Well since they were already in formation I was going to start training immediately.

“First thing first, you are no longer to refer to me as ‘Young Master’. ‘Sir’ will suffice. Do you hear me??”

They all looked confused and Christof was the first to ask a question, “Young Master we don’t…”

I got up straight into his face since he was still sitting in *seiza* and yelled, “All I want to hear from you is ‘Sir, yes Sir!’” He looked shocked to his bones. So I yelled again, “I didn’t hear you!!!” and he finally caught on.

“SIR YES SIR!” he replied.

“WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF YOU MAGGOTS? WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO HEAR?” I yelled again at the formation. Luckily they caught on quick enough otherwise this was going to be a painfully long three months.

“SIR, YES SIR!!!”

“GOOD! YOU TITTY SUCKERS CAN ACTUALLY LEARN! NOW UNDERSTAND THIS, FROM HERE ON IN, I OWN YOU PATHETIC SLIMES! I AM YOUR WORLD, YOUR SAVIOR, YOUR GOD. WHEN I SAY DO SOMETHING, I EXPECT IT TO BE DONE. WHEN I POINT SOMEWHERE YOU’D BETTER BE RUNNING LIKE THE SHITS YOU ARE! IF I SAY JUMP, THE ONLY POSSIBLE QUESTION YOU SHOULD HAVE FOR ME IS ‘HOW HIGH?’ AS OF RIGHT NOW, YOU ARE ALL MAGGOTS AND WORMS, BUT YOU’RE MY MAGGOTS AND WORMS. SO MAGGOTS YOU ARE TO RUN THIS OBSTACLE COURSE ANOTHER FIVE TIMES AND EVERYONE IS TO COMPLETE IT. AFTERWARDS YOU WILL EAT YOUR DINNER AND THEN IT’S TO THE BARACKS AND LIGHTS OUT! YOU’D BETTER ENJOY YOUR MEAL BECAUSE IT’LL BE THE LAST GOOD ONE FOR A WHILE.” I shouted to them before I felt a pair of eyes drilling holes in my back.

I slowly turned to see my mother with a look on her face that could topple kingdoms while her finger beckoned to me to follow her. Crap, I can go up against armies, kings and immortals but my mother can slap me down with a look and a finger.

We ended up in my father’s office where my mother ended up raining down hell on me and my father. Needless to say my father was stumped because he had no idea what was going on. So I ended up explaining the whole situation to him. Surprisingly he took it well and even went one step further.

“So, Hiro. What do you need?” he asked as he watched me over his crossed fingers.

“Wha!!! You’re encouraging this?!!” yelled my mother at father. “Why the hell would you do such a thing?”

“A man’s pride.” Both my father and I replied at the same time.

“Alicia, our guard has never won the war games before because we’ve always gotten the leftovers from the regular army. So if Hiro thinks that he can take these rejects and temper them into blades then he has my blessing. Just remember we’ve been lucky for the last decade since we’re situated away from the border but things aren’t always going to be peaceful so I’d rather we have something should the day ever arrive that we need it. So Hiro, what will you need?”

“How far away is the location of the war games to be held?”

“One week’s march.”

“Good, then we will be training in the Liren Mountains for two months. When we return I will need some other items but for now tell me about the competition.”

“There are five other families who partake in these war games. The Jorans, Killians, Restav, Goodard & Dracos. The Jorans are an archery family; highly mobile and accurate. The Killians specialize in sneak attacks. The Restavs are the ultimate defense. The Goodards have the best blade dancers/swordsmen and the Dracos are the most powerful. They tend to beat down everything with power.”

Hiro, frowned as he thought through this information, eventually a smile crept on his face. Caden saw this smile and wondered what was going through his son’s head.

“Dad, of the five, who’s the strongest or rather who won the games the past few times?”

“The Dracos won it for the past five times in a row.” Caden replied as he frowned at the grin that popped up on Hiro’s face.

“Ok, I’m going to need bow and arrows, knives, swords, shield material and as many blacksmiths and tailors you can spare. Oh what type of staging areas will there be? Fields, forests or plains and will it be green from rain or brown as the earth?”

“That shouldn’t be a problem. But what do you need all that for?” Caden asked Hiro.

“Oh we’re going to beat them all at their own game” he replied as he skipped out the door while whistling a tune. Suddenly he was poking his head back in the doorway, “Oh who are we allies with?”

“Uh, the Jorans and the Killians. The Goodards tend to be neutral. Why?”

“Well we can’t be completely decimating our own allies can we. Not good for relations.” Hiro replied as he headed back on his way.

Caden and Alicia looked at each other blankly. “Definitely your son.” They said as they pointed to each other.