As the Eastern sky slowly turned red with the dawning sun Matthew left his room in the central fort and walked down the stairs before he exited the building, as soon as he stepped out into the courtyard a lot of eyes fell on him, with the lack of readily available artificial light the people of the Willmir Empire appeared to be early risers, this was also likely to be because fort Adam was an important military position, double so with a forging diplomat present

‘...Their forms aren’t all that bad’

All sorts of practice were going on in the courtyard, from sparring matches to groups of knights running laps along the walls in training armor, Matthew found a place where he wouldn’t be in the way and crossed his arms as he silently waited for the arranged time and Alina to contact him, the minutes passed by uneventfully as Matthew waited until Aea voiced a report

[A convoy have been detected, 14 kilometers to the East, current speed indicated arrival a little after dawn]

‘What’s the composition of this convoy?’

[Patching in video feed, stand by…]

Matthew closed his left eye to lessen the dizziness of his sudden shift in perspective as he looked down at the convoy Aea had mentioned

[112 mounted knights, 3 central carriages carrying a total of 14 people, 4 of which appears to be VIPs]

Matthew watched as the video feed as it switched to a thermal image feed, after looking at the 4 thermal signatures which Aea had predicted to be VIP’s long enough to memorize their height and approximate build he opened his left eye again as the video feed from the surveillance drone was cut off

‘Mark the 4 VIPs and notify me if the convoy makes any sudden changes to speed or heading’

[Orders received]

“Good morning miss Selina”

Just as Matthew spoke, the Bloodnier Mystic Selina stepped out of the central fort, she appeared a little spooked about being greeted suddenly by Matthew that wasn’t even looking at her, but she quickly calmed herself down and returned his greeting

“Good morning, Major”

As Matthew remained silent beyond his greeting, Selina felt a little awaked and followed his line of sight towards the sparing rings where Matthew had won his duel over Ukiad the day before and asked

“...Does the training regiment of our knights interest you?”

Matthew shrugged before he turned to look at Selina

“It’s more than a little rudimentary, but well practiced movements are better than overly complicated ones, muscle memory is what most people falls back on when they are under stress”

Selina nodded, remembering the praise she received from the Marquis on her report last night as well as their conclusion that Matthew was some sort of sham that had fabricated both the empire that backed him and the blood stench that covered him like a coat she asked a rather bold question

“Then how does the Trerubic Empire train their soldiers? I imagine it's similar to this, no?”

[Change in behavior of Willmir Empire marked target detected, shifting current operation to plan 37C-11]

Matthew saw though the polite wording of Selina’s question and faced it as it was, without the flowery language: a thinly veiled jab at his martial powers and the power of the Trerubic Empire, however he contained his annoyance and answered her question flatly

Stolen novel; please report.

“As a Penance Marine, I can’t comment on the training of the regular army or any more specialized forces”

“Then how does a soldier like you train?”

Selina had grown bolder at Matthew’s vague answer and asked him with an extra emphasis on ‘A solider like you’ the implications of which were clear

[Matthew calm—]

Matthew ignored Aea’s voice that rang out in his mind as a warm smile spread on his face as he chuckled to himself, his eyes however weren’t exactly projecting happy thoughts, then he looked around and walked over to a wooden weapon stand as he picked up a practice wooden sword and balanced it in his hand for a few moments as he spoke

“A well-made imitation, the heavy metal core ensures the heft mirrors that of a real sword without the danger to aspirants”

Even if it wasn’t that loud Matthew’s voice carried over the courtyard, some of the more experienced soldiers had also noticed the silent fury that radiated from him and made the closest soldiers to him back away as the courtyard fell silent, after admiring the practice sword for a few moments, Matthew tightened his grip around the wooden blade, loud sounds of strain echoed out from the wood as it cracked and broke as Matthew spoke

“After I was conscripted, I was put into a cage the size of this courtyard along with a hundred other traitors to the Trerubic Empire, men women and children shaved bald and stripped nude still dusty with the white parasite replant we had been blasted with before being thrown into our cage…”

