I've just released a new Behind the Scenes post on Patreon with a map of the Forest of Black and White, as well as a first-draft map of the Bull Kingdom!  They both come with some detailed notes about many of the notable features in these regions.  You can gain access to these maps if you sign up at the $3 tier or higher!

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The first Basic Combat ‘class’ was over several hours after it had started.  Leon hadn’t fought anyone during the entire time since those who seemed to actually want to fight him—namely, Gaius and Alcander—were challenged by others before they could challenge him, leaving them too tired to challenge him when they were done.

To their credit, both Gaius and Alcander had won their duels, with Gaius seemingly pulling no punches as he fought—perhaps it was out of a desire to make up for his disastrous showing during the enrollment test, but Leon couldn’t say for certain.  Leon tried to put the entire affair out of his mind, choosing to instead focus on analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of those who so proudly paraded their abilities before him.

The Instructors weren’t providing much actual instruction, but it was soon made abundantly clear as to why: all of the third-tier nobles had been training to fight presumably since they were old enough to hold a weapon, and they put that training on display.  Leon found himself moderately impressed and even marked a few of them out as potential threats if he were to fight them straight-up one-on-one.

However, no matter who went up there, even the bronze-skinned woman—whose name Leon learned was Asiya—none of them had so profound an impact on him as Valeria, the silver-haired woman who had fought against the noble named Tiberias.  The ease and grace with which she wielded her spear was something that Leon, whose skill in polearms was barely adequate, could only marvel at.

He wanted nothing more than to spar against her, but even after she got some rest following her thrashing of Tiberias, Leon couldn’t quite bring himself to ask her to fight.  It felt a little too forward to him, a little too bold.  It felt like challenging her might bring with it a lot of extra social implications that he didn’t want.

For the most part, Leon faded into the background of the third-tiers.  He wasn’t making a scene, so everyone else ignored him, which was the best possible scenario he could envision.

The Senior Instructors had them return to the banner platform when the sparring sessions were over.  The first and second-tier trainees—most of whom were slick with sweat from their more educational class—were called back, and all ten units reformed into their groups.

Leon glanced back at the rest of the Snow Lions as they lined up.  Charles and Henry looked exhausted, while Alain only looked marginally better.

After the units retrieved their banners, the Senior Instructors led them on a mass run back to the dining hall for lunch.  Unlike the day before, all ten units ate at the same time, though any awkwardness was eliminated with the speed and pressure the Instructors put on them to finish quickly.

 After lunch, the units were taken on another run through the forest.  A few miles later, they found themselves on the edge of the forest again, but this time they were on the southern edge of the training field.  Half a dozen buildings that shared a clean, unadorned, business-like aesthetic had been built there, each one as large as Leon expected given the size of their class.

The units were led to the largest of the buildings.  Much like the dining hall, this building was just one enormous room, though this one was round and domed.  Apart from the dozen columns supporting the dome, the only notable features were about one hundred large tables.  Each unit was made to sit at ten of these tables.

Several servants appeared with stacks of documents that were passed out to each trainee.

Leon scanned the documents he received and discovered that these were the lists that described the electives available to the trainees.  He quickly scanned through the lists to see what the Academy offered.  There was only a single slot available every training cycle for electives, so he needed to choose wisely as he would be stuck with whatever course he chose for the duration of his time at the Academy.

At the very top of the first page was ‘Magical Theory’.  From what he could tell, most of the time in that course would be spent meditating and practicing proper breathing techniques.  He had no use for that course, so he quickly moved on.

A few other offerings stood out to him as he skimmed through the lists.  First was ‘A Brief History of the First Bull King’s Campaigns’.  He knew that he had nearly bombed the written test, so he felt like he could spare some time to brush up on his knowledge of the military history of the Bull Kingdom.

The next course his eyes were drawn to was ‘The Classics of the Bull Kingdom’.  This was a course devoted to the great works of literature written in the Bull Kingdom and the states that preceded it.  Again, given the results of his written test, Leon was sorely tempted to take this course and cover some of the areas he was lacking in.

