Alton sighed. He kept tapping at his temple in an attempt to energize himself but found that it wasn’t working. “Right… Everyone here?” Irving raised a hand. “Sybil said she needed to have some time to herself. Is there anyone else?”

“Everyone is here,” spat out Ivy. She had even gotten Anais. “Get on with the meeting already.”

Alton glared at her for a moment before shaking his head. Instead of doing morning chores, he had been in a meeting with Duxton and Lady Till. They were discussing the future of the barracks and the changes that it would need to undergo during times of war.

“There is a shortage of knights. Aside from Baroness Marjoram and Paladin Buttonweed, there will be no new knights to educate the new squires. Sir Grimhawk and his grandson will remain as our weapon masters. We will need to assess what skills we have among us. It’s likely that we’ll be asked to help them.”

Basil raised his hand. “What about the upper class? They’ll have more experience than us.”

“They’ve been conscripted,” replied Alton. “Gildenboot will help us out however they can, but the lot of them will be shipped out before winter. Prince Duxton will be relocating to Fogbloom next fall. He’ll be taking his place as the king’s hand and assist in planning the war effort.”

That was more than half a year away. It was both an eternity and no time at all. What were their chances of survival? Horsetalon might have no issues, but Flaytongue was likely to be sent to the frontline. Who knows destiny had in store for Gildenboot. Not to mention…

“Beat can’t go to war!” Zaniyah stood up. Sending Beat there was exactly the same as the would-be ordering from a food delivery service. He wouldn’t stand a chance.

“We don’t have a choice in who goes,” replied Alton. “All we can do now is work out what’s best for the barracks.”

Zaniyah shook her head. “Screw the barracks! I don’t want my friends to die! Why should we have to be all good and smile and tell the new kids that everything’s okay? Don’t you understand what’s coming next year?! You know we’re next!”

“But you like fighting tainted beasts,” muttered Peter.

“Yeah! I do!” Zaniyah exclaimed. “But I don’t want you to die! Even if you are a pervert!”

Peter frowned. “... I know how to fight.”

Zaniyah waved her arms about. “What exactly are you going to do? Whip a tainted beast and tell it how naughty it is?! They don’t give a damn about that, Peter! You are going to die!”

“Don’t worry,” replied Chickadee. He gave her a thumbs up. “I’ll protect everyone.” He then smiled at Emery, who smiled lovingly back.

Chester let out a dismayed sigh. “I don’t find it reassuring that you’ve started to use that excuse for everything.”

Alton banged his knuckle against the lectern. “Back on topic! Alright?!” He glared at everyone until they fell silent. “Vex is going to be the new squire’s nanny. He’ll be filling the role that Stonetoe filled for us.”

“Being drunk all the time in order to compensate for his eternal disappointment?” Peter asked.

Veximarl shuddered with concern. “I do not handle alcohol well.”

“Stay on topic!” Alton waited until they were quiet again. “We’re going to be responsible enough to handle ourselves without a nanny. If a problem does happen, we’re to go to Lady Blu for advice. Aside from that, we’ll have to take care of the first years and our own missions. Any questions?”

Mila raised her hand. “Mister Alder has already discussed his plans with us. He’s hoping that we’ll be able to find a good candidate for Bronzescale in the new class and he is currently training Irving to take over his spot for when he leaves this autumn.”

Great. They’re putting someone who can’t talk in charge of the disciplinary committee. Because that will work well. Alton was suddenly feeling tired again.

“That’s great,” he lied between his teeth. “Anyone else?” He waited for a moment before speaking up again. “If you wish to apply for a teaching position, talk to Lady Till. Meeting adjourned.”

They began to filter out of the dorms. Without their knights, they didn’t exactly have anything to do. Tish was already making plans of organizing a party to cheer everyone up, but Grimstone couldn’t participate. Henry wanted to test out their combat skills as soon as possible.

Veximarl pulled out his letter. “I will inform Sybil that we are done with the meeting.”

“No need,” said Alton. “She’s right there.”

Sybil was standing in the middle of the courtyard. She was clinging onto the orb that Tyrtain had entrusted to her. Her expression was dead. Since she was wearing dark clothes, it looked as though the color had been drained from her existence.

Her eyes slowly drifted towards her squad as they approached. “I’ve been humiliated, kidnapped, and murdered… Yet this month has been more emotionally taxing than any other.”

