Military

"Why?"

Scar just looked in the distance and said

"It's a long story"

Hearing that, Leus thought to himself

' ... Another one?'

'Oh, actually, it's the same one, but from a different source'

'It might be interesting'

Leus nodded

"Fine, I have all night, Quite literally"

"Then let's go somewhere private, Follow me"

Scar led Leus to a house nearby

The house was decent-looking from the outside, But when Leus entered, He noticed that the furniture was relatively new, And the house was clean and organized

'Not what you'd normally expect from a gangster'

"Are you married? Or do you actually organize the house yourself"

Scar laughed

"Of course not, I just get someone to clean it daily, They do it instead of paying protection money, Another to cook, A third one to bring me water, And so on"

Leus said in a mocking tone

"Living like a king huh"

"Yeah, Except that my castle is as good as a rat's hole in the sewers"

Leus looked around him and said

"I don't know, It's not that bad compared to the rest here"

"Yeah, But having the best accommodation in the Slums isn't something to take pride in, It just makes me one of the top rats"

"Oh well, I can't refute that"

Scar brought a pot for Leus and said

"Pour water here"

"Taking service from your guest? That's low even for the king of rats"

"I know, I could've just used the water here, But honestly, You wouldn't like drinking that"

Leus filled the pot with water, and Scar created a fire by rubbing wood against wood and said

"Hot water is actually a delicacy here, Most houses can't afford to burn wood or buy metal pots.

You need to save to get it, let alone buy things like tea."

Leus didn't reply but he thought to himself

'I don't think there's a level below that'

A couple of minutes later, Scar handed Leus a glass of some hot drink and sat on the opposite chair

"Now, let me tell you everything"

Scar began telling his tale

"My mother died during my birth and -"

Leus interrupted him

"Is that a common thing here?"

Scar was slightly annoyed by the interruption at the very beginning, but he answered

"Yeah, Maybe one in every 10 women or something?

And even more would die soon after, some would even die before giving birth, It's common.

Lack of food, Lack of medicine, Anything can cause death to a pregnant woman"

"I see"

Scar continued

"My father died a couple of years after her.

He literally worked himself to death, At least that's what my brother has told me.

Anyway, My brother would keep me with a neighbor in the morning, And when he came back from work I'd come back home and we'd eat.

He had only one goal on his mind, to be strong enough to sign up for the military and get out of here.

He told me (The military is our only way out, You must become strong enough too so I don't have to leave you alone here) .."

Leus took a sip of his drink

'It's not so terrible ... But honestly, I think the reason is my water, not the drink itself'

"And so, The only goal in life was to become as strong as my brother wanted me to be.

I trained for years, Carried stuff, Ran around, and did whatever physical training I could think of.

But because of the lack of food, The progress was extremely slow.

I don't remember how much time it took, But eventually, I became a Soldier.

By that time, my brother was already a Soldier and was only waiting for my evolution.

Once I evolved we celebrated, Sold everything that could be sold inside the house, Furniture and all, Then went outside and applied for the Military"

Scar took a sip and seemed satisfied with the taste, Then continued

"Applying was easy, All that was required was for us to be Soldiers and to agree on the terms, Which we didn't think about much ... The terms seemed fair at the time

They'd guarantee our evolution to the next realm in the next 10 years, and if we didn't evolve by then we'd take a big sum as compensation.

They'd take care of our living and food expenses and we'd get a salary of 1-2 silver coins per month based on our evaluation and efforts.

And there would be a lot of bonuses upon finishing missions"

Scar raised two fingers of his right

"There were only three conditions,

One: It's prohibited to defy orders no matter how unfair they seem.

However, we can file a formal complaint, and if the supervisor deemed that there was an inappropriate use of authority they'd compensate us accordingly.

Two: We can't leave the military before at least 5 years, But we can submit a request after 3 years of service and we'd get a response a year after submitting the request.

There would be a fine but we'd be allowed to withdraw a year earlier.

Three: No matter what happens, we are to keep our military badges on us all the time.

If we violated the terms, There would only be one punishment, Public Execution in the camp.

No trial required, Immediate execution"

"Oh that's a bit excessive, But I guess it's fair since you signed up for it, Right?"

'Also, The third rule seems very out of place, but it doesn't matter I guess.'

Scar replied

"That's what we thought, But there was a lot that we didn't know"

Leus gestured for Scar to continue

"After we signed up, we were sent to a camp somewhere between the city and the Strife Zone.

The purpose was training, But there was no actual training,

They'd just force us to do minuscule work, Like cooking, cleaning, delivering items, and such things.

Every now and then they'd allow us to just swing our swords around or have mock battles against each other for a couple of minutes, That continued for about a month, and then we were told that we were ready to go."

Scar clenched his fist a bit, Leus noticed that but didn't say anything

"We were sent to the Strife Zone, Those who came together were sent together so I and my brother ended up in the same location.

Once again, we were stuck with minuscule work, and these were orders that we couldn't defy.

When we were free, we used to watch Knights train.

The Elites were like bosses there, Every one of them was mostly in his tent and rarely came outside to do anything, They just ordered us around.

Some of them were nice, and some were annoying, But mostly we didn't even get to interact with them, We'd just receive our orders and do useless things all day."

Scar Looked into Leus' eyes and continued

"Until one day, an Elite Knight came and said that he needed 10 Knights and 20 Soldiers for a raid.

Some Knights volunteered to go and some others were chosen.

As for Soldiers, we didn't have a choice in the matter.

They just lumped together a random group of 20 Soldiers that included me and my brother, And we were sent off"

Leus' drink was over so he put the glass on the table and thought to himself

'Finally, The interesting part came'