Knight Academy Classmates

## Silverstone Knight Academy and Its Training Grounds Silverstone Knight Academy is a five-hundred-year-old institution under the direct authority of the Crown, located in the heart of the kingdom. It admits only fifty students each year, and those who pass through it have long formed the backbone of the Royal Knights. A cadet's day revolves around four places. - **The vast training grounds**: Where the entrance ceremony and the first sparring matches take place. Most practical evaluations—sword sparring, horsemanship, night marches—are held here, and wins and losses determine squad assignments. - **The armory**: Stores training swords and gear. Family heirlooms like gold-trimmed daggers sit side by side with academy-issued equipment, so differences in background are hard to miss. - **The dormitories (barracks)**: Nobles admitted through the nomination quota and commoners who passed the regional selection exam live in the same barracks. The academy's first fault line of conflict forms here. - **The academy chapel**: A place to reflect on the Oath of Chivalry. At night, after training ends, it grows so quiet that it sometimes becomes a place to share what's really on your mind. These spaces are stages for competition, and also the backdrop against which classmates will one day remember each other.

## The Wall of Rank and the Faces of This Year's Class The academy is a mix of nobles who got in on their family names and commoners who survived on skill alone. Even living in the same space, the two groups inhabit different worlds. The gold-trimmed dagger of a royal cadet branch and a commoner's battered, dust-caked boots are symbols of that gap. This year's class includes the first female applicant ever admitted in the academy's history. It's a transitional period in which conservative customs clash with the currents of a new age, so even the instructors' gazes waver between appraisal and suspicion. **Key Classmates** - **Arthur Reyes**: A brilliant swordsman with strong confidence and a fierce competitive streak. His words are polite but barbed, making him both a rival and a spur. - **Isobel**: The only female knight cadet in the class. Principled and serious, she is courteous yet firm with everyone. How she is judged will set the tone for the whole class. - **Tom**: Weaker than his peers, but hardworking. Timid and kind, he repays any help with deep trust and gratitude. At first they are competitors leveling blades at one another, but the longer the training goes on, the more they become the people who know each other's weaknesses best.

## Evaluations, Academy Rules, and Terms The curriculum consists of practical training in swordsmanship, horsemanship, and strategy, and theory in the Code of Chivalry, kingdom history, and diplomacy. Excelling at only one side won't get you far. **Core Systems** - **Squad assignments**: Win your first sword-sparring match and you join a top squad; lose and you're assigned support duty. The rules are simple and cold. - **Withdrawal recommendation**: Given to the bottom ten percent at each year's comprehensive evaluation. The official wording is not 'disgrace' but 'a mismatch of calling.' Even so, watching a classmate pack up becomes another kind of pressure for those who remain. - **Unofficial hierarchy**: There are customs passed down from upperclassmen to underclassmen, unspoken pecking orders within squads, and behind-the-scenes competition over which territory you'll be posted to after graduation. **Rules to Uphold** - Rank is strict. You must show respect and obedience to upperclassmen. - Sparring between classmates is fought all out, but afterward you must respect your opponent. - Every student puts the Oath of Chivalry first and may never betray a classmate for any reason. Raise your score, or protect your classmate? The heaviest question at this academy comes from the space between those two.

## Five Years and the Mood of the Story Academy life spans five years. The first year is a time when rankings and prejudices collide. After that, relationships change as everyone gets through grueling training and evaluations together. The classmate who beat you at swordplay may be the first to collapse on a night march, and a hand may appear that silently slides you a note in strategy class. The overall mood is trust and camaraderie that build little by little on top of strict, cold competition. The training grounds are thick with dust and the smell of sweat, while nights in the chapel and dormitories are quiet and sometimes chilly. Small choices change relationships more than big events do—like whether to carry an injured classmate on your back or simply walk past. Once a choice is made, it leaves a mark that can't be undone. After graduation, classmates scatter to every corner of the kingdom. But the bonds forged at the academy become lifelong assets on battlefields and political stages alike, and the only refuge for those who are worn out. What kind of relationships you graduate with depends on the choices the player has made along the way.