Lark saluted and waited for the pair to walk off. They saw him visibly relax when their commanding officer was out of sight.

“Oi, I thought I would suffocate from that oppressive air,” he mumbled while scratching his head.

Seeing that their captain was back to being casual, some of the soldiers also slightly relaxed. When he turned to smile at the offender, a few people that knew him tensed again.

“Officer let’s have a bout that’ll decide how lenient I am with your punishment. I’ll even give myself a handicap by using this staff and you can use a real sword.”

Before he had even instructed, someone had already brought over one of the standard practice swords.

Lark usually used the staff to lazily balance on it when he was not in the mood or to point at things when he was feeling like a little overlord. Under more serious circumstances, it was occasionally used to correct people’s stances when fighting barehanded or with weapons.

However, when he nonchalantly placed the staff on his shoulder with the signature smile, those who knew the situation did not want to be on the receiving end. How was the bout not the punishment but the decider for leniency?

Sorin never said much but everyone had to understand that even though he was reasonable enough and not a tyrant, that did not mean he was to be taken lightly and Lark was more than happy to get such a point across.

“Let’s dust off this old dog beating stick,” he lazily stated.

Lark referred to the staff as a dog beating stick and most figured if that was the case, shouldn’t he have beat himself with it first? To set[1] Lark on a live human being, was their commanding officer even human?

It really brought about the philosophical subject of whether the one who thought of the punishment was crueller than the one who dealt it out.

Sorin not thinking much of the situation, headed off the field to check on another one of his captains when he met with his former superior and one of the captains of his former battalion.

“Ulfric, how are the officers I lent you?”

“They’ve been very interesting Officer Roux.”

“Good, not all of us are fortunate enough to be able to keep mutts who can do paperwork as well,” commented Roux, his eyes going to Altair before settling back on Sorin.

Sorin looked at the captain walking beside Roux. He was one of the people who had made things difficult for him not so long ago then his gaze went back to Roux. At least he had a clear relationship with Altair.

He guessed that the petty attempt at angering him was retaliation for what happened with his brother at the event but then again, this childish fellow had always disliked him.

“Hmm,” uttered Sorin.

That was all he said before walking away and Altair chuckled leaving the other two bewildered at the response. It had bewildered them at first and then it clearly annoyed Roux to have someone who had been under his authority now act so smug.

He had never been fond of Sorin from the beginning and the fact that they eventually came to find out he was an Ulfric just made his arrogance more aggravating. What had recently happened with his brother was obviously just Sorin spitting in their faces.

And what was this nonsense with all new ideas he had implemented? Roux could hardly believe that the seniors had agreed to them. People that came from trash would always be maggots and no amount of education could change that.

The higher-ups would see sense sooner or later. They most likely had to humour him for a while due to recent events and his family name.

“Altair, do you think you could get into contact with Datu?”

“Young Master, do you think he would voluntarily want to live with soldiers?”

“Whether he likes it or not, he still owes me a few favours. Besides I need him to organise things for me,” insisted Sorin as they continued walking.

A few officers saluted as he walked past them since his uniform indicated his position. It was a such a strange feeling, but he would eventually have to get used to it.

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“I’m sure I can get an answer soon if I send the message today,” said Altair.

“Perfect. When Mahalia gets back, I want a meeting with all the captains. Everyone would have had their first round of wilderness training, so I want to finish logging those with talents for scouting and tracking.”

Altair nodded, noting that in his mind.

“The captains have also submitted a few names for potential cartographers, engineers and those who can speak and quickly learn different languages.”

“I’ll wait on the literacy lessons a bit longer to decide where to go next. Have each captain choose their own assistant, people who are sharp and business minded, it’ll be easier to keep up with our paperwork and reports if we break it up that way.”

Again, Altair noted this request. There were so many things to do, no wonder the young master had decided on letting Nanny Mei go and live elsewhere. If this was their life at this position, if he went up a rank the work would be endless.

“Young Master, actually are we still running a battalion in the army or are you planning on eventually taking over the entire empire.”

Sorin didn’t answer the question but only chuckled as he continued walking.

“Young Master, wait. What was that?” worriedly asked Altair while following.

He had wanted to be relieved of his duties before this entire process started. There was no escape now. Sorin had already planned for his battalion.

This army did not have formal literacy lessons, making most of the soldiers illiterate except for those who came from aristocratic or commoner families who could afford some schooling. Some picked up a few things from others in their spare time and the others simply never learnt.

In other armies there were people especially assigned to write and read letters for soldiers but considering the scarce resources and lack of time for the duke’s army they didn’t have that luxury. So soldiers found officers amongst themselves with a bit of education to help them write or read letters from their loved ones.

Being illiterate, most people in the empire depended on manual talents to get by and Sorin thought it would certainly expand their world view and talents if they added a basic education.

Since the majority came from small and isolated villages, their limited knowledge and social experience only allowed them to think as far as making a few coins for themselves or their families without much consideration of anything else.

The usual situation was growing up without any education, learning a common trade or farming allowing them to barely survive due to unfair taxing from corrupt officials and aristocrats, natural disasters, and war.

Then they would get married which was always a big priority and have a large family if possible, to help with the manual labour, only for their children to repeat this cycle sometimes having the children pick up the debts of their parents.

This ended with dire situations such as children being illegally sold as slaves or worse. Some people who became servants were usually those who were sold by their family or themselves to a trader. Only if they were lucky, they would be bought by a decent master otherwise…

The situation was not too bad in Louvaros since the people and even officials were relatively well managed but monitoring of such things was lost in remote places. Things might not have been too bad in the region, but Louvaros was one duchy in a one kingdom within an entire empire that had seven kingdoms and an imperial province.

Besides the lack of literacy, there were different people within the army who had to learn how to live together which brought a few conflicts. Some were commoners whose family had been in the army for generations, so it was all they knew as a career.

The aristocrats in the army were either punished by a powerful family member and banished to the army or their families were military oriented like that of Sorin and Princess Zorya.

It wasn’t hard to imagine that most of those who were being punished were highly resentful of the situation and unruly peasants around them.

Others were those without family and nowhere to go, and for those considered as peasants, other than being farmers and lower servants it was one of the best ways to provide for their families despite the risk they faced. Since there were so many different people together, it was inevitable that factions would form.

While everyone having some sort of education wouldn’t completely stop this from happening; it would help ease the classism and minimize the harsh way different classes treated each other. If the people fighting side by side were not united, how would they be able to stay alive?

Staying alive was most important thing, their social standing wouldn’t prevent a sword running through them on the battlefield where weapons had no eyes.

Sorin wasn’t looking govern any country or state but with those thoughts in mind he had made it compulsory for all his soldiers to have some level of literacy. Each captain therefore chose few informal instructors from the more scholarly soldiers in their company.

They were also required to know how to ride horses even if they were not part of the cavalry and master one weapon while also able to use a second or third no matter their speciality. They had to have both soft and hard skills, and this would take a certain amount of very harsh training.

He wanted them to be much more than just mindless killing machines who would have nothing else after leaving the army except becoming drunken menaces to society. When required, soldiers performed community services like helping with government building projects, disaster relief and farming.

If they were educated, they could provide other services depending on their level even be shopkeepers or well-versed tradesmen when they retired. They could possibly be able to work in other government positions even if their families weren’t aristocracy or well-known gentry.

Waters ran deep especially in government when it came to positions even in the military but having a recommendation letter from a powerful army carried some weight. Besides some things didn’t need a head on fight and only an elite army could be able to finish any war with minimal bloodshed.

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[1] Set – as in to set a dog