The following days went quickly as Mahon adjusted to his new routine. His mornings went at the rhythm of instructor Slander. Somehow, after Allen started to call him like that, the group of First Red unofficially named him so. Slander was harsh and trash talked everyone without break, but there was no doubt he was a great coach. He was able to push everyone to their limit without hurting them, and feelings about him were a mixture of hate and admiration.

Mahon and Zac continued to lose all their fights and Mahon could feel that Zac had started to become anxious about their results. He had never confronted Mahon about it though, probably because there was not a time where they were alone to discuss it.

After the exhausting training, the lunch break found the five roommates eating whatever meal was left in the canteen. Jorik never ate with them. It seemed the man hung out with First Yellow and First Black badges and spent all his time with them. It was the only break of the day and the little group never missed the occasion to chit chat about Slander, Amentiae, training, food and so on. The moment they were together and free, they created this lively atmosphere and lost themselves inside until duty called.

Yordar kept his promise to bore them with Amentiae and Allen had been increasingly frustrated day after day. Mahon had not gained as much insights as he had on his first day, but he felt his past experiences were much more understandable now that he knew the theory behind them.

The specialized lessons resumed Mahon’s torture at Instructor Slander’s hands. Muscular strengthening by gainage was the easiest of the two as it required deep core muscles in the whole body, whereas the running lesson solely emphasized leg muscles. Even in a few days Mahon witnessed his progress and each day he held the stances a bit sturdier and a bit longer. Each day, he ran a bit further and a bit faster. And as the days passed without break, he also had to fight the growing tiredness and soreness in his body.

Thankfully, the yoga lesson eased his pain and marked the end of his suffering for the day. There he relaxed and worked on his breathing and flexibility. He always left the lesson energized and happy, ready for the long walk to the house.

Mahon and his roommates had different lessons during the afternoon and they were ending their training at different times and locations. Thus they had agreed to meet back at the house after Yordar’s lesson and Mahon was often walking alone on the way back, not that it bothered him too much.

Once, Zac had decided to wait for him, but Mahon had been walking so slowly on the way back that he had to tell Zac to walk ahead or else his roommate would risk a seizure from how he was stamping his feet impatiently.

The evenings were what changed the most compared to Mahon’s two months of solo training. The roommates had bonded with each other at an unusual quick pace. Once duties and chores were taken care of, the usual discussions in the living room turned from empty chit chat to more meaningful conversation.

Mahon could now say that he knew kind nobles. He was the less talkative of the band, but they had still accepted him easily. He had found his place in this weird group and was happy to share his evenings with them.

During the week they had met once the First Red girls, and they had shared a dinner together. They were similar to Mahon’s roommates, and they had naturally bonded in that single event. Most of the time, though, the five men were together at their own house, talking while listening to Zac’s sitar.

It felt good to make new acquaintances naturally. Without war and deaths ready to jump at their throat in a moment of carelessness. Of course, they were training for war, but the atmosphere was so peaceful inside of the school that you could almost forget about it. Every night, the moment Jorik came back to the house was the point where they stopped their discussion and music and went to sleep. They had never talked with Jorik since that day.

After his misadventure with the no-dream pill, Mahon spent all his nights in Nightmare. There, he enjoyed his time alone and meditated to his heart's content. Sometimes he planned his next steps and objectives or lost himself in memories while admiring the now beautiful landscapes of a Nightmare without Amentiae.

All his days were split between these eight activities, always in the same order. Training with Zac under Slander’s flood. Joyful lunch with his roommates. Theory and Amentiae with Yordar. Gainage with Slander. Running with Slander. Yoga. Dinner in music with his roommates. Nightmare, alone.

After six training days, the last day of the week was a break day. There was no lesson, and they were free to do what they wanted. All of Mahon’s roommates went back to their respective home as they had promised their family to come back to tell them about their training. In fact, it seems it was the case for every student in the Pine Hill Officer Institute and Mahon remained alone.

He had no family to go back to. That was the burden of the commoner in this troubled time. He also had no friends, but that had more to do with who he was in Nightmare and the slaughter of the last battle.

Mahon discarded the thought of training a bit more on his own. He had been heavily exhausted towards the end of the week and his body would appreciate a full day of rest. It was part of the training to have time to recover and Mahon was sure the school had organized its schedule with this in mind even though they had said nothing about not training today.

In the end, Mahon decided to tour the school, both to stretch his legs and to visit the parts he had not seen yet. The school was organized into three distinct areas. The area on the west side was a big rectangle much longer than wide. It was the lodgings district and consisted of one long road with houses on both sides of it.

There was only one entrance to the site, at the top of the district where the road began. And then, the further you walked on that road, the cheaper the houses became. They were separated into different sections marked with a big symbol representing the badge you had if you lived here. The end of the road was a dead end, and that was where Mahon’s house was located.

