Blood-stained bed sheets surprised me the morning after the regular sword training, which scared me. My first thought was that someone stabbed me in my sleep but it turns out that blisters on your fingers can pop even when you’re not conscious, causing me to bleed an unhealthy amount during the night. Max and Louis had a great laugh at my expense joking that I had grown enough to experience my first period. Regardless of being the butt of the joke, I laughed along with them since it had been a while since I heard them laugh at anything. Ms. Cardoza who saw me carrying the bloodied sheets to the laundry area was the most shocked however, and she misconstrued the whole situation as me being hurt by my roommates while in my bed, and I had to try and persuade her for a good 15 minutes before she let me be on my way.
The pain I felt in my body while sitting in class while Goer droned on about the glorious battles that happened in the past began to feel rewarding. I wasn’t at all interested in physical exercise back on Earth but now the thought of having to work out after class seemed a lot more appealing. I was starting to notice some positive changes as a result of both the Jenusians physical lessons and my own regimen, I did not run out of breath as easily as I did before, and even though summer was approaching and the temperature certainly matched the season, I wasn’t sweating through multiple shirts a day as I did before.
Watching my classmates dozing off in Goer I noticed a pointed difference in enthusiasm between the time we spent at the barracks and the time we spent here listening to one piece of propaganda after another. I am a teenage boy after all so tales of valor and massive battles are just as appealing as they were back on Earth, but the lack of restraint from Jenusian historians cause me to lose interest when hearing numbers ranging in the millions. How can an agrarian society like Euphelia even field armies of such large numbers? It’s common sense that logistics are probably the most crucial aspect of fighting a war, and the supplies that would be required to sustain a million strong army were just not feasible without industrialization. Goer seemed to believe these figures wholeheartedly, and never did his face or tone show any suspicion at some Jenusian Emperor defeating a million strong army of ‘the Khezzat’ with just 20,000 soldiers at his command.
Others too must have noticed that a lot of what we were learning about Jenusia was unbelievable and have checked out mentally from the lectures, we were not required to undergo any sort of examination or anything, and the largest consequence of not paying attention to Goer would be him scolding you for being a ‘brute’ or an ‘idiot’. The swordsmanship lessons at the barracks were incomparable to Goer’s though in terms of the attention of the students. Almost every boy to a tee was interested in swords, as a certain feeling of power and strength rose up within you every time you picked one up. Just knowing that with this ‘tool’ you could both protect yourself and harm others must trigger something instinctual in humans, to the extent that even I could feel it.
The fear of beasts such as the ‘ironclaw’ decreased significantly when going through the Ironguard forms. Of course a wooden shield would do me little good against an ironclaw and if I tried to go up against one in my current state I would end up just like the soldiers who fought it a few months ago. But the knowledge that you could fight gave me a sense of self-confidence hitherto unseen and I found myself thankful to the Jenusians that they were willing to teach even someone like me how to fight.
I was getting along a lot better with Janis, my instructor too. At first he seemed very hesitant to speak to me about anything at all, but as he saw me improving over the lessons his closed-off nature seemed to fade away. I would ask him many questions about himself and where he comes from, and even though my Jenusian wasn’t perfect and we sometimes had difficulty understanding each other, a friendly relationship developed every time we had lessons.
It also became apparent that the Rahlian that we were taught by Goer and the Rahlian that the commoners spoke was markedly different. There are too many examples to pick from but in short the more noble version of Rahlian seems to be a lot more pompous and rigid with it’s pronunciations even when they interrupt the flow of conversations, and common Rahlian is a more simplified version with a lot of contractions and slang, which is similar to English too.
I discussed these differences with Janis during which he encouraged me to not pick up too many bad habits from himself. To him, it was already too late to change as he was 27 and his habits were rooted deep within his mind. He also did not know how to read well, and couldn’t write at all, which wasn’t too surprising considering the development in Jenusia. In the absence of highly specialized farming equipment a lot more manpower is required to make sure everyone doesn’t starve, and there isn’t much benefit to teaching the ‘dirty’ peasants how to read.
Others did not have the same opportunity as I did when it came to conversing with their instructors. I off-handedly mentioned once to Max and Louis my observations about common and noble Rahlian and they looked at me bug-eyed, surprised that I even dared to try and get friendly with an instructor. Both Max and Louis’ instructors were very crude and disdainful in their teachings, and from what they told me it seems as if they did not have much desire or enthusiasm to even spend time with their students. This was quite surprising as I found myself pleasantly looking forward to being taught by Janis over the past few weeks and decided to talk to him to find out why my roommates and presumably others were having such a hard time.
At the end of the lesson one day I decided to bring it up.
“Instructor Janis, I wanted to ask you something that I found out after talking with my roommates. Even though you and I don’t have these kinds of problems, my roommates seem to think that the instructors as a whole do not like the summoned very much. I never noticed that because you have always been kind to me and always answer my questions whenever I have them, but others seem to not have the same experience” I asked, trying to be as polite as possible.
