Chapter 67 - The sword-wielding girl. (1/2)
Translator: La0o9 Editor: La0o9
During this era, the overall population wasn’t that high, so most areas appeared quite sparse, even though this was called a village, most of the houses were a bit of a distance from one another.
This army itself didn’t have a lot of people either, but to make sure that they didn’t bother the villagers, Nala ordered them not to enter the village but rather set up camp on an unpopulated area at the south of the village instead.
Nala was sitting not too far away from her campfire, still wearing her full suit of heavy armor. Occasionally, she would look up at the other side of the village as she kept feeling an ominous sensation in her mind.
“Has the night guard shifts been arranged?” Nala asked Rhys who came to report.
“It’s been done” Rhys answered with a troubled expression, he told her frankly without any reserve: “But I don’t think they’re going to spend much or any regard at all to the night watch”
“The troops’ morale is still too low” Rhys sat down and sighed: “They don’t see any hope, they don’t believe that we can win, so everything they’re doing is without motivation”
“I understand” Nala nodded.
During the past 7 years, Interkam had been scared to death, any semblance of morale they had before had been thoroughly broken by the consecutive losses. The only reason they were still willing to go on the battlefield in the first place was that they had no other choice.
Deserters were treated badly no matter where they went, if a deserter was ever caught, they would be demoted to the lowest rank of slaves, which most people here would rather die rather than become one.
“Such an army isn’t going to do anything on the frontlines other than throwing their lives away” Nala turned around to look at the soldiers. She could feel their sense of loss, they weren’t afraid of death, but this lack of fear wasn’t out of pride or bravery, rather they simply had no goals. Sometimes, when looking at these troops, she felt like she was watching a group of walking corpses.
Only when a person understood their faith and wasn’t hesitant to throw away their lives for the sake of that faith would their lack of thanatophobia become admirable. This state of living as if they were already dead would only cause one to feel sorrowful and sigh.
“I have to do something, something to make these people feel alive again” Nala turned back to look at the dancing flames, but her mind was empty. She was only a young village girl, how would she know anything about rousing the morale of her troops?
She grew up and spent her childhood in Reystromia, where most people refused to even acknowledge her most of the time, so she rarely interacted with other people in a meaningful way. When she came to Interkam, in order not to reveal herself to Seth the First’s hidden forces, she and her mother worked and lived on a farm almost all-year-round. Rivers had only taught her how to fight because he didn’t know how to raise the morale of other people either.
“Sure enough, commanding soldiers in war is still the most difficult thing to do” Nala puffed up her cheeks as she muttered that. Right now, all she wanted to do was let herself go and enjoy a full meal, but military supplies weren’t plentiful and the weight that had suddenly been placed on her shoulders was causing her to feel dejected as well.
Nala didn’t understand much about nation and country, but Interkam was Isabella’s home. When she was still young, whenever their lives were tough, Isabella would tell Nala about her stories back when she was still in Interkam.
“If Interkam fell to ruin, mama would probably feel very sad” it was with this thought in mind that Nala agreed to Luen’s request.
Rhys sat on the other side of the campfire and looked at Nala. She was only a 17-year-old girl without any military training, she shouldn’t have to shoulder any of this, but when she was the only one who could take up this position, she had indeed come forward. Despite how troubled she clearly was, she didn’t have a single thought of running away.