Four large words headed the page:

Blacksmith Apprentice Lv. 1 (0/100)

A dense grid of icons filled the space below.

Only the icon at the very bottom was lit. The rest remained dark and indistinct. No matter how hard Raine stared, he couldn't make them out.

The glowing icon belonged to the Hoof Trimming skill he had just acquired.

It was a rounded square containing a remarkably vivid image: a hoof with its sole turned upward and a black iron blade pressed against one edge.

A short line appeared beneath it:

Hoof Trimming Lv. 1 (1/100)

Something didn't add up.

If trimming donkey hooves could unlock a Class Panel, shouldn't it have given him a veterinarian class? Why Blacksmith Apprentice?

Was it because a blacksmith was teaching them? Or did blacksmith apprentices in this world handle both hoof trimming and horseshoeing?

Raine couldn't tell. Either way, unlocking a panel was good news.

As for the value of a blacksmith in an age of cold steel, that spoke for itself.

A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"Hey, Raine. What are you grinning about?" George gave him a tug.

George had short blond hair and the same stick-thin build. He was Raine's only real friend here.

"Come on, unless you want to do another round. It's someone else's turn now." George tipped his chin toward the circle.

Raine considered that for a moment.

"Master Bal, I'd like to go again," he said under the astonished stares of the other page boys.

George frantically tugged at the back of his ragged shirt. "Raine, did that donkey kick your brains loose?"

Then George broke off.

"Stop pulling. You're about to tear it off me." Raine held up the hem of his outer garment, which was already little more than a collection of rags.

Bal studied him. Once he was satisfied that Raine wasn't joking, he nodded.

"Fine. Engels, you can take the next round instead."

Engels was the boy in brown linen shorts, the tanner's son. The moment he heard he could rest, he broke into a grin and wandered off to chat.

On his way past, he clapped Raine on the shoulder. "Good man."

No rule had been broken. Raine had volunteered, and Engels wanted to become a guard, not a blacksmith apprentice. As far as he was concerned, trimming donkey hooves was filthy work beneath his notice.

Raine kept at it all morning. He stopped only when his body refused to continue.

This body was far too weak. Otherwise, he was sure he could have lasted much longer.

He raised his eyes to the panel. His hands trembled with exhaustion, but the flood of EXP notices tasted sweeter than honey.

[Training: Hoof Trimming]

[Hoof Trimming EXP +1]

[Focused Study: Hoof Trimming, 1 hour]

[Blacksmith Apprentice EXP +1]

[Hoof Trimming EXP +1]

[Hoof Trimming EXP +1]

One detail stood out. Skill EXP and class EXP were separate, and skill EXP rose much faster.

Raine stared at the number beneath Hoof Trimming, now at 12/100, and turned it over in his mind.

Twelve points in a single morning wasn't slow. After all, he had only helped hold the hooves. He hadn't done any trimming himself.

But Habsburg Estate owned only a few dozen donkeys.

At most, they would spend one more day trimming hooves before the work was done. If he wanted to keep training the skill after that, he might have to wait until next month, or even the month after.

At that rate, Hoof Trimming wouldn't level up anytime soon.

Then there was the larger problem.

He glanced at the class entry. Blacksmith Apprentice Lv. 1 (2/100).

Only two points.

Was hoof trimming simply too far removed from the core of blacksmithing?

Raine sighed. This was going to be difficult.

*At this pace, when will Blacksmith Apprentice ever reach the next level?*

*The selection is in three months. If I can't make real progress before then, I still won't stand a chance.*

He returned the panel to its first page.

*Wait. Is this an attribute panel?*

Name: Raine Callan

Class: Blacksmith Apprentice Lv. 1

Constitution: 5

Strength: 4

Agility: 6

Spirit: 8

(Average adult male: 6 in all attributes.)

*Strength 4. Impressive. I'm officially pathetic. No wonder I can barely hold down a donkey's hoof.*

Raine sighed.

Spirit was his highest attribute at 8, two points above the average adult. Was that because his soul had fused with the original Raine's?

"Raine. Come on, stop staring into space. It's time for lunch." George came over to fetch him.

"What's wrong with you today? You keep drifting off."

Raine gave him a faint smile. "Probably the blow to my head. Too many thoughts rattling around in there. Let's eat."

George considered that and found it reasonable. He often got lost in thought himself.

Besides, his friend had just been kicked by a donkey.

Habsburg Estate treated its page boys reasonably well. At the very least, they received one substantial meal a day.

Lunch consisted of a brick of black bread, half a smoked fish, and a large bowl of vegetable soup.

The food did nothing for Raine's appetite. Around him, the other boys swallowed hard as they stared at it, their throats bobbing.

"Eat!" a household servant shouted.

Everyone lunged for the food.

