“Wh-what just happened…?”
“Daz tried to attack, but then he fell over unconscious…?”
If Daz genuinely was the strongest around, then none of the spectators were capable enough to see what I’d done.
The brutish trainer would probably have trouble eating for the next two months, but that was a fitting punishment for torturing enlistees in the name of getting them combat ready.
“You know, Daz isn’t a bad guy. He just goes a bit too far when he’s worked up.”
“Yeah. And no one could touch him when he got like that.”
Once training was over, the other instructors took me to a crowded bar with an industrial feel.
After the fight, Daz and the recruits he’d beaten were carried to the barracks infirmary for treatment. The recruits were bruised and swollen, but their bones were intact. Daz, however, didn’t look very injured, but he had a broken bone for each blow from my wooden sword.
One of the instructors slapped me on the back. “How did you beat Daz to a pulp like that? Who even are you?”
“I suppose… You could say I’m a journeyman and an expert in hand-to-hand combat.”
My fight with Daz had drawn a lot of attention. The instructors were unlikely to believe I was an amateur.
“So you’re one of those true believers in martial arts?”
The whole group eyed me with undisguised curiosity.
“Nothing quite so dramatic,” I replied.
““Whoa…,”” all of them replied.
“I bet you traveled all over on a journey to master your craft…”
“And yet you’re so humble.”
“Most people who figure out they’re powerful, even if only a little, start to get full of themselves. You don’t seem like that, though, Mr. Anry.”
Anry? Right, that’s my current alias.
It seemed that a few drinks had loosened the instructors’ lips, so they were more than happy to answer my questions.
“Soldiers? How many have we got again? Maybe three thousand?” one instructor said.
“Yeah. I think it’s thereabouts. Personally, I think it’s too many.”
“Why has his lordship gathered such a large force?” I pressed.
They all looked at one another and shook their heads, each hoping someone else could provide the reason.
“He also assigns his troops to guard any supply transports. Guess he prefers to use people he’s trained and trusts over adventurers.”
“Yeah, he probably wants his soldiers to slay monsters and handle any bandits instead of filing quests with the guild.”
All the instructors shared this belief, thinking it was the best possible explanation. The idea their lord was planning an insurrection hadn’t crossed their minds.
Supplies…
Inciting a rebellion undoubtedly demanded a lot of resources.
If I asked too many questions, the instructors might grow suspicious, so I left the conversation at that. It seemed I had a long road ahead of me.
I asked the instructors about themselves and learned they’d all fought in the war. Soldiers had been paid very little during the conflict, despite safeguarding the populace during an invasion. Then, once the fighting stopped, they were deemed unnecessary and cast aside.
Militaries in every country were scaled down after the war, and a lot of soldiers had to find new jobs. The recruitment flyers went up right as those affected men were nearing the end of their savings.
The instructors asked me where I came from, so I told them the truth. They’d never feel close to me if they didn’t know that much, and I wanted to earn their trust.
“My teacher reared me deep in the mountains and had me spend my days training. The war started sometime after I left her, so I joined the military. I met many people there, and after the fighting, I desired a new way to use my abilities for the greater good. That’s when I spotted a recruitment flyer,” I tried to sound as virtuous as possible. The story’s first half was genuine, but the latter portion was a lie.
“You had a teacher deep in the mountains…”
“And trained every day…”
“And wanted to use your talents to help…”
From what I could tell, the instructors had built me up in their minds as some kind of martial arts expert or the like.
They all exchanged serious looks, and one of them nodded.
“Mr. Anry, could we ask you for something? Would you train the soldiers?”
“Me?”
I certainly hadn’t expected that.
“We’re all self-taught, so none of us are great at teaching.”
“Right. Plus, you already beat Daz.”
“I’m sure we can entrust them to you, since you’ve worked so diligently to grow stronger.”
“You seem possessed of excellent self-discipline, too.”
“But…what would your superior officers think?” I asked.
“Don’t you worry about that,” one of the instructors said with a laugh. “I’m the highest-ranked training officer in this region. So will you do it?”
“With you in charge…I think we might improve…,” another trainer entreated, and the rest quickly chimed in with their own thoughts.
“I’m sure we will. This guy is so fast that you can’t even see his moves.”
“You really think we’ll get stronger…?”
“Wait, wait, he hasn’t even agreed.”
“Oh, right,” someone else remarked, which heralded another burst of laughter.
“Come on, you guys… Now you’ve got me daydreaming about becoming as strong as the hero Princess Almelia. If I had been, I might not have lost so many friends.”
Honestly, I was no different. There were many times I lamented my powerlessness. I could have saved plenty more had I been a little quicker or stronger. I might have rescued entire villages and towns that were destroyed. I recalled my past self and how I’d aspired to grow.
I was no different from these men. I couldn’t dismiss their feelings, not when they were so genuine.
“All right. If you think I’m up to it,” I answered.
During the war, Almelia and Elvie, who primarily engaged in the melee on the front lines, had failed to improve at first, so I’d assigned them a training regimen.
“I hope tomorrow never comes…”
“Almelia, I’ve started to reconsider who I am and why I’m even here…”
“Me too…”
““…””
““I just want to run away…””
Before they went to sleep, both girls cried into their pillows each night.
Even if I trained these men and they were forced to take part in an insurrection, they wouldn’t be the ones in the wrong. The responsibility fell to Barbatos Guerrera. Regardless, I was here to stop things before they reached that point.
I saw joy spread over the instructors’ faces. They made a big show of my agreeing to help and ordered another round.
“But it won’t be easy,” I warned them. “You should be prepared for that.”
“We know,” one of the men replied.
Perhaps it was soft of me to let an emotional appeal sway my decision.
The day after enlisting, I found myself on the teacher’s side of the daily training. I was excited about the prospect of being a student for once, but my career as a recruit ended quickly.
The new sign-ups were assembled in the same clearing as the rest of the local troops. Any troops not present were on guard duty, but the total collected approached two hundred soldiers. The rest of Barbatos’s force was divided among other regional settlements. A town—not even a city—like this would typically never host so many soldiers.