Instructor Haalfrin

Every day, Haalfrin finds an annoying pair of young boys who insist on sticking together with him. Jole and the other soldiers don't think it's worth poking Haalfrin, so everyone else in camp leaves the man alone except for these two.

"Aren't you going to train?" the blonde boy asks Haalfrin. "You've healed up now."

"Yeah," the other boy points out, "We saw you training all the time. It's like training was your religion."

Haalfrin looks over at them and rolls his eyes. "After a manner of speaking, yes. It IS my religion."

"Oh?" the brown haired boy asks - curious. "What god do you worship? My parents always took me to the Longevity gods' shrine."

"Hmm..." In all honesty, Haalfrin had never cared much for the gods, despite being one of the few people capable of seeing them.

It's just... he'd always thought, 'They can go about their business collecting souls, and I'll go about mine.'

'Now?' he thinks, 'I guess my answer is different now.' "I worship Freyya," Haalfrin announces.

Both of the boys flinch. The blonde goes silent, while the other kid asks in confusion, "Uh... Are you crazy? Isn't she an evil god?"

Haalfrin sits up and shrugs. "Well, I'm off fighting battles all the time. I thought I'd be meeting Freyya sooner or later, so I'd mind as well pay more attention to her."

Before the boys can ask any more questions, Haalfrin gets up and points to the supply tent down the road. "If you're going to hang out around me, you'd mind as well grab something to practice with."

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Haalfrin spends the next several days training with the two boys - Haman and Nay, he learns their names are.

Both of the kids seem to be complete novices, and Haalfrin isn't very confident in making them both competent fighters by the time they march off to battle in a few days. Still, both of these kids seem full of naive excitement towards the war, and both of them are eager to go out and explore what they can do with their lives.

Nay (the older of the kids) seems to pick things up a lot faster, and when he finally learns his first counter-move, he looks over at Haalfrin in excitement. It's like he's a puppy looking for approval.

Haalfrin can't deny it; his heart moves when he sees this. Teaching these kids sword fighting and seeing them look up to him... it brings back memories...

Brief images flash through Haalfirn's mind - images of young Kareen boys all standing in a line, swinging their swords on his order.

Suddenly, Haalfrin frowns, and he starts feeling sour.

"Sir?" Nay asks happily, "Are you a master swordsman?"

Haalfrin scratches his head in embarrassment. "I've killed a mage or two before."

"Oh!" Haman interjects, "So if we train and learn all of your techniques, then we'll survive through the war at least, right?"

Haman's realistic concern brings Nay back down from the clouds. "R-right, Mr. Haalfrin. Are we going to survive?"

Haalfrin shakes his head. "No. Probably not."

He frowns even deeper, and he says with a heavy tone, "Whatever you've heard about war, forget about it. What decides your life and death is your commanding general. All the training in the world can't save you from a stray arrow or from soldiers who outnumber you."

Haalfrin then lets out an enthusiastic breath, and he says to them both, "First chance you get, run away. Go back home."

"Sir... Isn't that deserting?"

"Why should you care?" Haalfirn mocks, "You should only give your life to a cause worth fighting for. These kings and princes don't care about you! Just go!"

"Haalfrin!" Nay almost shouts, though he suppresses his voice at the last second. "We could get executed for that! Shouldn't you be telling us to fight bravely or something?"

"I'm telling you to not die!" Haalfrin growls at him. "You're too young to think about dying."

Hearing this Haman blows up at Haalfrin, "Who are you to tell us we're going to die!? Do you think we're cowards, like you!?"

Haman raises his hand to hit Haalfrin, but Haalfrin snatches his wrist out of the air. His eyes are met with the older man's frustrated glare. "Excuse me for worrying about your little lives! Young and stupid people like you are always eager to die!"

"We're going to die anyway! Mind as well spend our short, miserable lives contributing to something!" Haman shouts.

Hearing this, Haalfrin surprisingly calms down. "Are you a dead fish?" he asks in a low voice.

"What?"

Haalfrin leans back and reminisces over old memories for a moment. "There's an old lecture I used to give my students, back in the day. I'd say it's the most valuable lesson of all. I like to call it the 'dead fish' lesson. Would you like to learn it?"

Seeing Haalfrin abrupt change in attitude, Haman goes quiet, but Nay hesitantly nods.

"Good. Follow me to the watering trough."

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They walk a little ways down the field towards where the horses are kept.

"What's this about?" Nay asks unsurely.

Without directly answering, Haalfrin beckons to Haman. "Come here."

The younger boy looks around cautiously, then steps forward.

Once the blonde boy is next to he watering trough, Haalfirn suddenly kicks him behind the knees. Then, before the boy can fight back, he punches him in the gut to make this next part easier. Finally, he shoves the boy's head in the water.

