Somehow I managed to get into my tent, collapsing on the ground. I was exhausted - not physically, for, as you know, I couldn’t deplete my stamina, but mentally. For the past two hours, all my senses were reacting to the quietest of sounds and to most etheric moves, that I could have sworn that my skull was steaming.

Once or twice I was forced to change my planned path, because of either patrol of the soldiers or some knights who had decided to party between tents.

But, right now I was sure! My senses had become sharper! I was as vigilant as a dragonfly! As nimble as a rabbit! As quiet as a mouse! There was a moment when I was sure that I could sneak up to the guard and take the sandwich he was eating off his hands without him noticing!

As I was lying on the ground contemplating a possible change of carrier from knight to ranger while letting my overly-exercised mind rest, I noticed that my head was resting on something rather comfy. With just the right amount of softness and slightly hard material hidden under it, providing the perfect support.

… these were boots. Someone’s boots. Definitely not mine. Even more, after further inspection, I noticed that the boots were being currently worn by someone. I raised my gaze just to notice that boots were indeed being worn by a pair of legs, which were connected to the torso, later to arms and head. A full set of humans, that is. Even more - my sharp gaze noticed that the head had eyes, and eyes were looking at me with a mix of amusement and discomfort.

* “I did it…” I managed to groan and raise my thumb up once I confirmed that the owner of boots, legs, arms, torso head, and eyes was Captain Ghost.

* “And even in a given time limit. Good job, for a rookie. I hoped that you might have a talent or at least a hunch of becoming a scout, but, you acted like most rookies, picking the first and only opportunity you noticed, not only finding rest and picking the safest route but… I need to ask about it. Seriously? A barrel? I have no idea what surprises me more. The fact that someone was dumb enough to use it as a cover, or that it actually worked!?”

* “I think once I have heard the saying, that if you want to outsmart someone that is smarter than you, you need to act in such a ridiculous way that he wouldn’t even suspect you to try it.”

The Master of the House’s intel forces looked at me with disbelief and shook his head to the sides.

* “You still think and act as a warrior, don’t get me wrong, this trait is desirable, but only when you are working for Natasha. You act as soon as you see opportunity and…”

* “But you yourself have said that scouts and assassins need to work under pressure of time because sometimes opportunity appears only for a split of a second!” I pouted like a kid.

* “When your mission is an assassination or retrieving vital documents, yes, you on the other hand had a few hours to complete your task. You could ‘waste’ more time gathering required information, especially since I had prepared so many openings for you.”

Say whaaaa?!

* “Undead transport in the middle of the night? Normally such squads travel right behind the warriors and collect them on-the-go, yet someone messed the schedule, didn’t he? If you would check the southern gate, you would see that the guards were celebrating the birth of son of one of the guards. They were enjoying light alcohol, but the keg was located outside of the camp, close to the bush of Moonlight’s weed… which fruits are known to be ingredients for sleeping potions. And the western wall had a small hole under it, with minimal work you could squeeze through it. Instead, you picked the most obvious and dangerous option… Well, that did help me evaluate your skills. I know what I will be working with. Get some rest. At the dawn, one of my people will send you your armor back. Return to your regular activities, cadet.”

Ghost vanished into thin air, leaving me alone. There were still about two or three more hours before the sunrise, two-three hours during which I remained in the tent without any task or distraction, simply boring myself to the bones. Later, I will need to ask Captain Friedrich to lend me some books for long, boring nights such as these.

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Just before dawn, someone entered my tent. Another “face-less” scout covering his entire body with plain, blending with environment clothes. And even though his presence was also hard to notice, he clearly didn’t have his master skills. He brought in a chest or actually dragged it in, as it clearly was a bit too heavy for him, and helped me dress up, even though he tried to finish his orders quickly and professionally, it was clear that he had some problems with my race. As I didn’t want to make it any more awkward and problematic for him, I cooperated as much as I could and thanked him as he was leaving.

I pulled the flap of my tent aside, leaving my small sanctuary. I headed toward the training group where dozens of smaller groups were being instructed by one of the many experienced knights. I didn’t need to look long to find the only all-female group in the camp. All-female, huh? Not any more.

* “Alabaster, what took you so long?!” Natasha roared from the start.

* “I am sorry, instructor, my armor was being repaired, it was just delivered a few moments ago.” I had no idea why she was this mad, therefore I decided to keep my head low to avoid angering her any further.

* “Apparently, I was a bit soft for you these past few days…” she wasn’t. Natasha was the youngest lieutenant and only woman to achieve this rank in the knights division. Being known for her iron will and absolute obedience towards the procedures and codes of the House, there was no way for her to ever coddle her squad with any form of special treatment.

* “...Therefore, we shall resume the usual drills with twice the intensity!”

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I thought that the rest of my team would groan and protest, yet, instead, they responded with one strong:

* “Sir, yes, sir!”

* “Agnes, train with Henrietta, Alabaster, with me!” Suzy was still resting in the field hospital, so the instructor-commander chose to join the training.

Some other knight which watched our drill whistle quietly.

* “O-ho, the new guy fucked up… Having a rendezvous with a lieutenant, poor bastard.”

* “Didn’t you hear, that’s some kind of prodigy from a noble house. Heard that during his baptism he defeated every other cadet. He fell down only after facing Agnes.”

The group now completely neglected their training to watch ours.

I approached the weapon’s racks and picked a wooden bastard sword and a shield of reasonable size, yet I was quickly called out.

