In a fortress overlooking one of the highways, on the periphery of the capital region…

A stream of men leaves the main gates, chatting amongst each other in upbeat voices, joking and laughing.

「…I almost shit myself when I heard we're heading out to fight Rankor.」

The man says to another, passing by a group waiting for them to depart, standing by the gates.

「Yeah, imagine dying at the end of your fucking levy cycle!」

Another man from behind them both says, and the three chuckle, heading down the hill. In the waiting group, a bearded man in his late 20s pats the young man beside him on his arm with force, as he's looking at the last of the departing soldiers leave.

Tap!

「Ow! Wha-!?」

The young man stumbles a step, wincing as he rubs his arm from the sudden slap.

「Watcha lookin' so scared for!? Is this your first time?」

The older man asks with a grin on his face, nodding his head upward at him. He places his fists on his hips, standing confidently. The group of men waiting beside the gate is of mixed ages, some of the older faces look almost bored, while the younger ones look side to side and at each other with nervous glances.

「Yes… I just turned 18 recently.」

The young man nods his head, after getting his initial surprise and frustration.

「Aahhh… I see. You've got nothing to worry about, kid. I've been through more levy cycles than you can count… But I am betting on you not knowing how to count! Hahaha!」

The older man shrugs and nods his head as he looks ahead. His gaze returns to the young man beside him, and he laughs as he makes a joke. An armored soldier emerges from the gates, looking at the departing men in the distance, and he waves the waiting group in with a serious face befitting of a military man.

「Get in here! Get your asses in! What are you waiting for!?」

He keeps waving his arm in a circle above his head, pointing the other arm towards the fortress, hurrying the group up as it streams in through the gates.

「The levy cycles… They're the yearly recruitment thing, right?」

The young man asks as he and his older comrade walk in, following the crowd.

「Hm? Yeah, how do you not know that, kid? Did you just wander in here to see what's going on?」

The older man asks, grinning. The gate slowly swings shut behind the large group, and the sunlight flashes out as the tiny gap remaining in the gate snaps shut. The only light that remains in the halls comes from the torch sconces on the walls.

「No… I mean, some guys from the military came to my home and asked for me by name. They told me to sign a paper, and I told them I don't even know how to read-」

「And they told you a little squiggle on the line is fine, right? Ha!」

The man lets out a loud, amused scoff. Some heads turn towards him, perhaps wondering what's so funny about his conversation.

「…Yes, how did you know?」

The young man asks, blinking with surprise on his face.

「That's a classic story, kid. Got caught like that too, once. You signed a year contract, so enjoy a year of military life!」

The man shakes his head, grinning as he chuckles. They continue walking onward with the group, once in a while changing directions as they walk past a corner.

「What!? A year!? I can't be here a year! There's this girl from my village-!」

The young man's eyes widen, and he clutches onto the older man's shirt.

「Forget it, kid. If you leave now, you'll be a deserter. On the bright side, you'll be getting paid, the food is free, the bed is free… If not for the fact you might die in a war at random, I wouldn't complain.」

The man shrugs, spreading his hands a little as he explains further.

「…A deserter? But I don't want to die in a war!」

The young man exclaims, panicking further.

「Re-lax… It seems most of the trouble for the year is already over. If we're lucky, the year will go by in a blink, and you'll come out 5 gold coins richer. That's not too bad now, is it?」

The older man pries the younger man's hands off his shirt, and shrugs again, smirking a little. The men walk into a large room lit by braziers at the sides. Shadows dance on the group of men, as they re-form a line and await something, or someone.

「A year?… So you'll be here a year too?」

「Huh? Fuck no, I'm out after the levy cycle, kid. Good luck.」

The man scoffs, grinning as he looks forward.

「But-! But-! But-! I don't want to be alone here! I'm not a soldier! I don't know how to fight! I only know how to grow turnips!」

The young man erratically points at himself, towards the gate, then at multitude of random directions with massive, panicked brown eyes.

「Relax, they'll teach you how to. You might not be a soldier now, but you will be by the time I'm out in 4 months. What's your name, kid?」

The older man says, dismissing the younger man's worries with ridicule on his face.

「J- Julius…」

「Your parents are boring, huh? I'm William.」

Tap!

「Ow! Again?…」

The older man gives the younger man a rough slap in his back, with a confident grin on his face.

「Relax, Julius. I'll teach you what I know in meanwhile, you'll be a hardened killer by the time I'm out.」

William says, holding his hand out for Julius to grab.

「N- Nice to meet you. I don't want to be a killer though, I just want to farm… And talk to Rose…」

The young man grabs onto the older man's hand, and William squeezes it painfully, causing Julius to wince again. He lets go, and Julius mumbles under his breath.

