Chapter 10

Morning in the Lounge.

They were having their usual breakfast when the butler relayed a message to them. The content was having a break from the Mana training and a scheduled visit to the training grounds.

“Huh. It seems we're finally able to look into the knight’s training ground.” Tristan reconfirmed.

“YES! Finally, I’ve been waiting for this. Are we able to use swords now?”  Roan said so with excitement.

“Do boys really like sharp things like swords that much?” Amelia questions the interests of the boys

“Well… I guess? I do like swords and daggers so It's true?” Raze replied to her

“I don’t particularly like swords. I’m more into Bows or maybe Mage Staff, I do often play mages on games anyway.” Tristan commented on his preferences.

“I can’t understand people liking weapons, those thing hurt people.” Amelia sulks regarding about the image of violence.

“I understand what you mean Ami, but I also understand what the boys are saying. There’s this charm with weapons, you see. It’s kinda cool to look at, too” Fia said with a wry smile toward Amelia

Amelia gasp when her friend said those words. “How unladylike. How can you like those things?”

“You see… I also play VR on my free time. To vent some stress, I played a character with swords and… You know, the feeling of swinging weapons or shooting guns feels so refreshing and cool!” Fia explained her experiences with the game and how she felt whenever she plays it.

 “I can never understand Games…” Amelia sigh at how her friend, Fia, on how she also like weapons and such.

“I’ve never would have thought that Fia also plays VRs” Tristan said

“Huh, a lot of girls play VR in my class. I have this one classmate, a girl. She’s plain and quiet but was one of the best players I’ve seen. We party up sometimes.” Roan told him.

The topic of VR continued for a while, Raze was only listening to the conversation, Imagining how it looks like.

‘I feel really left out. It really makes me envious that they can talk about things they know about.’

He continued to listen to the exchange the four had.

‘I wonder what the Earth looks like, feel like. Would I be like them if I was born on Earth?’  He remembered the stories his parents told him about their hometown. Carriage made of metals that don't need a mount to pull it. People can communicate from far away places. Young people gathering to academies and make friends learns together and have fun with their youths.

While Raze was in a trance, remembering things from the past. Amelia noticed Raze being quiet and was only listening to them, It occurred to her that his circumstances were different than them. She elbowed Fia and made a signal to look at Raze.

Fia noticed and then…. “We’re sorry!” she clapped her hands and apologized to him.

Raze woke up from his trance. “Huh? About what?” he had no idea why Fia was apologizing to him.

“Well, we’ve been talking about thing from our time. You probably felt left out. I’m sorry” she replied while she apologized once more.

Raze waved his hand gesturing is alright. “H-Hey. I’m fine, I do actually enjoy listening to you guys.”

Finally, the two guys noticed it. They felt bad about it once they thought it over again.

One of them was a different time. He was also summoned together with them but it still felt lonely and sad being different to the rest, the four thought.

“Uh- Yeah. That was really rude of us. We’re sorry too.” Tristan immediately apologized.

“Sorry about it, man. We didn’t mean to ignore you. VR is the rage in our time you see” Roan also apologized and explained. He also gave a fist to Raze.

Raze returned it and bumped fists. “You guys don’t need to mind it. Like I said, I enjoy it more than you think. Besides, learning new things from Earth really interest me so, no need to apologized, Okay?” He said to them, making sure they don’t mind about it.

After a few more exchange about it, they finally settled down.

“Alright, let’s change the topic! How about you tell us about you and your time, Raze?” Fia said while thinking that talking about his time or home might cheer him up.

Though Fia tried to cheer him up, it rather made Raze felt tense. ‘Ugh, I’m not sure if I should talk about it. It might sound different from what they know.’ He thought.

“Oh uh- my home huh?” He stuttered, deciding if he should use stories from his parents said or tell something from his home here.

“Yeah! Anything is fine!” Fia urges him more, while the others waited for him to talk. Raze felt tensed,

“Well….” He paused, and he gave up recalling stories from his parents and decided to tell honestly.

“It’s probably not that interesting. Like I mentioned before, I was homeschooled. I wasn’t able to go to any school.” ‘My parents taught me everything, calculating to speaking our language.’

”And we didn’t live in the cities, our home was on the countryside” ‘we actually live near a forest and the mountain foot. And the nearest town was four days away.’

“I lived with my parents. I do have an older sister but she left when I was young. And I can't visit my friends that much because it’ll take days to travel to the towns.”

“We also grew and hunt our food since we’re nearby a forest.” ‘Hunting the wildlife is dad’s past time while mom likes to grow plants by using magic’  

“And uhh… I haven’t gotten any chance to play games at all since we lived near the mountains. We don’t have any electricity there.” ‘I really wanted to try playing those ‘video games or movies’ that my parents told me about.’

