I awoke to the sound of a servant knock on the door, “Sir. It is time to wake.”

Rolling over, I was glad I had asked Sara to have someone wake me. I was positive I wouldn’t have been able to get up on my own.

He even brought a tray for breakfast.

I thanked the servant and went about dressing in my new clothing.

Overall, I was surprised at how good I felt. Not that I wasn’t tired and achy. Just not nearly as much as I thought I would be. Perhaps I wasn’t in as bad shape as I thought, or maybe it was Bella’s <Aura of Healing>. Either way, I appreciate the fact that I could at least move.

I thought about waiting for Bella. Just to talk to her about how her day went and what her training was going to be like, but I didn’t want to be late on my first real day’s training.

I made my way to the training area to find Adekin and several knights arriving. Yes, I wasn’t late. A good start.

“Good morning Elliot,” Adekin called, seeing me approach.

He seemed much cheerier than he had yesterday afternoon. Maybe he was a morning person and got crankier as the day moved on.

“Good morning sir,” I responded with a wave before joining the knights in morning stretches while others continued to arrive.

Soon the training yard was filled with knights doing stretches and warming up.

The twilight of dawn just began as Adekinn called for everyone to line up and give roll call. I felt like I was back in high school as I got in line and awaited my turn.

“Hmm,” Adekin sighed. “I wonder if she’ll be skipping today.”

Skipping? I didn’t get the impression that was an option for anyone under Adekin. Perhaps this person had some special circumstances.

“Oh well,” Adekin said under his breath before turning to the group. “Let’s move out!”

Move out? ‘Where were we going?’ I asked myself.

Soon knights formed ranks. I ended up in the very middle as the knights surrounded me. Ensuring that wherever we were going, I would be joining them. Once the ranks were formed, the front line began to move. Jogging. We were going to be jogging around the bailey. Great. It felt like soccer practice all over again. Except this time I was wearing heavy cloth armor, had a sword at my waist and was running a much larger lap.

We made several passes around the inner bailey by the time the sun began to truly rise. I was barely able to keep up. Had it not been for the fact that I was surrounded and couldn’t slow down I would likely have dropped behind.

On one of our passes I saw Bella running from the guest house. She looked to be in quite the hurry. Perhaps she was late for her training with the general. But there wasn’t enough time to focus on Bella. I needed to focus on keeping up with the knights.

Each time we passed the training area, I hoped it would be the final lap. ‘Eventually it would have to end,’ I thought.

Finally, Adekin called for the troops to stop their running. I felt like my legs and lungs were on fire. I hadn’t done running like that for some time. ‘At least it’s time for a break,’ I thought.

“At arms,” Adekin called. “High guard.”

The knights around me already had their practice swords in the air. Taking a deep breath, I unsheathed my dulled blade and followed suit. Moving to the high guard position I learned the day before. I thought about my stance, how my body felt and what others looked like. I would master these guarding positions.

“Low guard…boar’s guard…inner strike…” Adekin cycled through all of the poses and actions I learned yesterday as well as a few I did not. When we reached a new position I studied those around me. Mimicking their actions to the best of my ability.

This continued for some time, before Adekin called for various groups to break off. “A group muscle training, B group sparring, C group weapons training, …”

Apparently, what I saw as knights training on their own yesterday was, in fact, various groups following Adekin’s assignments.

Once everyone had been assigned a task, the knights gave a hearty “yes sir,” before breaking to their respective assignment.

“Which group should I join?” I asked.

“A group. Muscle training,” Adekin replied. “You need to build your strength and endurance if you are going to be a soldier for Acone.”

And so I spent the morning training. Moving from strength to endurance training under the watchful eyes of the knight commander. I felt so far behind the other knights that I wondered if I could ever catch up. They had likely been training in one form or another since they were children. Whereas I played a few sports and had gym class. They really didn’t equate.

It was the toughest morning I think I ever had.

By the time Adekinn dismissed me I had just half an hour to eat, change and find the high advisor. Luckily the servants at the guest house were incredibly efficient. They had already prepared a light meal and had someone prepared to show me the way to the high advisor.

Unfortunately, I was not quite as efficient. It took me a bit longer than expected to eat and change into my regular clothes. So we ended up walking at a quickened pace to and through the palace toward the high advisor’s office.

My legs were killing me. They were all I could think about as I knocked on the door.

“Ah, that must be the ‘hero,’” I heard a voice say through the door. “I have been tasked with his official education.”

“The ‘hero,’” a feminine voice said exasperated. “Argh. Fine. Thank you for your help. I’ll see if Perceval will have anything more helpful.”

The door flung open revealing Princess Alea. “Pardon me ‘hero.’”

I stepped to the side as the princess moved past me.