Chapter 7 - Joining the Kingdom's Military
The district 5 military outpost was located beside the Kingdom of Restari's 2nd Western gate, the same gate that Deon had passed through to enter this nation. Soldiers were positioned at the outposts scattered across the kingdom year round, though the soldiers who wasted away in the slums were only the lowest wrung. It was probably because of this that these soldiers did not seem to look down on the swarms of impoverished people lining up to enter the military.
When Deon arrived and saw the line that stretched back with over 200 people, he frowned deeply. However, he quickly noticed that there was a second, shorter line. Realising that this must be the entrance for people whom were already shamans, he made his way across.
Actually, there were only two people in this line. Each of these individuals appeared to be men in their twenties. The two men briefly glanced at Deon before turning away.
"Hey kid, this is the line for shamans trying to enter the military academy, what are you doing here?" The lazy looking soldier who was about to assess the man at the front of the que, stood up from his chair and walked across to Deon with a raised eyebrow.
Silently, Deon lifted up one hand and formed a ball of grey origin energy in his palm.
The soldier's eyes widened and he let out an involuntary gasp.
"Mid stage 1-Star shaman!"
The other two men also looked shocked. They were all able to identify the stage of a 1-Star shaman based on the shade of their origin energy, so it was clear as day to them that Deon was a mid stage 1-Star shaman!
Such a young child at this level, this was definitely an absolute genius!
The appearance of such a genius in this district was basically unheard of, causing quite the commotion to spread amongst the soldiers. They even neglected their duties in assessing the other candidates and started chatting amongst themselves as they surrounded Deon excitedly.
At this moment, a tall and imposing man clad in a tidy military uniform walked out from the rear building. This building was separated from the rest of the district by a sturdy metal fence, it was clearly the main barracks of district 5's military outpost.
"You all, what are you doing?" He yelled out in annoyance. He felt like his soldiers were growing a bit too lazy these days.
"Captain!" The soldiers all stood to attention immediately.
"Hurry up and explain to me, why are you not assessing the candidates?"
"Captain, this child is a mid stage 1-Star shaman!" The soldier who originally questioned Deon quickly explained.
"Hmm?" The captain raised an eyebrow and turned towards Deon, who promptly displayed his origin energy once again.
Deon knew that if he wanted to be properly nurtured by the military, then he needed to show off a little bit.
"Good kid!" The captain exclaimed with bright eyes. He himself was also a mid stage 1-Star shaman, but he was in his mid forties and at most hoped to reach the late stage in his life time. To be honest, he ended up losing motivation because of his average talent, so he took on the position of outpost captain in a lower district, allowing him to spend his older years in a more relaxing environment.
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That said, he would earn a nice bonus for any good talents that he found during each year's examination, so Deon's appearance pleased him greatly.
"Kid, what's your name?"
"It's Deon, captain." Deon replied politely.
The captain nodded and smiled, thinking that this child had good manners. He quickly told the other soldiers to get back to work, then lightly patted Deon's shoulder and instructed Deon to follow him into the barracks.
The barracks in district 5 were located within a segregated area, bordered by the kingdom's Western walls on one side and enclosed by metal fences around the remaining boundary. The outpost stretched out for half a mile across district 5 and acted not only as the entrance grounds for new recruits, but also as training grounds for the local military and as a watchtower guarding over the Western wall. That said, due to the large mountain range located to the West of the Kingdom, the Western wall was in very little danger of attack from other nations, so the security here was more lax compared to the other walls.
Only a single building could be found in this area surrounded by fields, tracks and gun ranges. The building was tall, square and pitch black in colour. Deon followed the captain towards the ground floor, then passed through a short corridor and turned into a spacious room.
Deon waited at the door and watched patiently as the captain took a seat behind his desk. The window besides his desk let in enough sunlight that his face was illuminated properly, giving Deon the chance to take a good look at this man.
Tall, burly, muscular, masculine. Basically, the opposite of Deon's current childish appearance. He had a black and bushy beard, making him look slightly grizzly.
"Take a seat Deon." The captain gestured towards the chair on the other side of the desk and Deon did as suggested, sitting down opposite from the captain.
"Am I correct in assuming that you wish to join the military shaman academy?" The captain asked.
"Right." Deon nodded.
"I see." The captain smiled. Towards ordinary applicants, he would never act so amicably, but Deon was both a child and a genius, gaining his positive feelings right away.
"Now, I hope you understand that joining the military's shaman academy means that you are showing your intention to join the military. Whilst you won't need to join immediately after graduating, you will be required to serve for at least five years, starting from your 15th birthday at the latest." The captain spoke seriously.
"I understand. I intend to join immediately after graduating, is this possible?" Deon asked.
The captain blinked twice, then showed a thoughtful expression.
"This is fine too."
Whilst the idea of an 11 year old serving in the official military was a bit disconcerting, he didn't expect Deon to graduate within a single year. A single year was the minimum period of time required to complete the basic training, but even most adults would instead need two to three years in reality. As for Deon…
He may be a talented shaman, but the military shaman training exam included a component of physical fitness, which would be extremely difficult for a small child to pass. Not only that, but in the captain's experience, children were not motivated enough to work hard and pass the exam so quickly. Of those rare few who entered the academy at 10 or 11 years of age, most of them spent 3 to 4 years before graduating.
After ascertaining Deon's plans, the captain proceeded to ask him some more questions. This was all standard procedure used by the military in order to gather information on the new recruit's background, but really it was just a formality. Nobody suspected a ten year old of being a spy for an enemy nation.
The tactic of using child spies had been explored by every nation at some point, but they all reached the same conclusion…children were terrible liars and broke easily under pressure, child spies were not very effective.
Deon didn't really have anything to hide in particular, besides the fact that he had only just arrived in this kingdom. He span a story about how he had been an orphan since young, and until now, he'd been living off of his late parents' wealth, but he recently discovered a spirit whilst out exploring and became a shaman by a stroke of luck.
"Could you show me your core spirit? You don't need to if you don't want to, but it will help the application process go more smoothly."
Generally speaking, it was taboo to ask other shamans about their spirits, so Deon was given the option to withhold this information.
"It's fine, here." Deon summoned the ancient demon spirit without much hesitation. Since he was joining the military, his core spirit was bound to be discovered eventually. He was certain that nobody in this little mortal nation would recognise it, but it didn't matter anyway.
No matter how valuable someone's core spirit may be, nobody would ever try to steal it, because it was impossible to take the core spirit from a shaman. The shaman's life and soul were linked to their core spirit, they were inseparable. Other bound spirits however, could indeed be stolen quite easily by killing the shaman, thereby releasing the spirits from their bindings.
The captain involuntarily gasped when he saw the ancient demon spirt in the form of the black sword. He could feel that it possessed an extremely evil aura, he had never seen a spirit like it!
'High class spirit, this is definitely a high class spirit!'
Rather than questioning Deon, the captain instead became even more excited. Having a powerful core spirit like this meant that Deon's potential was even greater than he had first estimated!
After a while longer of conversation, the captain instructed a soldier to assign Deon to a temporary room in this outpost. This was not conventional procedure, but he wanted to ensure that nothing unexpected happened to Deon whilst the applications were processed.
Five days later, an envoy of horse drawn carriages departed from district 5, taking each of the new military recruits, including Deon, towards district 31, the military district.