Turning Idiots Into Capable Idiots

Buuzhh.

"...oh, sir commander." Ciemnosc didn't give anyone a rest, as he immediately closed the call off with the southern side battalion regiment leader and opened up the one currently in charge of the central side battalion regiment leader. Ciemnosc looked at the slightly fatty face for a second, as if there was something on his face, before nodding and giving a silent 'mn' as well.

"Since you've directly moved the people under you back to the outpost, the moment you get there, begin preparing the already made pills and some medical stone beds; thousands more of injured sect disciples are coming your way, and some of them are close to dying. Even if you are not supposed to be medics, let's try not to let them die slowly." Ciemnosc said, his wrists placed together and his fingertips on the white table.

“As for you…” Ciemnosc had his head a bit low, but when he spoke these other words. Po Tai suddenly felt tensed up. Not like he knew anything that had happened to Makis or the southern side battalion regiment, but he could still feel something a bit off… But Ciemnosc went against his thoughts as well as those from the main tent.

“Good job in leading people who at least did know you, I have understood that you never took the role of leading, but you did very well.”

Po Tai and those from the main tent seemingly heaved a sigh of relief immediately. Their commander wasn’t so bad after all though they were more inclined to see Ciemnosc as a commander now, for some reason. But they had also, just now, sung victory too soon. “Still, to let your previous leader rush out and be one of the first kills in the battle…that’s stupid.”

“That was stupid, and it shouldn’t have happened. A leader is a commanding soldier who will only fight when the worst citations have come to light. Not out of fear, cowardice, or safety, but because a leader is who guides his people, while the people in question are those who are sending their lives down a well hoping they would be able to climb up from it!”

Ciemnosc’s words suddenly hit them a bit hard, even to those who were thinking of so many things about becoming a ‘general’ just like many others did, and do. It was as if they had never thought about the people which one is supposed to have under them as…anything other than numbers to even out so that they would be seen well.

“When those people depend on someone, if that someone dies head on first and firstly than any other than themselves, who are they to turn to. What are they going to do but headlessly fight to die?!” Ciemnosc elaborated, raising his voice here and there but still so calm and serene, “You’re not that capable at all, barely know how to fight in a group and not attack each other, and some of you think that that is enough with the experience you got from this morning - not even a day of battling.”

“A leader has people depending on them to lead, not to die. And so, I want to see ‘your’ entire battalion regiment do more than 100 push-ups with at least 5,000 kg heavy boulders on your back. For every single one of you. You may take the punishment later on today and only then.” Finished speaking, Ciemnosc cut off communication, and slowly and serenely came to sit back down in his chair.

His chair, which was humble and just plastic, of a white color just like the tables before him, which were small but some very long now looked like a kind of too small of an actual throne that Ciemnosc rested his body on.

“Well, the citation is over. I don’t feel in the mood anymore,” Ciemnosc dragged on the second half of his words in a slightly acute tone, his head tilting to the right as well. Hearing and seeing him like this, the people in the main tent…actually stood up on their own and began heading out of the main tent through its exit. Some even nodded at him.

When most of them were already out, Ciemnosc placed his head at the mercy of his right hand whose fingers then supported his right temple to his forehead. Valeria was obviously still standing behind him to his right as there was a male voice coming into his right ear about 1.3 meters in front of him instead. “Commander Ciemnosc, I was wondering if the outpost 2’s person in charge has already been decided yet? I would like to volunteer.”

Ciemnosc already knew who talked to him just now, but having to raise his head to let them know he was looking at them, he lazily set his eyes on the handsome young man before him. A Spirit Gathering realm 10th stage, white skin, 1.79 meters tall, jet black hair, and a prideful but clever-looking young man appeared in front of Ciemnosc with his clear black eyes shining throughout.

“Schnell,” Ciemnosc called out. The young man’s eyebrows and eyelids jumped lightly at it but remained still. Meanwhile, Valeria looked at Ciemnosc’s right profile face and blinked slowly, appearing so charmingly like never before and dumbfounding Schnell deep inside who caught such a unique and unseemly scene.

“I have already decided though, instead, I have a much rather different job off for you.” Ciemnosc stood up from his chair, and with his height being only some centimeters less than Schnell, he put his right hand on the latter’s right shoulder. “Though it isn’t leading an entire outpost, for what the future may bring you to do in that case, it is still leading towards a future only you may be able to pull off.”

“But… … … …hmm.” Schnell looked at Ciemnosc, frowning and directly wanting to protest. However, Ciemnosc’s smile somehow made Schnell feel like the words weren’t fake or malicious, as such a smile on the boy’s face was filled with praise but also playful truth.

“Okay, just leave me now. I’ll tell you more about it tomorrow. I’m done being commander for the rest of the day. I’ll just be supervising and forming part of Makis’s punishment so that will be it. Go now.” Without a single doubt of his words not being taken into consideration, Ciemnosc spoke to Schnell and even patted a few more times on his back, sending the young man away while saying so much information as if Ciemnosc wanted him to know it all and even spread it perhaps.

