"All of you, wake up!" Bartrem shouted with a stern face. Both hands on his back.
Aldred immediately wake up from his sweet, delicious, creamy, steamy dream. His comrades and Mary woke up too.
Bartrem strode in between the beds. His steps stomped the ground.
Aldred rubbed his eyes. What happened? Why did he seem so angry? Did Pharder do something again?
"I only have one question." He pointed at the ceiling. "Who the hell made that hole?"
"We don't know sir,"
Bartrem snorted. "Today, we're starting our training early. Since no one admit it, then all of you will be punished."
The soldiers immediately leaped out of their bed and wore their shirts. He noticed something these days. The squires had a brown string on the shoulders of their shirt, while the knights had yellow strings. Aldred wondered if there was a meaning to it.
"Let's train together, Mary."
Mary nodded and gave his forehead a kiss. They wore their military shirt. He noticed he had brown strings on his shoulders too. Mary, just like Bartrem, had yellow strings on the shoulders of her shirt.
"Mary, what is this brown strings for?"
Mary donned her armor. "That is the hierarchy string. Brown means you are below a knight. Only nobles can use brighter strings and clothes. So if you are not a noble, do not wear them, ever."
"Why is that?"
"The nobles think that brighter color symbolized the sky, and darker color symbolized the dirt. So the peasants and normal people like us cannot wore bright clothes. They say nobles are smart and educated, but this is probably the stupidest rules they made."
Aldred nodded. The rule was an insult to the lower class. It was like saying 'You're a dirty dirt, so you must not wear bright color clothes'. They really need an ego check.
After wearing their clothes, he and Mary ambled out of the barrack. "Today, we're going to run around the fort. You need strength and power to win a battle, but you need endurance to survive."
"Yes, sir!"
Bartrem started jogging. As an outcast platoon, the Pressure Platoon II did not deserve to stay inside the fort. Their barrack was located a few meters beside the south gate. Should an army siege the fort, their barrack would be destroyed first. Aldred passed by fisherman on his way. They wore charcoal-colored strings on their shirt. They were slaves.
Aldred asked Mary about homeless people in the empire. She said they had none. He thought it was a good thing until he was told that the homeless were forced into slavery. It was very easy to become a slave. A noble decided to take your home and your farmland. You are homeless. Automatically, you become the noble's slaves.
That was simple and easy to do 3-step tutorial.
Nobles had everything under their control. The land, the lives, the building. As long as it was their territory, their words must be followed. If Aldred lived in a city owned by a noble, his whole life was basically owned.
That made it seem like this whole male and women debate to be useless. It wasn't just the woman that suffered, the male too. People could become slaves with a snap of a finger, a spoke of word, a spark of anger. Instead of debating about this, shouldn't they fix this whole slavery system first?
Aldred thought for a moment then realized that it was impossible. The peasant, unlike back on earth, did not have any power, politically or physically. Magic existed. And those with powerful magic and power ruled the weak.
Back on earth, people could protest and overthrow the government with numbers, but numbers meant little here. Captain Pharder for example, he could kill a thousand peasant in less than a minute. Aldred was confident he could defeat any number of peasant with his power.
He could fly and shoot fire arrows from his hand.
All he had to do was fly around and cut down their numbers. How could a powerless peasant with limited talent fight against their owner? He even believed those who had talent would join the noble side, because it was much nicer. Why fought for the talentless, weak, useless majority when you can enjoy great wealth, power, and influence.
The platoon jogged along the wall. On their left, river streamed to the south. The view here was amazing. Bartrem was angry that they put his barrack outside the fort, but Aldred like it. He had so many space to practice his flying jet flame and fire arrows. The fort was very cramped. A lot of buildings were put side by side leaving only a narrow roadway for people to pass. Except the main road for supplies, the other pathway was very tight.
Aldred did not want that. He preferred the vast and peaceful barrack outside the wall.
They arrived at the north side of the fort. The horizon was filled with farmland. Farmers bend their back as they planted the seeds. A road stretch from the north gate and then far onto the plain. Under the soft light of sunrise, they jogged past the crops.
Aldred used his eyes to analyze the farmers. Their stomach was infested with worms while the muscles in their stomach grumbled in hunger. That was very terrible. These farmers looked normal from the outside, but inside they were suffering an immense amount of pain.
Yet they were strong enough to plant these seeds and kept going with their lives. Aldred could only imagine their pain when they go to sleep at night. The worms gnawing at their stomach, consuming every bit of nutrient they consumed.
He wanted to cry. The life here was so horrible. Compared to his past life, these farmers had it much worse.
Aldred stopped and he looked at the farmer with teary eyes.
Mary halted. "Aldred, are you tired?"
Bartrem noticed them stopping, but he kept going instead.
Aldred had so many things in his mind that he did not hear what Mary said. He approached the farmer. The farmer was an old man with tanned wrinkled skin. The heat from the sun made his skin got patches of sunburn. More tears welled up in his eyes as he approached the man.
The man looked at the boy and noticed the string on his shoulder. He stepped back in fear. "Sir, how may I help you."
Aldred's tears finally fell down to his cheek. "Do you feel uncomfortable in your stomach?"
"Yes, sir."
"I can help you. It will hurt so bear with me."
The farmer was scared so he obeyed.
Aldred scanned the farmer with his eyes. The worms moved around in the intestines. He put his palm on the the man's belly. Aldred theorized that heating the stomach will kill the worms. He did not if this will work or not. Asking for help was useless either, slaves did not have the privilege to meet a healer or consume potions.
