Sun-young could not for the life of her remember them.

'Didn't they wear helmets…or something? How am I supposed to tell them apart when I'm already bad with names and faces?'

Down below was the vast training grounds with dots of people all over. She contemplated asking them for directions.

'...I can figure it out myself.'

She totally wasn't afraid of talking to them. Nope. She had gone through much worse, talking to people was not an issue. Going down the stairs, however, she took her sweet time. One foot at a time, one step every one and a half seconds.

Two Templar knights, fully garbed and helmeted, went past her. Sun-young half-hoped they were Emma and Samuel and would stop her. Alas, life wasn't so simple and she kept walking aimlessly.

'Okay, so where do I go?'

The training ground's size was jaw dropping. Given the time to fully take it in, it was like eight baseball fields put together, each sectioned with their own Commander, knights, and type of training. Swordsmanship, spearmanship, archery, magic, and everything in between. The Templars encompassed a wide range of weaponry and training.

The advantages of a guild seemed so obvious now. There was laughter and smiles but also discipline. On the mage side, she saw an older man teaching a rookie player to properly draw a magic circle. It was intriguing as it was worrying.

'I don't want to fall behind.'

That was her biggest worry: falling behind. Losing. Unable to accomplish anything. It was a whisper that would never stop breathing into her ear.

"Excuse me? Are you lost?"

Sun-young tensed at the approaching Templar Commander. The black tunic was a dead giveaway. Worse, he was Korean, just like her.

"Are you a part of the academy? Did you join the program?"

An academy? Program? How big was this place!?

"I'm searching for…" Friends? Acquaintances? "...someone. Emma and Samuel. They are new Templar Knights."

"What for?"

He didn't seem to accuse her of anything. Still, she wasn't able to stop herself from numbing her tone of voice. "They saved my life. I owe them."

"Oh. Ohhh. I get it. You're the outsider. Yeah, okay." The Commander smiled. "I'm Kim Joon-ho."

Blink, blink. It was this moment that Sun-young realized she was a little taller than him. "Okay."

'Should I switch to honourifics? I was with non-Koreans before, so I didn't use them.'

Western cultures (and the overarching culture of the White Abyss) was strange in that you were allowed to be friends with anyone, regardless of age or gender. That wasn't the case in Korea. A person was expected to be friends with people their age, not older or younger. Speech was to be adjusted when speaking to someone older. Honourifics were to be respected. There was a strict social age hierarchy that was perceived in all settings. With foreigners, there was an understanding that they didn't know, so breaking convention was okay.

Faced with someone that was clearly from her country though, she felt torn between Korean conventions and the White Abyss. In life, she never managed to make a single friend. No "chingu", no close or faraway friends, there was only Sun-young and studying. So what should she do? What should she call him? No, wait, how much older was he anyway?

"What's your name?" he asked politely.

'Oh, right.'

"Yoon Sun-young."

"Sun-young!" Commander Kim said, testing out her name. His Korean flowed like a native's should. The translation barrier installed in the Game System didn't apply. "I will take you to Emma and Samuel. They are training with their swords. I know, because I was supervising them. Come, come."

She followed the Commander to the swordsman section. Along the way, he told her about the adjusted ways of speaking for Koreans. As many foreign languages lacked honourifics and the usage of English grew exponentially, the Korean vernacular began to change and match the surrounding informality. Terms like "oppa" and "unnie" were publicly obsolete as they sounded strange in most tongues. Privately, they were free to call each other as they did in their culture but in every other setting, the Koreans had to acclimate to the international world.

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Sun-young had naturally been doing that, while Commander Kim gradually learned to do it overtime.

"It wasn't easy," Commander Kim said. "Sometimes, I still slip up."

"Mhm." It was a very interesting piece of sociology. If only Sun-young was better at reacting.

Commander Kim awkwardly cleared his throat. "We're here."

At the training grounds were the new Templar Knights. Swinging their swords and practicing basic posture and footwork, the Commander overlooking the large group yelled passionately with every sequence.

"Steady! Posture, Alaric!"

The recruits performed a choreography of strikes and parries while the Commander keenly watched, arms crossed. A long scar went down his left eye, which he could not see from. Regardless, every swing of the blade was met with the Commander's single critical eye.

"Balance, Elara! You're leaving yourself open!" The Commander's voice resonated across the grounds.

