Rest of the march to join the army division was relatively peaceful. Ignoring Juren’s continuous demands for better performance, there were very few problems.

People who had been too weak had already died, so no more losses were suffered. Nor were there any beast attacks. Road was also in better condition. The one in the forest was barely a road. There was no way to keep them in good condition for long. They only stayed open due to people occassionally using them. On the plains the road was in acceptable condition.

Due to reasons such as these the travel took only five more days. Kaden found out once he noticed people acting slightly unusually once they noticed guards at their posts surrounding a small fortress and its seemingly recently built wooden walls. It was not one that could last long battle, but it would hold back a few beasts and enemy soldiers at lower cultivation stages. It was more of a gathering point than a defensible position.

“This is the end”, Kaden thought. “I wonder, if we will be rid of Juren finally or will we have to stay around him in the future too. I really hope he dies painfully.”

With these thoughts Kaden followed everyone inside the fortress.

---

At the same time at the mid section of the fortress higher officers were having a meeting.

“Hmmm, another group of trash is being shoved in?” Said one of the higher officers who were gathered there.

“It matters not”, replied another. “Its fine even, if they just stand at battlefield and force Saint Empire to send forces to kill them. We only need to give them weapons and send them in. We still need to thank Sanctus for facilitating smooth execution of this tactic. The Saint Empire will not be able to ignore such a move. Simple, but effective in its purpose.”

Some replies were grumbled.

Then another voice spoke. It was calm and almost sweet voice. There was something disgusting about it. “You don’t mind, if I pick some of them for myself?”

“What? You got bored of your previous ones already, colonel Serin?” Said one of the officers with some slight distaste in his voice. This Serin had some questionable hobbies. Yet, since he had some special nobility background, he usually got away with breaking rules and was able to continue with his hobbies. At most he would get slap on his wrist, if he didn’t step too far. Still, due to his degeneracy, his rank had stagnated.

“Hehe, I wish to collect some people from this group”, Serin answered with a smile. “They’ll probably die in the battle so I won’t bother even trying to train them so I will instead offer them some proper warmth before that so they can pass in peace!”

No one said anything. This was the usual way. Serin would take the silence as “do as you wish”. As long as he didn’t cause any large problems, no one would do anything.

----

At this moment villagers from Dashire were being grouped together. Kaden noticed looks from people he did not know, but were clearly not soldiers. These people must be from villages that had been conscripted like Dashire? Kaden wondered, if the military clear out all nearby villages?

It seemed people from Dashire were being split into groups and then become subordinates to some officers. Kaden rejoiced as he noticed Juren wasn’t going to be one of these people.

Instead it seemed most people were directed to stand in line in front of this steady looking officer. Major Stepleten was his name. He didn’t show much emotion as he ordered his subordinates to gather people into even smaller groups.

Kaden moved together with his parent so they wouldn’t get separated.

Around at this point Kaden noticed slight commotion by the side. The major frowned and finally showed some emotional reaction as he suddenly seemed extremely annoyed.

Small group of people made their way to Stepleten. It was colonel Serin and some lower officers with him.

“Haha, it seems more reinforcements have arrived”, Serin started. He still had that seemingly permanent smile on his face. “I apologize for the interruption, but due to some unfortunate events some of the newest warriors under my command… hmmm… perished just a few days ago. Since a new group of fresh recruits have appeared, I came to pick some replacements.”

Stepleten gritted his teeth. He clearly knew what exactly happened to these people Serin mentioned. This exchange did not go unnoticed by the people of Dashire.

“These people have been arranged to me”, Stepleten said firmly. “If thats all, I recommend colonel should review safety protocols with your subordinates so that these unfortunate accidents that plague your battalion do not continue.”

“I’ll take note of the recommendation, but the matter has already been arranged. If you have any complaints, you can go file them later.” Serin smiled.

Stepleten grimaced, but he really couldn’t do anything.

Serin started to examine the people from Dashire. His facial expression did not change at all at any point. He only had that permanent smile. His hands were kept behind his back as he looked around making mental notes. Soon he had chosen three people.

“That really nice looking girl there. Younger flesh feels good”, Serin pointed finally at a person. It happened to be the maid girl Kaden had interacted at the Dashire’s inn before the tournament. The girl’s look was horrified. Same could be said for everyone and more so for people who were close to the girl.

“Ah, then that boy there! Gotta have some variety!” Serin continued. What… he picked Jon whose face darkened instantly.

Jon’s father, Cleff, was enraged and was clearly planning on acting. On the other hand most of the maid girls family had perished along the way, but her relatives that were still around had similar thoughts now that their initial horror was passing. They could do nothing as the people who had followed Serin began to drag the girl away while other was going for Jon.

“You can’t do this!” Cleff shouted. Shouting an objection was all he could do right then. Serin’s people were definitely too strong to fight.

Serin ignored him entirely as if he didn’t exist.

“Hmmm… the last one was pretty hard to choose, but I’ll be taking this woman. Used goods is variety too!” Serin announced, seemingly happy with his decision. This time Kaden and Aden seemed horrified. For some reason Serin chose Ann.

