Quest: Book 4

by Yufeng Zhuang

2

  I walked into the tent and sat down at the most inside place. The people in the tent were quiet down immediately, this is the first Darkness City hall meeting after my body got recovered.

  There were only my three wives and Feshert sitting by my side, seeing my brothers were all sitting on their own positions opposite to me, I had the unfamiliar feeling rose in my heart.

  "Alright, let's get it started." I knocked couple times on the table with my right hand, my right pinkie was wearing a ring, the ice tear stone which Wensly gave to me is inlaid on it by her.

  "Kainam reports!" This serious attitude vampire people stood up and said, "according to sir viceroy your requirement, the mile long city wall stone balustrades have been built."

  "Good," I nodded my head satisfied, "I'll go take a look."

  "Hairt reports!" The sitting in the front row Hairt stood up an said, "our department of military affairs has already received the military conscription order, the plan has been in being drawn up, sir viceroy you can see it as soon as tomorrow morning."

  "Be more detailed." For their first recruiting plan, I don't have a great expectation, because this is a very strange thing for them. But after all, they are doing it seriously, this make me feel very happy. I can have ways to make up for the mistakes of the plan, but I can't have any ways to make up for the mistakes of the people.

  The department of the military affairs is a management system added to the city hall according to my suggestion, it manages all the military affairs for the Darkness City. On the surface, it's responded by Hairt and Moah, but Martin Arthur is hiding behind the scene. I didn't want to put the buildup of Darkness army in unwanted attention very much, so I didn't establish an independent army department.

  "Moah reports!" Moah stood up, he has the imposing manner of somewhat pressing forward with indomitable will in his tone, this made me felt somewhat surprised.

  "About the viceroy's confrontation training," Moah's eyes were looking at the table in front of me, "our department of the military affairs has some different opinions."

  I stared blankly a bit, "go right ahead."

  "It's like this," Moah stabilized his emotion for a bit, "our soldiers did show a lot of problems in the last battle, our department of military affaires of course is also thinking of ways to make up for all of these. But does it really need to cost the soldiers' lives for the price to training in real swords and spears as what viceroy said?"

  "In the battle, the casualties between the new recruits and the veterans are not the same! Basically it's one veteran of casualties to five new recruits of casualties," I'm definitely sure that this is not Moah's idea, at least it's not Moah one person’s idea, "this is because the new recruits have not received enough trainings, they don't know how to protect themselves in the confusion of the battle yet! And our confrontation trainings can let the new recruits sincerely feel the actual combat atmosphere, so they can become the experienced soldiers in the shortest time! It's worth it to pay at some cost!"

  "Sir viceroy! The sacrifice of the soldiers in the battlefield, no matter the soldiers themselves or the department of the military affaires have no objections for it..." Moah had his stubbornness up, he even didn't know how to give in, "but to die in the own people's hands in the training, it can't be said explained away anyhow."

  "With the minimal training casualties for winning the war next time, we can accept this kind of the price” I stood up, "do you think this kind of training very cruel."

  "It's not cruel... Sir viceroy," Moah had a pause, "but you can say it's merciless."

  I almost couldn't recognize this friend in front of me... His that stubborn language, the unyielding expression, there is no little the old Moah left. In that moment, I understood... This is not the quarrel between the individuals, but the conflict between the two kinds of thinking modes.

  The full room of people were silent to watch our debate, Hairt lowered his head by Moah's side, he gave the look which seemed that he had none of the business about this. But I know, most of Moah's these words are taught by him.

  "I think, we all can have a good talking about everything, there is no necessary this serious." right at this moment, Feshert spoke behind me, "we all have our own ways, but our goal is the same."

  In public or in private, I can't not take Feshert's advice in the public.

  "Before the confrontation training, the soldiers will have plenty of time for the general training." I stabilized my emotion, "I believe, if the soldiers have the serious trainings in that period of time, there won't be any tragedies in the confrontation training."

