_ _ _ _ _ _ _

A few days later, Add gathered all the guards of the mansion and made them stand in five consecutive rows of ten men each. The guards were quite bewildered at what the young master was suddenly up to. Walking past the rows, he inspected them with scrutiny. The men looked healthy enough and despite some of the guards being older than he would have liked, some weeding was necessary. He then looked at their weapons and armour. The guards mainly had long swords and short swords while some had spears as well. Kent informed that most guards could also use the bow and arrow. The quality of the weapons was mediocre however, as good quality weapons were costly. Their armour was in worse condition. They wore a chainmail suit over their clothes with a thin plate covering the chest, and a pair of arm guards. He made a note to change these things as soon as possible. The guards saw him frown and rub his head, wondering why his mood was getting bad. Add chose 20 of the youngest guards and told the rest to return to their duties. He now had a proper group to work with

“Alright then, all of you, keep your weapons aside and take of your armour now!”

The men were visibly confused, at the sudden order. The guards had thought that Add wanted to tell them something, but he was now ordering them to take off their weapons and armour.

“Young Master, why do we need to take off our armour and weapons ?” Kent who was also present beside Add asked.

“No questions please Mr. Kent. Just do as you are told! Do I pay you to ask questions !?”

Add’s mood noticeably worsened as he glared at the guards who quickly began taking off their weapons and armour and stepped back with a sigh, deciding to silently observe. Soon all the men  including Edward were all unarmed and their weapons and armour had been kept in a pile at the side of the field.

“Now one by one you all will have a spar with me. But this time there is no need to hold back, and neither will I. Well then first….let’s see….yes, Edward, you come here”

Edward was one of the guards who accompanied Add on his trip to the forest and the young master recognised him easily. Being called to have a spar with the young master, the man felt very troubled. Ever since they joined the Weismann house, the guards had the impression that  the young master was a spoilt and lazy slob.  Aside from the usual gambling and merrymaking, he never did any productive work. His body was lean and thin and anyone who saw him for the first time would think that he was a weakling. But over the past few days, the guards had learnt that the young master was just hiding his skills. He could easily take down grown men during a spar, and his learning ability was praised by Captain Kent himself. Add had of course upgraded his strength using the Gene vaccine, but his body remained virtually unchanged, with some minor changes to his appearance.

Edward looked at Kent who helplessly shook his head. They all knew of the whimsical nature of the young master. Kent thought that Add just wanted to try some moves. He urged Edward to go on and be easy on the young master. Not getting any help from his superior, the poor chap reluctantly left his spot in the rows and stood before Add. He looked at the young guard for some time and then said in a stern voice. His eyes were cold and his expression looked heavy.

“Come at me with your everything Edward, I won’t be showing you any leniency today, show me what you people have been training for all these years…”

Edward hesitated, but looking at the stern face of the young master, which was growing darker by the moment, he did not dare waste time and took a proper stance, he looked at Add who  was standing straight just looking at him, and then quickly attacked. His movement was simple, a swift straight punch, aimed towards Add’s abdomen. His opponent nimbly dodged his punch by slightly moving to the side, causing his punch to hit air and he ran past Add before stopping. Edward was not very surprised, as Add had been having sparring sessions with the guards occasionally and they were aware of his ability. He tried to attack a few more times, but Add dodged them all with ease. Finally, he made a quick decision and then again tried to punch Add. However, this time it was just a fake hit and at the last moment, he changed his mode of attack and kicked out with his leg towards Add’s feet trying to trip him down. He believed that Add could only doge, simple moves and would fall to this trick but to his shock the later, jumped up in the air, again dodging his kick. The next moment, Add rotated his body and landed behind Edward, with a kick he swept him off his feet and with a punch to the back, rammed him into the ground. Poor Edward had to eat a pile of dust as a result.

“This won’t do… Again! You best get up quickly or I promise that I will make sure you won’t be stand up for a month again!”

Hearing the chilling shout , the poor chap hurriedly scrambled up to his feet and returned to where he was standing previously, in a flash. He faithfully believed that Add would do exactly what he said. After a few more rounds, Edward was unable to defeat Add even once and instead was beaten badly himself. While he was on the verge of crying at this punishment, Add excused him and called all the other guards one by one and sparred with them. The pattern was similar, he would only dodge their attacks, and after each guard had three to four chances at him, he would defeat them using simple movements, but with speed and strength that were unmatched for his size and frame. Even Kent, the most experienced of the guards was unable to defeat him and could only take a defensive stance. The young master too did not have it as easy with Kent, and their spars ended in a draw. He was confident that in a real fight to the death, he would surely win, but there was no need to get so serious. After all this was done, Add had a looked at the guards, now covered in dust and in a sorry state, before him. He shook his head in disappointment.

