After arriving at the reserve and showing the documents, Josiah was admitted in and was told to look for building 131C.The training headquarters was a big conglomerate of little gray-painted stone tiled buildings. The architecture was similar to the one used in the imperial castle. In a sense, the building seemed themselves like little castles.He quickly learned they were organized in rows and blocks, and none of which had actual names, they were referred to only by the location code."What a huge place…" Josiah contemplated, as he passed over twenty minutes of walking through those little stone buildings. He saw a lot of soldiers carrying a bunch of heavy armor and weaponry but didn't see any more children in the whole way.When he was approaching the place, Josiah sighted The Magistrate, wearing a distinct red-colored armor, heavily contrasting the rest of the soldiers."Oh, there you are! Come here, little one."The Magistrate seemed happy to see Josiah in.He went to the entranc
"Oh. You were the one charged with the room. You lost some of the explanation but I guess it's nothing you already don't know." The advisor said, looking at how Josiah carried his sword.The advisor was even taller than Koda, though skinnier. In fact, the advisor was so tall and so skinny he almost looked like an alien humanoid. "I'm Tal..."'The name suits you.' Josiah thought."…As a newcomer in the first weeks, you are going to use weapon replicas instead. Put your garbage at the side somewhere. Get a weapon of your preference among the models over the table. We are going to train in pairs now."Advisor Tal whistled loudly and everyone began trying to find a pair to spar with.Albo approached Josiah once again."Hey, dude. You lost all the explanation. Is that okay?""I had no choice…"Albo was holding an exact copy of a morning star. From the ball to the chains and holder… Everything was perfectly made out of wood."Huh… I guess this one looks strong. So I chose this one. Are you
The emerging talents. People who are chosen from newly recruited personnel or not fully experienced soldiers who are believed to have a natural potential for combat. They are offered a severe schedule of training and instruction on fighting skills.On that afternoon Josiah was arriving in the middle of the daily paired practice.He was in a large room, together with the other faces, waiting for the instructor to arrive.A few faces inside there were familiar.The teenage boy several years older than him he saw whispering at his back when he first arrived the army was one of them. But his friend wasn't there.That boy who smiled when Koda scolded him in the room was also there.All in all, it seemed none of the faces there were very friendly toward him. And that's probably because of his age.Not many eight-years-olds make it to the selected group in one day just like that. In fact, the teenage boy around his thirteens seemed to be the second youngest. Apart from that, there was also a
"Done with that already!? The day is about to end.""Koda, sir. This little rascal keeps slowing me down." "Liar! He was the one goofing off and leaving the job all for me!" Josiah shouted.Both him and Reeve were designated to cleaning duty. They had been mopping the room for the last couple of hours while the others went for physical activities. They were inside the men's room during the time they went there to get dressed for the bloodless training."You two still can't get along? I guess you're going to have to be the duo on the cleaning until you learn how to.""…""Finish that already and come to the bloodless training."Josiah felt a chill down his spine.The bloodless training was a modality where the holder didn't use the bloodbound power of his weapon at all. Aiming both for perfecting common-weapon wielding and beginning on blood control."Sir…" Josiah asked in a low voice as he went near Sergeant Koda."Say it.""I don't know how not to use my bloodbound powers."Reeve ove
The soldiers inside the room had gotten up and were preparing themselves rushedly. Josiah didn't understand what the rush was about."Mission...?" Josiah asked, still sleepdrunk.One of the soldiers who were near his bed heard and explained:"The missions are held in town. It's a very long way of marching until there.""Wait! We 'walk' to there!?"Josiah understood he had to stay ready as soon as possible instead of keeping mumbling on his bed while rubbing his eyes. But that was hard to do. For starters, his body hadn't completely recovered from the day before. Not only that but he didn't get much sleep either.'Screw this. I need to force myself to go. It's no different than when I was under training with Thomas, tired like a pack donkey but had to wake up early for the lesson anyway since he had to go to work later.'Josiah jumped off his bed and started getting ready as well.Two of the mates were commenting while they were shaving their beard:"Today is the sixth? I forgot all abo
The next months went by very fast. Wake up, train, clean, train, build-up, train, sleep. The routine was hard and monotone, it made the days pass too quickly. Yet the routine was rewarding. Josiah grew even stronger during the days he spent perfecting his sword-wielding style and controlling his blood to tone it down.He also learned to use the rapier's power for trivial matters, in the way Watt had taught him. Well… At least to a certain extent.Josiah's relationship with the colleagues got a little better. With time they started respecting him as a member of the team, despite his age.Even Josiah's relationship with Reeve also got better. No, they're not friends. But every time Reeve would set Josiah up, he'd answer right after, but on a more brand, less offensive way. That's the way he found of dealing with the nephew of the lieutenant. With time, causing trouble for the little kid lost its 'fun', and Reeve and Josiah just stopped talking to each other outside the matters of the arm
"They all left. It's just us now." Wall said blankly."The other guy who's supposed to monitor us is also very well hidden..." Josiah added.Most of the soldiers under test didn't begin moving at the spot; they had to take time to digest the situation first. It wasn't clear how they were supposed to descend."See that water all the way over there, filling the entire bottom area? It's sparkling. Looks cool right?""I bet it's highly toxic.""You bet…""…""Well…" Watt looked around. "Staying here won't amount to anything. I think I'm going to go and find some way out, good luck, Josiah." He left Josiah alone behind, following one of the downward spiral trails of the mount they were in.'I should probably do the same,' he thought.'It shouldn't be hard to climb down those mountains to approach the bottom. The problem is that the further down, the more I'm exposed to whatever mineral Watt said that was. I should probably strive to find the end which is closer to another end of the closest
Reeve was hanging on the cliff, being held only by Josiah's hand."Don't let go!! Please, pull me up!!" Reeve repeatedly shouted those words in a desperate manner."You sound way less cocky when you're on the verge of your life, huh?""Argh! My arm is getting numb!""Don't you dare let go you son of a…"It was somewhat fun seeing Reeve's eyes widen that much for some reason.'Stupid aristocrat. What do you think would happen to me if they knew some nine-year-old kid killed the nephew of the lieutenant during the final exam? Technically I'm allowed to, but in practice…' Josiah thought.Still… The weight was really too much for Josiah to deal with.It's true, he had lifted huge boulders for Lenny's cave in the forest. He had lifted stone tiles for an entire morning to help with the wall… But he always distributed the wight over all the muscles of his body. He never had to lift something from such an awkward angle using only one of his arms like that before.'I know! I'm going to use the