The men felt their sleepiness disappear, and they all stood at attention in front of Caesar, "We greet the Marshall!" they roared out.
Caesar nodded his head approvingly, "we will wait for the rest to arrive. It appears that the archers and guards are late," Caesar said slowly.
The Knights all smiled evilly inside and thought to themselves, "haha, we just came here early knowing you would punish the late ones… little did we know the entire knight regiment had the same idea."
Caesar, of course, had no idea what they were thinking and crossed his arms, he tapped his forearm impatiently as he waited.
While they were waiting, the young and new recruits all stared speechlessly at Caesar's perfectly sculpted body, they gulped down in anticipation and asked the older members.
"W-will we be able to get a body like that if we train hard enough."
"Haha, give up, kid… according to legend, the Marshall is a dragon" one of the older men said
"A d-dragon? How is that even possible."
"Nobody knows buddy. This crazy bastard brought like 50 flame bears in a net at one point."
"How is that even possible for a human?" the young man asked back.
"Exactly my point, young one," the older man replied with a thoughtful expression on his face.
The young recruits all looked at Caesar with reverence reflected in their eyes, "I wonder if he is a real dragon?" They all thought inwardly
Finally, after about 20 minutes of waiting another large group of men appeared from the castle gates, in fact, there was a large number of women with them as well… The elves and archers had finally arrived.
"We greet the Marshall!" they roared loudly.
"You're all late…" Caesar said slowly.
The archers and elves all shivered slightly and averted their line of sight, "We apologize!" they roared out once again.
"I don't need your apologies. I need you to be better…" Caesar said calmly and waited for the next group.
"Yes, Marshall!" The elves and archers all yelled hiding their inner grievances
The middle-aged knights all smiled sinisterly seeing this scene "heh, those losers are finally going to get what's coming to them."
"You said it, Sam!" another middle-aged man whispered in Sam's ear.
Caesar and the rest waited for about 15 more minutes before finally a small group finally made it passed the gates, they all looked slightly unfit and rough. They were naturally the guards stationed at many of the noble households.
"Eh, why the hell are we here too? Are we considered to be part of the military?" the guard grumbled begrudgingly while they walked over.
They slowly lined up next to the others and yawned loudly.
A vein appeared above Caesar's eye, "you are late!" Caesar said while seething killing intent.
The guards were broken out of their stupor, and sweat flowed down their faces.
"s-sorry, I overslept" a few of the guards muttered out half-baked excuses.
"Go run around the kingdom gates ten times," Caesar said with a raised eyebrow…
"Did he say two?" One of the guards asked the guy to the right of him.
"Y-yeah, I think that's what he said," the other replied.
Another vein popped out above Caesar's right eye, "HURRY THE HELL UP AND GO RUN AROUND THE KINGDOM T-W-E-N-T-Y T-I-M-E-S, Caesar spelled it out for them.
"Yes, Sir!" The guards roared out fearfully and started running.
The knights all snickered at the sight of the guards stumbling away, "haha, getting here early was truly worth it!" they all thought inwardly.
Caesar looked at the remaining soldiers and cleared his throat, "we have many new recruits after our last battle, and because of the promised new military school, today I am going to put you through many tests, depending on your performance you can get sponsored by me."
Caesar paused for a second and looked at all of the soldier's eager and earnest eyes.
"Being sponsored by me means that you will get the best resources, and all costs will be covered … granted if you show sub-par talent the sponsorship will be terminated."
After hearing Caesar's words, all of the troops gulped nervously and shook with anticipation… "this is our chance to make it big!" they all thought excitedly and looked at Caesar with eagerness.
Seeing this, Caesar smiled and said: "come, follow me into the wooden arena."
The troops all followed behind Caesar carefully. They inspected their surroundings curiously… "I wonder how he is going to test us?" a few elves and knights whispered amongst themselves.
----
In another part of the kingdom, Renee and Adriana were on top of a house, they were adorned in black garbs and were quietly waiting...
"Do you think he was lying?" Adriana asked Renee curiously.
Renee shook her head and smiled wryly "although he is sly, he doesn't go back on his word."
Suddenly the sound of footsteps interrupted their conversation, causing them to look over at the streets.
"Hey, did you hear about those things the Rudolph family did?" A village woman asked in a sad tone.
"I know, I can't believe Rebecca died that way… I thought she moved to another kingdom."
More and more villagers started to crowd around the streets gossiping about the Rudolph household.
"Hey, remember when we started that rebellion when the Marshall was imprisoned, do you think we can do that again?" A farmer asked in a curious tone.
