59 Leaving the Capital (2/2)
”It feels like a whole lifetime since we left,” one of the commoners said with sadness in her eyes. She had lost quite a few friends on this trip, and she had the impression that this was just the beginning.
Others nodded their heads when they heard her. They had been through life and death struggles on their way, had experienced the vastness of the capital, and had gotten rich overnight, but while some had managed to keep their wealth, others had lost it as fast as they had gained it, robbed by thugs in the outer city.
When the Captain saw that the entire group of nobles were still intact – in fact, all of them seemed to be better than when they arrived – he could not help but be surprised.
”Well done, I guess that you all went to the Inner City?” he asked curiously, and Xue Wei nodded his head, ”We stuck together in the Inner City. It is much safer than the Outer City, and we had a few errands to run as well.”
”Well thought!” the captain praised them. ”I did not think you would be smart enough to enter the Inner City since it is much more expensive, both the entrance fee and the inn. I imagine that a group like yours would have cost around nine gold, if not more.”
Hearing this, the hearts of the commoners clenched. Nine gold was simply too much money; they did not even own that much after selling off their beast cores, so for the noble children to fork out such an amount for the sake of accommodation for a single week was simply unattainable.
”Well, enough about that. Now we are all gathered. We will wait another half hour and then we will be going to the army camp,” he decided. The half-hour went by fast; the commoners were gathered even more in groups now than they had been before, and some of them were paranoidly looking around and glaring at anyone who looked at them, trying to act menacing and intimidating.
No one spoke with people from outside of their groups, even the nobles were somewhat nervous and talked only with their good friends.
Xue Wei, Luo Zhirou, and Shen Mu were standing together. The three of them said nothing and just waited for the half-hour to pass by.
As the half-hour was over, the captain finally turned away from the guards he had been speaking with. ”Time is up,” he said with a stern expression. There were no more people appearing. Their group, which had started with around a thousand, now amounted to around four hundred.
”It is not often that our group diminishes as much as it has,” the captain said with a bit of sourness in his voice. ”We lost both good guards and promising talents in the battle against the Sand Snakes. Even more were lost in our fight with the bandits, but most losses were incurred during the beast horde.”
”We have also lost quite a few youngsters here in the capital. Their first visit will also be their last. I am saddened that so many died on the way, but I am proud of those who managed to prevail through these life-and-death trials.”
”You have now experienced what real life is like. Your time in the army will be like this, time and time again you will experience life-and-death battles. Many of you will not survive, but those who do will be stronger, and you will become the pillar of support for our entire kingdom.”
The captain had not talked much before on the way to the capital, but now that they were on the final stretch from the capital to the recruitment camp, he was suddenly very talkative.
They walked through the landscape outside of the capital towards the recruitment camp. Xue Wei noticed that many other youngsters were moving in the same direction as them.
The only difference was that there were not many big groups. Most of the youngsters were alone or escorted by a single guard, and all of them came from the capital.
As they went further and further into the land, bigger and bigger groups of youngsters could be seen heading the same direction. As the many roads started to converge into one, more people appeared, and soon the entire road was filled with people.
Although many guards could be seen on the roads, the majority were youngsters at the age of fifteen and sixteen. These youngsters were moving towards the same destination, and soon they saw a city made from tents in the distance.
The camp spread as far as the eye could see, and some tents rose into the sky while others were small and could, at most, house one person.
As they got closer, they saw a sea of people waiting outside the campgrounds, and even more people were arriving.
Soon, Xue Wei and the group he belonged to had made it to the grounds. As Xue Wei looked around, he noticed that all these people were the arriving youngsters from every part of the kingdom. So many children were here, although the majority were men, but also many women had arrived. Only a few women had been tasked with other jobs than joining the army.
The captain moved to the side and stopped. ”Everyone, go and stand together with the other youngsters. Us guards will return to the capital to wait and hear news of how you have all made it in the rankings and bring that news with us back to your families.”
”We cannot guide you any further if you want to survive the next decade in the army; take your life into your own hands and persevere!”
Having said that, the captain saluted and turned around. He and the guards all vanished into the distance, leaving behind a large group of youngsters that felt a wide array of emotions.Some of the emotions ranged from confusement to excitement, but a majority of it was nervousness.
They were at a loss for what to do, and they all started looking towards Xue Wei, as he was the strongest in their group. Frowning, Xue Wei scanned the area and saw the same happening all over.
”Well, for now, we are going to do as Captain said and join up with the rest of the experts. I am sure that when all of us are gathered, we will begin some sort of dividing into ranks.”