The quietness of the dining hall was almost suffocating; his reaching arms and the slow tempo in which he stepped towards the center of the large room made the older student wearing a helmet a force not to be messed with. Midas's brows sunk in worry; it was evident that the head of the knighthood was after Patriq because he and the other club members picked him up on the way. Glancing to the side on which he sat, Midas watched as Patriq raised his head with an unbothered expression.
Something that utterly surprised Midas, however, was the fact he had no problem understanding the words he spoke out to the students—clearly speaking desert tongue, as if he already anticipated that most of the newer students in this hall originated from there.
"You there...! I remember your face, you're Patriq, aren't you?"
The firm tone of the club leader made Midas's eyes shift towards him. Patriq stood up reluctantly, grasping his wand he had leaned against the wooden support behind him to come with his leader. Javelin had already shifted towards the helmet-wearing student, his arm on his sister to ensure her protection against the loudmouth. Sighing, as he himself was the reason for his presence at the dining hall, Midas eventually stood up as well.
"Are you trying to speak up...?"
His head turned towards Midas once he stood, shifting his attention away from Patriq as he distanced himself from the table their group sat on. Jakal and his friend froze at the two of them facing off against each other quietly across the table. Midas's stern gaze wasn't able to focus on any of his facial features—only the lower half of his face was exposed, as the visor blocked any vision of his eyes.
"It was my fault that Patriq here had been absent."
"Is that so? Well, step forward—I'm sure Patriq won't speak about it himself..."
Briefly mustering the quiet staff wielding youth, he faced Midas as he made his way around the table, slightly frowning at the fact he now directly stood in front of the knighthood leader. Having a muscular build and being one head taller than Midas, his stare was easily felt by the boy through the visor.
"I saw him lying on the road outside the university grounds; he seemed unconscious, so I brought him with me. Since we are classmates, I worried about his health and wanted to bring him to the nurse, unknowing of the fact he currently was employed by the knighthood."
"I appreciate you telling me directly—Patriq seems to be in good condition due to your action. Yet, the fact a student at that time just wandered out of the university all by himself is quite questionable. Don't you think"?
Midas's eyes sink to the wooden floor of the hall, being looked down upon by students that have gathered around the railings of the second floor—all of them quietly observing the two as they lean against the wooden fence. Their gazes felt the same, like the glare of the clubhead—proving, in a sense, deeply cutting into his head, awaiting another answer.
Having no other way of not getting his own club involved in the situation, Midas saw himself forced to lie—having already sworn to take responsibility if exactly this should happen. Nibbling on his lower lip, his eyes stared at the ground for a while before glancing up at the student in front of him.
"I was late to one of my classes, so I didn't attend them to explore the nearby town... trying to make the most of my free time. I was lucky to at least find Patriq here lying out on the street—at least that gave my presence outside of the university some worth."
"Ah, I see now, no matter how much you try to play down the fact you were absent without any proper reason... You're a delinquent no matter why or how often this had already happened. But... because I respect your effort of ensuring the safety of one of my members, I will let your punishment for this be not as harsh."
Midas's lie made the students on the upper floor dimly squabble with each other; a mixture of undecipherable whispers filled with fear, disrespect, and confusion filled the room. Jevaila's attempt to speak up was directly shut down by her brother as he maintained his firm grip around her shoulder, making her turn in frustration at his stern eyes. Jakal clenched his teeth in fear, unable to speak up to defend Midas—just too scared to face the taller and more muscular knight.
"Very well then—if both of you don't have anything to say against my conclusion, I will hereby employ you two to go through the routine works of the club of the knighthood and guard duties. May you tell me your name and what clubs you belong to so I can inform your heads...?"
"Of course... I was named Midas, and I'm part of the literature and language club."
Midas's brows sterned even harder at the fact he had to rephrase Avalon's introduction he gave them while they sat in the library—his lie growing in size with every sentence he spoke, not even mentioning Ivydas's club to him. Practically clenching his teeth, the youth looked up at the knighthood leader, his arms crossed.
"So you're one of Avalon's students. Well, if there should be another time in which you find yourself being late to his class again, go through with it instead of skipping completely. Avalon won't be too harsh with you if you try to better yourself. It is nice to meet you, Midas. I was named by my father, Khud."
Midas watched as he extended one of his arms out at him, reluctantly shaking his hand—forced to flash his teeth in pain as Khud's firm grip made his left hand ache. Releasing his grasp from the youth, he dimly laughed to himself as he turned to his aligned members, taking the two of them with him as he gestured the line of knights to move forward with a short hand movement, all of them leaving the dining hall at once.
