Passage of Puerulus [BP/UD/Tsu]

Ilona had eaten breakfast, but wasn't it around noon? Lunch would be nice as well. She laughed when she saw Jayden chasing after Sniffles, who took off at his feline top speed, bouncing in the direction of the kitchen and staying well ahead of Jayden due to being much smaller and having twice as many legs.

"We don't really have a set cook," she said as they reached the kitchen, "So we'll have to see who of us is making something..." She then turned to Jayden, raising a fist. "You ready, Jayden?" As she prepared to have fate decide whether she or Jayden would be the unfortunate soul having to struggle with the cooking materials today, Sniffles sat on the table, watching the three. He didn't care, obviously, as long as he got the leftovers.

Leopold checked the pantry as they got to the kitchen after hearing Ilona's explanation. His eyes lit up at seeing some of the things in there. They were all fresh, too! He turned them and said, smiling, "Actually, ma'am, if it's all the same to you, could I cook for you today?" Even though he said that, it was rather obvious he had no intention of taking "no" for an answer, as he had already gotten several pieces of produce and meat out.

He got to work, quickly cutting up meat and vegetables into more manageable chunks as a pot of water heated up. He prepared celery, bell pepper, onions. As soon as the water was ready he dumped those in, also preparing a mixture of wheat flour and butter. He had to cook it to the point where the mixture would stop tasting like flour, and the pot had to simmer for at least a few hours, but he thought it was going well so far. It had been a rather long time since he'd found the time and ingredients for a proper meal like this.

"Ahh," sighed Leo, actual hunger forgotten, "I'd almost forgotten what it felt like to work in a kitchen."

When Leo immediately began using the tools and food rather well, Jayden let out a sigh of relief. "Well, I'm glad there's another one here now willing to cook. Usually it comes down to me cooking for everyone and trying to keep Sayomi from helping." He watched Leo's cooking for a moment, then saw Lando pop in.

"Well now, just thought I'd pop by to say that Mr. Debt here checks out for his exams, but because he hasn't been officially trained, he doesn't qualify for full member. That's why he'll be serving his training here. So get prepped. Your exams start in two hours." The archer then turned and walked from the kitchen, pleased with a day's work. Exams were so much fun... He gets to shoot people without feeling guilty because he isn't killing them.

Oh? It looked like Leo wanted to cook. Good thing, that saved either Ilona or Jayden the trouble. it didn't take long for Lando to pop in, much to the blonde's surprise. That had been fast. She didn't think a background check could have been run that fa- oh, there it was. Leo technically didn't meet the requirements, but apparently captain Denolle (or Lando- somehow it seemed he could get away with more than anyone else) had found a loophole in the rules allowing him in after all.

Still, Ilona exchanged looks with Jayden. Now, Lando was a strange character. He said strange things all the time... but only when there was some sort of impulse for it. There had to be a reason for him calling Leo 'Mr. Debt.' "Um... Leo? What was that all abou- ack!" She hurried to turn around and chase after Lando. "Lando, wait up. If you just came from Denolle's office, do you know anything about our pay? It's due this week, and I need it urgently for something."

Leo froze when the subject of debt came up, but thankfully it seemed that this man... Lando, was it? who brought it up, and Ilona both left before questioning him further. He had nearly dropped the thickener. He finished it and added it to the pot, stirring it a bit. Still...

"Um..." he said quietly, without looking at Jayden, "It probably won't be ready until the exams are done. Is there anyone who can finish this in my place?" As he spoke, he drew out a few spices for the stock, and adjusted the pot so it would be heated correctly.

He fidgeted a little, hoping that the earlier topic wouldn't come up again. He thought he could bluff his way out of it if he needed to by saying he needed to prepare for exams, but...

Jayden too was shocked at what he heard, raising an eyebrow at Leo as he tried to cover it up. Whatever, it wasn’t his place to prod. Jayden then nodded. “Yeah, I could probably get Chrissy to watch it or something. She’s not a great chef, but if I say ‘Stir this every ten minutes’, it should be fine. Now, I’d give you hints on the exam, but that’s against the rules. Sorry Leo, you’re going in eyes closed.”