In order to exit the lodgings district, as he did every day, Mahon had to walk all the way through it and pass in front of houses of each badge. In the morning, the walk was merely fifteen minutes long, but after a day of training, it was closer to half an hour.

When Mahon exited the lodgings, he entered the biggest area of the three, the school district. It was there that the actual teaching and training happened. The last area was a similar area than the west lodging district, except it was on the east. It was the administrative district and at the difference of the lodging district, there were multiple entrances. The area was for administrative buildings and some of the professor's houses.

It was also there that there was the esplanade with the tilted tables to show one’s rank. Once a week, on the evening of the break day, they had to go there and sit at their table. The event was called the banquet and the professors would inform them of anything important regarding the coming week before they would eat together.

Everything between the lodging district and the administrative district was the school district. It was huge. Very huge. If Mahon wanted to circle the whole thing, it would take him at least two hours. Needless to say, with only one classroom for the strategy lesson, the same training field for the morning training and two specialized lessons plus one more little ground for the yoga lesson, he was far from having seen it all.

Mahon let his steps carry him across the various big alleys and little paths he encountered without any specific goal. He just wanted to stretch a bit and observe. There were multiple buildings of different sizes and architectures everywhere he looked. When it was not a building, it was a training field.

On his peaceful stroll, he saw an archery field with different targets, some small and some big. There even were human shaped targets. They were all spread along the field and a little sign indicated the distance they were from the shooting stand.

Some time later, he witnessed an impressive grid of lands. Each one of the squares was dozens of meters wide and mimicked a type of field. One was desertic with sand dunes. Another was full of crevices and cracked ground. There were at least thirty of them! Water, flat plains, small hills, rocks, trees… Mahon stopped his aimless walk and went to explore the different fields. He would probably train there in the future to adapt to any kind of lands.

Next, he went to pick some food at the canteen where it seemed there would always be something to eat whatever the hour. He grabbed some kind of meat and cheese sandwich and continued to walk as he ate. He wandered a bit more until he reached an entrance to the administration district.

Am I allowed to go in?

Mahon was unsure if they were able to go in when it was not for the banquet. He still had much to explore in the school district anyway, and he was about to turn around when he saw someone coming his way.

“Hello, professor Rym.” He bowed to greet the woman.

“You choose to stay at school during the free day?” She sounded surprised.

“Yes. I don’t have a family to go back to, anyway.”

She scrutinized him for a few seconds and her face soon turned serious.

“Ah yes, Mahon isn’t it? The commoner… What are you doing here in this school?”

Mahon was surprised at the sudden question, but he answered nonetheless.

“I came to learn and train.”

“Oh, come on! Let’s drop the masks, shall we? Why are you here?”

“But I’m actually here to learn and train.”

“Don’t think I’m an idiot. It has been years since we accepted a commoner within these walls and it seems you are not even pretending you want to become a noble. Plus, professor Lorsan told me about your… condition.” Rym locked eyes with him and continued. “So let me ask again. Why. Are. You. Here?”

Mahon somehow remembered that Lorsan was the true name of Instructor Slander. So she knew he was weak, but so what? What was he supposed to tell her? I want to fight Amentiae? She wouldn’t even believe him. In the end, he didn’t say anything and just looked back at her.

“You came here on the order of the Council, but you are totally worthless. Are you trying to make a fool of this institute?” She focused on him intensely, as if she could decipher all his secrets with a single look. “Or… perhaps you are here because of the young lord Ravatoris?”

Mahon was now utterly lost. Was she so deep into layers and layers of schemes she couldn’t even imagine someone acting without any?

“I have nothing to do with any of this, professor Rym. In fact, I don’t even know who you refer to.”

She stared at him, unconvinced.

“Young lord Ravatoris Theodred. The student with the Last Green badge.”

“Jorik’s brother?”

Mahon finally remembered Zac’s history lesson about the guy. He might have seen him during class or training, but he had not paid any attention to the high ranked. They were just too far above him to matter.

“It is none of my concern, really. A counselor owed me a favor and helped me join the institute. That’s all.”

“Oh… I see. A counselor owed you a favor... That’s all.” She said with a dubious tone.

Her face was set in stone but for the occasional twitch in her smile. She clearly didn’t believe him. Not a single word of it.

“Whatever. I am responsible for this year’s education and as such, I will keep an eye on you. A close eye. Should you try anything and you will find yourself expelled before you realize it. Did I make myself clear?”

“Yes, professor Rym.”

She waited for a few seconds to pass, trying to read his expression, but there was nothing to read. He had said the truth, after all. She breathed a heavy sigh in resignation.

“Now, get out of here. The administration district is not to be visited by the students.”

Mahon left the next instant, and from the moment he showed his back to her to the time he turned behind a building, out of her sight, he could feel the weight of her eyes on him.

What a freaky woman.