Marzio woke up only the next morning. He found himself in an incomprehensible stone room with a massive oak door, a poor bed on which he slept, covered with a grey sheet on a small pillow placed under his head. The young man immediately jumped up to look around: he was unharmed, not even his clothes were touched, well, except that his boots were taken off and placed next to the bed. Marzio immediately noticed his things, which were carelessly thrown on the floor, next to a small wooden table with a stool pushed back. However, he was not carrying a weapon. In the room itself, there was only a small lattice window, which was so high under the ceiling that it showed only the blue sky.
Marzio got tired of looking at things: he already realized that he had lost his crossbow and dagger, as well as his mother's valuable artefacts. It shocked him. His Geiger device, safety glasses, protective mask, flashlight, as well as an energy keeper with devices and Alessia's first aid kit. Marzio was depressed, he did not know what to do and what they would do with him now. At least they didn't touch his mother's diaries, but everything else was terrible.
Heartbroken, and most importantly completely depressed, Marzio sat on the bed and waited in the wings. The oak door was locked, so there was nothing else he could do. Thus an hour passed, and during this time the young man finished his flask and ate the dried sausage he had bought in Forli. Funny, but Marzio's money was there, and it gave him a little hope.
Then footsteps were heard outside the door, and then the ringing of keys. The keyhole rustled, and the door opened with a soft creak: Faina was standing behind it – still in the uniform of a lieutenant, but in daylight, she seemed to Marzio more attractive than in the pub. Now he could see her in more detail: she was about the same height as Marzio, black, slightly blue hair, braided in two long pointed ponytails with green hairpins. Her figure was clearly athletic, although her waist and hips were hidden by a thick and baggy layer of clothing. Piquant bumps made it clear that the advantages of the class are not less than the third, but it is worth making a discount on clothes, and then we can assume that in the original form the class will decrease to the second, second and a half. Her skin was white, but with a slight tinge of tan, thin black eyebrows formed an arrogant arch over cold blue eyes. The lady's jaw was elegant with a small chin. Her face could be called pretty, but Marzio immediately noticed that her frown did not suit her.
'Oh, so you're already awake,' she said in her feminine voice with a note of rudeness.
'Glad to see you're not hungover,' she looked at the young man appraisingly.
'I'm sorry...,' Marzio began.
'Thank you, of course, for pulling me out of the clutches of the Scarlet Knights, but let me find out where I am.'
'Hmm, and you're mannered,' she chuckled.
'You are now in Rovigo, or rather in the fortress of the Hospitallers next to him,' Marzio's worst expectations began to be justified.
'You got into a lot of trouble yesterday, boy. These brutes wouldn't get rid of you, and your friends got it too. They have a real hunt there now, so both the guilty and the innocent fall under the arm of justice. Your friends will be in trouble if they get caught, and my advice to you is to forget about them! You're unlikely to return to Bologna now,' she said all this with feigned arrogance.
'W-why?' Marzio said timidly.
'Because you owe me now,' Faina glared at him angrily.
'Just to let you know, I don't need gold, so it won't be so easy to buy me off,' Marzio realized that he was in trouble.
'You are now my personal slave, a dog on a leash that fulfils all the whims of the mistress.'
'But...,' Marzio wanted to object.
'No buts! she interrupted him.'
'You don't want to go to court for those toys that I found in your bag, do you?' She glanced at Marzio's things. The young man swallowed nervously.
'Besides, I saved your life yesterday, so it's not noble not to repay the lady,' She clumsily got lippy.
'By the way, you probably don't even know my name. So, I am Faina Bianchi, lieutenant of the Order of the Hospitallers. And who are you?' Marzio at first thought: should I tell him his real name, but still decided.
'I'm Marzio Variatle.'
'Oh, that's a beautiful name, and the last name is quite interesting, well, that will do. So that's it, Marzio...,' she looked at the young man again with superiority.
'You are now under my command. Any objections are not considered! Today you will join the Order of the Hospitallers, and I will become your immediate superior. If you don't want such a fate, then I will be happy to report to the authorities that I caught a digger with dangerous artefacts of unknown use, and then we will see how the court decides your fate.'