“And every day was peaceful and nice” ‘Living like this was a bliss, No war, my parents has no worries, and my parents trains me every day to get stronger’

Raze said in a nice tone, ‘talking about yourself is actually kinda fun’ he thought. He was remembering all the good times he had with his family. Recalling it actually made him happy.

When the four heard what he said, they felt bad about. Amelia felt kinda bad and tears were starting to form, she was fighting the urge to tear down.

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“I didn’t think that…. Your family was quite isolated from the world. You lived your life like that?”

“You lived a harsh life huh?  I feel really bad for you, Sorry”

The two girls then stood up from their chairs and walked towards him, Then they hold each of Raze’s hand.

“I’m sorry for asking such a sad thing. Don’t worry, you should be able to play games soon.” Fia tried to cheer Raze.

“And once you’re old enough, you can leave the countryside and live in the cities and experience life in the cities.”

“…………Huh?W-What??” Confused, Raze didn’t know why they had this reaction. ‘I thought I was telling them happy things? I don’t remember telling them any sad things?’

The four were quite saddened about Raze’s living situation. They who lived in a city where everything can be obtained easily because they have access to department stores and market. They who were able to travel easily by car or trains, can go to school or visit anywhere immediately. And They who were depended on the power of electricity, can’t live without it. For them, no electricity means no Connection, VRs, Computers, Phones and all the devices that depend on it. Imagining it gave them a torturous nightmare.

Raze tried to clear up that’s he isn’t unhappy about his life. “My life isn’t as miserable as you think, I’m actually living a joyful life. So please don’t be like that, it kinda hurts my feelings, you know?”

Even though he said he’s fine, the four still had pity on him.

.......

After their chat, they were guided again by the butler to the training ground of the knights.

As they passed by a Garden, Tristan suddenly paused. “A moment. Mr. Butler, can we use the garden for a few minutes?” he asked the butler leading the way.

“Of course milord, but please don’t take too much time, Lord Lutherford is expecting you.”

“Thank you. It will be quick” He said to the butler. He then signals the others to follow him to the garden.

“What’s the matter/up?” Fia and Roan asked him.

“It just occurred to me. Don’t you feel lighter since we came here? “ Tristan asked them.

“Lighter? Now that you mentioned it, I do feel lighter than usual.” Roan replied to him. He looked at his arms and gripped his palms.

“I’m not sure what caused this. Is it the gravity of this planet? Or being summoned here changed us.” Tristan said while looking at the others. “Let’s do some experiment. Roan try jumping”

“What for? Well okay.” He then walks a few step and bent his knees to gain momentum.

He breathes a small one and kicked the ground, and jumped 3 meters high. Tristan, Amelia, and Fia were shocked with the sudden jumping height.

“WHOAH!” Roan shouted. As he began to descend, He swings his arms and feet. He landing on all fours, knees touching the grass. “That’s not funny, I wasn’t expecting that” he said while being alarmed.

 “I knew it! But this doesn’t explain if the cause was gravity or us being summoned here” Tristan said, still analyzing his theory.

When the girls saw Roan jumping that high without struggle, they moved they body to test it themselves. Fia started hopping around the garden, she hopped 2 metres without a struggle for a few times.

“This is so strange, I’m sure I’ll be running out of breath after a few skips.” Fia said, while still skipping like a bunny.

While Fia was skipping, Amelia had an idea. She took a stance, and started doing a front handspring, a cartwheel, and an aerial cartwheel. Three moves connected and made a finishing stance afterwards.

The party saw this and started clapping. Amelia noticed them and had an embarrassed face. “I did gymnastics when I was a kid.” She said with a red face. “But yeah, It’s strange that it’s easier for me to do it after years of no practice.” She said regarding about the strange feeling.

“I’m not sure but, It doesn’t just make us lighter but, also make made us stronger?” Roan gave an answer while jumping from time to time.

“Hmm… maybe. This really itch my brains.” Tristan said while also hopping.

“Raze, not gonna test it out?” Fia asked, like inviting a lone kid to play with them on a park.

“Uh.. Maybe later.” With said with a wry smile. ‘I find you lot kinda funny jumping around’ He thought.  It was sort of embarrassing to jump around like a kid. Though deep inside, he also wanted to join them. While they weren’t looking, he made a backflip and a twist midair, and stood again like nothing happened.

The butler saw this little play and wondered why they were doing such things. He just let it off as children fascinating the garden and wanted to play for a few minutes.

After a while, they stopped doing their little experiment and continued being led by the butler.

