It was early in the morning. The sun was not even up yet. The whole Barony of Corinth was slowly waking up, many workers were getting ready to leave for the harvesting. And the soldiers were scrambling in the Barracks to get ready before their counting begins.
As for Marcus, he was lazily rolling down in bed. His maid attempted to wake him up several times. But he was too giddy to wake up. The only positive aspect of Corinth despite its isolation from the rest of the kingdom is the weather here was too pleasant to be true. Early in the morning was almost like bliss and thanks to good ventilation and the height they keep. While sleeping in that weather is like bliss waking up is quite opposite. Marcus felt like it was quite a battle with the bed to wake up early.
When he was still dilly-dallying in the bed his father's cold voice invaded his ears.
"Marcus I give you 30 minutes if you are not ready by then. I will make you run to the training ground on your knees."
Marcus felt a jolt go right through his spine. In his dizziness he forgot his father but after hearing what his father said his body was unwilling to be lazy any more some training is always better than running on knees and Marcus doubted whether his knees would even survive even a single go from the keep to the training grounds which were almost 2 kilometres apart.
After half hour Marcus sat at the dining table wearing a training outfit which consisted of a loose shirt and pant and boots made of magical beast skin. The outfit was course to feel but due to its looseness, it was flexible.
It was still approximately 4:30 in the Morning. The family was having breakfast. All of them were up Arlo, Carla, Leonardo and Mona.
Only Arlo, Leon and Marcus were eating breakfast Carla and Mona were having some coffee and milk respectively.
Arlo has not shared even a single word with Marcus during the breakfast
After goodbyes from his mother and sister. They left for the training grounds in a carriage while Arlo took his horse and rode to the training grounds.
After 10 minutes they reached the destination.
The sun was still not up but the light was enough to go by. 200 barehanded soldiers were standing in a rectangular formation they all wore the same training outfit that Marcus had on him. they with groups made of 25 soldiers standing in 5*5.
They stood in two rows and five columns. Corinth had military strength of 500 soldiers. But the three hundred others are currently either in duties of guarding, patrol or they were escorting the gatherers in the forest.
Arlo made the boys stand in front of the formation on a duelling stage cum dais. as soon as Arlo stood there all the soldiers gave him the Military salute just like soldiers on earth. the ground tremored slightly due to almost 200 coordinated thumps on the ground at almost the same time, considering few soldiers here being superhuman enough to beat the crap out of Captain America. Arlo returned the salute and spoke with a dangerous tone almost asif he was threatening these soldiers.
"listen everyone, I have a challenge for you, these two boys here have the blood of the Wargrave family in them. The smaller one is Marcus Regitalio Wargrave my son, and the other one is my brother's bastard Leonardo Inthigo. I want a squad from you to take both of them in and whip them into soldiers in 5 years, if I am satisfied with their progress I would award the squad by making them the second special squad in Corinth and their squad leader will be granted the equivalent authority of the captain of a company. A position only below a dozen members of the beast guard".
suddenly the whole formation started buzzing with chatter. Because the reward was too great to be left alone but the task ahead of them was quite humongous whipping a soldier out of kids was not even practical it was next to impossible. Many of them were in their twenties and many of the squad leaders were in their thirties and few were even in their forties. they were waiting for a shot at promotion, but due to the absence of war and unusual patterns of magical beasts, there were not many opportunities for those in beast guard to vie for promotions these days. But the Baron put a lid on their dreams when he said "in case I am not satisfied with their progress, the squad leader will be demoted from his position at any point in time in the coming five years".
After this bomb of a sentence, many of the squad leaders backed off because it was better to be a squad leader than to be a normal soldier and the task in front of them is as uncertain as guessing when a bird shits.
But in midst of them, an energetic voice rose "I am up for the challenge Captain Reamus".
All heads turned towards the source of the voice. It was the red-haired brat many of them loathed for his talent and luck.
Arlo inquired "you seem to be quite young yourself what is your name squad leader? And why haven't I seen much of you in the keep."?
The 20-year-old squad leader replied "I am Marco Captain, I am a recruit from the last year. Knight Derma made me a squad leader after I broke through and became 1st level warrior. And he always had our squad posted outside the castle until now, so it is Natural for Captain Reamus to not see me ".
a flash of realisation crossed through Reamus's cold face "ohh so you are the brat that derma told me about. He said he regretted not have recruited you earlier. Good then is there anyone in here that want to take up the job?".
But no one raised their hand as they were fairly certain that it was impossible to turn them into good soldiers in just 5 years especially the young lord as he is still 8 years old. It might be possible to have a genius 15-year-old soldier but they never heard of a soldier who was 13 years in their careers.
In this world 15 years is the minimum age for forced conscription. And there were many talks about genius at 15 in wars but many of those geniuses being commoners were found dead sooner or later.
And trying to take up the job has the risk of going against the redhead bastard they envy and it was told that he would humiliate his opponents by taking them on with a single move. although many squad leaders are in stage one warrior level, not many of them felt confident in taking down a famed genius who proved his mettle through many duels.
Arlo understood it.
"all right then from now on Leonardo and Marcus will be in your squad ".
he took a long breath and gave them the news "Knight Derma has contacted me, the beasts in the forest are behaving unusually, there seem to be territorial fights between a few of the higher grade monsters in the middle region of the forest and one of the higher-level monsters seems to be aggressive. It has conquered few of its neighbouring territories, for now, it is biding for its time and occupy more territory and increase its power both individually and in numbers, but as you know we have no right to interfere in the matters of the Beasts due to our agreement with the Mythical beasts that live in the core part of the forests. ".
After listening to the news the faces of few soldiers started to pale. But Arlo paid them no heed. he went on with his announcement. " So, I suggest those of you who are here for free food and bribes a soldier gets can leave as soon as possible because a war is no joke irrespective of enemy's race and when the day comes when the Magic beasts will attack I speculate almost half of you will fall in the battle so it is time for you to decide whether to continue the military services or head home and sleep like a bear cub in your mama's lap, because a war with the beast will knock on our doors. although we were unable to predict the timing, but we are pretty sure it will happen, may be after this winter or 5 years from now".