Time passed away; it had been six years since the tournament. Eric was now almost an adult; he had spent the past six years helping his family tend the farms. He learned quickly and he was decent as if he was born with the knowledge of farming. His parents appreciated his help but Eric still hasn’t opened up about why he quit his dreams.

Plow the fields? Feed the cattle? Carry anything? Wake up late due to looking at stars till midnight? Eric’s got it in the bag. Filled with the guilt of not helping his parents in his early years made Eric work really hard. Even though his parents wouldn’t have let their young child work away in the fields anyway. He didn't talk to his parents about it, but thought over it himself, without any outside input.

Eric, however, wasn’t very good at dealing with pigs. His father had bought a pig that was supposed to be the best pig in the kingdom. No one knows how it got the title, maybe from the best pig in the kingdom tournament. But no one cared enough to dispute the claim. Goh was the name of the pig. He was one of Eric’s first responsibilities, and he cared for it since it was a piglet. He fed it, gave it a bath, and told it bedtime stories relating to a pig knight saving a pig princess, which he may have come up on the spot, or he just exchanged the characters of the stories he read with pigs.

This went on for days until Goh suddenly reached its rebellious phase.

Eric and he were really close but for the past couple of months, Goh’s having a pig and human chase with Eric. Eric tries his best to catch Goh but to no avail. The pig is fast. Too fast. Perhaps he really is the best pig in this kingdom. If being the best pig in the kingdom entailed winning pig races. Maybe catching him with traps would be better, but Eric didn’t think of that. He took it upon himself to have a physical competition without the use of brains with the pig and the pig won every single time.

On such a day, Eric was having trouble with Goh again.

“Leave Goh alone son, he goes back to his home at the end of the day anyways. Just leave him be!”, shouted Eric’s mother.

It, however, fell on deaf ears. Eric didn’t want to be defeated by a mere pig. What kind of a knight would he be if he couldn’t even catch a pig? Is a Dargon going to be tougher than this guy?

While Eric was still having a chase with Goh, a carriage came near the farm’s gate, it was not a common carriage. None of Eric's parents had seen something like this before. A knight came out first, followed by a rich man, maybe a noble? Eric didn’t notice them; he ran past them and into the town following Goh.

“Is this the kid you were talking about?”, asked the Baron.

“Yes, I'm certain", replied his knight, Shine. He then proceeded to follow Eric to the town.

“Well, alright then...”, said the Baron to himself, since no one else was there to hear him talk.

Shine followed Eric’s footsteps and found himself in the arena where he met Eric for the first time. It was filled with trees and didn’t have proper maintenance for years. After the Baron took over the town, he focused on things that would’ve made him money and this arena was sadly not one of them. Shine found Eric crouching down, looking at something intensively.

“What are you doing?”, asked Shine silently.

“Trying to catch something that has been hogging my time for months!”, replied Eric tired from all the chasing he’s been doing.

Eric and Goh were having an intensive stare-down. One small movement from Eric would result in Goh resuming the chase.

“Really? A pig? You can’t catch a pig? Have you tried using traps?”

“No. Of course not! I want to catch that hog myself!”

“You do realize that humans are outmatched by monsters and some beasts physically? Use your brain and lay down some traps...”

Eric thought to himself, maybe this random knight was right. A good knight should also know how to use his brain.

Eric looked toward Goh and sat down on the ground.

“Remember when we first met Goh? You were so tiny, so frail. We were so close back then. What happened to us?”, said Eric in a sad tone, tears almost dropping from his eyes.

Goh responded by coming near Eric, slowly but steadily.

“I just miss hugging you, falling asleep with you. Playing with you, training with you.”

Eric opened up his arms as if he were waiting for someone or something to hug him.

Goh ran and jumped right into Eric’s arms.

“Got you now you little...”

“Well, that works...”, said Shine to himself.

Meanwhile, back on the farm.

The Baron was having tea with Eric’s parents.

“So, if you don’t mind me asking. How good of a farmer is your kid?”, asked the Baron.

“Eh”

“That’s a relief”

Eric and Shine walked back from the town, with Goh in Eric’s hands trying its best to run away.

“You should really remove your helmet, Mr.Shine. I couldn’t recognize you.”

“A knight’s full armor is his pride. It protects them from all kinds of danger.”

“But you didn’t wear your helmet back during the tournament.”

“There was no danger back then.”

“Is that so...”

They walked back silently for the rest of their journey.

As soon as Eric came back, his parents ran and hugged him. Eric thought that they were happy that he finally caught Goh but no, apparently this rich guy, who’s a Baron or something is willing to sponsor Eric to become a King’s knight. Every year, a noble can sponsor someone. However, whether they become a knight or not, depends solely on the person.

“Your dreams of becoming a knight can now be true!”

“Hahaha yes, so what say you, young Eric. Would you like to be a Knight?”, exclaimed the Baron.

Eric looked at him, with tears forming in his eyes. Will his dreams finally come true? Will he finally be able to save a princess from the dragon? He knew he had to try.