Meanwhile up the hall, Lando turned back to Ilona. “Well, from what I know, it’s going to be tonight, probably after the exam. What’re you in such heavy need of money for though, eh Ilo? Ohhh, have you got some mysterious boyfriend you’re hiding from us? Jon would be sooooo pissed, wouldn’t he?”

"N-no! That's not what I..." Ilona blushed hard. She knew Lando was just teasing, but she was still embarrassed. She had no boyfriend, and she probably wasn't the person to have one at her age. What he said about her father was true, though. Jonathan WOULD be enraged to see her with a man she hadn't told him about. "I- I'm saving up for something. B-besides, what difference would it make if I did have one? What does that have to do with me needing my paycheck?"

-----

Concluding her discussion with Lando, she returned to the kitchen to find Jayden and Leo. "Payday today," she said to her small colleague. "After Leo's exams, it seems."

Leopold nodded slightly, trying to hide his relief that he wouldn't be pressed further. "Oh... yes, I understand, sir. Um, I already got out the things she'll need, so..."

The boy gave a quick explanation about what to do to the pot, when and how to add the stock, and when it would be ready. For good measure he scribbled the same directions onto a nearby scrap of paper.

"Sorry for the trouble. Thanks."

With that, he excused himself to go to the little shack he called home for a little while. He made sure his armor was in order, that his blade was all right, that he was ready in all ways he was capable of thinking of. Those were, unfortunately, not many. All he could do was try and beat his anxiety down, by nervously checking and double checking every detail about himself and his equipment. When the time came he returned to base, heart still rebelling.

Jayden smiled as Ilona said payday was up today. Money was always helpful, and he still had a couple payments to make on his house. "Awesome. Thanks for checking that, Ilona." He looked over the instructions, and turned to Leo. "So when you come back, go just outside the easy gates and a bit north. You'll see the testing grounds there."

When the rookie left, he went to find Chrissy. Just as he walked towards the door though, he saw Sniffles sniffing the food. "I swear Sniffles, you'd better not." 

The cat looked at Jayden, longing for such a feast as the one laid out before him. "Ilona! Take Sniffles to your room or something. He's got those hungry eyes again."

Jayden walked downstairs and saw Chrissy throwing knives into the dummies he'd been practicing on just minutes prior. "Chrissy. Kitchen duty calls. Your headquarters need you. Leo was making something, but he doesn't have time to finish it. That's on you."

Chrissy shot him a glare. "Oh joy, if I say no, you'll sic Jon on me again, won't you?"

Jayden smirked, leaning against the wall. "Well, Jon left, so no. You just won't have anything to eat either."

"Dick move, short stuff. Whatever, I'm on it."

"I'm on it!" Ilona quickly grabbed Sniffles, much to the cat's frustration, and dragged him away from the pot. She didn't think he'd actually dive in, since she kept him well-fed, but she didn't want to run the risk. "Come on, Sniffles. When Chrissy sees you around her food she's going to use you for target practice."

She took the struggling tabby back to her room, where she put him down in front of his still filled foodbowl. "Don't give me that look," she said as she walked over to the trunk in which she kept many of her weapons to put away her bow, "We can't have you eating our food if you have your own."

As she put away her bow and quiver, she briefly wondered who was going to be involved in Leo's exams. She'd never done it before, usually her father helped with them, but with him gone, she wondered who would take his place.

Leopold continued on, heading through the gates and northbound as per Jayden's instructions. He grew more and more restless as he did proceeded, fidgeting and continuing to check his equipment. There was little point to this but he could find no other way to ease his nerves.

He was shivering by the time he reached the place that seemed to be the testing grounds, wondering what awaited him here. Hopefully he could get through it, because if not... he shook his head, trying not to think about that. He just had to focus on what was here and now, what trials lied ahead of him... right?

...Still, he couldn't shake the feeling of dread. No matter what it was there had to be something to it. It was for elites, after all. Leo gritted his teeth in anticipation.

Jayden walked over to his room, with Lando standing just outside, a strange bag in hand. “Hey Lando, what’s with the bag?” He said, nearing the sniper.

