Chapter 32 The Prodigy Group

“Oh. You were the one charged with the room. You lost some of the explanation but I guess it’s nothing you already don’t know.” The advisor said, looking at how Josiah carried his sword.

The advisor was even taller than Koda, though skinnier. In fact, the advisor was so tall and so skinny he almost looked like an alien humanoid.

“I’m Tal...”

‘The name suits you.’ Josiah thought.

“…As a newcomer in the first weeks, you are going to use weapon replicas instead. Put your garbage at the side somewhere. Get a weapon of your preference among the models over the table. We are going to train in pairs now.”

Advisor Tal whistled loudly and everyone began trying to find a pair to spar with.

Albo approached Josiah once again.

“Hey, dude. You lost all the explanation. Is that okay?”

“I had no choice…”

Albo was holding an exact copy of a morning star. From the ball to the chains and holder… Everything was perfectly made out of wood.

“Huh… I guess this one looks strong. So I chose this one. Are you going to choose a sword equal yours?”

“Yes. It’s the ones I’m better with.”

Josiah got the first broadsword he saw above the pile. The training weapons didn’t have any bloodbound powers, so for him, it didn’t make much difference.

‘It’s not like choosing another weapon is going to be too different either. I’ve trained with so many different weapons every day and every night throughout these years…’

“Hey… Do you want to be my pair?” Albo asked.

“Sure.”

The next minute the new recruits were sparring, the general instruction was to get at least the form correctly. Some people were getting knocked by seriously slow attacks, people were slipping and falling to the floor. It was overall a painful scene even for Josiah to watch.

‘I guess this is a bunch of kids who never trained before in their lives after all…’

Albo himself wasn’t much better either. There was a time he even let the morning star slip off his hand when he was swinging.

“Hey you’re not holding it properly, let me show…” “No, you cannot close your eyes before you strike.” “No, you definitely can’t close your eyes when you are about to get hit either …” It seemed like Josiah was the tutor there.

‘Huff, this is tiresome…’ He thought.

In the middle of a trade, Josiah quickly glanced to the side, to find out Sargeant Koda was standing there, his arms crossed, seeing him and Albo spar together. He had joined the room when they weren’t looking,

“You…”

“Yes, sir!?” Josiah stood straight and faced him. Albo also stopped to salute the superior.

“Let me see how you are doing. Get your sword.”

It was almost imperceptible, but Josiah’s forehead curved on a tilt. ‘Now you’re gonna get it.’ He Thought.

Josiah waited for Koda to draw a weapon on his own, but he just kept standing there.

‘This is a spar and I’m a kid with a wooden sword. If I tell him to draw his sword he might think I’m insulting him and start shouting. If he didn’t draw anything until now it means I’m the only one using a weapon here.’

“Come!” Koda ordered.

Josiah advanced without worrying too much, aiming straight for the sergeant’s body. Koda spun around and dodged, making Josiah charge to the air. He wanted to give him a knock at the back of his head, similar to Benson, but Josiah knew that was coming, so he changed his charge to a tumble roll mid-way, dodging the hit.

Koda lifted his eyebrows slightly.

Josiah quickly got up and started swinging at the man, at the same speed he did against Thomas.

“Wow!” Albo watched impressed.

But Koda would just dodge every strike by leaning the body to the other side and stepping back. He would still stay with his arms crossed.

‘Damn it,’ Josiah thought. “If I could access my dagger or ax, I could try and attack him with my free hand… Fighting with a weak replica is hard.”

Without anything better to try, Josiah kept the pressure trying to hit Koda with that wooden sword, but he was not doing it aimlessly. He wanted to analyze the sergeant’s movement. If he could anticipate a pattern established before a certain favorite move, he could take advantage of it acting accordingly.

‘It seems he’s just swinging his waist to the side whenever I swing. I’m going to establish a rhythm then try a feint. After he starts swinging, I’m going to use all my strength and try to move the sword back in the other direction. It’s gonna hurt my arm, but it’s all I can do’ Josiah thought amidst the wave of attacks.

He managed to change the course of the sword attack mid-air, expecting to finally hit the sergeant, but Koda reached with his hand and stopped the boy’s arm right before the sword got in.

“Ouch!” Josiah felt the pain of his body getting forcefully stopped in the middle of a wide swing.

‘Well, at least I made him use his actual arm…’ Josiah observed.

“Enough,” Koda said.

‘What?’

“It seems The Magistrate was right about you, after all. That’s it. Come with me. You are going to the emerging talents.”

“Emerging… Talents?”

“Wow!” Albo exclaimed excitedly, like it was some big news. Though Josiah didn’t have any idea of what that was about.

“Go to building 288. I’m going to contact the men there.”

“Hm…” Josiah stood there for a moment, thinking of what happened.

‘But… I just lost. I couldn’t do anything. I barely managed making he uncross his arms during the whole fight… What is this about talent?’

“Now!” Koda ordered in a deeper voice.

“Y-yes, sir!”



About an hour later, there was the lunch interval. Josiah got his from the kitchen and was eating alone, leaning his back on the outer walls of 288. The lunch they prepared in the army was bland and tasteless if compared to Thomas’ cooking. But Josiah was so hungry after the busy morning he didn’t mind that much.

He had just finished his meal and Albo appeared next to him.

“Hey!”

Josiah stood up.

“Did you come all the way from over there!? You’re wasting your interval!”

“You forgot your things there!” Albo was carrying Josiah’s sac of personal belongings, which he left on the newcomer’s room.

“Yeah, I meant to get them later...”

Albo got close to Josiah and handed it to him.

“Thanks…”

“Did you really make it to the emerging talents? That’s awesome! How are people there?”

“I… Don’t know yet. I just came, they told me where my room was, and then I had to go to the bathroom and it was time for lunch.”

“You have a room just for you!?”

“What’s this about emerging talents anyway?”

“Don’t you know? It’s ‘the’ group. The general and the last two war heroes came from there. Including the great Kozar. It’s like the prodigy group!”

“Hmm… I just happen to have done some training on my own, that’s all.”

Albo lowed his voice, almost whispering:

“I heard some people there are said to have blood powers.”

“Oh yeah? That’s good. It’s exactly what I’m looking for here.” Josiah said.

“What? That can’t be right. These people are scary! Don’t you know what people with blood powers are capable of?”

“I do…”

“What did you join the army for, anyway?” Albo asked out of curiosity.

“That’s… A long story.”

“Well… I wish you luck. Later tell me how are the things there. I bet having a room of your own is super cool.”

“Sure. I’ll get back to 143 when we have some free time.”

“Haha. That’s gonna take forever, then.”

Albo and Josiah parted ways and Josiah went inside the 288, together with his new group, the emerging talents.

“Now… Let’s see what this ‘prodigy group’ is all about…”