Janis however didn’t answer immediately, and took on a contemplative expression while standing in the same place for a while, unmoving. He then walked up close to me, but not too close that I began to feel uncomfortable and answered me.
“It’s not your fault child, it’s the result of that demon’s actions. If you remember, on the first day of swordsmanship training Otso accidentally struck one of you kids on the face with a practice sword. When Sir Grant noticed what had happened he killed him immediately, scaring a lot of us into thinking that one day we might suffer the same fate. On the day that happened, and you guys went home, Sir Grant mustered all of the instructors. He told us that it was unacceptable to harm ‘the summoned’ intentionally and that any man who sought to do so would be punished just like Otso…” Janis said quietly, speaking softly so that the wind would not carry his words too far.
“But why would he think that the instructors would want to harm us intentionally? I didn’t actually see what happened but from the look on the instructor's face he seemed remorseful about injuring a student.” I reasoned, still not believing that the instructors would go out of their way to harm some kids.
“Well it’s not too much of a stretch to say that, not all of the types you meet in the garrison are good soldiers. Some join up because they like to fight, some join because they need to feed themselves and their families, but some of the guys I’ve met join because they like to hurt others, and being in the garrison gives them an opportunity to do that and get away with it. Otso wasn’t one of them though, I’ve known Otso for a while and most of the soldiers who were selected to become instructors knew him too. He was a good person, and made friends with people around him in no time at all. I just can’t believe he would be someone who would want to harm others if it wasn’t justified.” He responded, agreeing with me that Otso definitely had no malicious intentions that day, but also warning me to watch out for others in the garrison.
“I was one of the people who spoke up on Otso’s behalf at the mustering, but Sir Grant did not think that my words held any weight, and insisted that he slayed a criminal, nothing more, nothing less” He continued, painting a bleak picture of the goings on behind the scenes.
“But if it was Sir Grant who killed Otso, why are some of the instructors seemingly angry with us students?” I asked, not understanding the thought process of the soldiers who lost a comrade.
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“That’s the thing, not all of the soldiers at the garrison are smart, I’d even go as far as to say that most of them could be considered ‘idiots’. The warning Sir Grant gave, that should any of us harm you in the future would result in punishment, has caused many to look at these classes with trepidation, rather than enthusiasm. I have been a soldier for more than ten years, and am confident in my skills with the blade, so I don’t have to worry about hurting you during our classes. But others aren’t as confident in their abilities, and they lay the blame for this whole situation on your shoulders, a misplaced notion in my opinion.” He answered, forcing a pained smile all throughout the explanation.
“So you think that it's fear that is behind the actions of the other instructors? Not something that we did?” I continued, hoping to get a clear rebuttal.
“I don’t just think it child, I know it. You should tell your friends this as well, but be sure to seem vague as I don’t want to get in any trouble for telling you more than you need to know” He pleadedly requested, this time with a more neutral expression on his face.
“Okay I will, thank you very much instructor, you have put my mind at ease” I gratefully said, now having something important to inform Max and Louis of.
After informing Max and Louis of the true reason that the instructors were treating them negatively, they changed their attitudes to the lessons to match the careful attitude of the instructors, causing many of them to mellow out with every lesson. It seems that even though I told Max and Louis to not spread this information around, they went ahead and did it anyway as other students too became aware of the tough spot the instructing soldiers were put in with their task of teaching us swordsmanship.
Janis did not make any comment on these changes however, though he definitely noticed that even some of the more irate soldiers were treating my schoolmates differently. As I was observing Max and Louis going through their ironguard forms now being guided by their instructors a bit more enthusiastically, I noticed Janis looking at me with a pleased expression. He told me before that he was illiterate and as such couldn’t be considered ‘smart’ by modern standards, but I began to develop an inkling that he was probably one of the smarter people I’ve met so far in Jenusia.
This peaceful time of learning swordsmanship on some days, and learning history and Rahlian on others didn’t last too long. On the morning of a day on which we were meant to have normal classes with Goer the soldiers that would usually accompany us to the barracks were present as well, surprising both the teachers and the students who began to speculate that not one but two days in a row of harsh physical training awaited them.
These fears were allayed however, when Sir Grant strode into the courtyard of the mansion, his presence implying that we would be doing something different on this day. We were escorted in the complete opposite direction to the garrison barracks this time, and ended up in a part of town which smelled horribly of feces. This ‘terribly’ smelling area of Krilos was the location of the imperial stables. Over five thousand horses were kept here, for both military and commercial purposes. This was in addition to the many privately-owned stables all over the capital, but as a result of all of these animals being here, the stench was almost unbearable.
I guess these stables could be compared to a gas station, but as we were walking towards the large adjoining field to these stables, I began to miss the comparably nice smell of petrol. The reaction of the boys to the now evident lessons we were going to be having was certainly negative. By comparison, the girls were seemingly enthusiastic, many of them having ridden horses before, although more recreationally and not out of necessity.
