After our ‘glamorous entrance’, as Trif called it, we took in the atmosphere and surroundings for a few moments. The room was constructed in a way that reminded me of older theaters, with a circular area in the middle, presumably for fighting, that’s surrounded by seats rising in elevation as they approached the walls. We sat down next to Johannes who had been waiting for us at one of the higher seating, watching with a smug grin as we approached. I lightly punched him in the shoulder, telling him “Ah, fuck off.” in a joking manner. That was promptly followed by Trif heavily stepping on the floor and grunting, ‘God damn it, I forgot his ridiculous hearing!’ I pretended that I was not the one being addressed and sat down swiftly, waiting for the bell to ring and Trif to start the actual lesson.

As it turns out, I didn’t have to wait for long. A couple of moments after I had settled down the bell rang, signaling the beginning of the end. Also known as one of Trif’s classes. Or well, maybe he won’t be as much of a devil today? I noticed some silver badges, possibly a gold one as well, although I am not sure if I saw that right. ‘Hmm, so we are sharing this class with the nobles?’ “UP!” The three of us stood up without hesitation, others looked in confusion, and I pitied them. One does not make Trif repeat themselves lightly. “Up I said! Stand!” They caught on, finally. But I could see the annoyance in Trif’s face, this won’t be an easy ride. “No fucking discipline in today’s generation, ” That sentence was followed up by a minute of mumbling, he was probably swearing. I bet he was.

What followed wasn’t as bad as I had initially expected, we were pinned against each other in a one versus one duel format. Commoner against commoner and noble against noble. I assume he wanted to see where everyone stood before breaking them into shape, which would give me a bit of a head start. ‘Poor whoever has to face one of us three, regular commoners didn’t go through nearly as much training as we were forced to go through by Trif himself. Unless I have to face a Warden, I’ll be alright!’ That is what I anticipated, however, I greatly underestimated Trif.

Of the three of us, I was the first to come onto the fighting area. The ground was solid, some kind of stone, covered in inscriptions. I assume that was at least partially what kept the others relatively uninjured, although they would survive any wounds that didn’t immediately kill them with Trif around. Just like the people before me, I was presented with a choice between three weapons, those being: a sword, an axe, and a spear. None of their edges were particularly sharp, I assume another measure to keep us from killing each other on the first day. They weren’t the standard weapons used in combat, but one can easily attribute that to Trif’s old fashioned tastes.

I took the axe into my hand and swung it around for a bit, I really liked the swoosh sound that it made as it sliced the air, the weight felt just right and I could swing it around with a single hand easily, contrary to the axes that I used to chop wood back in the day. I settled on it after a bit more thought. I didn’t like spears, even if they would have given me more of an advantage, I doubt I needed it against another commoner. And I wasn’t very fond of swords, too much skill and experience involved that I didn’t bother building up. Axes, on the other hand, I swung for as long as I remember! Always having to chop firewood and all, it was a nice fit. However, not choosing the spear quickly seemed like an even dumber decision upon the following. Trif pointed at my duel partner, and to everyone’s surprise, well, everyone who realized the meaning of the badges by now, he had a silver badge. This was the first time that he made a commoner face a noble, but in retrospect, it was to be expected. He knew that a regular commoner stood little chance against me, even if I was never really fond of physical labor. What I went through made me at least above-average when compared to the others. And Trif loved to see me suffer, so he would obviously choose someone who could provide a good show, as well as someone who’d be willing to.

The noble kid seemed angered, facing a copper badge was beneath his honor, and he would let out his rage on me without hesitation. That’s something I have always noticed when comparing nobles and commoners, their set of morals work differently from ours. They would punish those who hurt their honor severely, but could I get away with holding back against a noble? On one hand, I could be punished later if I somehow beat him, especially in front of this crowd. On the other hand, if he noticed that I was holding back, he could be even angrier. And even more importantly, I don’t doubt that Trif would fail me if he notices, and he would notice. I cannot afford to fail even a single class. I do not have the luxury to take such risks, if I get thrown out for poor performance I will never get another chance… No matter what I do, I lose.

While I was contemplating my chances mister noble stormed towards the stage, every step thundering across the gymnasium and his rage visibly manifesting in his eyes as he approached. Luckily, he picked up the sword instead of the spear. Likely, using a weapon such as a spear and winning would only further tarnish his honor, so I was kind of lucky in that aspect at least.