「Now, where is that asshole of an officer? You're getting paid for this, I'm not.」

William looks around the room, and only two armored men up front are standing up the elevated segment of the room with halberds in hand, also seemingly bored by the elongated wait. They both look intently into the side passage, glancing briefly at the gathered group.

After a few moments, a man with a thick mustache walks out of the side passage. The armored men salute him, adding a nod of their head to acknowledge his presence. He walks out into the center of the elevated segment, and turns to face the group of new recruits with his hands held behind his back.

「I see we've got a sorry batch of levymen this cycle around again! But fret not! Like a whetstone, I will sharpen you into the crown's finest blades! Those fat bellies of decadence will disappear!」

The mustached officer's eyes turn to a very obviously out of shape middle-aged man. The group glances at him, and he looks down in embarrassment.

「Those scrawny arms will gain muscle!」

The officer looks at Julius, and he looks at his skinny, thin arms in shock. William chuckles quietly, grinning as he stands at attention with his arms behind his back, in a similar manner to the officer.

「And those of you who were here before and kept in shape, I hope your arms and legs remember how to kill! Like a whetstone, there will be pain to go through! I'll grind you away, until you're the exact shape I want you to be, and as deadly as I need you to be! Your training will be excruciatingly tough, but!-」

The officer keeps shouting ominous promises, then another armored man runs in, holding a piece of paper in hand. He interrupts his speech, speaking in a hushed tone while the officer is still staring at the group with a grave face.

「…You're sure?」

The officer turns his head to the man and asks. The man nods in response, and glances with worried eyes at the group. The officer's face contorts heavily. His mustache swings up and down, left and right, it twists and turns as he is visibly confounded.

「…You're dismissed. Tell the rest.」

「Yes sir.」

The officer glances at the man, and the man nods in reply. He runs up to the two guards, and explains something to them, causing a tight-lipped grimace to appear on their faces. They follow him out of the room in a rushed step, as the officer is still thinking intently while staring at the group.

「…Something's up.」

William says, looking at the officer with furrowed brows.

「What? Is that unusual?」

Julius asks, as his gaze jumps between William and the officer.

「Tsk, what do you think, kid? Do you think officers get their speeches interrupted on the daily basis? Something happened-」

William clicks his tongue, speaking to Julius with a slanted mouth, still standing at attention. The officer suddenly opens his mouth and cuts William off.

「Attention!」

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The officer shouts, causing all distracted heads to turn back to him.

「I have just received an order to immediately take all available men to the capital! The queen demands we quell a rebellion in its early stage! Men! Your training will have to wait!…」

The officer keeps shouting with a grave face. The young man's jaw drops, and the older man becomes visibly troubled, as he continues listening to the officer.

「Huh!? We're going to fight!? Right now!? But we've just arrived!」

Julius once again clutches onto William's shirt, staring at him with massive panicked eyes.

「That's how it is with levy cycles, kid. I can probably handle it, but… Sometimes there's completely green kids like you in the mix.」

Julius looks down at William with a serious face. His confident grin is gone, and his joking tone is missing. A chill runs down Julius's spine. He lets go of his shirt, and his hands start shaking.

「Oh no. I only ever swung a hoe, a shovel and a rake! I can't go kill someone!」

Julius exclaims, his whole body trembling from fear as color drains from his face.

「What are you mumbling about!? Pay attention! It might save your life!」

The officer turns his eyes to Julius, shouting at him in frustration. The mustached officer's eyes look over the group. The young man is not the odd one out, the rest of the levymen have similar, if not the same reaction. Only a handful of them appear to remain composed.

「Fuck's sake, and I'm supposed to go to war with these people?…」

The officer mumbles under his breath, shaking his head.

「Now listen carefully! You will head to the quartermaster and receive your equipment! I will have one of my men guide you! Once you're equipped, return to the gate! The queen is sending an experienced commander by the name of Straf Katastrof Vindict to lead us! We will be joined by other redoubts, so take heart that we will be outnumbering the enemy!」

The officer shouts, and the morale slowly starts to return.

「…We'll be outnumbering them?」

「Maybe we'll make it…」

Some voices mutter in the crowd, and some of them begin chuckling in relief.

「We will likely be fighting barely-trained peasantry, not much different from you! The difference is, they will be lead by a band of illegitimate barons with no clue how to go about fighting a war! Your only task is to listen to the officers' words as if it was Mercia whispering into your ear!」

The man from before returns as the officer finishes his morale-boosting speech and waits by his side. The officer only takes a quick glance at him, seemingly understanding everything from the context of him being there, without a single word being necessary.

「Men! The only thing I have to add, is that the crown treats its soldiers well! Fear disgrace, not death! There is honor in death, but there is nothing but shame in disgraceful life! I've had friends who died in battle back in the day, and their families were taken better care of, than I was as a military man! And you will see how women will trail after you! You'll get to pick and choose!」

The officer grins lightly, looking at the younger men in the crowd. His eyes momentarily glance at Julius, too.