“This is preposterous!” Aden shouted instantly. His wife was in jeopardy. He would not stand and watch. “We cannot disobey the commands of military, but this… this man’s requests clearly have nothing to do with service to the nation or gods!”

Serin still did not show any other emotion than the permanent smile. Yet, in some ways one could feel he was enjoying the situation. Still, he eventually had enough when it seemed Cleff was going to attack anyway. The act would be like trying to crack a boulder by throwing egg at it.

Serin lifted his arm and pointed at Cleff who suddenly shuddered and then fell on his knees. He began shaking and sweating. Then he started vomiting. Eventually he lied on the ground, still alive, but he was completely unresponsive and shaking uncontrollably. Seeing what had happened stopped Aden too. He could only look at Ann with tears in his eyes as he tried to reach for her, but was quickly kicked away by Serin’s people.

Serin himself still just stood and seemed as if he was basking in the torment he was able to inflict.

“Colonel Serin, stop tormenting my recruits!” Stepleten demanded. “Your arrangements have been completed. You are interrupting my work and wasting time that we barely have to spare. Get out, even you should have better things to do.”

“Ah, yes, of course”. Serin almost seemed to ignore Stepleten’s presence, but he did motion his followers move out. Along him he took the people he had picked up.

Cleff was still on the ground unable to do anything. Aden had been kicked relatively hard and he was still trying to get up. The girls family was physically fine, but they were shaking in rage while unable to do anything.

Kaden was almost paralyzed in terror. He could do nothing. His mind had blanked. They took his mother! That was all he could think of.

“What is that bastard going to do!” Aden croaked in pain. “Give me a weapon! I’ll rather die in attempt than let that bastard rape my wife!”

Stepleten only shook his head.

“He won’t kill anyone”, Stepleten finally answered. “Nor will he rape anyone despite what it sounds like. That is something he has not ever done. His … hobbies are of different kind. All of the people will live at least until the battle. As for afterwards...”

Stepleten sighed.

“I admit I do not like this business, but I follow orders. I have been tasked to have you people be able to at least swing a sword at the heretics of the Saint Empire and that is what I’m going to do. Therefore, I can’t let any of you go commit suicide or attack officers in rage and be executed before the battle. I will treat you fairly within the constraints of my orders. Hopefully we will be victorious after everything and your presence is seen unneccessary and be let go.”

After a moment he added some more information. “For what it may matter, that colonel Serin is supposed to deal with northern side during the battle while we have the opposite side. If you are still alive afterwards, perhaps you have chance to see, if your wife is still alive. Now group up. The taken people will live. Concentrate on the moment.”

Aden was still in rage, but he could do nothing. Ann would live, but what would happen to her?

At this time someone felt courageous enough to ask questions. It seems it was one of Dashire’s hunters. “Will we be given weapons? What about mana systems? We have been led to understand that even lowest soldier has better mana systems than we had in our village?”

Major Stepleten seemed steady. At least nothing like degenerates like Juren and Serin. People felt like he could at least be spoken to.

“Indeed, you will all be given basic weapon and the lowest mana system that soldiers of the empire use”, Stepleten replied. At least they were not going to just throw them against enemy unarmed. “Not that you have much time to learn use them. Saint Empire force will arrive within days or two. If I were you, I would forget about anything else and try to cram in whatever fighting ability you can during this time.”

It was just as Stepleten said. Once people of Dashire were finally split into several smaller groups, their training quickly started. There was no wasting time at all.

Kaden was given a sword. Nothing fancy, but still a sword. He inspected the structure of the sword and despite its external look it was really good quality. While not impossible, it would be difficult to create such sword in Dashire. Material was higher quality. Forging was done by someone about skill level of his father. Yet, everyone could be given such a sword like it was trash they could drop at the feet of the conscripted villagers.

“If they can mass produce items like this, no wonder they wouldn’t bother with whatever my family could have made for them”, Kaden thought as he tried to repeat the movements people were instructed to do. He wondered how much it helps in the short time. Luckily Dashire had trained their people to fight at least on basic level so perhaps swinging the sword wasn’t entirely useless.

Then eventually Kaden got his hands on the basic military mana system that had been promised to them. It was the lowest tier one that imperial soldiers were given. Still, compared to his old one it was like comparing a baby’s scriblings with something an adult might have drawn. He was speechless.

“This is ridiculous. Why do they even bother handing everyone that thing I got before? I don’t know much about mana systems, but even I can tell its trash. This mana system they just gave me is still probably trash, but my old one compared to this is the true trash.” Kaden lamented as he tried to quickly comprehend and memorize the far more complex mana system. There were still similarities such a basic structure, but it seemed to already branch out in clever ways, increasing the effiency.

He tried it as soon as he could and he could sense his third layer faintly begin to take form. Kaden had not expected to get so close to finishing it this quickly, but now there was a chance. While the old mana system was like letting mana slowly drip and collect the drops, the new one was like you had small cup to scoop up mana.

To Kaden, greatest importance was to get to third layer. He would not get fourth unless he lived through the battle so he wouldn’t concern himself with that. Remaining time, if any, would have to be spent learning to use the sword or think of good applications of mana.

This great urgency was enough to shield Kaden from thinking of the terror of brutal battle that was waiting for him.