'It looks like blackmail.'
'What else did you want? This is life, baby: hunt or be hunted,' she smiled.
'Well, so what? Agree?' Marzio sighed and shook his head.
'That's nice. She pulled out a Geiger device from inside of her shirt and threw it into Marzio's hands.
'Here you go! This is not included in the class of prohibited things. I'll give you the rest when you pay off the debt.'
'And how soon will it be?' Faina grinned.
'Depending on how hard you try,' Marzio didn't like those words at all.
'Well, well. It's time to introduce you to the local sights and residents. Come on!'
The castle of the same name Rovigo was located in the south of the town on the site of old ruins. In some places, overgrown hills of these ruins towered in green fields. The hill gave a stunning view of the surrounding area, so you could see Ferrara. Faina kept asking about Marzio's past, but the young man was wary and did not tell half the truth.
'So you're sixteen? that's nice. To be honest, I thought you were a little less.'
She brought Marzio up to date on his difficult subsequent life.
'You will now become a warrior of the order. Just don't think you're a knight, no. You are just a simple soldier of the smallest rank, which anyone can become. As payment of the debt, you will serve under my command, so from now on, I am your mistress, understand?'
'Yes.'
'I can't hear you.'
'Yes, mistress.'
'That's nice.'
Faina devoted Marzio to his present life as a soldier of the Order of the Hospitallers. Indeed, any person, if he had a good physical form, could become a warrior of an order. Such people are the backbone of knight armies. Commoners could rise to the rank of captain, and then, at best, a good pension followed, or if they were lucky, the granting of titles for merit. The soldiers of the knight armies performed many functions: from border protection to construction. Such military formations were subordinate only to the order, but the order itself could carry out the orders of the states, which often united the knights and the regular army on the battlefield.
Ordinary soldiers were: swordsmen, spearmen, pikemen, archers, archers, etc. They were commanded by noble people who either devoted themselves to the service of the order or were simply nobles without a chance of inheritance. As Faina said, she belonged to the well-to-do peasants. Her father owned a workshop in one of the Venetian towns and handed over all his affairs to his older brothers. Faina had no choice but to follow the example of her sisters - to get married successfully, or, as her younger brother did, to enlist on the ship. Neither the first nor the second outcome suited her, so she decided to make her own way in life, due to her indomitable character and physical strength. Faina is a good swordsman who participated in the suppression of peasant unrest, the destruction of robber gangs and the cleaning of the lair of demons. For her bravery and skills, Faina was promoted first to sergeant, and then to lieutenant.
She was a bit pleasantly surprised by Marzio's education and erudition and gave him the following:
'If you really have a head on your shoulders, then it makes it much easier for me to make you a man.'
Faina took Marzio to the office, where he signed a paper in writing asking to be accepted into the order as a soldier. Faina immediately accepted this request, thereby Marzio, as it seemed to him, concludes a contract of untimely slavery. He was given ammunition: a battered quilted jacket, the sleeves of which were a little longer than the elbow, leather boots attached to the shin with a rope, and windings to them, a shirt with a wide neckline and long sleeves, and very short, either trousers or underwear, a relatively wide blade of a tetrahedral section 60 centimetres long, having a short and narrow doll, smoothly tapering to a long tip, was taken out of the weapon. Such a sword is suitable for both stabbing and slashing blows. The T-shaped coif was also given. Marzio remained to live in the same room in which he was originally placed. This was explained by the fact that all the bunks in the barracks were occupied.