  "But..."

  "The purpose of the confrontation training is not only to let the soldiers to feel the actual combat atmosphere, but also to inspect the training effect at the ordinary times." I raised my hand to stop the still wanted to say something Moah, and continued to explain, "we can break the whole confrontation training into single tactical subjects, let the soldiers get familiar with it gradually."

  "In our peacetime training, it's like a solder scarify with the pike without a goal. He doesn't know what his goal is, where his goal is, and he even doesn't know his goal's strength and weakness. We can imagine the encounters of the soldiers on the battlefield in such trainings, he will find that the enemy is so strange, he knows nothing about his enemy! What does he suppose to do? How does he suppose to face his enemy while the disorderly arrows are all over in the sky? He supposes to put the shield in hand over his head or to block in front of his chest?

  The enemy's cavalry blunt rush over, how can he survive under the enemy's horseshoes? If he is broken up by the enemy, how the lost contact with his comrades him can live through the battlefield all by himself alone?" My tone is very gentle, but I know my words will bring the intense shock to all the people, "I also don't want to let my soldiers to have the trainings such like this, I take their lives as precious as my own life! Just because I hope that they can have the opportunity to survive in the war, thus I will put forward this plan."

  "We..." Moah had a lick on his chapped lips, anyone will have a lot of pressure when he is speaking to the no facial expression me.

  "I know, you feel that it's still somewhat hard to accept this thing while you are standing in a responsible officer's position." I had a laugh at him, "on the other hand, this is the performance of the loyalty to your duty. I'm very glad, you have already made the first step to success as an officer. Daring to express your own different opinion to the superior is a wise and brave action. Besides, we can have the prior preparations for the confrontation training more sufficiently, we will try to reduce the accidents from happening as far as possible."

  This words, it seems to praise Moah, but actually it's more in the meaning to criticize Hairt euphemistically.

  "It's like this..." The praised by me Moah had a smile embarrassed, "we thought that you have already changed..."

  "Never have the doubts on your boss!" I said, "otherwise you will be fixed..."

  In everyone's laughter, the atmosphere of the meeting is getting easier, the other issues got though smoothly. In the meeting, we confirmed the duties for the viceroy's three wives at the same time, Feline will competent the financial affairs, she will be my spokesman when I am not in. Kelly will direct the general services. As for the kind of cultures, of course it's Wensly's duty. They three are all the municipal supervisors, if it's necessary, they all can interfere with the general affairs, except for the military affairs.

  It should be said that the greatest benefit of this meeting is not just only these, the thing makes me happy the most is, after the meeting, a good common practice is formed not only in the city hall, but also in all of the management systems in the Darkness City. It let me and all the officials have such the chance, such the channel to listen to the different opinions from the subordinates. All kinds of to be issued soon policies and laws are amended and perfected in such environment constantly, it reduced the resistance of the implementations to the minimum. For me
personally, every time the meeting becomes the day of a headache, I have to give the solutions in the meeting for all the questions by the junior officials who are improving gradually.

  Because they will be yelling at me righteously, "sir viceroy, my dear friend, if you can't convince me, how can you unreasonably demand me to convince my subordinates?"

  ............

  Began from the day after, all the soldiers who served in the beginning of the Darkness City began to have the big meal, and, they have it everyday.

  Two hours before dawn, they will be waken up in bed by their “ferocious” officers with the horsewhips. They will wear all the equipments and line up in order in their officers' shouting. In the all over the sky starlight, in the somewhat cold morning breeze, they welcome the sunrise with running around the training ground outside of the Darkness City this way. The last team who runs the last will get half of the breakfast, their officers call this "the appetizer before the breakfast".

  After the real breakfast, the soldiers start the whole day training formally.

