ARGH! The stupid chapter's verses about made me throw my computer out the window, lol. ~Caudyr
Just after dawn, our main force arrived at a forest near the Labyrinth City Purgatory from our base in the forest.
Their numbers approached 400. It's a good number, but most of the members appear to be Goblins and Hobgoblins. The Tomboy Princess, who had been looking forward to the arrival of our main force, could not hide her disappointment.
Her behavior as she sat on my shoulder seemed to say, "Yes? Is he serious? No, I hope the goblins are a joke." She didn't say it out loud, but I felt that her eyes were voicing her complaints, anyway.
The Boy Knight and the other guards had a very similar reaction. They didn't say it clearly, but I could tell this was the case because I saw their shoulders drop as they hung their heads.
There are some strong races such as the Dullahan, Ogre and Dragonewt, but compared to the whole force they are too few in number for the time being. Since the hobgoblins and goblins, who made up more than half of the military force, were generally recognized as being weak, they didn't think it was acceptable. It's natural that they would think that they're unreliable.
The Tomboy Princess wants as much war potential as possible to meet the Strong Grandson and the rest of the Nobles Faction in the rebellion that will happen soon. According to her, the Minister's death sabotaged this desire and caused them to have fewer allies than expected, so they urgently needed to reinforce their war potential.
It seems like the Strong Grandson and the others will make their move soon, since some of them are starting to get impatient. That's why her reaction can't be helped, since she was anticipating the force that I had prepared.
"I have no other choice, so I might as well," is how humans think. Well, since I hadn't said anything on purpose, she was imagining and expecting something better, which caused her to have a pretty bad reaction. If I didn't know any better, I'd have likely reacted the same way.
As the morning training that had already sublimated their nature began, the Tomboy Princess unintentionally smiled bitterly as she started to adjust her plans after calculating the current war potential. Her serious expression was different than what it usually is when she's on my shoulder.
Today, the cold winds were blowing as snow sporadically fell from the sky. Despite this, the group members' breath was visible as they put on the general uniform of our mercenary group, which was an overcoat that had been designed with all sorts of enchantments applied to it. They began training after they did their warm-up exercises.
As usual, the training method was actual combat. Since some injuries were healed by the effects of the ear cuffs, their movements were intense. I guess it's too extreme to be called training.
Someone wasn't able to completely dodge the tip of an approaching sword, which ended up cutting their neck. Although they were bleeding quite a bit, their daring movements prevented their veins from being cut. Despite the fact that they were one step away from death, they counter-attacked using the weapon they were holding without faltering.
Their arm was also broken because of the force of a war hammer. Although they were tormented by the pain, they shut it out with willpower as they beat their opponent's body in revenge. A little distance away, someone let magic of the same rank collide, which spread destruction with a flash of light and a thunderous roar.
The magic was stopped with a shield that's a magic item. Although the owner of the shield's limbs were damaged in the aftermath of the attack, they advanced towards their opponent without stopping.
There was many-versus-many combination training that was led by someone with a high position as well, with people roaring as they fought each other. People were hit and blood was shed as they handled arts used by the human members using techniques that they'd forged themselves.
Although it was training, the situation could be called nothing but real combat. The Tomboy Princess and the others were distracted for a short while as they stared in amazement at the figures that weren't afraid of death at all.
Humans with a normal state of mind would not be able to make this bloody training scene. Basically, what I'm saying is that I restructured and trained them so they could do so, though someone seeing it for the first time might be left speechless.
A lot of members might have died from injuries during training if we didn't have really great ways to heal them. I don't think this kind of training can normally be done.
Still, their reaction was amusing and Kanami and I laughed at the state of the Tomboy Princess and the rest of her group. When she noticed this, she started blushing as she shyly twisted her body.