"That's fantastic, can I steal that?" Anto asked, all the cadets cleaning and maintaining the equipment after their Instructor had left for the day. 
"I'm not sure I can fake not caring that much," Bruno remained far too honest for his own good, and Hida knew the irony of her believing that. 
"I think Brijani, Delta, and Calypso may have had the right idea when they dropped out as soon as Denerim started instructing," Adessa had been one of the four female commoner cadets but now she was the last. 
"Given what my pa says about him, I may still drop out, but its only a little longer until a new Instructor starts," Andrea admitted. 
"Ma just says to keep my head down until he's gone," Baltan added in.
Knight Denerim was a commoner born Knight, a City Guard that Hida's commoner cohort would have encountered far more than any of the noble born would have. "The fact that he had such obvious prejudices hadn't stopped his Knighting at all warned about older habits still having their claws sunk deep. "What does your father say about him?" Antonia asked Andre. 
"That he's a brigand with rank to back him up," Andre quietly described. "He's know to instigate issues, but when questioned claims a Knight's word outranks a commoner's and since being honest is one of the values a Knight upholds, he's gotten away with a lot of immoral actions."
They all fell quiet at that. Both commoner and noble born cadets would swear upon the same vows at their Knighting. A Knight upholds the weak. A Knight wields truth and honour along with their sword. A Knight serves justice and peace by using the tools of war. A Knight is a representative of their Kingdom and belongs to their Kingdom, serving until released from their duty by decree or death. At the Knighting ceremony the all hoped to one day participate in, they'd each take a knee, announce that vow to Queen Akiyama, and offer their non-dominant hand to their Sovereign. When she accepted them as her Knights, she'd cut the back of their hand, the blood spilled sealing their oath. The noble born would then be placed in different units of the Royal Guard while the commoner born would be likewise split amongst the City Guard. Both Royal and City Guards had a Captain leading them, wit sub-ranks supporting them. 
With her skills and future vision, Hida knew she'd eventually be assigned to Lieutenant Ott's units, the Knight's responsible for protecting the Queen and other high ranking dignitaries, but there were also two other Lieutenants she could serve under; her very distant cousin Lt. Aero Briggs who's Royal Guard patrolled the halls and walls of the Castle, ready to react to any signs of violence, or Lt. Carmine Kaura who's unit defended the Royal Treasury against interlopers. The City Guards were slightly different, they had a Captain but each major City was run by its own Lieutenant. For every Lt, there was a supporting second-Lieutenant, or 2Lt if one wanted to be brief. 
Unfortunately for them all, Denerim was the Capital City's 2Lt, leaving only his Lt and Captain above him in any position to reprimand him. Basically meaning that Hida expected his brutality to continue until his time Instructing them was up. Until then, all Hida could do was control her own emotional state when Denerim started to try and break her spirit. When she proved to be just fast enough or durable enough to not stop the run first, he altered how he selected his demonstration assistant. 
He'd declared that the loser of the first match would be his assistant, and then declared that it'd be Hida against Anto. She could out shoot everyone in her cohort, but of course Denerim wanted this to be a knock down, drag out fight. Something Hida really couldn't win at yet. And if Anto tried to throw it, Denerim would punish them both for it. That would just be letting him win twice, something Hida knew Anto understood so she also knew to expect a real fight. 
They stared at each other, both stripped of protective gear and given a dull sword to attack with. As a first year cohort, they weren't supposed to be sparring without protective gear yet, and certainly not with dull blades, but Denerim had backhanded Cosmo when he'd pointed it out and warned them all that while he was the Instructor, they were supposed to do what he said without question. So Hida carefully shifted her weight, on bare feet, feeling the heat of the day soak into her soles from the hard packed ground. In front of her Anto was trying to see what her opening move would be, his natural talent and reflexes almost always enough to assure it went in his favour. Hida had been training harder than ever before, but Anto had been too, and although he was her friend, he had no more desire to be Denerim's assistant than Hida did.