Spark

The next few weeks of training went by similar to the first, Wake up, Eat, Run, Sleep. There were a few more exercises added recently to help train their muscles. Squatting exercises to train their legs and an exercise where they had to crawl without using their legs to train their arms.

Along with the new exercises there was another change and that's that there more soldiers who joined the troop.

"Agh." Tai had fell to the ground, he took a look behind him to see who had pushed him. It was a long haired blonde boy surrounded by a group of what seemed to be his underlings.

"Aye what's your problem Marvin!" Lucky came up yelling at the boy.

"Get out my face you-" Before Marvin could finish his sentence he looked behind Lucky and seen Darren.

Marvin Grunted and pushed pass Lucky with his posse following behind him.

"You alright Tai?" Lucky asked.

"Yep I'm fine,"

The group began walking towards the cafeteria.

"Ever since that guy arrived He's had a problem with me for some reason."

"That guy comes from a noble family that's similar to mine, They always had a problem with commoners and low rank nobles, especially against the so called false nobles." Darren said.

"What's a false noble?" Lucky asked.

"Well you know how I said my grandfather was the lord of a village?" Tai said

"mhm."

"Well the Lord title can be taken away easily, you don't own any land, all you do is manage the land, even your decedents aren't guaranteed to inherit your title. If the one who owns the land decides he doesn't like you managing his land anymore he can give your title to someone else and you'll be back to being a commoner, that's what a false noble is." Tai answered.

"Ahh I see, that sounds like a dumb thing to make a fuss over though." Lucky said.

"That mentality has been embedded into the minds of lots of nobles recently, ever since the crown prince made his way into politics." Darren told her with a slight look of dissatisfaction on his face.

"Oh I've heard about that prince, what was his name again....hmm" Lucky put his hand on his chin thinking hard about the answer.

"Nevil."

"Yeah that's it! Prince Nevil, A guy like that must have bad personality. To be honest I like the princess more, I only ever hear good things about her."

"The princess?" Tai asked.

"You haven't heard about the princess Tai?" Lucky's voice began to get excited.

"The leader of the Dragon Troop, They call her The Black War Maiden, The Death Wind, Demon's Bane, Princess Norina Soluna!" Lucky made a triumphant pose.

"Norina?" Something about the name made Tai's heart sink.

"I think I've heard that name somewhere before..."

"Of course you have dummy, She's the princess, Now lets go."

Lucky and Darren continued walking towards the Cafeteria but Tai was lost in thought.

'Why did my body react that way and what is this feeling I'm getting when I think of that name?'

It felt like something that you knew was there but for some reason you couldn't grasp it, A name you know but when it comes out your mouth it disappears, A thought that you pondered for a while but as soon as you stopped thinking about it you couldn't remember it no matter how hard you tried.

Tai gazed towards the sky. What was this feeling of nostalgia he was getting?

The world around him turned black, the name kept repeating in his head.

'Norina. Norina. Norina. Norina.'

The name stopped repeating, he looked around in the darkness that surrounded him. Where was this place. He looked left, Nothing, He looked right, Nothing. It was barren nothing but the darkness. As he took a step forward there were faint whispers calling, but the were so low he couldn't make out what they were saying.

Suddenly he felt a presence. He turned around and there in the darkness was a faint grey light, He got the same feeling of nostalgia as he looked upon it. He took a step forward, then another step, and another. The closer he got the more he felt the need to grab the light. He didn't understand what it was but it felt like it was calling him.

"Tai."

"Tai."

"Tai!"

The Darkness around him was gone. Instead in front of him was Aria.

"Are you ok?" She asked.

"Huh?"

"You've just been standing here this whole time."

"Uhh sorry I guess I was spaced out."

"I called you a million times and it felt like you were ignoring me, I even tried to hit you but," Aria paused for a moment.

"But?"

"When I touched you it felt like I'd burn my hand, I was going to call a doctor for you, I may not be human but I know that your body temperature shouldn't be that hot. Do you feel anything?"

"No, If anything I feel pretty good right now actually."

"Hmm, if you say so, Well lets hurry up I'm sure the other two are waiting for us."

They finally arrived at the cafeteria and found a seat next to Darren and Lucky to eat there food. Lucky had a slightly irritated look on his face.

"Something the matter?" Tai asked.

Sigh*

"This is the worst Tai."

"What's going on?"

"Well if you haven't heard we are done with conditioning now and are moving to combat."

"That sound good, you don't want to learn combat."

"That's not the problem Tai." Darren said.

"What's the problem?"

"The problem is that we are working with another group." Lucky's voice sounded very annoyed.

"Another group?"

"Yep and you'll never guess who we got paired up with."

"...I think I can."

"Yeah it's that Marvin guy."

Tai wasn't the type of person to judge people but this was an exception. This was one of the worst possible outcomes, not only did he have to team up with someone he didn't get along with but it was Marvin. A noble who had a distorted view on other people and probably didn't even recognize the lower class as the same species.

"Sounds like it's going to be some troublesome days."

Lucky was feeling even worse than Tai, not only was he not a noble but they were a Beastman. Beastmen had the same rights as Humans but because of their appearance having animal features there were those that showed discrimination towards them.

"Maybe if I talk to the Sergeant we can get a different group." Lucky said.

"I doubt it," Darren began.

"Firstly the sergeant isn't the one in charge of who we are teamed with and secondly, The person who is definitely won't listen to anything you have to say, that's the type of man he is."

"The Chief Officer?"

"Yes, He probably did it for a reason so let's play it out and see how it goes."

"Ehh I guess."

Tai headed back to the dorms first. He lied down on his bed staring at the ceiling, he was thinking about what had happened earlier.

What was that light he seen? Who is Princess Norina to him?

These were the thoughts that went through his head. It didn't make sense, Him being a boy from the countryside should have nothing to do with the princess but why was he getting such a nostalgic feeling.

He envisioned himself back at that place and the moment when he reached out for that. He mimicked that same action reaching his hand out towards the ceiling.

As he did, He felt that heat in his body once more it was even more intense than when he was practicing his breathing techniques a calm heat that spread throughout his body. He began focusing that heat to his hand more and more. The heat flowed towards hand but he couldn't fully grasp what he was doing.

'What is this heat? Magic? Impossible.'

Tai had no talent for magic, it was something he found out at a very young age, so he focused on farm work with his grandfather. Was his body developing mana? Tai stayed focusing the heat towards his hand, he felt like he was getting closer to something as he focused and there for a split second he seen it, A spark.