"What're you doing!?" Nay shouts in alarm. He only hesitates for a moment before he jumps forward to try fighting Haalfrin off.

Alas, Haalfrin's practice with his new body-strengthening spell hasn't been for nothing. All it takes is a light kick, and the young man is knocked off his feet.

With Nay out of the way, Haalfrin pushes harder on Haman's head, and he ignores the boy's frantic gurgling from beneath the dirty water.

Finally, just before the boy is about to pass out, Haalfrin yanks his head out of the water and lets his limp body fall to the ground.

Before Haman can get up, Haalfrin gets on one knee and looks him straight in the eye. "Are you a dead fish?"

"N-no, sir."

"Dead fish flop over and wait to be eaten. Dead fish can only complain when their officers don't care about them. Living fish care so much about living that they'll do anything, including flopping around pathetically. Even if they know they're about to die, they do everything they can to live. So, are you a dead fish!"

"NO!"

"Good!" Haalfrin sets the man back down on the ground. "Since you're not a dead fish, that means you'll do what it takes to live."

Haalfrin looks over at Nay. "Do you need this lesson too?"

Nay looks down and shakes his head.

Without meeting Haalfrin's eyes, Nay bends down and help his younger friend to his feet. Then, without another word to Haalfrin, he carries the boy away.

For some reason, seeing these boys act so... careless... infuriates Haalfrin. Despite everything he's done, he can't get rid of that uncomfortable feeling in his heart.

Suddenly feeling tired, he goes back to his tent and remains there for the rest of the day.

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The next day, when Haalfrin goes to the training field, Haman and Nay aren't there.

'Well, mind as well keep practicing with that spell Prince Tallus gave me,' Haalfrin thinks.

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Most days start with Haalfrin spending an hour or two sitting underneath a tree in the training field - reading his spell scroll over and over again and studying it like a religious text.

'...So if these body-reinforcement spells can just be moved around the body," Haalfrin thinks as he reads the spell scroll, "then, if properly controlled, it doesn't have to be canceled and recast every time you strengthen a new body part; you can just move the spell around the body invisibly.'

For example, if you want to punch extra hard, you would slide the spell into the arm you were punching with. Then, if you want to jump back extra high to avoid a strike, you'd quickly move the spell into your legs.

'Hmm...,' he wonders wistfully, 'I wonder how my brothers will react when we reunite in Freyya's basement? Won't they be so surprised that I became a mage?'

Suddenly feeling motivated to keep training, he leaps to his feet and keeps working on moving the strengthening spell around his body.

Unbeknownst to Haalfrin, one of the captains had made a rare trip back to camp, and he saw Haalfrin practicing his magic...

Feeling more than a little shocked, the unfamiliar captain catches his breath and thinks frantically, 'Why in the world would the higher-ups send a valuable mage to this forsaken death camp? Are they mad?!'

Without another word, the officer turns around and leaves camp the way he came...

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We see a brief glimpse of that same officer from earlier going to a tavern in Uthgraal proper.

After entering the finest establishment in the city, he tips his hat at the royal guards standing on either side of the doorway, and he takes stands at attention at a table full of nobles.

There's a young man, attractive man with blonde hair sitting at a table at the head of the table. Despite not wearing his crown, everyone here is well aware of who this young man is – the crown prince.

The instructor does a quick bow and says, "Prince Kanus, I have something important to tell you…"

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A minute later, Kanus leans back and sigh aloud. Another noble at the table opens his mouth and complains loudly to the prince, "Those sods! Why would they send a freaking mage to that forsaken younger brother of yours?"

Nobody bothers to ask how many gates this "Tallus's" new mage has. As per the Kingdom's agreement with the neighboring Brancotte empire, all mages with 3 gates or higher are sent to guard the Threshold – a fortress found in the far away empire that guards the gate to another world.

With the absence of higher ranked mages, even low leveled mages like Haalfrin are still considered valuable assets.

The instructor then goes and tells Prince Kanus about how Haalfrin is training up all the men and preparing for battle.

Kanus laughs a little and says for the first time, "That battalion, along with little Tallus, are doomed anyway. Still, just to be safe, go and stop that man at least. I'll send a few of my men."

The crown prince then writes it down on paper and seals it with his sigil ring. "Take this. It's direct orders from the acting general."

Of course, Crown Prince Kanus simply assumes Haalfrin was close with Tallus and had chosen to work for him. Why else would a mage be in that troupe?

If he had known Haalfrin was indifferent to the lesser prince, he'd have instead just pulled him out of that troupe and put him under his own wing, with his own elite troupe of mages that only answer to HIM.

Alas, Haalfrin is a weak enough mage for Prince Kanus to not think about too much. "Just ignore the man," Kanus says dismissively. "That prince is going to die soon, anyway. The mage's life is irrelevant."