towards the many knights at his side, and thirty of them stepped forward.

“These will be your instructors during your year here!  They are all knights of the Kingdom, blooded and hardened in the defense of the King and this land, and you will treat them with the respect they have earned!  If you don’t, then you will be removed from this Academy, no matter who you are, or your family is!”  The Legate’s eyes swept over the trainees in their units, resting on each of the third-tier mages in turn, silently impressing upon the blue bloods his seriousness if they made a fuss about social rank.  His tremendous aura settled down upon them like a half-ton sack of rocks, making several of the second-tier trainees behind them go a bit pale and weak in the knees.

Leon, he gave an extra moment to, but Leon stared right back at him unflinchingly.  If the Legate was impressed at all, though, he didn’t show it, and his eyes moved on soon enough.

After making all of them sweat under the weight of his aura, he nodded towards the knight-instructors, and they spread out among the groups, taking charge of the unruly masses of people in front of their unit signs and arranging them into lines and formations.

When the instructors were done, the trainees of each unit were arranged in long columns five people wide.  The units themselves were side-by-side in front of the stage, right under the Legate’s keen eyes.  The instructors—three assigned per unit—were at the head of each unit, with the unit’s third-tier trainees directly behind them.

Seeing they were done reassembling the trainees, the Legate continued.

“Now that you’re all a little more presentable, I want you to look around at the other training units!  Over this next year, you will be competing with them for honor and glory!  Your dorms will be your fortress, and you must defend it with everything you have when you’re not training or attending classes!  Right now, all your fortresses contain your unit banners!  These banners are the pride of your unit, and their loss will not be tolerated!  If one of your competing units manages to seize your banner, you will lose all of your free time privileges!”

Leon smiled in understanding as the Legate spoke.  This entire year will be one big competition between the units, and they would have to use the skills they learn during their time in the Academy to fight against the other trainees.  The biggest goal during this period will be the defense of their banners and the seizure of their enemy’s banners.  That way, they wouldn’t only be learning from their instructors, but from each other, too.

After the Legate paused for a moment to let his words sink in, he started speaking again, his aura pressing down upon everyone around the stage and seizing the attention of everyone who had taken his pronouncement as an invitation to silently challenge those around them.  Leon felt a couple of those stares, himself, but he kept his eye resolutely pointed forward so that he wouldn’t have to bother with whoever those stares might’ve originated from.

The Legate continued, “However!  If any of you use anything other than the provided training weapons, I will personally have you removed from this Academy!”  The Legate’s eyes flickered to Leon, Alcander, and several others who had brought weapons and were wearing them openly.  “Personal weapons are permitted to be worn, but they will not be used during your time here!  Does everyone understand?!”

Once everyone nodded in acknowledgment, the Legate simply said, “Good!  Instructors, they’re all yours!” and turned to leave the field with his knightly entourage in tow.

There wasn’t much of a chance after that for any more questions, socialization, or anything else of the sort, for one of the instructors standing in front of Leon and the Snow Lions immediately turned and faced them.  “Our dorms are about three miles away.  You will follow me, and those who do not reach it in less than fifteen minutes will learn the true meaning of hell!”  Around them, Leon heard the instructors in charge of the other nine units saying similar things, and the assembled units began to break apart as they started running off the mustering grounds in a westerly direction.

The Knight Academy occupied a significant portion of the land set aside for the Legion Headquarters, at the extreme west end of the capital.  To the west of the Academy’s main administrative complex, the direction that all the units were vaguely running in, was a field half a mile wide and over two miles long.  Beyond the field was a dense and hilly forest, and beyond the forest was a series of rocky and barren artificial mountains created by an enormous number of earth mages working for the Royal Legions.

That enormous field was the primary training grounds for the Knight Academy’s trainees to learn basic combat formations.  They were training to be knights, so they needed that room to practice maneuvers.

The forest and mountains would also allow them to train in different tactics they were expected to encounter serving in the Legions; most bandits were based in forests where places to hide were abundant, while Valemen were known to launch raids from the Frozen Mountains in the north and the stone giants frequently came down from the Border Mountains to pillage the Eastern Territories.

From what Leon knew, the dorms for the trainees had been built within that forest, along with an extensive network of dirt roads and mock villages to simulate the more rural settings that many of them would be sent to after leaving the Knight Academy for the two-year squireship they’d have to fulfill before the Knight Academy would then allow them to be properly knighted.

As the Senior Instructor for the Snow Lions led the way through the administrative complex and then out onto the maneuvering field, one of the other two instructors fell back to run behind their trainees.  They didn’t require the trainees to keep running in that formation, but the other instructor would be there to make sure none of the trainees would get lost.

