Gaius wanted to know how performing well as a squire would let him receive two promotions at the same… but while he was frowning, the other students were left speechless. Something like that has never happened before… Gaius wasn't even ten and he was going to work as the squire of the commander… that was something like an impossible honor to most of the kids. Gaius realized that things were supposed to be like that, but he didn't care about the fact that Kennil was the supreme commander of the forces of Ekireton's state.

"We will depart in two days, the trip will be quick and intense, so prepare yourselves accordingly," Kennil declared.

Gaius had to get rid of Ekireton's as soon as possible, but he couldn't do that in just three days without leaving some traces… he wasn't that good at stealth work without his summons. As if things weren't bothersome enough… Gaius soon learned that Ekirenton was going to travel to help in the war as a counselor.

"Shit… it looks like I lost my chance," Gaius thought. "Well, what now... this will be a massive waste of time, but I can upgrade my army. I wonder if I am taking this too lightly. I am taking the lives of people, returning them, only to make them my absolute loyal underlings... it is quite difficult to process."

Ekirenton will be surrounded by guards day in and day out. Even if he could summon Ekirenton back as soon as he kills them, getting rid of the body would be hard… he also couldn't act suspiciously at such times… Gaius soon shook those thoughts out of his mind. He had to focus on the mission at hand...

During the next three days, Gaius thought of other solutions to that problem, but nothing came to mind… Ekirenton will have to live for a couple of months. Still, it was fine, the rope was already on his neck… Gaius had no more intention of letting that guy risk his life or that of other kids in those wars. Maybe they were going to fight for the sake of their future since they had to stop a super state, but Ekireton's intentions were others.

"If the worst comes to the worst, I can at least protect myself with magic, there is a chance that we will get the most dangerous jobs, after all," Gaius thought while he was packing his things one day before the start of the journey. "Since I am going as squire of the commander, I guess I will have plenty of chances to fight as well… I'd better check my skills with the bow again."

It has been a while since he used those, but considering that the level of Bow Mastery reached seventy, Gaius would be fine. In any case, when the sun was rising, the two hundred recruits that were going to join the war were already in front of the entrance of the training grounds… Although a lot of them had participated in the last war, they still looked like they didn't sleep a single minute last night. Their spirits were low and they had bags under their eyes… Gaius thought that people could adapt fast to the situations they were forced into, but even though those kids only knew that reality, they didn't look like they had adapted well to it at all.

"You don't look fazed… I suppose this is natural considering that you killed dozens of enemies with your bow in the last war," Kennil suddenly arrived and then said it while he was pulling two horses and some small armies were following him. "Your job this time is to look after my horse and keep my weapons ready to be used. I will lead the calvary, so I might need to change it pretty often… keep them sharp and ready for action at all times. You will follow me closely on the battlefield, but you probably won't have to fight… Still, you should keep a bow with you just in case."

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Kennil passed the other horse to Gaius and he received it… it seemed that he would've had to do a lot of miscellaneous tasks. Come to think of it, he didn't need a bow… he could just sneakily use his magic bullets. Things would have been even easier if his next technique was just a bit ready to be used, but he still was giving shape to it.

The massive group began to leave the capital without much commotion. Not a lot of information was spreading around since Ekirenton was smart enough to know that the population would make a lot of noise if they heard about another war… so, he clearly wanted to return with a lot of money to control the public opinion. It felt like he would make a good politician on Earth.

In any case, three thousand soldiers left the capital that morning and the rest would meet them at the border since they would come from several parts of the state… Gaius was riding a horse near the front of the group and he couldn't see the recruits on the back of the formation.

"I guess they now have even more reasons to hate me…" Gaius thought while looking over his shoulder.

Eventually, Gaius felt some gazes on him and the recruits were too far away for them to be glaring at Gaius… it didn't take long for him to notice that some soldiers didn't like the idea that someone from a random village was in the front of the formation like he was better than them.

"You could do a lot worse than just glaring at me like that…" Gaius furrowed his eyebrows. "You should use your brains to think of better ways to make me feel unwelcome, but I guess that telling them to use their brains is a tall order when they are just foot soldiers who don't think for themselves."

Putting that aside, the marching speed was pretty fast. Gaius had heard that Ekirenton went ahead, so that group wanted to reach them as fast as possible to offer him protection… while the states were supposed to be allies, nothing says that some betrayal wouldn't happen.

Although Gaius also thought that he would have to do other miscellaneous jobs like preparing food and cleaning the clothes for the commander, Kennil did all that for himself… that was convenient for Gaius, and thanks to it, he had a lot of free time when they camped at night. Still, he only used it to train his magic in his tent.

"Hmm… it is getting the right shape, but the magic consumption is high and the density makes it obvious," Gaius thought while checking his right arm.

It wasn't useful for combat yet, even less so the way Gaius had imagined, but the foundation was there… Still, since Gaius could only train at night when he was alone, it would take some time to complete the technique.

"Maybe I should have aimed for something simpler… like a technique that fires an energy beam from the sword," Gaius thought. "If I were able to do that, I would be able to tell myself that I am from the saber class since they all can do that…"

Putting Gaius' useless thoughts aside, he received another report from Relia that night… It looked like the enemies this time. Instead of using the fallen city that they conquered as a footing to get more territory, they started another siege to get another one. They were either greedy or they didn't have any other option…

It took four days for the army to reach and cross the border of the state, and it didn’t take long for Gaius to see what lay ahead. The lands looked really fertile… he could see a bunch of animals eating the grass in all directions. Gaius wondered how the people there managed to get so rich while maintaining such creatures grow and multiply.

There were groves in all directions filled with fruits… on the second day, Gaius saw numerous mountains and the entrances of abandoned mines and still active ones, but not many people were working there. They probably had been recruited for the war to help in one way or the other…

On the second day of the trip, they found a large and walled town… Gaius frowned a bit since the city looked like it had been built out of a blueprint… it had a perfect square shape. There were several towers that looked like buildings that were being used by people to live but also were used to watch the surroundings.

“They look a bit old school, but they also make me realize that the people here aren’t that archaic with their skills of building things…” Gaius thought. “It feels like this was built in a few months and all at once.”