The Knight Academy

CHAPTER 13

Once we finished Latin, I made my way to Will for the following class on human psyche. It was a class where we learned about forcing fear upon the enemy, however weak or outnumbered we were.

We read scripture from ancient war generals and tests were the worst. I could learn a language or two, memorize history, read literature and choose the right answers, but I didn't know anything the human psyche.

If I did, I wouldn't be having so much problems with Clive.

Clive started hanging out with me when I befriended William. With Clive came Samuel Goldings, who scowled and changed his seat unhappily.

"You really could sit with Goldings," I told Clive. He smiled and slide next to me, bumping our arms and chuckling.

"No, I don't want to be left out of you and Crawford's fun," he said. "After all, you're my partner."

Honor classes such as these had few eleventh year students but everyone noticed the disruption and started whispering as the professor flipped through pages.

"That's the top team of the eleventh years, right?" A twelfth year looked our way.

"Wonder if they could beat Stein and Vic."

Stein and Vic were the highest two, and Vic, like Clive, was referred to by his name due to his being a refuge. Will was called William, similarly, because Crawford wasn't his real family name. Until he passed the knight tests, of course.

So I ignored what the two said and stayed quiet like Will even as Clive whispered in class.

"Say, aren't the second years there eating in class?" Clive said, poking me. "They're eating cookies!"

"Shh!" I hissed at him. "What they do or eat is not our business," I muttered under my breath to him.

"Don't you know?" Clive's voice lowered. "Those two in the middle are doing the same as us. Maybe not killing, but one of them loitered outside the Headmasters' office when he saw me there."

Them?

I scrunched my eyes to see the two he was referring to, one had dark brown skin and large dark eyes. The other boy was pale with a sloppy look on him, even the way he wore his uniform seemed untidy.

As he ate his food like a barbarian, spilling crumbs on his lap, his partner only snickered behind his book and ate his sandwich discreetly.

Somehow I missed that, the innocent act of those two boys made me feel—know, that they didn't have a job as heavy as Clive and mine. They probably also didn't know about what was done to the rebels.

Truth was, we civilians thought rebels were mainly imprisoned or tortured for information and it seemed like enough of a reason that we caught them. I knew, as a son in a family of knights, that they were usually killed, but I didn't imagine people as young as Clive and I. We were barely just seventeen. By eighteen one just graduated and knight exams were usually taken after graduation. Even so, I heard tales of novice knights being used as guards (like Daniel) and never moving up in ranks.

I saw those two and for the first time, spoke during class.

"I wish we can do that too," I said.