YEAR: 1724. JUNE, 23TH. LOCATION: TRAINING GROUND IN FORT KESPARE
The training I received wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Mainly, it was because I was used to working to my bone as a slave all day without any proper rest.
Compared to them, it was a hundred times better as the officers responsible for training gave proper rests from time to time with a clean bottle of water. Really, I thought I might cry at this basic luxury I had given.
However, for other recruits, it wasn’t looking good for them. They were all on the ground, breathing heavily as they drank water as if their lives depended on them.
I particularly stared at ten recruits who were drinking the water while lying down on the ground. They were all young men who looked around 18. I couldn't help but smile at them as I thought about just a few seconds ago.
Before the training started, a few of the recruits bullied me. A group of ten young men, the one I am staring at right now, approached me as I was getting ready for the training.
“Hey, why are you here?” One of them asked, looking at me. “You should be in your home.”
While his words sounded he was worried about me, it was said in a mocking tone. I knew they were here to do something to me other than warning or worrying about why a girl like me was here.
Normally, it wasn’t rare to see female recruits among the soldiers as they often had the equal power to man thanks to mana. Even young boys at the age of 10 were in the army, but it was unheard of to have a young girl such as myself in the army.
Like I said, I didn’t try to hide the fact I was a girl anymore so I was wearing uniforms made for females and my appearance easily indicated that I was no older than 10. Even then, it was still in the military rule that lower ranking soldiers shouldn’t say something disrespectful to a higher ranking soldier.
However I understand why the soldiers were rude to me. I held the rank of a Sergeant while they were Privates. It was naturally humiliating and unfair for them to think they are no better than a girl like me who was formerly a slave.
“Étiquettes.” I replied, glaring at them. “I am Sergeant while you are all Private. Didn’t you learn how to address your superior?”
I didn’t know what made me do it, but something inside me stirred. I had no idea what caused me to suddenly be proud and cold, but I knew I would be doomed if I didn’t apologize. I was standing in front of ten grown men while I was a small girl. Even if I had a strong body, it wouldn’t take long to figure out who would be the victor when the fight broke out.
A vein throbbed on each of the men’s forehead as they glared down on me.
“Yeah, right. We are supposed to say Ma’am to some girl who is barely six.”
“Eight.” I said, glaring at them back.
Again, something inside me refused to submit to those glares. I could only panic as I tried to calculate the stiauton. There were ten fully grown men which numbered ten while I was alone without any help-. Wait, what was this? Why was I calculating my odds when it never happened to me before? Why am I so calm about the situation?
The recruits didn’t look pleased by my response as they took a step forward. My body reacted on its own, adopting a defensive stance as I gestured at the recruits to come at me.
I screamed inside, what is wrong with you?!
Then, just as there was a fight about to break out, a voice shouted.
“You lot!” Major Deryk, who was the officer responsible for training, shouted, “Stop the fight! I don’t want any injured people even before the training begins!”
“Tck. You’re lucky that he's here. Don’t cry for your mommy when you are hurt.” The recruits snickered before they left.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
I sighed in relief as I watched them joining the others. But seriously, what was wrong with me? I never experienced this kind of thing before. Maybe this was something related to my promotion or my new personality given to me by this original Aria?
However, I didn’t have time to think such things as Deryk started to order the recruits to start training. With a sigh of determination, I also joined the group. The training was mostly exercising to increase our strength and stamina. We also trained with wooden spears and swords to get yourself familiar with weapons.
Near the end of our morning training, we had to go on an obstacle course. The obstacle course was filled with training dummies holding bats in each of their eight hands. We needed to dodge them as they spun automatically, powered by mana and reach the finish line.
However, the power behind one strike was devastating as the bats were all enchanted with mana to cause devastating effects upon a single hit. It could cause immense pain to whatever it hit. Worse, it could cut off a limb if I wasn’t careful.
All the recruits, including me, freaked out at first, but the shout from Deryk prompted us to move forward. However, it took a lot of time and pain to get through the obstacles.
I was able to dodge all of the bats thanks to my small body and agility, but the other recruits weren't so lucky. Every recruit got hit at least once and some were hit countless times. This resulted in the ten young men crying for their mommy.
Back in the present, this was the situation I found myself in.
“All of you, back on your feet in one minute!” Deryk shouted, his voice echoing. “You call yourself a soldier if you get tired from this training? You would be dead on the battlefield in under a minute!”
The recruits all staggered to their feet, trying their best to not to fall down. Deryk only sighed as he turned his head to me who was the only one properly standing.
Not to brag or anything, but I was the strongest among the new recruits as I managed to come everything out in first. It wasn’t just a close gap either, it was a huge gap as I came on top of every training in overwhelming manners.
“Sorry if these recruits are holding you back.” Deryk said apologetically, “But you know, you have to train with other recruits since you are no different from them.”
“Not at all, Sir Deryk.” I saluted like a proper soldier. “I am honored to be under your guidance.”
I was now a soldier and needed to act like a soldier. This meant that I had to follow the military etiquettes unlike some soldiers who didn’t follow them at all. Thankfully, it wasn’t hard as the basics were the same as back on earth.
“You know you can drop the military etiquettes. We already fought a battle together.” Deryk chuckled.
“Then do you think we will survive the next battle?” I said, deciding to drop the etiquettes. I didn't want to be stiff with somebody who I already knew and the whole military etiquette was already getting under my nerves.
“You know you shouldn’t say something like that, but I will tell you.” Deryk suddenly dropped his voice as he glanced around to make sure nobody was listening. The new recruits were still on the ground, falling down to their knees as they tried to stand up.
“A scout reported sighting about 50,000 soldiers marching into Fort Estonal. They are likely the 11th Legion that was fighting the eastern force. They are all veterans I tell you, and it isn’t looking on our side as 40,000 of us are new recruits that just arrived one week ago.”
A scout usually sent wind birds to deliver the message. Wind birds were magical birds who had high affiliation with wind magic so they were faster than normal birds. They could be trained easily compared to lightning birds, so they were frequently used by the army.
Even though they weren’t as fast as the lightning birds, they were still fast enough to deliver the message when coming from a long distance. This also meant that the enemy might be already in Fort Estonal right now and reading from an attack.
“How did they manage to send a large number of troops here?” I asked, thinking hard.
The Shiena Kingdom’s 1st to 7th Corp were fighting at the Easter Line. Even if the Imperials had outnumbered their enemies, it wasn’t wise to send a large number of troops to somewhere far away.
“Maybe the Empire sent reinforcements to the Eastern Line? The point is, we can’t worry about them as we have to worry about ourselves first. If we fight a front line battle, not only will we be outnumbered, but we will be massacred.”
“Then, what should we do?”
“Don’t know, we should depend on General Cedric for this kind of situation.”
Deryk seemed confident that Cedric would pull something amazing just like the Iron Thrust. However, the plan was only successful because the enemy commander was a stupid person. Now? The Imperials learned their lesson to send someone who actually knows what their job is. The situation was turning into the worse for 9th Corp.
“Back to your training!” Deryk shouted, causing the new recruits to stagger to their feet.
I didn’t say anything as I continued my training with the recruits for the rest of the day. After all, I thought it would be a while before I had to participate in another battle.