Lancelot

"Now, listen here you bunch of unfortunates!!" His voice echoed again through the cafeteria. It was like the ground was shaking under everyone there.

Once they heard his voice, the trainees couldn't do anything other than listen quietly to what he wanted to say. He seemed to be a superior and everyone transmitted respect in every action towards him. Ares could understand that and paid attention to his own actions as well.

'It's a hassle that my fight got interrupted right when it was starting to get interesting. Anyway, nothing is helping it. I need to remember that this place is a military organization, so they obviously won't allow such behavior coming from the trainees in a place like this,' Ares reasoned.

Since he lived in the countryside for a lot of time, he wasn't so cultured like others, but he was always curious about the things that happened in the world outside his village, which made him grow up less ignorant than the other peasants.

The Guardian continued with his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed. As he began to talk, he never got his eyes out of the four trainees that were fighting against each other before.

"I don't need to remember anyone here that we are in a serious organization, right? It is a damned fortress! The enemy can attack any time, and if they attack while you are too occupied arguing with each other, you will be screwed! That's not a place to argue, nor brawl, nor anything like this. I am not asking for you to become friends and cooperate, since it isn't the main goal of being a trainee. Healthy competition is needed to unlock all your potential. Anyways, competing with one another is different from being a jerk and pursuing fights!"

Each word that he said seemed to reverberate on their bodies and sent chills down their spines. He wasn't exuding that strong pressure anymore, which seemed to be some kind of spell. However, just his presence was enough to make such effects appear.

'This man is incredibly strong. I wonder what's his position among the Guardians... That's amazing!' Ares was obsessed. He wanted to know more people inside Stokil Fortress. He felt like he could become really strong if he could learn with those people.

'And to think that they usually don't fight directly against Ancients... It seems almost unreasonable that they have such power. I wonder how much power the Beast Hunters have. They must be amazing for sure!'

The more Ares knew about the military forces of humanity, the more interested and focused he became. It was both a good thing for his objectives, but also frightening because he was getting more and more obsessed. His ambition was almost overwhelming.

The old man noticed Ares' look of admiration and smiled faintly.

He thought since the start that this new generation of trainees was very weak that year, and only three of them could save the group. However, now that Ares was there as well, maybe the exam could bring something unusual that never happened in the past years.

The old man noticed that he was just glancing at Ares and didn't say anything at the last minute, so he decided to go back to his speech before the other trainees found it too strange.

He cleaned his throat and continued:

"Well, that said, remember that all the fights that happen inside Stokil Fortress must happen only if it is a competition that was agreed by both parties and the coordinator. If that still isn't clear to you, I will make you clean the bathrooms with your tongues, so you can understand properly! No brawls, no serious harm, no arguments. Did I make myself clear?"

""Yes, Sir!"" The entire cafeteria agreed with him.

"Also, restrain yourselves from fighting serious competitions during this last week. If your injury yourselves because of trivial things, you will be wasting your talent and one year of struggling and suffering! Be aware that you needed to go through a lot of things to get where you are and you would be betraying yourselves if this opportunity was taken away for an idiotic mistake!"

""Yes, Sir!!"" Everyone agreed with him again.

When Ares first arrived at that place, he thought that the dormitory of the trainees was a very chaotic space without rules that were followed diligently and a lot of disturbed children trying to pull the rug under each other's feet. However, they showed to be very well disciplined at that moment, in a way that Ares wasn't expecting.

In the end, they were only immature teenagers, but above the average when it came to discipline.

'So, this place isn't as pathetic as I thought it would be, huh? That's good... If it is a serious place, I can allow myself to stay here for a long time and learn a lot of different things.'

Ares was confident that he would have a good time as a novice... Of course, if he could become one. There were still various obstacles that he needed to surpass and just one week and a half left to sort things out and start to prepare his body for the next challenges.

'I need to do my very best and get my place as a Novice inside the Stokil Fortress. This way, when I get to the military academy of Beast Hunters, I won't be unprepared. Just wait for me!'

Ares' gleam of ambition grew stronger in his eyes as he looked to the old man who was still talking about other things that weren't relevant to him right now.

After three minutes more of speech, the Guardian decided that it was enough of a scold.

"Well, that's it! My speech was just long enough to end the rest of your lunchtime, so you idiots won't dare to eat after doing this kind of idiocy. Think in your stomachs when you brawl again!"

Although they just lost a meal due to the actions of four random people, none of the trainees objected to the decision of that Guardian.

"For those who don't know me yet,' he cast a look towards Ares, 'My name is Lancelot Darksea. I am a general, gray rank. If you ever need anything from me... well, I challenge you to have the guts to ask me anything!" He laughed maliciously, then walked away.

With the corner of his eyes, he continued focused on Ares.

'Hmph... I know how to identify a determined and pretentious person when I see one. Those are both good qualities to have when becoming a soldier. I just wonder how long he can carry on with this tough and serious look.'