After giving John an earful for gathering semi-legendary beasts for his unit, Dante walked to the training area with John following behind, two large bumps on his head from getting hit by the duke. No one laughed, as it had not been long since they had seen their leader angry.
"First of all, let me apologize for the shit my nephew is making you go through. If that crazed training wasn't enough, he's even brought rare beasts for you to tame. I can now understand why you would be having issues. However, the time to regret has unfortunately passed us. What we can do now is make do with the situation at hand." Dante said, taking a deep breath. "While the situation initially does seem to be troublesome given how hard the beasts John has brought for you to train are, if you train long enough and hard enough, I can assure you that you will definitely be able to grow exponentially through the union of man and beast. But you'll figure that out by yourself eventually, so I won't talk about that."
As the caretakers of the beasts slowly brought them out, the beasts walked up to their contracted soldiers.
"I want all of you to organize yourselves according to the type of beasts you are contracted with. The Kirin contractors will stand close to me, and the nightmare contractors with Friedrich. As for the rest of you, since I have not yet found someone to lead your units, I want you to stand according to your beasts in columns of five soldiers each. Is that understood?" John spoke in a loud voice as he walked in front of Dante, his Kirin standing in front of him.
"Today I will not be the one overseeing your training. In fact, I will take part in it with you. As I mentioned before, the commander-in-chief will be overseeing it. Now, sir, if you would." John said as he got off the podium and stood right in front of it.
"ATTENTION!" Dante roared at the top of his lungs. The soldiers' feet stomped on the ground in unison.
"Organize yourselves as your team leader instructed you to. I will start training once you are organized." Dante said, his hands behind his back as he watched the soldiers swiftly organize themselves.
"Great," Dante exclaimed as he jumped off the podium and started to walk around the troops, flanked by beasts almost as tall as they were.
"First of all, I see that there are no saddles placed on these beasts. Unit commander, mind telling me why that is the case?" Dante asked as he stood in front of John with an imposing look on his face.
"Sir, the blacksmiths are working hard to make custom saddles for the entire unit, which is taking an unexpected amount of time, sir." John said after stepping forward, stomping his right leg on the ground and offering a short salute as any ordinary soldier would.
"I see. If that is the case, there is nothing that can be done about it. How long will it take for them to get the saddles done?" Dante asked after a light nod.
"They should be done by the end of the week, sir" John replied.
"That is good then. Return to your position." Dante said as John offered another salute and returned to his spot.
"Since you don't have saddles for now, we will have to train as is, then it seems. Unfortunate, but doable." Dante said as he walked a couple of steps back.
"First, let's see how fast you can mount and dismount your beasts, shall we?" Dante said, looking at the entire unit lose all the color in their faces.
"On the count of three, I want you to start mounting. Get that?" Dante shouted.
"SIR YES SIR!"
"One… two… three… climb," Dante shouted, slowly counting each number to give the soldiers plenty of time to calm themselves. But it was no use.
As Dante stood there dumbstruck at the sight of the men being completely unable to even get onto their beasts, he honestly had no words to say.
"Enough, enough. Just stop. I will show you how to properly get onto a mana beast." Dante said as he facepalmed himself and his hand slid down in disappointment.
Dante had expected the situation to be bad given how John had described it to him. But this was just goddamn unbelievable. Some soldiers were getting knocked off before they even got the chance to get on, while others were being chewed on by their partners. And worst of all was their unit leader, whose steed was so scared of its rider that it shit itself... quite literally.
Dante sighed as he looked at the sight before him.
"Oh gods help me, for you know I will need it," he whispered to himself.
"First of all, I want to ask if all of you have named your partners?" Dante asked. The soldiers shook their heads.
"I see, well after I am done training you today, you will take your time naming them. Get that?" Dante asked. The soldiers nodded.
Letting out a small sigh Dante spoke, "I want each and every single one of you to come here one by one. There is no other way around this right now." Dante called out to John, who walked over to him, his Kirin standing right behind him.
"Try getting on your beast," Dante said. John looked at Dante with a confused look, but he followed the order.
He jumped and held onto the Kirin's horn, trying to get on top of it. As he did, the beast's legs weakened with fear, and it fell to the ground.
"Do you see the problem here?" Dante asked, a stern look in his eyes.
"Ummm, the beast is too scared?" John asked, an eyebrow raised.
"Precisely," Dante said. "I don't know what you did to it, but the damn thing is scared shitless of you. Quite literally." Dante pointed to the pile of shit that was sitting next to John's initial position.
"You aren't supposed to tame your beast like this, you fool. That thing is your partner, your teammate. Treat it like that, and then we shall test it out again." Dante said, then proceeded to hound at John for another two minutes about the mistakes he had made.
After that, Dante called each of the 100 members individually and pointed out the problems they were having. By the time he was done, it was already time for the sun to set.
"Haaah, it is clear to me, I should not have left the beast training to you," Dante said, looking at John with a disappointed gaze. "Well, you're young, so a couple of mistakes can be forgiven. But you must always remember the position you are in, John. There are people everywhere who would capitalize on every single mistake you make, whether you like it or not. You aren't an average kid, John. Remember that."
Dante then made one final announcement.
"From tomorrow onwards, for one entire month straight, Sir Beaumont, my second in command, will be the one who will conduct the beast training portion of your daily drill. I will attend when I have the time, but unfortunately, that is a very rare thing. Now, unfortunately, it seems like it has already gotten late for today. So I will let you guys leave, but by this time tomorrow, I want a list of the names of each one of you and your named partners on my table. Is that understood?" Dante said, a serious look on his face.
"SIR YES SIR!" the soldiers shouted as they got into attention position.
"Great. I shall leave you to your unit leader then." Dante said as he shook hands with John and left.
"THANK YOU FOR THE HELP, SIR!" John saluted, followed by his soldiers in the shout.
After that training session with Dante ended, John dispersed his troops.
"Haaaah, I have been too complacent. I thought just because I was able to do a few things well, that I would be able to do everything perfectly. It seems my own thoughts have gotten to my head." John thought to himself as he sat on the training ground next to his black Kirin.
"A partner huh?" John said as he looked at the Kirin and stroked the hair that grew on the beast's neck. "I better go find those bastards then. Now what should I name you?" John said with a smile.