Interview and Question

Prince Roland was recruiting, he sought people above seventeen and under forty years old. He will personally interview them, and the three hundred people selected will be chosen as the first generation militia. Gender was not limited to male, and yes he wanted them for the militia.

When Jeanne heard about the detail from her elder sister, Catherine, she paused spinning the wool and the first thought passed in her mind was that she had misheard.

"Really sister, His Highness is really recruiting both male and female!" Her sister said with a smile, for some reason she appeared very happy.

Jeanne promptly asked what's her hype all about.

"Don't you know? Oh, sorry I'm not finished yet." Catherine scratched her cheek, feeling a little silly. "The salary is 10 silver coins! And we will be treated for three meals a day."

"That much?" Jeanne finally caught up with the surprise. It would take her forever to gather such amount from just spinning the wool. Not to mention, the food expense for the individual would be greatly reduced even if all they got was a bread and water per meal.

"Yes. I want to attempt it." Catherine explained that so long one of them got in, it would be a blessing to their family. "This year you're seventeen and thus also of the age, how about you?"

Hearing that, Jeanne knitted her brows. "10 silver coins are indeed a lot, the job is most likely not going to be easy."

"I know." Catherine nodded and clasped her hands the next moment. "Apparently His Highness going to explain further about it tomorrow. Let's go."

"You can go and tell me later." Jeanne shook her head.

"Well, that can't do." Catherine grinned. "Participating will reward us a meal."

All the continuous rain was not only filling the street with small and big puddles but also made the freezing weather worse. Although the sky cleared up with the arrival of morning, Jeanne and Catherine still went out with three layers of cloth and exhaled a puff of white breath.

Jeanne was a practical girl. She agreed to her sister invitation after weighing the issue of watching something that probably had a short duration in exchange for a meal. However, she didn't know whether she should participate like her enthusiastic sibling since it could be said that she didn't fully get what being part of the militia meant.

Her questions were answered shortly after the prince took their attention.

She might still not truly understood, but it was enough for her to know it meant she was invited to protect the town from danger. But the prince didn't stop at militia, he asked for people that have some form of capability to speak up and worked for him and the town. Money and food was not an issue.

Jeanne was still young, but she clearly able to differentiate that Roland was different from the previous Lord of Border Town. The latter was apathetic to the residents of the town he ruled, but the prince actually took a stand and asked them to join in what a seemingly reckless plan.

In the end, he succeeded, people swayed and as they were reluctant to go to the Longsong Stronghold only to starve and suffered, they agreed quite easily with simple promises.

But to fight off demonic beasts? She had yet to saw them, but her father had described them and it wasn't anything pleasant. A wolf was already something even an experienced hunter had trouble dealing with, and the demonic form of the wolf could take on three hunters at the same time.

It was a plan that going to make sacrifices, a lot of them. Though the prince appeared passionate and people were more willing to die protecting their home than died a dog death, without food and no proper shelter in Longsong Stronghold, it was still an enormous issue.

But to her surprise, her sibling still looked optimistic and she clearly expressed her willingness to apply.

"Silly sister, I know our mother just taught you about it recently, but you should stop spinning all the time and went out occasionally." Catherine laughed and she pointed out in a direction. "His Highness had made a sturdy wall, a tall wall with towers that stretched from an end to another end."

She continued. "According to my friend, the wall was not all. His Highness is planning to build a moat to strengthen the wall defense."

"His Highness is really ambitious." Jeanne understood that the speech was not as simple as asking people to die. With wall and moat, though she had yet to see the specifics, it should be enough buffer and all the militia needed to be was attacking the demonic beasts from afar.

"Actually you don't need to be in the militia if you don't want to." Catherine teased. "But I feel you would fit well in there my sister."

Jeanne merely smiled. She finished the bread she got and licked her fingers for the crumbs before replying. "I can try actually."

But how many people had the same intention? Even after filtering based on age, it could be said half of the residents in the Border Town that didn't already have jobs were trying to apply.

The wall was not a secret, and although the digging of the moat had yet to start, beside few people like Jeanne initially it can be said that people shared a similar thought that being in the militia won't be as dangerous as it sounded.

The knights and guards were doing their best to control the situation, the prince loudly shouted to line up and even then it was a bit chaotic. It took some time and a couple of beating to unruly people for the interview to properly start.

"The prince himself is really going to interview us?" Catherine eyebrows rose and tugged Jeanne behind her. She pointed at a small gap where she could see the prince from the people lining up.

