It’s... IT’S BEEN A GODDAMN YEAR! Where’s the goddamned Heiron civil war?!

I’ve come up with efficient physical exercises by using diagnostic magic during the practice.

I’ve written books on basic spear and sword technique, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

I’ve finished up my ‘command center’ and ‘visor’ projects.

I have better maps of Heiron than Heiron themselves have!

The public schools are already up and running too!

I’ve went as far as organizing the various basic strategies and tactics for land-based combat. Do you have any idea how boring that research was?!

I even practiced using fire burst! It still takes a lot of mana, but I can use it six times before I run out, it’s pretty cool, I also learned how to use a weaker version of it and…

Wait! That’s not the point! I’m pretty sure I’ve done all I can here and that accursed civil war hasn’t even started yet! We still need to wait for it to be OVER before we attack!

“Lance, I’m already eighteen, how much longer are you going to make me wait?” Says Theodora.

“Theo, for the hundredth time, I’m not going to marry you just because you said I should.”

“Why not?! We have been together for a year already, we are pretty much living the married life!”

“Because you’re fu- friggin’ annoying!”

“Nice save.” Thanks Ellie.

Athena went home already, so I’m stuck with my bodyguards for company.

“No, I’m not! I’m charming and beautiful! You just can’t admit your love for me… Wait, could it be?… Lance, have you cheated on me?!”

I answer by slamming my face on the table. I should have just asked some quiet girl to marry me. I wouldn’t have to deal with this in that case.

“Ellie, was it you?!”

“Nah, I’m with you all of the time, aren’t I?” Answers Ellie, her relaxed smile never leaving her face.

“That’s right, but who else could it be… No, it couldn’t be… It was you!” She points at Chiara who was ignoring us while eating a sandwich.

Chiara shakes her head. “Mi? I didhn dhu manetheng!”

“Don’t speak with your mouth full, Chiara. It’s gross, and no one can understand you.” I tell her.

After swallowing she speaks again. “Sorry, my bad. I meant to say: I didn’t do anything.”

“Lies! You’re the one he spends the most time with! And you have been taking care of your appearance recently! You’re trying to seduce my man!… Is that make up on your face?” She asks with her eyes narrowed.

Well, I’m teaching her magic after all, and while she doesn’t have much to teach me anymore, she still helps me practice. But she does look better than when we first met.

“No, Lance doesn’t buy me fancy things like make up. Do you really think I look good? Thank you, I love the way you braided your hair, too.” She says shyly.

“Lance, you’re too boorish.” Says Ellie. “How can you not buy her make up?”

“She never asked?” I answer. I’m pretty sure only noble or otherwise rich people use make up, and even then it’s not like back in modern earth where pretty much every woman uses it, mom and Athena hate it, saying it’s uncomfortable.

Then it’s Theo’s turn to complain. “Ugh, you just don’t get it, Lance. Let’s go Chiara, I’ll let you use mine, our skin tone is similar.” Weren’t you just accusing her of ‘stealing your man’? Whatever you say, miss mood swings.

Sometimes I think she’s mocking me.

Man, I really need male friends. Mattias should be training at this point in time, right?

~~

My prayers have been answered. The kids from the orphanage decided to serve in the military together. They heard I was training new recruits and decided to perform their military service together.

Their ages range from one to three years older than me, so from 17 to 19, it’s nostalgic to see them again all grown up.

“Are you really Leo?” Asks Olivia, the oldest one.

“Yep, that’s me!” I use magic to change my looks to my old persona’s. “This is what Leo would look like today, if he existed.”

Seeing that everyone felt a little bit more at ease and started talking to me about various things. Like what happened that night, what they have been doing since then and how Dave insisted that they enlisted right now (they would have to when they became 20 anyways).

They seem put off by the eyes and teeth, but they recognized my voice since I never modified it as Leo, although it changed a lot since ten years ago, so did theirs.

