For yet another day, she opened her eyes in a world that was not her own. In a silence that was not familiar. Her head ached slightly from the wine the night before. They had not drunk much, but it had certainly been as strong as everyone claimed.

She got out of bed to get ready. She took a quick bath, put on her uniform, and went down to the infirmary. The scent of herbs and alcohol filled the room.

While it was still early and the Headquarters had not yet begun to stir into its usual rhythm, she rearranged some of the glass bottles she and Alina had placed on the bookcase the previous day. She looked out through the window at the courtyard for a while. She organized the herbs in the drawers a little better.

And then the first minor injuries arrived.

Nothing serious. A few scratches, perhaps a sprain. Some claimed they had a headache or that their stomach hurt. But none of it was serious enough to require medical care.

Lyra got the impression that perhaps there were unusually many visitors that morning.

And there was a reason for that.

The knights were curious. Quite a few of them seemed to simply want to meet her in person, now that the news that she had helped Karl had spread among them like wildfire.

The last two young knights who entered the infirmary together gave away their curiosity. The nudges between them were obvious.

“Excuse me, miss. Will you be staying here with us?” one of them finally asked, clearly having lost the battle with his friend.

“Yes. For the time being,” she answered politely.

The two boys looked at each other. But before they could ask anything else, one of the instructors passed by the infirmary and spotted them inside.

“What are you doing here?” he asked with the sternness of his position.

The young men immediately stood at attention.

“S…” one of them began, but the instructor cut him off.

“To the courtyard. Now,” he said, without hearing another word, and the two of them hurried out of the room almost at a run.

“Have a good day, miss,” he said to her, giving a slight, polite bow, before walking away as well.

Lyra nodded with a smile.

The rest of the day passed quietly. In the gaps between visits, she read a book on herbs and treatments that Alina had given her the day before, taking notes as she went through it.

When midday finally brought a little peace, Lyra went down to the large dining hall of the Headquarters. The room was full of life, voices, and the smells coming from the kitchen.

There, knights, recruits, and instructors, men and women of all ages, talked animatedly and laughed. Others complained or demonstrated some move they had learned during training.

As she looked around, her gaze met Alfry’s. She had been speaking with a female recruit and a knight when Lyra saw her. The red-haired woman greeted her enthusiastically.

“Lyra!” she called happily.

“Alfry? What brings you here?” Lyra asked as she approached.

“I brought some reports from the Guild for the Grand Master and ran into familiar faces...” she said with a smile. “I still can’t believe we lost the chance to make you part of the Guild.”

Lyra laughed.

“Things just happened that way.”

“Anyway... How are you finding things here? I see they even gave you a uniform.”

“Yes. It’s been good,” she replied.

“Wonderful! Will you sit with us?” Alfry gestured toward the table behind them.

“Yes, why not?” Lyra answered. She had already decided to go with the flow.

They all sat together. For quite a while, they talked about matters concerning the Guild and the Headquarters. Their companions were two friends from the same village who had come together to join the order. It was a simple midday meal.

After they ate, Lyra said goodbye and went up to her room to rest before her training.

It was early in the afternoon when she stepped out of the stone building. The air was fresh and cool.

The light was no longer as strong when she passed beneath the stone archway that led into the training courtyard. Most of the exercises had already come to an end. The courtyard was nearly empty now.

Only two young knights were gathering some swords near the armory, and their voices carried softly, as though they did not wish to disturb the quiet.

Sunlight stretched across the stone slabs, slowly lengthening the shadows of the walls toward the center of the courtyard.

Lyra stood for a moment at the entrance, searching with her eyes for an instructor or knight who might be waiting for her.

And then she saw him.

Valir was there. He stood leaning casually against the stone wall a few meters farther in. One of his legs was slightly bent. In his hand, he held a wooden sword loosely, almost absentmindedly, as though it were an extension of his arm rather than an object. He wore no armor, only a black shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms and his dark blue vest.

The absence of armor should logically have made him seem less imposing.

It did not. Not at all.

Perhaps because now, without the metal pieces and emblems, his body itself was more visible.

His broad shoulders, the straight line of his back, the way he stood completely at ease without losing even the slightest trace of a man entirely sure of himself.

Lyra felt as though she were looking at an image that did not truly belong to the world around her.

The golden reflections on the stone, the quiet air of the courtyard, his tall figure against the wall... together, they made the scene feel almost unreal.

For a moment, she forgot how to move.

For a very long time, she had only ever seen him through a screen. In illustrations, in animations, in those scenes she had once watched so many times that she already knew what he would say before he opened his mouth.

It was absurd, almost funny, how easily her mind could still place him in the role of a game character. A figure that belonged to a world of fantasy.

And yet now he stood only a few meters in front of her, in the afternoon light, his blond hair slightly tousled by the breeze, and a wooden sword resting on his shoulder.

Real.

Valir lifted his gaze when she approached.

“Good afternoon, rookie.”

His voice was calm.

“Good afternoon...” Lyra took a few more steps, speaking with a slight hesitation, which she did not manage to hide in time. She was not exactly surprised to find him there. He could have been anywhere in the Headquarters, and besides, she knew perfectly well that around this hour he usually trained two children he had taken under his protection when they were young.

She cast a quick glance around, but there was no one else nearby.

“You are on time,” he told her in a steady voice.

She stopped across from him and tried to keep a distance that looked reasonable.

“Honestly, I did not expect to find you here,” she said formally. Her voice sounded almost normal.

Almost...

After all, she could not ignore the fact that she was standing in front of her favorite character. A man she had always considered ideal in every possible way.

She was going to train with him.

“Are you disappointed?” His question came calmly, without any obvious trace of irony.

That made it worse.

Disappointed? she thought. Not in the slightest!

“I was not prepared, that’s all. I assumed one of the instructors would be handling it.”

“That is usually how it works.” Valir turned the wooden sword in his hand and handed it to her. His gaze remained on her for one second longer. “Today, I happen to have time.”

Lyra did not answer immediately. For some reason, standing across from him in that golden light made the entire situation feel stranger than it was. She tried to focus on the simple fact that this was only training.

Valir took a step toward the center of the courtyard.

“You said you had worked with a sword before...”

“Yes. Years ago.” Lyra lifted the wooden weapon in her hand. “Though I suspect it hardly counts.”

The corner of his mouth shifted almost imperceptibly, as though she had confirmed something he already expected.

“Then let us begin. Show me what you remember...”

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Thank you for reading "Rookie of the Wind".