The next day, we woke up covered in dew and sneezing. In fact, it was Sia’s trumpet-like sneeze that woke me up. Something which I kept teasing her about until she bal near whacked me on the nose.

Still blushing, she looked at me as I asked seriously, “Sia… One thing I don’t understand. Why are you joining the page academy with me? You’re already a squire, right?”

Biting her lips, Sia looked away before she kicked me in the shin, and as I yelped, she spoke. “The Page academy isn’t like what you’ve heard about before. It’s a lot more difficult than you can imagine.”

And then she spun around and walked off in a huff as I rubbed my shin.

Catching up to her, I took her hand as she grunted at me in annoyance, and cheekily; I grinned as I whistled away merrily.

“What time do you want to go to the academy?” She asked me as we ate breakfast.

Musing, I replied, “I was planning on going there today, but I changed my mind. Let’s go tomorrow?”

Nodding, she accepted the change without comment as she attacked her plate of food with gusto.

Matching her equally, I also dug in and soon, only the sounds of chomping were heard in the otherwise empty dining hall as most of the revelers of the previous night nursed their headaches in solitude.

Finished, I hugged Sia quickly and left, calling out behind me, “I’ll be back by the night end or tomorrow. Don’t wait up for me!”

Snorting, she shouted behind me, “Who’s going to be waiting for you?!”

Chuckling, I made my way to the carriage before I grinned and passed by it. Making my way to the west gate, I stretched as I limbered myself up, and then I broke into a jog that turned into a loping run as I ate up the earth underneath me.

Settling into a steady rhythm, I ran, my mind blissfully empty.

The only sounds were the occasional traveler and carriage passing by along with the sound of my boots impacting the earth.

As I headed to Maeqil.

It took me close to five hours to reach Maeqil as I stopped panting, my breath ragged, but my heart was beating powerfully still.

5 hours!

Usually, if it was when I was still awakened; I would be out of warforce by the first two hours or so and I would be on my knees, convulsing in pain.

But now?

Raising my head, I roared out to the sky.

Then hastily explaining myself to the suspicious guards that came, I was escorted to Sir Galen, who snorted as they explained how they had apprehended the intruder.

After Sir Galen explained that I was his disciple, the guards left; throwing one last look of bafflement behind as they scratched their heads while wondering why Sir Galen had accepted an idiot as a disciple.

Embarrassed, I looked at Sir Galen, who chuckled as he spoke. “So. What brings my disciple to visit this bag of old bones?”

Grinning, I said, “I came to bring new life to those old bones.”

Grinning back at me, the calm teacher spoke. “Call me old bones again, and I’ll make sure your bones are broken.”

Shuddering, I mentally cried out at how unfair he was!

Then, I pulled out a dozen flowers of thorns, and the calm teacher’s face lit up as he looked at them with excitement.

Then I pulled out another dozen. And another dozen. And another… until there was scarcely room to move in the chamber and the chamber resembled a garden more and more.

As Sir Galen sputtered in shock, I scratched my head as I humbly said, “That’s all the ones that I could find.”

Staring at me with bulging eyes at my humbleness, the calm teacher swore loudly, sending the flowers quivering as spittle that was spat forth like arrows sprayed them.

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Wiping off a faceful of spittle, I looked reproachfully at the calm teacher, who looked apologetically at me after spouting out a few more expletives in quick succession.

Then, it was time to work, and this time; I was allowed to join the process.

As I fumbled the various vials, I spoke as an aside. “Oh, by the way. I reached iron rank.”

“Ah? Oh? You reached iron rank? Well done, well done…”

Crash.

A vial dropped to the floor, starting a small fire as the substances inside ignited, all of which were ignored by the calm teacher as he stared at me with eyes that were ready to pop out of their sockets.

“Thank you,” I said, juggling another vial as I concentrated. Then, I dropped the vial as a bellow almost shook apart the room, rattling all the apparatuses, as the calm teacher spoke on, “You little devil! Couldn’t you have told me that before we started making these potions? You want to give my old bones a shock and send my soul flying to Falka? Is that it?!”

