The White Order

Chapter 1

Sunlight shone through Leo's window. He yawned and opened his eyes before he sleepily got up, and walked toward the window still half asleep. He looked up at the sky and nearly had a heart attack when he saw the sun had already risen way past the horizon. "I'm so dead!" he said to himself.

He hurried to get dressed, almost tripping over the many books and other small objects scattered around the hardwood floor of his bedroom.
Once he had thrown on his clothes he ran out his bedroom door leaving it wide open.

For a moment he considered skipping breakfast as he was running down the stairs and hallways of the castle. But ultimately he decided against it. If he was going to train he would need the food, so he made his way to the dining hall.

When he got there the hall was already nearly deserted. Apart from some servants who were cleaning up, and a handful of people who were chatting to one another or sipping their drinks in silence.
Leo hastily grabbed a leftover loaf of bread from a surprised servant's tray before rushing out again, leaving the girl staring after him muttering to herself about never getting a proper thank you.

He pushed his way past the people on the courtyard as he was making his way to the back of the building. Getting many disgruntled remarks from the people he pushed away. He sprinted to the training field where he could already see his fellow recruits listening to their morning instructions.

When the instructor saw Leo coming, he stopped talking and just stared at Leo. By the time Leo made it to the field, he was out of breath.

"So your royal highness has finally decided to grace us peasants with his presence?" the trainer remarked sarcastically. The trainer was a middle-aged man whose name was Thomas. He hadn't been on the front lines for several years now, but despite that, he was still very muscular. He could be very intimidating when he was angry. And right then he looked very intimidating.

"I'm so sorry. I overslept. It won't happen again, I promise," Leo said panting heavily. Thomas huffed and looked at Leo in silence for a few seconds.
Then he turned back to the group and continued with his instructions. Leo was glad that he wasn't scolded, then joining the rest of the recruits in line and listened to Thomas' instructions.

"Now, as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted," he shot a quick glance at Leo, "We are now going to practice some sword fighting. Each one of you will pick a partner of roughly the same height and weight. You are to duel with one another to hone your skills in real combat. I don't want anyone holding back. If I see this happen, there will be consequences for all of you." Thomas said. Do I make myself clear?!" Thomas yelled in a commanding voice when nobody said something.

"Yes sir!" all of the recruits replied in a loud and clear voice. Some of them even jumping into the position of attention.

Leo quietly groaned as he was left to pair with a man named Horace. Horace wasn't particularly big, but he was very strong. He was also a very sore loser. He would assume his opponent somehow cheated to win, and would complain about it to Thomas. This would usually result in group punishment.

The way things worked with Thomas was that if one person was punished, everyone else would receive the same punishment. Thomas would say, "Quit whining, it builds character. If you are to fight for the king, you need to know how to follow orders and to show discipline, or you could get everyone into big trouble!" So to avoid punishment, everyone would usually let Horace win while trying very hard to make it look like it wasn't on purpose. Leo suspected that if Horace were to end up in a real fight, things would turn pretty ugly, so he was determined to win against Horace to teach the boy a lesson.