Dorino the Knight and His Golden-Eyed Friend

“I can’t believe I passed...”

Dorino, clad in his uniform, was participating in the entrance ceremony for the chivalry school within the Kingdom of Ordine’s royal college.

The auditorium was unduly spacious. The ages of the new students varied, and female students composed twenty to thirty percent of the group. Children of nobles were numerous. While a certain number of commoners did enroll in the chivalric track, most of them were children of families who served nobles, had learned how to wield a sword and bow from a young age, or had excellent command of strengthening magic.

The entrance exam for the college chivalric studies track was considerably difficult and included a practical component in addition to a pen and paper test. Anyone who couldn’t prepare for it properly was at a serious disadvantage.

Dorino hadn’t sufficiently prepared for the exam while he was in primary school. After all, he had originally aspired to be a city guard.

The school for city guards was separate from the chivalric college track, and students spent three to four years in specialized study. The instruction taught one everything needed to uphold the safety of the capital, from self-defense to arrest techniques, horseback riding to fighting in a team, and geography to the Ehrlichian language.

However, Dorino’s teacher encouraged him to just try for the college chivalry school since he had high magic for a commoner and could wield ice magic. His teacher explained that even if he did not become a knight, his studies would not go to waste, for studying chivalry would open up more employment opportunities and improve his odds of earning a better salary. Thus, Dorino decided to place chivalry as his first choice and the city guard school as his second.

To prepare for the written exam, he spent three months answering practice questions at school, and his teacher carefully coached him for the interview. As for the practical exam, he had no experience using a sword or lance, so he chose hand-to-hand combat; he had been taking lessons ever since he’d first aspired to become a city gu