Eric looked straight at the Baron, filled with determination, smiled, and spoke.

“Yes!”.

Meanwhile, in some other parts of the world.

In the capital of the kingdom, the King was walking in the hallways of his castle along with his trusty aide. He looked towards a picture of a knight, tired from battle, and spoke.

“The legendary knight, who was cursed by a sage to be born again, but average in everything.”

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“Is that even a curse, sire?”

“I honestly have no idea and I don’t really care. It’s just a legend, it probably didn’t even happen.”

In the other part of the kingdom, Eric had finally packed his bags and was ready to go and receive his knight training.

He looked toward his family and his pet pig, smiled, and spoke.

“I’ll miss you guys.”, before hugging his parents tight.

“I’m sorry for yesterday, Goh.”

He then petted Goh. It was time for him to go, leaving the life he had known from his birth behind. The Baron and Shine were waiting for him in the carriage. Before getting on it, he looked at his family one last time, and waved his hand, knowing well that he wouldn’t see them for a long time. The carriage moved and his parent’s goodbyes became soft, Eric put his head outside of the carriage window to see his family really far away. He waved one last time, there was no going back now.

The ride to the capital was silent, no one spoke. The Baron looked at his documents and looked busy while Shine closed his eyes and made no movement. Eric didn’t want to disturb them so he looked outside the window. The roads were bumpy, but there were no monsters in sight. The only living being he saw on his journey were tiny rabbits.

Soon, the capital was in sight. It was already evening. The roofs of most of the buildings were the same as the sky, orange. But it didn’t look better than his town. Before going inside a big gate, Eric saw a boy, around his age with white hair packing his bags. Their eyes met and Eric continued to look at him before he was out of sight.

“Was that your brother, Shine?”, asked Eric curiously.

“What? No? At least not as far as I’m aware. You do know that there are other people with white hair out there?”, answered Shine, looking like someone who just woke up from his sleep.

Eric didn’t argue with him, after all, his books didn’t say anything about people with white hair.

“Are you curious about why the houses look so... shabby?”, asked the Baron. Eric nodded, but he hadn't even noticed them.

“The outer city is filled with people who come to the capital in order to be something, and as you can see, it usually doesn’t work out. My grandparents were one of them, but they had luck on their side. If you want to see good houses, then you have to go to the inner city, that’s where most nobles live, along with some rich commoners.”, the Baron continued while smirking.

It was almost nighttime, they had finally reached the hotel. The Baron dropped Shine and Eric off. Before leaving, he gave Eric a pouch of coins and spoke.

“This should be enough, go enjoy yourself. After all, this is your first night here.”

Shine didn’t say anything, he just went inside his room and locked the door. Eric looked at his pouch and wondered about what he should do with it. There was a pub nearby, and he had read about them in his books. Filled with adventurers who come there and talk about their adventures. Eric got excited and went in. However, once inside, all he saw were people his age, complaining about their lives.

“The capital doesn’t have anything, I got excited about nothing...”

“Shouldn’t have nominated myself for being a knight...”

Eric took a seat far away from the crowd and wondered what he doing here. Did his books lie about other things or is this a one-time thing?

“Only nobles can nominate someone to become a King’s knight.”

“Well, almost. Did you hear about someone who got nominated by a knight? Apparently, he went toe to toe against him at the age of ten.”

“Ten? Wow. He must be some sort of a prodigy...”

After hearing this, Eric went outside the pub. He wasn’t feeling good, and he wasn’t looking either. He collided with a girl, around his own age...

“Wait, I know you!”, Eric said frantically.

“Oh right, you’re the guy from back then...”, replied the girl.

“You remember me?”

“Yes, how can I forget one of the few non-negative interactions I had with people living in that town? I even have the note you gave me back then.”

“Non-negative?”

“Well...”, the girl paused and looked at Eric. She then spoke, "People apparently don’t treat a child of a widow well.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”, replied Eric looking sad.

“It’s alright, I don’t even know him, and look at me, talking to a guy I just met about my dead father.”

“Ahh... well, we’ve never introduced ourselves. I’m Eric.”

“Nice to meet you, Eric, I’m Rally.”

“So... What are doing here Rally?”, asked Eric, curiously.

“Going through the town... actually I'm going to start my job as a maid from tomorrow. So, my mother told me to have fun today.”

“Same. I mean not as a maid; I mean I'm going to be a knight trainee from tomorrow. So, the guy who I came with told me to have fun too.”

Rally laughed and spoke, “So, why don’t we have fun Eric.”, before smiling a smile that Eric would never forget.

Eric nodded, not realizing that he was smiling too. Rally moved her hand asking Eric to follow her. Eric smiled and went after her.

Eric and Rally were having the time of their lives, they visited stalls and even had food in a restaurant. It was very different from the food Eric had back in his town. It was way oilier.

“Are you disappointed?”, asked Rally.

“Not really...”

“There’s no need to lie, I was too... Moving into a big city, the capital no less, from your town and you get this. The inner city is way too costly but that’s where the only fun things are. It’s just food and more food here.”