Sadly, they had to train too, so they didn’t have much time to hang out with me, but I took it upon myself to train them in magic. Normal soldiers aren’t trained in magic, I’m doing this as a personal favor.

Chiara hit it off with them and from Chiara they also made friends with the two tournament champions, but the rest of my bodyguards are as stiff as always, including Mattias.

But aside from that, not much changed and I was still bored waiting for the war to start.

~~

I sent a request to wait for the war to start while staying back home, so they sent one of my great grand-aunts to check out my work and make sure I’m not exaggerating when I say ‘I’ve done everything that I can’. Grandma also came for some reason.

“I’ll just trust your word when you say that just lifting oneself from the ground over and over will help making the soldiers stronger, but is so much meat really needed?” Asks grand-aunty, is that a word? Well, it is now.

“Yes, to strengthen the body one needs exercise, food and rest. If one of those three is missing, the individual can even grow weaker. When it comes to food, meats, eggs and milk are vital, sweet potatoes can also help.” I answer.

I had to fix up the trainees diets and also make sure they slept properly. Most people were happy about the quality of the food, but they didn’t like that I prohibited all kinds of booze while they were undergoing training.

At the beginning some people would stay up late and sneak in some kind of wine or honey mead. But I didn’t even need to punish them much, since those that didn’t sleep or got a hangover would feel like they were in hell the next day during training.

By the way, I can heal hangovers. Kehehehe.

“Is that the ‘nutrients’ stuff you wrote about in your books?” asks grandma. I nod. I didn’t expect she would read my books.

“And why is such fancy training even needed for conscripted soldiers?” Asks grand-aunty.

“Not only is strength and stamina very important when you aren’t very skilled in martial arts, if we get the people used to living healthily here, they might live healthily when they are back home, and a healthy population has a myriad of advantages for the country.” I explain calmly. “Besides, some of these conscripted soldiers will end up as professional soldiers, and if they learn magic, having a strong, healthy body will help in various ways.”

Being strong and healthy allows one to have more mana and to regenerate mana faster. It also makes self-strengthening a little bit more efficient.

After that I showed them other parts of the training grounds, I showed them the archers, the siege practice battlements where soldiers practiced being both on the offensive and the defensive side, the training of new mages and sorcerers and the specialized training for healers.

Sadly, the siege training doesn’t involve actually using siege weapons, only assembling and disassembling them. Rebuilding the battlements would take too much time. But we do have target practice with normal targets.

We also didn’t do training for cavalry, driving, piloting, using cannons and foraging for food, that’s being done somewhere else. I only send golems for them to use from time to time.

Sadly, the paratrooping knights are also training without me.

“Is it really fine to have so many wounded in the training grounds?” Asks grandma.

“Yeah, it is. If you look closely, none of them have life threatening wounds. So it only helps the healer trainees and trains the soldiers to not be so scared of pain.” We do a lot of sparring with large groups, so it’s normal for people to get hurt one way of another, even if we don’t use sharp weapons. “I make sure they wear their helmets, so no one dies.” There’s still the risk of them breaking their neck, but one could say even normal sparring could break people’s neck.

After that I showed them the group sparring and the use new military communication devices, as in the visor and the command center. Sadly there’s too few enchanters to mass produce the visors so only the elite will be able to get them. But the command center is like an armored truck with various devices inside for understanding the battlefield and giving orders.

I already made something like mobile long-range artillery, but once again, that’s being trained with somewhere else. It’s like a tank but made to shoot from extreme distances (like, can’t-even-see-where-the-rounds-are-landing distances) and without much armor. I didn’t make actual tanks yet because we can’t produce enough of them to actually risk having one go against knights and sorcerers head-on.

It wasn’t too hard since I already made track-based cars and cannons before.

“Well, I suppose your job out here is indeed over.” Says grand-aunty. Well yeah, I want to work on making magic guns (and protection against it) and improve the various things I already made, but I can do that back home. “Her majesty would rather you infiltrated Heiron and helped the other infiltrators escalate the tensions between the two factions, but you can also choose to just wait for the war while up north, if you want to.”