After they arrived at the training ground, they heard shouts and grunts, the armors clanking and swords clashing.

What they saw were squires and knights sparring. The new recruits were practicing their swings on a wooden dummy, while the more experienced ones were sparring with blunted metal rods. Those metal rods were shaped like swords, they were weighted to the standards so when in actual battle, the knight would feel the familiar weight to actual swords.

In the rear side of the training ground, a man wearing a full plated armor, was shouting at the busy moving knights. He has this overbearing aura that wasn’t present when they first met him.

“Moved! A second slower will get the tides of the battlefield!” “Put more strength to you swings!” “Grip you shields tighter! Receive the attack with you whole body!” He shouted encouragements to the knights in training.

“Wow…. So that’s the commander or the Royal Knights. Infusing aura with his voice without much strain” Raze spoke quietly, Tristan raised a brow when he heard him.

“Mr. Lutherford feels like my Grandpa, he shouts like that too.” Amelia said, remembering a family from earth.

“I have never really thought about it, Him and Turstin are really high ranking people huh.” Tristan commented. Looking at the old man,

While they were chatting, Lutherford noticed his guest and walked towards them.

“Hoh… Here at last eh? I’ve been waiting for your visit for some time now, seems like the old coot has given you a break from mana training.” Lutherford said, whi

“Yeah, it was so boring doing mana training, doing the same thing the whole week. Now this is my thing, swords training!” Roan replied to the old man, Lutherford eyed the youth.

“So you have interest with the swords, I do have a question. Do you know how to wield it?”

“Yeah, I have been using swords and shield when I logg- Dive into other worlds” He said so casually.

‘Such confidence, it must be true that they can go to other worlds’ Lutherford inward thought. “Is that so? How about the others, do you know how to wield the swords or any kind of weapons?” he then look at the others.

Amelia shook her head and said. “I don’t, I’m not fond with violence”

 Fia raised her hand slowly. “Uhm, I tried for a while with swords.”

“I’m more of the crossbow or magic staves guy” Tristan followed. Indicating he doesn’t have much interest with bladed weapons.

“I know a how to handle a sword a little…. Also bows.” Raze said lastly.

“I see…” Lutherford thought for a moment. “If it may interest you, would you like to join the knight’s training? Maybe strike a dummy or spar with one of our recruits?” He suggested to the party.

“Sign me in! I want to wield a sword.” After Lutherford mentioned that, Roan replied quickly.

“Good!” He said happily. “How about you lots?” He eyes the party.

“I guess…?” “Maybe for a little bit” Raze and Tristan also joined in.

“I’m not so sure.” “I don’t like to wield anything dangerous” Fia and Amelia were having trouble answering. The thought of holding a weapon reminds them of the upcoming war.

“It’ll be alright, no need to wield a weapon. Wearing the armor would be fine, It’s to feel the training round you see. No holding swords.” The commander said to the two.   

“If its only wearing those… I guess that’s fine.”

The two reluctantly joined, though only fitting a training attire.

“Very good. Then let’s go to the barracks. We’ll have you all wear the training armors and let the boys choose their weapons.” Luther ford said so cheerfully, His guests having an interest with training made him in good mood.

Once they were in the barracks. A soldier stationed there helped them out picking our their sizes and the boys were led to the weapon storage. Inside the storage room, swords, spears, daggers and all sorts of weapons were placed in shacks. Though what they saw were actual weapons, they were lead to a corner were the training weapons were place at.

“Please, choose a weapon you would like to use.” The stationed soldier said to the three. “There are various aspects here.

Lines up in a shack were metal roads with different sizes, shape and weight. The three took time to look for a training weapon.

Tristan took one first, he took a long rod and tried to lift it up to feel the weight.

“I’ll just take a spear type, I just want to try this out. I’ll borrow the standard practice sword too.” Tristan said to the soldier.

Roan and Raze were still taking their time checking out different kind of swords. They took one and give it a swing, if it doesn’t feel right, they’ll test out another type.

“I got it!” Roan exclaimed. He held a practice sword with a broader body and the weight is heavier than standard ones.

“I’ll take this one.” While Raze chose a slight thinner one with a unnoticeable curve. A saber which is lighter than Roan’s chosen practice sword,

Once they have chosen their weapons. They were led back again to the training ground by one of the stationed soldier. “Lord Lutherford and you companions are waiting at the training ground.”

“I see, You two took your sweet time looking for your weapons that they went ahead of us huh.” Tristan said to the two.

“Well whatever, lets go back and do some slashing! Let’s go with haste!” Roan said to the soldier.

After few more minutes of being guided…  The party will have their first time swinging a weapon since being summoned to another world.

…….