Cyril agreed with Rhamn on this one. He always took pride in his martial prowess, and testing his strength against someone of similar age was an interesting idea to him.
I am not being arrogant, I am just trying to test my skill, He tried to convince himself.
So Cyril moved to the weapon rack near the wall. Cyril just picked up a wooden spear when he noticed someone else had chosen the same weapon.
It was that girl with auburn hair. She familiarly grabbed a wooden spear and twirled it, before shooting him a confident look.
"Cyril, right? How about we have a duel?" Her tone was friendly. In her eyes not a single shred of hostility
Something about her caught Cyril's attention yesterday. An old professor was singing her praises near the entrance. Her name was Myra.
"Sounds good." He simply replied.
Since someone else challenged him, he could only accept it with a nod. Cyril had a feeling she wasn't going to be weak.
They were the first to form the pair and walked to the nearest arena.
Their professor eagerly walked in closer to observe, all the other students, even those that were dead tired, stood near him as well.
Observing a duel was a pretty novel experience for them.
Under the expectant eyes around, Cyril and Myra bowed to each other and readied for battle.
Soon the professor screamed loudly for them to "Begin!"
Cyril shot forward immediately and attacked with a flurry of thrusts. Each strike was fast with great force behind it, but Myra with minimal movement dodged all of it and responded back.
There was some weight behind her confidence. She was experienced and calm.
Cyril was surprised to find out that in their exchanges, he was inferior when it came to skill. The only advantage he had was strength.
As the fight continued, it became clear that he was losing. He has yet to land a solid strike, while Myra has already landed several.
Pain clouded his judgment, and his attacks became more desperate. which only seemed to aid Myra, as she continued to dodge his attacks.
"Stop!" Soon the booming voice of the professor signaled the end of the duel. "The winner is Myra."
The surrounding students exclaimed as well, some even starting to clap.
"I'm glad to find out we have some good students here. This fight was exceptional. Myra's skill with a spear is that of a future knight. Cyril is pretty good too, and he has the spirit of a warrior. I hope the rest will not fall too far behind." The professor's loud voice was tinged with satisfaction.
The announcement brought Cyril back to reality, and he sat down on the floor from exhaustion.
I can't believe I lost so easily and to someone wielding a spear too...
He suspected she was strong, but not to this extent. She saw through his every move as if she knew them all beforehand.
"It's only a temporary setback, Cyril. You'll surpass her in no time!" Rhamn crouched down beside him, raising a fist in the air with burning eyes.
I am fine. No need to say things like that.
Cyril got up from the ground like nothing happened, gave a nod to Myra, and headed to the bench to rest.
She soon joined him and sat not too far away. They watched the rest of the duels together.
"You fought well. If I relaxed for even a second, you would've won. How did you learn to fight like that?" Myra tried to initiate a conversation.
"I trained," Cyril said flatly.
Though he tried to stay rational about his loss, Cyril still felt a somewhat embarrassing sense of frustration at the moment.
So he was reluctant to talk to Myra, replying briefly to avoid further conversation.
As a result, they spent this time mostly in silence.
...
In total there were two other fights. The first one went through steadily with a clear winner after an energetic fight. Rhamn commentated the whole event, much to someone's dismay.
The last one was between the young man Cyril wanted to fight earlier, whose name was Cedric, and another student.
The difference in skill was too much, so Cyril was not able to properly rate his strength, but he was not too concerned with that right now.
After some additional speeches and exercises from the instructor, they were dismissed.
Most of the students were too tired already and whined about how they just wanted to go to bed now.
Cyril didn't linger and try to talk with his fellow students, instead he immediately left to find a healer in this castle.
What he wanted the most right now was solve the mystery of his new 'friend'.
With the help of a map he found one of the infirmaries without issues.
Thankfully, the healer was currently on the spot. It was a kindly-looking older woman, sitting behind a cluttered desk, writing something on a piece of paper.
She was actually someone he knew.
Her name was Bessie—a popular healer in the capital and an acquaintance of his father.
Thoughts of slowly going out surfaced in Cyril's mind. He didn't want to share his situation with her.
Unfortunately for him, just as he started to turn around, the old woman noticed him and got up from the chair.
"Cyril, good to see you. I didn't expect to meet you so soon. Did something happen on your first day?" Her weathered voice sounded fittingly sweet.
He organized his words for a second before speaking, "Hello, Miss Bessie, I just wanted to get familiar with the way to the infirmary. Why are you here? What about the clinic?"
"Oh, the clinic will be fine. I am not the only good mage in there, and I found a replacement before I left... Since you are here why not do a check up?"
She got close and stretched out her palm in front of him. A circle of blue light appeared, filled with a complicated pattern.
Soon Cyril felt a wave go through his whole body. Through this quick method, the healer was generally able to find out the state of the patient's body.