Leon’s eyes widened in excitement when he saw the next course: ‘Basics of Enchantment’.  Ever since he was young, he had been fascinated with runes and their myriad applications.  However, Artorias never had the skills or means to properly instruct Leon, so all he could do was let the young mage read a few of the books he had taken from the Archives in Teira.  Leon still had many of those books, but he lacked the foundation he needed to understand much of the information contained within them.

Leon decided immediately that his elective was going to be this course on enchantments.

The last piece of paper was a map of the surrounding buildings.  The room each course took place in was clearly labeled on this map.  The building they were all in was actually the classroom for Magical Theory, which made sense given that it was required for all the first-tier trainees—they were given no choice as to what ‘elective’ to sign up, the Instructors had to be certain that all of these common-born trainees had solid magical foundations to build upon before letting them leave for their squireships when their time at the Academy was over.

After about twenty minutes, the trainees were dismissed to their chosen course.  They only had to attend the first class of their chosen elective to sign up for it.  The Academy didn’t have any formal tests, so those trainees who had the privilege of choosing were encouraged to take whatever interested them the most.

All of the second and third-tier trainees left the room for their first elective while the first-tier trainees stayed to take the first class of Magical Theory.

Leon quickly made his way to the enchanting room, being one of the first to leave the Magical Theory chamber and the first to arrive at the enchanting room.  He even beat the Instructor who would oversee the class, so without any other direction to go on, he decided to sit in the back and wait for everyone else to arrive.

Over the next ten minutes or so, trainees trickled in.  Leon didn’t speak with any of them and they didn’t speak to him.  That seemed like it might change when Gaius walked into the room, smiling with dignity and grace, which quickly turned into a slight look of distaste when he saw Leon sitting in the back.  Fortunately, he didn’t start anything, sitting with someone he seemed friendly with in the front.

Only a minute or so later, someone else walked in who utterly captured Leon’s attention: Valeria.  The young silver-haired woman seemed to have taken her time, as the classroom had mostly filled up by the time she walked in.  Leon’s heart started to race as he realized that the only seats left were those near him.

Valeria didn’t seem to hesitate at all, quickly moving to the back and sitting down next to him, ignoring for the most part everyone else.  She didn’t speak to him or even look in his direction, but Leon was acutely aware of her presence next to him and couldn’t help but sneak a few glances at her out of the corner of his eye.

To try and distract himself, Leon glanced around the room again and noticed Gaius staring at him, only for the nobleman to quickly avert his gaze when he realized he’d been noticed.  Leon frowned as he steadied himself.  The look had been devoid of killing intent, though there was definitely something else there that Leon couldn’t easily identify.

‘Jealousy, maybe?’ he thought.

As the class’ Instructor arrived and began making his introductions and laying out the classroom rules, Leon put Gaius out of his mind.  As far as he was concerned, he had no business with Gaius, and he wasn’t going to start anything unless provoked.

The class was over about four hours after it had begun.  It had been spent almost entirely on more conceptual knowledge of runes that Leon already knew, but he still paid attention as much as he could, absorbing everything new that the Instructor shared.

The last hour of the class was spent with the twenty or so trainees who elected to take the class getting in some practice and starting their exercises to build up muscle memory in drawing the basic seven elemental runes.

Leon had a little experience in this regard.  He had learned how to draw a few runes and enchantments from the books Artorias had made him read.  But, in the end, he had only been memorizing the shapes and patterns of specific enchantments so he could replicate them later.  This was no different from an illiterate person memorizing the word ‘fire’ because they knew it meant fire but having no idea what the individual letters meant.

The art of enchantment was often referred to as ‘The Language of Magic’ because of this characteristic—each individual rune was like a letter, connected by magical lines to other runes into glyphs, which once completed would form enchantments in the same way letters would form sentences and completed works.  In essence, this class had the trainees start the same way a young child learns to read and write: by studying individual letters first.

When the class was over, all the used spell paper was thrown away and the trainees were dismissed to link back up with their individual units.

