Our new military lacked in the department of fashion. The military dress code for the guardsman regiment was a full-sleeved shirt with beige yellow ochre tint with same color cotton pants. We were also given long brown leather boots along with a beret hat with the insignia of our regiment. Also had another badge pinned on the sleeve of the shirt. Dressing in such a way to work was torture in itself.

Today would be officially my first day, joining on my duties with our squad. I thought I would be chewed up by our head department for being absent for the first 3 days. But it seemed Pietra pulled some strings. Nobles were really fearsome creatures. It's good to have one on my side.

Although I thought I was saved but wasn't able to escape the nagging session from William. I somehow explained to them my situation that I had an accident with a horse-carriage and was recuperating for 3 days.

It’s noon already and the blazing sun was on top of our head. We were all gathered on the busy road in the middle of the market. Of course, we were on duty. At least I thought so-

“Alright! Lift it a bit little upwards… Not so much, take it down a bit... lower… Yes! Just stay put… Alright, let me tie this up.”, commanded Captain Arnia.

William and I were lifting the roof of a fruit stall whereas Captain was busy tying up it in place. On the other hand, Bruno and Thalia were trying to bring in more customers for the fruit stall.

My thoughts were the same as you guys.

What the actual fuck were we doing!

“Alright! It’s done! Good job everyone.”, praised our Captain as she had a cheerful smile. She would have looked a bit cute if it weren’t for dirt on her face.

We both got down from the stand and took a breath of relief. We were lifting the roof in the air for about an hour or so.

She climbed down the stalls as well.

“Excuse me, captain!”, the cranky William approached towards the captain with heavy steps. He was the most pissed when the Captain undertook this job.

“What’s up, William?”, asked Captain nonchalantly.

“What is the meaning of this-”, shrieked out William in anger but suddenly an old man interrupted.

“You are so kind, helping this old fellow!”, he said with a courteous manner. This old man was in the ’70s and he used a walking stick to support his poor hunchback.

“...”

William was in loss for words. He swallowed his resentment as soon as he saw that old man thanking them.

“It’s our pleasure. We are the guardian of Stathford city and serving the citizens is our solemn duty.”, answered Captain proudly as she puffed her chest.

What bullshit was she spouting?

To serve the citizens?

What a foolish ideology!

She was better off with being a maid or servant if she really enjoyed serving people. I really wanted to say that in her face but I don’t want to start another commotion. William was a hot-headed guy so teasing him was intriguing. In the other hand, our captain was very sensitive. Instead of getting angry she would start crying and that’s no fun.

Picking fights, you can say it’s one of my traits. I don’t like to go around being merry and gung-ho with friends. I am not such a person. Even now I am around with Bruno and the bunch for my own benefits. Even William andThalia thinks in a similar way. We teamed up temporarily for the purpose of achieving our goals. Nothing much or nothing less.

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“Here! Take this as thank you.”, said the old man as he handed a basket of fruits.

Sweet!

“You don’t need to-...”, said our captain as she politely tried to decline but, “wait for a second, Desmond!”

I took the fruits basket before she could refuse it. I then left the stall,

“What’s the problem? We deserved it.”, I replied. Then took a bite from one of the fruits.

“Tch, this one has yet to ripe.”

We were on our patrol duty, just when our captain stumbled upon this old man who wanted help to fix his roof. The old man had money issues so he hesitated to hire a carpenter. So then we along with the captain fixed for him instead. To roam around the town on our patrol duty in this heat along with our heavy uniforms was torture already.

So we had earned these fruits.

Once I left William and captain followed me along with Bruno and Thalia.

We guardsmen were assigned on the patrol duty. We were still a newbie so patrolling around the city would be our duty for the time being. Once we get the feel for it, we would be given more capable duties. The new rookie squads were all given patrol jobs. They were assigned a specific route to guard. This year we had a lot more new recruits joining the guardsmen regiment. So to avoid overcrowding the street, some of the squads were sent to the next town. Luckily we were assigned in the same town.

“Hey! Let me have one of those fruits too!”, said William as he seized one of the fruits from my basket.

What the heck!

I know the old man gave us this basket to share among ourselves but I couldn't keep myself from getting angry. I wanted to keep these fruits for myself.

“Let me have one as well!”, Thalia grabbed two brown plumpy kinda fruit from the basket, “I heard its good for your skin.”

“Then I shall take this banana!”, exclaimed Bruno and grabbed two bananas.

“Why are you guys taking more than one fruit at a time? Eat one by one, chew your food properly, so..” I could devour most of them for myself.

But my words were ignored.

“If you say so! Then I shall take that as well.”, said Captain as she picked the same fruits as Thalia. “I really need this! My skin has nowadays been getting rough because of the sun, I guess.”

“Isn’t that because you getting old?”, I replied, “And please leave me one of those brown plumps. Let me taste it as well.”

The took all the brown plumps! The fuck!

“Hey! I am not old I am still in my youth. How dare you disrespect your senior. You could be punished for... blah blah”, she started to nag again.

Stop your nagging! How about wash that dust of your face before eating the fruit to nourish your skin.

I know that I can’t keep this food for myself but I was really getting agitated. There was just 1 fruit left and some dry nuts left who no one likes.

“What the hell!”, exclaimed William.

He threw the fruit he took down on the ground.

“This one is rotten.”

WHAT THE FUCK!!

I rushed and picked that fruit and split it in half with my hands.

“What’s your problem William? It’s all good!”, I asked as my eyebrows throbbed.

William pointed me to a particular part of the fruit,

“Huh? See that part is a bit squishy and mushy. It's also a bit dark than other parts of the fruit.”

“That doesn’t mean it was spoiled. It’s just a bit overripe and this part is squishy because the fruit took a hit to something. This doesn’t mean you can just discard the whole thing!”, I picked up the fruit from the ground and cleaned with my shirt before placing it back to the basket.

“Are you seriously going to eat that fruit after I took a nibble and threw it on the floor.”, asked William with an uneasy expression.

“You don’t have a bit of respect for the food. This is how we poor commoner tends to live! To savor every bit of grain, unlike you noble-”, suddenly William covered my mouth.

“Ssh!- Are you going to blow our cover?”, asked William in a serious tone.

I had to eat unripped fruit and he threw away a riped one. So I don’t fucking care!

I was foodie nerd so I can’t help it. I tend to lose my persona whenever I see food being wasted. I struggled so hard to make bread to survive all this time. So I don’t like seeing food going to waste.

Good thing that nor the captain or any other person heard me.

Just when we were strolling around

I heard loud gongs being rung in the street.

People started to gather around the place.

We also went with the flow to see what was all this commotion.

Then we saw a bunch of infantry soldiers from the main army gathered in the center of the street.

I guess they were making some kind of announcement.