At first he dreamed of delicious food and relaxation.

Then he started to dream of sailing across the sea in search of treasure.

A whirlpool appeared though, dragging his small ship down into its murky depths.

Making him jolt awake.

A very lucky occurrence as the railing was starting to bend and parts of it had already collapsed down to the ground thanks to his weight.

Had he slept for just a few more minutes he could have fallen some thirty feet to the ground.

Which definitely could have killed him considering all the sharp fragments of brick and rock that were scattered all over the hard dirt.

All thay debris almost created a crappy pavement of sorts.

Letting out a yarn, he pulled away from the railing while rubbing at his eyes.

After a few seconds he recovered from his somewhat rude awakening and hurriedly turned around to look at the wall.

Letting out a sigh of relief as he spots it unharmed and still manned by twitchy guards.

What made him feel an even greater sense of relief was the fact the sun had only risen a little higher in the sky compared to where it was when he first got here.

So he had been asleep for roughly half an hour if he had to guess.

Not the greatest but not the worse.

Almost immediately after that thought slipped into his head he was overcome by guilt.

Even half an hour could be the difference between the entire legion getting annihilated or being saved.

Thankfully his short nap felt like it had stretched on for far longer, than it had, making it so he felt as energetic as he did after a full night’s rest.

So he got right back to guarding their rear against any possible dangers still lurking in town.

Actively pretending that nothing had happened and offering up a prayer to the Seer that none of the linemen had seen him doze off.

Thanks to his regained mental and physical stamina, he was able to pay far greater attention to everything.

Not that there seemed to be a lot to pay attention to, just lots of blood stains and ripped pieces of fabric floating around because of the decently strong wind.

That was how his day was spent, the sun slowly growing in intensity before fading away to a dim light and all throughout it he had kept strict watch over the town.

At this point it was very late into the day, borderline night almost and he was more than ready for another nap, but he pushed through it.

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He would not suffer the embarrassment of falling asleep on duty once more.

He had a duty to his fellow soldiers, to his legion and when he really thought about it, also to all of Francia, to stay awake and keep watch.

A momentary lapse in attentiveness was all it was and all it would ever be.

The fact he had even fallen asleep or wished to eat proper food so strongly was astonishing, the harshness of basic training had beaten down his desire for sleep and good food.

Though clearly not well enough.

Bertrand had no idea how they could do it better though.

They were made to eat bugs and forced to thrive off of less than an hours worth of sleep, nothing could really top that.

Maybe if they threw in bombardment training on top of all the other stuff That would make it more stresful.

Spotting a glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye snapped him out of his idle state and caused him to bring up his beamer.

Prepared to channel the mana cube’s store of mana into his beamer at the first sign of something inhuman his paranoia was thankfully proven unnecessary.

It was just their relief force.

Bertrand yelled out a warning over his shoulder just to make sure none of the anxious linemen accidentally shot their own compatriots.

It seemed to have the opposite affect though, as almost all at once everyone panicked and turned around fumbling with their muskets, even the linemen who were originally facing in the direction of the town and so had gotten a good look at the relief force had been caught up in the herd mentality and were pointing their muskets towards the fresh soldiers.

Almost as though the Seer themself had intervened though, nobody fired and after a few very tense seconds all of the linemen realised that they were aiming their muskets towards humans not monsters.

Bertrand waited at the top of the watchtower, ignoring the greetings and apologies happening below him as he made sure to keep watching the rooftops and corners of the town.

Some of the other linemen also did the same thing and kept watching the plains, waiting until the newcomers were beside them ready to take up the mantle of guard, before leaving their posts.

Soon enough Bertrand’s turn came as he noticed one of the new linemen break out from the group and head towards his house.

He still stood there though, not moving even as he heard the sound of the linemen climbing up the ladder.

Not really a lot he could do even if he wanted to move, only one ladder after all.

And procedure was procedure.

When his replacement reached the top of the watchtower, Bertrand finally took his eyes off the town and turned around to greet them.

“Been quiet so far.”

The linemen just gave a grateful nod in reply, before moving over to take Bertrand’s position as he had stepped out of the way to make it easier for them to get set up.

It was a rather small watchtower so there would be no way for the linemen to take over his post if he didn’t move to the side.

Just as they brushed shoulder though and Bertrand was about to leave, he noticed that they had a beamer slung over their should, not a musket.

“Uhh. You a skirmisher?” Bertrand asked puzzled.

He had figured the man was a linemen because, well, he was wearing the uniform of one, and it would make sense to be replaced by them as there weren't really any skirmishers left who could take his post after his shift was done.

“Nah, did some basic training as one though so I know how to handle beamers and since those things don’t have any shields I was given permission to use one instead of a musket.” They replied.

He gave Bertrand a sideways glance before continuing the few steps forward needed to bring them to the edge of the watchtower.

Conversation clearly over, Bertrand walks over to the ladder and starts his descent down it.