With a slight smirk, he tossed the bag to Jayden. “The bag’s for you, from Denolle. You’re the stunner for the kid’s exam.”

Jayden just looked up confusedly. “The… stunner?” He reached into the bag, pulling out one of the strange nuts inside. Lando took it and threw it down the hall, giving out a big flash. “Oh… so what do I do?”

Lando started walking towards Ilona’s room. “Whenever you think Leo could use a little more flashbang in his face, lob one over the wall you’ll be positioned beside that goes along the course.”

Jayden nodded. “Ah, okay then. Sounds easy enough. Where are you going?”

“Gotta go tell Ilona she’s sparring him. Go to the training ground and wait for Leo.”

When Jayden arrived, he was the only one there, so he took a seat on the fence of their training grounds, waiting for Leo to show up. When he did, Jayden got down off the fence and walked towards Leo, shaking his hand. “Welcome to the testing grounds, Leo. You’re going to be put through a pretty hard exam here today. I’ll start with a little warning. There have been a few deaths on his course before, hence the waiver you signed. I’ll give you more details on what’s happening when the others show up.”

Just as Ilona shut the trunk and wanted to turn to Sniffles, she heard Lando behind her. "Hey sweets." She turned around, blushing. Why was it he always found the most embarrassing of nicknames for her? "Hey now, that one wasn't THAT bad."

"W-what is it, Lando?" She put a stray strand of hair behind her ear, unsure of what to do with her embarrassment. "Are you just here to..."

"Nah, Jon'd skin me alive and feed me to his horse. But since he's not here, we need someone else to put the cuts on the new guy."

"...so am I doing the fighting part of his examination then?"

"Yeah. You're probably the next best thing after Jon, being a chip off the old block and all."

"Erm... sure. I'll do it." Turning back to her trunk, she kneeled in front of it as she tried to decide on what of her equipment she was going to bring with her.

-----

Not too long afterwards, she showed up at the training grounds with her chosen equipment, finding Jayden and Leo already there. "I'm sorry for being late... I'll be in charge of the combat evaluation."

Leopold gulped silently. "Oh." Then again, he'd already come into this knowing it was all or nothing, so... This just meant he had to win, right?

His hands quickly formed fists when he learned of the combat exam. So this wasn't just a survival exercise or anything... he supposed he shouldn't have been surprised, and he wasn't, but it still somehow left a bitter taste in his mouth. At least it meant he was assumed to survive, he guessed...

"Um... then are we all here?" Now that Ilona was here as well, he guessed that it was time to learn the rules...

Jayden nodded when Ilona showed up, glad they could start. "Okay, now that we're all here, follow me." He began walking towards the training ring. Along the way, he explained the scenario to Leo. "Okay, you're going to be fighting Ilona here. Nothing complicated, just everything plain and simple. We'll be using training weapons so nobody gets a leg lopped off or anything. " He smiled reassuringly at the initiate.

And then they were there. It was a simple dirt circle about thirty feet in diameter with a four foot tall wood fence around it. Next to the entrance was a rack full of training weaponry. There was a little bit of everything there; Swords, axes, lances, and even more unique weapons like zweihanders and katars. "Alright, pick your weapon. And remember, this isn't about you winning the fight, it's more seeing what you can do." Jayden then leaned against the fense and waited for the duel to begin.

Ilona critically eyed the weapon rack. The weapons on it weren't wooden or anything of that sort, but they were dulled to the point where you'd have to use insane force to really wound someone. Unless you went with the mace or hammer, of course, she thought as her eyes flitted to them, blunt force trauma was never fun.

Her eyes flitted away from the blunt weapons and back to the ones she actually mastered- the shortsword, the rapier, the lance and the bow. The bow was not an option- unlike Lando, for Ilona it was an additional piece of equipment, something she could use when her target was too far away for lance or sword and or when she didn't want to be caught by twenty other Moblins as she moved in to kill the twenty-first.

The shortsword... Ilona picked it up and turned it in her hand, testing the edge even though she knew how dull it was and holding back a grimace. She hated dull weapons. Her father had taught her to meticulously sharpen her own ones- an unattentive soul who dared test the tip of her rapier without knowing this would probably draw more blood from himself than was supposed to happen.