  The spearmen marched and practiced the bayonet charge combination one thousand times, the assaulting one hundred times, and the covering one hundred times... The archers practiced the pulling bow combination five hundred times, the rapid movement one hundred times, and the dissembling bowstring fifty times... The cavalry didn't have the horses to ride on then, in the infantry's surprised eyes, they all sat on the mud horses practicing the fighting actions time and time... Although they do look like this now, but the sentence "born riding on the mud horse" is often proudly hung in their mouths in the future. But now, they often complain that their clothes have never been clean. The lazy losers who got caught, besides the lunch will be cut in half, will also get ten whips for the special awards.

  After the lunch, the soldiers will have one hour to listen to their officers to explain the tactics, and they can have the refection at the same time. The big and small scenes which their commanders have experienced are cast in the soldiers' minds like this day after day. They also complain that this kind of arrangement even occupy their pray time, but soon after, they know that the complain is useless, it's better to ask some questions to make their chief executives embarrassed.

  Because the sir viceroy has said "who beat their subordinates because they couldn't answer the questions, I will deal with them personally". They are also not afraid what mistakes get caught by their officers, because the sir viceroy also has said like this "the officers can beat the soldiers, but it must make sense. Besides, it must be very careful when beating, we need to leave him a breath, so we can keep beating him next time".

  Hence, the soldiers have the reasons to think that questioning is the safest way to embarrass their chief executives.

  When it just began, the questions would often appear like this, "Sir! What you just said is right, but what should we do if the enemy rush to us from behind?"

  Then at this time, their chief would have a smile, and virtual played the whip "pa" in the air, and then he would say it gently, "to tell you the truth, I have never met this kind of situation like what you said. But I think, we can try it once. Your this squad... Just act as that troop which is getting ambushed..."

  A melee begins... The losers have their dinner cut in half.

  A soldier looks at the cut in half dinner in his hand, he suddenly thinks of a guy in the cavalry unit didn't pay his money back yet, this is a very good way to revenge, and the timing is very good as well, because the cavalry don't have the horses yet.

  So, there is a period having these kind of popular targeted questions, "Sir, if both sides encountered suddenly, and the other side has the cavalry. What should we do?"

  "You guys are really willing to learn! That’s very good, we will have a friendly match with the cavalry squad…"

  A team of wearing heavy armors "cavalry" met a team of light infantry. Because the "cavalry" didn't have the horses, thus the "cavalry" were all with the grief and indignation on their faces and the infantry were all in chuckles. The no horses "cavalry" were just like the little breads in the hand, one bite one bread. Some of the infantry have already forecast the result in their mind.

  The result A: The infantry won, the "cavalry" have their dinner cut in half.

  The result B: The infantry won, the "cavalry" have nothing for dinner, (Their sir will be losing his marbles if their subordinates are too embarrassing) the infantry have extra meat for their dinner. (The chiefs always can find some good things for their subordinates if they can make them proud)

  But, the imagination will always have some certain disparities from the reality.

  Because they were careless to be seen by a passing senior officer, so the senior officer said it carelessly, "how can the cavalry not have the horses, you this squad guest-star for a moment, to be ridden as horses for the cavalry..."

  So, the final result is: The cavalry "riding" the light infantry squad lost to another infantry squad. The cavalry have their dinner cut in half, the light infantry have nothing for dinner, furthermore, they all got three whips for the extra awards... (Because their chief lost all his marbles)

  After the dinner, all the officers will go to the department of the military affairs for one to two hours. This will be the happiest moment for the soldiers, they can lie prone on the fence of the training ground and the whole team howl loudly at the sun, the moon, and the stars... They can take a bath in the river which runs through the training ground... Or they can fight against the archers of the nearby squad...

  However, all of these must be done before the officers come back. Nobody knows what mood their officers will have when they come back from the department of the military affairs. Once a team was awarded a sausage each for winning a fight, it's that kind of smell very good, has some spices and black pepper inside, the taste can make people go crazy real sausage... But, there once a squad took bath in the river collectively, they didn't put on all their clothes in time before their chief came back, they were prized running three rounds around the training ground with the naked ass for the special awards...