Well, that’s an offer and a half.

Let’s see, do I want to help push a country into a civil war that will probably result in thousands of deaths just so my country can attack them after and possibly conquer them all?

Honestly, with all the stuff I made, we could probably win if we went against them head-on, civil war be damned. And I knew it was a matter of time for Sylvian to start conquering stuff from the moment I made the dreadnought, I actually expected it to be the barbarians first.

If you’re wondering if I’d feel guilty about the many deaths that I’m contributing towards, the answer is ‘kinda?’ Honestly, although this isn’t really an excuse to go conquering stuff, I don’t hold many people in this current era in high regards, and I’m already desensitized to death.

The many bandits and pirates that would pop up just about everywhere, they are often just commoners who felt like making some extra coin on the side and happen to have an axe back home. That doesn’t mean I consider them all evil incarnated that deserve to be purged, but neither do I feel they deserve much pity.

I still remember that assassination attempt when I finished enchanting the royal castle.

Maybe I’m already an evil bastard too…

“Lance, is something wrong?” Grandma calls out.

Oh right, I got distracted. “Right, I’ll go to Heiron. But I want to stop by back home, I haven’t seen Noah since he was a baby.” I think he’s eight already? Time sure flies. I wonder if Gray even remembers me.

~~

Yep, Gray remembers me. When I walked out of the transport plane Gray pounced on me and pushed me to the ground while growling angrily. “Don’t attack!” I make sure my bodyguards don’t do anything stupid.

I’d really rather not hurt him, so I use mind magic to feel his emotions. “Oh you big baby, I didn’t abandon you.” This big guy was more sad than angry about being left behind. “You’d hate the capital, it’s very noisy there and you’d need to go really far to be able to hunt anything.”

I calm him down and give him some scratches; he whines a little bit but accepts.

My bodyguards relax when Gray stops growling.

The three girls from the tournament are still with me, but the kids from the orphanage didn’t finish their training yet. I already taught them the minimum basics so they should be able to get a reasonably good rank.

It’s strange to meet the people and see the places of my childhood now that I’m older. Mom greeted me with a sharp toothed smile, dad seemed to be holding back tears, this softie hasn’t seen me since I left for the capital years ago.

Once again, being the same height as them gives me funny feeling.

It hasn’t been to long since I saw Athena, so the only difference in her is that she’s unhappy that I took the job to infiltrate Heiron.

Meeting Noah was a little awkward, but not too much since I have been sending letters telling stories and trinkets like a miniature model of the royal castle from time to time.

He already started learning how to fight and ride, but he says he’d rather learn sorcery than focusing on the sword like mom, much to her displeasure.

It’s not like one needs to choose between sorcery and martial arts, it’s just that most people tend to focus on one on the other, but it’s normal for knights to know a couple runes and for sorcerers to be trained in the sword, even if not too much. And if someone underestimates the physical might of a sorcerer they are bound to regret it.

I have to leave soon, but not before sparring with mother. No magic allowed, aside from self-strengthening.

I manage to use the techniques I learned from Chiara to make a few openings, but she never panicked and caught my blows whenever I tried to exploit those openings.

My moves that combine defense and offense in one were always seen through and blown aside with sheer might from mother.

In the end, we exchanged blows, I managed to graze her thigh but she hit me straight on the throat, making me cough. I guess you can’t beat experience with just this much technique.

“That was pretty good, you have improved plenty since last time.” Sorry mom, can’t hear you over the sound of my coughs. “You said that commoner girl was the one to teach you those exotic techniques, right?” She points at Chiara who looks like the team she was cheering for lost the match. I nod.

In the end it was decided that Chiara would work for mom. The two champions decided to wait for me here as well, but the rest of my bodyguards would go back to the capital.

Well, here I go sneaking around again.

Let’s hope this time is less boring.