Raine prodded the black bread. Its gritty surface and rock-hard crust made him wonder if someone had painted a brick black and served it for lunch.

He glanced to either side. The other boys were tearing their portions apart, grinding the pieces into crumbs, then dropping them into the watery vegetable soup. Within moments, the broth thickened into porridge.

Raine nodded. He understood now. It was much like soaking flatbread.

He followed their example and began forcing it down.

"Pah! There are wood shavings in this. This stuff isn't fit for people!"

In his previous life, ordering takeout had always been a gamble. He could never be sure what kind of meat had ended up in the box. This world was worse. Here, there was no meat to be suspicious of in the first place.

He kept chewing as his thoughts drifted.

*This page boy training is a little like boot camp from my old world, except it lasts three full months. Then comes the selection the old Raine cared so much about.*

*I have the panel now, but I'm still progressing too slowly. If I want to pass and secure one of the blacksmith apprentice positions, I need to find a way to speed things up.*

*Would I rather become a guard? Of course. A shield in one hand, a sword in the other, armor on my back. The thought alone gets my blood pumping.*

*The problem is that I've never trained with a sword in either life. I'll need to find an opportunity.*

*Whatever happens, I can't let things continue like this.*

He glanced at George. His friend was staring dreamily off to the left, clearly lost in a private fantasy.

Raine followed his gaze.

A girl in a gray linen maid's dress was bent over a table, wiping it clean. The position showed off the first gentle curves of her maturing figure.

So that was what had captured George's attention.

The former Raine's memories supplied the details. Her name was Sophia, and she was about their age. She was another page in training, though the girls followed a very different program. Their work began with washing, cleaning, and laundry.

Girls matured earlier than boys in both body and mind. Sophia already possessed a quiet, budding beauty.

Raine glanced around. George was far from the only boy watching her.

But Raine had seen enough in his previous life. A pretty girl in a maid's dress wasn't going to make him lose his head.

The adolescent boys around him were drowning in hormones. To them, she was captivating enough to make lunch irrelevant.

"George, what are you looking at?"

George froze, his face turning scarlet. He clutched the half of his black bread that remained. "Nothing. Hey, you worked hard all morning. If you're still hungry, you can have this."

"Are you sure you've had enough?"

"I'm almost full. Take it."

George was lying. He could easily have eaten the rest, but offering it was a good way to silence Raine. Besides, Raine had been injured yesterday and pushed himself hard all morning. He really did need the extra food.

Raine marked George down as a good friend. He politely declined the wood-shaving bread.

A moment later, he decided George still needed some advice. Without looking up, he spoke under his breath.

"George, you can look at her a hundred times and she still won't be yours. Spend that time working out how to pass the selection. Once you earn a position, then you might have a chance with her."

George's face went crimson. His gaze darted around in panic. "Raine, we're best friends, but you can't say things like that. I wasn't staring at Sophia..."

"I never mentioned a name. You did."

George opened his mouth, but no words came out.

It occurred to him that the donkey's kick might have knocked something into place inside his friend's head. Raine seemed far sharper than before.

*Can getting kicked by a donkey really do that?*

---

That afternoon, the page boys resumed their hoof-trimming lessons.

Lunch had restored most of Raine's stamina. His back and shoulders still ached, but every new EXP +1 kept him motivated.

They had finished only a few more donkeys when over twenty young men and women entered the center of the outer bailey. There were more boys than girls.

They appeared about the same age as the page boys, but the young men were tall and broad-shouldered, while the young women were graceful, striking, and dressed in fine clothes. They carried themselves like the true masters of the castle.

As they drew closer, the former Raine's memories placed them. These were the children of minor nobles and wealthy merchants under Count Habsburg. They had come to Habsburg Estate for squire training.

The estate lay half a day's walk from Mayst City, or less than an hour away on horseback. As the ancestral seat of House Habsburg, it traditionally hosted the family's squire training.

Raine glanced at the merchant boys beside him. For all their swagger, they were still only shopkeepers' sons.

The newcomers were the true privileged heirs.

The outer bailey was a large enclosed yard within the castle walls, normally used to train squires and guards. A small section was occasionally set aside for other purposes.

In other words, the page boys were occupying someone else's ground. The yard truly belonged to these young nobles.

Smack!

"Ow!"

One page boy who had been gawking at the newcomers took a hard slap to the back of the head from Bal.

Bal made no attempt to hide his contempt. "Quit staring, you little brats. They were born at a height you won't reach no matter how hard you work. Learn a trade, and you'll live comfortably enough. That's your road."

His words were crude, but true.

Raine agreed. In an age like this, climbing from one social class to another was almost impossible. If these boys could master a trade or two, they would at least have the means to support themselves.

Then Raine's pupils tightened.

He had just seen something extraordinary.