Chapter 365: Conscription
"Just towns and villages...their strength levels are all below the Grandmaster Realm as well.
My intel says that even Privates are at least Superior Masters...guess there’s none here."
He hovered about ten metres from the ground using cosmic energy while concealing himself, scanning the nearby towns with his eyes for over 30 minutes.
Since he found nothing here, he moved on to the next area, repeating the same process over different towns and villages.
When he had scanned over a dozen towns with no success, he encountered a big city, probably the central territory of this territory and it was there he finally detected some grandmaster levels.
’Quite a lot of them...’
Arthur easily bypassed the city’s barrier and landed in the middle of an empty alleyway, before walking out and joining the sea of people who were busily moving about.
Within a minute, Arthur was easily able to discern that the ratio of men to women and children, was quite skewed in one direction.
As he was looking around the city square, he bumped into a child who was running through the crowd, and in that short moment, he felt the child’s hands slip into his trouser pocket.
’A pickpocket? Two can play that game.’
Arthur accelerated his movements with the law of time’s power and faster than the boy could perceive, he picked out five coins from the pouch hanging from his neck.
He then flicked the back of the boy’s head and turned around, flicking the five coins in the air and catching them before returning his gaze forward, all while the dumbfounded pickpocket watched.
By the time the child snapped out of his daze and tried to chase after Arthur, the teenager had long disappeared into the sea of people.
"Five silver coins...I wonder how much this is worth..."
Arthur walked up to a fruit seller and asked him for some apples, and when he presented the silver coins, the fruit seller glared at him lightly.
However, the man’s eyes suddenly widened in shock and then he quickly gave Arthur his change without a word.
Though he perceived it as strange, Arthur couldn’t care less and carried on with his walk.
Little did he know that the fruit seller, whose wife was a tailor, noticed that Arthur’s clothes were made of quite high-quality fabrics despite their outward appearances and assumed Arthur was some young noble going incognito.
Of course, Arthur wouldn’t care even if he knew, as his attention was now drawn towards the estate where he sensed the grandmasters’ presences clustered.
’From its conspicuous position, it’s fairly obvious that this is the city lord’s estate. Seems well off... on the outside, that is.’
Arthur concealed himself once more and then jumped to the top of the fence, looking down into the estate while he bit on his apples.
"These are quite dry..."
He shook his head in disappointment as he jumped into the estate and flew towards the main mansion, where he saw some omnibuses parked in front of the building.
They had the Allied Army’s Seal imprinted on them, allowing Arthur to easily figure out where they came from.
"Still, I don’t know why they are here."
The boy calmly strutted into the mansion, passing all the servants and soldiers who didn’t sense a thing and arriving at the room with the most presences clustered together.
"...but Viscount, this is the King’s decree. There’s nothing we can do about it."
"He has just barely come of age! And he’s my only heir too!"
"Like I said, Viscount. There’s nothing we can do.
We’re only here to follow the orders given by our superiors."
"Then who are your superiors? Contact them and let me speak with them."
From the incomplete conversation he just heard, Arthur was able to easily understand the situation.
’It seems even the nobles are not exempt from this...
Well, how could they be?
But anyway, the man clearly doesn’t wanna send his son to war and is trying to wiggle his way out of it."
Arthur didn’t care much about whether this viscount’s son went to war or not, he just wanted to know the next destination of the soldiers in charge of the recruitment.
’It’d have to be a small town or village. A big city like this probably has proper records of its citizens, so trying to take someone’s identity here might be difficult.’
He trashed the stem of the last apple and then walked into the room, only to stop when he noticed that there was an Inferior Epic present.
’How didn’t I sense him before? A skill or something?’
Arthur’s partial appraisal did not show the target’s skills so he could not confirm this guess, however, the presence of this inferior epic made him once again spread out his cosmic energy for an in-depth search.
’...There’s another Epic some distance away from the Estate? It seems like a gap in the road so...the city gates?’
He searched a second time and confirmed that there were only two Epic Realms present, but before he could walk into the room, the door opened.
It seemed that in the time he took to confirm if there were any other presences, the soldiers there were done with the Viscount and were leaving with his son.
Arthur saw the woman he presumed was the Viscountess crying as her son was taken onto the bus with the rest of the other soldiers.
’...’
The boy silently looked away and followed the bus from the air, listening in on the conversation between the driver and the person in the front passenger seat.
When they got to the city gates and joined up with the second Epic, Arthur finally got to know their next destination.
He pulled out a map while sitting on the roof of the moving bus, pinpointing the town’s location before nodding and returning the map.
"Guess I’d hitch a ride there."
With that thought, the boy lay down on the roof of the bus and stared at the cloudy sky while the vehicle ’slowly’ moved towards the next town on the map.
◇ ◇ ◇
"...We stand before you today with a heavy-duty to fulfil. The time has come for us to bolster our defences and safeguard our way of life from the hands of the demons."
The Epic Realm solder addressed the townsfolk, his voice projecting with a mix of authority and empathy.
"Those of you who are chosen, have been selected by divine guidance and shall be marked by the gods for a higher purpose.
You are not conscripts; you are champions. Embrace the honour bestowed upon you. As you embark on this journey, know that the gods watch over their chosen, and your valour echoes in the heavens."
All the bullshit—at least in Arthur’s opinion—that the soldiers were feeding them went in through one ear and out the other as the young progenitor was more concerned with stealing a set of recruit uniforms from the empty bus.
These weren’t really army uniforms, but a set of khaki clothes with Recruit numbers printed on them. Each of the recruits was obligated to wear them so Arthur stole a set and changed into it so as to blend in.
"Board the buses, champions. They will convey you to the Illustrious Bastille, where our great General Duskhand received his divine guidance for the battles ahead.
Just like he did years ago, you all shall now follow in his footsteps and receive the necessary preparation for the challenges ahead."
The soldier’s words did nothing about the tense atmosphere, and the faces of the gathered townsfolk remained anxious all the same.
The young men and women whom they selected clung to their familiar, faces reflecting a mix of sorrow and pride as they realized their loved ones were bound for military service.
Among the conscripts, some barely out of adolescence exchanged glances filled with fear, while some held determination in their eyes.
As for Arthur, he was busy buckling his belt while trying to understand why they left the documentation of the recruits for when they reached Duskhand, but he didn’t complain since that made things easier for him.
"Oy! Recruit! What are you doing there?!"
Since he had deactivated his concealment, the Epic Realm soldier was finally able to spot him by some bushes, and naturally, the man called out to him.
"I was taking a piss, Sir!"
"Well, you’ve done that so get back into the bus!"
"Yes, Sir!"
Arthur saluted the man with his buckle still half done, before holding up his belt and finishing the job as he rushed towards the empty bus.
With the concealment ring on his fingers, Arthur appeared to be Inferior Master Realm Recruit number 659.
The boy got onto the empty bus and fixed himself somewhere in the middle, right before the young men and women from the town they were in filed in and filled the remaining seats.
Looking around, Arthur spotted quite a few teenagers like himself, clearing his concern of looking out of place.
A few minutes later, the buses departed the town seen off by the tearful farewells of the townsfolk; but even those were eventually drowned out by the low rumbles of the bus engines as they carried away those bound for duty.
Like so, Arthur easily hitched a free ride straight to the Military City of Duskhand, where his target bastille was located.
