The next fourteen days went in a similar fashion. From the sunrise till sunset Alex and his weird samaritan teacher were on the practice grounds.

Alex was practicing only footwork – something similar to the ‘lunge’ in fencing, reaching out with his front foot and straightening his back leg. The difference was that the holy warrior added two more steps during the attacking motion and whole five for the retreat. Alex performed all of this with a thin branch in his hand that was supposed to play the role of a sword.

His physical condition was not the best, but absorbing the Lord’s seeds during nighttime helped a lot. He still got tired and his whole body ached for the first few days, but this pain was a pleasant one and not comparable to what he experienced at the fortress of the holy warriors.

They didn’t interact with others at all and through the day exchanged only few sentences that mostly were commands coming from the holy warrior. Alex noticed how he was improving and asked his teacher about it only to be laughed at. Turns out he had to continue this practice for at least half a year and that in an optimistic scenario.

On the fourth day Alex got surprised by a visit from Josh – one of the three boys from the beginner class in the college. Josh, contrary to Otto and Sandril, belonged to cardinal Isidoro and survived the whole ordeal only with a scare.

He tried to invite Alex to join him and the rest of the ‘college survivors’, but got refused. Not only Alex had no interest in socializing with them, he finally got a real teacher and began learning something useful. Even the holy warrior was young, it was obvious he had experienced plenty and could teach much more than a theory. Of course, they didn’t chat, but a hint here and a hint there was all Alex could ask for, at least for now.

On the evening of the fourteenth day the aide of cardinal Isidoro came over and brought Alex to the cardinal’s tent. Turns out they really planned to begin their expedition tomorrow and before the departure the pope himself would bless the army.

While Alex didn’t have to do anything special himself, he was tasked to wash up and wear the white ‘chosen’s’ robe. He would stand together with the cardinal during the event and then lead the army to the west.

Alex wasn’t thrilled about the unnecessary attention, but there was no way around it. Of course, him being easily recognizable would make his future escape much harder as well.

The next day, standing in front of tens of thousands of soldiers, Alex had mixed feelings. On one hand it looked mighty impressive, but on the other these people intended to go and slaughter others just because the empire intended to increase its territories.

Especially hard was to justify the existence of the ‘rape squad’ as the Alex called the chosen, who currently were proudly standing behind their cardinal Isidoro, dressed in all white. While men killing each other on the battlefield could be called ‘honorable’ by some standards, what chosen did was unforgivable, at least in Alex’s eyes.

He did try to think of ways to eliminate all of them in one go, but the event back in the college where he burned down two houses full of chosen was more a murder of opportunity and there were no possibilities of doing anything here. Not only Alex himself was one of the youngest and weakest in the garrison, most chosen he saw were adults with, most likely, advanced holy power skills.

Thus, at least for now, these heinous people were able to live happily and storm to a peaceful land intending to wreck the lives of others.

The pope, as usual, held an inspiring speech followed by cheers from the army. He talked about enlightening barbarians, bringing Lord’s will and peace to the wilderness. He even mentioned Alex’s role and the signs the Lord was giving them.

None of it would’ve made any sense to an educated person, but soldiers got increasingly fired up with every sentence. Alex even began to suspect the pope was using some kind of technique in a way altering the sound waves of his voice to influence the minds of the masses.

To Alex’s surprise the speech was not followed by a sacrificial ceremony, probably because killing someone at this moment could be considered inauspicious no matter the pretext.

After the pope was done, cardinal Isidoro commanded the army to depart and another weird phenomenon happened in front of Alex’s eyes – within two hours the troops numbering in tens of thousands were packed and ready to go! Soldiers were gathered in their squads neatly waiting for their turn to join the long procession that for the next months would move towards the west like a huge snake.

Alex, accompanied by the incredibly annoyed holy warrior, also known as his teacher, was placed in the leading cart with no roof, pulled by four white horses. Already earlier cardinal instructed him to travel while standing in the cart, looking bravely towards the front, head up high. Thus till late evening Alex balanced in the cart, standing straight, dressed in his white robe and holding the same old crude staff in his hand.

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He couldn’t remember when he was so irritated the last time. It was not that his teacher’s mood was influencing him – anyone would hate to be in his shoes, except for some kind of narcissists. On the other hand, if he had to choose between this and being eaten by those huge black wolves five years ago during the Midsummer festival, the current situation felt like a better option.

The army moved slowly, but steadily. Alex’s guess was they covered around twenty, twenty five kilometers per day and that was while they marched mostly through plains. It was unclear how fast would they travel through mountainous regions covered with thick forests.

