The class arrives at the training ground.

Ralli and her trainees arrived at the dirt-floored training ground again. Its use varied from day to day: the day before, it had been an arena stocked with training equipment. Today, the perimeter of the arena would be used as a running track. Ralli set up an equipment rack perpendicular to the wall which would serve as the lap goal. "All right. Traditionally, I have run ahead of you to show you the lap time you should strive for. After finishing our laps, I would leave the track, and record your miserable finish times. Today, the rules are different. If any of you catches up to me and places a hand on me, the laps will immediately cease and you will be free to collect your reward. I am even more generous than previously stated. Drown in your carrots, miserable trainees," the instructor told them, standing stiffly with her arms crossed behind her back.

The trainees couldn't believe what they were hearing. Harvey and Harley pinched each other's cheeks to make sure neither of them were dreaming.

"And you'll be wearing that armor as usual, Teach?" Liam asked, having found a resting grin at the day's events.

"Of course. Otherwise, your efforts would be futile," Ralli confirmed. "Even more futile..." she thought secretly, smiling behind her helmet.

"Are we allowed to use items in this arena to help us? Or is that disqualifying?" Liam asked, tilting his head innocently and trying to hide his excitement at the answer to this question.

"... Tch. You are planning something," the sergeant correctly guessed, sneering at Liam behind her visor. "Do as you like. Do you plan to fight me? There are... no disqualifications... for ****," she added, pounding one armored fist into the other palm meaningfully.

"Hehehe! Me? N-not at all, Teach!" the young man answered honestly. "But, um, give us some prep time, then..."

"A minute. No more. Go," Ralli offered. "I am giving out quite a few of these carrots... it is hard to quit being generous once I have started. "

Rather than grateful, Liam seemed understandably panicked that he had so little time to put a plan into motion. Ralli watched him huddle the others and begin speaking quickly. "Already my motivation is paying off. Liam appears to be working properly with his fellow students. I have never seen him so excited for an exercise. I have never seen any of them so excited."

"Ms. Ralli!" Harley called, snapping her arm up into an attentive salute. "I won't use cheap tricks... I'll catch you with my own power and show my honor as a knight!"

"Dustaine... Today is about victory. To obtain victory, toss aside honor, if required. I'm prepared to do so as well."

"Oh... S-so... Y-you want to toss aside your honor with me, huh, Ms. Ralli?" Harley asked with a gulp, obviously picturing something Ralli could hardly imagine once again.

"Honor is the privilege of the strong," Ralli responded. "Become a strong knight, and honor will be yours to defend. Until that time... Throw away everything that holds you back. Then, you and I might stand together today."

"... I'd like that," the young human admitted to her teacher, putting her hands to her flushed cheeks. "M-maybe I'll ask for that... Or maybe instead of standing together, w-we could-"

"You have less than fifteen seconds to prepare," Ralli reminded flatly. "Remember my advice for next time."

"Aw, crap!" Harley shouted, realizing she no longer had any time to prepare a special plan. Dejected, but still determined, she jogged to the starting line.

With her arms crossed, the sergeant watched her students disperse, trying to enact Liam's instructions. "Liam seems... way too motivated. What has he got planned...?" she started to wonder. She racked her brain, but that kind of creative forecasting was something she had no capacity to enact. "It is of no concern. No human knight trainee can catch a deathspeaker running at full speed... I must control my efforts and maintain an illusion of plausibility."

"... Today, this arena will become someone's hell!" she muttered aloud to herself, a truly frightening grin spreading across her scarred face.

The knight sergeant took a runner's stance at the starting line, already daydreaming about her class of students pulling out all of the stops and bettering themselves through new effort.

The students finished their preparations, all daydreaming about... different things.