Lord Whitmore looked at Lucien’s back, feeling the emotions hidden behind his wish. The anger, hatred, and bitterness. The depression, regret, and loneliness. He wanted to give Lucien a better life after everything he had gone through, but at the same time, he couldn’t just stop him here.
With a sigh, he got up and joined Lucien on the balcony. “Okay. I’ll have the butler send you down there to the commander in charge. Commander Roth should still be with them, so that should make things simpler.”
“With Uther gone, it is more important than ever that we send new soldiers to the border,” he muttered under his breath.
“Do you need me to find a healer for your arm?” Whitmore asked.” It will take more effort to heal, considering we don’t have the original arm, but I’m sure in a few months it’ll be as good as new.”
“No,” Lucien said, shaking his head before looking down at the missing arm. “Maybe... maybe I’ll take you up on that offer when I get back.”
“Okay. Do you need to rest?”
“I’ll rest once I've gone down there and settled in.”
“Okay. “
Lord Whitmore walked to the door, opened it, and gestured to the butler that was still waiting outside.
He spoke with the butler for a moment, relaying his orders to him before returning to Lucien. “He will take you there when you’re ready. Just a word of advice, try and connect with people, okay?”
“Alright. I’ll be going now.” Lucien bowed then left the room.
Watching his back, Lord Whitmore really hoped that Lucien would take his advice into consideration. He wanted Lucien to create new connections so that he would have less of a reason to leave after he got his revenge.
“Follow me,” said the butler.
Closing the door behind him, Lucien followed the butler back the way they came, out the building, and all the way to a smaller building beside the training grounds.
Having not seen the person he was looking for out on the field, the butler entered the building. Walking past several soldiers and members of the logistics crew who were going back and forth, the butler brought Lucien to a door and knocked on it.
“Come in.” a strong, warm voice said from the other side of the door.
The door was opened from the inside by a gust of wind, and just as Lord Whitmore had predicted, Commander Roth was still inside talking to the commander in charge of this brigade.
Both of them were currently standing at a table with a detailed map of the southern part of the region, ranging from the edge of the Eternal Forest to the town of Whaeldrake. The map covered roughly a third of the entire region, focusing on the areas most heavily affected by the bandit attacks.
While both of them were focused on the map and discussing the new information that Lucien had given them, they were facing the door, meaning that Lucien could make out the other commander’s features.
Compared to Commander Roth, the other commander was significantly younger, probably in her late twenties or early thirties.
She had light brown hair that went down to just above her shoulders, that was tied up into a short ponytail in the back to keep out of her way.
She had a rather average face that would be difficult to pick out from a crowd if it wasn’t for the pair of intense, deep blue eyes as clear as the sky above.
She had a muscular body that somewhat reminded Lucien of Paul’s daughter, Miriam. She was as strong as an ox, and probably capable of carrying one.
She was lower in rank than Commander Roth, albeit, not by much. She had an eleven-pointed star compared to his fourteen-pointed one.
And while Commander Roth had already mostly retired from the battlefield to lead the military academy here, This young commander was still looking to prove herself out on the battlefield.
Both of them looked up at the opened door at the same time, looking first at the butler, and then at Lucien.
“This is the man that brought the news,” Roth explained, to which the young commander nodded.
The young commander turned to the butler, asking, “Does his Lordship have a task for us?”
“Yes, Commander Vernon. He wants Lucien here to join your troops. He said it would prove useful to have someone of his calibre that also lives in the target area,” the butler said before leaving and going back to report to Lord Whitmore.
Of my calibre? He hasn’t even seen me fight. Lucien thought to himself before chalking it up to Uther’s influence and Lord Whitmore’s belief in that. He felt touched that despite his glaring disability, that someone still believed in him.
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The two commanders shot each other a quick look in response to what the butler had said, before turning back to Lucien almost immediately.
“I’ll have someone run you through the procedures and then take you to your lodging. But don’t get too used to it. We’ll be leaving in a few days once we’ve sorted out all of the information you’ve given us,” said Commander Vernon.
She called out for a member of logistics, and after a couple of minutes, a young bespectacled man came running in, looking particularly flustered but not out of breath.
“You called for me, commander?” He bowed to both of them, taking off his glasses at the same time to prevent them from falling.
“We’ve got a new recruit here. Run him through the standard procedure then get him settled in,” she ordered.
The young man stood up and looked at Lucien. His gaze lingered on Lucien’s missing arm, his mouth twitching slightly.
Neither of which escaped Lucien’s notice.
“Of course, commander.” The young man saluted them before turning to Lucien. “Follow me.”
“Lucien, before you go,” called out Commander Roth. “You’re stuff has been brought to the dormitory.”
“Thank you.”