"These bastards have been lying to us and stealing our money for years now… I can't even think of kneeling before them," A village woman gnashed her teeth and replied.
"LET'S SHOW THEM HOW STRONG WE ARE!" A clothed, older man roared, resulting in the crowd getting more excited than they already were.
Renee squinted her eyes at the many yelling people in the crowd and noticed they were the many butlers under Sebastian.
The crowd under the influence of the butlers started heading towards the Rudolph household angrily, seeing this Renee laughed softly.
"Haha, that Sly fox," She whispered with a smile plastered on her face.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Caesar walked into the large square arena with the troops all slowly following behind him. The arena was quite simple, with wooden logs enclosing the area.
Caesar walked towards the middle of the arena and turned around. He faced the troops and put his hands behind his back.
"For every 100 people, you will form one squad. For each squad, you will have one commander… You may choose your squads and commanders" Caesar shouted loudly
The knights, archer, and elves all looked at each other with hesitation.
"YOU HAVE 10 MINUTES!" Caesar roared loudly
The troops started scrambling once they heard Caesar's bellow, they looked for their friends or the most reliable people amongst them.
"Where the hell is David?"
"Amon? Where are you, Amon!"
Caesar waited patiently for the multiple groups to form, his shirtless figure pacing back and forth had distracted many of the female elves.
After about 15 minutes, Caesar could finally see around 50 groups form, they were encompassing the huge wooden arena with Caesar at its center.
Some groups were purely elves, while others were a mix between knights, elves, and archers. The diverse groups all shared one thing in common. However, none of them had a commander.
Caesar raised his eyebrows, "I am certain that I had ordered all of you to pick out a commander," Caesar said as he swept his gaze through the troops.
A knight slowly walked out from his group and saluted, "Sir, we feel that we should hold a competition to determine who the commanders will be," The knight said calmly with determination reflected in his eyes.
Caesar raised his eyebrows and looked around at the other groups. They had all nodded in consent when his gaze swept over them.
"Sigh, very well… I give permission. You can hold a competition within your own group
s, make it snappy" Caesar ordered
"Thank you, Sir!" The troops all shouted in appreciation.
Caesar nodded his head and observed the many groups. He was quite curious as to how they would determine their own commanders.
Once the middle-aged knight had gotten permission from Caesar, he walked back into his group with a devious grin.
The knight looked at all of the young recruits sinisterly as he slowly took off his shirt and placed it on the ground, "how about we have a good old arm-wrestling competition" he asked curiously.
"You're a god damn genius, Tom!" A few other middle-aged knights roared and took off their shirts as well.
"OHHHHH!" The Knights roared loudly as they competed with their brute strength.
Witnessing this scene made Caesar's lips twitch, he smiled wryly and looked over at the elves… The girls were all competing with magic while the men were… are they having a staring contest?
Caesar massaged his temples while looking at this buffoonery. He waited a few minutes before. Finally, loud cheers echoed throughout the arena grounds.
"Haha, I, Tom, am the greatest!"
"Who would've thought that Sylvan had the best eye-sight?"
"Anellia can use tier 3 magic already?!?!"
Shouts of shock and victory cries were heard from all over.
Caesar clapped his hands loudly and effectively gained all of their attention, He raised his chin high and said: "I congratulate those that have won their commander position, now let me explain what your next objective is"
All of the troops gulped audibly and looked at Caesar with anticipation; all of them wanted to be sponsored by the Marshall.
"We will have four brackets named A, B, C, and D, respectively. Each bracket will have 12 groups inside."
Caesar paused for a second and let the troops take in what they had just heard.
"Each bracket will have one battle between two groups at a time. The winner moves on while the loser joins a separate bracket called the loser bracket."
Talking to hear, Caesar snapped his fingers, and a large box was brought to the middle of the wooden arena by a few butlers.
"The commanders will orderly come and grab a piece of paper from the box, the papers will inform you of which bracket and group number you are" Caesar calmly explained.
The troops all nodded their heads in understanding, and the commanders all glanced at each other warily.
"Start moving. We don't have all day," Caesar's roar resounded in the ears of all those present.
"Yes, Marshall!"
----
In another part of the kingdom, two girls were impatiently waiting on top of a roof. In front of them, crowds of people were constantly jeering and throwing rocks at a noble household.
"When do you think we should sneak in?" Adriana turned her head towards Renee and asked curiously.
"He said that we should know when we have the chance… let's wait a little bit longer," Renee said after contemplating for a second.