Matthew stared off into space as he recalled his past, meanwhile the wooden sword in his hand strained loudly in his hand as it cracked into pieces

“After two days, the traitors had gathered in small groups, huddling together to avoid freezing to death during the night. After not being fed let alone given water the weakest started dining off around the 3rd night, and at the dawn of the 5th day our cage opened… People gathered expecting supplies—”

Matthew suddenly increased his grip tightly, completely shattering the wooden part of the practice sword with a loud crack before he suddenly and violently stabbed the metal core into the compacted dirt below his feet, the dull impacted echoed out over the silent courtyard for a few moments before he continued speaking

“What arrived was a metal bar, around the size of this one, along with the condition of our release… To reduce the number of traitors to 5, if we showed our penance in this way we would be given food and water, along with purpose to our worthless lives”

Matthew slowly rose to his feet as he continued to stare at the mangled practice sword for a few moments before he turned his head to look at Selina that instinctively took half a step back in, primal fear was instilled into her from the cold gaze from Matthew’s eyes as he spoke without emotion

“So to answer your question simply miss Selina… The training I underwent wasn’t quite like this of these knights”

As Selina felt uncontrollable dread come over her from Matthew’s cold stare and right as she felt like she was about to pass out Matthew broke his gaze and looked towards the East as a notification from Aea sounded out in his mind

[The marked convoy’s speed has increased, estimated arrival in 300 seconds, also according to the mistress orders when you ignored my request earlier I notified her]

‘You did wha—’

Matthew’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a sudden impact that sent a wave of pain through his right arm, his expression didn’t change but given the pain he experienced it was clear to him that the bone in his upper right arm, his Humerus had been fractured, at least his arm turning rapidly purple from internal hemorrhaging told him so, a moment later a clear voice sounded out

“I clearly instructed you not to act out, Major”

Just as Matthew was about to be confused, Aea’s voice sounded out in his mind

[Current operation has been shifted to plan 37C-11, please act accordingly]

Not feeling like earning the ire of Aea on top of the already pissed off Alina, he quickly recalled the specifics of plan 37C-11 he had been briefed on at length by Aea and acted accordingly as he turned around and made a Trerubic military salute by standing up straight facing Alina that had appeared floating in the air behind him and placing his right closed fist over his heart

“Good morning, Captain”

[Trauma pattern 1 assigned to injury, 14 seconds until full recovery]

Matthew felt his bones mending slowly as he held his salute while Alina landed in front of him and walked past him without acknowledging his presence, she played the part of a superior officer well, at least Matthew remembered the officers from the regular army acting similarly as she was at the moment, after walking past Matthew she stopped and violently warped the space behind her which made a chair appear as she sat down and spoke loudly addressing the crowd

“I have been tasked with taking over negotiations from where Major Matthew left off, you have an hour to produce the agreed upon ransom, any outstanding payment will be deducted 1 kilogram of flesh per single silver coin”

Finished saying what she needed to Alina warped space behind her once more and Matthew’s Mk. 22 armored suit appeared, Matthew relaxed his salute when Alina raised her hand casually, then he entered the suit, as it closed around him life instantly returned to the courtyard as the knights and servants quickly scrambled to get ready for the exchange, after a few minutes Marquis Elias Maitner arrived as the servants scrambled to set up for the meeting

“Greetings, my name is Elias Maitner, I hold the rank of Marquis and I have been representing the Willmir Empire in the ongoing negotiations”

“I am Captain Alina, I have been informed about you by my subordinates, I was under the impression that we would be doing the exchange at dawn?”

The Marquis nodded and spoke clearly

“I have received word that my treasurer will be arriving any moment now with the funds… But I have yet to see any of our knights?”

Just then Aea delivered a report over the local network

[The approaching caravan have halted its movement 1200 meters from the East gate]

Matthew let out a sigh as he realized what was about to go down, now that Alina had taken the role of a Trerubic Captain, she was likely to act in a similar manner and Trerubic military protocol dictated that any perceived slight or provocation by a lesser power be responded with painful lessons in kind