Er Mu - Release that Witch

“No, I’ll use them,” Roland refused Carter’s suggestion. He didn’t have a good opinion of the mercenaries who worked for money and did not love the land, and besides, he didn’t form his army to only deal with the demonic beasts — throughout history it was seen that only a force whose member came from their own civilities would be strong and full of vitality. Whether it was the feudal forces, the forces from the not-very-distant past or modern army troops, there were countless examples which verified this rule.

“Well, you have the final say,” said Carter while shrugging with his shoulders. “Then I will start to train them from tomorrow onwards? Although I don’t know how useful that will be…”

“With a sword? No, you will first take them all for long distance running.” Roland suddenly thought of the fact that his chief knight never had experienced these kinds of training exercises. Without any better options he had to change his plan, “Try to find the hunter from last time and bring him to me. You both will be the first to look at how I will handle the training.”

***

Today’s experience may be even more inconceivable than what happened in the last two decades combined.

He actually saw His Highness, The 4th Prince Roland Wimbledon from close range. He passed directly by himself and even smiled to him. My God, was the prince drunk?!

Three days ago, when he heard the speech of the 4th Prince on the square, he knew that this winter would be different from the past. This time, they would not go to Longsong Stronghold, instead, they would spend the long winter here. The truth was that he didn’t understand most of the reasons mentioned by the prince, but he supported from the bottom of his heart the result of this decision. His own brother died two years ago in the slums of Longsong Stronghold after a whole month without any food supply. They could only rely on the hard-earned coppers he got from unloading goods at the docks. With them, he was able to buy some black bread and share it with his brother. But the winter was too cold. The wind would blow through the many holes in their slum shack. Without enough to eat and with no possibility to maintain their body temperature they couldn’t survive. When his brother got sick, he fell into a coma and never woke up again.

Here in Border Town, he at least had a house built out of soil brick. There was no fear of the falling temperature or the many days with snow fall. He also saw many ships filled with wheat docking at the pier, and then the wheat was moved in batches into the castle. Therefore, when he heard that the 4th prince was recruiting a militia force, he directly registered himself.

Of course, he had to give up his job as a gravel producer. But the temptation was too big, after all, they would get a monthly salary of 10 silver royals. This was comparable to a skilled mud artisan! He was no longer a young boy. He was only waiting until the spring of next year to marry his future wife Sheryl, a tavern maid. Now he had no problem to save some money.

As for the requirements and the future tasks of the militia shown on the notice, he did not pay any attention to them. Anyway, it was to carry the burden of protecting the civilians on behalf of the lord. They had to patrol along the city wall and keep the beasts from climbing up the wall, and withstand the crazy attacks of the demonic beasts.

He had to go through a very strict screening process. Alone, the sight of some knights was enough to make people feel afraid. Fortunately, he had a sturdy physique and got through the review, but many scrawny guys were carried away by the knights. In the end, only 100 men were recruited.

But he had never expected that the person who would train them would be His Royal Highness the Prince himself!

For their training, they were brought to a grass field west of Border Town. In the background the city wall was being built, and in front of them was an unceasingly and continuously extending forest.

The prince ordered everyone to line up, and then he went to the site to rest. Just a few days ago they had heavy rain, so the ground was still damp and muddy. The water infiltrated his shoes along the seam at the soles, which made his whole body feel uncomfortable. The stance they were ordered to take was not a normal one. Their hands needed to be aligned vertically, attached to the sides of their thighs, while their backs were required to be perfectly straight.

Only a quarter of an hour later they already felt terribly fatigued. This was even harder than breaking stone with a hammer. But he gritted his teeth and tried to hold on. After all, His Royal Highness had said before that those who moved would get no egg for lunch. God, it had been so long since he had eaten an egg. Apparently, all the people around him felt the same way. Although they staggered, most of them still endured.

When the prince declared it was time to rest, he found out that his back was already drenched in sweat and the whole standing time wasn’t even long, at most it was two-quarters of an hour. Those who couldn’t persevere till the final moment were annoyed. It seemed as if they could see the eggs rolling away from them.

He just didn’t understand. Why did they have to practice this strange stance? Only standing was enough to get several bags of food?

If it wasn’t for his Royal Highness training them, he would have already stood up and begun to argue noisily.

Unexpectedly, after a short break, the second command His Highness gave was even more eccentric. He asked all the people to continue standing in a line. This time, as long as all of them persevered till the end, they would all get another egg added for lunch. As long as there was a person who gave up, everyone would lose the opportunity to get an additional egg.

He heard many people beside him swallowing their saliva.

Hell, was this a popular game in the ranks of the nobility? Leading them all around with a carrot on a stick? Damn it, he was not a stupid donkey!

… But in the case that everyone was able to do it, wouldn’t there be two eggs to eat?

This was simply the devil’s temptation! Wiping his overflowing saliva away, he decided to fight for the two eggs!

