"Whoa, this room is insane," Recruit 7 muttered as they stepped through the double oak doors.
It was a command center. Dominating the far wall was a massive, highly detailed map of the continent. While the northern territories were heavily marked and labeled, the southern expanses of the Mana Beast Territories were an unsettling sea of red ink question marks.
In the center of the room sat a large, circular table surrounded by exactly ten luxurious-looking leather chairs.
Sir Black sat at the head of the table. Flanking him were Sir Blue, Sir Red, and Ma'am White.
Assuming they were meant to join the debrief, Henry reached out to pull back one of the empty chairs.
"No," Sir Black clicked his tongue, his tone sharp enough to cut glass. "You have to earn a seat at this table."
The words froze him. Henry immediately pulled his hand back, sliding the chair precisely back into place, and took a quick step backward to stand at attention. The others quickly followed suit, their posture snapping perfectly straight.
"Now, as you can see from the number of chairs here, there used to be ten of us," Sir Black said, his eyes sweeping over the four of them. "Unfortunately, there are only four of us left. That is exactly where you six will eventually fill in."
Six empty chairs. Six dead soldiers. The realization settled heavily in Henry's gut. That explained the lavish accommodations and the absolute secrecy.
"You four are especially important because you're significantly ahead of the curve from what we initially expected," Sir Black continued, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the thick oak. "But we cannot afford another setback. We're taking it slow. Each of you will be assigned a personalized training objective to hone your specific capabilities."
Sir Black waved a dismissive hand. "First things first. 7 and 4... actually, go ahead and say your real names to each other. We'll use them in private until you've officially earned your colors."
He pointed directly at 7.
"Uhh... my name is Caleb, sir," 7 answered awkwardly, stumbling over the syllables. After three months of having his identity stripped down to a mere number, speaking his own name felt entirely foreign.
Sir Black shifted his finger to 4.
"I'm Tate," he answered smoothly.
Then to 1.
"Hannah," she said. It was a flat, one-word response, completely devoid of emotion, delivered as if her own name didn't matter to her in the slightest.
Finally, Sir Black pointed one more time.
"I'm Henry, sir."
"Good. Now that the pleasantries are out of the way," Sir Black said, entirely unbothered by the tense atmosphere. "Caleb and Tate. You two will deploy as a team tomorrow. Your objective is located in an undisclosed cave within the Willder Mountains."
Sir Black then shifted his calculating gaze to Hannah and Henry. "Hannah. Henry. You will also be deploying to undisclosed caves. However, you will not be together. Your objectives are entirely solo, and you will be dropped into completely different cave systems."
"I know you would normally expect to have a few days of leave after surviving basic training," Sir Black continued, leaning back in his chair. "But your rest will have to wait until after this last test. As an incentive, upon your successful return, each of you will get the chance to pick from three advanced combat techniques specifically tailored to fit your individual fighting styles. So stay focused."
He glanced to his left and right. "That's all from me. Do any of you have anything to add?"
Sir Red, Sir Blue, and Ma'am White all gave brief, silent shakes of their heads.
Sir Black turned his gaze back to the four of them once more. "How about you? Do any of you have questions for me?"
"No, sir," Henry answered crisply.
Hannah, Tate, and Caleb simply shook their heads.
"Alright then," Black nodded, waving a dismissive hand. "We'll come and get you when we're ready to deploy you for your tests. Dismissed."
The four of them snapped sharp salutes, turned on their heels, and marched out of the command center.
As they walked back down the lavish, carpeted hallway toward their private quarters, the disciplined silence finally broke. Tate let out a long, heavy sigh, rolling his shoulders beneath his new armor.
"I was really looking forward to seeing my mother, too," Tate admitted, his voice surprisingly light for the setting. "So we've got to finish our objective up fast, 7."
Caleb shot him an annoyed sideways glare. "It's Caleb. And I don't know why mine isn't a solo test like the others. Honestly, being tied to a partner for another trial is unnecessary.
Tate completely missed the heavy, arrogant irritation radiating from Caleb. Instead of getting offended, Tate just clapped him on the shoulder and flashed a bright, entirely unbothered smile.
"Well, let's just do our best!" Tate said cheerfully, turning to walk into his room.
Caleb just stood in the hallway, staring at Tate's closed door in pure disbelief, before muttering a curse and storming off to his own room.
Henry stepped into the quiet isolation of his new room and let the door click shut behind him. He unclasped his new lightweight chest plate, setting it carefully on a polished wooden stand, and sat on the edge of the bed.
Alone with his thoughts, the tension finally began to ebb, and his mind inevitably drifted westward, bridging the distance back to the Sinclair Barony.
'Just how far away from my brother am I now?' he wondered, staring blankly at the intricate weaving of the rug beneath his boots. He thought of his father and mother, wondering if they would be surprised at what he had gotten himself into.
And then, his thoughts drifted to Mia. 'Is she taking it easy, now that I'm not there to be taken care of?' He hoped, with everything he had, that she was resting, free from the constant stress of watching him train until his body broke down.
But the rare moment of quiet, nostalgic vulnerability was fleeting. He couldn't afford to be homesick. He had a solo trial to survive.
Eight hours later, the comforts of his private quarters were already a memory.
Henry sat completely alone in the back of a heavily reinforced military carriage, bracing himself as the wooden boards rattled violently beneath his boots. Up front, driving the massive warhorses with a tight grip on the reins, was Sir Red.
They were traveling at a decent pace under the cover of darkness, tearing down an unpaved trail that sloped sharply upward. The biting chill of the high-altitude air whipped past Henry's face.
Henry kept his eyes trained on the passing landscape, his vision piercing through the dark. They were definitely heading back toward the towering Willder Mountains, but the red titan trees of the Hope Forest were nowhere in sight.
This path was entirely different.
The terrain was far more jagged, and the cliffs, much steeper, felt completely alien to him.
The carriage shook violently, the wooden wheels slipping on patches of slick, black ice before catching again on the path.
'How much further until we get to this cave?' Henry thought, his grip tightening on the edge of the wooden bench as the carriage leaned precariously close to a bottomless drop-off.
They had been aggressively climbing for hours, and they were now significantly higher in altitude than he had ever been in his entire life.