Alton went to hug her but he paused when she dropped the orb. It rolled along the ground and slowly came to a stop. Sybil didn’t move to pick it up. She simply stared at it with ever-widening eyes. Because she was staring at it so intently, the others had no choice but to stare as well.

The orb… Shuddered. It vibrated momentarily, then the dust around it began to lift from the ground and cling to it. A crater began to appear underneath the orb as dirt and stones joined the dust. Like dough, it shifted about and began to take the shape of a dog-sized dragon, with mud-colored scales and topaz eyes. Two tails swished about as it blinked itself to life.

“What...” Alton pointed at the dragon. “What did you do?!”

Sybil quietly cackled to herself. Her giggles grew louder and louder until they were cries of insanity. “I fixed Foggy!”

Veximarl stared at the dragon. It came up to him and stood on two legs, pawing at his shoulders as though it were trying to figure out how to jump on him without squashing him in the process. He took a cautious step back and the dragon began to mope.

“The only comfort I take is the fact that Sir Stonetoe isn’t here to see this.”

“How…” Everything in Alton’s brain burned to ash in an instant. He couldn’t process this. “But… Wait, how… What?”

Chickadee put his hands to his cheeks and gasped with delight. “Cross-contamination!”

Sybil pointed at him. “Yes!” She ran over and clasped his hands into her own. She knew that he would understand.

Alton tilted his head to the side. He was done. He was done with life. “... What?”

“Braytons is a network!” Sybil and Chickadee began to twirl about. “A roadway of necromancy and blood iron!” She swung Chickadee about in a chaotic dance. “Mart sought to extract a soul from a golem and place it within Tyrtain’s body, but there was more than one soul attached to the network! After he grabbed the wrong one, he couldn’t reverse the process!”

Alton pointed at the Foggy dragon. “... That’s our pet cat.”

“Yes!” Sybil was flamboyantly dipped by Chickadee.

“... Our pet cat is trapped in the body of a god,” said Alton.

“YES!!!” Sybil cried out as she took her turn in dipping Chickadee.

Alton gestured to where the other squires were filtering out of the dorm building. “And why do you feel the need to shout this out in the middle of the courtyard?”

Sybil clasped onto Chickadee’s hands again. “Let’s go do science!” Chickadee bobbled his head up and down eagerly.

Veximarl shook his head. “We were asked to meet up with Sir Grimhawk the Younger so that we could demonstrate our combat prowess.” Both Chickadee and Sybil pouted at him with giant puppy dog eyes. “Despite our ill habit of disregarding the safety of the barracks, it is our duty to obey our knight when they call upon us.”

“But science,” pleaded Chickadee.

“We have so much work to do before the applicants arrive,” whined Sybil. “And we already made all these plans today and both of us are super sad because all of the knights left.” Both her and Chickadee pouted at him again.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Zani,” muttered Veximarl. He looked over to Zaniyah. She was zoning out at particularly nothing at all. They were all in the midst of despair, and each of them was trying to distract themselves in their own way. “As you wish… I will notify Grimhawk the Younger that you had previous commitments.”

Chickadee and Sybil began to hop up and down with joy.

Chester stared at the group. He then looked down at Foggy, blinked for a moment, then glanced over to Irving to see what his reaction was. Irving was already starting to wander off so he could do something else. If Irving didn’t care, Chester was going to ignore this entire situation. This seemed like the type of thing that was better left ignored.

Ivy was filled with disdain. “I hate Braytons… Why did we apply here again?” She looked over to Gwyn.

“I’m late for my date with Shaw,” replied Gwyn. “What should I wear?”

Ivy frowned at her. Her glare then softened until she let out a brief laugh. “Alright, point made. Anais and I will make you look beautiful before you go.”

Alton had thought that this moment couldn’t get any worse, but more and more squires were showing up. He certainly didn’t need to be present once Duxton appeared. If there was one thing he was absolutely fed up with, it was his squad making huge mistakes that he had to make up excuses for.

“Let’s go,” he growled out at Veximarl. He then grabbed onto Zaniyah’s elbow and began to drag her to the outer field.

But Alton’s efforts to escape was also a huge mistake. They had come in expecting that but would be like training with Stonetoe, but Henry was a tyrant. He was the captain of Jewelclover Squad. Commander of his year. His named invoked terror during his time as a squire.

Though Zaniyah enjoyed it because it gave her a chance to beat up Alton. A fine punishment for how he treated Sybil over winter. By the time they were given a chance to rest, she was confident that his punishment had been properly delivered. She and Alton sat on the edge of the field while Veximarl stood near Henry.