Now that he was standing directly in front of me my confidence shuddered even further. He was only a bit taller than I was but tall enough to look slightly down at me with that intimidating glare ‘Can you calm down? I didn’t CHOOSE this!’ I really wanted to say something out loud, but I didn’t wanna further ruin my chances of survival. ‘Let’s go over this with again! His family cannot possibly kill me until I finish school, right? The school should protect me until then at least. And after that, I will be in the army! They can’t touch me while I am in the army, especially if I do well in school! Yes! YES! That makes sense!’ I grinned ever so slightly while I continued thinking on this line of thought, this may be the only lucrative path ‘And honestly, looking at him up close, it’s very likely that he’ll kick my ass anyway! So I shouldn’t have to worry! Heck, I just need to impress Trif a bit by lasting long enough, if I win? Even better! Trif wouldn’t want a promising candidate to be killed, right? Worst case I get a couple of beatings while in school, but I can take that. Yes, this is the safest choice. I just have to give my all!’ I paused for a moment to take another look at his intimidating stature, a single drop of sweat going down the back of my neck, ‘I think…’

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I took a deep breath, I’d have to concentrate on this. I wasn’t a Warden like Johannes, and I wasn’t overly gifted with both talent and enthusiasm like Sera. I put in a fair bit of effort, but was that enough? Nobles are usually trained from childhood to be ready to join the army and take high ranking positions, and I doubt the guy in front of me is an exception. Everything went silent as I heavily focused on my opponent, staring him directly in the eyes as we stood roughly two meters opposite from one another.

The only sound that reached my ears was Trif announcing the beginning of our duel, upon which I dashed. I couldn’t give him any time to react, I had to use my status and his assumptions that I am easy prey to swiftly end this. Sadly, my opponent seemed to have a faster reaction speed than I would like him to have and began slashing at me from the top, the exact moment that I entered his approximate range. ‘EEH~’ I stepped to the side swiftly barely evading the swing of the heavy iron and feeling the slash pass by my face from the sheer wind that followed it. Raising my axe, I remembered to counterattack, swinging directly towards his hands as his blade descended further towards the ground, where it made a loud thump sound upon impact. Using the features of my axe, I somehow caught the hilt in between the “blade” and the handle of the axe. He grunted for a moment, it seems that I caught some of his fingers with that one, but he didn’t let go. I pulled intending to disarm him, however, he still refused to let go of his weapon and I ended up pulling both his sword and him. I didn’t hesitate, and with my free hand, began throwing a punch directly at his face, causing him to go with one of his hands to shield himself. Bad choice, the resistance against my pulling his sword visibly reduced and I managed to pull the sword from his hands. My punch never even reached his face, it was merely a feint that achieved its purpose, I rather used both hands to quickly pulled at the sword and make sure he loses it.

He was visibly angered, punching me in the face once while leaving me no time to think, I didn’t believe I’d make it this far, to be honest. Another punch, however, and I realized that I had to capitalize on this opportunity, jumping back a bit when faced with the next attack and winning some range. I raised the arm that had been holding on firmly onto my axe into the air, following which I began swinging at his weaponless state without mercy, just the way Trif liked it. He offered a bit of resistance at first, however, after getting hit by a lump of metal a couple of times, he covered and fell to his knees very soon. That did not hinder me at all, and I continued. I already went this far, so I am already a lost cause and there is no use in holding back. I hit his sides, his shoulders, and also his head, although I held back a bit on those. His blood had splattered, ruining my robe as I lifted and swung. Again and again. Eventually, Trif stepped in and took the axe from me, and whilst breathing heavily I bowed as I staggered back to the stands. I threw a couple of stares at the others, attempting to intimidate them, and judging from their looks, I’d say it worked. Of course, the blood that covered me might have helped a bit. I resisted the urge to throw up with all my might, I had to play strong right now. Otherwise, they would come for me later, and that wasn’t something I was looking forward to. After I sat down I heavily clenched one of my hands in the other, digging into my own flesh with my nails as I tried to prevent myself from shaking. ‘Did I really have to go this far?’ I had already regretted my actions, it seemed logical at the time, and he certainly wouldn’t have held back against me had I not won the upper hand, but was this much violence necessary? I buried the thoughts, I didn’t have time for those kinds of thoughts. I had to survive and graduate, that’s all that matters.

Sera and Johannes threw me a few concerned glances, but I assured them that I was alright. After the classes for today ended, I headed back to my dorm room, Johannes had something else to do, and I didn’t pry any further. Not like I had the energy to do that anyway, I was a mess right now. The walk to the door of the dorms felt like an eternity, every step I took made me ache and send a zap through my body. I didn’t even want to imagine how that noble felt, although he received some first aid from Trif, Trif mostly never fully heals you for some reason. “Builds character” my ass. And the descend of stairs wasn’t much more amusing either! Seriously, there has to be a way to speed this up. I cannot imagine doing this twice a day, five times a week. After reaching my floor I just kind of fell onto the ground, face first, and didn’t have any plans of standing up anytime soon. I could rest for a bit before going to my room right? Well, it seems that I wouldn’t be given such luxury, since someone thought it would be appropriate to lift me from the ground and promptly slap me across the face! This quickly awoke me from my tired state and I took in the surroundings, there were at least a dozen people… All of which, at least those whose badge I could properly see from this angle, seemed to be at least silver. And worst of all, the guy who I beat the bloody hell out of earlier was amongst them…