Once Caesar left his room he immediately walked towards the palace gates, he pa.s.sed through the empty hallways and the silent halls.The night watch guarding the gates soon caught sight of Caesar and confusion filled their eyes. They bowed respectfully and gazed at the ground.
"You may rise," Caesar said calmly.
Both guards raised their head and looked at Caesar curiously, "what brings you here at this time of night, your highness?" one of them asked after hesitating for a few seconds.
Caesar took out a seal from his left pocket, it was golden yellow and had the mouth of a tiger engraved on it.
"This is the marshall"s seal, I want you two to leave your post and go inform all forms of the military to report outside of the kingdom gates early this morning"
Shock filled the eyes of the two guards "H-how do you want us to accomplish that your highness?
"Bring this to the ministers located at the barracks of both knights, and archers, I also want the guards of the royal households to attend" Caesar calmly explained.
"What is it for?" both guards couldn"t help but ask.
"The new military school is opening up soon, I would like to scout at least 10 candidates in which I will personally sponsor…" Caesar said casually and flipped the golden seal into one of the guards hands.
Caesar walked pa.s.sed them and his lips curled, "I will reward both of you grandly, that is of course if you can complete this task for me" he said
*gulp*
Both of the knights gulped audibly and looked at the golden seal in their hands with greed, "w-we"ll do it!" they said excitedly and rushed out of the gates.
Caesar smiled wryly and also walked out. He headed towards the outskirts of the kingdom to prepare for the thousands of soldiers that will soon arrive.
The moon was high in the sky illuminating the empty streets beautifully… Caesar ran through the streets at an astonishing pace, only a blur was left in his wake.
"This is merely the calm before the storm" Caesar whispered under his breath as he moved from house to house.
----
The two guards ran as quickly as they could towards the two barracks…
"What do you think the marshall is going to reward us with Jimmy?"
"I don"t know Billy, but we better hurry up if we want to get the entire military to the outskirts of the kingdom by morning," Jimmy said while running.
"How about we split up, I go to the knight barracks and you go to the archery barracks" Billy suggested.
"Sounds good! Meet back at the Florence pub" Jimmy smiled and said.
"Deal!"
They both split up and ran like their lives depended on it.
----
Caesar soon pa.s.sed through the outer gates and made it in front of the kingdom, remnants of the last battle were still present.
Caesar walked through the many arrows impaled in the ground and walked to the nearby forest, he touched the bark of a tree and stroked his chin in contemplation.
"I suppose this will do," Caesar said quietly.
*crack*
Caesar knocked the tree down with his palms, he didn"t stop there and quickly moved to the next tree.
*crack*
*crack*
Caesar knocked down the trees left and right, he bundled them together and started making a large square outline by lining them up.
And like this, 3 hours slowly pa.s.sed by…
*step*
*step*
Caesar was currently in the middle of a huge square arena, logs of wood were placed on the outlines closing the area off. Sweat trickled down his shirtless body as he breathed out heavily.
Caesar turned around at the sound of footsteps and left the wooded area he created, he stepped outside and saw a large line of drowsy troops walking towards him.
They were scratching their head looking at the wooden encas.e.m.e.nt warily…
"Is this a trap?" One of the men said.
"The marshall made this, is that even a question?" another replied
"The marshall made it? Then, of course, it"s a trap" A man laughed heartily and said while patting a younger troop on the back.
"You must be new here, everytime the marshall calls us you must expect death," a middle-aged man said with a fearful look on his face.
"D-death?" a young man asked
"Unfortunately so, good luck young man… legend states that if you survive the devil training, your luck with women increased by two folds"
Suddenly determination gleamed in all of the young men"s eyes.
*clap*
"Alright, enough chatter!" Caesar roared out from the front.
The men felt their sleepiness disappear and they all stood at attention in front of Caesar, "We greet the marshall!" they roared out.
Caesar nodded his head approvingly, "we will wait for the rest to arrive, It appears that the archers and guards are late" Caesar said slowly.
The Knights all smiled evily inside and thought to themselves "haha, we just came here early knowing you would punish the late ones… little did we know the entire knight regiment had the same idea"
Caesar, of course, had no idea what they were thinking and crossed his arms, he tapped his forearm impatiently as he waited.
While they were waiting, the young and new recruits all stared speechlessly at Caesar"s perfectly sculpted body, they gulped down in antic.i.p.ation and asked the older members.
