Kiyokazu Lazar POV —
Darius's eyes swept over the group and landed on the one person who hadn't volunteered. Then he set the rest of us, everyone except the volunteers, to training.
I lost track of how much time passed. All I knew was that I'd been freezing the whole time.
The crowd on the course kept shifting. Some left the moment they finished, heading straight back to our house, others stayed to watch the rest tackle the obstacles, which was what I did while waiting for Luiz to take his run.
Home... That word felt strange even to think, considering that earth building was nowhere near anything I'd call a home. Still, I had a roof over my head and somewhere to sleep, so I suppose I can call it that.
Elias left shortly after a few candidates mentioned heading back to the building. One sharp whistle occured and he was gone, leaving only Darius with us. Soon after, the best performers on the course left too, thinning the crowd further.
Whether that was deliberate, I couldn't say, but it felt like more than coincidence. Did it have something to do with the training? Quite possibly.
In the end, everyone in our group ran the course except Luiz, whom Darius kept refusing no matter how many times he raised his hand to volunteer. Like Kaien, he kept pushing to go next, and he ended up with the same punishment I'd gotten yesterday. Not a word out of him for the rest of training, effectively mute.
Our results, mine and Tavon's, were poor, though not the worst out there. I finished the course in three minutes and thirty-seven seconds, Tavon came in at three twenty-eight.
My time meant nothing to me. All I cared about was passing and staying with the group. While Tavon, on the other hand, cared deeply, enough that every thirty seconds he found a new way to remind me he'd beaten me. The cold no longer seemed to bother him, nor did the biting wind he'd been cursing only minutes earlier while trudging through the snow.
Of the twenty or so of us still out there, only a handful remained, the last ones standing between us and breakfast.
On the track now was that same massive guy who'd been talking to Elias earlier. Toren, I thought his name was, if I remembered right. I'd been standing there ranking everyone as they went, best to worst, and Toren's size clearly worked against him on the obstacles.
He finished in three minutes twenty seconds, which felt almost impossible. Watching him, I'd have sworn he'd been out there for five minutes at least. Then again, maybe that was just me. Standing in this wind for over an hour had probably warped my sense of time.
"Luiz, next!" Darius called, offering no comment at all on Toren's performance, and Luiz stepped up to run.
He darted through the obstacles as if they were nothing, visibly faster and sharper than either Tavon or me. Watching him, you didn't know where to look, at his quick movements or at those striking red eyes of his. He finished with an impressive two minutes fifty-eight seconds, then jogged over to us right after.
"Guys, I'm heading out. I'll freeze to death if I stay here a minute longer," he whispered breathlessly before passing by us.
"Hey, wait for us!" Tavon shouted, breaking into a jog after him.
"Let's go!" Kieran added, following Tavon, and I fell in behind him.
I glanced back as I ran. The remaining recruits were watching us go, Darius included, before I turned my eyes forward again.
We made our way back to the main clearing, followed the path beside it, and slowly headed toward our house.
"Man, I can't wait to get back and put something in this barrel!" Tavon said while jogging, patting his stomach.
"Honestly, I can't wait either," added Luiz, running second in formation.
"Aren't you supposed to be quiet?"
"That penalty was only valid while the training was active, Tavon. I finished mine, so I can speak now, I hope..."
"What do you think we'll get to eat?" I asked.
"Whatever ends up on my plate, I'm devouring it even if it kills me," Tavon replied. "Though with the way this place treats us, I wouldn't be surprised if they served us tree bark."
"True..."
"Well, even if it is tree bark, I just hope it's well-salted," Kieran chimed in with a faint, shivering smile.
"Keep laughing, but if they keep working us like this, by next week you guys are gonna start looking like roast meat to me," Tavon shot back, slowing slightly to avoid slipping on the icy path.
"Well, I don't taste that great anyway," Luiz chuckled quietly, keeping his eyes fixed on the entrance gates finally emerging from the morning fog. "I just hope the cooks are generous with the portions, if nothing else."
"Yeah." We all quickly agreed on that as we climbed the steps toward the front gates.
Kieran and Tavon grabbed the heavy chain hanging across the doors and hauled one side open. We stepped inside and pulled it shut behind us, and a mild, bright, warm hallway welcomed us.
We had arrived.
"Man, I stink," Tavon said, sniffing his shirt. "Like some spoiled fox. There's no way I can lie in my bed like this."
