The events of the first two days in the Academy set the precedent for the next few days. In the morning, Leon would wake early and meditate to mentally prepare himself for the day. Following that, he would meet up with his three ‘friends’ Charles, Henry, and Alain.
He wasn’t quite sure if he should use the term ‘friend’, but he decided to go with it for now as he lacked a better word. He never had a friend before, after all, so this was all new to him.
The unit would run to the training field for their Basic Combat lesson when the Senior Instructor arrived. Breakfast would be waiting for them, as would several hours of practicing basic stabs and slashes.
Leon, Castor, and Alphonsus would split off to join the other third-tier trainees in their sparring, gaining some experience in fighting other people, but for the most part, the third-tier trainees spent the lion’s share of their time talking and networking with each other. They were competitors in the Knight Academy, but the seizure of each other’s banners was just a game to them; they’d eventually move on from the Knight Academy, and the Instructors couldn’t let them develop rivalries that might lead to violence.
Of course, preventing harsh feelings wasn’t always feasible, but letting the young nobles spend time with each other and make friends amongst themselves went a long way toward mitigating that.
Leon, however, participated very little in these things, and the other nobles weren’t in much of a hurry to break that pattern. About all he did during the next few days of Basic Combat was spar with Valeria.
Valeria beat him the next day. She strode right up as the first challenger and pointed a long glaive at Leon, a challenge he was only too happy to accept. Unfortunately for him, after several minutes of back and forth strikes that left many of the other nobles with the conviction to never fight either of them one-on-one, Valeria got the upper-hand when she managed to sweep out one of his legs and followed up with a slash across his chest.
The defeat hurt, but it was almost entirely physical; once he regained feeling in his upper body, Leon held no grudges, and even exchanged a few subtle looks with her that promised more duels.
Sure enough, on the fourth day, Leon and Valeria fought again, to the dismay of both Alcander and Gaius. Leon beat her again, only to then lose to her on the fifth day, keeping their overall score even.
In the afternoon classes, Valeria continued to sit next to him, but neither spoke to each other all that much. Things were still a little bit awkward between them, with Leon unsure of how to start a conversation, and Valeria seemingly paying him not much attention.
But, at the very least, this gave Leon time to work on his meager enchanting skills. The Instructor who taught the class only had them repetitively drawing and redrawing the seven basic elemental runes over and over again, refusing to let them stop until they could all draw them perfectly every single time.
Since this was essentially the only real enchanting experience that Leon had, it was a bit boring, but he counted himself lucky that he had at least that much; several of the second-tier nobles had clearly never drawn a rune before, perhaps coming to these classes simply because one of the third-tier nobles they followed had done so. The class Instructor was noble-born, himself, so he felt no shame or fear in verbally chastising them for their lack of skill or motivation.
From what he could tell, Valeria could draw them perfectly every time without exception, and with such natural grace that he couldn’t help but marvel at her obvious skill. She seemed just as bored as he was with the class, but he still wasn’t able to strike up a conversation with her.
During these few days, Leon caught Gaius giving him some strange looks; some hostile, some just strange. Almost anticipatory. They creeped him out more than a little, but given how handily Leon had beaten Gaius during their spar in the Enrollment Test, he wasn’t too worried. If Gaius tried to follow through with his threats warning Leon to stay away from Valeria, then Leon was more than confident he could handle the noble again.
Following dinner, Leon got into the habit of providing some supplemental instruction for his three comrades. They would practice what they learned throughout the day, though there wasn’t any sparring like when Leon was instructing Charles before the enrollment test. When not watching them and giving some critique or training on his own, Leon would concentrate on inundating his brain and organs with mana.
It was a fine routine, but the weekend changed all of it. The Academy gave them the weekends off and even provided a small weekly stipend of one hundred silvers to each first-tier trainee, five hundred to the second-tier trainees, and two thousand to the third-tier trainees, so everyone had plenty of money to play around with, assuming they didn’t have expensive tastes.