“Your Highness, what is the meaning of this?” Before Carter only thought that the prince merely acted arbitrarily and alone, but now he thought he had become whimsical.

In the theory of how to train a soldier, the chief knight didn’t think that there was a way more professional than their own. His family had a complete set of traditional training methods, from the age of ten to fifteen years, there would be only five years to develop the body and master all kinds of weapon used by a soldier. If they were trained for more than five years, then they would become a top soldier, known as a Knight — of course, the trainees cannot have a civilian background.

Looking at the group of morons in front of him, who only had thoughts of eating eggs on their mind, Carter became angry! After all… eggs are expensive!

Roland spoke directly into his ear, “Take a good look and remember everything. This is the kind of training which should be performed in the next few days. Of course, some details will change. I will list them for you on a paper.”

In the age of cold weapons, were two or three months of training enough to train a group of good soldiers? Roland did not think about this question and neither did he need one of those Spartan warriors dressed in underpants who could rip apart wild animals with their bare hands. The individual combat strength of Roland’s people may not be strong but they must be well disciplined and execute every order without fail.

Most of the time the group’s strength is more important than the individual strength. So, he needed them to quickly form a unit. To accomplish this task quickly and move over to military training for improving the current situation was the best choice. Out of his personal experience, he knew that one month would be enough to form a group of people from all over the country into a strong cohesive unit. Regardless of the process, the goal was clear.

And when this group of people learned to follow orders, Roland could start to implement the next step of his plan.

***

Van’er ultimately failed to get a second egg to eat.

This time, they had to stay double the amount of time of the previous round until someone’s legs went weak and he could no longer persevere.

Just at this time, the 4th prince allowed everyone to get some rest and then he ordered his attendants to serve lunch. This successfully transferred the anger from the weakling to the anticipation of eating. At this point, Van’er started to suspect that His Highness probably had never intended to let them get a second egg.

The lunch was packed in four huge barrels, which were carried by carriages out of town. In addition to the food, the carriages also contained many bowls and spoons.

Van’er licked his lips, ready to jump on the carriages. But he along with everyone else was stopped by the chief knight, who stood in front of them.

His Royal Highness the Prince ordered everyone to line up in four rows and to come forward one by one to pick up their cutlery. Whoever disturbed the order would be forced to step back to the end of the line and get their food last.

The rows were very noisy as everyone squeezed in to get a good position. Van’er had very good luck, he stood in the forefront of the outermost row. Of course, some people expressed their intense resentment. So within the ranks, the sounds of people fighting with words and movements could be heard. Soon the knights and several guards rushed into the crowd picking out the rioters to be sent to the back of the line.

Fool, thought Van’er when he saw the man at the forefront of the rioters. He recognized him. He was the best street fighter in the town, also known as ‘Insane Fist’. He usually relied on brute force to stir up trouble everywhere.

Now, only barehanded against knights and guards armed with swords, he gave of a pitiful picture. Look at his poor appearance now!

He felt that he had already grasped His Highness’s preference.

That was to become a unit.

Standing straight, side by side, the team had to form lines. Everyone had to line up to get something to eat, always keeping order, never stepping out… Van’er had previously heard from a knowledgeable businessman that some of the nobility had a strange hobby. And that was that everything had to be arranged in order, everything which stood out would be forced back into place.

In Van’er’s opinion, this kind of person was simply bored and had nothing better to do. So they would even deliberately find some trouble to occupy themselves.

He had not expected that His Royal Highness would be such a person.

When the lids of the barrels were opened, Van’er could smell the strong aroma of the food.

When the aroma scattered, he almost lost himself to temptation. The crowd also became restless, but simultaneously a roar to be quiet came from the chief knight. Van’er thought that they probably had to line up again.

Sure enough, the 4th prince had everyone get their cutlery first and then line up again to receive the food.

Despite that, all of them had to swallow their saliva and hold back their stomachs which were growling. Given Insane Fist’s example, they all stood quietly, waiting patiently for the food.

The barrels were filled with hot wheat porridge. To Van’er’s surprise, he found that the porridge even contained jerky! While it was only a small piece of jerky, even then it was still meat! After he got his share of the porridge, he also got his wish — his egg.

Van’er almost wolfed down his food. It looked like he hadn’t eaten for days, as he licked the bottom of his bowl again and again after finishing his food. He didn’t even have the time to bite the egg, as he swallowed it whole, directly sending it into his stomach. Since he ate too fast and wasn’t careful, his tongue developed blisters.

After putting the empty bowl down, Van’er patted his belly and happily belched. He hadn’t enjoyed such a delicious meal in a long time. And even more incredible was that he actually felt a sense of satiety. Eating wheat porridge with black bread, even if compared to Heaven, it couldn’t be better. If he could eat like this every day, even fighting in the front lines against the demonic beasts would be worth it, right?