Rayla and the other cadets had finished morning drills and entered a classroom exhausted, they met their instructor for the day, a man named Maxwell Sanders, he'd been explaining about their equipment as their history for an hour before moving to other topics
"Alright, does any of you know why every single settlement has high stone walls like the capital or why people don't travel by roads unless its by day under armed escort?" Instructor Sanders asked
"zombies obviously, right Drill Sergent?" One of the cadets said,
Rayla recalled occasionally seeing zombies shambling around in the distance during her time working to escort merchants around,
"Yes.. and no," The instructor said, "There are multiple types of entities, zombies are just the most common and least threatening kind you can run into."
"Where do they come from Drill Sergent?" Rayla asked
"Good question, they are created when sufficient primal energy is absorbed into the ground itself, as to how they originated we really have no idea." The instructor said, "Feudal lords maintain large numbers of troops primarily to fend them off so the military won't deal with them and potentially weaken the defenses at the border,"
"Is there no way to get rid of them for good, Drill sergent"
"heh, if we knew how to do that we'd have done it by now, at best we've managed to reduce their numbers. However, they do have one benefit, when you kill them they turn back to dirt which acts as a super fertilizer,"
"Drill Sergent is our food is grown using zombie corpses! ," Rayla asked
"Well yes, but actually no, they appear to just be energy thats turned into solid materials that move around with the aim of killing anything thats an elf or human," The instructor explained. Rayla could never look at those zombies the same way after this.
"Why only humans and elves Drill sergent?" a human cadet asked
"We believe they were created as some kind of weapon to increase attrition during the calamity war which is why the animals are the lucky ones here."
"You said there are multiple types besides zombies Drill Sergent," An elf asked
"Correct, they are collectively called the neverborn, the forsaken, or plague-bearers amongst many other colorful names. Keep in mind that they all aren't going to turn into dirt, stone-crawlers turn into rock which can be used to make permacrete, ogryns can be used for getting some helium, the rest sadly don't turn into anything useful besides staying dead. The biggest threat is leaving them alone because if their numbers grow enough then they give rise to the more dangerous kinds,"
He brought out several depictions of a zombie and stone-crawlers and began explaining how to kill them.
Then moved on to the main threats. They were shown a depiction of a four-legged creature, though it looked like it was something bipedal that forced to move on all fours, it had armor made of chitin, three eyes, and finally a thick long tail with the end that looked like a spear,
"This is a ghoul, this is among the most deadly kind imaginable second only to ogryns. If you try to fight one alone you are dead, dead and dead. They can heal any major injury in mere moments,"
"Just like a dragon," Rayla thought
After lunch, they were back in the practice field with their unusually happy Drill Sargent, Rayla found the smile somewhat reminiscent of Janai which was not a good thing. They remembered how they had to jog 8 kilometers especially after the elven cadet Athtar said that this was easy causing the Sargent to make them run carrying fully loaded assault bags.
"kehehehehe, I hope you've enjoyed sitting in a classroom, cause your about to do some hellishly grueling marching before doing another 8-kilometer jog."
The Sargent proceeded to show them how to march, then told them to form up and do it, Rayla often did marches back in the silvergrove for miles during her training, How hard can this be?
30 minutes later, Harder!, much harder! Rayla regretted her prior thoughts, she and the others often lost their balance several times already, two sprained their ankles. I didn't realize marching would be harder and more dangerous than jogging.
She had to look to the right at the guide to maintain position and holding her rifle in a port-arm while trying to keep pace without losing balance, to make matters worse they'd have to march for real during the Day of Founding military parade.
6:00 PM Katolis castle,
Callum was in his large office drinking coffee while going through some paperwork when the door opened, he saw Rayla shamble in and collapse on the sofa, "I see you survived Day 1 of training,"
"My legs feel like they've turned to stone" she looked like she was inches away from dying, "Even the hot shower wasn't enough to heal my sore muscles,"
"Don't worry too much, you just have to survive for a few months and it will all be over," he smiled at her.
"You're a horrible person and a terrible friend ya big dumb human!" she felt like her soul was floating away from her mouth, "Is this training or punishment?"
"After the first three weeks are over, then the drill sergeants will stop going easy on you and start putting you through the meat grinder,"
"How do they expect us to learn anything like this?!"
"The point isn't to teach you anything," He let out a chuckle, "its to break you down and reforge you into a soldier who can handle this kind of thing, it took me two months to get used to boot camp, the learning and other delicate stuff comes afterwards."
Rayla was confused, no matter how much she tried she couldn't imagine Callum surviving half of what she just went through, "Just how indestructible are you?"
"Actually, I'm more fragile than glass so make sure to handle me with care."
she rolled her eyes, "Does this marching even help in fighting?"
"Not one bit," he said without hesitation
"HAAA?! then why do it at all?"
"To build discipline, cohesion, and a sense of camaraderie in the military... outside of drills you will only be marching during parades and ceremonial functions,"
"Is that why we have to keep our legs straight?"
"Nah, this style of marching originated in the days of the old Erdus empire, back then guns had pretty poor accuracy and range, so you needed troops to move around in tight formations, not easy to do when you're being shot at by guns and cannons,"
"Empire?"
"Yeah, back then it was a huge empire, Katolis was a part of it before the whole thing collapsed, we inherited many cultural and military traditions from them."
"So your using things made by your enemy?"
