Chapter 28 - Test of Insight 4

“Get into formation everyone!” Lajos yelled the order to nine Ingras boys.

Six of them were snoozing on the ground fast asleep while the other three were tossing around a rock they had casually found. When they heard the order, the three of them looked to Lajos but ignored it and continued on with their game while the others continued napping. This kind of attitude was pretty much taken up by a majority of the Ingras on the team because they had already found two flags.

Even if they lost a flag, they could all still pass and become Ralomans. Also they were so far away from the other teams that they did not fear any confrontations. They had been ignoring the orders for a few hours and were able to force the army to halt at the banks of the southern lake, unable to move. Victory was within sight. Only about six more hours until it was dawn.

Only the Ralomans on Arnest’s team supported and followed the order to head north to fight other teams and take their flags. But his army was made up of mostly Ingras’s and the Ralomans, although they had their pride, understood that without numbers they wouldn’t be able to fight other teams let alone pose an even minute threat. The Ralomans tried to convince the Ingras to follow orders but they were all ignored.

This situation, where neither side would listen to the other, was not uncommon between the two factions. Ingras and Ralomans, although they lived in the same city, grow up in two completely separate and different worlds. Ralomans are trained starting from birth to become great warriors of the highest status, taught by the best military minds and most importantly, are provided with immense wealth. In contrast, Ingras’s grow up in the slum outskirts of Ralom, barely eeking out an existence. The divide between Ralomans, who discriminate against the Ingras, and the Ingras, who envy the Ralomans, had grown impossibly wide.

“Get into formation or I will make you get into formation.” Lajos said in a low and deep voice.

“How do you plan on doing that?” one of the Ingras boys said as he crossed his arms.

Lajos slowly walked up to his subordinates and drove his fist into the Ingras boy’s face. He fell flat on his back, dazed.

“W-what the hell are you doing?” stuttered another Ingras boy who helped him up.

“Consider yourself lucky, Atoni. Ralomans who disobey orders can be punished with death.”

Atoni, who was the one who just got punched, got onto his feet and spat out a little blood. “I don’t need to follow Raloman rules because I’m still an Ingras! You’re one too so you don’t have the right to punish me either!”

The shouting woke the other six who were sleeping. Lajos remained quiet and Atoni grinded his teeth when he didn’t get a response.

Without stopping, Atoni started angrily shouting again, “Those Ralomans don’t give a shit about us so why should we risk our futures just so we can make a bunch of stuck up assholes feel better about themselves?!”

“You’re right, we’re still Ingras. But if you guys keep thinking like that you’ll never be able to become true Ralomans. You’ll always stay low class soldiers. From what I’ve learned, even a lot of Ralomans find it hard to survive and some even choose to join one of the bands of mercenaries to support their families. It’s only the officers who truly can prosper. So if you do end up passing the exam and become a Raloman, don’t expect it to be easy sailing.” an unknown speaker chided them as they walked up from behind.

“Arnest.” Lajos said, recognizing the voice.

“You’re our team’s General?”

Like a majority of the team, not many had actually seen their General close up. They could see and hear him from a distance but most of them only knew the Lieutenant who recruited them and possibly a Captain or two they had seen in passing. So this was the first time the boys of Lajos’s unit had ever seen Arnest.

Atoni knew the name “Arnest” and was surprised at his General’s obvious youth. He also felt immediate animosity towards him, the one who had ordered himself and the rest of the team to do something unreasonable.

“Since you’re here, I want to ask you... what the hell are you thinking giving us an order like that?”

Arnest started to throw punches at an invisible adversary. “I just thought it would be fun to spar with the other teams.”

Atoni and the other Ingras boys were put in a daze and became slack jawed when they heard the reason.

Pausing his jabs, he continued “But I do understand that not everyone agrees so the Captains and I are going around asking everyone whether they want to come with us or not. If you do, then we’ll head north but everyone who doesn’t want to will stay here and protect one of the flags.”

