Chapter Five: Women

“Uh, right this way, recruit.”

The attendant waiting to guide recruits was surprised to see a woman but thankfully didn’t do anything to make Lacy uncomfortable.

He led her through a long hall that exited into a large courtyard where dozens of young men with buzz cuts stood in rigid lines with chests puffed out and hands held behind their backs. Lacy immediately felt a jolt of alarm at how jacked and large so many of the men were, and her nerves froze at the thought of having to compete with them. Thankfully the attendant took her behind the men into a tent, and nobody so much as glanced at her on the way.

The attendant left as soon as Lacy was inside. An old woman wearing a similar uniform as the receptionist sat behind a small, portable desk covered in vellum papers.

“Are you absolutely certain you wish to take the guard exams?” the old woman asked, entirely without judgment in her voice. “They are grueling beyond what you know. I’m sure many have warned you not to attempt them on account of your beautiful face and delicate body, but let none of that stupidity distract you, young lady.”

She paused, making certain she had Lacy’s attention, which she did.

“A woman can be as great a cultivator as any man, but not just any man or woman has it in them to become a cultivator. Even when they have the requisite grit, sometimes they still die before they complete the exams by sheer misfortune.”

Lacy stood stock still as she processed the elder’s advice. She opened her mouth to reply, but the older woman’s eyes told her to consider it for longer, so she did.

‘This is different,’ Lacy understood. ‘This woman might very well be a cultivator. The first female one I’ve seen. Unlike almost everyone else, she’s warning me for my sake as a person, not as a delicate little lady.’

A fierce resolve ignited in Lacy’s chest, and she straightened her posture. The nerves previously frozen, thawed. That same drive to push her limits and become an awesome magical warrior wizard Lacy had felt when she first arrived in this world returned, burning brighter than ever.

The old woman saw the change and smiled.

“Good, good. My name is Muriel,” she said. “Token?”

Lacy nodded, stepped closer, and handed off her stone token. She expected the old lady to read whatever characters were carved into it but she just dropped it on her desk and stood up.

“I will perform a health inspection,” she said. “Strip your outer robe. You may keep the undergarments on.”

Lacy obeyed and removed the simple outer robe she’d been born with. Muriel stepped closer and, sure enough, inspected Lacy’s body closely. She did a quick once-over, hummed positively, then crouched low to check her legs. Lacy almost jumped when Muriel began squeezing her flesh between her fingers and put her face close to take whiffs. Muriel did that for every part of Lacy’s body except her privates.

When she finished, Muriel returned to her desk and carved something into the token before returning it to Lacy.

“No bruises, no cuts, no calluses, no scars, no blemishes. Strong skin, strong bones, healthy odor, beautiful face, perfect nails, sublime hair. What is your name?”

Lacy gulped for a moment, briefly wondering if she’d be outed as more than what she looked like before throwing her concerns aside. Her story was strange but her history was rock solid. Nobody would consider that she was from another world. A spy, maybe, but she wasn’t planning on doing anything suspicious, so she had nothing to worry about.

“I’m Mathews Lacy.”

“Never heard of the Mathews family,” Muriel smiled mischievously. “From a different city? What is a precious flower like you doing here? Run away from home because your parents forbade you from becoming a body cultivator? Did they try throwing you away to a political marriage?”

Lacy shook her head.

“No, ma’am. I know it sounds silly, but I awoke forty-one days ago in the nearby Pole farming village, face up in a muddy keshuga field with no memories except for my name and age. The locals took me in and searched for anyone of my family name but found no one. I lived with the farmers who found me until I decided to take some control over my life by becoming a cultivator.”

Muriel furrowed her brows with a frown, giving Lacy a bad feeling. Lacy preempted whatever she was going to say with a nervous question.

“Umm, it’s not a problem if I’m uneducated, right? I can still be a guard with no memories?”

The question softened Muriel’s expression.

“It’s not a problem,” Muriel confirmed slowly, “but your story is silly. If you’re lying there may be severe consequences down the line.”

Lacy shook her head as calmly as she could manage.

“I am not,” she insisted. “The young man who found me in a Pole farm field is Onslapithuanegi Max. The village guard who vouched for me in the lobby and spoke to the receptionist is Juka Uru, who is currently staying at the Yobi Inn for the next three days. My story was explained to the gate guard when I entered the city and the receptionist who helped me file official documents just minutes ago.”

Muriel shrugged.