  ............

  "Sir viceroy!" A tall soldier ran to me, he "Pa" gave me a military salute in front of me, "we one hundred people receive the order to report to you!"

  "Any officers among them?" I was interested looking at these one hundred soldiers and asked the people around me.

  "Because you just asked for the most outstanding people in the last combat," Jack answered me, "so there's no officer among them!"

  "Why?" I asked, "our officers are not outstanding enough?"

  "This..."

  "You don't know or you just don't want to say?" Of cause I know what it is all about indeed.

  "I know!" Jack said, "because the officers give the opportunity to their subordinate soldiers this time!"

  "Yes!" I walked and said, "your observation and judgment are very good, we have a group of good officers."

  The one hundred people lined up in queue neatly, they are all heads up high and stick out their chests. I looked over at them, they have human soldiers, orcs soldiers, elf mage, dwarf soldiers, and sand-man soldiers...

  "Everybody sit down," I smiled and said to them, in fact, it looks not that good while they were just standing over there, "let's sit a circle around me casually, now it is the rest time."

  The sand-men and the dwarves are the most honest, they come over to sit down around me immediately. The orcs are slower a bit, they sit to the second circle, the think about everything humans sit outside of the orcs... The elves do not sit down, they float in the air.

  "What did you do in the last combat?" I asked a sand-man sitting at the front, "so your officer will sent you to me here."

  The sand-man's coarse face blushed a bit, he said it embarrassedly, "I... I dig the hole too fast, I didn't know what happened that I dig to behind the enemy when I came out of the hole, I didn't know what happened that I cut down several guys with the flowers on their collars..."

&nb
sp; "I didn’t know what happened, just like this?" I said with a laughter, "it seems like that you need to keep this state often in the future..." in all the good will laughter, I pat on his shoulder. Then I asked several other soldiers, the result made me feel satisfied after all.

  "I need to make a statement first," I stood back in the soldiers, "you come to me here, maybe you will lose the chance to become an officer! The life and the training are far tougher than those on the training ground guys! After a long time, you might even get infected the bad habits from me. In that case, are you still willing to stay?"

  "Yes--sir!" One hundred people answered me together.

  "Of course, as for the compensation." I said, "you will get the armors and the weapons just custom-made specially for you! You will get the master guidance for the fighting skills and the magic! If you work hard enough, you absolutely can leave a page belonging to yourself in the Darkness City's history!"

  "Ah--"

  "Awe--"

  "Wow--"

  All the soldiers from different races answered me with their own unique cheer sounds.

  "For your trainings," I continued to say, "I don't have the compulsive constraint, you can choose the training method and training direction which is appropriate for yourself, I will just only put forward some suggestions for you. Every other three days, your chief... Feshert! He will sift you guys once, the disqualified ones whom he considers will be sent back to where they come from, the places left will be replaced by the fresh ones. We-- only keep the most excellent warriors!"

  There is even a rule for sifting out people in a force, it virtually arouse the soldiers' passion and their competitive spirit, the lights began to flash up in everyone's eyes.

  "Now, you have the time for one night," the just being as the chief Feshert spoke loudly, "if I were you, I would think about my own expertise, think about the armor and weapon which I need! I will bring you all to the dwarf master there the first thing tomorrow morning."

  "Yes, sir!" It looks like that they are quite impressed by their own new chief.

  "Now!" Feshert took a look at me, and then he turned around and said, "get the hell out of here!"

  Harsh words, it means that Feshert has quite a good mood.

  After the soldiers all cleared out, Feshert came over to me and took hold of my arm, "let's go to the master there."

  "Why?"

  "The things which you asked the master to prepare for us to travel," for a few happy matters in a row, Feshert's interest is very high, "are all prepared."

  "So it is!" I teased him to say, "if I were you, I will think about what supposed to name the one hundred man troop."

  "Oh, that’s right! How come I would ignore this problem?"

