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As I followed the command to fall in, I followed behind the other kids lining up and fell into line.
When all the students were lined up, the grizzled man bellowed toward us, “Good afternoon students, most of you know who I am. For those of you who do not, I am Matthias Greyham, but you will address me as Sir, Instructor Greyham, or just Instructor. Am I understood?!”
As one, all the students shouted back, “Yes Instructor!”
This display of regimentation sets the tone of the class for me, so I kind of know what to expect. It is the same regimentation I see when Dad is training troop formation with his knights and troops.
“Now… you all have come back from a long break, let us see if you have been keeping up with your fitness. We will start with a warmup. 2 laps around the field, GO!” Greyham’s order was met with grumbles as they started moving toward the field.
“NO BACKTALK, IT IS 3 LAPS NOW!!” Greyham bellowed out in response to the grumbles.
I take off running at a leisurely pace. It's leisurely for me anyway. I was in front of the majority of the class but not the first, no point in exerting more effort than necessary for just a warm-up.
Upon finishing my first lap, I was one of the new in the lead, so I looked to see who was around me and saw about a dozen boys and 4 girls keeping pace with me, and most of them seemed to be from martial noble houses.
When I completed my 3 laps, I worked up a nice warmup sweat, but I was not winded, I then looked around to notice that only half of the guys and 1 girl finished at my pace while panting heavily. We then made our way to the water station while waiting for the rest to finish.
While sipping water, me and the early finishers looked at each other somewhat awkwardly, and me not being a social butterfly by any standards, just kept to myself while the others chatted or kept to themselves.
After a few more minutes, the last student crossed the finish line and after being given some time to rest, we were called to fall in once again.
“Pathetic! It really seems a lot of you have been slacking off during the break. Let's hope your sword forms do not disappoint me as much. Collect a practice sword and fall back in!”
After all of us were back in line with a wooden sword in hand, Instructor Greyham shouted again, “Kingdom’s basic sword forms, BEGIN!”
I do as instructed and begin the sword forms Dad taught me. As I flowed from form to form, the sound of my sword wooshing through the air, I saw the other 5 instructors who accompanied Instructor Greyham walking around with their own wooden swords, barking at students, and correcting any student who was not performing up to standard.
“Again!”, “Faster!”, “Sharpen your swing on the down stroke!”, “Raise your guard higher!”, “Keep going!” the assistant instructors shouted as they walked among the students. Every now and then, Instructor Greyham would shout at someone from atop the stage to correct them, and other times, he would flag one of the assistant instructors to go assist a student, but in the end, he remained stoic and stoned-faced until the last bell of the day rang and he called a stop to the exercise.
The moment the stop was called, many of the students dropped their swords and bent over while panting worse than they did after the run. There were only a few, me included, that were left standing upright, the rest were on their ass catching their breath.
While everyone was resting, Instructor Greyham bellowed again, “Sloopy. While a few of you obviously practiced, I can clearly see the majority of you did not, I will fix that soon before we even touch on the Tactics part of Advanced Combat & Tactics. I will see all of you tomorrow. Dismissed!”
With that, many of the students started dragging their feet in the direction of the Year 5’s dormitory. Even Oswald and his possi seem too tired to even acknowledge my existence as I see them sluggishly exit the training grounds.
As for me, while I am tired, I have a few hours to freshen up and rest before night class. Fortunately for night classes, it is only one extra long session on the subject, otherwise I do not think even I will be able to bear 2 different subjects with me as tired as I am now.
But first things first, I am tired, hungry, and I stink.
After going back to my dorm to freshen up, I went to the canteen to get some grub, all that exercise made me hungry.
When I got to the canteen, I was told that it was too early for dinner, but it turns out that they used the leftovers from lunch to make some sandwiches and set them aside for hungry growing boys like myself, all I needed to do was ask and soon I was walking back to my room with a bunch of meat-laden sandwiches.
After scarfing down my sandwiches and resting for a while, it was time for dinner and I was off to my first night class, Array Architecture.
As I walked from my dorm to the main academy for the 2nd time today, the sky was orange with the setting sun.
When I entered the class for Array Architecture, I was met with a whole different demographic of students. Seated at the desks were around 30 men and women who looked in the age range of 18-40s, and some of them were giving me inquisitive looks.
I gave a nod to the people in the class and made my way to an empty desk to wait for class to start.
When the time came, a blond bespectacled man who looked to be in his mid-30s, pulling behind him a trolly filled with books, “Good evening, I am Professor Donovan Arcwright, as you can guess, I will be teaching you the art of Array Architecture. Please come to the front to collect your textbook and we will get started.”
Tftc