My First Day

As expected, the previous evening dragged on as Henry's mother and aunt burdened him with questions - most of which he didn't know the answers to.

By the end of the night, he had his head resting in his arms on the wooden tabletop, and his mom and aunt continued chatting, only realizing too late that it was getting dark outside.

Henry woke up the next morning to the sound of roosters, and he jumped out of bed as quickly as he could.

In his mind, there was no time to waste, or the knights would grow tired of him and overthink their decision. Even though he was nervous, he wasn't going to waste an opportunity to change the trajectory of his life.

After washing his face and dressing, as usual, he ran out the front door without another thought.

Not caring if he bothered any of his neighbors this early in the morning, he took a shortcut between houses until he made it to the cobblestones of town. His timing was perfect and he arrived at the stable just as the two knights were arriving as well.

Unlike yesterday, the knights were in more casual garb: thick tunics made from dark material, belts at their waists where their swords were, and dark grey pants tucked into boots made of leather that Henry knew had to be expensive.

"Good morning, Henry," said Maximus. "Have you eaten?"

"Good morning, Sir Maximus, Sir Trenton," he responded, being sure to use his manners so they wouldn't think too lowly of him. "I don't tend to eat breakfast."

His tone was nervous and he scratched his head.

Maximus looked at Trenton who stepped forward with a small ceramic pot covered with a matching lid.

"You're not going to get very far in sword practice if you don't eat something first thing in the morning," Trenton said and uncovered the pot.

He held out a small wooden spoon and the steaming pot.

It looked like porridge, which Henry hadn't had since his father's passing. Upon his father's death, money got even tighter, and they had to cut out meals in order to survive.

All Henry could do was follow orders as the knights gave him expectant looks. He sat on a small boulder and scarfed down the food that was offered to him.

It tasted better than anything he had ever eaten. There were actual seasonings and it tasted sweet. They must have some kind of chef to do the cooking for them in the knight's quarters within the wall of the castle.

He finished the entire meal in under two minutes.

The heavy food made him want to lie down and rest, but he knew that wasn't going to be possible.

As soon as he was standing up once again, the knights took back the ceramic pot and motioned for him to follow along.

"We spotted an open field on the way here that would be a good place to test your abilities," Maximus stated.

As soon as they arrived, they dropped the bags they carried on their backs. Henry noticed Trenton carrying two swords on his waist, one of them being the onyx sword Henry cut the goblin in half with.

Trenton unsheathed the black sword and handed it to Henry.

"This is what you're going to be training with today," Trenton said, an amused glint in his eyes as he handed over the sword.

Henry took it, but he had to rest the point on the ground.

"I'm not sure what you think I'm going to be able to do with this," he admitted honestly.

"You're going to do drills until you build up enough strength to swing this sword with control," Trenton explained. "I don't think it will take more than a week."

Henry thought Trenton was overestimating his abilities, but he still followed orders silently.

Within an hour, Henry was drenched in sweat, having done sword drills to build up his wrist and arm strength. After he had warmed up, he was required to do overhead strikes which eventually became overhead strikes into a wooden post that wasn't being used by anything.

With each swing, he relied heavily on gravity and couldn't do it quickly. His movements had hardly any control whatsoever.

Needless to say, his arms felt like they were going to fall off and he felt more hopeless than he did when he started.

While he trained, he would occasionally steal glances at Maximus and Trenton who would occasionally spar with their own swords. He had to resist the urge to stop and admire their swordsmanship.

When they told him he was allowed to stop, he had to resist the urge to drop the sword on the ground and respectfully handed it back to Trenton.

Trenton, on the other hand, raised a hand to stop Henry.

"What do you think you're doing?" Trenton asked. "I don't want that back."

Henry's eyes widened. He had heard bad things about upper-class people. With so little experience with them, he wondered if the stories about how disgusted they were by peasants were true.

He jumped to the conclusion that Trenton didn't want the sword back because he had touched it.

"Oh, I-"

Trenton untied the sheath from his belt and tossed it to Henry, who scrambled to catch it while still holding the onyx sword.

"That's your sword now," Trenton said. "You're going to wear it every day until you get used to its weight."

While it was common for peasants to carry swords or daggers, they were nowhere near as nice as the onyx sword in his hand.

He looked at the sword and admired the onyx metal across the entire expanse of the weapon. There was black leather around the grip that had been worn from use and was soft and comfortable in his hand. The pommel on the very end was round and had a green gem inside of it that could be seen from either side of it.

"I—I can't take a sword from you," Henry objected. "You're already wasting your time training me."

"I've got another one!" Trenton said. "See?"

To prove his point, he unsheathed the other sword on his waist and held it up to the sky effortlessly. The golden metal on the handle sparkled in the morning sun, and the metal of the blade was a light silver color. It was longer and wider than the onyx sword, but Trenton lifted it up effortlessly, and his shoulder muscle bulged inside the sleeve of his shirt.

Henry's eyes widened. It had to be so much heavier than the onyx sword. He wondered if he would ever be able to have strength like that, but he doubted it considering how little food he was able to have.

"Th-thank you, sir," Henry said, meekly.

It was no wonder these knights could face monsters with such fearlessness. They had unbeatable strength.

Henry started to clumsily tie the sheath to his belt.

"Move quickly," Maximus said to Henry as he watched him struggle to put on the sheath. "You have yet to run drills across the field."

Henry's eyes widened yet again. He wondered how much energy these two thought he had. He wasn't going to be able to move after their training session was over - much less return to the stable to work.

It was like something inhuman took him over and he somehow completed the exercise without passing out or throwing up - something he considered many times.

He fell onto his knees at the end, the sword at his waist digging into the light dirt underneath him.

Trenton offered him a leather water jug and he drank nearly all the water.

"Slow down or you're going to throw up," Trenton warned. "Again," he added, an amused smile on his face.

It was no doubt he was talking about when Henry took on the goblin and threw up in front of everyone.

His face flushed red and he stared at the knight who only laughed.

The three men soon went separate ways and, despite how hard Henry worked, he was in a good mood. Neither of the knights commented on his weak body but told him about how strong he was going to be if he kept trying.

As he worked at the stable that day, even Leo couldn't take his good mood away.

He worked at the stable until late and immediately returned home to lie in his bed. His mother told him the day before she would bring him food from his aunt's house.

He could hardly keep his eyes open as he waited for his food.

Despite his exhaustion, he looked forward to training with the knights again.