Year 2, Spring, First Month, First Week.

In the village central square.

Diana was a little disappointed because the number of villagers trying for the hunting team was less than 500. Yesterday, she helped with Karl’s selection and was surprised to see almost everyone trying for the Alchemy team so she thought that at least half of the villagers would try for the team.

Unfortunately, the villagers had grown afraid of the beasts, most of the villagers’ horror stories were about being attacked by a beast. In fact, all villagers were deadly afraid of fighting beasts, some even secretly desired to fail the test.

Since Chief Omero knew about the villagers’ feelings about hunting, he spent the last day giving encouraging speeches to attract more candidates.

“Today we’re gonna select the new trainees for the hunting team. First, I would like to thank all the candidates. I’m not gonna lie to you, hunting is dangerous, if you’re selected later you could get hurt or even die, but because of your fight, your sacrifice, life in the village will become better every day. Without this sacrifice, a lot of us would have died in winter or turned into slaves. So, I want to thank you for your courage to stand and fight for a better life.”

After Diana’s speech, all the present villagers started clapping, most of the candidates now felt proud of themselves.

“You’ll be tested for reflex, strength, speed and your performance with each of the team’s three weapons, the bow, shield, and knife. Please divide yourselves into ten groups of about 40 people.”

The villagers moved to form a group with those near them.

In less than ten minutes the villagers were properly divided and the test started. For each of the ten groups, two members of the hunting team would be present to evaluate their performance.

Since they didn’t have any recording method and they had to test the villagers in several areas, Diana had previously established thresholds for each test, the villagers that didn’t meet the set requirement would be eliminated from the selection.

........

Nemera was one of the candidates. She wanted to join the team earlier but she couldn’t risk dying and leaving her sister and mother alone.

However, in his last speech, Chief Omero promised that even if something bad happened in the hunt, the families of the wounded and diseased wouldn’t be left without care. So, Nemera finally told her mom that she wanted to join the team.

The first test was easy for her, she was 17 and didn’t have any history of broken bones, so she finished the run without any problem. Sadly, a big part of the villagers wasn’t fast enough or couldn’t run until the end of the test.

Although the distance wasn’t that long, the villager’s body was marked with years of bad nutrition and work abuse, so several of them couldn’t complete the test.

‘Compared to working in the fields, pushing this stone is easy.’

Nemera was happy that the strength test was also being easy for her. She got so excited that she failed to notice that a lot of her fellow candidates were failing. Usually, a girl’s body would be weaker when compared to the boys, but Nemera was living a tougher life than most since she was a kid.

Her father died from winter sickness when she was four, so she had to start working in the village fields to help her mother two years earlier than other kids. She also worked harder than the other villagers because she was unconsciously afraid that her mother would die without enough food.

The third test, however, was more difficult for Nemera than the previous ones, she would have to dodge stones thrown at her to test if her reflexes were fast. Fortunately, she barely passed it and moved to the weapon’s tests.

........

Diana assigned other team members to instruct and supervise the tests, leaving her free to observe everywhere and react to any possible problems. Until now, everything was going as planned, but Diana felt a little uncomfortable with some villager's glares.

She even saw mockery, disdain and envy among them. The villagers were grateful for the team’s actions but that didn't mean they agreed with everything. Some villagers found her unfit to lead the team, much of this was the result of Carion’s parents' slander.

To put the rumors to rest, she decided to make a demonstration of her abilities. She asked Sania to simulate a fight with her. They paused the tests and asked everyone to form a circle around the central square.

Diana and Sania decided to use metal weapons to give the villagers a good show. After training for many years and honing their abilities in real combat, they felt capable of fighting without hurting each other.

Both girls stood facing each other in the middle of the square circled by the curious villagers. They nodded and the battle started.

They ran towards each other, in an instant, the sword and dagger collided leaving behind a clenching sound.

Diana could press her advantage by putting weight on her sword while Sania could have got closer to make use of her short weapon, but they were only doing a demonstration. They clashed dozens of times before stopping, leaving the villagers in awe.

Diana was pleased, if some would insist on attacking her reputation, they would have to find something different from her being weak.

........

Nemera was getting nervous because she performed badly in the bow and knife tests. She only got two out of the three shots right, her first arrow going directly into the ground while her two successful shoots both missed the wooden target.

In the knife test, her performance was only slightly better. As instructed, she attacked a stump five times and waited for the team member to check her work. Unfortunately, her strikes weren’t very good, some were too shallow while others almost broke the knife midway.

‘I have to pass the shield test, it's my last chance.’

While Nemera was filled with determination, the supervisor had already given up on her. Initially, he was rooting for her because he liked her attitude, but after seeing her results in the other weapons’ tests, he was sure that she wouldn’t pass.

The shield test was pretty simple, the contestant had to defend against attacks and push the attackers when they got a chance. Since she was a girl, they expected that Nemera wouldn't be capable of defending against the impacts, even so, the supervisor didn’t go easy on her. She got here like everyone else, so he wouldn’t disrespect her perseverance and accomplishments by treating her differently.

The attacker was using a wooden staff to attack, so even if a candidate failed to defend they wouldn’t get hurt too much. The first attack was direct and strong, Nemera quickly held the shield to meet it putting her body strength on the defense.

