As he sat there a boy who looked too decent with a short sword on his waist walked up to him. Unlike the other people who enlisted today this particular boy had a joyous aura and the Seargent knew this was going to be interesting.
"How may I help you lad?" He asked. "I want to join the army proper." came the reply.
"Oh really now? Alright, I'll need to know your name, age and occupation first before I let you sign." the Seargent said to the boy who looked to eager to join. What he heard next made him either angry or wanted to laugh.
" Hans Willmer, 18, rogue noble sir." After a moment the Seargent finally made a response. " You trying to make me laugh son?"
he said."No sir I'm serious." Hans said with a determined tone."You do realise that the highest rank an enlisted man can get is Seargent right?" Seargent Luger said. " I know sir."
This was the first time Luger had encountered a noble who was willing to join the army, it was then that he concluded that what reasons the boy had was not his concern." Alright, sign here." he finally said to the noble. Hans signed a piece of parchment that basically said he's now owned by the army.
"An hour from now the carrige carrying new recruits including you will leave. Be here on time or you'll be imprisoned for desertion,
understand?" "Sir yes sir". As Hans left a smile formed in Luger's lips "Boy I don't know if you signed up at the right or at the wrong time.
On the way to the army camp the carriage was filled with twelve recruits. Hans was able to know two of them. One was a tall guy who was about twenty named James while the other guy was a skinny one about his age named Sigrid.
" I tell you were at war with Valm." said a recruit known as Bostok. " Now that's a shame for the Exalt. First his duaghter was born then next thing you know you're at war with a country on the other side of the world. On my opinion, it sucks to be Exalt.
" At least we have an excellent tactician on our side. I hear no one in this world of ours can best him." said Sigrid with the entire carriage nodding in agreement with him.
While the recruits were talking an arrow hit the driver on the head making him land at the center of their feet.
"Bandits!" shouted James with audible nervousness in his voice. " Grab a sword and fend the bastards off!" ordered Seargent Luger. " Work in pairs and overpower them one at a time!" came his second order.
Hans immediately pulled out his short sword and jumped out the carriage at it's side. His first opponent was a berserker that had an enormous battle axe. As his axe in the air Hans ran at him and with all his might punched the berserker at the neck, a move he was not expecting. As the berserker droped chocking, Hans made quick work by stabbing him at the chest were the heart was and to be sure he pulled it out and repeated the process.
His senses were above his limits due to his adrenaline but he was not given a chance to rest as a myrmidon came charging at him. He parried a wild slash and blocked a counter attack. His enemy moved backwards to get enough space to charge him. The myrmidon charged with a wild battle cry not knowing his mistake.
Hans sidestepped a vertical slash and jabbed his short sword at his opponent's stomach. He was able to eliminate his enemy but his only weapon was too deep so without hesitation grabbed the sword of his former opponent.
As he stood up two more bandits came at him. He was now in a bad situation, first he was pinned against a tree, second all his allies was trying to deal with their own problem and third the second bandit was using spear. The bandits also knew Hans was in a desperate situation so instead of killing him they stopped dead in their tracks and tried tease him by scaring him.
It could have worked but a sword came out of the chest of the bandit holding the axe. There Hans was happy to see Seargent Luger that an urge to hug him got him but put the feeling away as quickly as it went. As the one holding the spear was to distracted to see his partner being impaled a slash cutted his spear in half. He tried to run away but was triped by the soldier from earlier. Before he could look up Hans finished him cleanly.
A horn was heard and every remaining bandit retreated to the forest. " You fought good, tell me who trained you?" Luger asked. " My father sir." was the reply he recieved.
" Anybody injured!?" asked the Seargent. " Sir I am." said Sigrid with a visible gash at his left arm. Luckily no one died save for Sigrid who was wounded. They counted eight dead enemy bodies. Hans felt a bit proud of himself knowing three of the kills was from him.
Later did Hans know that the driver was a simple merchant who had five kids, he felt bad knowing this information but also felt happy knowing that the army will send five thousand gold to his family for his services.
As they entered the camp they were greeted by Captain Stoltz. As Stoltz heard Luger's report he sent Sigrid over to the infirmary, to his relief the recruit will heal in two days top. His first order was to send us to a quarter master. The quartermaster gave us what we needed:our armor (although there's not much), a sword, A secondary weapon if we had one but if not we were given a knife, boots , gloves , helmet , jug and a shield. They were then assigned to a file (a file has twelve men). He and Bostok were in the same file. The commander of their file was Seargent Luther, a loving man to both his family and his men but a ruthless fighter in combat."
"As you all know the rumors about us being at war with Valm is true." Captain Stoltz said to all his standing in salute. " They have landed in the ports of Regna Ferox and was able to capture a town that leads to the ports. Since we are the nearest regiment near that town our job is to capture and defend it while the army proper of Ylisse gets there. We will be joined by another regiment but fact is fact, we are outnumbered three to one. The outcome of the war is at our hands so I ask you this. Will you give your best to capture that place and defend it till death!?" "SIR YES SIR" shouted all his men. " Good, rest now for we will need all our energy for tomorrow.
That night Hans could not sleep due to the pressure. As he exhaled heavily a man from his file named Kyle noticed him. " Can't sleep because of tomorrow eh? Thats understandable, here's a tip if you can sleep just think of the most random thing ever." and with that Kyle went back to his sleep. Hans thought about it and after a few minutes he smiled and sleep consumed him.