11th march 1574With my now increased company and a few carriages filled to the brim with wares brough directly from the Sandomir as per Governor"s request, I was calmly sitting in my saddle, allowing for the monotone wobbling of Helga"s back to lul me to the state near sleeping.
Considering how we entered the camp with a force of three people because with Elia on my side, I couldn"t even call us three men strong, and how I rode on the front of over fifty men strong division loaned to me directly by Jan Bone!
Obviously, the deal I made with him wasn"t all that great, with one annoying little brat attached to this nice force of veterans from the recent war!
"Why didn"t we bring a carriage? What"s the point of making our bottoms hurt from riding all the way to your little town on the horseback? Eh, what else I could expect from a minor n.o.ble like you… It"s a pity Governor got swayed by your lucky performance into thinking you are worth anything as a soldier if you don"t know that much…"
Listening to the birds chirping joyfully as the cold days of the year were coming slowly to an end, with more and more sunlight gracing the earth and announcing the swift beginning of the farming season, I used Bart"s rant as yet another element of the background music of the spring slowly recovering from its wounds and pus.h.i.+ng the forces of winter away.
"Shut up, kid. Don"t forget you are speaking to your direct superior!"
While I couldn"t be bothered with such a low level of baiting, one of the veterans that apparently were forced into his unit previously, now used the fact that he was under my direct leaders.h.i.+p to shut the Bart up.
"What did you say? Don"t you f.u.c.king know who I am?!"
"A poor behaving teenage, who will soon learn what it means to receive flogs on his back for breaking the discipline. We are out on the mission, not on a picnic!"
Before his rant and flaunting of his status could cause any real discord in the unit, I was forced to react. From what Governor told me, he was an orphan from a major house that used to serve under Bone family. With the death of his father - a loyal servant to the crown - not only he inherited vast wealth in the ruthenian lands but also got pulled under the protection of the governor, creating a lot of opportunities for his arrogance to grow.
But Jan Bone was known as a strict father, and he couldn"t accept such behaviour of one of his protegees. While his hands were bound as he couldn"t take care of him personally, he requested me to do it in his steed, while offering way more than enough to sway my decision.
In exchange for turning this arrogant kid into a proper n.o.ble, I was pulled into the direct service of the governor as a Viceroy of Jan"s pancer Banner, with Bart supposed to serve as my colonel, along with the sergeant of the banner an Al as the second in charge.
Thanks to this deal, not only I now could control a respectable force, but could also do it while riding under the Governor"s banner! Even if a small bit of my autonomy was gone, the profits of this exchange were simply too great to even think about refusing it!
"You can"t do that! I"m n.o.ble!"
Unwilling to suddenly give up all the rights that he could enjoy for most of his life, Bart flared up, thinking that he could still do something with his words alone. Since the situation didn"t seem to calm down even after my scolding, I pulled on Helga"s reins and stopped the entire column in place.
Tickling the side of my trusty horse with my foot, I made Helga turn around so that I could face Bart without straining my neck.
"Listen, Kid. As long as you are under my service, you are not a n.o.ble, you are not a commoner and you are not a monk either. You are a d.a.m.ned officer, and if I see any signs of you having trouble with falling into the line, I won"t pay any mind to degrade you into a d.a.m.ned soldier! So if you don"t want to end up clearing the latrines, shut your c.r.a.p, and don"t bother anyone! We still have a lot of distance to cover, and I prefer to spend this time while listening to the chirping of the birds instead of your feminine voice!"
Shotting Bart down from his high horse with this short monologue of mine, I waited a bit for his answer, but with no words coming from his mouth, I had to continue.
"You reply with, yes sir."
Switching my tone from scolding into a nice way of speaking that a tourist guide would use in later ages, I managed to trick him into thinking his schooling was over now.
"Yes, sir."
Like a pouting kid too scared to go against its father, Bart uttered those words under his nose, most likely a.s.suming that it would be enough to free himself from my scrutiny.
"THE h.e.l.l WAS THAT?!"
Once again switching from nice tone to outright shouting, I managed to startle even the veterans nearest to the two of us, making their horses trod nervously in place as if they wanted to escape at this very moment.
"Straighten up, push your breast forward and say it loud and clear!"
While I didn"t attempt to ravage my own throat while shouting those instructions, the harsh volume of my voice still managed to fill its purpose, prompting the young guy to follow my instruction, almost standing up straight in the stirrups.
"Yes, SIR!"
With his voice already on the verge of breaking down, and his eyesockets filling with the first drops of tears, he finally reported back to me as a proper soldier should. Maybe his character wasn"t a fault of his own self, but the lack of parental schooling when he was younger? From the looks of things, if I worked on him properly, he could turn into a proper young n.o.ble in the near future!