* “Leave the shield, Alabaster, it will only hinder your movement. Shields naturally reduces the strength and skill of swordsmen and reduces the number of moves you can execute. In my opinion, a knight should never pick up a shield until he reaches at least expert level… with few exceptions, of course, like, for example: when you are being deployed straight on the mission.”

I only nodded to her words, putting the shield away and taking my place in front of her. We raised our blades up in a greeting before taking a stance.

And we fought, but not from the start, instead of jumping at each other, I started walking in a circle. She smirked and nodded slightly with approval before she started doing the same.

I was trying to find her weak spot, but her form was flawless. I was trying to think of a combination of quick blows that could help me open up her guard when a ‘miracle’ happened. She messed her footing standing on the rock and tripped slightly. I bolted onward lowering my blade preparing to stab, but once I was in the stabbing range, she danced and straightened her posture. My blade missed, piercing nothing but air, in the meantime, the instructor’s blade was already traveling from above my head, in a bit too long, unnecessary movement. I dropped on my knee and raised my weapon up. Our wooden swords clashed just in front of my face.

I changed the grip of my sword and pushed her blade to the side, before slashing horizontally aiming now at her defenseless stomach… But, she just jumped slightly back, with a grace of a noble, nearly effortlessly.

* “Good reaction time, but terrible form, you fight like a barbarian! Who was teaching you swordsmanship, some brute orc?”

* “Yes, instructor-commander.”

* “I beg your pardon?”

* “I was indeed being trained by a half-orc, instructor-commander!”

* “Oh… well that explains a few things. Guess we’ll just have to double our training to help adapt your style to ours as well!” Natasha was a bit flustered at my no doubt unexpected answer but went along with it just the same.

The crowd around us once again started chattering loudly.

* “So that’s how he can fight with ten people without breaking a sweat!” someone commented loudly, and I must admit, their remarks started getting on my nerves! It was getting harder for me to focus on my opponent.

And so, my ‘rendezvous’, as they called it, started for real. Natasha was delivering quick powerful strikes, while ‘messing up’ the last one, creating a fake opportunity for me to exploit. Every once in a while I would land on my back in the dirt. Yet as many times as I was forced on the ground, as many times I would get up.

I tried copying some of her moves, or once she started using a combination I saw her using earlier I tried to react and counterattack, but, of course, with little to no effect. Her moves were like a puzzle, like a game of remember-and-copy. Her moves were sometimes awkwardly slow, sometimes unnecessarily weak, and sometimes she let me take over the battleground though she clearly was winning the previous clash.

Only more precise, powerful blows that were sending me on my knees every few minutes were reminding me that she was in absolute control over the battle, keeping me from falling into self-delight.

I didn’t notice when the sun of the morning reached its zenith. The training was supposed to end at least an hour ago, yet we were still fighting in a completely empty training ground.

One last time I was sent to the ground.

* “I think that should be enough for today…” Natasha said with her cheeks slightly reddened and glistening with sweat “... usually I train someone till they have enough but…”

* “I can do this all day.” I said, smiling, though she could not see it because - I had no lips to smile with, and even if I had, the heavy helmet completely hid my face.

* “... can you please at least tell everyone you asked to stop the training? I have renown of a devilish instructor to maintain.” She offered me a hand, helping me get up.

* “Sorry, can’t do that, I decided not to lie to any of the House members… I must admit that your lie-detection crystal helped me with this decision quite a lot… but, I can say that all my attempts were futile and I couldn’t land a single clean blow… I will add some very resigned tone, how about that?”

* “Will do.” she smiled with corners of her lips “...Cadet, do you think you have time to laze around like that? Captain Friedrich asked for your assistance at noon and it’s already past that time!”

* “I… was not contacted by anyone from the magic division about that! Nobody informed me that..!”

* “Oh, Captain Freidrich asked me to deliver this message to you.”

* “Then why didn’t you…”

* “And risk you losing focus? Never! I decided to inform you as soon as we were done.. which is… now.”

I got off the ground, ran towards the racks to put the training sword in its place before running at full speed toward the main research tent.

I couldn’t just put the blame on someone such as Natasha, so I patiently listened to rebukes and after that, I promised to never come late again.

Half of my afternoon was me being taught by Maria on how to defend against magical manipulation - which was mostly me getting bombarded by dozens of mind spells, and later, till late evening I was helping her organize the books, potions ingredients and such. I did ask the mages for some books to borrow, and much to my surprise, they were more than eager to do that, even more, Maria and one of her lesser mages helped me choose the most fitting literature. And so, I left with one book regarding tactics, one book on the history of war, one about curent noble houses and one book about tales and legends. Legends of First Hero Rhonnak. Hah, each copy of the last book was different. Depending on the author certain events were described a bit differently, therefore no matter how many times you read the history of the first hero you could learn something new. That was also the first time I wanted to read the story to learn about something other than the bravery of the demon-vanquisher. I wanted to learn about the origins of my name.

Unfortunately, I was not allowed to enjoy the literature tonight, because, as soon as I entered my tent, I noticed Ghost was already waiting for me.

I must say that lead-commander Nicolai did fill my schedule to the brim.

Skill proficiency increased Skills:

[Sword Usage - Apprentice level 4 → 5]

[Shield Usage - Apprentice level 3]

[Bow Usage - Apprentice level 1]

[Nature Magic - Novice level 1]

[Mana Sense - Low - Passive]

[Life Sense - Low - Passive]

[Combat Maneuver/Team tactic - Novice level 2]

[Heavy Armor Usage - Novice level 1 → 2]

[Hand-to-hand Combat - Novice level 1]

[Stealth - Novice level 5 [New]]

[Mind Magic Resistance - Low level 2 [New]]