----
A middle-aged man with red hair and wrinkles apparent on his face was currently breathing heavily while roaring at his servants.
"HOW THE HELL WAS THAT INFORMATION LEAKED? AND WHERE IS THAT SLAVE WHORE WHO KILLED MY SON?"
"I-I don't know master Rudolph. The guards are all currently out of the manor as well."
"GODDAMNIT, WHO PLOTTED THIS?"
----
The main culprit behind all of this was currently watching the 50 or so commanders line up in an orderly fashion and grab a piece of paper from the box one at a time."
After waiting a few minutes, the groups finally got their pieces of paper. Seeing this, Caesar grabbed four long pieces of wood and created four sections inside the wooden arena.
"This is group A," Caesar said as he walked over the furthermost section.
"This is group B."
"C."
"And D."
Once all of the groups knew which section they were in, they hustled towards the area Caesar had marked.
Upon their arrival, Caesar once again walked to the middle of the arena, he put his right fist in the air and raised his index finger.
"Before we start, I am going to go over the rules."
"Number 1, No fatalities."
Caesar raised a second finger, "number 2, you may not use sharp weapons."
Caesar raised a third finger, "number 3, magic is allowed. However, you may not use fatal magic spells."
Caesar raised a fourth finger "Number 4, No cheating of any kind… you may not let another group win."
Caesar raised his fifth finger, "Number 5, try your hardest!"
Once Caesar finished calling out the rules he gestured towards the right of the wooden arena, many wooden swords, spears, staves, and other weapons were placed there.
"Equip your weapons one bracket at a time and prepare for battle!" Caesar roared.
The troops walked over and equipped the weapons they were most comfortable with.
"Aww, how come there are no bows?" An elf male asked depressed
"The bow and arrow will accidentally kill, even if the arrows are not pointed…" Another elf male said after hesitating a second.
"Aren't we at a disadvantage then?" the elf man replied with exasperation.
"Let's just use a spear. The pinpoint accuracy has the same concept as the bow."
"Alright, I'll just do that then!" The elf regained his cheerful smile and picked up a slender wooden spear.
Caesar furrowed his brows, noticing the nonchalant attitude the groups had while picking their weapons, "It would appear the commanders are subpar," he mused to himself.
"I want the men using swords and the females to use spears, we also need some shield-bearers for the frontlines!" a middle-aged man's voice soon rang in Caesar's ears, causing him to look over.
"Ohh, there is some talent here?" Caesar thought to himself, and his lips curled.
Following suit, many other commanders started barking out orders to those they commanded, soon all of the brackets were filled, and they were ready for battle.
Seeing this, Caesar nodded his head and cleared his throat.
"GROUPS 1 AND 2 OF EACH BRACKET MAY BEGIN BATTLE. YOU MAY USE ANYTHING AT YOUR DISPOSAL AS LONG AS IT IS WITHIN THE RULES"
Caesar's roar vibrated throughout the wooden arena and signaled the start of the tournament.
----
Meanwhile, the civilians had finally started to increase in number, getting rowdier.
Suddenly the gates started cracking from the force, and the civilians began piling in with angry faces. There were no guards present to block them.
Renee looked at Adriana, "now is the time!" she said and jumped off the building… Adriana soon followed after.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Renee and Adriana lightly jumped off the roof ran through the crowds of people, they moved like shadows, and practically no one had even noticed their presence.
Adriana ran in the front while Renee followed closely behind. Adriana's small figure made her capable of maneuvering around the people much easier than Renee.
They soon made it passed the crowds of people and ran towards the side of the mansion, Renee looked around and couldn't help but admire the finesse that the estate possessed.
The mansion had a crimson red and white pattern, massive stone pillars held up the roof, and a large fleet of stairs was elegantly laid out in the front.
Adriana nudged Renee's shoulder, breaking her out of her thoughts and gestured to the side of the wall.
"When they want us, they will take us out of this room, but normally, all of the slaves are kept here," Adriana said quietly and traced her hand on the wall.
She walked for a few seconds before stopping and nodding her head, she crouched down and pulled up a platform hidden under the grass.
Dust was kicked up in the air, making both Renee and Adriana hold their noses. Renee peered deep inside and could only see darkness.
Renee c
licked her tongue in displeasure and ignited flames on her palm. She put her hand forward to illuminate the underground passage.
Adriana looked at Renee admiringly, "y-you can create flames? Are you one of the fabled magicians?" she asked, extremely curious.
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