Khud quickly took the lead; his faster pace made his flared pants flatter with every step he took. Only now was Midas able to see his sheathed sword—stuck under the belt that held up his wide cloth. Being guided by five other guards, two behind them and three in the front, Midas and Patriq were forced to walk out of the main university building. Finding themselves using one of the building's side entrances of the same building wing, they entered a small training ground.
Right in between a tinier, elongated building and the large university building, a rectangular patch of grass was being used to train on by three more knights. Midas saw the same type of straw dummy before; even circular disks to train someone's long-range capabilities were placed here, marked with red rings that shrunk up in its center. To the right side of the entrance, a wall shielded the little training ground from the outside; tiled paths were plastered on both of their sides, one of them leading to the building, being shielded by a wooden roof.
"Alright, you two, this place has become a mess—dusty, littered with leaves... I want you two to take care of this while I'm gone, alright?"
Gesturing through the whole space, Khuds's finger eventually halted at a prepared set of brooms and rakes leaning against the wall of the building they came out of. The arrival of the two of them made the other guards halt in their exercise, letting go of the two sets of handles that were built into the wall—they turned around, raising their chins slightly to muster the two younger students with proving glances.
"Sure. We can do that..."
Briefly glancing at the raised heads of the unfamiliar guards mustering them across the plain before turning around to see the tired expression of Patriq, Midas answered shortly, not having any choice but to accept now. Watching briefly as Patriq stepped towards the tools to grab a rake with tired movements, Midas turned to Khud again, able to see him nod slowly.
"You see, I like people like you, Midas... people who don't screw around and just do things. People that are reliable, people I feel are up to help anyone in need if they have to... you might be perfect to fit our club, so if you want to, join us as well."
"I... I will consider it."
"Good, I hope so. I'm glad Patriq has someone like you around; he can hopefully learn something from you. Even though you two are technically slackers..."
Lifting the hand he placed on Midas's left shoulder again, Khud turned around to walk through the exit again—his invite sounding more like a threat than a freely considerable offer. Halting again to turn around, already seeing Midas having started to move dust from the stone tiles to the grassy patch the guards train on with a broom, he spoke up again.
"If you two are done, go place these things back inside the storage house."
Midas stopped moving his broom as he glanced over towards the door to which Khud pointed, nodding at him shortly as he continued to broom the pathway. Briefly glancing over to Patriq as his rake gathered dried-up leaves from the grass, stepping in between the dummies and into every corner of the rectangular grass plain to pile the leaves up, he quickly noticed the darkened expressions of the guards mustering them two.
Having brushed off the dust that settled on the last part of the L-shaped pathway, Midas and Patriq met again in silence, giving each other a brief look as they felt the eyes of weary guards mustering them. The huffs that sounded from them as they trained were the only noise that seemed to fill the tiny yard; an occasional cheer followed it. Without thinking, Midas watched as one of them pulled themselves up on the set of handles built into the wall, while another did push-ups on the grass.
Patriq already took the lead, grasping the other unused rake to open the wooden door of the storage building, making Midas's head turn at the light squeaking of its handles—also entering it after him. The two of them found themselves inside a barely lit hall; the wooden floor made sounds under seemingly every step they made—hesitantly walking around the crowded room, the only source of light radiating from slim windows on the top of the higher walls of the storage.
"Maybe we should stash them there...?"
Midas pointed towards a set of stairs that led downwards, eventually being joined by Patriq, who turned instead of stepping deeper into the conglomeration of crates and spare dummies. The two of them eventually climbed down stone stairs. Midas drew comparisons to the ruin they went inside of unwillingly at the sight of the basement they now seemed to enter. The barren room was as long as the upper floor, lit up by candles that sat on long brass stands, eventually leading them to what seemed to be cages.
Midas's eyes widened with perplexity, taking a step back just at the sight of the iron bars—possibly being used to trap beasts inside of them. Briefly exchanging looks with Patriq again, Midas eventually decided to step closer to take a closer look inside of one of these metal cages—cloth was put on top of the one he examined, and a pale hand eventually tried to reach out to him just as he lifted the cloth.
Flinching back at the reaching fingers, still lifting the cloth, Midas's eyes widened in shock as he saw the dark pupils of Skye looking at him. Eventually coming closer as he took a breather, eventually being joined by Patriq as he crouched down next to him. Seeing her pinkish hair glisten slightly in the faint light of the candles behind them, Midas tried to form a plan on how to free her, looking down onto his blazer as her pale fingers grasped onto it.