「H- Huh? They will?…」

Julius says as his brows rise in surprise. William glances down at him.

「Say what you want about the military, kid, but I've heard that much is true…」

He shrugs and sighs deeply. Julius's worried face transforms into an anxious grin.

「Maybe…」

He mumbles, looking at his open hand.

《Maybe after I come back a year from now, I will be covered in muscles and tell Rose that I fought to protect her! And I'll have 5 gold on hand! There's no chance she'll turn me down!》

Julius clenches his fist, a spark of determination ignites a flame in his eyes.

「If you survive your service, you will return a hero, a pride of your family, and you will have stories to tell! If you die, you will forever be a pride of your family, and they will receive payment for your service! And if you die with honor, there will be stories told about you!」

He officer says, sticking his finger out

「But if you shirk your duty like a disgraceful coward, you will have to hide in shame! You will find solace nowhere! Not even in death, as Mercia detests cowards!」

The officer throws his arm aside. He clenches his fist in front of himself, warning the levymen away from desertion, and concludes his speech. He waves the man to take the group.

「Go get them equipped…」

「Yes sir!」

The officer sighs out as he heads for the side passage, and the armored man runs down the steps from the elevated platform to the gathered group.

「Everyone follow me! Don't get lost!」

The man raises his arms, and waves them towards his back as he backs out into a hallway off to the side. The men get outfitted in armor and weapons at the quartermaster, one by one, as the man hurries the men to put the pieces on faster…

…

A few hours earlier, in the palace…

「Aaaah~」

「Lily, we're not going to do a plane.」

Straf says with a tight-lipped grimace on his face, as Lily holds a piece of a chocolate cake on a fork in front of his face. She tilts her head a little, keeping her other hand underneath the fork to secure the cake from falling onto the marble flooring.

「What's a plane, Straf?」

She asks, glancing at the fork, blinking.

「It's a loud-ass metal bird. Sometimes it kills people, sometimes it transports people. Sometimes both, intentionally or otherwise.」

「Ah, I see… A fickle metal beast…」

Lily smirks, nodding her head in mis-understanding.

「No, no. Not that kind of metal, you are misunderstanding-」

Straf tries to explain, but then clicks his tongue.

「Forget it. You know I can just eat the cake by just biting into it on the plate, right?」

He shakes his head, then nudges his head at the wedge of chocolate cake on the plate in front of Lily, as they sit at the table in the large, fancy, but empty dining room.

「And look like a pig for some convenience? Please, Straf… You are far above such things. You have me here to serve you, after all… Or you could become a vampire and not feel hunger-」

Lily scoffs, smirking gently again.

「I was peckish, not hungry. And a world where I don't feel like eating a chocolate cake again wouldn't be even ironically funny. It'd just be sad.」

Straf shrugs, still grimacing.

「Very well… Now open your mouth, unless you don't want more.」

Lily sighs in disappointment, then looks Straf in the eyes, before glancing down at the chocolate cake on the fork again.

「-Humm.」

Straf opens his mouth, and bites down on the cake. The door to the room opens, and a maid peeks her head in. As soon as she sees Lily feeding Straf the dessert, her neutral expression turns into disdainful, disgusted glare.

「What?」

Lily glares back at her, frustrated by the interruption.

「Minister Vindict… The queen requests your presence in the throne room…」

「Again?」

Straf's brows furrow, as she asks with his mouth full of cake. He swallows, and the maid very gently bows her head, almost like a brief nod, and disappears behind the door.

「Ahhh… What a bothersome woman… Why not ignore her, Straf? I'll tell her you had an audience with me-」

Lily asks, smugly grinning. Straf shakes his head, and sighs.

「No, Lily. It must be something important, or else she wouldn't have sent a maid for me. Can you put the plate in my mouth?」

Straf asks, nodding his head at the plate with the cake.

「Huh? The plate? The plate itself?」

She glances at the plate, confused, blinking at Straf.

「Uh-huh. In my teeth. Just let me get a good hold of it.」

「W- Why?」

She shakes her head gently, lifting the plate up.

「'Cause I don't like wasting food, especially if it's good. Come now, before it gets stale.」

Straf hurries Lily, and opens his mouth a little. She cautiously places the plate in his teeth, and he clamps them down on it with a ceramic clink. [Portable Storage] opens, and Straf throws his head aside, flicking the whole plate with cake into the swirling purple hole in reality, which then shuts close.

「Remember, Lily… Every minute, a child starves to death. Since time is a little off around here, it's more like every second, probably. I'm going to eat that cake in their name later.」

Straf says, as he stands up from his chair. Lily stands up as well, still confused.

「…Why?」

She asks, following Straf to the door.

「Because writers starve around the clock, Lily. We don't have the luxury to wait a minute.」

Straf sighs and shrugs, pushing the door further open with his shoulder…