After the third day no one cared if he was standing in the cart or not, thus Alex began to spend his days cultivating the force of nature again. His teacher was uncooperative therefore the time went by in silence and meditation.

Alex didn’t mind though. Even when he was not cultivating, he sat in the cart with eyes closed, thinking. He had too many questions with no one to answer them. Not only the rebirth principles baffled him. He was unclear how the force of nature or how they called it here – the holy power worked, how and why did it influence his growth and how could he use it to his advantage.

He could not understand why his teacher kept pointing out he could never become ‘strong enough’. The guy obviously felt how much Alex practiced and that he was already quite proficient with the holy power although couldn’t manifest it yet at will.

Any plans to escape Alex postponed for now and decided to only use an appropriate opportunity if such arose. In the worst case scenario he would disappear during the first big battle even if he had to wait a year.

Indeed, the army moved slowly. Some trees were already colored red and yellow when they entered the wilderness that stretched almost endlessly towards the north and west. Alex felt these parts looked familiar to what he saw when his mother, Elsa brought him to Serenity. Of course, all forests here were alike.

What puzzled Alex up until now was how the army would travel through these parts. He soon found out the answer – the Holy empire’s forces were not sitting idly during the past five years. There were designated units deployed to cut the forests and widen the roads for the army to move more freely. Most likely they continued working even now, only somewhere further to the west.

Of course, what they created was not a highway, but at least it resembled road and was wide enough for the infantry to travel. Supply carts and mounted units still stayed on the ‘old’ tracks, but the improvements were sufficient for the army as a whole to not slow down.

From up above the ‘new road’ looked as if some creature had rolled in a direct line towards the sunset, making elegant detours to take a look at the nearby towns. Of course, the army was not a trade caravan and didn’t make stops other than camp for the night, but the townspeople every time crowded at a side while soldiers passed by and passionately wished them luck and the Lord’s protection.

It was around ten days later when after army settled to stay for the night, the holy warrior came up to Alex and unwillingly, as if he was breaking the vow of silence, said, “Do you wish to visit the Stone village? Bishop gave his permission, but you’ll have to be back before the dawn.”

It took over a minute for Alex to comprehend what the warrior actually said and realize that the ‘Stone village’ was actually the place where he was born. Alex stared at his teacher in shock, but then understood.

‘So this is why. By some coincidence or on purpose this guy did his research on ‘James Bond’! He somehow recognized me in the fortress and that was the reason he risked his neck to save me like I’m some kind of Lord’s messenger.’ Alex thought to himself, ‘This clown is probably some religious nutcase, although I must admit, he’s very skilled with the sword. But to go and ask bishop permission for me to go … did he fall in love? … is he some kind of gay or something?’

Finally, out loud Alex said, “Sure, lead the way.”

It was not like he longed for his home or his parents – from his point of view they were strangers. He was more curious what the place looked like and what were the differences between what he remembered and what he’ll see today. The contrast could help him in the future reincarnations to more objectively understand the world while he was still a newborn.

An hour later, when it was almost nightfall, Alex and his teacher stepped out the dark forest and entered a simple, but tidy village. It was just as he remembered, except – much smaller. The church in the middle looked more like a barn and the twenty odd houses were not bigger than some of the Barbie-homes rich girls owned during his first life.

Alex gave out a soft sigh realizing he could not trust his own eyes in the future, at least not until he grew up a bit. The holy warrior, on the other hand, understood his sigh differently and rushed towards the other end of the village.

With confident steps he approached one of the houses while villagers one after another began to curiously poke heads out from doors and tiny windows.

‘What the hell? Seriously? He even checked where I lived? This is too creepy!’ Alex thought.

Meanwhile the warrior already banged at the door. Alex was even afraid that the guy without controlling his strength would not only break the door, but also destroy the house.

They heard few quick steps before the door opened and a middle aged woman opened. Even though she had aged quite a bit, Alex recognized the long forgotten facial features of his mother.

“Oh, my Lord! Bill!” She screamed and … hugged the holy warrior.

Alex froze at the sight.

‘Wtf?! What the actual f*ck?! Bill? Wasn’t ‘Bill’ my father? Why … oh, no … seriously? This guy is …?’

Alex’s brain slowly regained the ability to process information, when the holy warrior said, “Mom, I brought Alfons.”

… and hearing that ugly name again Alex felt like someone poured a bucket of cold water over his head and woke up from stupor.