A knight wearing full-plate armour without a helmet stepped forward, his hair and beard were cut short and greying. He had the easy confidence of a soldier, someone used to the chaos of a battle. Jace smiled to himself, always good to know that the one your under is competent. This knight oozed competence if nothing else. The man stepped forward and folded his hands behind his back, his steely gaze swept over the new knight recruits. “I am Sir Yuri. I will be in charge of your education.” He paused and straightened even more, “ATTENTION!”

Jace, the minotaur and the knights behind Sir Yuri stood at attention on instinct. Sir Yuri eyed Jace and the minotaur with approval, “The two of you have had military experience?”

“Yes sir!” They both shouted, causing the young nobles besides them to flinch.

The knight nodded, “Perfect, we have fourty people in this year’s batch. Human over there, Minotaur over there.” Jace move towards the right away from the group, the minotaur was sent to the left of the group.

“Both of you pick a recruit until there are none left. You can decide amongst yourselves who the leader of your platoon will be, take turns when picking.” The man stood there and waited for them to take action, Jace looked over at the minotaur, “You can have first pick, won’t matter that much as everyone will be a quality soldier in the end.”

The minotaur grinned, “We wouldn’t be much of a knight overwise.” He pointed to a human who’s name Jace didn’t know. The young man didn’t seem surprised that he was picked first and walked over to stand with the minotaur.

Jace pointed at Arian, who blinked but walked over to join him, the minotaur picked another human, which looked identical to the first. Twins if he were to guess, Jace picked Vivianna. In the end Jace ended up with a bipedal tiger, the merman a male dwarf and a female elf. One of them was a human but was so small he was barely two inches tall. How he would become a soldier was a mystery to him. The rest of them were human. The gender spread was nearly even, eleven of them were male and nine female. The minotaurs platoon was split slightly less even with twelve men and eight women. The minotaur to Jace’s surprise was a woman called Zayanna, just based on her voice alone he had thought she was a male. According to Vivianna Zayanna’s voice was considered rather high pitched among her kind. Go figure, the male’s must cause earthquakes when talking then.

Sir Yuri nodded when they were done, “You have five minutes to decide who leads your platoon. If you cannot come to a conclusion, I will pick one myself.” He narrowed his eyes, “Don’t make me pick.”

“Yes sir!” Jace and Zayanna shouted, a few of the recruits who were quicker on their feet called out at the same time. Jace looked back to his platoon. Arian shrugged, “Jace is from the battle master clan, makes sense to make him the platoon leader.”

“Fuck no.”

Everyone looked at Jace in surprise, who shrugged, “Being in charge sucks, paperwork and management, I suck immensely at both, I’m a better sergeant than I will ever be at being a lieutenant. Personally I think Vivianna should take the role. With me and Arian as squad leaders.”

The dwarf scratched at his impressive beard, “Although I agree with your assessment, what makes you say that.”

Jace glanced over at them, “Both of their clans are well experienced in war, both were trained at leading troops. I’m sure of it. As to why Vivianna instead of Arian as lieutenant. Honestly couldn’t tell you, it’s just a feeling.”

The rest gazed at each other and shrugged, none of them had a strong feeling on the subject. Vivianna nodded calmly and accepted her role. Arian shrugged, he was fine acting as a squad leader. Vivianna looked over her platoon. “We just need to split the platoon then.”

Jace quickly raised his hand. “DIBS ON ALL NON-HUMANS!”

A lot of people stared at him, the non-humans looked decidedly angry. “Are you a racist?” The female elf asked with an icy cold voice.

Jace blinked and stared at them like they were idiots, “Why would I call dibs on the non-humans if I’m a racist! My former team was all human, I want to spice things up!”

Vivianna coughed, “Perhaps you should explain what dibs is first?”

Jace blanched, “Owh right, well it means I want all the non-humans for my team. Dibs is like, when you say it before someone else you get it before they do? It’s stupidly hard to explain.”

The dwarf laughed, scratching at his beard. “So it’s only full of positive things to us non-humans. We are used to racism, even if the Krivka kingdom has proven to be surprisingly open minded for a mostly human kingdom. We still expect the worst most of the time, sorry about that.”

The female elf bowed, “My apologies as well. I would be honored to join your squad.” The others portrayed similar feelings, Arain said he didn’t care one way or another who was in his squad. Funnily enough Jace ended up with five out seven non humans in the entire batch of students. The minotaur had chosen a somewhat larger human with a bald head and an excessive amount of muscles. Their skin was blue and they had no visible ears, other that they resembled humans.

Once they were done deciding on the leaders they turned to the knight. The other group had decided to go with Zayanna, having someone who already had some experience lead them seemed fine to them. Jace shook his head in surprise, the people here were truly open-minded. He needed to figure out if there was a story or something behind it.

Sir Yuri looked over the groups. “Good, I am glad I did not have to choose. The knights behind me will lead you to your new homes, each platoon will recieve a mansion in which they will bunk. Room arrangements can be made yourselves. You will find a list of classes you can sign up for in your rooms. Have it filled out before the end of the day. You will be brought to dinner in five hours. Use the time to get acquainted, class won’t start till tomorrow. Dismissed.”

