Chapter 52: The Group That Trains Together

Solomon’s stomped through the hallway with little concern for waking anyone else up.

His actions attracted the attention of others who lived in the same hall. They closed their doors after seeing exactly who was outside…

“H-Hey, do you know what time it is..!?”

When the door opened, Solomon did not find who he was looking for.

Instead, it was a young girl, brunette, underdressed, and clearly sleep-deprived.

She was nearly a head shorter than Solomon, so it was easy for him to look past her into the dark room.

“Sorry, excuse me…”

Solomon stepped past the woman as she berrated him, ignoring everything she said without so much as a change in expression.

In the back of the dorm, there was a bed that was spilling over with bodies.

Solomon stepped over hastily discarded piles of clothes and underwear as a lingering, curious smell assailed his nose.

It almost smelled like… alcohol?

“Everett. Get up.”

The winged titan-blood didn’t stir at Solomon’s initial provocation.

Solomon would have slapped him if he wasn’t worried about making his hands sticky…

Instead, he formed a ball of water on the tip of his finger.

Solomon felt a rush shoot through his body as he used magic for the first time since forming a spirit heart.

Using magic was soo much easier than before. Too easy.

Instead of producing a small ball of water to drop on Everett’s face, Solomon produced a rain cloud near the ceiling and unleashed a small shower on everyone in the bed.

Needless to say, they were none too happy.

Solomon ignored the pissed-off students again and focused his gaze on Everett.

“Get dressed.”

Everett looked at the clock on the wall and grimaced. “You bloody lunatic, it’s-”

“Time for training. Dakota and Nila are already waiting. Stop being inconsiderate of our time.”

Solomon swept his gaze over the four other disgruntled faces in the bed.

“Something to add?”

Solomon was already in a shit mood after his talk with Raizel. He hoped one of them would have something to say.

They all looked away instead.

Solomon could only snort.

“I’ll be outside.” He turned around.

“Can you at least make it stop raining in my room!?”

“No.”

–

The schedule for knight classes was largely up to the squad captains.

At the beginning of the week, captains have a meeting with their advisors to go over the material they will be tested on four days later.

In the time between the reveal and the testing period, the captains were responsible for imparting their knowledge to the others before the class assessment.

How and when the members were taught would all be up to the captains.

Someone like Solomon, who had trained in groups since he was young, believed that any assessments against their classmates would go better if they practiced alone, where no one could gain any information on them.

So, it was decided that they would have their first training session extremely early, before any other sane person woke up.

They would begin their work in the training hall, leave before any other group showed up, and then later in the afternoon transition to the forest for even more training.

That was Solomon’s plan, at least. And while Raizel assured him that it was a good one, Solomon was realizing that there was another problem he hadn’t exactly foreseen.

At no point in his life had he ever really had to teach anyone anything. He was drawing blanks on where to begin.

They had begun with a series of warm-up exercises to buy him time.

Solomon was naturally the first to finish, and while racking his brain for ideas alongside Raizel, the two suddenly felt a pair of eyes on them.

Turning around, they found Dakota staring up at them silently. Even after three runs on three different obstacle courses, he didn’t appear to be close to breaking a sweat.

Solomon only realized then that the boy’s conditioning was much better than he’d initially thought.

’Von Valii, right..? Why do I know that name…?’ Solomon wondered.

“Umm… I finished. What should I do now?” Dakota blinked.

Solomon rubbed the back of his neck.

“Well… we won’t have an assessment for the first week, so our advisor hasn’t given us anything we really need to focus on… I suppose we can work on polishing any existing skills for now, so if there is something you feel you wanted to work on, then-”

“I want to learn how to use a sword and shield properly.” Dakota answered instantly.

Not just Solomon, but Raizel also felt as if they had spontaneously started hallucinating.

“I’m sorry… did you say you wanted to learn..? As if you don’t know?”

“That is correct.”

Solomon was dumbfounded. “…Alright.”

Dakota picked up his sword and shield, holding them both at his sides with his legs spread a few inches apart.

Solomon knew by the boy’s posture that he had truly never held a sword before.

Seeing him holding the weapon was an unnatural thing. He was akin to a young boy, trying to emulate an older male after only seeing him in a fight once or twice.

The longer Solomon looked at him, the more certain he became that the boy should have chosen a shorter, lighter sword, and definitely not something as heavy as a shield. It didn’t seem to fit his build at all.

And then it finally clicked.

“Von Valii… your family are assassins.”

“And yours are dead.”

“That they are. But why is an assassin attending a knight academy and trying to use a sword?”

Dakota’s eyes were nigh impossible to read. His face was completely expressionless.

Solomon tilted his head.

“You’ve clearly been trained already. Why are you not sticking with what you’ve already endeavored to learn?”

For a moment, it didn’t seem like Dakota was going to answer. Solomon, realizing that he might have been unnecessarily inquisitive, prepared to drop the matter entirely when the boy spoke.

“I would like to forge something for myself. I have left all that I know behind in order to do so. There is no greater reason than this.”

Solomon and Raizel looked at each other, realizing that, by some awkward twist of fate, they may have ended up finding a kindred spirit in the unlikeliest of places.

“…Well said. I hope everything works out for you.” Raizel nodded.

Solomon unfastened his shield from his back and strapped it to his arm, but didn’t draw his sword.

“We can start right away then. Come at me, but drop the shield. I won’t be trading blows with you so soon-”

Dakota pondered for a moment before he dropped the disk of metal.

Before the shield had even hit the ground, Dakota was in front of Solomon and poised to stab him directly in the stomach.

’…Shit.’

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