Arcadia's Ignoble Knight: The Sorceress of Ashtown

Trouble Abounds

"Are you sure it's a good idea to keep using Sol to deliver such important documentation? I would like to trust your judgment on this matter, master, but we both know how unreliable that boy is. There is no telling what kind of trouble he will get up to out there."

Headmaster Strettelo sighed as his assistant complained about their resident problem child... again. How many times did this make now? Ten? Twenty? Try one-hundred and fifty. The man was one of Caspian's most ardent detractors. Soren had been questioning his decision to let Caspian enter the academy ever since the boy had first enrolled... no, even before then. From the moment Caspian first stepped foot into Arcadia's Knight Academy, Soren had disliked him, probably because of how much trouble the boy had caused back then.

Soren Castello was a very severe looking man who, despite being quite young, held an almost aged demeanor about him. His youthful face was tempered with worry lines, and while his hair didn't have an ounce of gray in it, the brown color it possessed had long since lost its luster. Even his green eyes held a brittleness usually found on people several decades older. The rectangular spectacles on his face did not help his appearance much either.

As the headmaster's aid, Soren was dressed in the standard attire for someone of his station. His black butler uniform, complete with long penguin tails that rustled against the floor, made him look every bit the severe servant. They seemed to add several more years to his already aged appearance.

"Are you sure you're not allowing your biased perceptions of him to color your judgment?" Strattelo asked in an even, if slightly stern, voice. "Caspian has been doing these missions for the past four years, ever since becoming a student of this academy, and he has done an admirable job thus far. He has yet to fail an assignment I've given him, and I doubt he'll be failing any time soon."

"That's not the point," Soren argued, bringing up his hand and gesturing wildly, as if to emphasise his point. Whatever that was. "Ever since he arrived at Arcadia's Knight Academy, the balance of this institution has been broken. Caspian Ignis del Sol is one of the most ill-mannered ruffians I have ever met! He's crude, sarcastic, disrespectful and rarely displays any kind of enthusiasm when it comes to learning our curriculum. Having him attend is bringing down the moral backbone of this academy."

"All valid points," the headmaster agreed. Soren looked smug. It was a look that didn't last long. "However, you forgot to mention that he's also strong, skilled with a blade, ahead of his peers both academically and physically, and is currently ranked second among the Knight candidates."

Had he been a less serious man, Strattelo might have smiled at the way his aid flinched with each admirable trait of Caspian's that he listed. The dark-haired butler looked almost like he was getting shot with invisible arrows.

As things stood, the headmaster was not the type to smile even though he was amused, so he didn't, instead keeping a flat expression on his face. "Despite his lackadaisical and disrespectful attitude, Caspian Ignis del Sol is one of the best students attending this academy."

He knew what Soren's real problem with the boy was, and it wasn't his disrespectful attitude or anything of the sort. The reason was much simpler.

Caspian was a peasant. He did not come from a noble lineage. He was an orphan that had been found in the wreckage of a cottage after the town he lived in was razed to the ground. In the words of Soren and many other people at the academy, both student and staff alike, he was of an ignoble breed.

And therein lie the problem. Arcadia's Knight Academy was available only to nobles. Or, it was supposed to be. This was partly because the tuition required was far higher than anything a peasant could afford (even many members of the lesser nobility could not afford entrance into this premiere institute of education) but also because of the delicate balance of power that existed between the nobility and the Sorceress Council.