Eric nodded in agreement. He was curious to see what the inner city that he heard so much about, looked like. It was getting late. Rally told her goodbyes.

“I hope we meet again, Eric. It was fun!”

“Yes, it was. And I hope to meet you again as well.”

They both waved. Eric had fun, for the first time in forever. He was happier now than he was when he had caught Goh for the first time. Eric went back to his hotel and slept as soon as he touched the bed. It had been a good, but tiring day.

“Wake up! It’s almost time for you to go to the castle.”, said Shine, who entered Eric’s room because he didn’t lock it. He pushed Eric around to no avail. After trying to wake Eric up for what seemed like an eternity, Shine threw Eric off the bed. Which resulted in Eric finally waking up.

“When did you even sleep yesterday? Didn’t I tell you to sleep early?”

“No...”, replied Eric, still sleepy.

“Whatever, you’re late. Run to the Castle, now!”, shouted Shine.

Eric woke up from Shine’s scream. He didn’t need to dress up, since he slept in his dress. He got up and ran as fast as he could. He didn’t pay attention to the inner city that he wanted to see so badly. Eric reached the castle, with barely any time to spare.

“Knight cadets! Come near the main hall! The King wants to speak with you!”

Eric heard that, he took a moment to catch his breath and went to the hall. There was a person standing there, he didn’t look like the King, more like one of his aides. Eric went inside and stood somewhere near the middle. Some minutes passed by; Eric was getting bored. So, he started counting the total number of people in the room, one, two, three... thirty-two. That didn’t even take a minute, Eric was about to start to drift into his world of fantasy when he realized that a white-haired guy was looking at him. It was the same guy he saw when he was about to enter the city. The guy noticed Eric watching him, he walked over to Eric.

“Hey, I’m Orph. We’re supposed to be partners from now on.”, said the guy, holding out his hand for a handshake.

“Hello, I’m Eric. How did you know who I was?”, said Eric, while shaking Orph’s hand.

“I saw you with the knight Shine in a carriage. Since, he’s, our mentor. I assumed that you were the rumored prodigy.”

“How do you know all of this?”

“You didn’t see the list in front of the noticeboard?”

Eric looked at Orph with shock, sweating profusely, not knowing how to reply to that. Thankfully, the King walked over to the stage before Eric got to explain himself. There were five knights who came before the king, and five after.

“Maybe, we’ll be lucky enough to directly serve the king!”

“Knowing my luck, I'd probably be sent to serve some village lord...”

“Oh man, I hope I get to be a knight in the first place.”

The crowd was murmuring among themselves. It all stopped when the King took a loud cough.

“Ahem!”, said the King while crumbling a piece of paper and throwing it into the crowd. The King’s aide looked worried.

“So, we’ve been doing this for like every three years? I say something motivating, you guys pledge your allegiance to me. So, let’s just skip to the chase. I wish you good luck, and I hope all of you are good enough to serve me. We really need the manpower.”, the King continued.

The crowd didn’t know how to react, could they actually boo the King? It didn’t matter, however; the King didn’t wait for the reception. He was long gone before the crowd could react to what had just happened.

“With a leader like that, you ever wonder how this kingdom’s even functioning?”, said Orph, in a mocking manner.

Eric didn’t reply. He was shocked to see this. It was nothing like his fairy tales. Orph, however, looked like he was used to it.

“The knight cadets must find themselves in the training grounds in five minutes, for their physical tests”, shouted the announcer.

“Let’s go”, said Orph while patting Eric on the back. Eric took some time to gather up his mind and followed him.

The physical tests were simple, they consisted of a basic hundred-meter race and a weapon skill showcase that was rated by the instructors. Eric came fourth and Orph eighth. The tests were just a formality, taken in order to rank the cadets when they first started. It would change a lot over the course of their stay of three years.

“Hello, I’m Shine. I’m going to be your mentor.”, introduced Shine to his own students.

He took a look at the results and spoke, “You’re Orph right? Nice to meet you and also nice job in coming in the top ten.”

He then proceeded to look at Eric with disappointment and spoke, “Eric, I suppose it’s alright but it’s almost as if you haven’t improved at all from back then... What did you even do for the past six years?”

“Worked at the farm...”, replied Eric. Seeing that Shine’s look hasn’t changed much, he added, “I didn’t train at all... for the past six years...”

“Ahh, then it’s a miracle that you didn’t lose any of your skills. With training you should be able to improve much more.”, said Shine, while patting Eric’s head.

“Alright, we’ll end it here. Go back to your room. We’ll start our training from tomorrow.”

Shine left the boys alone and went to his own room.

Eric and Orph obeyed Shine’s word and went to their room. It was a normal room, it had two desks and a bunker bed, with one window with a view of the royal garden.

Orph looked at Eric and spoke, “There’s only one way we decide on who gets which bed!”

Rock, Paper, Scissors!

And the day ended with Orph’s second loss to Eric.