Early in the morning Marcus and Leon went to the armoury along with Marco.
The keeper of Armoury is an old man named old john he was on duty for armoury for as long as both Marcus and Arlo remembered. He was nearing his end but still, he refused to take retirement he always said this is the least he can do for Arlo's grandfather who saved his village and family in his younger days and soon became his most trusted friend. This old man's loyalty to the family is unquestionable.
Under his family's watchful eye not even a single armament was reported stolen. He and his descendants are all in Armory duty and this was a tradition that continued from this old man.
Many feel jealous for the risk-free duty this family got but the sincerity this family shows in this job was undenied by anyone in the whole barony.
Marcus and Leon greeted the old man in his office "good day grandfather how is your health".
The old man was nearing his century but the respect he garnered from the Wargrave family was immense. Even Arlo and Portillo respected him as their family elder as there are not many elders in the Wargrave family due to curse.
The old man's voice was groggy and weak one had to pay full attention to his words if they want to know what he was saying and half of what he said was gulped down his throat and he spoke very slowly"ohh! The future of the barony is here. I am just a bag of old bones child sooner or later I will have to take my leave ".
Marco was dissatisfied "old man can't you see me here why do you only see these noble brats ".
Old john's smiling face beamed even more "you are also the future of the barony you dim wit!" he slightly reprimanded Marco
"I heard from lord baron he said his son and his brother's bastard will come here today to receive weapons". Leon winced at those words.
Marco did not know why but this old man has a way to catch on to his nerves immediately.
"yes old man these are in my squad and they need weapons to give them already!". Marco was already feeling irritated.
But Old John was as slow as ever "wait a minute you happy feet I just sent my great-grandson to bring swords". Happy feet was a kind of slang in this world when referring to someone impatient.
Marco did not want to wait for much longer. But, he stayed silent for few more minutes. After some time a 15-year-old boy came from outside with a sack full of weapons and a bow and quiver on him.
He started unloading weapons onto the table in front of old john he was explaining them in detail as he placed them on the table.
He took out a sword from its sheath that was bigger than a long sword but shorted than a two-handed greatsword.
"This is a Bastard sword young lords this is both used in one hand and two hands according to a situation".
He unloaded a short bow but it was the perfect size for undeveloped Marcus. And he also took out a quiver full of arrows. "this is a short bow young lords this one is not for long-range but it is swift when used in the mid-range and moving around with this one is easier when compared to the longbows this is procured from the recent forest raiders and you can get arrows from armoury if arrows assigned to your squad are not enough for practice".
Then he took out a gladius and unsheathed it. Marcus immediately recognized it from the movie gladiator "this is a gladius young lords this is a type of short sword used by the many military units as a secondary weapon in wars but it is quite useful for those who thread on agility".
then he took out a kukri knife from the sack "this is kukri young lords this is the weapon used by the raiders of the forest folk. It is an effective chopping weapon and it comes handy when roaming in wild". Marco got interested in the kukri he reached out to it and examined it. Its forging was unique it had a wavy pattern on its sharpened edge and as it was curved inwards and its other edge was thick. it was sharpened completely on one side until just an inch from the hilt there was a slit-like opening towards the blade side which was said to be designed for stopping the blood from enemy flow alongside the blade and also said to lock the enemy's blade if necessary it was extremely strong even with strong swings one would not be able to break the blade only a few chips. It would be useful when dealing against insectoid beasts with strong carapace as normal swords have a heavy chance of breaking or bending when attacking such targets recklessly with the strength of stage one or more. He immediately asked, "old man I want a few of these kukri's or whatever".
"sure happy feet we have many of them in the armoury those raider bastards have left many of them over the years I will tell my grandson to pick the best of them and send them to your squad tomorrow".
Marco was feeling agitated by the old man's behaviour but he swallowed his discontent as weapons are more important for them than face.
Marcus was confused over which weapon to take. Bow and arrow were already on the list but for short sword and kukri. He was not sure Both were useful but he was unable to contemplate which to take. Seeing his confusion Marco interjected, "take both of them it is still too early for you to take up a single weapon".
So, He took both of them and Leon took the Bastard sword.
Old John commented "A bastard sword for the Bastard, not the first time I saw. Remember boy fight until people fear your sword when they see you. And fight better after that to not remind them of your status ".
"hmm, the life of a Bastard is difficult indeed". Slowly he closed his eyes and went into his world of thoughts and ignored the rest of them.
Marco took the chance to take the young boy outside and swindled many throwing knives from the Armoury.
After that, they directly took off to the training grounds outside.
There Marco started lecturing them.
"okay squirts, you have reached the prerequisite in terms of awareness and alertness and reflexes you have a solid foundation in this regard due to my and my former Master's teachings but there is still a lot to learn for the next foreseeable time you will train in various weapons at least the basics so you won't funk when the day comes for you to fight with unfamiliar weapons. Is it clear!"
"Yes Boss!" the both of them answered with a firm voice.
They both liked Marco a lot. Although, he works them to borders of death. Whenever they look at the result of the training they get goosebumps over their improvement. Despite all their improvement Marco still forbids them from joining the missions every time they both ask him to take them along he says
"I have enough baggage squirts, it is my job to bring all of them back wilderness is not a child's play you never know when a god damn bear attacks you from the rear or a pack of wolves surrounds you. Or maybe like the old Stevie who got his ass stung by a blue scorpion ". the whole squad burst into laughter hearing what he said. they were reminiscing that disgusting but humourous moment together. Thanks to Urul there are no casualties in the squad all these years.
But, the forest is not the same anymore there are a lot of weird things going on for starters, Beasts are always on the edge. Even many lazy ones were taking the initiative to attack if the patrols and scout party gets too close. Someone is disturbing them big time. Despite all this, humans do not have the right to interfere in the matters of inner and core parts of the forest. They can only wait and brace for impact.
The training was vigorous as always Marco made them practice their chosen weapon. Leon was swinging a sword that was on a bigger scale for him. As for Marcus he was told to shoot arrows for the rest of the day. Marco came in his leisure and pointed out their mistakes in postures and swung his sword for demonstration. Peter was the best archer in the squad he gave Marcus a few pointers about aiming with the bow and more basics on stance and breath.
The both of them felt like they were not moving forward at all but they knew practice makes man perfect and Marcus knew that in this world one can achieve anything as long as they have talent and luck. He hasn't got real good talent like Leon who was a stud. But with luck, he got hold of chaos energy and that is helping him to become equivalent to an extremely talented guy in all terms.
Later that night Marcus noticed his father was discussing something serious with knight Derma in his study he did not even attend the usual family dinner. And his mother was not talkative like usual. Overall that was one cold meal.
When Marcus lay down on his bed, all too familiar dizziness took him over and dizziness slowly turned into the pain he was sweating bullets. Soon his consciousness was taken to the familiar void.