(These guards, they are little better than the rookies at boot camp…sigh, only the old man Kent can be said to have some skill, the others, might just well be road side thugs…..)

He was very disappointed in the quality of the guards. But on second thought, the guards never had to do any actual battles, they were more like the watchmen back on earth whose only job was to stop intruders, and watch over buildings and such. They could not compare with soldiers who had been trained from an young age, using modern science and techniques. Also, it seemed his increased stats should equal to these guards, who were slightly stronger than the average humans of Iseria; if not better. Now, that he needed to have a strong military, he could not disregard these guards, who were his closest available force. At this moment, he changed his mindset from that of a soldier, to that of an instructor. After taking in a deep breath he faced the guards and spoke;

“Listen you all! I have seen how you all can fight! And let me tell you, all of you, are pathetically weak! What guards of the Weismann family!? You lot can’t even land a single hit on me, a young boy, what would you do when you faced bandits or monsters !? I’ll tell you what you will do….You morons will die! that’s just  about it! You people…are you even guards!? Roadside thugs are better than you!”

The guards were silent as Add was criticising them. It was true that no one among them, was able to land a hit on Add, who was a weak looking young boy. The guards had never really trained very seriously, as their job was mostly just keeping watch, and the mansion had never been attacked, so they never felt the need to train like real soldiers. As a result, they were little better than the common folk in terms of actual ability. Add had chosen to display his strength up front so that they will obey him without any complains, after all whoever had the bigger fist, was always right.

“…So from this day forth, I will be taking charge of your training! Is that clear you all?”

“Y-Young master…you will…?”

A guard spoke slowly. Add turned to face him, his eyes dead cold, causing the guard to feel chills down his spine.

“You have a problem?”

“No! No! I don’t! No problem young master!”

“Good. Even if you did, I don’t care! I pay you all to be my guards, not some showpieces! If you don’t train properly from now, then you can say this job good bye, and go back to being farmers in the fields! Do you lot understand!?”

The guards were silent, their faces troubled. Add face darkened even more.

“Answer me damn it! Don’t you morons have tongues or what!?”

“““Yes Young Master!”””

The guards immediately replied in unison. Add then looked at Kent,

“You have no problems with me taking charge do you Mr. Kent?”

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The old man hurriedly shook his head with a smile.

“Of course not young master. This old man is going to retire in a few months any way. These old bones of mine need a rest now. It is my honour to see you take charge like your father did…Please rest assured, all the guards will definitely follow your orders.”

He nodded to Kent and then immediately began his training. The guards didn’t know now, but they would soon began dreading this young master of theirs, much more than anything they could have dreaded before. All this while, another person had been watching these things unfold from afar. This person was none other than Martha who had a troubled look in her eyes as she saw the proceedings taking note of everything the Add was doing.

“The young master has changed so much in the past days, as if he has completely become a new person. Sometimes even I cannot understand what he is doing. I wonder, just what is it that he wants to do…. Sigh, master would you be happy if you saw this change of his…”

Unaware of her thoughts, Add began issuing his orders to the twenty men. The first was that during training, they would not address him as young master, but as ‘Instructor’. The training would commence with day break every day, and last till sunset. No one was allowed to be late for training. If they did, they would be severely punished, and as to what this punishment was, it was not mentioned. Also, while in training, the guards would be called cadets, a word no one had heard before, but he explained to them that it meant soldiers in training. Today, since they had wasted a lot of time already he ordered them to keep standing under the sun till evening. Only Kent was pardoned watching his old age. He ordered Kent to watch the guards, and they would only be allowed a short lunch break at afternoon and any bathroom breaks if required. Other than that they had to keep standing till evening. The guards were horrified at this form of punishment, but dared not say anything. He again reminded Kent not to show any leniency to the guards, and walked off, but not before saying…

“Don’t any of you dare slack off”, which for some reason, terrified the guards even more.

_ _ _ _ _

Back at the mansion. Add had taken over the study and used it as his office now. He called Martha, who didn’t mention anything about his actions in the field,  and asked her a very important question.

“Martha…I am planning on expanding the guard numbers…..”

“Is that so….may I ask as to why the young master wants to do that?”

Add looked at her and said flatly.

“I want a proper army, not a mob.”