Henry, Charles, and Alain made plans to wander around the city visiting various merchant forums and spending some of that money. They invited Leon to join them, but he declined. Over the past few months, he’d been spending almost all of his time with other people, and he found himself craving not only some time alone, but also some time outside of a city. To that end, when the Snow Lions was finally released for their weekend by their Senior Instructor, instead of following everyone else out of their barrack tower and toward the city, Leon turned around and vanished into the forest.
The surrounding forest wasn’t nearly as beautiful as the Forest of Black and White which, despite its name, was actually awash with a wide gradient of bright and vibrant colors. The forest Leon found himself in was mostly just the greens and browns that could be seen in just about every other forest, with only the occasional wild flower to break the monotony.
Despite this, Leon found the forest to be incredibly peaceful and relaxing. Unlike where he grew up, he didn’t need to rely on Artorias to feel safe here. He didn’t need to keep alert for tree sprites, the occasional streams he encountered weren’t filled with river nymphs, and there was no danger of running into ice wraiths no matter how late he stayed outside.
The environment still reminded him of his father and their home back north, though. Leon frowned for a little while before he managed to push it out of his mind.
He wandered around the forest for almost an hour before finding a place to relax. He had followed a small river upstream until he arrived at a huge rock cliff. This was the border between the forest and the artificial mountains created by a great many earth mages over a number of years in the west of the training grounds. The river flowed from a waterfall that had carved a wide recess in the cliff and left a small pool at the bottom.
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This recess at the bottom was quite a bit wider at the bottom than it was at the top; Leon guessed an earth mage must have cut this extra space out from the cliff.
As he explored this place, Leon felt a profound sense of seclusion and isolation. The cliff boxed the pool in on three sides and the bottle-necking of the chasm created by the river and the forest just beyond obscured much of the fourth side. After spending so much time around other people, a place like this was exactly what he needed.
Further reinforcing his theory that this entire recess in the cliffs had been deliberately made, on the wall behind the waterfall, Leon found a small, raised tablet inscribed with three runic circles. They didn’t seem dangerous as far as he could tell, so out of curiosity, he activated one of them. Immediately, he felt the ambient magic in the area flow into the pool, and the water became as clear and pure as his bath back at the Snow Lion’s tower.
Leon smiled in excitement as he activated the second runic circle. Again, he felt the magic in his surroundings flow into the pool, though he didn’t see anything happen immediately. After a minute of slight confusion, he noticed that the pool had begun to steam like a hot bath or hot spring.
He hurriedly activated the last runic circle. Over the course of ten seconds, the roar of the waterfall died down. Nothing else about the waterfall changed, but the loud noise of the water falling off the cliff and hitting the pool had been silenced.
He put his satchel down and began taking off his clothes. He hesitated a little before removing his pants. He had always bathed outside when he lived in the Vales, but this time was a little different, and he couldn’t help but be nervous that someone might come and see him while he was vulnerable. After a few moments, he decided to at least not to remove his undergarments, then slid into the pool—his fears weren’t going to stop him from relaxing as much as he could while he was here.
The water was hot, but not unbearably so. A mortal might have been a little uncomfortable by the temperature, but Leon enjoyed it immensely. He spent the next few minutes happily swimming around, letting all of the tensions and anxieties that had accumulated over the past week and the months before just melt away.
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“Ooooooh, this is going to be sooo relaxing!” said Asiya. She and Valeria were walking along the base of a cliff while carrying a couple of small packs. They were following the directions that one of the knights serving Asiya’s parents had given them that directed them directly to the pool that Leon had stumbled upon.
“I’m sure it will be, but why did you have to bring me along?” asked Valeria, her face twisting slightly in exasperation.
“I couldn’t leave you all alone in that tower! You need to get out and see the sun! Besides, if anyone needs some time to relax, it’s you. Those morning duels you have with… what was his name again?”
“Leon.”
“Right! That guy! You two go at each other like you’re out for blood! That has to be tiring! Ancestors know that I would kill for a good soak in a place like this if I had to do what the two of you did every day!”
“… Well, I must admit that it has been thrilling. It’s rare to find someone who can fight me on equal terms without being older or closer to the fourth-tier…” Valeria looked a little pensive as she said this, staring out into the forest but not actually looking at anything. Asiya didn’t care to hear it, though, as her beautiful face scrunched up in mock anger.
