Alexander Arrives

Garen rolled on the ground in pain while holding his right forearm which took the brunt of the damage, his left arm only fared a bit better due to being behind his right arm by the time he blocked Blanc's attack.

Blanc, Geraint, Helena, and some of the battalion commanders and generals rushed toward Garen who was in complete agony.

Blanc, being the closest one to Garen, immediately opened a greater healing potion and made Garen drink it.

Garen's painful expression visibly eased but it still wasn't enough so Blanc unhesitatingly took out a high-rank potion called "full restoration potion" which not only heals external wounds but also internal wounds and damages such as bone fractures.

Fortunately, after drinking a full restoration potion, Garen fell unconscious but his body has already fully recovered.

Geraint ordered his men to carry Garen into his tent and let him rest early.

Since Alexander still hasn't arrived, Geraint and Helena decided to continue to duels tomorrow. 

However, they didn't let the soldiers rest early and instead, they were ordered to engage in an afternoon training session.

The soldiers didn't complain though, they came here to get stronger and after seeing an intense battle like that, everyone was full of motivation.

Even Helena joined in on the training session.

Seeing Helena's fiery passion, Geraint chuckled. "So that's how you got that strong at such a young age huh?"

Indeed, it was a combination of her fiery passion, indomitable will, talent, and hunger to improve which made Helena so strong at such a young age.

Helena's passion for training infected everyone including the Terravalleans so Geraint left the afternoon training session in Helena's hands.

He even took a few notes on the areas he needed to improve on as a drill master.

During water breaks, the soldiers couldn't help but talk about Blanc's and Garen's match. It was even more intense than Sabre's battle so the soldiers were really impressed.

"Who would've thought that the city lord was a swordmaster? Damn! I didn't expect our very own General Garen to lose like that!"

"Hahahaha! We had the same reaction after seeing our city lord fight for the first time and defeat our battalion commanders one by one!"

The soldiers from different camps excitedly talked to each other as if they were old friends.

None of them expected the seemingly frail and scholarly city lord to possess such killer instincts and strength.

What impressed them the most was his willingness to bet everything in an all-or-nothing risk for a chance to win.

Blanc showed them the difference between "fighting to not lose" and "fighting to win."

Helena took advantage of the hype generated by Blanc's battle and made the afternoon session last longer than expected.

None of the soldiers complained because they themselves were really motivated to train that day.

After a few more hours, Helena finally decided to end the training session. They still had to train tomorrow so she couldn't let the soldiers overexert themselves.

"That's it for today's training, dismissed! You guys may go to the training grounds to eat and there's no need to go there in formation!"

Geraint was surprised. Helena was usually the one who insisted that everyone should be in formation to increase each soldier's discipline.

However, tonight, she let them eat in an undisciplined manner. After a few seconds of pondering, Geraint immediately identified Helena's purpose.

He smiled widely as he looked at Helena's disappearing figure and said "How talented…"

Since the soldiers felt especially chatty with each other today due to Blanc's battle, Helena let them eat in an unrestrained manner to deepen the brotherhood and camaraderie between the two armies.

Her decision seemed to be correct since not only did the soldiers from different armies dined with each other, even the battalion commanders and generals talked about the duels today and what they learned from each battle.

Overall, the atmosphere between the two armies became a lot warmer and friendlier after dinner. 

The dinner this time lasted for more than two hours before everyone eventually walked back to the camp to rest since they had a long day ahead of them tomorrow.

…

The sun was finally up for the last day of the joint military exercise and the soldiers had mixed feelings about it.

This is because although the training was hellish, it was also fun participating in and watching the battles.

Everyone was in the middle of doing their mandatory morning run when suddenly, someone arrived.

Helena turned her head to look at the guy who arrived and smiled.

"Tch! What took you so long?!"

"Sorry General, We got entangled in a skirmish against a few bandits on the way and I made sure to destroy them and their lair so I got delayed."

"I see, good job! I thought you were late because you were on a date with my little sister…"

Helena teased.

Alexander almost choked on his saliva after hearing what Helena said but he ultimately decided to say nothing else to avoid further suspicion.

"Well then, change to your training gears! You almost missed the entire joint military exercise! Make sure to warm up as well since you will fight in a duel later!"