William:

"AH, that hurt!" I yelled at him.

"Tsk, man up, William. You're going to join me as the king's personal guards soon. If my little punch hurts you this much, instead of yelling, you should be attacking. You'll have incredible power when you grow up, but you need to learn how to use it!" HE yelled back at me.

Just then, King Henry walked in on our training. "Now, now, he's just a boy, don't be too hard on him," he said.

"But sir, he's going to be your gua—"

"No buts. You can push William harder once he's a teenager. For now, treat him like the boy he is," King Henry interrupted, coming over and patting me on the head.

"Now, William, would you like to go get some Bristlethorn ice cream with the princess and Arthur?" The king asked.

I got up, bowed, and replied, "Yes sir, I would like that."

"But we still have training, sir. It's important he learns this at his age," HE interjected.

King Henry responded sternly, "We will come back to training. William needs some rest now. Behave, will you?"

"Yes sir, I apologize," HE said, bowing.

"Now, let's go, William," King Henry said, extending his hand to me.

As I was about to grab his hand, I woke up in an infirmary. Feeling my face, the mask was still on – it must have been some kind of magic the old man used. Then, I quickly remembered what happened and how I got defeated by the sergeant. Maybe if I had trained instead of getting that ice cream, I would be stronger. But now, I'm just weak. I've lost the last three fights. I felt nothing but embarrassment. I was supposed to be a high-tier soldier, but I’m getting defeated all the time. I have to get stronger if I intend to fight HIM. I let out a deep breath and looked around. There were curtains for privacy, but they were old and torn, so you could basically see through them. And what I saw was a bunch of people here, all beaten up. I looked to my right, and there lied Arthur, all beaten up. I quickly got up, moved the curtains out of the way, and saw his condition. I let out another deep breath. Arthur was fine; whoever healed him was quite the healer.

"Um, you're Whisk, right?" a female voice said to my left. It was the girl who Arthur helped when we were getting to our rooms.

"Yes, that's me.I,..forgot your name, sorry."

"Oh, that's okay. You kind of got your butt kicked. My name's Evelyn."

"Sorry, Evelyn. Is there something I can help you with?"

"No, no, I'm actually the one who healed both of you. I was just checking up on everyone here," she said, waving her hand across the room.

"Really? I thought this was a camp to train your combat skills?" I said with amazement.

"It is, but I want to go into battle and heal. I don't want to be a burden to the soldiers, so I'm trying to learn how to fight!" she said, smiling.

"That’s very brave of you and very reckless. From what I can tell with Arthur's body, you have quite the ability to heal. It would be a shame for the kingdom to lose you," I replied.

"Yes, that's what everyone tells me. But imagine all the people I could save if I was there in the battle. I’ve seen so many people die coming in to get healed. If I could be there, so many could be saved. So many parents could be saved," she said, her voice tinged with sadness.

I didn't know what to say. It's true that she could save countless lives if she were there, but she would also be a huge target for the enemy. Instead of helping, she might end up doing more damage than good. A frail voice spoke up.

"Well, I think it’s a brilliant idea, Ms. Evelyn," Arthur said, giving her a thumbs-up.

"Arthur, how are you feeling?" I asked, my voice laced with worry.

"I'm alright. More importantly, how are you?" he replied.

"Fine, thanks to Ms. Evelyn," I said, nodding in her direction.

"Thank you, Evelyn!" Arthur attempted to say cheerfully, but his voice cracked.

"It's no problem. I've been healing for as long as I can remember, so don't worry," she responded with a warm smile. "But you both need more time to recover – a day or two before rejoining your training. I'll inform the sergeant to come by and explain everything you've missed. Just rest for now."

After bowing, she left the room. I wanted to ask her about the unusually high number of students here on the first day. I guessed that everyone, like Arthur and me, had been made an example of. Turning to Arthur to ask him something, I found he had already fallen asleep. So, I just lay back down in my own bed. I knew I had to get stronger, but I wasn't sure how. Sure, I could learn a few things here, but that wouldn't be enough to beat a dragon or HIM. With these thoughts swirling in my mind, I closed my eyes and eventually drifted off to sleep.

When I woke up, the first thing I noticed were two large eyes staring intensely back at me. I quickly tried to punch the figure before realizing it was just the sergeant. She gave me a quick smile and said, "Hmm, your mask is such a mystery. I wonder if I pulled it off, would you die?"

"No, but it would be incredibly painful. Also, do you always send your students to the infirmary on the first day?" I replied mockingly.

"Ha! You and Arthur both said the same thing," she chuckled, pulling up a chair and sitting down.

Glancing to my right, I noticed that Arthur's bed was neatly made. "Where's Arthur?" I inquired.

"Ah, the boy has gone back to his room to prepare for his lesson with me in a few hours."

"I feel fine as well. I'll join you both," I declared, starting to get out of bed.

"That's fine, but you won't be training with me, Whisk. You see, I'm more of a magic user, while you're more of a brute. I can only teach you so much. Your real instructor will be Malikor. He's a brute like yourself, so I'll inform him of your visit today."

I felt a twinge of disappointment; I had hoped to be taught by her, but training with someone who fought like me made more sense.

"Okay, thank you, Sergeant."

"Hey, Whisk, I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to hit you that hard. So, I apologize."

"It's alright. I'm used to training like that," I said, climbing out of bed.

"Well then, I'll go talk to Malikor. Just a word of advice before you train with him: he can be quite difficult, so just be careful."

With that, she left the room. I grabbed my clothes from a stand next to my bed and changed into them, then left the infirmary. The first thing I heard were grunts and screams of pain, accompanied by the voice of a man telling them to get up. Naturally, I made my way towards the voice. What I saw was a man in the uniform that I, and every man I saw here, wore, but his was black instead of white. Surrounding him were bodies on the floor, either grabbing a part of their body or unconscious. The man again told the ones who were still conscious to get up because practice was not done yet, but none of them got up to fight. Rather, they all got up, told the man to go fuck himself, and left limping away. The man's face did not seem mad or disappointed, but rather amused at their departure. I walked up to the man and asked him a question.

"Don't you think you went a little too rough on them?"

The man turned in my direction, his amused face turning into disgust, and said in a strict and cold voice,

 "I do not care for the weak trash that cannot handle my training. They came here to become soldiers. If they cannot handle my rough training, what makes you think they can fight and kill when they need to?" He turned away from me.

"Well, isn't that why they came here? They know they can't fight to kill right now, so they sought out help from you to train them. But rather than train them, you beat them up to the point where they either fell unconscious or couldn't fight anymore. If I were to guess, I would say that you don't want to train them; you want to get rid of them."

"WHAT IS YOUR NAME, CADET?"

"Whisk."

The man's face turned into an evil smile. "Oh, hehe, so you're the kid that old fool thinks so highly of. Well, good to meet you, Whisk. I'll be your Sergeant who will train you." He offered his hand for me to shake.

I took it, and before I could say anything, he pulled me close to him and whispered in my ear, "I will break you just like you saw here. I will never teach someone that old fool thinks is worthy, so just resign and leave before you end up like everyone here today."

I pulled my hand away and said in a calm voice, "I've trained with someone like you before, and HE was far worse than you could ever be, so do your worst."

"Tsk, alright then, boy. Your first lesson will be tomorrow at 6 in the morning. If you're not here by 6, I will have you discharged. Now leave, boy."

"I would love to go, but I don't know where to go."

"That is none of my concern."

I blinked, and he was gone. Rather than walk aimlessly, I just took all the unconscious people on the floor and took them to the infirmary, then just lay in an empty bed and went to sleep.