{Over the past month In between my day spars and my night 'shifts', I've been getting to know most of the other cadets:
Herra always has a smile on, and is always nice, it feels uncanny.
She's best friends with Clarence who has a similar personality as her.
I sparred with her a little the other day, it was very close, I won by a margin.
The twins are mostly noise makers but they're nice, don't really have much to say about them.
Karius and Dan seem to be good friends, they seem to have known each other from before the army.
Karius is way too straightforward with his words and his emotions, but he's not really that bad of a guy.
Dan is harder to read though, he's not unfriendly but not particularly friendly as well, he seems very smart though.
Zefroth is really chill, she seems like a good person though she doesn't talk much, she only seems to hang around Fiona and no one else.
Fiona is just as chill, but she's hard to read, she gave me tips for sparring and is nice, but also kind of strange.
Cera is…well rude, her face doesn't match her attitude in any way, but it's better she's upfront about it.
Laura is a little bit detached from everyone else, it feels like she prefers being alone, I won't disturb her.
Rud is a really cool guy, he feels like a good friend even if he's the oldest here; he's twenty-one.
He hangs around with both I and Caesar, they both spar every time and he wins every single time, he's really good with his fists.
As for Caesar, he's a royal but he might as well be the most humble. He's smart and friendly, though he pranks me a lot, there are no bad intentions.
Another thing is he also seems to have bad luck.
Except for the first day, no one really seems to care about my lineage, it's not as bad as I thought it'd be.
Most bad things they said about the marked, seem to be rumours past down from long ago, most are actually chill.
Well most… [A frown went across his face as he remembered the face of Curth]
My spars with Ren are becoming closer with each passing day, I've used the advices from Fiona and started using Clarence's techniques.}
***
Ren and Leo sparred as usual that afternoon.
"This kid…he's dodging almost everything now." Ren thought as he threw two hooks at Leo.
Leo swayed around the first with no wasted movement, then he used his arm to push against the second.
"An opening…" Then threw a punch to Ren's left chest region.
Ren blocked it with the palm of his right hand.
[Crack!] "This little twat just broke my wrist.
His blows have been hitting harder of recent.
And anytime I get a punch in it hurts me more than it hurts him." Ren took a step back.
"Timeout!
What are your bones made of, metal?" He asked sarcastically.
[The sound of horse hooves and wheels became audible]
Leo looked at his hands, and looked at Ren holding his fists.
"Probably…" He said with a fading tone.
Ren raised his left brow and squinted his eyes.
"Say what, it's becoming harder to train you as it seems I have nothing left to teach.
You're a pretty quick learner so why don't we stop here, you're better of training with the other little monsters."
[The neighs of a horse being reared up]
"Really?
…But I really found it fun sparring against you." Leo looked a bit sad.
Then he looked up at Ren once again.
"Is there any news about the favour I asked?" Leo asked Ren.
Ren's facial expression dulled as he leaned his back against the wall, he was still holding his wrist with the other hand.
"There are hardly enough soldiers to deploy for that request.
I've sent the ones under my jurisdiction but yet to no avail.
I ordered them to keep searching, as long as they're within the empire we can find them-." This was Ren's response.
Leo nodded, then turned around to the figure at the door.
"Hey Ren, surprised to see you here." The one standing at the door said.
"Never have I been more glad to see that blue hair of yours.
Then if you're here that means…" Ren's face looked relieved.
"Yeah, they are over at the wagon, gather up the kids." Ricia said.
"Hey Leo, call the other kids over.
I guess we were fated to end the spars today." Ren said with a grin.
"Yeah…" Leo said with a worried look on his face.
-
All the cadets stood before Ricia, their expressions were mostly that of joy.
She held a thin golden slab in her hand, it was the same one Heimer had held.
"Alright come forward once called.
Herra, you asked for a curved blade, here it is" She handed Herra a scimitar with her name inscribed on it.
The next was Rud, he had gotten gauntlets.
Zefroth got a long sword.
Dan got a box of throwing knives.
Karius got a halbred.
Cera got a needle.
Clarence got a Scimitar.
Laura got a thin one-sided sword.
Fiona got a great sword.
Paul got a war scythe and Saul got a morningstar.
Caesar got a wide bladed great sword.
All the weapons were made out of a black substance, even their blades didn't really look like metal.
"And lastly, Leo.
He had a hard time going through with your request, almost had as much trouble as Laura's.
But here it is…" She grabbed his weapon from the wagon.
Leo's face brightened a bit, he walked to the wagon to collect his weapon.
He stretched his arm out, and she gave it to him.
It was a double-bladed staff, he smiled as it graced his bruised palms.
He looked fondly at it.
"Finally…" He murmured.
-
In the training field they all started training with their new weapons.
"Let's try infusing aether into it." Leo held his staff with both hands steadily, he had entered a trance.
"From my legs, to my chest to my lower stomach, to my hands" Leo circulated the aether through his body.
"Then to my finger tips, and the weapon.
Channel it through." The black flame flowed into the weapon.
He spinned the spear around with the aether at the tips of the blades, the blades reddened from the heat.
"It won't break like the other one will it?..." Leo muttered his words.
"It doesn't seem like it's going to, I wonder what material it's made from.
All that's written here is the inscriptionK.V.S
I'm guessing that's the name of the forger." He checked the weapon thoroughly.
Leo was finally out of his trance like state, he could now notice the others with their halo's out.
The aether flowed from the halo to their body, and their weapon seeped out the aura of their aether.
Unlike his, theirs was the aura not the true aether itself.
"And here I thought it would be a challenge for them…" Leo sighed.