Putting back the shortsword, she looked at the spear for a second but decided to grab the dulled rapier out of the rack instead. Leaving the shield for what it was as well, she turned around and walked to one half of the circle, performing a few warm-up swings and dodging and countering a few imaginary sword strokes.

"Umm..." Leopold let out a thoughtful sigh. He wasn't very familiar with many of the weapons. Yes, he had seen most of them or something resembling them during his brief tutelage under Uncle Kuro, but he mostly only knew about their structure; the weapon he had most familiarity with was his own blade, and the closest thing to that here was...

He looked over the swords on the rack, and tapped their blades. They seemed more fit to be brute force weapons in this state, though he had seen such worn pieces of steel in the smith. He looked at the zweihander, took it in his hands and tested its weight. No good. It was too heavy for him and felt unnatural. He glanced over at Ilona, who had selected a thin blade and began shadow-fighting with it. He didn't know much about using that sword, but it looked much too thin for broad slashes to be its primary function. That would make it hard. Thrusts generally were big, committed attacks; with only a single, narrow point of focus but with devastating force. Blocking against a piercing strike was completely outside of his capabilities.

He tried an arming sword next. This one was fairly short and light, and he could leave his off hand free. Leo nodded to himself and took it off the rack, adjusting his hand to its pommel hilt and taking a few swings to get a feel for its weight. Though, he was more comfortable with his hands, and made sure to confirm the magic ran through his fingertips in preparation.

Jayden nodded as he saw Leo analyse Ilona’s choice in weapons. He was a smart fighter... Jayden knew it was his job to watch Leo fight, to see if he was worth keeping around in HAREON. Leaning on the fence, the knight put his chin on his arm as he started watching the fight unfold. “Remember, no bone breaks or anything preferably.”

No bone breaks... Ilona would try. But truth be told she didn't know how suitable she was for that sort of fighting. "Yes, sir," she said, raising her sword in the customary greeting before taking a stance. She waited until Leopold looked ready to receive her attack, immediately spotted a weakness in his defense and taking advantage of it. She landed the tip of the rapier on his chest, forcing him to step back.

As they continued sparring, one thing became obvious to Ilona. He was very untrained in the finer art of swordfighting. His movements were rough and sloppy, easy to predict and unpolished. However that was just Ilona's opinion, and she was sure hers had been no different when she had first joined HAREON. Maybe Jayden could see something from the sidelines that balanced things out.

Ilona tried again with a thrust, this time directed at his upper leg.

Leopold thought he was good at fighting. Not the best, maybe, but... competent.

Then the first attack landed, and that feeling quickly drained away. He had always had fairly good reaction times, and usually he thought he was able to trust his instincts to just flow through a brawl. But before him stood a figure of grace, who had not only those edges but moved much more fluidly, whose sword seemed only an extension of her body. He could tell that not only did she move on instinct, her instincts and reflexes themselves had been conditioned to make her a ruthlessly efficient warrior. His movements were quick, but jerky, uncoordinated. He darted, but she flowed and segued. It did not help that he had grown much more accustomed to fist-fighting during his time in the city. He knew he was woefully unpracticed with blades. It had been too long since his regular guardsman training. Even after he was prepared it took all his skill just to keep her from driving holes into him.

Before the power of the elites, Leo felt as though he were a tiny sparrow who had lived by plucking small insects away, and then suddenly happened upon a mighty hawk.

It was bad. The boy had fought people with weapons before in the arena, but they were usually just things like chairs; makeshift, easily-avoided weapons in the hands of clumsy, untrained citizens. He found no openings whatsoever. But he had to do something. After the first hit he was on the losing end, and this was something he couldn't afford to drop. He continued scanning her posture in vain.

He instinctively leapt back from her thrust, somehow avoiding a grievous assault. If that had hit his maneuverability would've been shot, and then he'd have lost for sure. He then sprang back forward. Too late he realized that this was a bad idea: Ilona was, even after attacking, not defenseless by any stretch of the word. If he'd sidestepped, perhaps he would've had a chance. But jumping back and forth had allowed her time to re-assume her guard. Even as he swiped his blade desperately he knew it could not connect.