Sweat glistened on furrowed brows as the newbie Knights absorbed the lessons, their muscles straining with exertion. They repeated the sequences tirelessly. They kept going.

Sun-young remembered her own training. First under her grandparents, then second during actual club practice. The latter had never been too bad but the former was hell. Complete, total hell. She surmised that the scarred Commander was the same type as her grandfather, except younger and without the heartfelt compassion one felt towards their grandchild.

"Let's wait it out," Commander Kim said, folding his hands together. She copied him for no real reason.

She really owed him because she was not able to differentiate any of the knights. With all wearing the same armour and helmets, the sole point of difference was body type. Even then, many of them were lean and the armour hid whatever fat or muscle there was.

Once training was done, Commander Kim went up to the teacher and whispered in his ear. The teacher gave a curt nod and yelled again. "Knights Emma and Samuel! Please come fort! Your friend is waiting for you!"

'He's really good at that,' she thought.

Emma and Samuel came forward, and they immediately glanced at Sun-young. Emma's body language shifted from exhaustion to joy and she sent a little wave. Sun-young blanked and hesitantly waved back.

"Your friend is here," said the teaching Commander, before letting them approach her.

"Hey, look at you!" Emma clapped her hands together. It was strange; she wore a mask yet Sun-young was able to feel the waves of cheeriness rolling off of her. "Looking nice and dandy!"

Emma spoke like a teenage girl from Busan, cool, confident, kinda sassy, and cute too. The whole package.

"I told ya! Commander Cedric is the best! No debate!" Samuel was the same, excruciatingly happy yet...super masculine and Busan-like? Korean wasn't meant to be spoken like this. All rules and sensibilities were being broken. "Ohh, I can't wait for you to see the academy!"

Sun-young blinked. The pair kept going.

"There's like two zones here in the Jacques Sanctum, one for training grounds, the second for the academy. Agh, I wish I could show my dorms but that's in the castle. Anyway!" Samuel grinned—well, he probably did since his face was hidden under the Templar helmet. "Let's go!"

Emma tugged her by the arm. Sun-young had no say.

…though admittedly, she didn't mind getting dragged along. Her curiosity was greater than whatever reservations she had.

Jacques Sanctum was on the east side of the bazaar. That was how it was arranged. She hadn't noticed before but there was an open entrance to the east most leading to another zone, as Samuel mentioned.

"Welcome to the Knights Templar Academy!"

It really was an academy. The scenery was something straight out of a fantasy manhwa, with a huge courtyard enclosed by high stone walls. She followed the path, her eyes glued to the academy. It was a castle in of itself, fashioned from weathered grey stone and shimmering blue-tinged glass. The grand gates, crafted from polished oak and etched with runes, stood open with students coming in and out.

"There are three programs," Samuel said. "The first for former players, the second for current players, and the third for natural born players. Natural meaning individuals born in the White Abyss."

"We're in the current player program, obviously." Emma giggled. "Also, also, there are grades: freshmen, junior, and seniors. Some players don't have to do all the grades. If you get promoted to Commander, which does happen with some current players, then you can just leave."

"That's rare though," Samuel supplied. "The academy already picks out the best of the best. They have super high expectations."

"So you go to school and you climb the Heavenly Tower?"

'That sounds like hell.'

"It's so much fun," Emma exclaimed.

"Shouldn't you just be knights? Why are you students and knights?"

"Because that would be a waste. Missing the rewards of the Heavenly Tower just 'cuz we're students?" Emma shook her head. "We are Class IV Knights. Bottom of the barrel. There's Class III and II, where a lot of old players sit. They're trying to get back their old powers, see, after losing the System. It's not like they can go to the Heavenly Tower and get stuff. So we have to pick up the slack and do weekly quotas."

'Sounds like too much work,' Sun-young thought to herself.

The three of them didn't step inside. They stood ten steps away from the entrance of the Academy. "Are we waiting for someone?" Sun-young asked.

"We are! Someone special asked to give you a tour of the academy," Samuel said. A smile suddenly appeared on his face. "There she is! Marshal! Over here!"

Sun-young turned. Her left eye twitched. It was her. A dramatic white cloak with red fur, a black tunic with a glowing red Templar cross, black chainmail on the arms, and chestnut brown hair in a bun. A face Sun-young would never forget.

"Sun-young! Good to see you again!" Marshal Margaret grinned. "This time, I'm really going to convince you to stay."