As Leon made his way out of the room, he and Valeria made eye contact for the first time since she had entered the classroom, and they held that eye contact for what seemed to Leon to be an eternity.  Without knowing what else he could do, he tried to smile and nod, but he wasn’t sure how it looked.

A moment later, Valeria stoically nodded back, bringing a much more genuine smile to Leon’s lips.  However, that smile quickly died as, only a moment later, Gaius suddenly forced his way into Leon’s space.

“We need to speak, sa—” he growled, but the way he ended his ‘request’ and the way he glared at him made Leon think he only barely held back from calling him something derogatory.

With a rapidly-growing frown, Leon nodded and followed Gaius down the hall away from everyone else who was exiting the building.  He did notice, however, that several of the second-tier trainees who had accompanied Gaius into the class had decided to hang around.

Leon’s hands began to drift down toward the swords, both personal and training, at his waist.  If things turned violent, he was going to meet it head-on, no matter how badly he was outnumbered.

Once they were a reasonable distance away—though still in sight of his subordinates—Gaius spun around with a confrontational look on his face.  He moved so quickly that Leon almost drew his training sword right then and there.

“What are your intentions with Lady Valeria?” Gaius demanded.

Of all the questions that Leon had been expecting, that was certainly not one of them.  He and Valeria hadn’t even shared a single word during the entirety of the class, so to him, Gaius’ demanding question had come completely out of nowhere.  He blinked in surprise and took long enough to answer that Gaius’ face contorted in impatience.

Leon answered with confusion in his tone, “I’m not entirely sure what you’re asking…”

“Idiot barbarian,” Gaius whispered just loudly enough for Leon to hear the hate dripping from every syllable.  “You stay the hells away from her, do you understand?  You may have beaten me once in single combat, but I have a hundred ways I could have you removed from my sight!”

Leon bristled at the obvious threat and the only reason he didn’t draw on Gaius right then and there was because of the presence of his subordinates not too far away and the fact that Gaius hadn’t done anything overtly violent yet.

“Lady Valeria is a woman of breeding and standing!” Gaius continued as he glared at Leon and started to move into Leon’s space for added emphasis.  “She is above you!  If you’re looking for someone to harass, go stick your head in an anthill with the rest of your kind!  You just stay away from her!  Do you understand, or are the words I’m using too big and obtuse for your savage mind to comprehend?!”

Now thoroughly annoyed and offended, Leon glared right back at the golden-haired nobleman.  “I will do as I will,” he replied.

“A dangerous reply,” Gaius stated.  “Keep in mind, barbarian, that your actions will have consequences.  Stay away from her.  You will not get a second warning.”

With that, Gaius pushed right past Leon and walked back down the hall toward his waiting subordinates.  It took a monumental amount of self-control for Leon to just let him walk away.

As he glared at Gaius’ back, he felt Xaphan’s attention rise up from his soul realm.

[As much as it entertains me to infuriate that one, you ought to keep an eye on him.  He’ll be trouble, no doubt about it,] the demon said matter-of-factly.

[I’m sure he will be.  But, given the combat skill he’s demonstrated so far—or the lack thereof, more accurately—I’m not too worried.  Let him be angry,] responded Leon with a dismissive tone, though he didn’t make his way out of the building until Gaius and his cronies had disappeared.

[Don’t be arrogant, boy.  That’ll only get you hurt,] Xaphan warned.  [Take it from me.  I spent millennia rotting in that prison cell as payment for my dismissive pride.  You may have beaten this boy in single combat, but individual power is not the only thing that matters in ‘civilized’ places…]

[Noted…] Leon replied, though he honestly thought that Xaphan was worrying about a whole lot of nothing.

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With class time over, the units gathered in the central plaza between the six class buildings.  It was time for dinner, so the Senior Instructors led them on another run back to the dining hall.  After an uneventful meal, the units returned to their respective towers and were informed that the schedule the following day would be the same, though with less ‘messing around’, whatever that meant.  With that, the Snow Lions’ Instructors gave them the rest of the night, though with the added note that the trainees were heavily encouraged to fill their time with supplemental training.

