After a day of just laying around and being bored out of my mind, listening to others doing… whatever they do, I forced myself to go through the books. They were surprisingly interesting, not the way they were written or the story they told, no. It was the useful information contained in them that made me turn the pages unceasingly, curious to know more about the world. Since moving was still difficult and I felt a bit weak, books were my only companions, although I have to admit reading with only one hand makes turning the pages a real challenge.

Every day at least twice an arrogant lady visited me to restore my hand and invigorate my body. She always murmured something like ‘’careless child’ and ‘wasting my time by harming herself’. Well, sorry lady but as a healer, this is your job so suck it up and do the damn healing. Martha later told me that healers are all like this, arrogant and stuck up, thinking everything depends on them.

After two more days, I was allowed to leave the room and partake in dinner, returning to the noisy yet enjoyable mess hall.

I seamlessly move through the chatty and deadly bodies filling the room, making my way to the kids' corner as they call it. When I appear among the others my age there are a few questioning gazes and hushed remarks but I pay them no mind. As always I amass a small mound of food onto my plate and walk over to my usual spot, however, what I see almost makes me turn around to find anywhere else to sit. I might even settle for the floor.

“Oh hey Elyssia, you feeling better?” Vitor calls out to me right when I’m about to leave. This draws the attention of the other two sitting beside him.

“Eli, Eli, Eli,” Who told Kayla she could call me that? “come sit, tell us what happened! How did you get so injured, we saw you being carried into your room. What did you do to the courtyard and why did Martha look so angry? Also, you missed a lot of lessons and practice you know? It’s gonna be re~ally hard to catch up.” She adds with a cheeky smile.

[Warrior lvl 19]

[Ranger lvl 21]

[Druid lvl 23]

I try re~ally hard not to show my inner thoughts. I can’t begin to describe how pissed I am right now. Last place, again. Fighting tooth and nail but my skills just don’t want to reach the limit, meanwhile, everyone gets their class ups.

Unfair.

My attempts at hiding my emotions seem to fail as Victor just chuckles. “Don’t be so upset. We humans progress faster at the lower levels, and our Skills level easier too.”

I sit down reluctantly between Kayla and Victor and ask one last question. “What is he doing here?” I indicate with my head towards August. I really don’t want to get into another rumble right on the day of me being allowed to go back to my routine.

“You see, I thought that since we’re in the same boat and he just barely arrived we could be friends. The odds of us being crammed into a team are exceedingly high so we might as well get to know each other now.” Victor says sheepishly as if forgetting my first run-in with August.

The boy in question doesn’t seem bothered by my presence, he just keeps on eating and minding his own business. I lean forward right into his face and deathstare at him to which he just looks at me from the corner of his eyes and inclines his head slightly.

“Good fight.” He says briefly before ignoring me again.

I’m speechless. He looked like a total asshole, he still does, and that’s why I don’t know where to put this reaction. Another step towards asshole or a step towards just weird? I’m in such a shock I almost forget my appetite too. Almost. I gawk at him like a clueless fish before picking up my fork and minding my own business.

“Hey Eli, do you know what-” I throw Kayla a nasty look before she can continue. “Oh right, meal.”

And so for the first time since I arrived here more than a week ago, I’m able to enjoy a quiet and delicious meal in the mess hall. As it should be.

It's obvious that Victor and Kayla can barely contain their curiosity and might burst at any moment holding the chit-chat back. I won’t lie, it makes me a little happy that there are people around who care about me even if just a little. We’re not friends and won't be for quite a while although after I get to know them a little better… maybe. So I eat a little faster since I also can’t wait to have a proper conversation after the last days, Martha and that healer don’t count.

Me putting my fork down seems to signal that the time of wait is over, the interrogation free-for-all is now a go.

“So… the instructors refused to spill the beans about what happened to you and we hoped could tell us.” Victor is the first to strike. A discussion that draws even August’s attention.

I just sigh and shake my head, having expected the question. “I don’t remember anything and can only say what Martha told me she saw. Theoretically, I used mana many times more than my mana cap and created a cool white spear of fire, hot and the size of my arm. The spell went haywire and almost killed me. Martha managed to save my ass although I lost an arm, was severely mana poisoned and slept for six days straight.”