…step, step step, step… Step, step.

Once the last one left, Ciemnosc was about to go back to his chair and rest his head a little when Valeria came to him with a couple of firm steps. Standing in front of him and lightly touching his right trapezius muscle to stop him from sitting down just now, she looked at him face to face for some time before almost sticking her body to his.

Rustle, ruffle~.

Passing her hands over his clothes in which he looked dumb cute, and handsome. She picked up his hair a little, played with it as she already got the habit of doing such whenever they were together - alone or not, and then held the back of his jaws as she looked slightly down at him.

“...” - “...” Their eyes slowly began smiling, not squinting nor further opening up any more than they were now, and with Mosto having turned around and taken 3 meters to walk away now. She placed her forehead against his, almost kissing the tips of their noses.

. . .

Noon, right in front of the randomized temporary living quarters, where 25,000+ sect disciples were now witnessing Makis standing right in front of them about to be…’punished’.

“...” Kneeling over the small 10 meters diameter at the center of the onlookers, as Ciemnosc didn’t bother building a coliseum to punish people, everyone else around Makis was standing up and with some trying to get a better glimpse of him despite nothing happening momentarily.

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The sect disciples, by now, already knew of the happenings from the reports posted at each outpost and at the randomized temporary living quarters. Most had to say that ‘if these were true’, then their commander Ciemnosc had surely guaranteed that the sect disciples’ casualties didn’t go beyond the 3,000 that they suffered today - despite the more than 3 times difference in their size.

They read that, with some cheap camouflaging, Makis was tricked into sending almost a whole 20,000 entire couple of battalion regiments to the center of the barrier - where barely any resistance was actually waiting for them to come and ‘get some’.

And that the enemy was just 10,000. While the 30,000 would’ve suffered at least around 13,000 casualties before the whole thing could have ended should Makis’s arrangements have gone through. Only with commander Ciemnosc was that avoided, but even then, so many things still happened with some dishonorable mentions here and there.

In between them though, Makis’s mistakes were by far the worst. And there was even the battalion regiment whose head-on charge and becoming some of the first kills on the side of his battle directly put all ambitious slumbering people to wake up, sober up, and chilled from the cruel and always present reality.

Just because they were them, it didn’t mean that they could never die because they are themselves.

“...Everyone’s ready.” Ciemnosc came into their view and directly commented, his tone calm of course. Makis lifted his chin and gazed at Ciemnosc, his eyes were hazy and seemed to hold hatred in them, but when they were lifted, they went from hazy and sleepy as if mentally exhausted from so…many things to become a bit cleared up and to show wanton respect that he then seemed to recede to let things proceed.

Seeing Makis straightening his back and neck, looking up at his chest level, Ciemnosc stared at the young man with his darkest eyes some more before blinking, and his eyes were then immediately set on the crowd. Opening his lips, he took out an elastic tube-like thingie from his Covert Space bag and began speaking, “Makis has followed my commands and not behaved disappointingly - but his own choices before I got to even speak to him were beyond disastrous.”

“Today, as the first but most likely not last, as the mission’s commander. I am to punish him for his negligence, a word that I sure would like to not hear again coming from my mouth.” Ciemnosc then raised his strange tool that works well with array formations, be it for mixing by adding the ones it had inscribed on itself or by simply and quickly forming up arrays with just one of Ciemnosc’s thoughts.

“As a result, 3 lashes with this tool will be enough, I hope this can show the discipline I am looking for,” Ciemnosc said, holding the strange little gift that his teacher gave him in exchange for not allowing him to touch a single material for the possible creation of Mortal grade weapons.

Wong, wong. Swiiishh~, whoosh, whistle- Pah!

The tube suddenly became thinner, as if compressing without any kind of side effects. Electric currents began oozing off of the entire tube itself as it went soft and seemed to be made of solid glue. Light blue sparkles surrounded the tube, and people were immediately talking about it, with some even trying to recognize the type of array that commander Ciemnosc had just activated.

“Isn’t that one for training one’s body?” - “I heard that that array is more for increasing one’s body pain tolerance though…” - “I thought that those things were only for criminals and prisoners of war in the sect?” - “In times of need, it is heard of such being used to execute traitors, deserters and members from the major organizations…”

“!!” But just as they were conversing with ease while glaring at the tube-thingie splashing off small electric currents around its body, they saw Ciemnosc effortlessly lift the whole damn thing, lashing it at Makis’s general direction without seemingly even trying.

And before anyone could tell where the tube was coming from and moving in which direction with their eyes, a whistling sound came to be, followed by an immediate slapping, heavy-hitting sound that muffled and completely interrupted the whistling noise.

