Three months go by. Eric and Orph’s lives continue as usual. Training every single day. Eric still showed no improvement. They still hadn’t received their test from the King. But it looks like it was about to change. Shine had called for both of them.

“So, I've received news about your cadet test from the King’s aide. It says that you guys have to deal with the battle orc problem that’s been plaguing the outskirts of the Capital.”, said Shine. He put the piece of paper in his pockets and looked at both Orph and Eric and added, “Mentors cannot help their students in any way, so I wish you two good luck. But know this, do not risk your life if it gets too dangerous. The test isn’t the only way you can become a knight.”

Eric and Orph nodded in agreement. Shine went on his way.

“We’re going to need information and thanks to me, I heard about a guy who’s like the local information dealer”, said Orph.

“How do you even know this?”, replied Eric.

“Well, unlike you. Who sits in his room and daydreams about who knows what, I go outside and talk to people! And thanks to that I've heard about a lot of information...”

“Or rumors.”

“Same thing! Did you know? That Dragons fart an inflammable gas near the area where they eat?”, asked Orph.

“I... I did not...”, replied Eric.

“See! Today’s the day we learn about new things!

Eric didn’t reply, he just looked at Orph with big eyes and started going out of the castle.

“Wait, where are you going?”, asked Orph.

“To your information dealer...”, replied Eric.

“Oh right! Let’s go!”

Eric and Orph went outside the castle, for the first time together.

They went to a bar on the outskirts of the city, it was mostly empty. Orph touched Eric and pointed toward a man with a hood on, he was sitting near an open window. Both of them sat near the man, the man looked and flinched, he thought to himself, “It’s that kid!”.

“Do you remember me...?”, asked the man to Eric.

“Nope.”, replied Eric.

“Of course not, after all, we haven’t met before”, said BK.

Eric didn’t say anything else, Bk sighed in relief.

“Alright, so I'm not even going to ask.”, said Orph pulling out his coin purse. “So, I've heard that you’re a spell user...”, he continued.

“You’d have heard correct. It is I, the Beautiful Kite. The person who can turn into a shiny orb whenever he pleases.”

“If you can turn into a shiny orb, then why to call yourself the Beautiful Kite...?”, inquired Orph.

“If not, then I wouldn’t be called Bk...”, replied Bk.

“Wait, spell users? What’s that?”, asked Eric shockingly.

“You’ve never heard of spell users before? I know they’re rare but they’re found in pretty much any knowledge-based book in the library...”, replied Orph.

“I’ve only read books... about... knights and them saving princesses...”

“So, you’ve never left the kids section!”

“It’s quite alright! Let me tell you about spell users! Being one myself, no one else is more qualified and to top it off, I'll tell it to you for free, like a bonus.” said Bk, he then proceeded to get on the table. “Some humans after facing trauma can get powers related to it. No one really knows how it works, since most humans can’t even use magic.”, he continued.

“And what trauma did you have?”, asked Orph.

“I’m glad you asked! I got defeated by this... monster! I tried my best to defeat it but alas, fighting wasn’t my forte. So, in order to avoid other’s pitiful- I mean, sad gazes, I turned myself into a shiny orb!”, replied Bk.

“I’ll totally ignore that I didn’t hear the word pitiful.”

“So, what job do you have for me?”

“Can you help us with information relating to battle orcs?”

“I’ll see what I can do!”, replied Bk, then he turned himself into a shiny orc and flew outside the window.

“Well, that was something...”, said Eric.

“Oh, you’re awake!”, replied Orph.

The shiny orb came back inside from the window, transformed back into his human form, and dropped off a paper. He then proceeded to transform back into a shiny orb and flew back outside from the window again.

Orph and Eric looked at the piece of paper, there were some words written on it in good handwriting.

“No need to find me, I’ll find you. When I get any information that is! - signed, The Beautiful Kite.”

Orph and Eric went outside the bar and went back to their room, without saying a single word to each other on the way back.

Three more months had passed, there was no news from Bk and their yearly exams were coming near. It was going to be the same thing as before and as everyone had improved, not many worried about it. Eric, however, was worrying really hard. He had started to train even harder than before. Waking up before anyone and trained, he did it every day with no breaks.

Rally visited him, whenever she could. She tried to bring him food or just came to talk to him. Orph came and trained with Eric too, but Eric couldn’t keep up. Even Shine dropped by to give Eric some tips.