  "You are getting old..."

  "Nonsense! Your Highness I clearly is wise and brilliant..."

  "Far more than this! Your Highness you're really a most unusual and quite individual beauty!"

  "This is more like it..."

  "The result is that your gorgeous name wide spread out..."

  ............

  I wore the gears which the master prepared for me with the rusting sound, then I found out that it's the probation sorcerer's dress, and it's all black from top to down, the black cloak, the black sorcerer robe, even the shoes and the belt are the same black as well!

  When I raised my head, I saw that Feshert had a wry smile to look at me, the color of his original skin is very white, now he has the all white dress on, this time he is really indescribably beautiful and striking.

  "Hey, what's your name? White Cloud?” I asked him.

  "I'm not as boring as you!" He answered me, "an all black raven!"

  "No noise allowed!" The master came in, he put down the things in his hands on the table, "don't wear it if you are not satisfied with it!"

  "Satisfied, of course I'm satisfied with it," Feshert said, "but there's no need to dress up like a probation sorcerer, right?"

  "What do you know about?" The master took a look at Feshert, "do you think that this color, this level, are literally my decision casually?"

  "This still need some learning for it?"

  "Stinky boy, of course it takes some learning!"

  Seeing our unbelievable eyesight, the master thought that it's necessary to explain all this for us.

  "Why do I ask you to dress up like a probation sorcerer? The first reason is, only the probation sorcerer will have the reason to wander around in the continent." The master said, "because these guys just have learned half the cadence of magic, so it's very normal that their magic is ineffective."

  "Just because of this? Then it should be alright that just Kone wears this!" Feshert had the evil smile on his face.

  "The second reason is, this kind of people normally are very young. Nobody can be sure which level they can reach to in the future, so no one would like to offend against the probation sorcerer." The master touched his beard and continued to speak, "holding the grudges, it's one of the bad habits for the young people. And people such like you two, it's quite good to not provoke other people!"

  "Reasonable! Reasonable!" I nodded my head.

  "Then the black and the white... What's the specialties for them?" Feshert asked.

  "The probation sorcerer dresses in the black, it means that his own person is affected by the black magic more or less. And the all in white you, is like a brightness sorcerer trying to influence him by his side, helping him to defeat the temptation of darkness!" The more the master spoke, the more excited he got, "you this pair of baby, you can cheat everywhere to have meals and drinks freely!"

  "Who said we want to cheat?" I said.

  "No cheating? You think that I don't know you need money?" The master said, "even you don't want to cheat, you are still not going to do anything good."

  "Calm down!" I took a look at the outside, "you want everyone know about this?”

  "Oh!" The master no longer talked about this, in turn he handed several things to us, "you can see, these are a few good things which I prepared for you."

  "A pair of... Gloves?" I checked them carefully, "and a... Magic wand?"

  "Yes!" The master replied, "you can put it on and give it a try!"

  Although I was puzzled, but I still believed in the professional master.

  I had a different feeling after I wore the black gloves, I dare to say, wearing the gloves such like this, if I want to, it's no problem to kill a people in one punch with my own power."

  "Huh!" I punched my fist onto the wall, I left a deep fist mark on it, but my hand felt nothing at all.

  "What do you think?" The master is proud for himself and say, "not bad, Huh? Use your fingers to touch the things."

  I did as what the master told me so, I touched the fist mark with my fingers. The coming touch feeling is so true, it seemed like that I was not wearing the gloves at all!

  "Try hard to stick your fingers in!"

  "It can't be described... I can't believe this..." My fingers inserted in the wall silently, I took a look at Feshert, he was also looking at his own hand which was sticking into the table dully, his eye balls were almost to drop out.

  The master smiled to touch his beard by the side. Obviously, our shocked expressions greatly satisfied the master's vanity.

  "No matter what you're going to do, I will wish you success!"

  In the blessings of the master, I and Feshert went back to our living place with packs of things.