"W-will we be able to get a body like that if we train hard enough"
"Haha, give up kid… according to legend, the marshall is a dragon" one of the older men said
"A d-dragon? How is that even possible"
"n.o.body knows buddy, this crazy b.a.s.t.a.r.d brought like 50 flame bears in a net at one point"
"How is that even possible for a human?" the young man asked back.
"Exactly my point, young one" the older man replied with a wise expression on his face.
The young recruits all looked at Caesar with reverence reflected in their eyes, "I wonder if he is a real dragon?" They all thought inwardly
Finally, after about 20 minutes of waiting another large group of men appeared from the castle gates, in fact, there was a large number of women with them as well… The elves and archers had finally arrived.
"We greet the marshall!" they roared loudly.
"You"re all late…" Caesar said slowly.
The archers and elves all shivered slightly and averted their line of sight… "We apologize!" they roared out once again.
"I don"t need your apologies, I need you to be better…" Caesar said calmly and waited for the next group.
"Yes, Marshall!" The elves and archers all yelled hiding their inner grievances
The middle-aged knights all smiled sinisterly seeing this scene "heh, those losers are finally going to get what"s coming to them"
"You said it Sam!" another middle-aged man whispered in Sam"s ear.
Caesar and the rest waited for about 15 more minutes before finally a small group finally made it pa.s.sed the gates, they all looked slightly unfit and rough. They were naturally the guards stationed at many of the n.o.ble households.
"Ehh, why the h.e.l.l are we here too? Are we considered to be part of the military?" the guard grumbled begrudgingly while they walked over.
They slowly lined up next to the others and yawned loudly…
A vein appeared above Caesar"s eye, "you are late!" Caesar said while seething killing intent.
The guards were broke out of their stupor and sweat flowed down their faces.
"s-sorry, I overslept" a few of the guards muttered out half-baked excuses.
"Go run around the kingdom gates 10 times," Caesar said with a raised eyebrow…
"Did he say two?" One of the guards asked the guy to the right of him.
"Y-yeah, I think that"s what he said" the other replied back.
Another vein popped out above Caesar"s right eye, "HURRY THE h.e.l.l UP AND GO RUN AROUND THE KINGDOM T-W-E-N-T-Y T-I-M-E-S, Caesar spelled it out for them.
"Yes, Sir!" The guards roared out fearfully and started running.
The knights all snickered at the sight of the guards stumbling away, "haha, getting here early was truly worth it!" they all thought inwardly.
Caesar looked at the remaining soldiers and cleared his throat, "we have many new recruits after our last battle and because of the promised new military school, today I am going to put you through many tests, depending on your performance you can get sponsored by me"
Caesar paused for a second and looked at all of the soldiers eager and earnest eyes.
"Being sponsored by me means that you will get the best resources and all costs will be covered … granted if you show sub-par talent the sponsorship will be terminated"
After hearing Caesar"s words all of the troops gulped nervously and shook with antic.i.p.ation… "this is our chance to make it big!" they all thought excitedly and looked at Caesar with eagerness.
Seeing this, Caesar smiled and said: "come, follow me into the wooden arena"
The troops all followed behind Caesar carefully, the inspected their surroundings curiously… "I wonder how he is going to test us?" a few elves and knights whispered amongst themselves.
----
In another part of the kingdom, Ahri and Adriana were on top of a house, they were adorned in black garbs and were quietly waiting...
"Do you think he was lying?" Adriana asked Ahri curiously
Ahri shook her head and smiled wryly "although he is sly, he doesn"t ever go back on his word"
Suddenly the sound of footsteps interrupted their conversation causing them to look over at the streets.
"Hey, did you hear about those things the Rudolph family did?" A village woman asked in a sad tone.
"I know, I can"t believe Rebecca died that way… I thought she moved to another kingdom *sniffle* "
More and more villagers started to crowd around the streets gossiping about the Rudolph household.
"Hey, remember when we started that rebellion when the Marshall was imprisoned, do you think we can do that again?" A farmer asked in a curious tone.
"These b.a.s.t.a.r.ds have been lying to us and stealing our money for years now… I can"t even think of kneeling before them" A village woman gnashed her teeth and replied.
"LET"S SHOW THEM HOW STRONG WE ARE!" A clothed old man roared resulting in the crowd getting more hyped…
Ahri squinted her eyes at the many yelling people in the crowd and noticed they were the many butlers under Sebastian.
The crowd under the influence of the butlers started heading towards the Rudolph household angrily, seeing this Ahri laughed softly.
"Haha, that Sly fox" She whispered quietly with a smile plastered on her face.