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“You’re splitting the team up?”

“Well I’m not going to force people who don’t want to follow me. I’m not unreasonable.”

Atoni became even more baffled now. It was strange for a General to give his men options like this, usually it was a “follow me or die” kind of mentality that they had. But it must be because this General was not a Raloman, he’s an Ingras just like himself. Also it seemed the General had some kind of mental disability because who would risk failing the exam just to have some fun.

Added to Atoni’s befuddlement was fear. Arnest was giving them two options. Either hope to not be detected by another team and wait here or take their chances fighting other teams further north. In either case splitting up the army would weaken them and increase the chances of them failing the exam. Both options were extremely bad scenarios but now these disobedient Ingras boys would have to pick their poison and live with it.

While they thought, Arnest added “If you decide to stay here, I will consider our ties to be ended after the exam. But if you all decide to come and fight with me then we’ll all become brothers through combat and I’ll help you in the future.”

“Ha, what can you help us with? You’re just a snot nosed kid!” The Ingras boys all started to grip their stomachs unable to contain their laughter.

“I may be younger than most of you but who’s the kid that became a General and who’s just a little foot soldier?”

Their laughter stopped and they all frowned, deep creases burrowed into every face. A couple of the Ingras boys started to walk towards Arnest with clenched fists. One of them raised his right fist and then swung, but Atoni grabbed at his arm and stopped it before it reached Arnest’s face.

“I’ll fight with you.” Atoni said with some indignation.

Arnest’s lips curved upwards and then opened, “What about the rest of you? What do you want to do?”

Anger turned into confusion and the boys just looked at each other with puzzled looks. Atoni wasn’t their leader by any means, but since they’ve all met each other, he was the most outspoken and well liked amongst the unit. His words carried some clout within their small group. Did he actually believe in the words of this smugly conceited brat?

“Well I only came over to tell you guys your options. The rest of the team will be leaving in thirty minutes.” Arnest then started to walk off towards another unit.

The thirty minutes came fast and the two teams were formed. Unsurprisingly only about a third of the entire army decided to follow Arnest while everyone else chose to stay. Urbano volunteered to stay as well to ensure that the team would pass no matter the outcome of the “sparring” Arnest planned to do in the north.

Arnest ordered the boys to march and they finally listened, stepping in step to the same tempo while Palben led them in singing a cadence call.

“Hear the call!

Hear the call!

Hear the mighty General’s call!

Men of Ralom,

Form your columns,

Raise your swords and slaughter them all!”

The song reverberated through the multitudes of forested patches and alerted their inhabitants. Birds flew into the vast blue sky to escape the sound while monkeys scurried into bushes and peered at the group of humans passing by.

After the first few times hearing it, Arnest started to actually listen to the lyrics. “Is this song actually a marching song?” he asked, staring at Palben.

Palben’s face reddenned a bit and before he could say anything, Zenon answered “This song is something like his family’s motto. His old man probably only taught him this one song and it’s meant for singing before going to war.”

“That’s not true! I know lots of cadences! I just… can’t think of any right now…” Palben’s face was now completely red after being so quickly exposed.

Soon enough they made their way to the pass between the two lakes. Still proudly singing they entered.

“Hear the call!

Hear the mighty General’s call!

Men of Ralom,

Form your colum-”

Palben stopped singing midway when he saw something out in the distance. It took a few moments for everyone to also stop both their mouths and feet. The team was now situated directly in the center of the two lakes and the entrances, when they saw a huge army moving straight towards them from the north. The three Captains, Palben, Zenon and Victoro went into battle mode, shouting out orders to prepare for a fight.

“Who would’ve thought someone would follow us all the way here?” Arnest said lowly while furrowing his brows.

Victoro walked up to Arnest and said, “General, we’re ready.”

“Well it’s too late to think about why. Let’s just keep things simple...EVERYONE! CHARGE!” he shouted.