The day of the exam was coming near, Eric’s kept increasing the intensity of his training. Days passed until it was finally time for the exams. It was the same as their first day here. Eric tried his best but his performance didn’t change at all.

After the exam was over, Eric was visited by Orph. He had his sword equipped. Upon seeing the sword, Eric questioned Orph on whether he had heard anything from Bk yet.

“No, nothing yet. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t try on our own.”, replied Orph. “We’ve been putting off this search due to our exams and now that it’s over, we can finally try this on our own! We’ll come back before the results are out.”, he continued.

Eric wanted to ask Orph about how his exams went, but he hesitated and chose not to ask him. He excused himself to go get his sword and left the castle with Orph.

Orph instinctively went towards the orphanage, Eric didn’t question him. Upon coming near the orphanage, Orph stopped and started to look at the orphanage.

To break the awkward silence, Eric asked him whether he lived here or not.

“Yes, I might have. Once upon a time.”, Orph answered. Eric didn’t say anything back.

After some minutes passed, Orph looked at Eric and spoke, “Since we’re already here, let's look in this area.”

Orph started to walk towards the forest without waiting for Eric’s reply. Eric started to follow him, he wondered why he didn’t ask Orph why he didn’t wait for his reply, maybe because it was awkward? Orph never talked about his time before the knight training, and after seeing the inside of the orphanage, Eric had a feeling about why.

Soon, they came near three battle orcs. Giant green humanoid creatures with the head of a boar.

“They probably can’t see us, since they have bad eyesight. But their physical capabilities outclass us”, said Orph. “We can probably take them on”, he continued.

“Wait--”

Before Eric could finish his sentence, Orph started to run towards the battle orcs. Eric, not wanting to leave Orph alone, joined him. Eric took one of the orc’s attention away from Orph but hitting it in its leg. It didn’t do anything except make the orc look at Eric and attack him with a big axe.

Orph on the other hand was having an easier time handling two battle orcs. He dodged their strikes and kept attacking their joints, making them lose their balance and making them an easier target to hit. He was able to take out one of the orcs easily, but that made the other orc more aggressive and now it was time for Orph to dodge, a lot.

Eric, meanwhile, was still trying to hit the orcs at their joints. But he always missed, somehow. He lacked Orph’s accuracy and he could barely dodge the orc’s attacks. Orph saw Eric struggle and realized that he had to finish off the aggressive orc he was fighting. He distanced himself from the orc and let it hit the trees. He then positioned himself behind him and plunged his sword into the orc’s neck. Orph frantically looked back at Eric who was barely surviving. He threw a rock at the orc, the orc looked back and realized that his allies were dead. Eric distanced himself before the orc started to swing his axe madly everywhere. He ran quickly towards the position from where the rock hit him but Orph had already moved away from there. The orc hit a tree really hard and fell down. He was an easy target for Orph.

“What is wrong with you?”, asked Orph. “How can you have trouble with low-ranking battle orcs when our quest is to defeat them entirely in this area?”, he continued. Orph looked at Eric who looked at him nervously, gasping for his breath. He pulled Eric up, with a sad look on his face, and patted him. Orph didn’t say anything and Eric was too busy thinking about his own incompetence to blame Orph for charging into battle without consulting him.

They both went back to the castle together, lost in their own thoughts the whole way. Apparently, the exam rankings were out. Eric ran towards them, hoping that maybe he still had a decent rank. Orph was second, but where was he? Eric... Eric Gen... Gen Eric... twentieth. Upon seeing his rank, Eric’s heart fell.

“The top three cadets and their trainers are requested to come to the castle to meet the King! The rest of the cadets can go to the party held in the garden.”, said the announcer.

Eric went near the garden and stopped near where the party was being held. He saw the other cadets enjoying themselves, he then saw Orph and Shine go into the castle from the distance. He couldn’t do it. He didn’t go inside the party and went and sat down on a bench where there weren’t many people nearby. He looked at the moon and then stared at the ground. Trying to stop his tears. He didn’t realize that Rally was standing near him.

“There you are! I was looking all over the party for you.”, said Rally. She looked at Eric and realized that something was wrong. “What’s wrong?”, she continued and then sat near him on the bench.

Eric tried to hide his face from Rally and spoke, “It’s just... just that I try really hard but I... can’t seem to improve... at all.”

Tears had started falling from his face. Rally hugged him, but she didn’t say anything. They both sat there, under the bright moon, with Eric crying his heart out.