Why strip
As the carriage moved along the crooked path, Lovell couldn't help but glance at the strange noble in chains.
Former noble, as it turned out.
His mind surged with images of how his current situation came to be.
Was he the bastard of his house?
Was he a traitorous individual?
He seemed to recall the youth named Mat mentioning something along the lines of going up against the Dreadborn and losing.
Is he a fellow idiot who survived an encounter with that disaster?
No, judging from the condition we found her in, he must have fought her when she was in a much better condition.
Does that mean he is as strong as her?
Am I only going to be dealing with such monsters in the future?
Why is my fate so dark?
... whatever.
I should make plans to better survive when we arrive at the academy.
I need him on our side.
There's no telling what awaits us, and one more friend is better than one more enemy.
Lovell drifted from thought to thought and looked to the other chained souls outside the carriage.
They had done something to antagonize these knights or the Princess, but what?
He turned to Sir Anthony and asked as if he wasn't that interested in the topic, "How did they end up in chains? What was their crime?
Sir Anthony found the question rather amusing and scoffed in response, "That one was caught stealing a merchant's goods back in town. That one was accused of attempted rape and was surrendered to us in a half-dead state. That one was dying of starvation and committed a crime for which he immediately gave himself up. That one..."
Lovell listened to Sir Anthony ramble on and surmised that the prisoners each had committed a crime of different magnitudes.
Some of them were simply accused of having done something, but were still grouped with those who had more serious crimes.
Whatever the criteria were for entry into the academy, he was sure they cared more about quantity than quality.
...
They proceeded on the forest path until noon, when they exited the forest.
Before them was a completely barren clearing.
The only things they could make out from their surroundings were the desert soil beneath them and the clear, ominous sky above them.
It looked safe, but not even a patch of grass could be seen, nor could any bird be spotted.
This was a much better development than they expected since they weren't suddenly face to face with a Horror.
They were momentarily safe and proceeded towards the mountain range they saw in the distance.
The mountain peaks formed a circle and seemed to be a naturally formed wall to hold back the hordes of Horrors that would flood from the forest every few years.
The smashed and cracked rocks only served as proof that the monument had seen its fair share of conflict.
Anxious at what awaited them, the pair in the carriage, as well as the prisoners, glued themselves to the sight as they marched on.
Derek and Lovell grew tense with every passing moment.
Everyone was silent, and the air only carried the sounds of footsteps, the movement of the wheels and the rattling of chains.
Impatient, Derek asked the question he had been thinking of the entire time.
" Exactly what kind of academy are we going to? I imagine we won't be sitting together in a classroom like the children of those few wealthy individuals do back in town."
Sir Anthony responded with a somewhat rare hint of joy in his voice, "Not much can be said about the place you are going. One thing I do know is that you will have the opportunity to become much stronger and more useful to the kingdom...I did hear a strange rumor about this place, though."
Lovell straightened his posture to indicate he was paying attention after this remark.
"...they say that once you are enrolled there, you are allowed to leave if you wish. The opportunity is open to everyone, but only under certain conditions. Only those who leave at night are allowed to leave unimpeded. If you ever attempt to leave during the day, you will be punished by the 'principal' who oversees the place. I have never seen this with my own eyes, and most of it is just from word of mouth, but who knows? You can only try your luck."
Lovell and Derek both had annoyed expressions.
This knight before them had a bit of an inclination towards seeing them suffer.
He had hidden it well by answering almost every question they raised, but Lovell was not fooled.
He could clearly understand Sir Anthony's intentions and felt malice being masked by kindness.
They remained quiet and said nothing more. After covering a few kilometers, the first star was seen in the sky.
Night was upon them, and soon too would the Horrors.
They sped up as much as they could and arrived in the valley before they came face to face with a Horror.
The stone around them was littered with all sorts of damage.
Cracks and claw marks were the prevailing ones.
The bottoms of the mountains all had an unusual, all-dark paint to them.
Lovell couldn't help but recall the blood he had seen trickle from the lips of the Dreadborn he had fought.
His body tenses, and he grew wary of his surroundings.
After looking around for a little, he made a rather unsettling discovery.
The ground around them was clean.
Too clean. There was no corpse to be found in sight.
Granted, the Horror wave happened every few years, shouldn't there have been a few corpses lying on the ground, even now?
The thought floated in his mind, but he didn't speak a word.
The prisoners outside had worried expressions.
They knew they were most likely not going to survive long but still felt unresigned to their fate.
They were being treated no differently than livestock whose fate could be decided by the hunger of another on a whim.
They marched on the surprisingly even ground and proceeded without any further incident.
They arrived at a 20-30 meter tall wall.
The most prominent thing on the wall was the thick black metal gate in front of them.
What truly caught Lovell's attention was the spikes that were growing on the gate.
They were long spikes that looked like they were meant to tear anything that came too close.
On top of the wall stood armed individuals who were each stationed with a crossbow.
The weapons stood about 10 meters apart, each with at least 2 people standing there.
All the prisoners' attention was drawn by the sound of the opening gates.
Their arrival was noticed beforehand, and their entry approval had already been issued.
With the sun no longer towering in the sky, Lovell saw the scene in front with a curious expression.
The roads were paved nicely, and the buildings stood tall.
In what looked like the center of the academy, there stood a breathtaking sight.
It was a colosseum.
A massive one at that.
It looked like it could hold thousands of people at once.
Various banners and flags were crowning the top of the stone structure that served to boost its presence.
Lovell's admiration for the monument was broken by the sound of synchronized footsteps.
He lowered his gaze and saw a group of knights clad in armor carrying a golden palanquin.
On the palanquin sat a woman with a rather inviting chest, staring at the new arrivals with exaggerated joy in her face.
All the prisoners experience a rather new emotion as they avert their gaze from the beauty.
Lovell couldn't help but flinch when he met her gaze.
What is that look?
That's not normal.
It's not joy, it's... anticipation.
She looks like she found some incredibly fun game to play or something.
Surely she isn't thinking about anything weird...right?
The procession came to a stop ahead of them, and so too did they.
Sir Anthony got out of the carriage and proceeded to meet with the woman who looked to be in charge.
She got off her platform and waited for him to come to her.
After a short exchange that Lovell assumed Sir Anthony had transferred ownership of the prisoners to her, she proceeded towards the prisoners on her own.
"It is so nice to see so many new faces at our humble academy. My name is Alicia Valentine. I am the 'principal' of this establishment and will be your superior from today onwards. Nice to meet you all, hmm. What do we have here?"
Her attention fell to the two individuals she sensed in the carriage.
" That's not nice, is it. When making introductions, shouldn't someone present themselves rather than hide? Why don't you come out?"
She then snapped her fingers, and the carriage doors opened on their own.
The prisoners looked at this with fear in their eyes.
Now that it has come to this...
Lovell then looked at Derek with a stiff expression and spoke, "Do as I do."
...
Silence followed the creaking sound of the door opening.
Confused and intrigued gazes were drawn to the door.
Alicia's smile only deepened when she saw the two exit.
The two of them walked out of the carriage bare-chested.
Everybody looked at them and wondered what was going on.