"Rather than that, I wonder what about our parents' opinion?" Jeanne rolled her eyes to the excited Catherine and decided to ask something she forgot to think earlier.

"Mother is of course worried, but she shares my opinion that it won't be as dangerous as it should and only told us to be careful," Catherine said cheerfully and added. "She won't join us though!"

"What about father?" Jeanne asked about her other parent and ignored her attempt at being funny.

"Father is fine with it," Catherine answered simply, "In fact if not because of the age, he wanted to participate himself."

"That's a pity." Jeanne nodded.

"True that. But father also said his chance to get to even with his age pass is slim so he won't bother." Catherine said.

"Why though?" Jeanne got curious. Her father was a former guard, though he retired early, he can be said to be among the more experienced and far more suitable to become part of the militia than them.

"Dunno." Catherine shrugged and smiled, "He probably just doesn't want to bother himself with it and left it to the younger generation?"

It was a secret to Jeanne because they didn't want to worry her, but their father had eyesight that was quite bad and his left hand was similarly became weaker after an accident some years ago. Though it was something that can be covered up, their father righteously said that he didn't want to deceive the prince, though it was a just hypothetical thing. Catherine who was the eldest daughter knew about the story but didn't want to make Jeanne worry, but she ended up making her puzzled instead with her slip up.

Jeanne didn't manage to mull it over either, because their turn arrived pretty quickly. They were lucky to get ahead.

Even if they didn't, those participating till the end would get another free meal.

After Catherine stepped in, she introduced herself and said she came with her sibling Jeanne behind her, the prince decided to interview them simultaneously.

It was the first time Jeanne saw the prince. He was a young man with good stature and unique gray hair that famously said it came from his royal blood. Behind him stood a young girl of her age. Though Jeanne thought she was his maid from her clothing, her presence gave off a strange feeling and she couldn't help focusing more on her than the prince, some scholarly looking men and the old beardy man sitting next to him, or the knights standing around.

Fortunately, she managed to calm herself, but it seemed her little action caught the prince attention as he gave a glance at the girl behind him before looking at Jeanne in the eyes and flashed a smile at her.

The interview generally lasted for two to three minutes, sometimes lasting for five minutes if they were from one family. It was said the prince would pool people first that managed to go through the first check and further strained them later for the final three hundred final candidates. Between the interviewees being interviewed and the people lining behind them were a gap of some distance so it was hard for the people behind to listen. But Jeanne had seen fine ears and even though she was quite far from them, she had scrapped some ideas what the prince wanted to know from bits that managed to enter her ears.

Something like their names, age, their occupation if they had any, what strength and weakness they thought they had, generally something along the line of those questions. The answers apparently would be jolted down by the men next to him.

But Jeanne felt their interview went a bit stranger than others as theirs were different, or rather more than others. It began with the prince hearing her name and asking for Catherine to repeat hers.

"Jeanne and Catherine?" The prince repeated their names a couple of times under his breath before letting out a faint smile. "Well, it's quite common for names."

For some reason, rather feeling insulted Jeanne felt mischievousness oozed from him.

"Are you confident with your strength?" The prince asked with a serious expression, but his tone was light.

The strength here was about physical strength, Jeanne felt it was weird but acceptable. She also thought perhaps because they were female and the previous interviewees she heard were men that the prince didn't ask.

"Yes." Catherine was the first to answer, she even snatched Jeanne's opportunity because she also answered it for her. "My sister is even stronger than me!"

"Oh? What do you do for the living?" It seemed Catherine antics managed to humor the prince as his serious expression broke and his smile appeared once again.

They answered honestly each of his questions, questions not quite what Jeanne expected.

"Last thing." The prince spread his arms and leaned back to his chair. "What would you do if you meet witches?"

"That's..." Even the talkative Catherine didn't know where to begin.

The prince gave a quick nod to no one in particular, which Jeanne noticed but didn't think much of it as she was also busy thinking a suitable answer. The prince supplemented the scenario after five seconds of no answer. "Let's see, assuming there were no other people and the witches seemed to not have hostility, what would you do?"

"That's..." The hesitation appeared more vividly in Catherine's face contrary to her similar response.

Jeanne didn't even think about this kind of thing previously, but since she had learned to follow Church's doctrines from childhood she answered decisively after giving some thought. "I will report it to a nearby guard."

"Oh?" The prince leaned over. "What if it was your own sister?"

Jeanne was stumped but quickly found relief since she had heard that women above twenty rarely became witches.

Perhaps realizing that the prince turned and looked at Catherine. "What if your sister became a witch, what would you do?"