It was improper—not a good way to start things.
I shook my head as I watched the five officer cadets leave the Casa Real through the window of the sala. I had been forced to let them go home at the end of the day.
I had assumed that these young men, having shown up in the morning, were already committed to training. But Colonel Abad informed me—just after I dismissed the recruits from the plaza—that this was not the case.
He had merely introduced them as "candidates"; nothing was final yet. None of them had even asked their parents for permission or packed properly for a prolonged stay.
Truthfully, I had not been prepared to receive them either. Their training regimen, although derived from that of the recruits, was still unwritten. I didn't even have accommodations ready for them.
Still, it left a bitter aftertaste. Especially after I had made them take the oath, issued their uniforms, and called them cadets.