The fortress of Rovigo was an outpost of the order on the border with Bologna. It has always housed a contingent of troops consisting of several detachments of swordsmen, spearmen and archers. Of course, the main security function was performed by regular forces, but by agreement, some parts of the Hospitaller army occupied areas in the defence of the borders. The Order worked closely with the authorities of Veneto and Liechtenstein, and it is not surprising, because Venice was a vassal of Vaduz, as well as neighbouring Ljubljana. For a long time, the Hospitallers have been an integral part of the military machine of the "Alpine" Empire, along with such orders as the Teutonic, St. George and St. Lazarus. Together they embodied the military alliance of Liechtenstein and its vassals: Veneto, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Bavaria. Recently, Vaduz (the capital of Liechtenstein) began a campaign about joining Hungary and Slovakia to its vassals, but unforeseen problems arose. From the east, a wave of nomads from Volga Bulgaria descended from the steppes of Ukraine, which overwhelmed Galicia and Romania, which was flourishing at that time. Now the Romanians were ruined and most of the kingdom had fallen under the influence of the Bulgars. Now the horde was moving west – to the lands of Hungary, Slovakia and the Balkan counties. However, they were faced with a powerful army of Liechtenstein, so their advance into the interior was noticeably slowed down. The main fighting is taking place in Hungary, where Volga Bulgaria is stubbornly heading west, slowly crowding Liechtenstein's forces. It is because of this that the forces of the order and the regular army were urgently transferred to the east.
Previously, the Hospitallers had controlled the territories of Bologna and Lombardy, which had been influenced by Liechtenstein, trying to make them their vassals, but after an unexpected war in the east, the flow of funds and people had faded, and corrupt rulers had begun to receive handouts from Genoa and Pisa, who had also had pretended on these lands. Now Lombardy and Bologna were out of the influence of Liechtenstein, and the Order of Hospitallers could no longer perform their direct duties in those lands. Due to the difficult situation, all the armed forces of the order, except for border posts and demon hunter detachments, were transferred to the east. The same applied to all other allied orders of Liechtenstein. Now only the Veneto troops and the border guards in the Alps remained on the border. The border guards had nothing to fear since no army didn't have an opportunity to attack the mountains because of Liechtenstein's ideal defensive system, but Veneto had to be careful. The union of Genoa and Pisa under the leadership of the Pope of Corsica had been in confrontation with Venice for a long time. There was a possibility that taking advantage of the opportunity, Pisa and Genoa would attack Veneto, especially since the Scarlet Order of Corsica had already been controlling Lombardy and Bologna. All of this Marzio learned from the inhabitants of the fortress of Rovigo after he was accepted as a soldier.
It appeared that among all of the inhabitants of the outpost, only Marzio was inexperienced. The barracks housed experienced soldiers, to whom the young man had to grow for a while. His training was firmly taken up by Faina, who exhausted him with daily training. She said that he would learn, by which she meant the word "learn", and not just taking lessons to wield a sword. Every day, Marzio got up at the crack of dawn, ran a marathon around the neighbourhood, performed exorbitant physical exercises, learned to fence with Faina in the ring, practised shooting with his crossbow, learned the basics of military service. Faina did not feel sorry for him: if it was necessary, she scolded him, if not, then too. She beat him mercilessly for his misdeeds, did not give him a break during fencing, so after every day of training. Marzio was destroyed mentally and physically. Some soldiers liked to watch how Marzio was engaged with Faina, which brought them unprecedented pleasure, especially in those moments when the lieutenant beat her ward and scolded him with dirty words. Marzio often had to hear: "Brat! Who's defending like that?! Hold the stance! Are you a man or just a parody it!? And how do you want to survive in this world with such skills!" etc. The young man had no choice but to obey her orders and endure the blows with fortitude. He didn't have any strength left after such training, so Marzio only had enough strength to get to his bed and fall into a dead sleep.
This went on for two weeks, after which Marzio began to slowly get fencing. The inhabitants treated him neutrally or ironically: they did not perceive the youngster as their own and only considered him a "toy" of Faina. One evening, Marzio accidentally overheard a conversation between two guards at the post:
'When do you think Faina will get tired of playing with that guy?'
'I don't know. She took hold of him tightly. Maybe she really wants to make a soldier out of him?'
'She rather wants to make an obedient husband out of him, who will not say anything against her word.'
'Hehe, it can be so! She took a fancy to him right away, I see. When we were in a tavern in Ferrara, the lieutenant immediately noticed him. She didn't take her eyes off for the whole evening, and then, when the "reds" stuck to him and some other tramps, she immediately turned on.'
'So what was there?'
'The fight was ordinary, nothing special. Everyone wanted to punch each other in the face, there was no particular reason. Well, our lieutenant gave it to them.'
