“Alright Kids. Attention!” barked the Lyon mage at the young boys in front of him with a firm, yet kind voice. Today he was supposed to cover for his fellow knight Armin who usually trained these aspiring apprentices for knight. Armin was pretty sick, and he couldn’t make it to the training. Ace was passing through his room casually when he was asked to be his replacement. He accepted without a beat. Armin was a nice fella. It was good to give each other a hand from time to time right? The group of five clumsily tried to form a line, fighting and stepping over one another. Trying to hold back the laughter, Ace proceeded to speak when they finally managed to do it with an overly serious expression of solemnity. “As you know. Squad leader, teacher Armin is sick for the day.” Walking down the newly formed line of men that, Ace slowly moved from one end to the other. “I shall be your teacher for the day. My name is Ace IX du Lyon. Pleased to meet you.” Ace’s knight armor shone as the rays of sun stroke the plates on his shoulders. He could notice the kids were withdrawn to the plated piece of metal, as their eyes lit with excitement over seeing it. He immediately reminisced his childhood days. He was an active kid, curious and easily impressed. He remembered secretly staring at nights at his father’s armor for hours. He always wanted to become one himself to wear it. Now that he stood before these kids, he noticed he had finally achieved that desire.

With a smile on his face, Ace continued to give instructions. “I’ve been told by Armin that you gents’ want to become knights someday. Am I right?” The kids immediately responded with a firm and lively “Yes! Sir!” Stopping for a second and giving them his back, Ace resumed. “So. Do you know what the most important part is for becoming a Rune Knight?” The kids immediately rose a brow. None of them had actually thought about such an important question before. Clueless, the first on the line, a bit bigger than the rest, but certainly chubbier spoke. ”Humm. To be very organized?” Ace turned back to face him. Before he could even respond, the kid next to him interrupted. “Of course not Fatty! The most important to become a Rune Knight is to be super cool and have the strongest power! Just you wait. I’ll become so strong I’ll even defeat Teach Armin someday!” He seemed to be the troublesome from the bunch. He had rowdy green hair, an air of confidence and a smile with a  couple of teeth missing. “Both are important. But both of you are wrong.” As Ace walked past the third kid, he stopped waiting for an answer from him. “The fundamental requirement to become a successful Rune Knight is of course intelligence. Rune Knights have to be able to assess the situation properly and act accordingly. It is imperative that they have a calculative mind and are able to come up with strategies to whichever situation they encounter.” Trying to appear unimpressed, Ace couldn’t help but admire how the stereotype of the smart kid with glasses completely fitted the appearance of the boy. “Still wrong.” Moving onto the next kid, he crossed his arms as both of the remaining boys looked at each other. They were similar to one another. They were perhaps even brothers. “It is to always follow orders? “ ”Of course it is to always save the lady. Am I right?” These two were the livelier of the bunch. Considering to how they both clenched their fists as they looked with an excited look at Ace, he knew they were pretty excited to train. Ace was pretty amused with the kids responses. However, he answered with a serious expression. “While they are all pretty good answers. I’m afraid none of you actually got the answer right.” As they began to deflate in loss, they kids stopped on their tracks after hearing the correct answer. “The most important part to become a Rune Knight is teamwork. In order to be prepared to save others, you must first be able to trust the one beside you. That is why I want you five to tell me your names. We need to be able to trust each other if we are to become great knights in the future. So soldiers! Please state your name at the double!”

The kids proceeded to introduce themselves. The chubby boy was the first. ”Hum. My name is Mino. Sir!” The green haired kid continued. “Awesome me is Kyle, Sir!” The glasses kid accommodated them as he spoke. “Please call me Sam. Sir!” The two brothers presented themselves almost unanimously. “Future Knight Timmy here. Sir!” “Billy ready for action. Sir!”

“Good! Now. Gentlemen, don’t expect me to go easy on you. Before you can become Knights you have to get in shape! We’ll have fitness training today. Let’s begin!” The training began immediately after. Beginning with some jogging, Ace could notice that Mino was struggling. The rest of the boys though, pushed themselves as they tried to match Ace’s pace. However, Ace did not yield, and instead pressured them to catch up. He told them the last one to arrive would have to run extra laps around the park they trained in. The other kids encouraged Mino to give his best.

After a dozen of laps around, the running finally stopped. Next up came strength training. He gave each of the boys a heavy wooden stick and told them to swing it 100 times. This time it was Sam’s scrawny body that struggled to complete the 100 swings. Not only that, but even Kyle helped him with his technique in order to reduce the stress. Next up came stretching and jogging. After a 100 high knees, the kids begged for mercy when the blue haired man told them they’d need to do 50 push ups, 50 abs and another 6 laps around the park. Brought to the edge of tears, the brothers encouraged one another with their own rivalry. “If you finish the training I shall take you all out to eat afterwards. This is what’s necessary to become a great Rune Knight.” Almost as if he had pronounced some magical words, the kids gathered newfound strength to finish the training. They were completely exhausted, but in the end the five of them worked together to drag their bodies all the way to the cross line. Ace had to admit too that he was pretty tired. In the end, it was a great day of exercise. After congratulating the kids on their effort and cleaning up the equipment, they all left to eat dinner.

“They are great kids. They’ll become great knights one day with a teacher such as you Armin.” Ace and Armin both smiled. After being thanked by the ill knight and giving Ace his reward, the blue haired mage left to his bedroom. He sure as hell was tired.

-Exit-
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