Stunned silence welcomes my explanation.

“Amateur.” All eyes turn to August and his ridiculing face. “Did you expect a praise? All of that was the consequence of your own stupidity.” He stands up and leaves.

I’m so baffled that I don’t even manage to find a classy remark. “I still beat your ass.” Is the best quip back I can manage, which he promptly ignores.

I’m about to go after him when Kayla pulls me back. “Martha told us that you won a bet against her so she has to take you into the forest now and then. Since the situation of the four of us is kinda the same she went why not and decided to take us into the forest too so you wouldn’t get an unfair lead. That’s how we advanced these few levels so quickly.” She tells me with her ever-bouncy attitude.

This enrages me even more. “For real? Unfair?? I almost died to get that privilege and she’s like Oh, why not and hands out the same thing. Fuck this!” I break free and storm back towards my room.

I missed proper contact with others after being bedridden for so long but this is just bullshit. Where are their bad mishaps? Why isn’t destiny chasing after them the same way as me to test their worthiness? This is just so damn unfair.

On my way I decide that a nice bath should make me relax a bit, however, my mind just keeps spinning on how much there’s to do, so I storm back to my room for the night.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

***

The next morning I’m stirred from my sleep by an unusual amount of movement inside the castle, as if the whole place was set on fire. I crawl out of my bed, put on my new training outfit, since I kinda destroyed the last one, and peek out the door. Except the kids' sleeping quarters seem nothing special. So I make my way over towards the mess hall, breakfast should be good already.

Around the main hallway, above the main gate, is where I find a bunch of the kids and plenty of adults peering out the window and discussing something intensely.

“Ankle biters, pay attention because today we have a spectacle that happens only once every year!” Bennett’s voice cuts through the chatter and everyone quiets down.

We gather closer to the window and I find Kayla and Victor already together and with a nice view.

“For those of you who haven’t been here for at least a year and missed their chance to see a large deployment, you're in luck, we have a battalion arriving. Eyes to the city gate!” Bennett instructs.

I narrow my eyes as I focus on the gate in the distance, seeing the crowd moving like a wave along the main street. A mass of red and gray moves forward relentlessly and the common folk going about their day flee out of their way.

The squads, six men each, march in three columns, each column made up of ten squads. That means the Fist has deployed… three, times six, times ten… a hundred and eighty combatants. And there are six of those behind each other just for this one mission. That sounds like a force able to capture a decent city. They move as one, their feet hitting the ground together with uniform footfalls. Their posture is stiff, their faces fierce, weapons gleaming and armor shining.

Magnificent.

The procession is accompanied by a variety of beasts, be that flying, jumping, hulking or galloping, all companions of one fighter or another. Some of the bigger fellows are pulling carts at the back, the axles slumping beneath the weight loaded on them.

“Why are they parading like that?” One of the other kids asks.

Because it's cool, duh.

Bennett quickly answers and the response makes me thankful I kept that comment to myself.

“It's all for show. Since we’re not an official force inside Valeria, this parade we put up can help us out quite a lot.”

I quickly realize what he means. The crowd is parting in front of the small army, people pushing each other out of the way. Not the frightened escapade kind, but more of the give way to the elderly response.

“That’s a company, composed of ten platoons, each made up of three squads. The parade,” He throws a glance at the kid. “Is for the people to fear and respect us. If they do, they're more likely to comply and everyone’s job gets a lot easier. However, if you abuse your standing, things might turn grim and that’s why one of our rules is to behave properly.”

An important lesson learned here, marching is really cool and appearances matter. These mercenaries have no authority to command the people but they comply anyway because they look professional.

“They had some fun at the Line. In case some of you don’t know that's the border between Turan to our north and the Elder Forest, the most dangerous place on our continent. Things can get a little heated there every spring, so for a modest sum, we march north and keep things together. Watch and learn, one day you might also look cool, like that.” He points out of the window just as the contingent stops in front of the Fort.

Some wear metal, others leather, and a few nothing more than some light cloth revealing quite a lot, so I wouldn’t really call that armor. Although they survived this long with next to no protection then it must work somehow.

