Another day at the military school began, The noise of the bells waking everyone up this time did not surprise Kane, he just opened his eyes and, looking at the ceiling, sighed deeply. Getting out of bed, the boy's arms and legs were all sore from yesterday's training, the muscle soreness only made it even more difficult to move. As the rest of his roommates began to get out of bed, they also complained about the pain.

"Ouch, everything hurts..."

"God, what muscle soreness I have, I don't want to move."

Auren and Daren sighed in pain

"Get up and go out, if we're late, who knows what they'll do to us."

They were hurried by Kane while getting dressed and, just like the previous day, left the room without waiting for the others.

The other children, who were also in pain due to heavy training, slowly began to walk out into the hallways of the dormitory, All of them, gasping and without any desire to do anything, slowly began to walk out to the training ground.

This time, they all already knew what was waiting for them, only that, being in bad shape, they had to perform the same exercises they had barely managed the previous day. The second day of training in Byrock foreshadowed a tougher day for everyone than yesterday.

Tutor Lorenz spoke to all the recruits before the morning run.

"You are in the army, which means you have to learn to behave like a knight, and live like a knight, therefore, before we start the exercises, you will spend awhile learning that.

When you are in a situation in the line of duty where you have to introduce yourself, you do so by stating your name and then your rank, for example, Lorenz Shaster, rank Attack General. 

While introducing yourself when taking an order or meeting someone of higher rank, you are required to salute. In the kingdom of Forsteck, soldiers salute by hitting their chest twice with their fist. Repeat after me."

The tutor demonstrated the salute of the Forsteck kingdom by his example, followed by a repetition by all recruits, spreading the sound of the beats across the training ground.

"Okay, then we're now moving to the training plan. Recruits, start running!"

"Yes sir!"

Shouted the recruits, saluting Lorenz.

During the run, the mentors gathered again to talk.

"Those who are about to die salute you..."

"I know, you don't have to remind me..."

Tutor Lorenz sighed, looking sadly at the children running in the sunlight, remembering his service and the burned fields soaked in blood, full of the bodies of his disciples, over which ravens flew.

All the recruits sucked it up, trying their hardest to ignore the pain of running and do their laps as quickly as possible to get the morning run over. 

At breakfast, the children hungrily ate more than ever, despite the fact that they had dinner before bed, they were even hungrier from the morning. Everyone enjoyed a moment of rest, keeping in mind what the next thing on their schedule was, instantly losing the will to live, as they remembered yesterday's run with their backpacks. After breakfast, tutor Lorenz gave instructions for today's strength training.

"As you can see this time, in addition to the backpacks, weighted barbells appeared. This time the backpack run will last an hour, after that, you will have a 15-minute break, and then we move on to the weight barbells. For 45 minutes, your goal will be to catch the barbell at its end, where there are no weights, and perform 300 overhead attacks."

Kane was happy that he won't have to run 2 hours with a backpack, and he was even more pleased with the fact that the exercise is with barbells. It will make his arms stronger, and he will be able to hold his sword more tightly during a fight, The boy knew from yesterday's sparring that this is what he was missing, and he set about practicing.

Even though tutor Lorenz reduced the running time by half, running with a backpack in the sun still exhausted everyone. During the run, when Kane thought back to the cold wind that refreshed him yesterday, he missed the cloudy weather, even if it was supposed to rain. Everyone jogged, panting more and more, and waited for the desired sound of the bell that signaled a break. The dry throat and mouth, the whole sweaty body, and the pain in his arms, back, and legs, all accumulated and made themselves felt, making Kane more and more annoyed, until he finally heard the bell.

Although it was the second day in Byrock everyone had already decided that the icy water during the break after a backpacking run was the best thing that happened to them there.

After the break, the recruits went up to their stations. The weight of the barbells wasn't heavy on themselves, but by having them attached at one end and having to grab them at the other and perform an overhead attack, the unbalanced weight made it difficult to maintain.

Kane picked up the barbell and lifted it into the air. At first, he had trouble keeping it in place at all, through the heavyweight balance, the barbell in the boy's hands was constantly bobbing from side to side. After a while, he corrected the position of his hands and managed to hold the weight in place, and he began to perform the training. Slowly and carefully, he performed the strikes, remembering tutor Nilon's advice to focus on his whole body and which muscles he was using. With sore hands, he conscientiously struck again and again, thinking about the upcoming sparring.

After practicing with the weight barbell and pre-dinner run, the children did not have the strength to hold a fork in their hands during lunch. With their remaining strength, they clenched the cutlery with their fists in their trembling hands in order to eat their meal somehow. This time, the tutors didn't rush anyone to finish eating and gave the recruits a break. The children, who until now had spent a rather quiet life in orphanages and under the roof of their parents, with food and water when they wanted it, without any effort, began to appreciate and respect that they had food and water, not wasting even a bite of their meal.

Tutor Nilon on the training ground announced the plan for today's swordsmanship training.

"Today you will continue overhead attacks as you did yesterday, you will swing this sword, even for a year, until your hands fall off at the very end. Begin!"

A group of recruits grabbed their wooden swords with shaky hands and tried with all their strength to not let the sword out of their hands, as they didn't even have the strength to hold it in their hands after practicing with the weight barbell.

While doing the exercises, Nilon passed between the recruits, and surprised them by hitting random recruits swords while doing overhead attacks to see if they would release them from their hands after the impact. After a whole day when everyone was losing feeling in their hands, even holding the sword was difficult, let alone when the tutor was still striking them. Those whose sword fell out of their hand after an impact were given extra repetitions after supper as punishment. During swordsmanship training, he kept repeating.

"No matter how tired or injured you are, no matter what kind of situation you are in, you have absolutely no right to let the sword out of your hands. Once you release it, you are dead. Do you understand!?"

"Yes sir!"

shouted at all the recruits, tiring themselves out as they performed hundreds of repetitions.

When tutor Nilon struck Kane's sword, the boy's hands went numb and the sword came loose in his hands, but fortunately he caught it back at the last moment, himself not knowing how, because he had lost so much feeling in his hands that he didn't know at what point he was moving his own fingers. Trying to pretend that nothing happened, he slowly began to continue hitting, hoping that he wouldn't get punished.

After practicing fencing and resting, the mentors began to select pairs for sparring.

Remembering the duels of the previous day, they decided to mix up the groups and do sparring, where everyone would fight at a similar level.

"Today we are sparring under the same rules as yesterday, the defender can't attack, and the person who is attacking can only use an overhead attack. When you miss five strikes, you lose."

Kane was paired with Landis Mizen, who was a year older. Both set up in their positions with their swords, with Nilon watching them on the sidelines, curious about the outcome of the sparring.

"What was your score yesterday?"

Landis asked.

"9 wins and 2 losses, how about you?"

"10 wins and 2 losses."

He said it proudly, with a smile on his lips. Kane drew that he was attacking first. When all the pairs were in position, tutor Lorenz gave the signal to start sparring.