บท 26: Chapter 26
~Talfen, the capital of Coldshore~
~The Royal Palace~
A movement just beside Andras caught his attention and he opened his eyes to find another guard sneakily moving closer.
The guard froze up when Andras' eyes fell on him, pausing with a leg raised, slightly upsetting his balance.
"Need something?" Andras asked calmly.
The guard that had been creeping up on him hadn't been expecting him to speak so it startled him, making him topple over. Fortunately, the mat he fell on broke his fall so other than being shaken up, he turned out just fine.
When Andras ascertained that the training guard hadn't broken anything, he closed his eyes again.
"You're new here, aren't you." The newcomer finally mustered up the courage to speak up, righting himself up again.
The other guards around just ignored them, going about their business.
Andras realized that the other wasn't going anywhere till he talked to him, his moment of peace was ruined now.
"Yes." He answered shortly, opening his eyes.
"I'm Randall." The lively guard said with a smile that revealed dimples, a hand scratching at his short wild hair that was also in a ponytail. "What do they call you?"
Andras just watched him blankly as he came closer, settling on his own mat, just across from him.
"Andras."
Randall was unfazed by how cold and forbidding the newbie came off as. "I see you don't have your sword yet, you'll need it for the midday training session. I'll take you to the Smithy after lunch, you can stick with me, I'll help you adjust quickly…"
Andras let him ramble on, listening. As irritable as it would be having a talkative person constantly flitting around him, Randall might actually prove himself quite useful.
"You might want to watch out for patrol guards, they go out of their way to bother guards in training like us even though most of them just finished their training." He grumbled, his brows furrowing in his upset.
Even though Andras' response to his ramblings was emotionless silence, Randall just forged ahead like they were both having a titillating conversation. "You're not from around here are you?"
"You can tell?" Andras lifted a brow.
Randall just shrugged. "Just an intuitive guess, not that it changes anything."
"Are you?" Andras asked, curious now.
"Yeah, born and raised in the slums of Talfen." He admitted proudly, his chest puffing out.
Andras could see the evidence of that, while he wasn't on the large side, there was wiry strength in him.
"We should get going," Randall noted, getting to his feet first.
Andras looked around for the first time since they started their conversation and noted that most of the others had already gone and the rest left were making a move to leave as well.
Randall might have underestimated just how tall the new trainee was because when Andras stood up, he found himself looking up to look him in the face.
Not to mention that his hair was impressively long, Randall's hair barely stayed up when he tied it back so there were wild locks of dark brown hair constantly in his eyes.
There was also the fact that he looked so intimidating even with the loose-fitting robes, there was no missing how well-formed his build was.
It made Randall quiet down a bit, he should be more careful of the people he approached. If Andras hadn't been a surprisingly pleasant person for his cold exterior, he might have gotten a couple of bruises from not knowing when to stop running his mouth.
The truth about it was that he had no friends among the other trainees, they all gave him the cold shoulder because of his background but Andras had been unfazed when he told him he was from the slums.
He could tell that even if the new trainee was from Talfen, he would have treated him no differently after finding out that he was from the slums. He was the kind of person that treated everyone the same and that was with a cold detachment, it didn't mean that he was a bad person though.
They both started out, Randall quickly getting over his initial terror and soon giving in to the happiness of having someone to keep him company.
If he was asked, he would admit that his new friend was quite good looking but he might have underestimated it because lunch was filled with maidservants throwing themselves at him at every chance they got and Andras being surprisingly dense about their intentions.
Which was terrible for Randall who was a nervous wreck around women but he wasn't giving up his only company just for that. Besides, the girls pretty much saw right through him, which was perfect.
"We need to go now if we are to collect your sword in time for training." He spoke up timidly after lunch had gone on for a while.
The flock of maidservants who had surrounded Andras turned in his direction to give him the evil eye, it was the first time they had acknowledged his presence and it was to glare at him.
Randall was unfazed though, he was more worried if Andras would want to leave. His fears had been unfounded because as soon as he spoke up, Andras rose to his feet, uncaring of the soft-spoken complaints of his new female fans.
Randall got to his feet as well, knowing that the silent look that Andras had given him was all the response he was getting out of the other trainee.
Fortunately, the Smithy wasn't far from the training grounds so they would make it back in good time.
"Do you have experience with swords?" Randall asked as they started their journey to the Smithy.
Andras glanced at him, "Some."
He looked doubtful at this response but decided to say nothing about it, he would get to find out during their training anyway. They were made to have spar practice every single day because they had to have battle experience in case they were required to protect the Royal Palace.
The Smithy was a large space filled with several buildings cut out of stone, a large furnace standing right at the center of the space. They didn't have to go very far into the smithy however.
Andras wished that they could have, he was curious to see how the weapons were made but instead they stopped at one of the first of many buildings scattered around the huge furnace.
Getting a sword was quite easy as the swords for guards were mass produced, Andras took the sword from the blacksmith in charge of assigning swords to guards. He bowed respectfully and then made his way out with Randall in tow.
Randall had been the one to do all of the talking and the shorter trainee was starting to realize that it would become a common occurrence. He stepped out of the shed after Andras, in time to catch him take out the sword from the sheath that had also been given to him.
He flipped the sword around like an extension of his hand, tossing it up so that it glinted off the sunlight before catching it smoothly.
He had to remember to close his mouth after Andras slipped the sword back in its sheath and glanced at him to motion him to lead the way to the training grounds.
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