"You don't need to tell us, Tavon, we can smell it ourselves..." Luiz added, pinching his nose shut, while Kieran chuckled under his breath.
"What are you two laughing at?!" Tavon snapped, jabbing a finger at Luiz. "You two stink from a meter away too, just so you know."
"Yeah, but we don't stink nearly as much as you," Luiz shot back immediately, eyes half-closed.
"Hey, Lazar!" Tavon turned to me.
"Yeah?"
"Tell them they're wrong! Who stinks the most out of all of us? It's them, right?"
"..."
I looked at him, then at Luiz and Kieran, who were both staring intently at me, waiting for an answer.
"Honestly? You all stink equally," I finally said. Everyone gave me a strange look for it, even Tavon, who'd been the one to ask.
"Thanks for nothing," Tavon said after a short pause, turning his back on me.
"Well, you asked for an answer, didn't you?"
"Yeah, but I wasn't expecting that! I'd rather—"
"What's all this noise about?" A familiar voice cut down the hallway, and a figure stepped out through a door on the right that hadn't been there a moment ago. Elias.
We all froze the moment he stepped out and caught sight of us, his gaze sweeping over the four of us and leaving a chill lingering in the air.
"This isn't a barn. Mind your manners in the hallways, or there'll be no food for any of you four," he said coldly.
"Please don't take our food away, Sir Elias!" Tavon burst into dramatic tears, clasping his hands together in a pleading gesture. "We're really sorry, just please don't take it, I beg you!"
Elias stared at him for several seconds. It wasn't an ordinary look, but some mixture of confusion and disgust I couldn't quite name.
"What on earth is this?" he said, his voice rising, his eyebrows lifting and his eyes slightly widening. "Is this how a future soldier of Nivalis behaves?"
"My apologies, sir," Tavon said sternly, snapping his hands down to his sides.
"If I catch you acting like this again, I'll cut you out," Elias said coldly, and a sudden gust of cold air seemed to roll off him toward us, tugging at our clothes and hair.
A cold sweat broke out on my neck as everything seemed to stand still for a few seconds.
"Is that clear, Tavon Nenets?" he said, stepping a pace closer to him.
"Yes, sir!" Tavon replied instantly, louder than usual, his eyes wide with fear, shaking like a leaf.
"That goes for the rest of you too!" He looked us over. "The four of you are inseparable, so choose your company carefully, unless you don't mind getting thrown out right along with him."
"Of course, sir!"
"Yes, sir!"
We all spoke in unison, and then his gaze settled on me, his green eyes behind their glasses moving over every inch of me until I felt deeply uncomfortable.
„Krrrgh!"
My stomach growled, loud and sudden, right in the middle of his stare, and every eye in the hallway dropped to it.
„Why did you have to growl right now?" I thought, bracing for Elias to tear into me for interrupting him.
But contrary to my dread, he only said it calmly. "Get inside and wait," then raised a finger to point at the door he'd just come through. "If you're hungry."
"Yes, sir!" we said together, stepping into the room one by one.
The door was wide open, sharing the same design as the dormitory doors, only much smaller, and it opened smoothly, without scraping against the floor or making that skin-crawling creak.
A heavy silence had fallen over us ever since Elias scolded us, no one uttered a single word, not even Tavon, who would normally be talking at the top of his lungs.
The room was massive, that much was obvious from the moment we stepped in. It stretched deep into the building, its heavy stone walls painted brown, its floor a pristine white that gave the whole space a clean, open feel. A row of tall windows ran along the left wall, letting in natural light that fell across neatly arranged wooden tables and chairs. There were twelve tables in all: eight on the left in two rows of four, four on the right in a single row, with a wide, empty aisle running between them.
This was the cafeteria.
At the far end stood an open kitchen, divided from the dining hall by a wooden wall threaded with living green ivy. The line between the two sections was sharp. The moment you passed the wall, the white dining floor gave way to dark brown and black tiles laid out in a checkerboard pattern.
A handful of familiar and unfamiliar faces were already seated. Ren was in the far-left corner, at the first table of the front row, next to one of the windows, his back to the wall and a clear view of the whole room laid out in front of him. Viktor sat across from him, talking about something.
"Wow," I murmured softly as I walked down the aisle, taking in the interior, while the others had similar reactions.
