Two days passed by in the blink of an eye, It was now Caspar's first official day as a Captain in the Reiksguard. As usual, he woke up and finished his morning routine before putting on his new uniform and hanging his saber to the left side of his belt and made his way downstairs.
As he walked down, he saw his father, in his own business suit, smoking his cigar while reading the morning paper.
"Good morning, dad."
Caspar greeted his father as he sat next to him and sliced a piece of bread from the loaf on the table.
"Good morning, Caspar."
His father raised his eyes from his paper and looked at his son in his new uniform.
The pair sat in silence for a while, each minding his own business. That is until Jakob put his paper down on the table and rested his cigar on the ashtray in front of him. Then he started talking to Caspar.
"Your new position carries with it many new and immense responsibilities, you are one of the few commoners in history that was able to make it into the Royal guard. Most heroes throughout, no matter their achievements, always stayed within their own branch of the military and rose through the ranks there. So on your shoulder rests more than personal honor and glory. Don't let us down."
Caspar stayed quiet as he listened to his father speak at length about responsibility and duty. After Jakob's speech was over, Caspar simply smiled and answered back.
"Dad, I've survived battles and situations that would end the fiercest of men, I think I could handle what they could throw at me!"
Jakob started smiling once he heard his son's reply, the smile turned into a chuckle, then into a laugh. After he was done laughing, Jakob only said a simple sentence.
"Do not underestimate Herzen you brat, I've seen people able to righteously kill you in broad daylight without using your fancy sword, and you can't do anything about it. The waters run deep here, never forget that."
Jakob stood up and left for work after dropping that bombshell at his son. Leaving him to sit by himself and think about the meaning of his words.
After thinking for a while, Caspar just sighed to himself as he said.
"sigh, I guess I'll find out, won't I?"
But the look in his eye did not show the same feelings that his words did, they showed excitement, excitement to face new foes and decimating them.
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Caspar was standing in front of a large conference room, In front of him were his new comrades. Carsten was sitting at the head of the table as the Commander of the Reiksguard.
The Reiksguard ranking system did not wholly follow the military ranking. For example, regular members of the Reiksguard did not carry a formal rank. The only people who did were the Commander, who carried the rank of Colonel, Captains, who were also army Captains, and Vice Captains, who had the rank of Second lieutenant.
Carsten stood up from the conference table as he started introducing Caspar with the other Captains and Vice Captains.
"Allow me to introduce Captain Caspar Hahn, who was assigned by his highness himself to command the third squadron of the Reiksguard."
He said it in a way that told everyone that Caspar's position and presence were requested by the Prince himself so that they do not attempt to push him too hard.
Caspar, understanding the double meaning of Carsten's statement, nodded to the others and greeted them.
"Good Morning, gentlemen."
The others nodded back to him in greeting before Carsten started to introduce them. The first person he introduced was sitting to his right, he looked tall and muscular. He carried an aura of righteousness and had a big voice, although he did not use it unless necessary, even his face seemed particularly stoic and calm.
"This man is Captain Gunther Flugel of the first squad and Vice Commander of the Reiksguard."
The man nodded at Caspar as he released a noise of approval.
The second man Carsten introduced was sitting to his left, He looked like a proper noble, with his flowy blond hair, sharp features, and raised nose.
"This man is Captain Lutz Blocher of the second squad."
The man gave a quick nod to Caspar before looking away, completely ignoring his presence.
"Someone else you need to know right now is the man sitting over there."
Carsten pointed at a man sitting closer to the other end of the table. The man quickly stood up and saluted Caspar.
"Good Morning, Sir, I am Walter Gilges, Vice-Captain of the third squad and your second in command, Sir."
Caspar quickly nodded in acknowledgment to his second in command, but before he could say anything, Carsten promptly continued.
"That's everyone you need to know right at this moment, you can get to know everyone else at a later time, now I need to brief you on your duty."
The rest of the meeting consisted of Carsten explaining everything over and over again. In reality, he did not have a lot of duties, and it all came down to four points. 1- Protect Prince Lothar at all costs, 2- Protect the royal family since the Reiksguard is part of the Royal Guard, 3- Follow Prince Lothar's or the King's orders only, 4- Don't disgrace the name of the Prince or the Reiksguard.
Soon after the briefing, Walter took Caspar to the third squad's office to introduce everyone. As soon as they entered the office, Caspar could feel a wall of contempt and jealousy hit him in the face.
In the room were four men all dressed in the same uniform as him, just with a less decorated blazer and saber, The first one he took note of the Sven Kindl, the quiet and feminine boy from the supply station. The second one he noticed was the red-haired man most of the contempt was radiating from.
He was sitting with one of his legs over the other, and his arms crossed. Next to him were two men that seemed to be his lackeys, one of them looked average except for his crooked nose, while the other was taller than the rest.
Walter soon started introducing everyone. The third squad was newly created, so although everyone seemed to know each other from the academy, this was their first time working together.
"Men, this is our Captain Caspar Hahn."
Then he turned to Caspar and introduced the rest of the men.
"First of all, this is Sven Kindl, you might have met him before since he was the one that informed you of the Commander's summons."
Walter pointed at the man with the crooked nose, and the tall man then introduced him next.
"This is Finn Segert and Ronald Ungar, respectively."
But before he could introduce the red-haired man, he stood up and harrumphed.
"Hmph. I am Arno Walch, son of the minister of war Hubert Walch. I don't care what you did in the war, but I will not allow a commoner that had never set foot in the Royal Academy order me around."
After saying his piece, Arno stormed out of the office, followed by Finn and Ronald.
Seeing the situation deteriorating so much, Walter started apologizing to Caspar.
"I am really sorry, Sir, I don't know what got into them."
Caspar raised his hand to stop Walter from continuing as he showed a sadistic smile and said.
"Don't worry about that, In the army, we had our own ways of forcing people in line."