Knights Apocalyptica

Per contract stipulations, we’ll be conducting a search for Seven-Snakes and his associates in the eastern wasteland.

We expect the device to be finished as payment when we return with their heads.

- Edwin, Correspondence (3rd Era, 306)

Finals sucked.

The day of the testing started out like normal, filled with unending tension in the dorms about the impending future. Despite this, Erec boldly went into his day knowing that he’d be on to better things after this mess.

His first test—and everyone’s first test—was Physical Conditioning. They ran the students through a purely physical exam. Starting with a seven-mile run. Then Strength exercises like pushups and pull-ups. It should've been easy for someone like Erec with an overabundance of Strength for their year. But it wasn’t. The examiners intentionally made it, so there wasn’t a benchmark to beat. No. Since their next semester would include another round of Physical Conditioning. Therefore, they ran the exam until exhaustion.

After hundreds of pushups, his arms gave out, and he finished the exam.

Only to get a brief window to return to their dorms, shower, and change into formals for the rest of the exams.

Basic Mysticism came next. Erec thought he managed to scrape by—mostly with VAL’s help on the written portions. Thanks to VAL, he could describe and transcribe the glyphs tested, but the practical part of the exam… That was a different story. He’d failed to put in sufficient practice to maintain a glyph in his head and pour mana into it, which showed with three fizzled glyphs.

By lunch, Erec leaned on the cafeteria table and suffered from a massive headache. His friends weren’t much better off. Out of everyone, Colin looked the most annoyed.

“It’s unfair you were seen as fit to leave Courtly Mannerisms,” Colin said. “The instructor told me I’d be taking remedial lessons on top of the next course.”

“How appropriate,” Olivia shook her head. “In my opinion, they made the right decision. Look at your poor betrothed—how many times has she knocked at our dormitory only for you to ignore her, then hide in your room when I invite her in? Yet you believe you’re fit to pass unscathed with that sort of act?”

“I told you, wench. You have no reason to get involved in my personal affairs!”

“Is it still personal when you’ve involved all of your friends in them by the act of cowardice?” Olivia politely asked, folding over her napkin as she let her soup cool off.

Erec buried his head in his arms as the two continued to bicker to try to mute their noise. Their argument, combined with the rest of the loud canteen, was too much. There had to be at least a dozen conversations going on—people gossiping, concerned about their scores, and planning for the next semester. But for him, this semester, next semester. It’d be the same, right? He’d be stuck in this school and pulled a dozen directions by people with their own agendas. This upcoming expedition was only a reprieve from that.

All the while, even with his friends, he felt alone.

They tried to help when they could, but they didn’t understand the pressure. The headache of correspondence trying to get his Cavern in order or meet the expectations of the people around him. How was he expected to act as a Knight with all of this bullshit, let alone the hero they thought he was?

Garin wrapped his arm around Erec’s shoulder. A silent gesture of support while he listened to his girlfriend and Colin launch into an argument about relationship issues.

Before Erec knew it, the moment passed away. All too quickly, a chime rang out, and Erec tucked away his half-picked-apart food into a compost bin and walked off to the next round of exams.

Military History was a welcome relief; even without VAL, he’d have done well on the exam. Both the tactical analysis and the actual historic travel of their expeditions were easy to recall, but then he had VAL in his head to confirm his answers. Very simple for the two of them to pick the correct answers. Even easier to come up with arguments for tactical decisions on the hypothetical portions of the exam. The only issue was with the ease of the exam. Erec’s head kept coming to the ongoing feast this weekend.

Where all of his potential alliances and the deal with the merchants would reach conclusion. Though Erec worried. He always worried. Especially since they'd gone from unresponsive and delay tactics to a sudden enthusiasm. The sudden switch from all of them at once… It got him nervous.

If it only impacted him, Erec wouldn’t have cared much. But it was for the people relying on him. Hoping that he’d be successful that’s what made him uneasy. If anything were to go wrong, the people that’d suffer the most would be those under him.