Patting the fire that had sprung up hastily, I was about to answer when more curses rang out as the calm teacher extinguished the fire that was spreading on his clothes.

Finished, both of us looked at each other. Me with a look that proclaimed my innocence to the world, and the calm teacher with a look that proclaimed bloody murder.

Then, running a blackened hand over his face, the calm teacher let out a sigh, and happily said, “At least your life is no longer in danger now. That’s good. That’s good.”

Curious now, he gestured to me to remove my shirt, and I obliged and stood as the calm teacher turned into the calm doctor. He examined the darkish bronze color that covered the hole in my heart and touched it cautiously. He watched as it swirled around but stubbornly covered the hole. Then he looked at me questioningly.

Shaking my head, I said, “No pain so far. But I don’t want to take any chances.”

Looking at me, Sir Galen spoke. “Tell me everything that happened.”

So I did, leaving the golden lump part aside.

As I talked, the calm teacher swore again as he said, “Baling shite, boy. That was a Direwolf Lord. Do you know what Lords are?”

Shaking my head, I waited as Sir Galen said, “Lords are silver rank beasts which are more intelligent than the average beast. You fought the Tarantula, and now you fought the Direwolf. You’ve baling taken down two silver ranks already!”

“Monster... Little baling monster!” he muttered out as he stared at me.

As I modestly stood there, he continued as he clicked his tongue, “It’s a wonder you haven’t died yet.”

Sputtering, I stared at him as I tried to summon my defense but I realized that I had... well, I would have almost died both times if not for my refusal to give in, and lucky circumstances such as Cathy throwing the sword to me or the burning rock that allowed me to burn the Direwolf to death.

“What are your plans now?” Sir Galen asked as he resumed working on the potions.

“I’m joining the Page Academy,” I said, decisively.

“Good choice.” Sir Galen said, before he paused and looked at me.

Noticing his gaze, I looked at him, and he spoke with a touch of regret. “If you join the page academy, you won’t be able to go outside. So no more hospital work with Cratus, and I don’t know if that old stubborn monster will allow you to learn under me if you’re all the way at Yamal.”

Pausing, I looked at Sir Galen with panic written on my face, “I want to learn from you, teacher!”

Patting me on the shoulder, Sir Galen said with a frown, “You can learn for the next few years from Liam, my only other disciple. He’s a teacher at the Page academy. Keep studying under him, and I’ll drop by now and then to teach you personally.”

Humbled, I thanked the calm teacher who waved it off as he said, “This brings forward your plans by quite a bit. Do you know the conditions for graduating from the academy?”

Shaking my head, I indicated that I did not.

Sir Galen pursed his lips as he said, “Iron rank 3 stars or higher by 15.”

“What!” I jumped up.

Sir Galen was about to speak when I excitedly said, “That’s easy! I’m about to turn 8 and two more stars in 7 years is definitely manageable.”

Looking at me with a strange expression, Sir Galen said, “I hope so… just remember that training for you will be harder than it is for others. Much harder. I hope you’re prepared.”

Thinking back to the hellish training and the condition of my body, I sobered down as I nodded.

Then we got back to work, and soon we had all the flowers of thorns converted into potions of thorns.

These were the enhanced versions that Sir Galen had developed based on the scroll of life.

They had twice the concentration of ingredients and were supposed to be twice as effective as before. But any further improvements were impossible as the ingredients, while rare for us, were too common for the times before the great collapse.

Before I left, I knelt down to the teacher, and I made the same oath that I had made to my other teachers.

“As your disciple, I will always strive to be on the side of righteousness. In times of honor, and in times of dishonor… I will always fight for what is right.” and rising, I moved in to hug the man who dodged adroitly.

As I stared at him with bulging eyes, he shooed me away, but as he turned; I saw a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

Grinning, I bid him goodbye and then downing a vial of the potion of thorns to relieve my exhaustion, for it was near morning; I set off toward Yamal again.

Today, I would join the Page Academy, and I was determined to do better than everybody else.

Clenching my fists, I thought, “I will not fall behind this time. I will never allow myself to fall behind anyone again.”

And I prayed that my words would hold true.