Martha went silent for some time and then asked,

“And for what reason does young master wish for an army?”

“I have my reasons, you will understand in due time.”

Add didn’t explain more, yet his eyes were firm. Martha understood that he had made up his mind.

“I understand young master. This old servant shall try her best to help you.”

“Then I will get straight to the point. For starters, I plan on getting 80 more men to expand the force to 100. Can we afford that?”

Martha thought for a while and answered.

“Young Master, currently we pay each guard 10 silver coins a month, which makes our total spending on guards at 500 silver coins per month, excluding the weapons, food, horses etc. For an increase of 80 soldiers, we would then need 800 silver coins more which would amount to 1300 silver coins a month, that is 13 gold coins in salaries alone and if we were to add the other expenses, I am afraid we would get up to around 35 gold coins, at least for the first few months. Not to mention the cost of weapons and amour which would be extra.”

This did not sound much, but the treasury only had so many gold coins, and the number was also depleting. Adding more burden to that was not a good idea. Yet,

“Understood. Please have the army garrison send a few troops to act as guards for some time. And issue a notice to hire 80 men for the guards. Their ages should be from 15 to 25, no more no less. I will send Mr. Kent to select and recruit them. As for the money, spend it for now, I will find a way to earn some as as soon as possible.”

“As you wish.”

Martha bowed and turned to leave.

“Also Martha…”

“Yes young master ?”

“Get me a tailor as soon as possible please…”

“I see..I will do that…”

 After she left, Add took a piece of parchment and began writing some lines on it using pen he purchased from the system. When it was nearly evening, he returned to the field, and looked at the guards who were in a pitiful state. Many had drooping heads, some had their legs trembling, and some had even fainted, now lying by the sides. Kent who had been looking after them, smiled apologetically as he saw Add arrive.

“Young master this…”

But Add stopped him.  He expected this sort of outcome. The guards had been lazy watchmen who never really did much work till now, as a result, hours of standing under the sun without rest, had hit heavily on them. But things would only get worse, it was just that they didn’t know it yet. If they did, then perhaps, many of them would choose to flee and abandon their jobs right now. Add allowed the men to finally rest, and immediately all of them collapsed. He allowed them a few minutes of rest and waited for the fainted ones to wake up. After a while, when all the guards were awake, and had rested a little, he explained some simple rules to them. These were rules all soldiers had to follow without question.

Rule number 1 : Once a soldier has enlisted in the armed services, he or she belongs to the state only. A soldier must put the safety and interests of the state before all forms of personal interest. Betraying the state in any form or any act of sabotage against the state is grounds for treason and shall be punished with the highest penalties as per military law.

Rule number 2 : A soldier  must obey any and all orders given to them by their direct superiors, unless the order is unlawful or wrong. In case of conflicting orders from two or more superior officers, the orders of the higher ranking person should be obeyed. Disobeying an order is grounds for insubordination and will be dealt with accordance to military law.

Rule number 3 : While in training, a cadet must obey all orders of his instructors unless it offends his/her personal safety or self respect. Once a cadet is recruited in training, they have to follow military discipline and laws, and cannot leave the training unless relieved by their superiors officially.

Rule number 4 : A soldier must always help fellow soldiers in times of need, and never hesitate to help any civilians as well. He or she must give their best to do their duty until they are officially relieved or they perish.

Rule number 5 : A soldier will always report any and every violations of orders, emergencies, and anything not covered in their instructions to the commander or the leader of his team, or any higher ranking officer around him.

Rule number 6 : A soldier must obey all state laws alongside military laws unless specifically allowed by their superiors to ignore one or more laws.

Rule number 7 : Once in the military, a person will completely belong to their unit, and whatever they do, good or bad, the whole unit will be held accountable for it.

Rule number 8 : A soldier must never kill innocent people even if they are from opposing sides, unless authorised by their superiors. Surrendered troops and unarmed civilians must be treated with proper respect unless orders state otherwise. Unwarranted murder or genocide maybe punishable by death.

Rule number 9 : A soldier is to ensure that any and every form of violence to innocent people, including sexual assault, rape, torture and similar activities are not committed by him or his fellow soldiers. Women even if they are enemies, must be treated with basic respect and under no circumstances be sexually harassed or assaulted.

Rule number 10 : A soldier if found guilty of not following orders, violating the state law or committing war crimes, will be charged as per military law, by a military court.

