A group composed of children between 3 and 6 years old approached me.

"Varos, come with us. We're going to join the adults and Astris, he said we should take the most peoples we can take with us" said the leader of the group, Kolt.

"No thanks" I quickly replied, and I continued my walk

"Stop for a second with your cold attitude, I know, you're just intimidated by Astris right ?" said Kolt.

Astris is the son of the leader of the village, he is 11 and receive a privileged treatment in the village. His dad is a powerful Ki master, at the realm of an Expert from what I heard. I'm not sure for how powerful an Expert is, but the villagers always talk about him with respect and fear.

Without slowing down, I continued to walk away.

Kolt and his group hurriedly followed me "Hey wait ! Don't you hear me ? Do you know why Astris is calling us ? A Knight will be coming to teach us about Ki. Astris's father said that. He want to gather all the kids of the village".

I stopped my steps and my interest increased. From what I understood, a Knight is a higher being than an Expert, and all the heroic tales that I've heard on this village mainly come from those Knight.

If what he said is true, then it might be interesting to follow him. I know Kolt, he is only six years old, and even though he know how to lie, with his mindset, he's unable to fool me in that regard. What he said was probably true, or he might have been fooled too.

"Fine, I'm following you" I said to Kolt.

"Finally, you're listening to me ! Come." I followed his group until I arrived to a little yard.
The yard was near the home of Astris. It was his own territory.

There was around two dozen kids here. They were between 4 and 15 years old. Ahead of that little crowd, was Astris. He was standing on little wooden box to stand out more from the crowd. He was 11, with curly black hair, a handsome face and a posed look.

At his right was Favel, his best friend aged of 12. And at his left was Sana, aged of 12 and who was apparently his girlfriend.

The kids here were waiting for a long time I guess, from all the noises they're making, and also from their annoyed look.

"Astris, I brought Varos with us, can we start now ?" Kolt shouted to Astris.

"Hm ? Yeah, we can start now" Astris gazed lazily at me before looking down again to the crowd.
"Silence ! Astris is going to talk now" shouted Favel with all his strength.

The crowd quickly quiet down.

"Everyone, I brought you all here to announce a great news. A Knight will come to the village for the national recruitment. He will come to teach us about Ki, and the most talented of us will be able to be recruited by the nation, and serve the King in person!"

The crowd exclaimed with surprise and joy. Knowing that a hero, a Knight will be coming to the village to teach them about Ki, which is the mean they used to become what they are, made them hysterical.

"Silence !" Favel calmed down the crowd again.

"The Knight will be coming in three years, since he is actually on a mission by the nobility, so the royality. My dad know his identity, it will be Hallbard Alex, the Green Fox. When a Knight acquire enough accomplishment or when he is highly talented, the king give him a title instead of the number he was affiliated, so the Green Fox has already his own legend !"

The crowd was ecstatic after hearing that.

Favel step out again to intimidate the crowd, and Astris continued his speech "There are two conditions to be qualified to join the selection. The first is to join the daily training that my father will implement in order to get us the best chances to impress that Knight. My father only wanted to train me first, but I convinced him to train all of us, not only because it may bring us better result, but also because I want to give a chance to everyone here. The second is your absolute loyalty in me, since I will be one day the leader of this village, who are chosen by the nobility of this country. In other words, pledging your loyalty toward me is to accept the choice the nobility, who I remind you, protects us from the external and internal threats in this country. Being grateful to me is being grateful to the nobility, never forget that!"

This kid is interesting. From what he says, his father only wanted to train a little portion of them for the arrival of the knight huh? It's more likely that his father planned from the beginning to train every kids here, but Astris choose to say an an advantageous "truth" for him, in order to sensitize the crowd for him.

He's also a pit of information. I've learned a few things thanks to him. So the chief of the village is not chosen by heredity as I thought, but by the order of the nobility. But they doesn't seems to care about who will be the chief of this village. Astris said that he will become the chief with certainty, that he doesn't doubt that he may not be chosen for that.

Either his family is quite powerful, either the nobility doesn't give a crap about the current situation of this village, and as long there's nothing abnormal, they will just choose the next chief by heredity, and won't considerate from an impartial point of view who might be the best to lead this village. 

His family doesn't seems to be anything big, so I suppose that they are servant of a noble family, I thought that he may have been a part of the nobility, but from his speech, it's probably not the case.

Hmm, I need to learn more about the current hierarchical system of this country.

The crowd listened with care to what Astris said, as if they were watching their savior. "My duty here is to guide you with the grown up to train all of you until the coming of the Knight. I'll do my best to lead all of you toward a better path! Because at the end of it, glory and fame will be here to greet us my friend!" Astris spoke normally at the beginning before raising his tone to the end of his speech.

The crowd began to cheer and shout his name with awe. It's like I'm coming out of a Beatles concert with their crazy fans ...

Hmm, this kid is an interesting fellow. From what I saw, he's already born to be a leader. The way he adjust his words to the crowd is not bad, it could be better but at his age, it's truly a decent. If he's not too dumb, he may be able to control someone who will become a Expert or a Knight in this crowd.

Of course, part of his knowledge and talent surely comes from his dad, who taught him everything, but that's not the point, there's a vast difference between learning and applying, and he's already talented for that.

And for the others, he can simply use them to live a better life compared to others. The fact that his father is leading this village surely played a role on his personality too. It would have been better for an official to announce that, with their parent, so I guess that his father probably gave him this task, to inform the kid, as a sort of test to form his leadership for the future, when he will be leading this town.

I also need to know more about those "Knight". Even though I've heard about Ki since my birth, I've never truly saw a strong individual using Ki who correspond to the depiction of those legends. I know a few men in the village who possesses strength beyond the average, but not really that much extraordinary too. I never saw the chief of the village using his Ki too.

I want to participate in the training, but with my body, it's impossible right now to train correctly my muscle. I can work on my endurance and my flexibility, but at a lesser degree for my strength.

Now, the only question in my head is why Astris invited me with the other kids ? I'm obviously the youngest here, so why did he invite a toddle such as myself ?

Speaking of which, his gaze was directed at me and a faint smile could been seen on his face.

Boy, I don't know what you're thinking about, but it is to your interest that it is for my benefit, if you do not want to see the kind of thing that I did in my life before.