“I am suspicious but I will trust you after I have someone confirm your information. For now, don’t go blabbing about your mysterious origins to the other recruits or you’ll attract unwanted attention. Just pretend to be a normal Pole resident whose parents with the family name Mathews died.”

Lacy nodded, saying, “Yes, ma’am!”

Muriel then pulled out a sharp knife and wooden, three-legged stool. When Lacy’s eyes widened, she laughed.

“Don’t worry, Lacy. The men require close cuts but women are allowed down to their jawline.”

Truthfully Lacy couldn’t care less about her hair and had instead feared for her bodily safety. The older woman probably wasn’t going to attack her, but she’d heard of customs like ritualistic scarring, so she let out a relieved sigh and sat down on the stool. Muriel was efficient with the blade, and soon Lacy was clothed again and walking out of the tent with instructions to join the men and mimic their stiff postures as best she could and to not move a muscle.

She joined the group’s very last line on the far right side, trying to stand just a little bit behind the man next to her so that he wouldn’t see her. Of course, the man heard her and immediately turned to look, at which point he audibly scoffed before turning back to face forward. His scoff caused quite a few ears to twitch but nobody else turned to look at her, saving Lacy from more embarrassment.

After surviving high school she’d thought that she was used to the fact that many people unfairly judged each other for every little thing, but being the only woman amongst dozens of large men who were vying to become cultivators really drove her fight-or-flight instincts mad. In order to calm down Lacy repeated the Deity’s words in her mind, reassuring herself that she was not making a terrible mistake.

Then when she finally scanned the rest of the people in front of her she noticed someone else sticking out and couldn’t help but release a little gasp. There was another woman in this group! Lacy hadn’t noticed at first because her hair seemed to have already been short-cropped and she was tall with a muscular build.

Suddenly, a man wearing an unmistakably higher-quality uniform than any other guard she’d seen with a fancy badge pinned to his left breast sped onto the scene from an open door in the closest building, looking almost comical yet still impressive as he walked at superhuman speeds, kicking up clouds of dust from the barren dirt floor.

“You WILL remain entirely SILENT!” he barked with such ferocity that Lacy flinched and inhaled deeply. “You WILL remain STILL and look FORWARD!” he added after a few seconds. “You WILL wait until I RELEASE you!”

Lacy gulped, feeling like the presumed instructor was pointing her out for her gasp since he probably heard it when he arrived, then slightly adjusted her posture to better match everyone around her and tightened her muscles.

The military-like posture was easy to keep at first, but as the minutes of nothing happening—except the instructor staring down random recruits every once in while—ticked by, Lacy’s muscles began to ache. Not only that, but the sun beat down on her unprotected forehead and her skin itched from the places she hadn’t properly wiped of tiny hairs. The discomfort got so bad that Lacy’s lips began quivering after what felt like thirty minutes and she wanted to give up on the spot. Her shoulders ached from keeping her chest puffed out, her legs trembled from standing still for so long, and her lungs felt tight from making all her breaths very deliberate and steady after watching the instructor yell at a guy for breathing too quickly.

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But Lacy held on, reasoning that they were being tested. The city was recruiting people who thought they were ready to gain access to muscle magic. They definitely didn’t want to let in losers who couldn’t stand still in the sun for a few minutes.

But then the half hour turned into a full hour and the instructor was called back to the building they’d come from by an attendant, being addressed as Instructor Kong. The middle-aged man left with a huff, muttering something about useless attendants, and suddenly Lacy’s resolve to heed the explicit instructions delivered to them all weakened. She wanted to collapse so bad!

Clearly she wasn’t the only one who was uncomfortable because a few minutes after the instructor left, people began decompressing. It wasn’t everyone, not even most people, but once a single person let out a long sigh and shook their shoulders, several men followed the example, including the man next to Lacy. Not the other woman, though, whom Lacy noted was quite well built and was probably a farmer before deciding to take the guard exams, judging by how similar her sun-kissed skin was to the farmers Lacy knew in Pole.

“Ooooooooooghghhhhhgghh,” the man next to Lacy groaned, letting out an obnoxiously long sigh of relief before stretching his legs and blatantly turning to observe Lacy, who felt so small next to him.

“Hmph, another woman,” he laughed so softly that only the people immediately next to him heard, and Lacy clenched her teeth, trying not to let her face turn cherry red.

She did not appreciate being scrutinized, especially by someone who couldn’t even follow the instructor’s orders. Thankfully, the asshole next to her didn’t say anything else before returning to his stiff posture.