The staff and shield collided, but the shield didn’t retreat. Before the attacker could make a second attack, she pushed the staff and attacker altogether, making him fall to the ground.

Everyone watching was surprised by her strength.

Nemera was on high alert, her blood was flowing rapidly and she could only look at the supervisor waiting for another attack. However, the attack didn't come, he just stood there smiling at her.

“You passed… Welcome to the defender's team!”

Nemera couldn’t believe it. After getting the confirmation a second time, she boomed with happiness. She thanked him several times, before joining the group of new members.

The selection went on until the end of the day.

Diana was pleased with the results, although only 112 villagers passed the tests, she saw some great performances and they would be good additions to the team.

To complete her quota, she selected 73 more villagers who passed the first three tests but failed in the weapons tests.

According to their schedule, they only had one day before the village election. Since the Alchemy and hunting teams were already formed, they only had to select villagers to work in the other tasks around the village.

To be fair, the Chief decided that most of the teens working in crafting and other odd jobs would be rotated like the adults in the magic fields, so that all the village teens would have the opportunity of learning something. While the other 20 adults would be chosen by the crafters themselves.

Omero knew that some crafters would end up choosing their family members even when they weren’t good at crafting, but he couldn’t avoid it. The villagers that knew more about crafting were elders and Omero needed their support to develop the village, so he would have to give them some power.

He would also instruct the crafters to keep some of the promising teens in fixed apprentice positions after spring passed. They would have to observe the teens’ work before deciding, but Omero knew they would also choose some of the teens based on their family connections.

........

Soon, the time for the election came, everyone was in the central square waiting for Chief Omero to start.

“... so, we decided to form a Council to make the important decisions of the village. First, we have to elect five elders to hold positions in the Council. Each villager can only choose one elder, the five elders with more villagers’ support will be selected for the Council. We have 20 candidates, since everyone knows them I’ll not waste time with presentations. Remember, only those that are old enough to work can choose an Elder, small children aren’t allowed to.”

The villagers listened to the Chief expectantly. They were excited since it was their first time choosing something.

Some elders were against letting the young vote justifying that they would probably be influenced by their parents, but the Chief was adamant on it, if they were old enough to work, they should also be able to choose.

The 20 elders got in front of the stage and took some distance from each other. After the Chief gave the go signal, the villagers started to form a line in front of the elder they chose.

Unsurprisingly, Marlen, Bill, Said, Hawdin and Lonni were the most supported elders. Some other ambitious elders tried to convince the villagers these last days, but they couldn’t beat those famous elders.

Marlen and Bill had almost one thousand supporters together, with grandma Marlen taking the lead by around 70 villagers. Elder Said was the next most popular Elder, she had more than 300 supporters. Hawdin and Lonni got around 200 and 120 supporters each, and the rest of the villagers were somewhat divided into the groups of the 15 remaining elders.

Fortunately, they didn’t need to make an exact count of the numbers since it was clear each five won the election. The Chief quickly congratulate them and made their appointment official.

Finally, it was time to select the four remaining Council members.

Previously, Chief Omero looked for some villagers he trusted and asked them to volunteer for the positions, the other elders also did the same.

After the election, about 60 villagers stepped up and volunteered for the positions. The Chief gave a bitter smile, he wasn’t expecting this many candidates. The 12 already select Council members formed a circle and started discussing the candidate, while the villagers waited excitedly.

‘I shouldn’t have applied for this Council thing! I’m letting that boy and his mother put things on my mind, I’m already being too soft by letting him participate in the huntings. But... Our lives have improved a lot because of him and now he says that I can also help...’

Kanin was hesitating, but the Council already started voting.

Three days ago, Karl convinced his father and mother to apply for a position in the Council. His mother didn’t even need convincing, but his father gave him a big headache.

Kanin thought that what they were doing was dangerous for the village, although their lives have been improving by leaps and bounds, but if the Kingdom found out they would treat them as traitors.

In the end, Karl convinced Kanin that he could help to protect him and the village by taking a position in the Council. Of course, Kanin also accepted because he thought that they wouldn’t choose him.

Chief Omero opened the Council discussion by reminding them of the importance of having someone fit for each position. Then, they discussed each management position, voting and justifying their choice.

Soon, the election was over and Chief Omero announced the name of the four new Council members.

“For Head of Farming, Kanin.”

Kanin gave a nod and awkwardly thanked the villagers.

“For Head of Alchemy, Reiner.”

Reiner politely bowed to the villagers and displayed a big smile.

“For Head of Hunting, Katlyn.”

Katlyn gave a small bow to the villagers and a smile to her mother, Marlen.

“For Head of Crafting, Alfeur.”

The big blond men gave a nod to Omero and the villagers.

........

After the selections and the election, the village new organization became:

Adults:

Magic fields - 1000

Council – 4

Hunting – 55

Crafting – 20

Alchemy – 10

Level two disciples – 2 Level three disciples – 1 Processing - 7

Rotating - 150

Teens:

Village fields – 260

Alchemy – 140

Direct disciples – 2 Level two disciples – 8 Level three disciples – 17 Processing - 113

Hunting - 150

Crafting - 150

Other jobs - 32