Leo sent a little of his Spiritual Energy into the shield.
At that moment, the sun pattern in the center of the Daybright Aegis flashed bright. A thin golden light spread along the entire edge of the shield. But the glow didn’t drain much of Leo’s Spiritual Energy.
"Big sister, thank you so much." Leo said from the bottom of his heart.
Mira smiled. "What for? You won it yourself. Now come on, let me tell you what you’ll need to study at our hall."
She stayed in Leo’s room for an hour, then left. From her words, Leo learned a lot about Moonhaven Hall.
The next morning.
Leo washed up and ate breakfast, which was delivered right to his room. Only knights got that service. Standard Knights had to go to the dining room to eat.
After breakfast, he headed early to the Knights’ Main Hall.
The Knights’ Main Hall was two stories tall and not very big. The first floor held the Guardian Knights’ class. The second floor was for the Retribution Knights.
When Leo arrived, the Guardian Knights’ classroom was completely empty.
He set his heavy sword and Daybright Aegis in a corner of the room and quietly waited.
Slowly, the other knights began to arrive, one by one. Soon the room was full. Leo counted. There were around eighty knights. There were far more Guardian Knights than Retribution Knights.
He sat in the corner, but he could feel everyone’s eyes on him.
Many of the knights wore fine clothes. They couldn’t help staring at him with curious looks. The reason was clear. He was much younger than all of them.
"Look, who’s that little boy? Wait, is that a Daybright Aegis? His family must be very rich!"
"But money alone can’t get anyone into our Knights’ Main Hall. Could he be a relative of one of the instructors?"
"Hard to say. Yesterday my little brother, who was on duty, told me our Hell Rose brought some handsome boy in. Maybe this is the one. But how could the Hall Master let him join our class?"
Just then, a tall, broad-shouldered young knight walked up to Leo and asked gently.
"Little brother, did you come to the wrong place? This is the Knights’ Main Hall. The Standard Knights’ class is on the other side."
In those knights’ eyes, even if Leo was a Standard Knight at his age, he’d be considered a huge talent.
Leo stood quickly. He turned to him politely and gave a knight’s salute.
"Hello. I’m in the right place. I’m here for this class. My name is Leo Ashford."
The knight seemed about to say more when a harsh voice rang out.
"Class begins!"
The knights flinched. As if they were terribly afraid of the master with that harsh voice, they quickly turned and ran to their seats.
Leo’s eyes turned to the speaker.
A tall, thin, middle-aged man stood there. A round shield was strapped to his back. The man looked at Leo too.
"Any problem?" he asked in a calm voice.
Leo shook his head quickly.
The middle-aged man’s voice turned deep and heavy.
"Then why are you standing there?"
Startled by the sudden loud voice, Leo jumped and sat down right away.
Silence fell over the whole class. Every knight looked at the man with respect. But fear showed clearly in their eyes.
"Little new boy, I’m Kessel. The Chief Instructor of Moonhaven Hall. I don’t care how talented you are. The moment you came here, you became an ordinary knight. If you don’t meet my expectations, I’ll kick you back to the Standard Knights. Understood?"
"Yes, sir!"
Leo stood again and gave the Chief Instructor another sincere knight’s salute.
*Ordinary knight?*
Those few words stirred up the class. This boy, who wasn’t even fifteen yet, was a knight? Was there some mistake?
"Everyone, stand up!" Kessel suddenly shouted.
At that sharp voice, all the knights jumped to their feet.
Kessel looked at them coldly.
"Is this all I can expect from you? What did I teach you? What’s the most important thing for a Guardian Knight?"
"Stay calm no matter what!" the knights answered loudly together.
"And so far, what have you accomplished?"
Kessel’s gaze made the knights shrink.
This time, nobody answered.
"Put on your heavy gear and run fifty laps around the training field. Otherwise you’ll never remember this lesson. Now! Hurry!"
"Yes, sir!"
Nobody dared to talk back. The Guardian Knights ran out of the classroom one by one.
Leo was quite scared too. He hadn’t expected the Chief Instructor to be so fierce.
"Why are you standing so calmly? Aren’t you part of their group? Go with them!" Kessel pointed at Leo and shouted in anger.
"Yes, sir!"
The equipment storehouse was in the basement of the Knight Hall. After picking up his set from there, Leo felt like crying.
He was so small. His body hadn’t fully formed. The full-body heavy armor weighed more than 50 kilograms. It was impossible to wear, because his body was too small.
He could only drape it over himself to cover his body. And if he didn’t want the armor to fall off, he had to hold it with both hands from both sides.
From far away came the clanking of metal.
The training ground was round and 666 meters long. And running while wearing heavy gear was a whole other challenge. It wasn’t easy even for knights whose Outer Spiritual Energy had reached 200.
Standing in the middle of the training ground, Kessel watched Leo run.
"Don’t fall behind! Whoever falls behind will run fifty more laps. Leo Ashford, come here!"
He had learned Leo’s name clearly from Rowan Voss.
"Yes, Instructor!"
Leo dragged the heavy armor and ran to Kessel.
Kessel spoke lightly.
"You’re new, so you don’t know the rules here. I’ll give you one chance. As long as your attacks can push me back, you won’t have to run with them."
At this, the knights running laps sped up even more. Nobody dared to look at Kessel.
But many of them looked at Leo with pity.
"Yes, sir!"
Leo quickly threw the heavy armor off his body. He had a shield in his left hand and a sword in his right.
He had first-class experience in real fights. He had faced pressure like this many times. And he could use his Inner Spiritual Energy.
Most important of all, he wasn’t afraid of losing. What was the worst that could happen? He’d just have to run laps.
Kessel raised his own shield. He didn’t pay any attention to Leo’s magnificent Daybright Aegis.
"You attack first." he said coldly.
"Yes, Instructor. Please teach me!"
A shield in his left hand and a sword in his right, Leo didn’t feel quite comfortable. After all, it was his first time using a shield. It felt strange.
Still, he thought having a shield was better than having empty hands.
Before coming to Moonhaven Hall, Leo had decided he wouldn’t fight with dual swords carelessly in front of others. He would only use the powers of a Retribution Knight when he was practicing alone.
Corvin had taught his son a very useful thing while training him. *Never let your enemy see your weakness.*
Leo moved forward with a clean, clear attack.
His speed picked up. Like a young leopard, he ran toward Kessel. His speed wasn’t the best, but his steps were very steady.
His eyes were fixed on Kessel’s body. With his first-class observation skills, he was sizing up the Chief Instructor.
In yesterday evening’s fight, if you set aside the fact that Liora had gone easy on him, the biggest reason Leo had won was his excellent decision-making and calculation. And both of those came from his outstanding mental power.
Kessel’s eyes narrowed. He had expected fear from the boy. Instead, he saw something else, a calm, careful gaze that was studying him like a puzzle to solve.