Chapter 33 (1/2)

Chapter 33 Gunpowder

Not even a quarter hour rest later, Iron Axe clapped his hands and shouted, “Everyone stand up, His Highness, the 4th Prince is coming.”

Van’er soon returned to his place, due to the special training he had before. He had learned to follow orders almost subconsciously, so he took his pike dummy and assumed the ready position for stabbing with his wooden staff.

The Prince and his followers were walking behind them on the wall. Van’er noticed from the corner of his eyes that the prince had slowed down his steps when he was near Van’er.

Roland sighed silently, the sayings ‘a late evening will destroy the morning’, and ‘to get up too early will ruin the whole day’ were really true. Just when he had finished processing the aftermath of the raid on the castle, he was reminded that he had to inspect the militia’s training results. Roland pitied himself. He hadn’t slept the whole night, so now he was sleepy the whole day. But he had to come, since now the team had been transferred to the stage of combat training, and he, as the highest commanding officer, if he didn’t show himself for a long time, the morale of his team would become unsteady.

Well… What would someone usually say when reviewing the team? Roland thought for a bit, ‘Are we only comrades only during good times or are we also comrades during hardships’? If he did not get an answer after shouting this slogan, the whole atmosphere would be very awkward. Maybe it would be better to just pull someone aside and talk with him, asking him for his impression and earning a good reputation.

So he begun to implement his new plan, and patted a young man who looked fairly sturdy on the shoulders.

“Is the training to hard and do you feel tired? Is eating three meals a day enough?”

Based on his past experiences of watching the news, his response to his questions should be a loud shout, “Not tired, and very good!”

But the result was completely different than what he expected. The man turned directly towards him and went down on one knee, which really shocked Roland.

Van’er felt that he had been blessed, His Royal Highness the Prince actually cared for him and even cordially asked him if he was tired from the training! When talking about the royal family or even only ordinary nobles, they were usually all reluctant to speak a word with their soldiers. He unconsciously imitated a knight’s salute to honor His Royal Highness. Regardless if this ritual was appropriate for him, he only had one thought: later when he returned to the streets, he could be considered a new person.

When he was asked to stand up, his brain was still a mess, so he couldn’t even remember what he had answered.

In the end, His Royal Highness had asked all of them. If someone had any comments or suggestions about the training, he would step forward. Suddenly Van’er’s mind was completely clear once again – this was a good opportunity! If his thoughts were true and His Highness’ militia had to guard the walls alone, they couldn’t afford the heavy responsibility. Maybe my worries of running away or staying are unnecessary, right?

He carefully thought about how to phrase the sentence, “Your Honor… Your respected Highness, the current numbers of the militia is too small. If we line up in the same way that we have trained during training, when the demonic beasts strike, we will only be able to defend one-third of the whole wall and won’t survive… “

Even if the prince began to recruit several groups of militia now, Van’er was afraid that the training time wouldn’t be enough. In addition, the weapons used by these people would also be a big expenditure, it was already difficult to supply for the 100 soldiers in the time left.

Even now they were still holding their wooden staffs to train.

If His Royal Highness Prince could also realize this point, maybe he would recruit a group of mercenaries from other towns as their main defense. At least they would not need training and could be directly sent on to the battlefield, and they were already carrying weapons and armor, but the price to hire them was relatively high.

Roland thought for a moment, nodded and said, “Yes, you’re right, with our current militia force to guard the whole city wall, isn’t very realistic.”

Van’er felt very delighted, His Highness actually… agreed with his view?

But he did not expect the next words the prince said, “Demonic Beasts are in a sense only a variant of normal beasts, they don’t become more intelligent, right?”