If they were injured terribly, then they will be left to die. That was how cruel this world was.
"What's your name?" Aldred asked, trying to distract him from the pain.
"My name is Bernard, sir."
"Do you have any family, Bernard?" Aldred activated his flame but just slightly to warm the intestine.
"My wife died three years ago, sir. I only have my son with me. He is currently nine years old."
"What's his hobby?"
The farmer was confused why the boy asked him this question but he replied. "He seems to like spear fishing, sir. He cannot plow the land like me, because he doesn't have a left hand."
"He must be really good in spear fishing."
The farmer smiled and his eyes lit up. "He is. A week ago he snuck— I mean a week ago he caught a lot of fish for the soldiers."
So they couldn't even eat the food they caught and had to give it to the army. They had to sneak in a fish or two so they can eat properly. Aldred couldn't blame them. The man was clearly hungry from all the bones that protrude from his skin.
"I'm done," Aldred said. "Are you feeling better now?"
The man rubbed his stomach, feeling the warm. But then he realized the pain in his stomach was gone. All these years, he felt like something was moving inside him. The farmer thought it was just because he was hungry most of the time and maybe that was the stomach moving. But then the boy touched his belly and the pain disappeared.
Did that mean something was inside him?
"I am, sir. May I ask what did you do to me?"
"You have worms in your stomach. I killed them with my fire spell."
The farmed widened his eyes. It was worms all this time? He did not know that a worm could stay inside the stomach.
"If you don't want this to happen again, I suggest you heat the water before you drink it. Don't drink it directly from the river or any water source. Also, if you can, find a container, put a cloth on the container, and put pebbles on top of it. After that you can pour water over the pebbles and into the container. Still, if you want to be truly safe, heat the water with fire."
The farmer noted everything the boy said in his mind. "Thank you for this knowledge, sir."
Slaves generally didn't know anything except their own profession. If they were a farmer, then farming was the only thing they know. Who bother to teach slaves things about politics?
Aldred nodded and looked for other warmer who had the same problem. He killed the worms inside their body and told them how to filter water. Mary did not say anything and merely followed him.
After they were done, Aldred and Mary continued their jogging.
"Why do you spend your time helping them, Aldred?"
"When you are at your lowest, won't you feel so relieved when someone come and pull your hand to get up?"
Mary recalled her lowest moment. It was the day when her parents decided to arrange a marriage for her. She hated the idea of her freedom being taken. That was when stories about the empress spread wide, and she was pulled out of despair. She ran away and became a warrior. Now she was a free woman, and she'd stay here to make sure every woman ,just like her, to be free of making their own choices.
"You're a good kid, Aldred. I wonder who's your parents are." She really did wanted to know about his parents, but she felt like she shouldn't dug too deep.
Aldred simply shook his head. A few weeks ago he might have said his father was the strongest being alive and show it off, but he got humbled now. "They're good parents, and I love them with all my heart."
Mary smiled. The boy grew so fast. It felt like yesterday he sulked and complained about the training during the travel.
After a few hours, they arrived at the barrack again. Bartrem and the rest were swinging their sword.
"You need to train your stamina more, Soldier Aldred. Don't be left behind again."
The boy glanced at Bartrem. He understood that Bartrem was just protecting him. Pharder's men might watching them helping the farmers and marked them as spies of the empress. He did not want to give the farmers a bad time.
"Apologize, sir." Aldred grabbed the sword and started swinging.
Bartrem was impressed that the boy understood his meaning immediately. He expected the boy to throw a small tantrum and say that he was just helping the farmer, and then Bartrem would scold him about it.
The boy exceeded his expectation.
Mary approached him. "Why are you training your sword? Shouldn't you practice your magic instead?"
Aldred smiled. "I need endurance to survive."
Mary and Bartrem smiled. The boy had now grown to become a true soldier.
[New title received: Tough Boy]
Someone came to Bartrem and informed him that the brigade will tomorrow. The enemy made an outpost on the border again.
Aldred's heart thumped. Was he nervous or excited? It might be both.
After training for the whole day, Bartrem decided it was enough. They had their clothes drenched in sweat, so they hang it on a wooden hanger. Aldred put his small clothes among the big ones. Then he was shocked to see a bra fell on his clothes.
With widened eyes he looked at Mary. "Mar…Mary. What are you doing?"
"I want to take a bath first. Let's go." Mary grabbed his hand.
The soldiers looked away when they noticed that Mary was half-naked. But the image of her busty chest got stuck in their mind. Their cheeks turned red just by imagining it.
'Why is she naked?!'
Even Aldred started to blush because the soldiers were blushing. Mary got him inside a public bathroom made out of bamboo. And let him just say the experience was wonderful. A lot of fondling and sucking during that bath scene which made the experience even more amazing.
After they were done, Mary and Aldred entered the barrack to sleep.
Sophia peeked from behind the wall with a naughty smile on her face. She giggled. "I am such a bad girl. Disrupting their sleep before a battle is the most evil thing. Hihihi."
She raised her staff. "Dreamcaller," she called its name. "Make them restless."
A wave of copper-like particles floated like butterflies to the barrack. Suddenly, something long and thick pierced out from the rooftop and elongated far into the sky.
Sophia widened her eyes. She knew exactly what that was. And she only had one question. "Will it fit in?"
