Ornstein watched the training session and grew concerned after a short while. The master's training could be... brutal and he felt like the silver knights wouldn't be able to hold up. Ornstein, who had faced this training himself, liked to go a bit easier on the silver knights. After all, they needed to be in shape for their duties after training. He should have told the master to not make it so harsh. Somehow he only made bad decisions today.
After around half an hour, his concern became reality and the silver knights couldn't go on anymore. Ornstein noticed that Artorias was still kind of fit, but breaking the wolf knight was a near impossible task. With his skill in battle and his unbreakable positive attitude, everyone who encountered him said that Artorias had a will of steel.
The master looked down at the silver knights, seeming to be disappointed: "You are already worn out? Looks like Ornstein goes easy on you. Well then, you can take a five minute break."
The silver knights seemed very grateful for this and scattered themselves around to rest up a bit, a lot of them panting heavily. Only Artorias stood there a bit confused. "Uh, I didn't found it that bad...", he said and continued to train a bit on his own. Ornstein watched Artorias for a short while but then rather put his attention on the silver knights.
"I never complain again that Captain Ornstein's training is too hard.", one of them said beside him. They didn't seem to have noticed that they were sitting right next to their captain.
"Wasn't Captain Ornstein trained personally by Prince Gwynfor? Did he had to go through this every single day?", another one of the silver knights asked.
"Yes, I had to go through this every single day.", Ornstein said to the silver knights. "But he usually stopped when I was close to fainting. In hindsight, I think he just wanted that I learned where my limits would be."
The silver knights had slowly turned their heads to the side to see who was speaking to him and then suddenly shot up: "Oh, Captain Ornstein, we didn't notice that you were sitting there."
"I literally haven't moved from this spot since your training started.", Ornstein said.
The silver knights seemed a bit uncomfortable, looking at each other before one of them spoke: "It's just... we are so used to you wearing your armour. You look a lot less intimidating without it."
This surely didn't lift Ornstein's mood: "What is that supposed to mean? Do you want an extra shift?"
"Of course not. I am sorry for saying this, Captain. We should continue training now." And with that, the silver knight took his companion by the arm and dragged them back to the training grounds.
Artorias often said to him that he looked cute. Ciaran also told Ornstein that he did not look intimidating at all. Ornstein didn't like this very much. He literally had to wear his armour to appear intimidating and get the respect of his subordinates. That he was still rather young didn't help either. Ornstein sighed a bit. He started to feel uncomfortable not wearing his armour. Hopefully tomorrow he would be able to wear it again. It was much easier to keep up his composure in it. Ornstein considered if he should leave the place, after all he wasn't needed at the moment anyway.
Ultimately, Ornstein decided to stay and watch the rest of the training. He wanted to watch his master's beautiful movements. He didn't even need an excuse for that, following every move of the master closely with his eyes until he became anxious again. That he had a crush on the master was his best kept secret, he had not even told the other knights about this. Maybe someone would notice how closely he was watching his master and put two and two together? He didn't even know if the master had the same feelings for him and it was wrong for a knight to fell in love with his lord anyway. Ornstein took a quick glance at the silver knights to check if someone had noticed something.
Luckily, the silver knights were far too occupied with the training and ended up giving up early today. The master looked down on them: "So, that is all you can do? You can consider yourself grateful that Ornstein goes easy on you. But you are clearly lacking condition. I guess I have to talk with my student about this..."
"No need, I heard everything, Master.", Ornstein yelled from behind.
The Master turned around to face him: "We could still talk about how to improve their training. Also, I expect you tomorrow for your offhand training."
At least Ornstein now knew what he would be doing tomorrow. "Yes, Master.", he simply said and fell silent again. The Master put this attention back on the silver knights .
"Normally I would ask if anyone of you would be down for a sparring match..."
At this, the silver knights started to groan. Ornstein could hear a few of them talk.
"By the lord, no."
"Nobody of us was ever able to beat the Captain in a sparring match."
"I don't want to die yet."
"...but I guess nobody of you wants to.", Master Gwynfor finished.
Artorias raised his weapon: "Actually, I would be interested." He looked at the spear he had used for training today. "But not with this weapon, I still have to catch up with it. I will have to pass for now too." With that, Artorias left the scene.
Ornstein would have loved to have a sparring match with the master, but with his broken arm this would be a bad idea. He stood up and walked the short distance to the master: "Thanks for taking over, Master. It seems I haven't made the best decision today."
Master Gwynfor raised a hand and tousled Ornstein's hair: "Don't worry about it. You are hurt, still in pain and you should be able to completely trust your subordinates with your usual tasks."
There was a thing Ornstein wanted to ask before the master would leave: "Master, did you really expect the silver knights to hold their ground in a sparring match between you? I am sure you heard them too, but nobody of them has ever been able to beat me."
"You have fought countless sparring matches against me.", Master Gwynfor answered.
"And I haven't won a single one of them.", Ornstein said, feeling a bit gloomy. After all this time he still wasn't a match for the master.
"But, you got better every time. You are able to hold your ground against me for much longer. You learned how to dodge and where the attack openings lie. For a teacher, there is one goal. They want their student to surpass them. I am sure one day you will be strong enough to take me down."
That made Ornstein immensely proud: "Master, that you have so much faith in my abilities honors me."
"And one day, Ornstein, you will feel like this too."
"What do you mean? That the silver knights get strong enough to beat me? I guess they would be able to do it... when several of them tried." Ornstein grinned a little.
"Now don't get too cocky. Do you remember what happened last time?", the master scolded him.
"Of course... It is not like the whole cathedral reminded me of that...", that failure would haunt him for a while longer he guessed. And the worst thing was, Lord Gwyn hadn't allowed him to try his skills on this specific dragon again.
"But what I wanted to say. Maybe one day you see one of the silver knights and see some unused potential in them. And you know you can shape them in something great. And that will also be the moment where you will take care of everything you got to make them stronger than you are. The moment, you can't teach them things anymore and they turned into a fine knight, able to surpass the teacher, this is the proudest moment in a teacher's life."
Ornstein hadn't even considered taking in a student himself, he still felt like he could learn a lot from his master. He had took over the silver knight training as their captain, but had never thought of more. But the master was right. One day, he could take a student under his wing. Like the master had did with him.
"But how will I know who is the right person?", he asked.
"Trust me. You will know once you see them. Like I did with you."
Ornstein turned around to took a glance at the silver knights only to notice that they all were already gone. And nobody had bothered cleaning the place up. "Why did they leave this mess? We normally have clear rules for cleaning up duty.", Ornstein grumbled upon seeing it.
"Let me help you cleaning it up.", the master offered. "With your injury you are clearly in need of help."
The both of them started to clean up the place. Which meant, they did put the weapons away and swept the dirt away that had gathered during the training session. It felt so weird for Ornstein to see the master with a broom, but he probably would look like this for the silver knights too.
"Ornstein, don't forget your offhand training tomorrow. I want to see you in the morning and we can use our usual training grounds."
Ornstein nodded: "I won't forget." He had great trouble holding and sweeping with the broom only using his left hand, so the master actually had to do most of the work.
After they were done tidying the place up, the master said: "Good. Now how about we get some lunch? The sun is already high up. I could use something to eat."
Ornstein only now noticed how hungry he himself had gotten. "That sounds good.", he said and joined the master to walk back to the cathedral.
