Ceremony. Every student was lining up in a straight line with high discipline as the teachers and several soldiers from the nearby military base helped with the ceremony. This was a welcoming ceremony for the new students and promotional ceremony for some lucky students.
The ceremony was simple. Some of the second year students would get promoted to Corporal while the third year would be promoted to Sergeant. For Dean, it was a massive flex from whoever retrieved the rank from the commander. One of the second year students that Dean saw was Adams.
'Damn, I never thought Adams was this good to receive a promotion,' Dean thought as he saw Adams in the front podium with several other students.
Regulation was quite simple. One of the biggest flex was the fact that anyone higher than the rank of PFC must be called as 'sir'. Dean would say that it was a reward that some people deserved. Adam seemed to be one of those people that deserved the rank.
Dean wondered whether he could get a promotion like that or not. He wasn't good at magic, but perhaps, he could excel in other things. He and the other students saluted once every single senior student was promoted to their ranks. Somehow, he felt proud that Adams got promoted into a corporal.
After the ceremony was done, Dean went back to the classroom and it was business as usual, but this time, everyone wore the woodland military uniform. Nobody wore the regular academy uniform at that day. It really reminded Dean of his previous school.
Someone knocked on the door and then he barged through, "ALRIGHT! PIPSQUEAKS! STAND UP!"
Every students stood up and their whole body tensed up. Dean stood up as well, but he had known what happened. It was the same staff sergeant that oversaw his testing. Yup, this was a military school. What else describe a military school better than an angry staff sergeant? He wanted to smile in relief, but he wouldn't. He folded his shirt to the point where most of his upper muscles bulged.
"MY NAME IS STAFF SERGEANT GAVRIL! WHEN I ASK, I WANT EVERYONE TO SAY AYE SIR NAY SIR, UNDERSTAND?" The voice was so loud, and yet, it was so dry.
"AYE SIR!" Everyone said in loud voice, but one student that was probably too shocked to answer.
The staff sergeant approached that quiet student, every stomp coming from his boots was the embodiment of fear. Still, everyone who came from military background was pretty much unfazed, including both Andre and Orion. The dinguses were probably used to that kind of thing as well.
In fact, unlike Dean who wasn't expecting this kind of thing to happen today, Orion and Andre were totally expecting it. Their boots were polished until it was shining that they could see their own faces and Orion didn't use any Pomade to style his hair. It didn't mean Dean's boots were dirty, but it was not as shiny as Orion's boots.
"YOU THERE, DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT I SAID EARLIER?" Gavril shouted.
"Aye sir," he said, quietly, almost whispering.
"LOUDER!" He shouted.
"Aye sir!" He spoke in a bit louder tone.
"DID YOU HEAR WHAT I SAID? LOUDERRRRRR!" The long dry shout came out of the sergeant's mouth.
"AYE SIR!"
"GOOD! UNLESS YOU'RE AN IDIOT, I SUGGEST YOU DON'T REPEAT IT!"
"AYE SIR!"
Poor student, Dean thought. He was lousy at wearing his boots and it seemed that he put a button on the wrong hole on his shirt. No wonder why he got smoked even on the first day. Well, it wouldn't be that hellish, to be entirely honest.
To think about it, this staff sergeant would continue shouting like this for 10 weeks until they got clearance to become a military personnel. The training would consist of almost every single thing that a student needed to fulfill their physical requirement for the military.
Dean had gone through this kind of phase in his previous school, going through it again for the second time would be a piece of cake. Besides, the staff sergeant wasn't swearing as much as he thought he would be. And yet, some students were still scared shitless. Well, Dean was already a military personnel from the get go, so, there was that.
"FOR THOSE WHO ARE FROM MILITARY SCHOOL, STEP UP!" The drill sergeant shouted.
Some students stepped forward. There were two girls and three boys. The boys were including Dean, Andre, and Orion. They lined up in front of the class in position. For once, Dean really thought military school was a leverage at this point.
"I WANT YOU FIVE TO STEP OUTSIDE, UNDERSTAND?"
"AYE SIR!" They all shouted and all of them stepped outside of the classroom.
It seemed that the other classroom had the same fate with Dean's classroom of being smoked by their sergeant. Loud shout could be heard across the hallway with pretty much the same dry tone.
However, why would those who have attended military school previously be called outside? Dean had no idea whatsoever. Someone, who seemed to be a corporal, walked towards their direction. Dean sighed in relief knowing that the corporal was Corporal Adams.
"Alright, listen up. Unlike those who are inside, I will bet you all have known how things work. So, I will just make it short. You all will be assigned to a different classroom than those civilians," Adams said in a very calm and soft tone, unlike Gavril.
Bunch of footsteps could be heard from the classroom, the next thing that Dean knew was several students running towards the stairs followed by a shouting staff sergeant. "RUN! RUN! RUN!" He kept shouting as he followed the running students from behind.
The classroom became empty and no one had any idea what was going on. Adams peeked into the classroom and he looked at it. "Alright, it's empty, get inside, privates!" Adams said.
All of them entered the empty classroom and Dean observed the the staff sergeant took the other students to. It seemed that they brought them to the same yard where they were having the ceremony before.
"Alright, privates, listen up, right now, your assignment is patrolling a select area in Almara Island under my supervision while attending your education until your friend had finished their basic training," Adams explained.
Adams then showed the students a map of Almara Island. He then pointed at a marked area on the map. The area was a commercial area surrounding the park. It seemed to be the place where they would be patrolling.
"We'll be patrolling in Dubium District. This is a commercial area littered with people with deep pockets, including some of our students. Patrol duty will always begin at 1700 and ends at 2200. Any question before I continue?" Adams asked.
"Can we go shopping while we are there, sir?" Andre asked, knowing that the situation wasn't as tense as with Gavril.
"Hahaha, very funny," Adams let out a fake laugh. "Of course not. This is only a temporal assignment for 10 weeks before your friends finished their basic training. Anyway, that's all for today. Good morning, and good luck. Dismissed."