These were the basic rules he had formulated based on the many rules he had followed back on Earth. For now he would have the guards follow these, but soon he would have the complete set of military laws, available to all soldiers. He handed the paper over to Kent and told him to ensure that all the guards learnt the rules by heart. He then dismissed them and let them off for the day, but not before reminding them, not to be late tomorrow morning. The real training would start from tomorrow after all.

When he returned to his study, a maid informed him that a local tailor had arrived and wanted to meet him. Martha was very efficient in her job after all. Add welcomed the short chubby tailor named Joey. The man had a history with the Weismann family, as many of the various clothing and accessories used in the mansion were purchased from him. Add had called him for a very specific purpose.

“You see Mr. Joey, I called you here since I had a specific request to make.”

“It would be my honour to be of use to you young lord, please tell me how can I be of service ?”

The man said wiping the sweat off his forehead. He did not know why, but being in the presence of the young lord felt suffocating, as if he was being stared at by a dangerous animal. The lord smiled and laid out his request,

“It’s quite simple actually, I need you to make some clothes for my guards.”

“Eh?”

_ _ _ _ _

The following day, with day break most of the twenty cadets had arrived at the training grounds. The ones that hadn’t would serve as an example for the rest. Add began his training with a series of exercises, which the guards would have to repeat until he was satisfied. These included basic work out and some high intensity exercises which would prepare them for the upcoming training. By the time the cadets had began the exercises, the few late comers had finally arrived, and were made to do 30 rounds of the training field. It didn’t matter if the collapsed or swooned. They had to complete those rounds or else they would receive no lunch and dinner. While the poor cadets began running for their meals, the ‘instructor’ was talking with the guard captain Kent.

“Mr. Kent, today I have an important task for you. It is a very important task and I hope you will not disappoint me.”

“Yes Young Master! I will try to complete any task with the best of my abilities!”

“Hmm. I have decided, to expand the strength of the guards, and add new recruits. I have already talked to Martha about this, and I want you to be the one to select them.”

Kent was a bit surprised. The young master suddenly wanted to increase the number of guards, this was strange. Still he nodded his head.

“I want 80 new recruits, and you can choose anyone as long as you see them fit, their class or background does not matter. But their age should be between 15 and 25. Also, make sure they understand that once they join, they won’t be allowed to quit, unless I wish so. You have four days to get it done.  Do you understand ?”

“Yes young Master!”

“Well then, you are dismissed, talk to Martha for the details, and get to work immediately. That’s all”

Kent bowed and left. Add had decided, that including Kent in the training was just needlessly tormenting him. He was in his late forties and going to retire soon. However in his mind, he had decided for a special job for the man, which Kent should be able to do without any problems. The main focus of training would be the new recruits who would soon be recruited, and the current batch of guards would serve as the pioneers to undergo a type of training no one in this world had ever seen.

Add looked at the exercising cadets and he was reminded of his own days spent in training. belonged to the ‘Reapers’ which was the most elite force among the various battalions of the Spetsnaz. He had received one of the harshest military trainings ever given to soldiers back on earth. They began his training the age of ten, with over a thousand cadets. Right at the beginning the kids who should have been playing with toys, were dropped in the unforgiving Siberian wilderness and tasked with surviving a week with minimal rations and equipment. To prevent them from digging a hole and hiding for seven days, they dropped separately at different areas and were tasked to arrive at a certain location with a map and a compass. Most cadets died in this test, and the ones which survived but did not reach the location within a week were, removed. This test weeded out the weak and the few survivors would then move to the next stage.

In the second stage, the cadets would receive basic education and were given basic combat training for 5 years. At end of this stage there would be a series of matches between cadets from different groups and the winners would go on to receive official training while the losers would mostly end up dead, or disabled which was also a death sentence in itself. However brutal it may seem, this was not the worst part, rather the third stage would be the most gruesome and most cadets would lose their lives or become deranged and lose their minds. The final stage involved harsh physical training which was enough to kill them coupled with merciless torture which was meant to create wills of steel that could not be broken. All sorts of methods were applied, and it was so hellish, that just surviving this stage proved the cadets to be the best there was. The ones who broke were quietly removed and the few who survived could now bear the title of “Reapers”. Their numbers were few, for a thousand cadets only around ten would survive to become one, but each one of them was a ruthless killing machine in himself. Add too had survived, but he had become a broken man, he realised this himself, but it never really bothered him much. He had long since become numb to all that. He sighed as he looked at the cadets who were struggling with their exercises.

“These guys are already whining with just this, compared to what we went through this cannot even be called child’s play.”

_ _ _ _ _ _ _