What is the social setting?

Will and his ward mates reside in the Castle Redmont until they are fifteen. They are then apprenticed to craftspeople in the Fief. Will goes to live with the Ranger, Halt, in his cottage. The cottage is quite a distance from the castle and its surrounding village. It is on the edge of the forest under the shelter of the trees. Halt trains Will to become a Ranger in the forest. He learns how to track, archery, and how to become invisible so that he can spy without being seen.

Horace is apprenticed to the Battleschool and goes to live in the dormitory. It is for the cadets who are training to be knights. The dormitory has sparse furnishings to get them accustom to the lives of soldiers.