It had been a long day for Leon, and he was just about to head for the stairs when Henry called out to him.

“Hey, Leon!”

When Leon turned around, Henry and Alain were staring at him with great expectation.

“You’re going to teach us some of those moves you taught Charles, right?” asked Alain.

“You did say you would this morning…” added Henry.

“I did, didn’t I…” muttered Leon with an obvious lack of enthusiasm.  He glanced at the two young men, then over at Charles who was watching and stifling his laughter at Leon’s discomfort not too far away.  After a few moments of thought, with his thoughts especially turning to Gaius’ subordinates, Leon figured he had little to lose by teaching Henry and Alain a few things just as he’d done for Charles.  “Fine.  But first, show me what you were taught this morning.”

“Alright, but we weren’t taught much…” said Alain.

After about five minutes, Leon had a fairly good grasp of what they had gained from their first lesson in Basic Combat.  The knights had made them practice a single stabbing attack hundreds of times and little else.  Leon understood the emphasis on the stab, though.  His own training sword was about the same length as his personal sword, which was longer than the one-handed arming swords the first-tier trainees had been given, but shorter than a large two-handed sword.  The hilts of both of his weapons were long enough to use with two hands, though at the third-tier Leon was more than strong enough to use them with only one hand very comfortably.

Given what Leon knew about Legion fighting tactics, this emphasis wasn’t a surprise.  Most of the rank-and-file soldiers would fight in a tight formation with large shields which were often paired with shorter swords that were designed for close-range fighting.  It made a lot of sense to him that stabbing attacks would be the bread and butter of the heavy infantry that made up most of the Legions.

But Leon wasn’t too fond of that style of combat.  Everyone here was training to become knights.  They would be assigned to leadership roles suited for a far more open style of fighting at slightly longer ranges rather than filling spots within large shield formations.

‘This is only Basic Combat.  Maybe they’ll be taught better fighting styles later…’ Leon hoped.

“Ok, I think we can start with some footwork,” he said out loud.

“Footwork?  Not actual fighting moves?” asked Alain in disappointment.

“… Take a swing at me,” said Leon, thoroughly unamused with Alain’s response.

“Huh?”

“You have that sword in your hand, use it to try and hit me.”

“… But…”  Alain clearly didn’t want to do so.  Given the difference in their power, Leon could understand his reticence.

“Never mind, then.  Try and hit Charles instead,” said Leon after thinking a little about why Alain was hesitating.

“What was that?” asked Charles, who had been starting his own practice session and now looked over to them with a great deal of concern.

Alain glanced over at Charles and gave him a wicked smile.  Both had power that was about on par with the other, but the tall and muscular Alain was clearly far more physically powerful than the shorter and much skinnier Charles.  Alain immediately struck out toward Charles using the very stabbing move they had been taught that morning.

To the shock of everyone but Leon, Charles dodged the strike with ease.  He seemed to vanish from in front of Alain and reappear to his side in the blink of an eye, completely unscathed.  Alain swung his sword again, abandoning any pretense of skill or instruction.  Again, his sword tasted nothing but air as Charles almost effortlessly dodged his slow and uncoordinated swing.

Leon watched all of it with a smile as Alain was shown the value of even basic footwork.  “You’re putting too much strength into the blow without the technique needed to take advantage of it.  This makes you slow.  Charles can easily dodge that with the basic skills I taught him,” Leon explained to a slightly frustrated Alain.  “A week or two of practicing your footwork and you’ll be able to do the same thing.”

Alain and Henry nodded at him enthusiastically.  Charles chuckled a bit before returning to his own practice.  His little demonstration kept a proud smile blooming all over his face.

For the next twenty minutes, Leon slowly demonstrated a stepping method that Artorias had taught him when he became a first-tier mage.  This was the same technique that he had taught Charles several weeks earlier.  It was essentially just stepping to the side and pivoting around on that foot.

“This… actually isn’t so hard…” said Alain in a surprised tone.