The weapons of choice are even more varied. Plenty of swords and bows, massive shields, staffs used to focus mana, large battle axes, massive war hammers and… whip-swords? Huge curved knives, glowing tattoos and of course the good ol’ fist. The only common thing is the signature colors of the Fist of Krieg, red and gray.

“What are they doing?” I mutter mostly to myself as the people start hauling things off carts and basically just making a mess out of the area at the front gate.

“They’re planting flowers, what does it look like?” Victor asks sarcastically.

“They do? Are they gonna dig with the weapons?” Kayla asks.

My eyes meet with Victor's, both of us unable to decide whether she’s being serious.

With the spectacle over I walk down to the mess hall before all those people can swarm the place and it becomes more crowded than ever before. Even as the others take a seat beside me no one strikes up a conversation, maybe because of my outburst last night but I’m fine with that, for now.

Maybe I should apologize later. Very maybe.

***

After some light breakfast comes my first ever morning stamina and strength training, not that I awaited it but it still got me a little curious. All the hundred or so of us dressed in training clothes ready to sweat a little.

“Okay kids,” Bennett starts with the lean ranger instructor just standing next to him.” twenty laps to warm up.” He barks the… warm up? Holy, no way.

Everyone starts running right away so I follow their lead, not wanting to stand out and be the subject of mockery. My elven blood makes me a bit more agile than humans and helps me keep pace… with the bottom feeders. Everyone just has more Speed than me and let's not talk about stamina.

Towards the last two laps, I start lagging behind, having a hard time catching my breath and keeping my full-on sprint up. The fastest ones already have a few laps on me but I’m unable to force myself to run any faster and the instructors punish my slowness mercilessly.

Despite their comments, the atmosphere is not that of desperate struggle. Among those in the lead that is. They banter and compete in a friendly manner while pushing themselves and each other just a little more. Those in the middle just look at the backs of the lead runners and either try to catch up or just stay content with their performance.

“What is up with you shorty? Don’t start slacking off on me, if you can’t keep even the warm-up tempo then you better just walk out the gates by yourself before we toss you out.” The lanky man shouts at me with some actual irritation showing on his face.

The threat bounces off me like a joke but I do get pissed. I’m last. I’ve never been last and it’s fucking infuriating. I used to be the one competing for first place and shit-talking.

I gulp the saliva gathering in my parched mouth and go all out, sprinting with everything I have left to narrow the distance with the slowest runners. That somewhat succeeds as I’m only the second to last to cross the finish line outpacing a slightly chubby boy who seems like he’ll pass out any second now. I kneel over on the spot and draw ragged breaths with my heart beating like it wants to jump out of my chest.

This was not my first crazy run and I wasn’t even fleeing for my life this time, however, the distance was longer than anything I’d sprinted before.

“Okay, weaklings, now that we have this over with time for some basic stretches.” This really was just the warm-up, wasn’t it?

Kayla walks over to me. “I’ll lend a hand.” She smiles.

A bad smile.

Why is it that most of the smiles I see nowadays have the completely opposite intention behind them than smiles are supposed to have? Smiles are a good thing, no?

The last ten minutes will be remembered as some of the most excruciating moments of my life. Kayla pushed me into every position without mercy. When I yelped it worked as a signal for her to hold me there, bent into position I didn’t even know the body was capable of.

The grin never left her face the entire time and when it was my turn to help her I was unable to get my revenge. She bends like her bones are made out of noodles, not even a sneeze leaving her mouth.

I curse you and all your generations to come.

“If you’re done, line up at the obstacle course, double time. The last one there needs to finish it two more times.” The orders arrive again.

Thankfully I’m not the sad bastard who won two more rounds.

Climbing over walls, crawling in mud and under planks, climbing ropes and messy terrain… The gang trained me well in Meliorport so I moved through every obstacle like I was born for this.

I finish this task with little difficulty, after which we move over to the weights for some strength training. Praise the Gods everyone is expected to perform within their own limits, although at max output within those limits.

As I sprawl out on the ground, finished with my last set of sit-ups, peace welcomes me. No more orders, no more shouting, no more rushing to complete the task, just peace. A hefty five minutes long peace.

Then Bennett walks up to us. “Okay, cadets, who’s ready for round two?” He asks with a wide smile.

I almost forgot how much I hate him, almost.