Training Begins

Before anyone could come to terms with what had just happened, Ezra and the two Saintesses immediately surrounded Gerard.

“My word, The Gods seem to heavily favor you. Not even the three of us would receive such a reaction during our prayers. The only person in today’s age who could achieve such a feat is the current Pope.”

“I am honored that the Gods think so highly of me. So does this mean that I have to become a priest?”

“You have the choice to either go down the path of priesthood or train to become a paladin. What you will be able to achieve would depend on which God you choose to devote yourself to. I am a devotee of the God of Judgement, Astrid is a follower of The God of War, and Phina the Goddess of Abundance.”

“What differences are there between the priests and paladins of each God?”

“Well as you have seen, I as a follower of Judgement am proficient upon barrier type divine powers. Abundance followers are more suited towards healing while War devotees are the swords of the Church wielding offensive type divine powers. Fortunately, even if you follow a specific God you are still capable of using basic divine magic of the other two. For instance I can use both Holy Ray and Holy Blessing, basic divine powers that don’t fall under the field of Judgement.”

“How do I know which one to follow?”

“Haha, you must have plenty of questions, all of you probably do. However, let us first continue on with the current matter at hand. Any questions you have will be answered once you all have been separated and begin your training.”

Ezra and the two saintesses, who had yet to say a word, gathered the six shown to have gained the favor of the Gods. All that was left was the thirteen of us standing in the middle of the room, all eyes upon us now.

The people left behind couldn’t help but feel a slight discomfort of not being able to show any sort of aptitude so far. Thankfully, someone stepped forward to address the group. Knight Captain Corrin gathered the remaining students’ attention.

“Do you feel ashamed of not having the talent to become a mage? Do you feel slighted by not gaining the favor of the Gods? Toss away those useless thoughts. Can’t cast a fireball to wipe out your enemies? Pick up a sword and stab through them. Not being able to create a barrier with divine power? Hone your body so that all attacks will bounce off of you. Even distance is of no obstacle as you can just slice away your enemies from far away with a single Sword Energy Wave Art. Don’t want to wield a sword? Fine, then find something else to pick up, and train with it until your hands bleed and you’re drenched in sweat.”

The students felt reinvigorated as the Knight Captain gave his speech. Even the students that were standing off to the side couldn't help but feel tempted. Do they really want to be a mage? Why does being a priest sound pretty unappealing now. Should they just become a paladin now? Do magic swordsmen exist?

One thing everyone else in the room was ignorant of was that out of everyone who had spoken so far, Knight Captain Corrin had acted in a way the students were familiar with. It was like listening to their teachers again. Every single one of the students stood a little straighter. Their hands twitch, subconsciously they wanted to salute the man and were ready to receive orders.

“Alright, the Thirteen of you will follow me to the training grounds, the first thing we need to do is have all of you choose a weapon best suited for you.”

The man was not one for useless words, the matter in the room was already handled. The group had been categorized and now it was his duty to train these fellows that were now under his mentorship.

The students followed behind him and exited the room as the nobles in the room seemed unsure whether to follow the group. Damn it, they had yet to gain anything from participating in the summoning so far.

The group of nobles were split, with the majority of them staying in the room with the other two groups of students. While the speech of the Knight Captain might have been impactful, they couldn’t help but place those with aptitude to be mages, priests, and paladins at a higher priority.

Those that followed the students out of the room were either lesser nobles with not much hope in attracting the other students, or Knight Families that mostly focused upon the knight path.

After walking through the halls of what was probably a castle, Mateo and his classmates found themselves walking through yet another door and were greeted by the sun. They appreciated the fresh air that filled lungs.

They were now standing in what should be the training grounds of this castle. The training grounds were mostly empty except with a few people standing in a row, seeming to have been waiting for them.

“We’ve reserved the training ground just for you all today. Standing before you are fellow knight captains who will be joining me in training the lot of you. You will greet us as instructors. Who you train under depends upon which weapon you find to suit you the best. As you can already guess, I will take on the role of swordsmanship training. Now before you do anything else, I want all of you to approach the weapon racks and pick up a weapon.”

While the students might have been excited, they made sure to maintain their discipline and approach the weapon racks in a calm and collected manner, with none of them charging over. Mateo scanned over the different weapon racks before approaching one that caught his eye.

Rather than the swords, spears, or any of the other melee type weapons, Mateo had instead chosen a bow. While he might have seen a certain romance in picking up a sword and slashing down his enemies, the bow just felt the most familiar to him. Although this was his first time interacting with one, he had extensive training in marksmanship.

However, it seemed that only two other classmates of his had the same thought process as him, as everyone else had gotten their hands on the more up close and personal weapons. After grabbing a bow that felt nice in his hands and with an appropriate draw strength he walked back over and stood at attention before the instructors.

Not just Mateo, but once everyone had picked their weapon they joined him and stood together. Mateo could see looks of approval in the eyes of the instructors. Thankfully, this group of cadets had already been thoroughly disciplined.

“Alright, I see all of you have made your choice. I bet now all of you think you will now be taught how to effectively wield said weapons.”

The group couldn’t help but have an ominous feeling at the way Instructor Corrin was wording his sentence. Certain memories of military school popped into their minds.

“Wrong! Before you learn how to use a weapon, you need to recognize it as part of your body. First, all of you will run laps while carrying your weapon. You can carry it however you want, but if it touches the floor all of you will be doing another lap. Understood?”

“Sir, yes sir!!!”

The grin on Knight Captain Corrin’s face would make anyone who saw it fear that his face might split open. Having such a batch of Cadets under him would definitely make his job easier.

He gave them brief instructions on where to run and made them start. Not even a complaint or question of how many laps they needed to do, they just started jogging. Not only that, they were even jogging in order and sync.

After a few laps they even started to yell some type of chant. Should he make such a thing mandatory for his cadets to do in the future?

After thirty minutes of running he finally called for them to stop. He was astonished as he did so. Normally he would have finished it more than fifteen minutes ago after the new cadets showed signs of being winded. However, even after thirty minutes of non-stop running, they showed no signs of stopping.

Training Cadets that had already undergone some type of military training was truly a blessing, Knight Captain Corrin couldn’t help but appreciate this fact.