Veximarl secretly wondered if they could trust the new knight. The timing of his arrival along with Sybil’s suspicions that a coup was happening at the barracks may be related. There were other reasons Veximarl was suspicious as well. He had to whittle them down one by one.

“Sir Grimhawk.”

“Henry,” replied Henry. “It will be confusing for you all if you were to refer me by my title.”

“I see,” muttered Veximarl. “Henry.” He then shuddered. It felt violating to refer to an authority figure by their first name. “I-I wished to know how involved you were with your knight’s activities while you were a squire.”

Henry immediately became annoyed. “Ah. Sir Burring.”

Zaniyah tilted her head. “I thought he knocked up one if his squires.”

“He lied,” replied Henry. “He made Lisa lie so that he wouldn’t be associated with either the headmaster’s schemes or his own sins.”

Alton was confused. “What was worse than knocking up one of his squires?”

Henry sat down by Alton. “It happened when Professor Rosethorn showed up. Burring had several conflicts with him in the past. Something about Rosethorn’s essays receiving more recognition than his.” Henry shrugged. “He wanted to undo the professor’s research by creating a tainted beast.”

Veximarl became alarmed. “You warned Sir Dalkirk, did you not?”

“I only found out about it last winter,” replied Henry. “Burring had taken a position at Grand Temple as a professor after he left here. I thought he had left because of the headmaster’s crimes, so I went to confront him on his integrity.

He told me about his experiment and claimed that it was for the sake of science.” Henry shrugged again. “I asked Dalkirk if he had any evidence to prove that Burring had made a tainted beast and passed it to Grand Temple. Last I heard, he was arrested.”

Alton frowned. “Dalkirk would have informed Sybil if that was true.”

Veximarl shook his head. “She was kidnapped last winter. We left on a mission shortly afterward. There might not have been time.”

Zaniyah held up her letter. She had already sent Sybil the news. “Sybil says she already knew but she was to busy trying to fix Foggy to care.”

Because of course she was. Alton frowned all the harder. “Then what was the headmaster involved in?”

“He was profiting off the entrance exams,” replied Henry. “He published and sold a list of applicants that included their chances of passing and encouraged bribes.”

Alton and Veximarl glanced at each other. Neither thought Henry was lying. The previous third year class had the maximum of twenty-five squires. The majority of them weren’t the same caliber as those of the next two years. A fair amount of them were also women from the Violet Region, which meant it was likely they were bridal dolls who had seen a list of male candidates.

“Do you think a list existed for our exams?” Alton asked.

The majority of those who could have benefited off such a list were unlikely to have passed the entrance exams. Veximarl blinked a few times as he thought. “Not sure.”

Zaniyah held up her letter again. “Ivy says she got one, but she didn’t bring it to the barracks.” Which was a shame. She wanted to see how the old headmaster had ranked her application.

“Of course she would have one,” muttered Alton. He then raised his hand. When Henry didn’t respond, Alton remembered that he was blind and immediately felt like an idiot. “Sir, it’s nearly time for our next assigned duties.”

Henry nodded as he stood up. “Tell Cully and Twist that we’ll be doing weapons training for six hours a day until the entrance exams. All of you are lacking and I won’t have as much time once the new squires are here.”

“Aye, sir!” Zaniyah stood up and saluted.

Alton and Veximarl also saluted, but neither were all that eager to do any training. Somehow, they doubted they could make up enough excuses to avoid training on a daily basis. Before they made it back inside the barracks, Alton gestured for them to stop.

“He has a point. We need to finish any leftover tasks before the entrance exams.”

Veximarl was done with crafting plots and drama. “Do you believe Henry can be trusted?” He wanted to trust him, but he had learned his lesson. Anytime they felt like they were safe, new trouble always appeared.

Zaniyah nodded her head. “He’s a lot like me, right?” They both looked at her. “He gets all focused on one thing and works hard to make it happen. Deep down, he’s a noble creature. Plus, every year had a lot of squires up until Shaw’s class, right? So he was likely super busy handling a bunch of weak babies. No way he had time to make tainted beasts or deal with bribes.”

“She does have a point,” muttered Alton.

Veximarl nodded. “With that settled, there shouldn’t be any further problems with Tyrtain. Now that others know of his presence, we can wash our hands of the incident. Further involvement would put ourselves and Mister Alder in danger.”

