✎ ᴛʜᴇ ᴋɴɪɢʜᴛ: ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛᴇɴ

✇ 11:30 EST; District of Tvaru

Northwest of Aeternum | 4th Samas: Year 1345

° ᴾʳᵉˢᵉⁿᵗ

I don't think there is anyone in this mansion who does not have a terrible past. In fact, I sorely believe that terrible pasts can cause people to often act irrationally and cause them to act out of line.

However, this time, even I can't blame Sir Ashers' action based on his past.

He had made us practice with the mana beasts until we had nearly passed out in exhaustion. When was he going to realize that majority of the knights here weren't as talented as him and I am a mere 14-year-old child who doesn't even have full controls of her mana yet?

The answer to that rhetorical question was never.

Unfortunately, we have to bear the weight of his ignorance towards us and suffer the pain for the rest of our time with him.

Luckily, the mana beasts he had chosen for us weren't very large but they were vicious.

They seemed to be a hybrid of some sort of fire wolf with immense speed and an iron will to tear our limbs apart.

It was our task to fight back the hybrid and trap it back into the pen they were freed from using only our skills.

Easy task right?

Also, did I forget to mention we weren't allowed to use our mana?

Yeah, I had no excuse for him anymore.

He was a hopeless man.

Other than me there were about a hundred other soldiers in this squad. They were busy fighting separate beasts of their own. This was one of the few squads who permanently resided in our residence.

I was probably the youngest knight here other than my brother who was unable to attend today. That's a pity, he would have loved this sort of training.

Like father like son I suppose.

Marquess Ceirin was known for two things. Being one of the most Ruthless commander in the history and for being youngest commander of the Dragon Knights.

The Dragon Knights were placed under the care of our family ever since the beginning of this empire. They were also known as the golden knights wearing uniforms of black and red with a golden sun crest upon their chest. They were given the duty to protect the people of this empire.

As far as I know, there are currently about 850 Squads under the Dragon Knights. Each squad had about 200 members that were placed under several head Knights careful watch depending on their skill. Very few resided in the mansion since there was often a shift in rotation.

The current squad I was training with happened to be the same one that might become Kathleen's future guards.

There were only the mansions royal guards, Sir Ashers squad and the trainee squad. Overall, three hundred or so soldiers that were doing their best to take preparation for the war.

Other than our families Dragon Knights, the Empire also had the Silver Knights and the Onyx Squad. Whilst the Dragons Knight job was to protect the people of the Empire, the Silver knights one and only job was to protect the Emperors family and the people residing in the royal castle. That made those damn silvers think they were better than us.

Being a silver knight was indeed honor seeing as they were chosen by the Duke Castiello himself, however they tended to shove their heads up much further in their ass than they should.

You could easily recognize a Silver Knight anywhere by their pristine white uniform with blue outlines and silver moon crests.

And let's just say the Silver knights and the Dragon knights tended to avoid each other.

The only one unbothered was in this unspoken feud were the Onyx squad. Unlike the Dragon and Silver Knights, no one other than Duke Candestine, not even the emperor, knew who were the members of the Onyx squad.

They were the hidden weapons of the empire.

Very few in number and very capable in their job. There's a legend that said the Onyx squad were the cause of some of the greatest casualties in history.

Everyone in the Empire was wary of them.

However, Duke Candestine doesn't only lead the onyx squad.

Our family has reigned over the Dragon Knights, Duke Castiello has full control over the Silver Knights but Duke Castiello is the true born leader of the demons in the underground.

There's a reason he's called the Demon Duke.

Mercifully, the Empire hasn't seen any demons for the last four centuries even though everyone knows what lies underground. The city was forbidden to enter for this purpose only.

If I wasn't aiming to be the future General of the Dragon Knights, I would have definitely gone down below underground to be under the apprentice of Duke Candestine.

Although I am unable to do so now since it is strictly forbidden to learn the technique of more than one squad, I believe Eren will achieve that place in my stead. It was his dream as well ever since he was young. Becoming the future commander of the unseen demon army and the Onyx squad.

These Knights and the commanders were the reason the empire has overrun the entire continent.

I one-day hope to be as useful to this Empire as my father is. No matter how much people hate him, they all know he is needed to keep this empire from falling into ruins just like the other 4 houses.

Despite how selfish he was, he was still my father and a man worthy of his position and status.

Even now his scouring through the cities, searching for one traitor after another.

Taking Keiji with him and leaving us with mr-get-back-to-work.

Even now as I do my best to deal with the mana beast, I feel his disapproving glare that makes me want to shove the sword down his throat. I was worn out, blame my health not me.

Even the other trainees pitifully slumped once in a while. Guess it was going to be a long noon today.

•••••••••••

It was a long noon.

Not only had we trained with the beasts for over an hour, we also had to run around in laps until he decided our legs had endured enough.

For the cherry on top, he made us spar against each other one-on-one.

I fought with a fellow trainee, mark, if I remember his name correctly, and won; but not leaving without a couple of cuts and bruises here and there.

In the end, I left limping and looking bone-tired.

Was it because of the excessive power draining training? Well yes but actually no.

Or was it because a certain blonde decided to make us run extra laps in compensation for our poor performance? Absolutely! How did you guess?

I luckily made it out in one piece; but unsurprisingly the said-certain blonde followed my every movement.

Why?

Because unfortunately he was my recently assigned personal guard who was going to accompany me everywhere from now on since my debutante is approaching.

Yeah.

Sucks to be me I guess or whatever.