Chapter 16:
The next day, Rose woke up, as usual, ready to start work. The previous day had been a true ordeal, to be completely honest. Now, he and Murat stood before the castle gates. They were prepared for the first day of recruit separation: they would differentiate those with better physical capabilities from those who would require more training.
As soon as he received a nod, the marshal stepped forward to capture the attention of all potential recruits.
"Alright, cadets. We will now proceed with a physical examination to separate you into groups based on your ability and competence," he declared in a loud, firm voice. After all, they didn't want a weakling who was only looking for subsidies mixed with those who truly had the potential to be excellent soldiers.
The words of the incomparable marshal, naturally, only made the people shift nervously as they awaited the test.
"Now, form lines and go through the tests in an orderly fashion, to ensure we qualify all of you in the most appropriate way possible," Murat ordered again. Beside him, leaning on the ground, Desmos seemed to feel a slight sadistic pleasure in intimidating people. The Spear of Destiny simply made its blades gleam sinisterly under the morning light.
Naturally, the threat of a spear taller than a man of almost two meters was intimidating enough to make people behave and start forming an orderly line.
"Did you have to intimidate them?" Rose asked as soon as he and Desmos were alone.
[I was incredibly bored, I literally have nothing to do here... no nymphs to polish me, no wailing souls to put me to sleep] the spear complained, rolling its eyes... metaphorically speaking, of course.
Certainly, there used to be a good number of wailing souls in this place. However, due to his performance and the return of hope, the vast majority of the souls stopped being completely in despair, as they liked to see how the people they waited for could have a more or less normal life.
Putting that aside for a moment, he simply turned around and re-entered the castle, following the first group to the backyard. They had set up a small obstacle course there, a simplified version of the one his father used for recruit selection tests. The versions for the special forces, or worse yet, the one the man himself used to stay in shape, would probably have killed hundreds, if not anyone who tried to complete them.
But this was only a selection test, so they would undoubtedly be lenient with them.
"Move those lazy asses, ladies...! I've seen little girls do much better," Murat said, with the "kindness" that a military man accustomed to excellence could afford.
For hours, Rose merely watched as the men rolled, or at least tried to, climbed, and fell to the ground, unable to support their own weight.
[There is a long way to go] Desmos commented dryly.
Although some were quite decent and managed to complete at least half of the course, the vast majority barely passed two-fifths of it.
In fact, the climbing wall was the main obstacle where most failed, and the damned thing didn't even reach two meters. Clearly, the townspeople were in much worse shape than he had imagined.
By the time the day was about to end and people began to return home, practically no one had managed to advance beyond three-quarters of the obstacle course.
"It seems we will need more than simple food to make these people at least minimally useful," Murat commented, approaching Rose. He sank heavily, wondering why the hell he had only brought ten soldiers. He was a paranoid man by nature; he would normally have brought at least a regiment (between one thousand and three thousand soldiers) with him.
"It could be worse," Rose commented calmly, while firmly planting Desmos into the earth before simply sitting down next to the marshal.
"I don't see how, my lord," the marshal replied dryly.
Rose calmly commented, "You haven't heard Father's stories." His progenitor had always been a natural prodigy in combat; even with the eye curse that forced him to bandage himself tightly, he rarely needed to uncover them to fight.
However, such mastery was not free. He had dedicated years to perfecting his reflexes to absolute perfection, finally becoming the most accomplished warrior the world had ever witnessed. But that path was forged through an inhuman amount of trial and error.
As he himself had said: "to learn to run, you have to start by knowing how to walk." Although he shared Murat's opinion on how incredibly pathetic the peasants' exhibition had been, it was crucial to remember the differences in height. Murat's soldiers measured between five feet nine inches and five feet eleven inches; Murat himself reached six feet one inch, and Rose surpassed six feet three inches. In contrast, the villagers, if lucky, exceeded five feet. Damn, even Aurélie, at five feet seven inches, was taller than most!
"I guess we can't ask for great miracles," Murat admitted at the end of the day. Qin always said, "Conquer the world in 10 years, not in one day..." Of course, Qin was a damned monster, since most people would have taken much longer. Damn! Even Alexander didn't achieve as much in a lifetime as Qin did in only ten years, but that wasn't the point.
"No, we can't," Rose nodded. After all, rushing would only make things worse. The clearest example was himself: by panicking and not asking Mina for more exact figures, he had practically exaggerated the situation and made the work difficult from the start.
End of Chapter