We drifted closer to the wooden wall and the kitchen beyond it. Stone troughs and neatly arranged utensils lined the back, and two iron cauldrons hung from heavy chains bolted to the ceiling. An open fire flickered beneath them, giving off a pleasant warmth and the smell of damp wood mixed with steam. Beside the cauldrons stood a large metal stove, radiating heat of its own.
Kaien was standing right there near the stove, warming his hands in his pockets. The moment he noticed our group, he kept his distance, shifted his gaze toward the cauldron, then silently turned and walked back toward the tables in the main area.
"That guy is never gonna change..." Tavon muttered, watching his back as he sat down on an empty wooden chair. "Why do you think he acts like that?"
"Generally, I don't know, but right now I think he left because of your stench," Luiz offered calmly.
"Are you still going on about that, cherry!"
"Cherry?"
While the two of them argued quietly, I studied the empty wooden plates and shelves behind the counter. Even with the cauldrons steaming, food hadn't been served yet. Given the rules of this camp, it was clear no one would eat until the last recruit finished the course and came inside, they treated us as a collective.
After a brief look around the kitchen and getting warm, we went back to the main area to find a place to sit. In the end, we chose the back table in the row by the window, slowly sat down, and waited.
Over the next ten minutes, the cafeteria doors kept opening and closing. The remaining recruits trickled in, exhausted, dead silent. Each one made straight for the stove to warm up before finding a seat and settling in to wait. The more of them arrived, the louder the room grew.
Everyone talked about whatever they wanted with whoever they wanted, and neither Elias nor Darius was anywhere to be seen.
"Ugh, how this place stinks of sweat already..." Tavon said, resting his head on the smooth wooden table.
"You mean it smells like you, Tavon," Luiz chimed in with a faint smile, resting his chin on his palm as he watched the other recruits crowding near the stove. "Though I have to admit, the atmosphere changed real quick as soon as Elias and Darius vanished."
"Don't relax too much," Kieran interjected, crossing his arms over his chest, his eyes darting briefly toward Ren and Viktor, still talking quietly at the front table. "Elias isn't the type to just leave. They're probably watching us from some corner, waiting for the right moment to catch us off guard again."
I looked at Kieran, then down at my fingers.
"Do you think he was serious?" I asked softly, keeping my voice from carrying to the neighboring tables. "About... the collective expulsion?"
Tavon slowly raised his head from the table, his expression turning unusually serious for someone who'd been joking just a minute ago.
"With Elias, you never know, Lazar," Luiz answered instead of Kieran, the look in his red eyes cold and calculating. "If one person messes up, everyone pays for it. That's the whole point of this camp, so I don't doubt he meant it."
"Well, if I get kicked out because of Tavon doing something stupid, I'll skin him alive myself," Kieran added with a short laugh, though a hint of tension lingered in his voice.
"Hey! I gave it my all on that course today!" Tavon protested, much quieter than before, clearly mindful of Elias's warning. Then he leaned closer to the table and whispered, "Besides... did you see Kaien? That guy looks like he's about to explode any second. He'll be the first one out, guaranteed."
"Considering how you and Lazar have been getting on Elias's radar, I'd say that one of you two leaves before he does," Kieran said seriously. "Especially you, Lazar. I think you're at the top of his list."
"Me?"
He nodded.
"Why?"
"First, that clash with Kaien. Second, that scene where you shouted at Elias. Third, after the course, when he struck you and knocked you out. That's more than enough to put you on their list."
I pressed a hand over my mouth and thought about it, staring at the table in front of me.
"But wait," Luiz cut in, interrupting my thoughts, "You and I both stepped in when Kaien attacked him. I also stepped in when he shouted at Elias too. We're just as much to blame, not only him Kieran."
"That's exactly my point, Luiz. By getting involved, we risk getting kicked out right alongside him. It might be better if we kept some distance from each other."
"What's that supposed to mean, Kieran?"
"I don't want to get thrown out because of someone else's mistake. I can't go home this soon."
"What happened to all that talk about being a team, helping each other out?" Luiz asked, his eyes narrowing slightly.
Kieran paused, looked up at the ceiling, then leaned forward, lacing his fingers together on the table.
"I'm sorry, but I need to pull away from you guys. At least for a while, until this whole situation with Elias and the expulsions dies down," he said after a pause, adjusting his glasses.
„Kieran is leaving us..." The thought landed strangely. Why say it now, and not yesterday, when Darius handed down the penalty and the extra training? Why bother helping me yesterday, giving me advice on sit-ups, if he was only going to walk away from us?
