Chapter 131: Chapter 125: Rising Hope
"Odin! Odin!" Hans burst excitedly into the barracks, but he didn’t see his old friend.
"Odin?!"
"What’s wrong? Why are you in such a rush?"
"When did you get behind me?"
"That’s not important! Odin, you’ll never guess what happened! It’s huge! Huge!" Hans’s face was alight with excitement.
Odin gave Hans a strange look.
"What’s the big news? What’s got you so excited?"
"An Officer! Look at this! We can actually become Officers!" Hans seemed a little unhinged, and in truth, he was.
"Become an Officer! A paid one!" Hans exclaimed.
"What do you mean, ’paid’?" Odin scratched his head, puzzled.
"It’s hard to explain in just a few words. There’s a notice about it in the main camp. Come on, let’s go have a look."
...
Utterly bewildered, Odin let Hans drag him all the way to a place teeming with people.
"Make way, make way..." Hans pulled Odin through the crowd until they were standing in front of a notice.
Public notices, at least, were a local invention on this continent.
"See that? A lord from the First Regiment just came by, decked out in a full suit of iron! And guess what he said?"
Seeing the broad grin on Hans’s face, Odin couldn’t help but frown.
"Well, what did he say? What’s all this about becoming an Officer? Spit it out!" A hint of anger had already crept into Odin’s voice.
"Heh heh, calm down. That lord told us that over the next few days, the entire army is holding a tournament!
The winners get to become Officers!" Hans said with a cheeky grin, a dreamy look already spreading across his face.
"An Officer? Do they get meat with every meal?" Hearing this, Odin felt a stir of interest himself.
But Hans was rather displeased to hear Odin’s question.
"Meat! Meat! Is that all you ever think about? Can’t you think about something else for once?!
This is about becoming an Officer! If you make Officer, you’ll command a hundred men. Imagine how glorious that would be!
Then, if you perform well on the battlefield, maybe one of the noble lords above will be pleased, tear up your slave contract, and you’ll become one of the Free People!" Hans’s expression, at first disdainful, quickly turned to excitement.
Clearly, for Hans, this change was nothing short of a miracle.
"Free People?" Odin said, shaking his head.
"What’s so great about being Free People? Look, two years ago when the heavy snows sealed the mountains, Little Samantha wandered off, and our Knight Lord didn’t even consider looking for her."
Odin still didn’t understand. He just couldn’t grasp his old friend’s way of thinking.
’So what if you become one of the Free People? What does it really change? You get your freedom, but then no one cares whether you live or die.’
Hans had no desire to argue with Odin’s backwards thinking and remained lost in his own fantasy.
"Of course you can become one of the Free People."
Hans was lost in a pleasant daydream when a voice suddenly cut in, much to his irritation. He looked over and saw it was Scar-eye Jack.
Jack, Hans, and Odin were all from the same batch of Soldiers.
The difference was, Jack was one of the Free People. According to Jack himself, one of his ancestors had been a Knight, though from a lesser branch of a Knight Lord’s family.
Hans had no idea if this was true or not, but Jack was indeed one of the few literate men among them.
Usually, Hans felt like he had to bow his head a little around Jack. The less ambitious Odin, by contrast, felt no pressure around him at all.
"What’s it say on there?" Seeing that it was Jack, Hans’s irritation subsided a little.
"You can forget about becoming an Officer. Don’t even think about it. See over there? That bunch from the First Regiment!" Jack pointed east, toward the First Regiment’s camp.
Hans looked over and saw a group of burly, thick-waisted men, training shirtless despite the bitter cold.
The entire army knew that the First Regiment was the most elite and capable fighting unit.
Even though the Soldiers of the First Regiment had the most grueling training regimen, there were still countless men fighting tooth and nail for a chance to join.
The reason for this came down to the fact that the food and benefits in the First Regiment were simply too good.
Not to mention, the men Hans had always envied—those who were allowed to wear iron armor, figures who were practically lords in his eyes—were all from the First Regiment.
"If they’re competing too, then we don’t stand a chance, do we?" Hans thought, suddenly feeling dejected.
Earlier, the good news had gone to his head, and he had completely forgotten that his competition was the army of the entire fortress.
During his time in the Third Regiment, Hans had come to think he was pretty skilled, but compared to the men from the First Regiment, he’d probably be taken down in just a few punches.
’If it means competing with those brutes from the First Regiment,’ Hans thought, ’I probably don’t have any hope, at least not in the short term.’
"You never stood a chance. You think becoming an Officer is that easy?" Jack said irritably.
"Do you even know what the position of Officer represents? It means formally swearing fealty to that noble lord!
These Officer positions used to be reserved exclusively for noble Knights!
