Daiden felt it in his heart, a mild tremor, knotted with a touch of fear. He worried when Rollo stepped to the front, to challenge a stronger-looking opponent. He worried more at the thought of losing a friend. But the pieces never fit. Daiden witnessed it from start to finish, a one-sided onslaught that rendered the Karsman broken and unconscious. He managed a smile for some reason, laced with a range of emotions, as Rollo turned to him, covered in blood, and then to Valaris.

“Will this be enough to qualify?” asked Rollo, with clarity and confidence.

Daiden gripped his chest excitedly. He understood it, given the base of his promise. It was a declaration, Rollo’s declaration to those around him. He felt anxiety and pressure next. His face remained frozen in a smile despite it, almost as if unfazed by the pain of his hollowed chest. He heard something then.

“I suppose there is certainly no arguing such a display,” admitted Valaris, feigning disinterest from intrigue. The Senior Knight calmly turned to the rest of the trainees and added, in announcement, “I now conclude the end of this evaluation!”

Valaris gestured for Rollo to stand by his side. He leaned a little closer and asked, “Your name?”

“Rollo…Rollo Relic,” whispered the silver-haired individual. “It’s a funny name, I know!”

The Senior Knight sighed and returned to his address, “Rollo Relic has now officially passed the trainee evaluation, earning both his place and rank from Moran, Son of Chief Spearman, Regals!”

***

Rollo returned his spear to the soldiers and walked over to his only friend amongst the trainees. He snickered a little and softly expressed his hurrahs. With a quick turn, he spun around to Daiden’s side and placed an arm across his shoulders.

“I promised I would take care of the situation!” said Rollo, cheerily. “I promised, didn’t I?”

Daiden noticed the other trainees avert their eyes from the two of them. He coughed, and said, “I don’t think this is what I was hoping for, Rollo.”

Rollo shifted his feet to stand in front of Daiden. He placed both arms on the latter’s shoulders and pulled closer with a serious expression. Daiden staggered from the gesture. He gulped, in an echo almost, forcing back a nervous lump in his throat.

“You’re an important friend, Daiden,” revealed Rollo, honestly. “When you step onto a grand stage, I wish for the world to treat you with awe and respect. You understand? Mioverold does not permit the existence of weakness. You simply can’t show it.

“And if you are weak now, you hide it…”

Rollo stared at Daiden for a moment longer and abruptly shifted to a happier expression. He patted his friend on the sides and retreated to a more normal, conversational distance.

“I can tell that you wish to make a mark,” said Rollo, slowly moving his gaze towards the Senior Knight. “But not yet. And another thing…”

Daiden perked his ears at the comment.

“The information on your Mioveroldian Page, it’s very important,” said Rollo. “I’ll later teach you to hide it and only reveal what’s relevant.”

Daiden scratched the back of his head, in puzzlement. He averted his eyes as well, with the burden of what Rollo had last mentioned. His mind distanced from the continuation of the trials by combat, isolating to his pounding heart instead. It tremored with uncertainty.

From Daiden’s time in the Earthen Realm, the words of those around him had often instilled hate, regret and anxiety. His heart had tremored then as well.

But with clenched fists, Daiden decided to trust once more, past the surface of a new friendship. He looked towards Rollo and smiled with sincerity. “Anything to not go back to that time. Anything to fulfil my promise…I’ll trust you, Rollo.”

***

Valaris applied both his eyes to different tasks. He peeled one to the evaluations and the other to his silver-haired student, Rollo Relic. He felt drawn to the intrigue of Rollo’s silver aeter formula. It tugged at his nerves, his thirst for knowledge. The sound of a pained groan then distracted him. He restrained from the curiosity and moved a little closer to the evaluations, still in thought.

“Ah, I doubt he’s a Nis,” concluded Valaris. He continued in a whisper, “Well, I do have some time to figure that out. But to outmanoeuvre a Karsman with the spear? My, my, we might have a genius amidst us…the annoying kind.”

Valaris shook his head and refocused entirely on the stage of combat, at a distance in front of him. He eyed each contender with a glimmer of hope, but noticed his faith dwindle through the fights. He puffed his chest and praised the contenders for their courage.

“Am I getting senile?” wondered Valaris. “It’s not like I can expect a miracle from across the field.”

The Senior Knight quietly urged the trainees to return to formation. The others moved away, veiled in layers of disappointment and unhappiness. Valaris stepped towards trainees when ready, with each step propelling a portion of the earth to elevation. He climbed an earthen stairway and widened the range of his aeter to build a platform. His body flared with a violent aura, for a moment, and then burst into a large page for everyone’s display.

“Congratulations for making it through the evaluations,” started Valaris, with a clear voice. “Tomorrow, you will begin preparation towards becoming part of the Godvildian Military.”

The page flickered a little, breaking away into smaller pieces with the same information. They hovered to the trainees in formation.

“You’ll find your rank on the pages, based on potential for now,” announced Valaris. He allowed the trainees some time to go through the details.

When the seconds clocked to a minute, the Senior Knight stomped his foot to refocus the trainees’ attention on him. “Through the course of this training, you’ll also find various opportunities to change your fate. Eight months’ worth of opportunity. Only thirty of you will be making it past that point.”

Valaris gently tapped on one of the rings on his fingers, creating a spatial distortion. He widened the tear and forced the emergence of thirty spheres, then more, in the hundreds. They floated amidst the Senior Knight, in disarray. The spheres pulsated, some with different colours, and others in growth – with different sizes.

“And your reward…” said Valaris, with a smile, pointing the spheres around him. “A skill of your choosing. The quality quite obviously will depend on your rank, with the top three allowed access to the purest, most versatile of skills, and captainship to a three-soldier squad.”

The Senior Knight tapped on his ring once more, to close the rift. As the spheres disappeared, the earthen platform atop which he stood, lowered. He stepped to a level field with the trainees and nodded. “That will be all for today.”

Valaris walked away with his soldiers, a copy of the rank sheet still with him. His lips curved to a smile, at the sight of two names. He dismissed the page with a satisfied expression and retreated to his home, in anticipation of months to come.

“Daiden Lost at first, and Rollo Relic at seventh,” remembered Valaris. “Let’s see where they finish as well.”