Goer once told us quite proudly that to make it from one end of the Empire to the other over two months of travel would be required, and you would need to use many horses for such an endeavor too as unlike cars, horses would get tired. The horses in the stable didn’t scare the students that much, I’ve seen horses a few times at carnivals and the like but the horses here were smaller than those back on Earth. The first thought that came to mind was that it was probably due to the lack of growth hormones or something but when Gloria asked one of the stablehands why the horses were so small he said that a large horse doesn’t suit the purposes it should serve.
Large horses also have heavy bodies, so when it comes to transportation or performance in battle they would become exhausted faster than horses with a more compact body. Unlike swordsmanship we did not get a personal riding instructor, one was assigned per class and I began to wonder why we weren’t wearing any protective gear. The only warning we received in regards to safety was not to walk behind the horses under any circumstances due to the risk of them kicking backwards and killing you.
This was apparently common sense in Jenuisia but I stupidly wanted to examine the horse from the other side and as a result got shouted at by the riding instructor. He then told a common folk story of a king who on his coronation day, wanted to ride a horse on a parade through his capital. As he went in front of the castle gates to mount his trusty steed who he had ridden for many years, a servant of his placed the mounting block on the far side of the horse instead of the one closer to him. And the king, not thinking the horse he had ridden for many years would harm him walked behind the horse to get to the other side, unexpectedly the horse kicked backwards hitting the king in the head, causing him to stumble and his crown to get shattered into many pieces. The servant who placed the mounting block on the far side was hanged for treason, and the story took on a life of its own as a metaphor for always doing things the right way, even if it is more convenient to do it a different way.
The mount of the black horse I was riding was quite comfortable once I got over the headache of actually mounting it. It felt like a very snug fit, and the way the riding instructor explained it this was a classical mount for travel which was very difficult to get out of, but also made it very difficult to fall off the horse as well if it got startled or whatever.
We got a somewhat brief instruction on how to use the stirrups and the reins to maneuver the horse, after which we took turns riding around the field to get used to the feeling of being in the saddle. I was once more thankful that I began losing my extra weight over the past few months in Euphelia as having too much excess fat around my legs would have made it very uncomfortable for any man to ride in the saddle for prolonged periods of time. After a few hours of getting acclimated to this unfamiliar mode of transportation a surprising announcement was made by Sir Grant.
We were to be going on a ride, all two hundred plus of us, outside of Krilos. I have been living in the capital for a long time now, and was not expecting the Jenusians to allow us the freedom to leave even if we were under guard. But the way Sir Grant was portraying it in his words this was meant to be both a form of training but also a leisurely activity. This made sense as Goer did mention it in his classes that nobles would go outside their residences for ‘pleasure cruises’ for lack of a better term, just for a change of scenery and sometimes for hunting purposes.
It was very difficult to maintain a fast pace with so many amateur riders in our group, and so we trotted out of the capital very slowly, drawing a lot more attention with the hundreds of mounted guards surrounding us. I found myself envying the way in which they could ride, and the way they got onto the horse without a mounting block was much more graceful than my pitiful attempts in the beginning.
Summer transformed the previously blooming spring nature into something out of a renaissance painting, and just the feeling of the cold wind blowing against one’s face combined with the different shades of green and yellow in the scenery relaxed my mind from any other thoughts as I decided to just enjoy this excursion as much as possible.
We didn’t go far enough to reach any settlement or village but I did see some isolated farmhouses here and there, but eventually Sir Grant stopped near a river that flowed past the capital, which he informed us was called the Alcala. It was at most twenty meters across, and this was apparently the farthest we were to be going outside of Krilos.
We dismounted with the help of the riding instructors and soldiers, and then it was revealed to everyone's pleasant surprise that the wagons that were following our leisurely pace were full of foodstuffs, this was meant to be a picnic it seems. The teachers repeatedly thanked Sir Grant for his grace and magnanimity in allowing the students in what was in their minds a ‘rest’ day for the first time in over a month.
The sandwiches and waterskins did give this meal a bit of a ‘rural’ feeling but what broke this serene atmosphere was the arrival of another armed group at the riverside. The soldiers were armed and armored in the familiar garb of imperial Knights, with what Goer informed us was a yellow phoenix emblazoned on their shields. The carriage which they were accompanying was decorated in similar colors, with now a coat of arms adorning the door.
Sir Grant approached the now stopped carriage and kneeled on his left knee, even before the door was opened. Out exited the beautiful Kuvira, who had been absent from the compound entirely after the results of the aptitude test were announced. She was accompanied by Mr. Hendricks, who after Kuvira allowed Sir Grant to rise, rushed to the other teachers and began to chatter away about something.
Kuvira went and greeted the other teachers, flashing a friendly smile to any student or teacher who looked upon her. She sat down on one of the prepared travel stools and conversed with Sir Grant. I was sitting conveniently downwind from their conversation, and even though they were too far away to hear normally I could hear bits of their conversation which I did not allow to affect my facial expression.
My desire to find out what exactly they were discussing did not result in any fruitful information, but the one word which implied that the days ahead would not be easy was ‘selection’.