"Hmm... A few bruises here and there, nothing a healing spell can't fix. Other than that, you are in perfect health." As she was saying this, the pattern inside the magic circle changed, and soon Cyril no longer felt the lingering pain after the duel.
"Very convenient." Rhamn was still here.
She didn't detect anything with that...
"Because there is nothing wrong with you, she said that herself. "
"It's alright now; don't hesitate to come here if anything happens. Healing people is my job." After that, she sat back down and continued writing.
Cyril didn't want to stay here longer than necessary, so he said goodbye and left.
...
Once outside, he found out that someone was waiting there.
It was Myra, and she immediately approached him.
"Did something happen during the duel? Why did you go to the infirmary?" There was worry in her voice.
"Why is she following you around? She should mind her own business" Rhamn stared at his classmate with clear hostility.
"It's nothing serious. I wasn't hurt during the duel. You can relax." By now, Cyril had managed to get over his loss and was no longer as standoffish with her.
"Really? That's a relief." After saying that, Myra remained silent for a few seconds. She looked like she was contemplating something.
Finally she opened her mouth. "Well, see you tomorrow."
Cyril felt that was not what she wanted to say, but it was not his concern right now, so he gave a nod and left.
...
He made a brief stop home to store his Spell Making book, then with a certain purpose in mind went to find his friend, Edmund.
After a bit of a process he entered the dormitory, he had to go after another student, since he didn't have the keys.
The staff at the entrance shot him a piercing stare but didn't do anything else.
Cyril knocked on the door of his friend, and soon saw him again.
Edmund looked tired as usual, with a rare hint of annoyance on his face. That soon changed as he noticed his guest.
"Cyril! You actually visited me! I am truly touched that someone as proud as you took the initiative to find his longtime friend. So, what do you need?" He said with some sarcasm.
Looks like he is holding on alright.
"It's nothing big; I wanted to ask if you know any good healers in the city. I plan to visit one," said Cyril.
He didn't stand on the ceremony and went straight to the point, but Edmund was used to it.
"What's wrong with the one here? ...If you don't want to answer, then never mind. I do know a few; it's not a problem to tell you; just come find me sometime to hang out." Edmund quickly replied.
Cyril was very reluctant to let anyone he was familiar with know about his troubles.
So, he chose to find a healer in the city,and Cyril thought his outgoing friend would know where to find a good one.
They talked for a while, Edmund told him everything he knows, then whined about how difficult all this was for him. Cyril could only nod and tell him to stay strong.
After some time he left, followed by Rhamn, who was sitting with them this whole time listening to their conversation.
"It's way too late now; let's go to the city tomorrow. How about walking in the academy's park for the rest of the day?"
I have better things to do.
If I want to get stronger, I can't slack off. We are going to the training grounds.
Cyril felt he still had a lot of energy left.
So Rhamn spent the rest of the day watching Cyril train with a spear in the training hall. She didn't complain much.
...
The next day began peacefully. The first lesson was Spell Making again, where they still didn't cast a single spell.
Under the students protest, the professor promised that the next lesson will be a practical one.
The next lesson this time was demonology. The purpose of this class was to educate the people on all the demons one needs to be wary of and their weaknesses.
It was a useful thing for Cyril, who thought he might have to fight demons in the future, so he listened patiently to the beautiful and comparatively young professor standing before the blackboard with something projected on it.
"As I hope you are all aware, this is how a ghoul, the most common demon, looks: a deformed humanoid creature with sharp claws and reddish skin. Some have feathers, horns, tails, or other animal characteristics. Alone they don't pose much of a threat to a soldier of the empire, but their kind always comes with great numbers. Don't get careless when fighting them. They can be a tricky enemy to deal with."
With a wave of her hand, she changed the image on the board into different examples of ghouls.
All of them were quite ugly, and some of the more softhearted students struggled to keep looking at them.
"Despite their somewhat humanoid appearance, they behave more like beasts, and you must approach them as such." The rest of the lesson was dedicated to describing their weaknesses and common tactics one could use against them.
"What a disgusting creature. looking at them makes me even a bit sad. How can something like this exist?"
After the end of the lesson, Rhamn immediately began sharing her impressions.
Demons are all weird like this; I don't think anyone knows why they appeared. Though there are quite a few theories about it.
Thinking this, Cyril calmly went to the next lesson of the day: history
Cyril never liked this lesson back in school and didn't expect that it made a resurgence here. The whole lecture went over his head, but he tried his best to retain any information.
Is this the professor's fault or the local curriculum's? Somehow it all comes down to how great the Empire is or how bad the Kingdom is.
Suffice to say, Cyril was not a fan of this lesson.
"It's just so boring," and neither was Rhamn.
After what seemed like an eternity, they were finally free. Cyril could feel that this lesson would be a struggle in the future.
He went back to his dorm to store all of his study materials and quickly prepared to head into the city.