I turned it all over while looking at him. I had nothing to say, couldn't find a single word in that moment.
"Does this have anything to do with Viktor, and what you two were talking about?" I asked, breaking the brief silence.
"What, him?" He looked up. "This has nothing to do with him," he answered curtly. "I just... don't want to get kicked out because of you guys. If I'm forced out, I'd rather it be for my own mistakes, not someone else's. And I wouldn't want anyone else expelled over a mistake I made, either."
„Because of my mistakes..."
"But—"
"That doesn't mean I'm cutting ties with you completely, guys. I'll be around if you ever need me, we just won't be spending as much time together. I hope you understand."
Silence settled over us. After a few moments, I cast a quick glance out the window, watching the trees sway as the snow fell, my mind flooding with memories of our time with Kieran.
"Lazar."
As I stared out the window, Tavon called my name.
"Yeah?"
"How long do you think we'll be here?" he asked softly, sounding almost anxious.
"I don't know."
"You really don't know?"
"If I knew, I'd tell you."
"Alright, alright. I was just asking."
"Darius said two months."
"I can survive that," Tavon said immediately, and silence fell over us once more.
In the midst of our quiet, the cafeteria doors swung open. Darius and Elias stepped into the room.
The moment they entered, absolute silence swept across the cafeteria, and every gaze turned toward them.
"Is this how you greet your superiors?!" Elias's voice boomed through the room. "Everyone, stand up!"
At his command, every recruit shot up from their chairs and straightened their posture, awaiting his next instructions.
Tavon shot up so fast his chair scraped loudly against the floor. Elias's glare landed on our table, the first in the row near the left window, held there a moment, then swept across the rest of the recruits, the tension climbing with every second it lingered.
"That's better," he said, his tone more composed now. "You may sit."
At his command, we sat back down, and the two of them walked down the aisle toward the kitchen.
"Tavon Nenets and Lazar Kiyokazu!" Elias's voice called out from the kitchen.
"Yes, sir!"
"You two will distribute the food to the others. Get over here."
"They really don't give you a moment to rest, do they..." Luiz murmured as I stepped away from the table.
I gave a single nod without replying and headed toward the kitchen.
When we got there, the two cauldrons had already been lowered to the floor. Beside them lay wooden ladles, a pile of dark bread, and deep wooden bowls stacked on a nearby table.
"Decide between yourselves who ladles and who serves," Darius said, before the two of them turned back toward the dining hall and walked out.
"I'll ladle, dangles," Tavon said, grabbing a wooden ladle. "You stack the bowls on the tray and serve them."
"Alright," I replied.
Tavon ladled the thick soup into bowls while I stacked them with pieces of bread and carried them table to table. A few hushed comments followed us, and more than one recruit threw a bitter glare my way, but I just did what we'd been told.
Once we'd served everyone else, we took the last two bowls for ourselves and returned to our table.
Tavon set his bowl down with a sigh of relief and gulped down a few bites before pausing to look at mine.
"Lazar, are you gonna eat that?"
I looked down at the piece of bread beside my portion. I stared at it, and even hungry as I was, I had no appetite for it.
"No."
"Can I have it then?"
I passed him the bread.
"Here."
"I knew you were a good man." Tavon pressed on with his bizarre jokes, but no one laughed. It failed to spark any warmth among us.
"I just gave you bread."
"And it counts."
We ate the rest of it in silence, the atmosphere heavy, nobody saying a word. We were hungry enough that keeping our eyes on our bowls helped ease the discomfort. There was plenty we could have talked about, plenty we hadn't gotten around to yet, but in the end we sat there without a word, all because of what Kieran had said.
Still, I understood him. I didn't know if I'd have done the same in his shoes, but I certainly wouldn't want to get expelled over someone else's mistake either.
When I finished, I set my spoon down in the bowl and glanced around. Voices had slowly crept back into the room, and for a moment it felt like things were returning to normal, the way they'd been before Kieran made his declaration.
Then the heavy thud of boots against stone cut off the last whispers in the hall. Elias stood at the entrance, one hand resting on his belt, his glasses catching the daylight.
"Mealtime is over," he announced in a tone that left no room for hesitation. "Clean your tables and return to the dorms if you wish. Tavon, Lazar, wash the dishes and put them back where they belong. Have it done by noon." With that, he turned and stepped back outside.
We looked at each other without a word. Kieran was the first to stand, he left his bowl on the table and walked out without so much as a glance in our direction.