“AGGGH!” Makis screamed out with the strap between his teeth, arched his back, and looked into the sky for a good 2 solid seconds before obediently lowering his stance even as he obviously still knelt on the ground, the unknown and some very few known faces of ‘a bit’ more than 3,000 people seemed to gaze down at his pitiful self; slowly dissipating on their own accord.

Whistle~~- Pah!

“GRRUUUUGGH!” His scream was muffled this time, but his tongue danced on the strap in his mouth nonstop as he couldn’t bear the pain, and the afterpain of it was even worse; much worse than even an itch impossible to scratch but that was feeling hot, irked and painful without it being scrapped on at all.

His insides could be seen convulsing to the level of only his muscles, and some were displaced by a little bit before directly placing themselves back where they belonged to. All in all, his organs were intact. But his back could only splash blood a little bit before the entire wound on his back closed on its own as if he had healing and regeneration abilities - but it was, in truth, just the charring of his skin and closing up due to the nature of the attack and array formation in use.

Whistle- Pah!

“AAAAHAAAAAAHHH~!” Makis screamed really badly now. His previously two lines of burnt scars right beside his vertebral column to the left and the right of it had been opened up again at their lower ends. Ciemnosc had sent his next whip to lash out laterally - Makis’s back would be fine this way still, he wasn’t using any raw strength beyond what was needed for him to break Makis’s bones which were around just 1,000 kg being more than enough since Makis was not to use is Power Energy flow. It was the array formation doing it all.

“Done, pick him up. After 3 hours, heal him up and send him walking back to his outpost 3 at night.” Finished saying those words, Ciemnosc caressed the lower end of the tube thingy with his left hand while holding it in his right hand before turning around. A few sect disciples went over and carried his arms over their shoulders towards the randomized temporary living quarters.

“...That was a lot to see,” Shidar was a few tents away from the last back of the people who were watching Makis be punished. She frowned as she was remembering Makis's face in that last whip. To her right, as she leaned her upper back against the corner of a tent, sturdy and solid. The young man that was with her early in the morning had his arms crossed as he also looked.

“It’s…pretty much fine, actually.” He said Shidar turned her head to face him, her frown pronouncing even more with traces of disapproval emanating from her slightly too prudish self. The young man bitterly and lightly smiled. He loosened his arms and gestured towards the place where Makis was punished and where his back could be seen moving as he was walked away.

“Don’t take it wrongly, I don’t mean to say that it was a good thing to do. Only…compared to what I’ve seen before I met you, some killing, some raping, some humiliating, and some even being cannibalized. The sect, this sect…can be like this, some even say ‘it’s too powerful’...” The nice brown-skinned young man stopped for a moment, then he looked at Shidar with his emo-like black very short but attractive hair barely moving with his body movements. “You have to take care of yourself, be very careful, Shidar.”

“...Thank you, Li Saer, but I’m very capable of taking care of myself.” Shidar said, but she was really thankful for his words. As she looked at the now empty small circle and the quickly parting away crowd, she could still see Makis’s face as he looked up into the sky, and his eyes glimmered with some kind of guilt.

“...” On the other hand, close to where the fake garage’s gate was, quite a few hundreds of meters away, Joah was pressing his back against the wall with a brunette with black eyes and black long hair with a very long female layer of hair covering her left eye - young woman. They had already witnessed Ciemnosc getting handsy for the first time, and they were silently looking at the crowd quickly dispersed.

“He’s not that something.” The brunette called out, Joah ‘gently’ smiled and crossed his arms before his stomach, but he then frowned as his eyes lost focus as his fellow sect disciples looked straight up. “He didn’t let us in today, but we will get in tomorrow!”

“...” The brunette looked at his right profile face, her eyes lazily moving up and down his face, ending with a shake of her head and with her eyes closed. Her tone was really uncaring for his thoughts and worries, “Is it really that important to get into the- arr, those meetings? Isn’t it just some fallacious thing of the past where this and that reunited? Meh.”

“No, you don’t understand it yet.” Joah said, shaking his head slightly with a slow blink of his eyes, then elaborating with his crossed arms locking tighter. “Even here, right now, these cars can be driven by anyone. Only one cannot come out nor in from the outposts, but there are still not such arrays around here. And besides, they must be very costly, to the point that it is just simply impossible for that Ciemnosc to build it again any time soon.”

“One could just take control of these ‘machines’ and see what kind of face he would have when there is a mutiny and demanding for control of the corps, his control,” Joah said, his eyes looking ambitious alright, which the brunette took in the image of with her own eyes and then spoke cuttingly. “Then what don’t you do it now?”

“No, no, Jenlin. He has to train them up for me a bit more…and it seems to be working just fine.” As Joah spoke, Jenlin followed his gaze and saw that a ton of groups from the sect's disciples were gathering and talking. They were no longer excited like crazy about such an ‘easy win’ with barely any casualties in comparison. They were now intensely exchanging words one after the other a lot of times. They would look in the direction that Ciemnosc left.

…