'Heh, heh! Yes, she's tough a woman!'
'Of course! No wonder she is a lieutenant of the operational detachment. She's a good girl, but nobody would really take such a wife. Look at the grounds: she can punch her husband, stand up for herself, but I don't really imagine her at home by the stove with the children. It's more likely that she will put her husband aside and go on a hike, rather than sit at home.'
'So, did she bring that boy for fun or not?'
'Who knows! She's not having a heart-to-heart conversation with anyone. The guy's face is kind of cute, kind of literate... I think she'll train him so that he won't be a flop in bed, and then arrange him somewhere in the city and force him to marry himself. He's already whipped!'
'That's right. Poor guy...'
'Why is he poor? Faina is a pretty woman, and how much age difference do they have? So, now, let me remember... Yeah, just two years! So, he is probably lucky.'
These words stuck in Marzio's head. Now his situation seemed to him even more deplorable.
To perceive Faina more than a teacher – he could not, more precisely, he could not imagine it. He wanted to contact his father even more. Maybe then the situation would have improved? He was going to talk about it with Faina, but two days later a messenger from Hungary arrived in Rovigo. He brought the orders to the commandant of the fortress and along the way told about the events happening in the world.
The Bulgars advanced to the west with renewed vigour: their cavalry ravaged the lands of Hungary and Slovakia. Liechtenstein's army had already taken up defence on the Budapest line and was preparing for the attack. The armies of Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Bavaria came to their aid, but even with their help, it will be difficult to cope with the horde. As they said, in the best case, the defenders would definitely lose half of the warriors and push the nomads back, but not for long. The Kingdom of Romania was already paying tribute to the Bulgars, and even if it worked out, it would be a great shame if Liechtenstein pays some savages. The situation was getting worse.
When Marzio found out that the messenger was returning back to Hungary, he decided to act. He approached Faina and begged her to help.
'A letter to the general, are you insane?'
'But I really need it! Marzio pleaded.'
'I came all the way from Forli to bring the news to General Hugo da Fermo!' Faina took a pause to think.
'Do you really need this?' Marzio nodded. The girl sighed.
'Eh, well, okay. We'll figure something out now.'
She grabbed Marzio's letter and approached the messenger who was already about to leave.
After a short conversation, the messenger made a condescending gesture with his hand and took the letter. Marzio watched from the sidelines.
'That's it, it's done,' Faina announced, returning to Marzio.
'Do not expect an answer – he will arrive in Hungary only in two months, and it is not yet a fact that he will find your general. Tell me...,' she frowned slyly.
'What business can a worm like you have with a Lichtenstein general?'
'My family owes him,' Marzio replied dryly.
'Oh, of course. People like you can only be obligated, but at least once you can't do something useful?' Marzio ignored these words.
'Okay. Today I'm giving you one day off, and tomorrow we'll start training with renewed vigour.'
Marzio returned to his room. He didn't use any personal belongings except clothes, so they were still lying on the wooden table. He lay down on the bed and stared at the ceiling: next to the barred window, a spider had woven webs, and it glittered in a light draft. Marzio thought: 'That's the main thing, consider it done. Now I can only wait for the letter to reach my father. Will it come? Is he alright now? Is he alive? Maybe he will be angry with the way I addressed him. Although, I don't even know what's there, because Uncle Chiesa wrote the letter. How's he doing, I wonder? And how is Aunt Margaret? I even missed her grumbling a little. What can I say, I am just missing the old life. Everything was fine with me, but now I have to survive. It was at least more fun with diggers, but here it's a solid penal servitude. Maybe, of course, Faina's training will help me. I'm already holding the sword firmly, but something tells me that it will only get worse. Maybe she really wants to keep me on a leash? And then what? How to escape from it? Is it worth wishing for at all? Now I'm in an order, after all. Yes, I'm nobody, but I'm nobody with experience now. Oh, I hope my father will see that letter and answer me. Then he will tell me what to do, but in the meantime, we must wait for an answer from him. This is all I can do in my current situation.'
With these thoughts, Marzio did not notice how he fell asleep.