“It isn’t hard because you’re not trying to use it in battle.  You need to build muscle memory, first.  Train like this for an hour or two every day for the next week, then we can have you show me how easy you think it is…” responded Leon with a slightly sadistic smile.

Leon sat down in a nearby chair to concentrate on his own training.  As a third-tier mage, there was little need for him to train his muscles unless he needed to learn a new technique or fighting style.  Thus, his training mostly revolved around filling his body with magic power to come closer to ascending to the fourth-tier.

“Hey Leon, I’ve got a question,” said Henry after a little hesitation.

Leon glanced at the other man for a moment before giving a slight nod.

“You’re from the Northern Vales, right?  Why did you come all the way here?”

“Those are two questions, guy,” muttered Alain only just loud enough for the other three to hear.

Leon took a moment to think before answering.  “I just wanted to be a knight.  Isn’t that enough?”

“Don’t get me wrong, it certainly is, it’s just people from the Northern Vales don’t come south very often, and I couldn’t help but be a little curious that you were here for something else.”

Leon smiled, wondering if there had been anything he’d done that he hadn’t realized that might’ve given Henry this impression.  “Valemen come south plenty.  Usually on trading missions, or for the occasional raid in the case of the vales in the west.  They just don’t stay.  Can be very hard to get through the Frozen Mountains.  Makes moving entire families nearly impossible.”

“But don’t you have people you want to see again back home?”

Leon frowned a little and quietly said, “No…”

It seemed that Henry easily picked up on the fact that he had started getting into some things Leon didn’t want to talk about since he decided to immediately switch gears.

“Well, just wanting to be a knight is as good a reason as any.  Hell, it’s a better reason than Alain’s got.”  Henry said in a playful tone.  Alain’s face went red with embarrassment.

“Oh?  Why are you two here then?” asked Charles curiously, much to Henry’s delight.

“Well, my buddy here is quite the ladies’ man.  Too much of one, in fact.  He got involved with three girls back home and ended up getting all three pregnant!”

Charles immediately turned to Alain with a boggle-eyed expression.  Even Leon took on a subdued surprised look for several seconds.

“Really?!” asked Charles incredulously.

“… Yes…” confirmed Alain.  “But I love all of them!  And they’re going to be the mothers of my children!  I’m going to do right by them, but I can’t get married to all three unless I become noble!  I have to become a knight!”

“And they’re Ok with this?!” asked Charles with increasingly mounting disbelief.

“Well, yes,” replied Alain.

“Our village is rather poor,” added Henry.  “We only became first-tier mages by a happy accident when we found a small pond in the nearby forest that had a slightly denser concentration of magic than everywhere else in the village.  By hanging out there, we ended up becoming mages completely without intending to!  And when this guy knocked up those girls, signing up at the Knight Academy just seemed like the natural thing to do.”

“But what about you?” asked Leon.

“Well I couldn’t let my best friend join the Knight Academy alone, could I?”

Charles just lightly grunted while still staring in amazement at Alain, who pretended to double down on his training to hide his embarrassment.

“Hey Charles, your turn.  Why’d you come here?” asked Henry.

“Well…” said Charles as he turned away from Alain.  “I met Leon not too long ago.  He was on his way to the Knight Academy, and since I was a first-tier mage, I decided to accompany him.”

“It was a spur of the moment decision?  Really?!”

“I… also hadn’t made much of myself in Teira… to put it mildly.  The way I saw it, I could go back home and work in my parents’ mine or sign up for the Legion.  Since I potentially qualified to be a knight, I figured I might as well see if I could become one.”

“Fair enough.”

The four continued to talk while they trained for another hour or so.  They swapped stories about their hometowns and about the girls they had chased.  Leon, for the most part, just listened, but he occasionally told them a few things about Vale Town.

Eventually, Leon felt that he had enough of being around people and was getting desperate for solitude, so he left for his bedroom.  The others didn’t last much longer than he did before retiring to their own room to meditate and perform breathing exercises for a while.

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