1 Iron Knight
"Get up quickly, Aron! Exams are about to begin!" Karl said as he rushed out of the room.
The room's ceiling was decorated with cobwebs, and the small windows barely illuminated the interior as the sun rose outside. A few simple beds were lined up against the wall, each with a gambeson stand and chest.
The sleeping quarters, as Aron and Karl called them, were little more than slightly better quality barracks where future knights of the Kingdom would spend their nights.
After losing the war with the Hakas Empire, only Counts could afford to run a knight's academy.
Even so, Aron's school was among the poorest in the Kingdom. Count Komes could not provide better conditions for the sons of the nobility and promising youths from the Eastern Borderlands, which were the poorest part of the Kingdom even before the war. Now that the Kingdom of Rogar has fallen from grace, knighthood schools are one of the only ways to rebuild the army's strength.
In the past, the Kingdom of Rogar was in constant wars with its neighbors. Each successive ruler increased the army and sought to conquer more lands. For the hegemony of Rogar, bards sang songs, and most of the most mighty legendary knights came from here.
As with all good things, Rogar's military supremacy ended abruptly.
A tiny neighboring principality, a mere fly to the mighty Kingdom of Rogar, defeated its powerful neighbor in a great battle. To this day, it is unknown what means the current Hakas Empire used. Still, it decimated Rogar's army.
A power that used to be able to field thousands of knights could barely wield a handful. No one from Rogar had survived the battle, and all they had left were those who hadn't participated. On the corpses of the Kingdom, a tiny principality built a grand empire.
No family in the Kingdom that day did not mourn the loss of a father or a brother.
The principality forced the Kingdom to sign a disgraceful treaty after the battle. It forced the Kingdom of Rogar to give up almost half of its lands. It seized nearly all the techniques on cultivating aura and forbade learning higher levels of aura than iron. Only 20 warriors were allowed to be silver knights.
It was an outrage to the legendary warriors of the Kingdom of Rogar. In the past, the iron aura was merely the beginning of the warrior's journey.
The iron squire served his master until he achieved the silver aura and was knighted. It was all they knew, but they had no choice but to accept.
Nowadays, it doesn't take much to become a squire. The level of bronze aura was enough to join the knight's school and have a chance to learn iron techniques, and you also didn't have to be a noble anymore.
Karl recently joined a knighthood school after mastering an advanced bronze aura and paying tuition fees. The opposite was true of Aron. As the second nephew of the last Count, at age 12, he joined the Knight's Academy thanks to his aunt, the Count's wife.
Although his aunt was the wife of a Count, Aron's life had never been a bed of roses. His mother had died in childbirth, and his father died in battle. Even his estate had been appropriated by the Empire. During his childhood, his aunt cared for him until he began training.
Two days ago, after five years of aura cultivation and exercise, his aura finally turned from bronze to iron. His muscle strength and control had almost doubled.
At the end of the month, Count Komes' knight school organized small exams to check the cadets' progress and see whether any of them would achieve the iron aura. Once they reached iron, they could finally put on an iron belt and become a full-fledged knight.
Today was exam day, and Aron had overslept. He had completely forgotten about it, and the night before the last candle, he read legends about magic.
As soon as Aron realized he was the last cadet in the room, he jumped off the bed and quickly dressed. He put a cadet tabard on his shirt, tied a thin belt to which an old bronze sword was attached, but left off the thickly padded gambeson.
Aron was a rather tall young man with blond hair and blue eyes. When he fell like an arrow into the courtyard, nobody noticed him.
The courtyard was surrounded on three sides by buildings and a gate at the front. In the center, the other cadets lined up in a row.
As Aron joined his classmates, three more people entered the courtyard. Two of them were familiar to him.
Of the three, two wore chainmail and an iron helmet, and the last wore a lovely blue silk robe.
"Good morning, young cadets." Shouted the oldest of the three newcomers, the unarmored one.
"Today's exam will take a much-shortened form than you know from the past." He said and paused to inspect the cadets.
"Only those whose aura is iron will be tested. Come to the front!" He shouted, and two cadets, including Aron, stepped forward.
"Only two..." He sighed and pointed at Aron.
"Show me your aura!" He shouted in a challenge.
Aron always had a little trouble accumulating aura. Now, however, without waiting for further commands, he began to focus his aura on his hand, which, after a few seconds, had a slight gray glow.
The gray light indicated that the aura had increased the strength and endurance of his hand. Unfortunately, after only a few seconds, the glow had disappeared, and Aron sighed as it had exhausted almost all of it.
The other apprentice, who also came out, laughed under his breath.
"You have achieved the basic qualifications for an iron knight, but your aura is pathetically small," The old man replied and sighed.
"In old times, you wouldn't even be a squire. Name?"
"Aron Areden," Replied the young man.
"The apple does not always fall close to the apple tree. Oh, but the next one is good!"
The old man clearly knew from which family the next cadet came. He pointed to the cadet, who surrounded their forearm with the aura just as the old man finished speaking. Cadet kept the aura on his hand for over a minute.
"Well, that's what's called talent. Practically the level of an adept of the iron aura, amazing..." The old man said as one of the knights behind him approached.
"That is Solrel Degerlund, son of Baron Degerlund, who joined the knighthood school six months ago and has no equal in swordsmanship. He is also unrivaled in Knight Mikita's lessons." The iron knight Bue said. The knight was an instructor at the knight school, and the other present Knight, Mikita.
Both of them, having a merchant background, were able to become instructors thanks to their talents. Still, even the instructor and iron knight status did not give them surnames.
"So, Sorel Degrlund and Aron will be the iron knights of the Kingdom from now on. I am saying that with the power bestowed in me as a Magister in the court of King Robert IV."
All the cadets showed surprise.
What is a magister of the royal court doing on the fringes of the Kingdom?
They are admired and respected throughout the continent. The exam for a junior magister degree requires many years of preparation. Candidates for a magisterium must know all coats of arms from almost the entire continent, history, philosophers, and other fields of science. They are sometimes called walking books.
Aron once wanted to become a magister, but it was practically impossible for a noble orphan.
To Aron, the magisters were closest to the tales of legendary magicians from his childhood. They once ruled the continent, and magisters were rumored around the Kingdom to do magic to prolong their life.
"Without wasting time, both of you will pack your things, and you will leave with us in half an hour. Disband cadets!" Knight Mikita shouted, and everyone started to diverge.
The magister went back to the castle with the instructors.
Sorel went to the second building with the rest of the cadets.
At that moment, Aron's stomach grumbled.
He would have to quickly find something to eat. Aron sped back to the sleeping quarters, with Karl right behind him. Although there were several beds in the room, only Karl and Aron lived in it.
He had stored some fruits in one of the vacant chests, which now saved the day.