Alton wasn’t as confident. “Right… You don’t think some religious crusade is going to happen because there are a bunch of Tyrtain worshipers?” The new town was still fairly close to the barracks. Undoubtedly, they would be involved.

Veximarl shrugged. “I doubt anything will happen as long as Tyrtain keeps a low profile. Was there anything else though? It seems like we are forgetting something.”

Zaniyah frowned. “I’ll go talk to Beat,” she whispered. “He’ll likely have something to add.”

“Really?” Alton tilted his head. “I thought you didn’t talk to him since the duel, since there wasn’t a reason to anymore.” He then took on a sly grin. “Or were you just embarrassed because you two were kissing?”

Zaniyah laughed. “Nah, he’s just been super busy so I didn’t want to bother him.” She waved a hand about, dismissing any idea of kisses. “It’ll be fine since I’m talking to him about business and not wasting his time.”

She excused herself and began to search about the barracks. Though Alton had a point about the fact that the two had been avoiding each other. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Zaniyah lost the fight, or the fact that she took advantage of a drunken Beat afterward, she didn’t know.

“Beat!” She saw him crossing the courtyard and began to wave her hand. “Can I talk to you?”

He hesitated for a moment before he walked towards her. “I have a lot of tasks that I need to sort through today.”

“I get it, right?” Zaniyah began to wring her hands together. “But I’m worried... I mean, like about a lot of stuff, like if there’s still stuff I need to handle about the duel, but… I’m also scared that you’re going to go to war and you’ll get eaten and, you know, I don’t know if I was done with you yet.

‘Cause, uh, I thought we’d keep training together after the duel, but… But you don’t talk to me anymore. I mean, I don’t talk to you either, but that’s because I was giving you space... And now I kinda want to know if we’re done or not yet. Like, for certain. For real done or not.”

Beat studied her nervousness for a moment. He then held out hand and waited for her to take it. They walked over to a shadowy corner between the buildings. There, he pinned her against the wall by forcing his hand against her shoulder.

“Possession isn’t easy for me,” he growled out.

Zaniyah was confused. “I don’t want to train with Iath again. I was actually looking forward to it just being, I don’t know, the two of us?”

Beat’s grip on her shoulder tightened for a bit before he let her go. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and looked off to the side. “... I see.”

“I mean, Blu’s classes are fun, right? I get to learn all about church stuff, and we study the bible and talk about it, and I’m gonna be able to do a sermon by myself soon… Maybe… Blu says that sometimes I elaborate to much, and a lot of church stuff is about using your brain to figure out the teachings on your own because a couple of them are open for debate…”

“Mhm,” hummed Beat while he waited through her rant.

“But I liked it when it was us. Trying to beat you up was fun, you know? I also liked being able to talk to you because you don’t make me feel dumb while you teach. You’re an awesome guy, Beat, and I guess what I’m trying to say is that I want to be your friend.”

Beat put his hand to his chest. “Possession takes a toll on my body. I do not remember what Iath has done, but he leaves evidence behind. My body remembers. Whether it is an injury, or exhaustion, or drunkenness, those are remnants that I must deal with.”

“So…” Zaniyah nodded a few times as she began to understand what was going on. “What you’re saying is that you’re super horny for me now and it’s been really awkward.”

Beat nodded sadly.

Zaniyah’s cheeks flushed red. “And… Because of all the stuff that’s happened, there’s a bunch of moral dilemmas and other stuff.”

Beat nodded again.

“So, uhm,” muttered Zaniyah. “I don’t actually care about any of that? Are you actually busy right now or can we-”

He pinned her against the wall again and silenced her with a kiss. Unlike the timid first time, their lips fought against each other with ravenous desperation. Beat pulled away long enough to apply a firm bite to her ear.

“Eastern gate at midnight.”

Zaniyah tugged at his padded armor as she let out a whine. “... Okay,” she whispered out.

Beat left first. Zaniyah clasped onto her cheeks and tried to control her breathing. What just happened? She had only wanted to talk but then they made plans to… What did they make plans to do?! Her face burned as it turned all the redder. What did any of this mean?

Zaniyah quickly shook her head. Work. She needed to do work… Work, work, work, and then she would worry about this whole mess later. Stepping out from her hiding spot, she quickly retreated back into it. A familiar face had walked through the courtyard. One she had suddenly realized that she never wanted to see again.

“... Vincent.”