So it came to be that the training regimen for the squires began.
Much like a normal school, the squires sat for the earlier half of the day in a classroom, learning about various subjects such as history, mathematics, and languages. It was the principle and general direction of the Orstoll Royal Knights to not only train the body, but also hone the mind — in addition to training its squires on social etiquette and manners.
Currently, the bespectacled instructor was teaching the squires about the history of Orstoll, and how it came to be a Great Kingdom.
“Gormus... You mustn’t sleep!”
Fie shot glances at her friend, finally pinching Gormus on the cheek in a futile attempt to wake him. It had been barely ten minutes since the beginning of the lesson, and Gormus was already sprawled out on the desk before him.
“Don’t wake me... Heath... I don’t care about stuff like this... It’s boring and pointless and I don’t get it... I’m going back to sleep...”
“You can’t! Captain Yore said that to be a good knight of Orstoll, you have to familiarize yourself with its history!”
“That’s all you keep saying... Yore Yore Captain Yore, Captain, don’t you ever get tired of it?”
“What the Captain says is true!”
“Hey... Your voice is too loud...!”
“Heath, Gormus, be quiet!”
“I’m sorry.”
“Pardon us...”
In the end, the two of them were roundly reprimanded by the instructor.
“It’s all your fault, Gormus...”
“More like it’s because you didn’t shut up...”
Fie and Gormus were, once again, having a whispered conversation across the space between their seats.
For the period before noon, Fie and Gormus happened to have been assigned to adjacent seats. Fie’s small body struck a vivid contrast against Gormus’ large stature, and it seemed like it somehow made sense to position the two in such a way.
The two of them did not know this, but Fie was actually one of the few squires who was not afraid to speak to Gormus on a daily basis. With that strong-edged face and large stature, Gormus cut an intimidating figure — and it was perhaps to be expected that quite a few squires were afraid of him.
“Show me your notes later, Heath.”
“Take your own...”
Slad and his compatriots could only watch over Fie tensely as she exchanged carefree comments with Gormus.
“He pinched Gormus’ cheek... He’s quite something, that Heath...”
“Yeah... Heath is pretty awesome...”
Inevitably becoming aware of the whispers surrounding her, Fie thought to herself:
(While it is true that he has a bad mouth and can seem kind of rough... He really isn’t that scary. I guess I can’t really take the moral high ground here... After all, when I first met him, I just thought he was terribly bad-natured...)
Fie had become aware that Gormus had lived amidst the misunderstandings and misconceptions of others — her own included.
Training for the squires started at noon.
“AAALLLLLLLRIGHT! It’s time for training!”
Gormus was happy about the turn of events, but Fie was on fire.
(All right, let’s do this! I’ll catch up with everyone all at once!)
And soon noontime training began.
“I’m the one in charge of training up you guys. Name’s Heslow. I’m gonna train you up real good, so prepare yourselves.”
With his arms crossed, Heslow seemed strict and somewhat rigid, casting his gaze over the squires assembled in front of the north dormitory.
“Ugh, our instructor is Heslow, huh...”
“He’s taking the north dorm this year... We got really unlucky...”
A wave of whispers spread out amongst the gathered squires. It seemed like he had quite a reputation as an instructor. Amongst those who had aspired to become knights, it appeared to be common practice to gather information on the Royal Knights as an organization.
In the week before training had formally started, many squires spoke to their seniors, receiving insider information as a result. As such, someone like Fie, who had absolutely no idea what she was getting into, was comparatively rare.
Fie, in turn, had spent her week speaking with the various individuals of the 18th Knights. In particular, Fie sought out Knight-Captain Yore on several occasions, spending cherished time speaking with him about various matters.
Due to the fact that the 18th Knights were comprised of members specifically scouted by Yore, there were no other squires other than Fie — and as such, Fie had no opportunity to ask a more senior squire for assorted tips and tricks. On the other hand, Crow wasted no time in regaling Fie with how many cute servant girls he had dated as a squire, as well as a romance with the eldest daughter of a noble family.
(His habits with regards to women are truly terrible... If it wasn’t for that, he would be a really good guy...)
Looking at what appeared to be a truly ecstatic Crow recount his memories of youth and the women he had been with, Fie decided to just let it slide, not retaining very much of the information at all.
It was also worth noting that Crow did mention something along the lines of: “All instructors teach squires with their best interests in mind. Just listen to what they say and it’ll work out.”
Yore, in turn, had advised Fie to learn as much as she could from the squires around her.
“Stop whispering amongst yourselves! From this moment on, you will be taught the ways of the sword, your body will be honed, and you will undertake various training regimens! But all that means nothing if you have no stamina. That’s why you are all going to be building stamina from now on, for a solid month. Start running!”
At the mention of the word “running,” the squires collectively expressed a sigh of distaste. After all, the youths readily took to swordplay training and other more flashy regimens, but balked at the idea of aimless running.
Slad, as well as the squires around him, all shared an expression of disbelief.
Unexpectedly, Remie enjoyed running — although this could perhaps be attributed to his easygoing nature.
Gees’ expression, on the other hand, did not change very much at all.