After they reached the larger training field, the Senior Instructor had them all speed up, and Leon started suspecting that the Senior Instructor’s prior threats were directed solely at the first-tier mages, as he had set a pace that was just beyond the ability of most of the commoners in the unit.  Leon himself, the other two third-tier mages, and the twenty-five second-tier mages in their unit had zero trouble keeping up, but several of the first-tier mages had already been left in the dust before they’d even made it halfway across the field.

By the time the unit had reached a dirt road at the edge of the forest, nearly half of the first-tier mages had fallen out.  Leon quickly checked behind him and was a little comforted when he saw Charles still running with the group, though he was clearly starting to struggle.  That struggle grew more pronounced as they pressed on, and more first-tier mages fell out from the unit.

It took about three minutes for the main unit to run a mile, and only about a dozen first-tier mages still accompanied the others.  Charles had made it this far, but now he began to fall behind.  He kept falling back a little, then gaining a little speed to catch back up, only to fall behind again.  Eventually, he fell out completely, unable to cover the distance he was losing.

Leon rolled his eyes.  Though it wasn’t too in-depth, he had been training Charles for the past three weeks.  As his informal instructor during that time, he felt that it would reflect terribly upon him if he allowed Charles to fall out their formation.

To many confused and bewildered looks, Leon started falling back.  The Senior Instructor noticed this, but apart from a slight narrowing of the eyes, he didn’t react.  One of the other third-tier mages, a man with long black hair and such handsome beauty that he practically glowed, had to fight back laughter at Leon’s behavior.  The other third-tier mage, a brown-haired and blue-eyed man with only slightly above average looks, just shook his head and kept running.

Leon fell all the way back to Charles to the increasing astonishment of the entire rest of the unit that could see it, though no one cared enough or had the breath to spare to ask him what he was doing.

“You’d best get back up with the others, Charles,” Leon said in a calm and understated tone as he fell in line with his training companion of the past few weeks.  Leon’s words carried a hint of killing intent that Charles found quite familiar, since Leon had been using this very same motivational technique to force him to run every day.  So, Charles managed to pick up a little speed but couldn’t sustain it for more than a few seconds and wound up right back in the same situation.

“You’re not going to quit, are you?  Have the last few weeks been wasted?”  Leon’s cold voice spurred Charles onward, but that lasted only about as long as it had just a moment before, as if the motivation Leon was providing was starting to lose effect on the other man.

As Charles fell back once again, Leon lost patience.  He didn’t say another word, but he unleashed his killing intent.  He controlled it as much as he could, not releasing so much as to paralyze anyone in fear, but the startlingly terrifying aura behind everyone pushed them onwards.

There were a few other first-tier mages who had begun to fall out from the unit after Leon had fallen back, but with Leon now behind them and emanating such a terrifying aura, they barely managed to keep pace.  Seeing this, the Senior Instructor allowed the tiny hint of a smile to appear on his lips, but it vanished as quickly as it had come.

The unit arrived at their dorms ten minutes after leaving the mustering field.  After Leon took a position behind the Snow Lions, not another trainee fell out from the group, though some looked to be in such rough condition from such a fast run that Leon thought it might’ve been a little bit better for them if they had fallen out.

The building the unit now found themselves in front of was a round six-story tall stone tower topped with a dome of dark red ceramic tiles.  The walls of the first two floors had been painted a dark red to match the roof, while the tower’s stones above were still sparkling white.  The tower was covered with dozens of arched windows, indicating just how many rooms were contained within.

At the end of the dirt road they had been following was a set of arched double doors, easily ten feet tall.  The Senior Instructor wasted no time pushing them open and leading the unit inside, while the other instructor waited at the entrance for the stragglers.  Any trainees who hadn’t managed to stick with the group but avoided the third instructor would be stopped at the doors.

Just inside was a simple hallway that lacked any decorations.  The floors were light grey stone, and the walls weren’t painted, though there were a few hanging magic lanterns keeping the place illuminated.  At the other end of the hall was another set of huge doors.

The Senior Instructor led them through the double doors and into a large assembly chamber.  The chamber’s domed ceiling was two stories high, and it had been given the only decoration in the entire room, an incredibly realistic painting of an adult Snow Lion.  Next to the entrance were a pair of stairways that led to the upper floors, and around the wall were seven more doors.  There were also a number of chairs, tables, and couches around the outside, but little else.