“So training with me isn’t thrilling?”
“It is!” Valeria said emphatically after realizing how insulting what she said could be.
“But not as much as with that ‘Leon’ guy?”
Valeria frowned a bit before answering. “You two have very different fighting styles. His is almost animalistic, completely forgoing defense. I’ve never fought anyone like that before. It’s very hard to attack him when he’s constantly putting pressure on me.”
“But you have beaten him twice…”
Valeria’s frown turned into a smile of pride.
“Do you liiiike him?”
Valeria’s face froze in shock at her friend’s question and teasing expression. Asiya smiled mischievously at her. She knew Valeria was weak to this kind of question, with the only exception being if she truly hated the person they were talking about, which was quite rare.
“Ooooh? You do, don’t you?” Asiya stared at her friend as best as she could as they walked at the base of the cliff, her impish smile teasing her friend almost as much as her words.
“No!” Valeria replied, though she wasn’t too convincing.
“That seems a little too emphatic… are you suuure?”
“I don’t like him! Besides, I think Elise already has her eye on him.”
“Right, she does, doesn’t she…” For a moment, Asiya looked thoughtful, then she began looking around. “It should be around here somewhere. It’s at the bottom of a waterfall, so we should be able to hear it.”
“Hey, look at that!” Valeria pointed several hundred feet further on. The two women could see mist wafting out from the cliff and the small river flowing out from the fissure in the cliff.
“Is someone already there? I didn’t think anyone would know about this place! Let’s go see who it is!” Asiya darted out and made for the pool.
“No wai-“ Valeria tried to stop her, but Asiya had already taken off. She sighed and ran after her friend.
The two women curiously peeked around the corner when they arrived at the recess in the cliff. Leon was no longer swimming, but had taken to reading some of his books by the edge of the pool. Asiya’s eyes widened in excitement when she saw that he was almost naked, but Valeria’s face immediately went scarlet and she ducked back around the corner.
Asiya hardly noticed Valeria’s reaction; she was far too busy checking out Leon’s fit and muscular body. It was clear to her that the physical benefits of magic were not wasted on Leon. She was only jolted back to reality when Valeria pulled her back.
“What are you doing?!” Valeria had to hold herself back from shouting, but Asiya would’ve had to be deaf to miss her disapproving tone.
“I’m only taking a look. I’ve never seen a guy without clothes before. Besides, it’s not like he’s trying to hide, so why shouldn’t I enjoy the view?” Asiya peeked back around the corner just in time to see Leon lean back, putting his taut chest and abs on display. Asiya’s eyes nearly popped out of her head as she took in the sight.
Valeria pulled Asiya back again. “Stop that! You shouldn’t be so crude!”
“Oh, come on, Val! Don’t tell me you’re not curious too? Don’t you want to see what he’s got? I mean, he’s not the most handsome guy ever, but he’s still pretty cute. And being a third-tier mage doesn’t hurt…” Asiya gave Valeria a lecherous smile and went back to stealthily peeking around the corner of the recess at Leon.
Valeria stared at Asiya in disbelief. She’d known Asiya for years, but her bronze-skinned friend was still finding ways to surprise her with her bold and almost shameless actions. But Valeria found her eyes drawn to the corner, just past which lay a fit third-tier mage practically putting himself on display. She tried to banish her lascivious thoughts, but the quick glance she’d already had at Leon was stuck in her mind.
Valeria quietly sighed and slowly joined Asiya in furtively staring at Leon. When Asiya saw what Valeria was doing, she giggled and pulled back a little, making some room for her friend. She gave Valeria a few seconds to get an eyeful before loudly whistling.
Valeria immediately jerked her head back and glared at a grinning Asiya. Leon had thought he’d misheard for a moment before looking in their direction, so he didn’t see either one of them.
“You bitch,” whispered Valeria to Asiya, who could barely hold in her laughter. “Come on, we’re leaving.” She grabbed Asiya’s arm and almost dragged her away.
Leon, being on edge after hearing Asiya’s whistle, heard the two of them leaving from the rustling of the leaves under their feet, but by the time he had hurriedly dressed himself and went out to see what was going on, they were long gone.