The hour turned into an hour and a half, and by this point Lacy was used to her body hurting like hell and itching irritably. It was still awful and she wanted nothing more than to soak in a hot bath, but her resolve to prove herself was alive and well.

Another two dozen men—maybe some women, Lacy wouldn’t turn her head to check—joined the formation before the instructor returned. Unfortunately, despite Lacy wishing with all her might that Instructor Kong would allow them to rest, he just continued pacing back and forth in front of everyone and glaring like they owed him money for another half hour.

Lacy wanted to cry.

……

“I am Instructor Kong. You may all now sit down,” Instructor Kong said suddenly, and Lacy’s legs gave out. She wasn’t the only one but she was, by far, the most dramatic. She didn’t mean to but she ended up a little bit sprawled out for a few moments before she pulled herself together and up into a sitting position.

A few people around her snickered, but Lacy was too exhausted to care anymore. They could laugh all they wanted, but she’d have the last laugh when she became a cultivator!

“Now, everyone who DISOBEYED my orders may present themselves and return home. You have FAILED the guard exams.”

Instructor Kong’s words sent a ripple of confusion and startlement throughout the trainees. For one terrifying moment Lacy froze entirely as she wondered whether she’d already fucked everything up.

Then the older man clarified his statement with, “I commanded you all to stand STILL and SILENTLY while you waited for the recruitments to end. A disappointingly large number of you PURPOSEFULLY disobeyed. I am allowing you this ONE opportunity to leave and return for the guard exams in ten months if you so desire. If you do NOT leave of your own accord then you may stay, but your guard exams will be EXTRA difficult, and if you FAIL you will NEVER be allowed back.”

To Lacy’s surprise, two men who had stretched while Instructor Kong was away immediately stood up, bowed, and hurried out of the courtyard where an attendant stopped them and asked for the tokens. The attendant carved something into their tokens, returned them, and let the men go. Other men shifted nervously in place, and Lacy presumed others still tried to hide their anxiety, like the man to her left.

Instructor Kong only gave the men another ten seconds to self-report before he snorted and began walking through the sitting recruits’ ranks and tapping people’s heads. When he reached Lacy he tapped the head of the man next to her but not hers. When he was finished he returned to the front.

“Those whose heads I touched, STAND!” he bellowed, and the men scrambled to their feet. “Now assume the horse stance,” he said while taking the stance himself. He spread his legs out to either side so that he stood with a much lower center of balance and put his elbows next to his sides while his fists remained pointing forward.

Still in the stance he waited a few seconds for the men to obey, then continued speaking.

“All of you are here for different reasons. Some wish for stable income that will support a large family. A few of you look forward to the challenge. Many want power. Regardless, the goal is the same—earn the right to guard Yellowvine and become an esteemed cultivator.”

He paused, still in the horse stance, and scanned the crowd, presumably checking if the disobedient initiates were holding their forms correctly.

“Not all of you will succeed. It is not pessimism, it is FACT!” he shouted. “Not just anyone can become a guard. Above everything, you need DISCIPLINE, something which most people sorely lack! These guard exams will DRILL discipline into you, or you will FAIL! But so long as you give the exams your best effort, even if you fail, you can try again at a later date, EXCEPTING those who have already NOT given their best efforts.”

He pointedly stared at the closest recruit in a horse stance.

“From today forward until you pass, or more likely fail, you will be initiates! Novices! Rookies! Beginners! Newbies! You recruits will OBEY your instructors TO THE LETTER! You know NOTHING! We know EVERYTHING! It is OUR jobs to whip you into shape and YOUR jobs to OBEY! Is that UNDERSTOOD?”

Most of the men shouted back in unison, “Yes, sir!” while a few people were slower to catch on, including Lacy, who seemed to say it last. At least a few people let out muted chuckles but Instructor Kong didn’t say anything about that.

“During your time training as guards-to-be you will not just learn discipline, but TEAMWORK! EFFICIENCY! HONOR! Everyone who succeeds in becoming a guard will have learned that they are WEAK individually and STRONG together! The world is full of dangers beyond ANY of your understandings, so your MISSION is to work TOGETHER! To defend OUR people! From BEASTS and ENEMIES alike!”