"Yes, Neolandia's armies had problems with their men bunching up due to the unstable desert sand so they incorporated wide arm swings to solve it, Evenere and Estaria have shorter swings, basically each nation made changes to suit their own traditions or situations,"
Rayla got curious and tried marching by swinging her right arm in wide arcs. She found it not all that different though she felt that her arms would join her legs if she kept his up, "I hope this helps me when we fight zombies,"
"You'd better make sure to train properly then, because I'm taking you cadets to fight some after we're done dealing with your landlord and viscount,"
"Where exactly are we going?"
"I had originally planed to take you lot there next week but due to circumstance I'm pushing it to later. We're heading to the cursed caldera, its where the moon nexus is." he was looking intently at a piece of paper he held in one hand.
"Please tell its named after the famous explorer Sir Phineas Cursed," she prayed to the moon it was someplace fluffy.
"Nope, its name comes from the fact that its the biggest infestation sight in the whole continent," he had an almost demonic smile as he used a flight light on his face.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Isn't hat going too far!," She pleaded with a pair of big round puppy dog eyes, "Is there a way for me to not go?"
"Well you could always not go... but", Callum cocked an eyebrow as he turned off the flashlight and put it away, "would you change your mind for an All-You-Can-Eat deluxe buffet?"
she started imagining being surrounded by high class buffet rich people would consider normal but then "eh... what did I just do?" she noticed she was signing a sheet of paper without even realizing it,
Callum took the paper with a bright smile on his face, "thank you for signing the application for going to the Caldera,"
She fell to her knees, "No, no that's not true, thats impossible!"
"Read the document you just signed, you will know it to be true," he held it up to her to grab,
She took it and began to read it, "NOOOO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" She had forgotten who she was dealing with and slowly went back to the sofa to die in peace,
"Don't worry about it too much, if it was really that dangerous then I wouldn't be sending a bunch of cadets there now would I,"
"You could've told me that sooner!"
"If I did then it would take much longer to break you down,"
"What are you? my drill Sargent?!"
"Technically I'm your liege, but yes my job is also to make sure those under my command are combat ready," he said as he was reading some documents,
"You said its the moon nexus right, I was taught we destroyed it before banishing humanity,"
"You did and we're not going to the ruins," He turned on the flashlight again, "we're going to the dark tunnels underneath it all"
"Whats there?"
"Think of it like a miniature Xadia,"
"Huh? what does that mean?"
"If I tell you then it would ruin the surprise,"
"Fine but if we ever get to xadia I'm not buying you a moonberry surprise," she puffed her cheek and pouted
"I'm sure I can bribe someone else to buy some for me," he started playing with a pouch,
She could clearly hear the unique sound of Katolis gold coins in it and guessed there were probably 14 coins in total.
"Come here you! those are my bribes!" She began to chase Callum around the room, she had to admit he was a slippery one as he used magic to escape whenever she got close enough to grab him and the fatigue from boot camp meant she couldn't keep this up for long. She noticed he was near the sofa and thought of a way to get him, she began to chase him in circles around the sofa till it got repetitive and as he was about turn she jumped over the sofa to grab him
"GOTCHA!" they both fell to the ground with Rayla grabbing his arms pinning him down, "Promise you won't be bribing any of my people and I may let you go,"
"You do realize this is a bit problematic, right? He said as his face was a deep red,
She felt her own face redden as she realized they were in a rather comprising position especially if someone walked in, "yeah if someone walked in..."
"A little late for that,"
they both turned to the door to see Aanya with a mischievous smile while riding Eva with Ellis who whistled in a romantic tune and after seeing them, while Eva looked like she wanted to join in. The three of them proceeded to howl like wolves during a full moon.
"This is...uhhhh" Callum tried to speak but Aanya held a hand up telling them not to speak,
"Don't worry we didn't see a thing," Aanya said as she proceeded to cover her eyes and mouth.
Ellis nodded s she covered Aanya's ears, "We'll leave you two alone."
"Wait! this isn't..." Rayla tried to explain but they had already left and closed the door
Callum and Rayla could hear them talk on the other side of the door,
Aanya: "Think we can pin Ezran down?"
Ellis: "nah, he'd bribe Eva with a jellypart to help him escape,"
Aanya: "Yeah, you're right,"
Eva: woof!
"I suggest we not wait for someone else walks in,"
"Point taken," she quickly got off him while noticing how red her face was after looking in a mirror, "I didn't know Ezran was such a big player,"
"He isn't, their too young for that, besides its all fun and games for them." Callum shrugged,
"I'll see you at dinner then" she quickly left before he could say anything, after closing the door she felt her heart beating loudly.
"I guess we'll talk later then" Callum kept staring at the closed door for some time before going back to work though he struggled to get anything done,
Later that night,
"YOU IDIOT! IF ANYONE ELSE WALKED IN THEN IT'D BE A MAJOR SCANDAL!" Rayla was clutching her head with both hands berating herself still over the recent events, she knew how a single rumor could spiral out of control and last thing she wanted was cause him trouble after he arbitrarily decided to take her in like some prince in a fairy tale but she quickly stopped herself from completing that train of though. "Don't, he's royalty and you're not, and this ain't a fairy tale besides he'll probably have to marry some snobby high noble's daughter because of politics. Last thing he needs is some refugee messing up the kingdom's politics."
She fell backwards on to the bed staring at the ceiling praying she wouldn't cause any more problems later on.