After Military History came Scavenging and Armor Modification—he walked into a workshop filled with half-torn-apart Armor on a rack and a pile of scrap metal on the ground next to the frame. The goal was to get the frame and the junker Armor functional again, using the scrap and a basic set of tools. Precisely the kind of tools a Knight would expect to take on the road with them. Past that, they were to make it as formidable as possible.

Erec dove into the task.

With a blank mind, he soldered wires and toyed around with the Armor. It was like working with the Markos II all over again.

Some might’ve considered this to be a pain. But for Erec, it was like going back in time to when he didn’t have anything to worry about.

Within an hour and a half, the frame was functional. After that, he welded on plates of junk steel for a rudimentary defense. Then, inspired by his new modifications to the Vallum, he decked out the test armor with rusted-out spikes and screws wherever he could jam on it. At the end of the exam, he’d created ugly, functional, and quite deadly Armor he’d love to test in a fight.

After a brief evaluation, the instructor rushed him, and the other initiates off.

Wasteland Survival was… more theoretical than anyone expected, given half of their classes took place outside. They met in the classroom but didn’t break away to perform some theatrics in nature. Dame Juliana presented them a simple written exam, stating that any field tests she’d want to do, she’d already performed.

She'd filled the test with hypothetical scenarios, making it purely a knowledge and intuition-based quiz. Out of all of the tests, Erec found it the easiest.

His studies around these topics weren’t only to pass this class.

So, figuring out what he’d do was simple. VAL didn’t even bother to chime in as he filled out the test and then found himself turning it in before anyone else finished.

As his paper slid across her desk, Dame Juliana looked as surprised as he was.

She scanned the test before raising her eyebrows and looking at Erec. “All of it seems to be in order,” she tapped a pencil against the paper and frowned. “Don’t think I need to read through this test to know you likely did well. You’ll be taking my advanced class next semester, won’t you?”

“If it’s an option, I’d love to,” Erec said with a measured smile and then rubbed his tired eyes. It’d been a long day, and Garin’d said something earlier about a party of some kind. He glanced back at his friend—who was furiously trying to complete the test. With a bit of a lead, he could hopefully rush back to his bed and pretend to be passed out before Garin finished.

There wasn't a chance he wanted to waste energy on school celebrations with his own feast in a couple of days. Better to conserve energy.

His friend might be able to bounce from social obligation to social obligation—and Erec made damn sure his friend was coming along for this one—but he wasn’t equipped that way.

“It will be. I’ve already made sure of it.” Dame Juliana said and then cleared her throat. “I’ve, uh, heard about your change in responsibilities. You may not be directly under my wing like you are with Master Knight Boldwick, yet I can’t help but feel as if I want to help a student who so clearly has a similar passion for scouting.”

Erec gave her a confused look; Dame Juliana was an excellent instructor, but he had no idea what might be going through her mind.

“Life as a Scout and life as a Noble, if you’re good at either, you’ll find that they become two different lives entirely.” Dame Juliana scratched the back of her head. “…And, the more you’re outside of these walls, the further you go from this kingdom, the more that being inside of it and playing by the rules of it start to make less and less sense.”

“I don’t need to leave the walls to see that.”

“No, but there’s sights out there, things out there, that will make what you think of this place now even less. Things we can’t talk about inside of the Kingdom, for one. Which you’ve already had a taste of. Another is the experience of the freedom of the world. My advice? The more you separate those two parts of yourself, the harder it will be. Living two lives means tearing yourself into two. It’s better to pick one.”

Erec gave her an exasperated look. Of anyone she could say this to—really, she gave this speech to him? His Talent tore him in two; at this point living a double life was second nature. Picking one? What the hell did that even mean?

At least she tried to give advice, as misguided or unspecific as it’d been.

“I appreciate the advice,” Erec lied. “I’m looking forward to your class next semester.” He said, and that he meant.

She ran a good class, and he felt excited to see what else he might learn from them.

Erec gave her a polite salute and pressed his fist to his chest.

With the exams over, he’d have to face his academic consequences later. Yet the true test of his life here was in two days.

Hopefully, with this feast, he’d be able to leave on the expedition with the assurance that everything in his Kingdom life was settled and wrapped up. Only then could he cut loose and be free again.

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