Lacy’s month on the farm being tutored about everything and anything proved beneficial here. The farmers had taught her that there were an uncountable number of normal animals, and since they found it easier to cultivate than humans—who needed special training or something that Yellowvine, its powerful organizations, and every other city guarded jealously—spirit beasts outnumbered humans by a lot. So Lacy understood that such beasts were the ordinary citizen’s greatest threat on a normal day, but she also knew thanks to her historical tutoring that wars were common. Countries and even cities within countries often fought each other for normal resources like land, but also special resources that only their most powerful cultivators could enjoy. They knew about this because Pole was a relatively new farming village despite Yellowvine having existed for a few hundreds years. Pole was built from the ashes of another village from about a hundred years ago thanks to the war between their Ten-Jan Empire and their neighbors to the south. No land or trading rights or anything had been traded as a result of that war, just a mysterious and precious cultivation resource that the normal people of each country had no share in.

It was stuff like the wars being fought over mysterious resources which didn’t benefit the regular citizens that bred mistrust in governments and cultivators, despite all the status that such power granted someone. That was a popular reason people held for not moving out of their farming villages and just living simple lives.

……

Instructor Kong continued his speech for another five-or-so minutes before outlining what their lives would look like for the next seven days. The recruits would eat twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. In the morning they would all perform light exercises like stretching, basic calisthenics, and jogging, before transitioning to more intense weight training for the rest of the day. Then they’d go to sleep in their assigned barracks to do it all again the next day.

He described their regimen as simple but brutal because they’d all be pushed to their limits, before adding that if they didn’t push themselves that they would fail the exams at the end of the week. Then he showed them the way to the cafeteria where everyone could relax and eat for fifteen minutes if they hadn’t already.

Instructor Kong made them all walk in single file like they were elementary schoolers, but as soon as he left them in the City Guard Management Office Cafeteria everyone split into their own little groups, a few people tried talking to the staff to ask about what to expect, but most ate. Looking around, it looked like most of the men had joined the program with a friend or two, which seemed even more reasonable once Lacy realized they looked about the same age. Or maybe everyone else was good at making friends. Only about a dozen people, Lacy and the bigger woman included, didn’t immediately seem to have a buddy.

So of course, Lacy sought to find her own buddy by heading straight for the only other woman taking the guard exams. Thankfully, she was doing the same. They walked up to each other, Lacy put her left hand forward, and they shook.

“It’s my pleasure to make your acquaintance. I’m Lacy.”

The woman’s face remained placid as she said, “My pleasure as well. Please call me Shu.” When they pulled their hands away and began making their way to a table Shu asked, “What inspired you to take the guard exams?”

They found a bench decently spaced from the men.

“Umm, well…” Lacy hesitated because her reasoning was directly tied to her origins, which Muriel advised she keep under wraps. “I just want to be strong and have control over my own destiny.”

Shu smiled at that.

“You didn’t join to prove you can be as great as any man?” she asked.

Lacy shook her head.

“I know I can be as great as any man. It just so happens that I want to be a cultivator in a place where only the men think they can be cultivators.”

Shu raised an eyebrow at that.

“Well said! But, did you come from a place where men think differently?”

Lacy tried not to gulp at her slip-up.

“No, I come from Pole, one of the nearby farming villages. I’ve just…heard tales from travelers and merchants about places that work differently.”

Shu smiled and crossed her arms.

“I see. Well, I’m proud to see another woman with an honorable goal. One does not get far by always comparing themselves to others. You can only take steps on your own journey, not anyone else’s. We must strive for our own, internal motivations.”

Lacy silently marveled at Shu’s way with words.

Shu leaned forward, saying in almost a whisper, “But though I’m also here to take control over my own fate, I see it as a nice bonus that there are so many hunky men. I plan to make full use of Instructor Kong’s lax personal relationship rules.”

The virgin isekai protagonist found her face reddening as she recalled Instructor Kong’s rules about that subject; so long as they didn’t cause trouble for others and it was consensual, the initiates were allowed to have whatever relationships they desired with other initiates during their exams, but not with anyone of a different rank.

Shu smiled wide at Lacy’s embarrassment.

“Usually there are no issues in that area but Instructor Kong must be familiar with my mother, because I feel he said that part specifically for me.”

Lacy couldn’t help herself as she shyly asked, “Your…mother?”

Shu nodded proudly.

“That’s right! My mother is a second-generation cultivator in our family—her father was the first—and I’m going to be the third. She raised me on the stories of her time taking the guard exams, then as an active guard in Yellowvine, and all the men she managed to bed. Several times I caught her wistfully regretting marrying my father because she could no longer jump from stallion to stallion, if you understand.”

Lacy couldn’t take it anymore and covered her face with her hands, making Shu laugh.

“I take it you’re a shy one, yes? That’s alright. More men for me. Just point them my way after rejecting them. Right, sister?”