The two walked out of the room as a gust of wind closed the door behind them. They walked in silence until they reached the front of the building, where there were several tables with seats either side. Most of which were currently unoccupied.
It was clear that a lot of the furniture had been moved in from other places, and that this room wasn’t normally so cramped.
“This is where we’ve been doing all of the paperwork needed to keep this brigade afloat. It’s also where we’ve been filing all of the recruitment paperwork,” he explained as he sat down at one of the desks and gestured to the seat across from him.
“Normally we wouldn’t be taking in anymore recruits at this time, but since its the commander’s request, we’ll make an exception for you.”
Now that they were away from the commanders, Lucien could see how tired the young man was. A trait shared by most of the logistics team that were running back and forth.
They were being worked to the bone without much of a chance to rest.
“How many people are being sent out?” Lucien asked, remembering all the soldiers he saw out on the field training.
“Around 3,000 soldiers. Close to 3,500 if we include all the cooks, caravan drivers, etcetera that are needed to keep all those soldiers moving.” he answered.
“That’s a lot of people.”
“It’s barely a dent in the amount of active soldiers we have here. I do not pity whoever does the logistics for that. The poor bastards,” he said while suppressing a yawn. “Sorry, that just slipped out. Don’t tell anyone I said that.”
“You have my word.”
“Anyway. It is a lot. I doubt the bandits have that many. But once we’ve dealt with them we’ll be stationed at the border, so it isn’t an overexaggeration.” He took out a piece of paper from the desk drawer and passed it over.
“Fill this all out then I’ll bring you around the place. You do know how to write, don’t you?”
While the kingdom was on the whole fairly well off, to the point that the majority knew how to read and write, there was still a large percentage of its citizens that could be considered illiterate. Especially in the more remote places, such as Locham.
“Yes,” Lucien answered simply, unbothered by the question as he looked around for a quill and some ink, but couldn’t find it. Instead, he noticed someone nearby writing with what looked like a shaved-down quill.
Finding something similar on his desk, he picked it up, and after weighing it in his hand, started writing. Interesting, it holds the ink inside. That probably cuts down on the amount of ink you’ll get on your hands.
His actions were quick and natural, going unnoticed by the young man, whose attention was currently elsewhere.
The document was fairly simple. It asked for his name, date of birth and where he was born. It also asked what he did for a living, if he attended the academy, and what prior military accomplishments he had.
As a guard who hadn’t really gone far from his home village, Lucien was able to fill out the paperwork very quickly.
“Here.” He passed the paper back over to the young man after finishing.
The young man took a quick glance at it before placing it in the drawer below the one he got the paper from in the first place. “I’ll get that filed later, but since we don’t have a lot of time, it’s probably best that we get to everything else first.”
“Let me show you to where you’ll be staying, then I’ll take you to who you’ll be reporting to from now on.”
Seeing nothing wrong with that, Lucien followed the tired young man out of the building.
Wrapping around the side of the building, they walked to the back of the training field, where there was a massive, warehouse-like building.
“How long has this building been here for?” Lucien noticed something strange after looking at the surroundings, which only became more obvious when they entered the building.
There didn’t seem to be a distinction between the training field and this building, like there was for the other buildings nearby.
There were no footpaths between them, and the entire building was encompassed by the same fencing that was around the field.
The nail in the coffin was that the floor inside was the same as the outside.
“You’ve got good eyes. The field actually goes out all the way here. We had magicians build this as temporary housing since the closest dormitory was already filled up. There should still be a couple of beds free at the end.”
The entire building was just one room, filled with rows upon rows of bunk beds with just enough space between them for people to move around. Beneath each bed was just enough space to fit two trunks that stored the soldiers belongings.
Lucien spotted his things placed neatly near the front door, and picked it all up, tying it around his body so he could carry it all in one go.
Every bed was in pristine condition, with the blankets perfectly folded and tucked into the mattress. Even the trunks were symmetrical, with none of them being the slightest bit out of place.
Getting closer to the other end, they were able to spot a few trunks sitting atop the beds rather than beneath them, indicating that the beds were empty.
“Looks like it’s only the top bunks,” he paused, his eyes glancing over to Lucien’s missing arm. “Someone might be able to swap with you.”
“It’s okay. No need to bother them.” He threw his things onto the bed next to the trunk, being especially careful with anything breakable.
Resting his foot on the bottom rung, he effortlessly scaled the ladder and sat on the edge of the bed.
He opened the trunk, put all of his things inside, then closed it again. This is going to be a little more difficult.
Grabbing the trunk by the handle, he carefully hooked his legs through the ladder, then slowly sat himself down and lowered the trunk to the floor. With his hand free. He was able to get back down just as easily as he got up.
After putting the trunk into its place under the bed and making sure it was lined up, he looked around to memorise which bed was his. Which was easy since he was close to the end.
“Where are we going now?”