"So, are these our opponents for today Garo?" One of the lady knights asked. She was tall and had orange hair and an eyepatch in one of her eyes.

"Hehe, isn"t it obvious at this point Alisia. This will be fun," a lady magician said. She was wearing hood on her leather armor so only her lower face and lower part of her purple hair were visible.

"Is this supposed to be a joke, Garo? If I knew we were fighting a bunch of kids, I would have never come," a tall bald man spoke looking towards the yellow-haired man in the center. Since he was wearing a leather robe, he must be a magician. "Well, I didn"t join the knight squad to be some n.o.bles puppet so I won"t partic.i.p.ate in this puppet-show. I am leaving," said the bald man while turning around towards the door from which he came from.

"If you want to leave I won"t stop you," the yellow-haired man whose name appears to be Garo replied.

"Yes captain, I am of the same opinion as Jeen. I respect you captain, but fighting a bunch of academy kids is against my honor as a knight," said the youngest looking man in metal armor. He had red hair and from his appearance, n.o.body would say that his age is much different from ours.

After the two of them left, the others sat on the chairs opposite to us. The old butler who brought us here was still standing on the side of the table since his duty prohibited him from sitting with his master and his guests.

A yellow-haired young man stood from his chair and leaned forward towards Miss Lilith who was yawning and looked bored. He had an earring on his right ear and looked like a typical street punk.

"So, you are the one teaching these kids, huh? Are you stupid or something? What makes you thi-"

As he was saying that, miss Lilith stood up and punched him in his face which made him fall back in his chair and his chair fell backward on the ground. Blood started coming out of his nose but her teeth weren"t broken which meant Miss Lilith held back a lot.

Miss Lilith sat back in her seat and yawned again but this time she looked a bit refreshed.

"See Fizz, I told you that you would be punched on your face one day if you don"t keep your mouth shut," said a green-haired girl wearing a leather robe.

She had a bit chubby but cute face. She stood up holding her green staff that she left-leaning on her chair when she sat. She then kneeled down towards the man whom she just called Fizz and used her holy magic to heal his face. Fizz was too shocked to speak anything so he kept quiet.

A man with brown hair, wearing a robe stood up and said, "Why the heck did you do that lady? Are you nu-"

"Stay quiet Mon, we are not here to fight her. Though, by what I sense from her, I don"t think we will be able to beat her even if our whole squad fights together," said captain Garo, interrupting the brown-haired man whose name appears to be Mon.

"Wh-"

As Mon was about to say something we heard heavy footsteps coming towards us so we all looked towards the door.

"HAHA, so you all are already getting along well," said the duke while entering the room.

"Not exactly, we haven"t even spoken to each other yet," said Miss Lilith looking towards him.

The duke replied with "is that so?" after which he towards Captain Garo and said, "Those two left huh? Well, I expected they would, and as a former knight myself, I don"t think they did anything wrong."

"Thank you, Your Grace. Even without the two of them, I think the six of us will be more than sufficient to test these kids," said Garo while thanking duke by standing from his chair and bowing his head in apology.

"Okay, You kid there, introduce your team to the captain," said the duke pointing towards Ronald. He probably did that because Ronald looked the oldest among us.

"Y-yes your grace," said Ronald standing from his chair. He then turned towards Garo who was the captain of the other team.

"I am Ronald and this my team. Our team has two knights and six magicians. I and Arica over here, are knights while the rest of us are magicians," he said pointing his hands towards Arica. He then turned towards his left side, "On my left side are Sistina and Arica whom I introduced earlier. On my right from the furthest seat are, Nara, Marina, Nina, Princess Anna, Princess Eliane and our teacher Miss Lilith".

"Okay, so the rumors were true that the princesses are in the team that we will be fighting today. Well, that doesn"t matter at this point. I am Garo and this is my team. As you can see, only six of us are going to be your opponent." He then turned towards his left said, " On my left side we have Mon, Vina, and Fizz and on my right side we have Alisia and Fifi. I think you can tell who is a knight and who is a Magician based on our equipment."

While we were introducing each other, Fizz stood back up and sat after lifting the fallen chair. Vina got back on her chair too. He looked angry but he didn"t speak anything.

"Hey kids, don"t you think your team is unbalanced?" Mon asked while still sitting in his chair.

"Not exactly, it may appear like that but I think we are a pretty balanced team," replied Princess Anna. Since Sistina and I can do close-quarters combat, it balances the need of four knights in an eight-man squad.

"Okay, now that the introductions are over I think I should tell you more about today"s fight," said the duke after which he took a long breath and started speaking again, "Today"s fight is not a fight where you have to beat each other. It will be a fight where you have to capture a member of another team. The team chooses one member who will be the bait and guard it. The team which successfully captures other team"s bait while still guarding their own wins."

He then turned towards Miss Lilith and said, "Is it fine with you Lilith?" to which she replied with, "It doesn"t matter as long as it"s a fair fight".

"Okay then, the fight will be in the castle ground. Many n.o.bles will be watching so give them a good show," said the duke while leaving the room.

After he left, the old butler came forward and said, "It"s almost time so please come with me."

We followed the butler who took us to an empty room. It looks like the place where the partic.i.p.ants had to wait until they are called for the match.

"Knight and Magician trainees, please stay here until you are called outside. The match will start soon. The other door leads straight to the ground," said the old butler. He then bowed and said "If you will excuse me. Miss Lilith and everyone else please follow me."

Miss Lilith said, "Show those uncles and aunts what you are made of," and went with the old butler while we entered the room.

While we were there, we had to decide who was going to be the bait. Since the match was starting soon, we didn"t have much time.

"Um, you know. I think I should be the bait since I am useless in the real battle," said Marina in her usual low voice. She probably thinks she is not very useful so she wants to be useful this way. She looked nervous because of everything but n.o.body could blame her since we all were nervous. This was the reason why everyone was so quiet during our introduction, we had no idea what to say in such a situation.

"No, you are not. You are the best healing and support magician we have," Nina said while holding Marina"s shoulders with both her hands.

"Yes but Marina is the best choice, you know. Her role doesn"t require much movement," said Arica looking towards Nina and Marina.

"Yes, that would be the most logical choice," Princess Eliane added.

"I-I am okay with it, I will take the role," said Marina in a hasty tone.

"Okay then, Marina will be the bait," said Ronald after which it was decided that she was taking the bait role.

"Marina, don"t worry about it we will protect you," I said to Marina in an attempt to make her feel better to which she replied with, "I know, everyone will".

After we decided who our bait was going to be we waited for a while. After a while, we were called to the ground with a loud announcement. Outside there was a completely different world than we had imagined, there were people all around watching as if it was some kind of big event.

Next chapter: Fighting a Knight squad - Part 3