A couple of knights walked over to Jace’s group and they were lead to one of the mansions. The place was well furnished and was luxurious, nothing near to the Vin To Shurka home but it was nice. Vivianna walked over and asked for their attention. “Based on the lay-out of the mansion we can put Jace’s squad in the left wing, and Arian’s in the right. The rooms are all on the second floor. Living room and kitchen are on the first. I’ll take the room directly at the top of the stairs. Two hours for the squads to get to know each other, then we all meet here and get to know the rest of the platoon. I’ll spend the first hour with Arian’s squad and the second with Jace’s. Questions?”

“No, lieutenant!” Jace answered. Others copied his answer, Vivianna nodded. “Dismissed!”

Jace led his group over to the living room and sat down on one of the couches, the rest sat down as well. Jace turned to them, “Well I’m Jace, I guess by now you know a little about me. I’m twenty-six, nearing on twenty-seven. Spent six years in the army, I have a wife called Sarai and a daughter called Aziva. I have a sister who has taken over my adventuring team, and a grandmother living in a village in the wild west. That’s it for family and basic introductions, next!” He pointed over to the dwarf.

“I’m Grumgar Gunderbard, from the Bronze Beard clan. I have no romantic relations to speak of, other than a few lasses I met at a pub!” The group chuckled, “I have so many family members that I won’t be bothering to name them all. I’m a dwarf in case my bushy beard didn’t tip ya off. I’m fifty-four. Spent a tenner in the Dwarven-Iron-Legions. The dwarven Alliance has been a long time ally of the Krivka kingdom, and I was sent to become a knight under their command as a show of further good faith. Next up is you pointy!”

The elf smirked, “I am Cilifilinicila of the Filimímial family. I know my name is a difficult one to pronounce so you may refer to me as Cili. I have a younger sister and a mother, and a few more branching members. I was a member of the Elven-Woodland-Striders for twenty years, I am currently a hundred and fourty-one years old. The elven Winterleaf tribe is a long time ally of both the Dwarven alliance and the Krivka kingdom and I was sent here for the same reason gruff was.”

The tiger stood up and was next to speak, his voice was a pleasant rumbling growl, deep and soothing. “I am Xivr, a wanderer without clan or name. I was a mercenary, I saved a knight in a battle and he was impressed with my capabilities. He offered to take me in as squire and send me to the Academy. I took the chance to earn a clan name and have a home to fight for and accepted the offer. I have no family to speak of.”

The next to stand up was the merman, “I guess I will keep this trend of non-humans going.” The group grinned, “I am Mimla of the merman, Our people are no allies of the Krivka kingdom nor are we enemies. Our people are well known for our neutrality. I fell in love with a human female and now live on dry land, it is bothersome and I need a few spells to be able to live on the surface, but I would do anything for Triss. I was an adventurer and simply applied to the test, I scored well and was given opportunity to join the Academy, It is an honorable chance. It pays well and it would help me provide for my beloved. I have some family back home but we are not in contact.”

The super-small human stood up next. “I will introduce myself as the last of the non-humans.” His voice was surprisingly normal for someone of his size. “I’m a briarling, the name is James. There are a few families of us briarlings that live in Krivka lands. We are citizens of the kingdom like any other. I excel in magical combat, as you can imagine due to my size. Physical combat is not my strength. I have three brothers of which two are in the army. My family has served for a few generations, I am the first who was given the chance to become a knight.”

“Forgive me if this is rude to ask, but how would combat with you work. I assume because of your size it would be difficult to keep up with the larger races. Do you sit on a fellow soldiers shoulder or something?” Jace asked curiously.

James nodded, “That’s pretty close actually, it depends on if we can find a partner that we can work well with. One of my brothers even had a little chair that was crafted onto the shoulder of his partner and friend. On which he would sit and launch his spells. We make up for our lack of size and physical strength with the sheer size of our mana pools. We are basically shoulder-mounted artillery.” James grinned, “It has something to it, having you tall folk do all the walking for us.”

The rest of the group laughed. Jace turned to one of the remaining people in his group, a woman with freckles and a long brown braid. She was pretty in a homely fashion, “I’m Lily, I’m from a village not far from the capital. We were attacked by a wave of Grufflings, a knight was in our village at the time and we fought them off. She was impressed with my performance and asked if I wanted to become her squire. Naturally I would not refuse such an opportunity. My family is big and we are farm people, I have nine siblings. Six of which are younger than me. Our farm is rather prosperous but farming life was sooooo boring, I jumped on the opportunity to do something else. My family is really proud of me so it's a win for everyone!”

The group smiled and Xivr patted her shoulder encouragingly. They turned to the last member of the squad, a man with a bald head and a beard that could rival a dwarve’s. Angry scars criss crossed his face and gave him a menacing look. The man grinned, “Despite my scarface I’m a rather jolly fellow by the name of Karl. I was an adventurer, gold ranked. I was an axe-wielding terror to all monsters in my way and decided to take the test our watery friend Mimla. I passed so here I am, I’m a street kid so no family to speak of. I didn’t work with any one team either, I loaned myself out to any team needing a proper frontliner.”

Jace smiled in relief, the people in his squad seemed to be relatively normal personality wise. he had expected more excentrics from the non-humans was that racist of him? Who knew, they seemed like pleasant people and he couldn’t wait to work with them.