A loud bell sound rang at the hallway, so loud that it broke the dead silent atmosphere.

Xiao closes his eyes tightly, thinking that the sound will go away as long as he ignores it, but it only gets louder and louder, until his mind can't take it anymore as it had successfully blown away all his will to go back to sleep.

"Ah shit, well, time to wake up."

Xiao climbs out from his bed, the same goes to the people in his room, who's still looking pretty tired, but forced to wake up from the bell.

To be more specific, not everyone was tired, there was one person who slept on the upper part of Xiao's double Decker bed doing a sit up on the floor, his body was already soaking wet with his sweat.

This guy was half a head taller than Xiao, his body has an athlete's muscle build, ginger hair that he keeps it a crew cut and a not bad looking facial feature, he will definitely score a few girls if he were to study in Xiao's high school, in Xiao's point of view.

"Morning, Owen, you never get tired of this, do you?" Xiao asked the person who's doing the sit up, it turns out that he was the one that got kicked by Xiao during his first meeting with lieutenant Carl, he was now one of Xiao's roommates, along with 8 other people.

"262...Morning....263...Xiao....264...." Owen, who's also a private rank soldier, replied to Xiao while continuing his exercise, which is his daily routine diligently.

Everyone was already leaving the room one by one, with a bucket and a towel as they were heading to clean themselves up.

"Alright, come on now, Mr Sword Master, you don't want to be late again, right?" Xiao asked Owen as he too was preparing to leave the room and join the rest of the people.

"274....go ahead.....275...I will.....276....catch up.....277.....with you guys.....278....later...." Owen replied while continuing his sit up.

Xiao lets out a sigh while shaking his head, tired of seeing the same scenery and having the same conversation every day, for Owen never listens to what he says.

"Alright then, just don't be late again, okay?"

"281....282....283...." Owen did not reply to Xiao for he was too focused on completing his sit up.

Xiao lets out a sigh again, he then leaves the room and joins the rest of the people to a big hall, with a few fountains pouring out fresh water within.

This has become Xiao's daily life ever since he became a soldier, along with the other private, they start their day before daybreak, that was when the night shift ended with one of the patrolling soldiers ringing the bell to wake them up.

Since there will be an assembly before they proceed with their daily drill, they are forced to prepare themselves in a hurry, or else they will have to face a penalty from their platoon leader, who's lieutenant Carl, also known to them as the "Master Pervert".

Xiao quickly changed into his uniform and headed to the assembly ground with the rest of his platoon members. There were a total of 24 people in his platoon, and including him, there were currently 23 people gathered at the assembly ground.

While the others were chatting with each other, Xiao was staying silent while standing firmly on his ground, trying his best not to fall asleep, and besides, he was the newest member in the platoon, and it has only been 1 month since he joined them, with all the harsh drill going on daily, which consume most of his time in one day, he barely had any chance to interact with the rest of the member, other than the one sleeping on top of him, who is Owen.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

So here Xiao is, trying his best to keep it together while praying that the day will end in a blink of an eye, so he can go back to sleep again.

A few minutes later, the 37th platoon leader, Lieutenant Carl made his entrance to the assembly ground while still wearing his pajamas. It was a wonder that his hair could be so messy, especially when he didn't have that much hair left on his head in the first place.

"Morning, my foolish fools, how's everyone doing?" lieutenant Carl asked his platoon with a sleepy and annoyed tone as if he was forced to wake up and be here.

"We are doing great, sir!" Everyone replied in high spirit.

"Gosh....so loud,

Before lieutenant Carl was going to give out his daily order, he saw Owen running towards this place, and when he reached while still panting and sweating from the running, he walked to lieutenant Carl and bows down immediately.

"I'm sorry! Lieutenant Carl, I lost track of the time again!" Owen apologizes to lieutenant Carl with his voice in high spirit, and loud, which makes lieutenant Carl close his ear in an instant.

"Well, well, well, look what have we here, late again, Owen from the Lauren house," lieutenant Carl said to Owen in a sarcastic tone while also having an annoyed expression that will rupture into a rage at any moment.

"So tell me, what got you so immersed that you lost track of the time, that you dare to be late on MY assembly?" Lieutenant Carl leaned close to Owen, who's still bowing down while asking him, so close that his spiral mustache has touched Owen's face.

"I was....."Owen was going to give his answer but he got cut off.

"No one asks for your answer, fool!" as if having enough of Owen's attitude, lieutenant Carl burst out in anger.

"I am sorry, sir!" Owen goes over his 90 degrees bowing as he immediately apologies again to lieutenant Carl.

"Then what are you still standing here for?! Give me 50 laps, now!" Lieutenant Carl screamed out an order to Owen, it was showing all over his face that he was angry and pissed at the same time.

"Sir! Yes, sir!" and without any hesitation, Owen replied to him in high spirit and began running on the field right away.

Xiao was watching the scene from the beginning to the end, along with the other platoon members, while the others were secretly laughing at Owen for getting the punishment, only Xiao was sighing and showing worry for him.

(This guy never learns, does he.)

Owen Lauren, the second last soldier who joined the 37th platoon before Xiao, from what Xiao had heard by the chatting of other platoon members, Owen came from a distinguished noble family, his father was one of the chancellors in the royal court, while two of his brothers were in the Paladin order, both of them were famous in their strength in wielding magic and sword.

And Owen, as the third born child in the family, was a bastard son from an affair between his father and a woman from a lower-class family.

Xiao didn't care about the rumors as in where Owen came from, or how his family deserted him since he was born because what Xiao sees in Owen, is that he was being a noble or an emotional brat, he was just what Xiao dubbed as an overly hard working optimistic and good-hearted idiot. What led them to get to know each other better was another story to tell.

"So what are you standing here for too?! Start your training for Godsake!" Lieutenant Carl shouted to the rest of the platoon, and immediately, they started running in laps too, starting their daily drill.

"Right, well, I will leave the monitoring to you, private Jake, for I have some urgent matters to attend to," lieutenant Carl said to an average height and an average looking soldier while yawning as if he was going back to sleep again.

"Leave everything to me, Sir! I will make sure none of them slacks off and proceeds with the daily drill," private Jake answered while beaming out a smile as if he was glad to accept the task given by lieutenant Carl.

Lieutenant Carl did not reply to private Jake, he directly turned his back and left the assembled group, leaving the rest of the platoon running around the ground lap by lap, aside from Xiao, who's looking for an opportunity to sneak out from the rest of the platoon and slack off somewhere else.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! What are you looking at?! Start running now!" private Jake noticed Xiao and immediately shouted at him.

(Ah! shit, Mr teacher's pet caught me today, damn it! Shouldn't look at him and just trust my instinct and run away.)

"Private Xiao! Start! Running!" shouted private Jake once more.

(Cut me some slack already...)

With private Jake eyeing on Xiao, Xiao has no choice but to join the rest of the platoon on the drill, kick starts his soldier life with another pointless and endless running, again.