20 The Mirean Royal Army

Rukelion ended up being able to test his skills on someone other than mercenaries for the first time three days into his trip with the merchants. A small group of bandits tried to assault the wagons while they were in transit but failed, unable to beat his quick reflexes and powerful sword moves. He took them down easily.

That was comforting. His first brush with being outnumbered had ended well. He would be outnumbered against his true enemy as well so he needed to know how to fight against groups.

Granted, by the time he took the royal palace by storm, he would be able to openly use his fire magic. Keeping his identity a secret wouldn't matter at that point.

He wanted everyone to know what he had done once he was in charge of this miserable country. That Rukelion Blaze, third prince of Katalya, had reclaimed his kingdom's lost honor and taken vengeance on everyone involved in its fall.

When that day came, he would proudly show off his eyes and hair. In the meantime, he needed to keep dyeing it and use the eyepatch he picked up in the first town over. Wearing that felt weird but he was starting to get more used to it after so many days with it on.

He had cut his bangs since they were no longer necessary. They would only get in the way when he was fighting. He learned that back when he was training with the mercenaries but couldn't do anything about it then.

Shorter hair required less dye too. Daisy had packed all of her reserves of that herb but he would need to get more of it sooner or later. It should be easy enough to find in an herbalist shop.

Rukelion thought about all of this as the merchants joked around by the fire in their camp after traveling most of the day. He never engaged with them, preferring to sit to the side and keep watch.

He wasn't here to make friends. He would have to manipulate some people's feelings to gain allies but he didn't plan to get close to any of them. He couldn't do that and potentially jeopardize his mission. Daisy was the only friend he needed and she had been an accident.

After losing everything, he had absolutely no intention of making friends but a person like her was impossible to resist. Allowing himself to become distracted again could ruin everything.

When they finally arrived at the capital, they parted ways amiably as strangers. The head merchant thanked him for his help and that was that.

Rukelion looked around with a vague curiosity making mental comparisons between Mirea's capital and Katalya's. Maybe he was biased but he thought his home country's was much prettier, cleaner, and less chaotic.

He toyed with the idea of tearing this place down and rebuilding it in the image of his hometown once he was in charge. At the very least, he should fix the cleanliness issue. Replicating the sewer and trash removal systems shouldn't be too difficult.

Though he despised this country, not all of the people in it were bad. The innocent shouldn't be punished along with the guilty. He was better than his enemies, who killed indiscriminately for no reason.

He didn't know where he was supposed to go in a city this size and ended up having to ask for directions. People were a bit wary of him at first and he realized between his size, fake eyepatch, and muscles gained from both sword training and farm work that he cut a pretty intimidating figure.

Eventually some brave soul was willing to tell him how to get to the royal army's headquarters and he headed there after getting himself a cheese bun at a nearby bakery. He hadn't eaten anything since breakfast in the merchant caravan's camp.

Rukelion headed over to the building and asked to speak to someone in recruitment. The man behind the counter appraised him with interest.

"I need your name, age, and village to start with," he said.

Thankfully, Rukelion managed to figure out the name of the village Daisy lived near on his way out of town. In the next village over, someone happened to ask where he came from and he said the nearest village to the east. They clarified that it was known as Cloverfield.

"Leo May, age fifteen from Cloverfield, sir," he told the man in a perfectly respectful tone despite seething with hatred. He was talking directly to the enemy!

He also figured it would be easier to use the fake last name Daisy had as Veronica since they were supposedly relatives. He certainly couldn't go around using the last name of the royal family of Katalya.

"Do you have any previous sword or hand-to-hand combat training?" the officer asked.

"Yes, sir."

"Excellent! We can assess your skills out on the training grounds and assign your unit accordingly. Follow Major Armistead over there; he'll show you where to go."

Rukelion nodded and shot off another "yes, sir" before following the man in question. He had a leaf on the upper sleeve of his uniform. It probably had something to do with his rank. Finding that out for sure could be important.

The training field was large and looked much like the one back in Katalya. He supposed some things were the same wherever you went. There were several pairs scattered here and there in the middle of sparring.

"Randall! I need you to come fight this new recruit and see what his level is," Major Armistead barked.

Randall was a buff man who seemed to be in his twenties with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a jagged scar on his left arm. He eyed Rukelion with interest while answering the higher-ranked officer. "Yes, sir!"

Their first fight didn't involve swords but that wasn't a problem. The mercenaries had taught Rukelion how to win against even the strongest of men. All he had to do was use his agility to his best advantage while analyzing his opponent's weaknesses.

As he moved around dodging blows, he noticed that Randall lunged to his right. The easiest course of action would be to strike a sweeping blow to the back of the knees while he was about to move forward to punch since he would already be off-balance. That was exactly what he did and the man crashed to the ground.

He didn't seem mad about it though. After he spit grass out of his mouth, he grinned up at his opponent. "Impressive! What's your name? The major didn't mention that."

"Leo May."

"I'm Bernard Randall. Why don't you show me what you can do with a sword? If it's anywhere near as impressive as what you can do with your bare hands, you'll do well here."

Rukelion grabbed his sword and waited for Randall to get his. The match ended nearly as quickly as the first one had with Randall's sword on the ground. Major Armistead had been watching with an approving smile on his face the whole time.

He called over four more of the people who were sparring on different parts of the field. Two for hand-to-hand combat and two for sword-fighting. Rukelion was able to beat all of them easily enough even if it did take slightly longer to analyze their moves than it had with Randall.

None of the people he had fought here thus far were even as strong as Veric or Garrin! Was this truly the strength of the Mirean military or were they hiding all of their major players elsewhere?

"Excellent, May! You'll be joining the Silver Wolf Squadron," Major Armistead said as he clapped a hand on his shoulder and began steering him away.

Rukelion barely had time to blink before he was handed a uniform with three silver stripes on the sleeves where the gold leaf was on Major Armistead's. Three stripes was better than one, wasn't it?

When they arrived at an area of the barracks with a dozen bunkbeds, everyone sitting around on their bunks stood to attention and saluted Major Armistead. He noticed that all of them had silver stripes on their uniforms ranging from one to three like his.

"Say hello to your newest recruit, Leo May," he said as he pushed Rukelion forward into the limelight. "He's first rank so I expect you to all be polite. If I hear about any hazing, your commanding officer will know immediately and you'll be punished for it!

"May, your commanding officer is Captain Bridger. He doesn't appear to be here right now but you'll be introduced soon enough. Conrad! Explain how things work around here to May. I need to return to my post."

"Yes, sir!" a young man, presumably Conrad, cried. He was pale and freckly with light brown hair.

When Major Armistead left, everyone seemed to let out a collective breath they had been holding. "Ugh, he's one of the worst ones to deal with…I'm glad he isn't our captain anymore," someone else sighed.

"Thank goodness he got promoted," another agreed fervently. "Bridger isn't nearly as bad!"