In fact, the only other thing of note within the assembly chamber was what looked like a shrine in the very center of the chamber, with eight thin columns supporting a small dome, beneath which hung a black banner emblazoned with a white lion’s head.

The Senior Instructor finally allowed the trainees to catch their breath once they entered the chamber.  But just because he was giving them some time to rest didn’t mean he wasn’t going to talk, to the mild dismay of Charles and the other first-tier trainees who looked about ready to puke up their lungs.

“Good job making it in time!  I’ll show you all around these dorms, then apart from when I show you all where the main dining area for the Academy is, the rest of the day will be yours!”  The Senior Instructor paused for a moment, allowing the first-tier mages to straighten up a little before continuing.

“This is the unit’s banner!  As with the Legions, the banner is the absolute representation of the unit’s pride and glory!  To lose it is to lose all of that pride and glory!  You will not lose this banner, do you understand?!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Yes!”

“Aye!”

Most of the trainees responded verbally, but a few, like Leon and the other two third-tier trainees, only nodded.  Regardless, they had all acknowledged him, so the Senior Instructor moved on.

“This will be the common area for those of you in the first-tier!  The door directly opposite the entrance is the common baths and toilets!  The other doors lead to the main hallway, which gives access to the first-tier bedrooms!  I don’t really care which bed you choose, but the first two floors are for the first-tier mages!  Got it?”  After the first-tier mages acknowledged him, he continued.  “Good!  Now go choose your rooms!  Be back here at five for dinner!”  All the bedrooms had clocks, so the Senior Instructor wasn’t worried the trainees would lose track of time.

The first-tier trainees were a little taken aback at the abrupt dismissal, but after a moment of thought, they began shuffling towards their rooms.  Charles gave a quick nod to Leon in gratitude for keeping him going and left with Henry and Alain.

“Everyone else, follow me!”  The Senior Instructor led the second and third-tier trainees up the stairs directly to the third floor.  Another two-story high assembly chamber was found at the top of those stairs, but this one was much nicer than the one on the ground floor.  There was no banner, but the floor had carpets, the furniture was made of finer leather and wood, and the magic lanterns were a soft yellow and orange, rather than the harsher bright white downstairs.  Apart from those differences, though, the second-tier bedrooms were almost identical, save for having fewer bedrooms per room to accommodate the smaller number of second-tier trainees, along with any first-tiers who might manage to ascend during their time here.

The Senior Instructor dismissed the second-tier trainees with the same instructions he had given the first-tier trainees, then turned to the last three people, the three third-tier mages.

“You three, come with me.”

They were led to the top floor where the top of the stairs had been blocked by another set of double doors.  The Senior Instructor pushed them open and led them into the room beyond.

Leon and the two others found themselves in an opulent lounge, with plenty of expensive furniture all around the room and thick carpets over marble floors.  The walls were covered in carved reliefs depicting the Legions in battle and rather than a separate hallway leading to the bedrooms, the lounge was edged with a peristyle made of white granite columns.  Hanging from the ceiling was an elaborate silver chandelier adorned with diamonds and sapphires.  There was even a kitchen and small bar!

Again, the Senior Instructor repeated his instructions to the three, then left them to choose their rooms.  It was now time for him to return to the entrance to see how many trainees didn’t reach the dorms in his time limit.

There were only four bedrooms adjacent to the lounge, and without even looking at Leon, the other two third-tier trainees made for the two farthest from the stairs.

Leon didn’t care and walked towards the room to the right of the stairway doors.  This room was just as nice as the lounge, with white walls and furniture made of dark wood.  The large bed was on a slightly raised platform and covered in red furs and blankets, and there was a marble statue of a heroic looking knight in the center of the room.  Next to the door was a rack that had a dozen different weapons, all made with the same dull white metals and enchantments as the weapons from Leon’s combat test.  There were also enough wardrobes and drawers for five people to store their clothes and personal affects, by Leon’s estimation, all of which was made of a deep, blood-red wood.  Off to the side was another door that led to a private bathroom that even had its own porcelain bathtub.

Leon smiled as he checked out his room.  He placed his pack down near the bed, then began looking through the drawers and dressers.  To his pleasant surprise, he found a large number of training clothes already there for him, all of which were white, brown, or green.  He supposed these clothes were given to him so he was guaranteed something to wear while attending the Academy.

His smile grew wider as he threw himself onto the bed.  It wasn’t nearly as comfortable as the bed from the Prison Lord’s chambers, but it was infinitely more comfortable than the bed he had back in the Forest of Black and White.

‘So this is our fortress, huh?  I like it…’

---

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