Do you know what a formal pledge of fealty means? It’s not like for us, just shouting a few words," Jack said, looking quite smug.
In truth, Jack didn’t really know what a formal pledge of fealty entailed either. He had only heard a little about it from his mother, who described the scene of his maternal grandfather swearing fealty to the local Baron.
Jack wasn’t really all that different from Hans. Jack’s maternal grandfather had died at the hands of the Beastmen, and his entire family, save for his mother, had been wiped out.
After the war ended, some relative appeared out of nowhere, and the Kingdom Government declared this unknown person the heir to the family’s lands. Jack’s mother, the direct descendant, was apparently ’not found’ in the Kingdom Government’s records.
The main issue was that the battle had been quite large—even a Viscount had died. In peacetime, a conflict of that scale was a major event.
Now, Jack was obsessed with restoring his family’s honor. Unfortunately, his mother didn’t share his ambition; she only wanted Jack to learn the trade of a Blacksmith.
After joining the army, Jack’s goal remained unchanged: to restore his family’s name.
Unfortunately, reality had dealt Jack a few harsh slaps in the face. He had originally thought that with his blacksmith-honed physique and his ability to read, he might catch the eye of a noble lord and enjoy a meteoric rise.
’Isn’t that how all the stories go? Those Minstrels love to write about that kind of thing.’
But after actually joining the army, Jack discovered it wasn’t like that at all. At the very least, his proud Blacksmith’s physique counted for nothing in the army.
He used to resent the special treatment the First Regiment received and wanted to challenge one of their Soldiers to a duel.
Even now, Jack couldn’t forget that day. He had expected to lose, but he never imagined he would be disarmed with a single stroke of the sword.
Of course, Jack didn’t know that his opponent had been a fifth-rank Frank Elite Infantry.
In terms of pure skill, even some poorly trained nobles might not have been his match.
But that wasn’t what Jack thought. After that, he observed the First Regiment’s training, their food, and their missions, and he thought he finally understood.
’The First Regiment is the unit the noble lords created specifically to handle the important jobs!’
After this realization, Jack became dead set on getting into the First Regiment.
Unfortunately, the First Regiment’s entry standards were incredibly high, and Jack had never been able to meet them.
"But while we have no hope of getting one of those noble lord positions, we can scheme a way into the First Regiment," Jack said, looking at Hans.
"Get into the First Regiment?" Hans was taken aback, not understanding.
’What’s the difference? We’d just go from being grunts here to being grunts over there. Is there any real difference?’
"Is there any difference?" Hans asked doubtfully.
"Tsk! Forget it. You can’t read, so I can’t blame you.
What’s written on that notice isn’t just about Officers!
It’s also about military merit! It says the units with the most merit will get to split twenty Gold Coins! Gold Coins! Do you have any idea what that means?
You could farm your whole life and never save up a single Silver Coin." Now, it was Jack who was getting excited.
"This is the real prize! If you get enough Gold Coins, you could buy your freedom from a noble lord.
And the First Regiment has plenty of meat and bread.
Once you’re in the First Regiment, forget becoming a noble lord—if your luck is good, becoming one of the Free People is practically a sure thing," Jack said, pounding his chest.
Hans was completely enthralled, but Odin still couldn’t wrap his head around it.
"What’s that got to do with us? We’re not in the First Regiment. Even if we stay in the Third Regiment, we can still get a share of the Gold Coins," Odin said, scratching his head in confusion.
Jack rubbed his face, looking utterly speechless.
"I don’t know what goes on in your heads all day.
If the men from the First Regiment are competing for Officer positions, then the First Regiment is bound to have some openings, right?!
Besides, look at the guys around you, then look at the First Regiment. The Gold Coins are split by the unit as a whole.
To put it bluntly, staying here in the Third Regiment, how could we possibly compete against those big shots in the First?" Jack said, spreading his hands.
As Hans listened to Jack’s analysis, his eyes grew brighter and brighter.
Although he always talked about becoming one of the Free People, Hans knew just how difficult it really was.
But after listening to Jack’s breakdown, Hans suddenly felt as if the dream of becoming one of the Free People was within his grasp. It all just depended on how hard he was willing to work for it.
"So you’re saying, if we can get into the First Regiment, we can become Free People?" Hans’s eyes shone.
"It’s not just about getting into the First Regiment. Once you’re in, the competition just gets fiercer.
You have to kill the enemy! You have to cut down Beastmen on the battlefield! Only by killing enough Beastmen can you become one of the Free People," Jack said, shaking his head.
’Kill Beastmen... become one of the Free People...’ Hans murmured to himself, looking obsessed.
As for Odin, his focus was clearly different from Hans’s. He was far more interested in the First Regiment’s food.
"Stop daydreaming. The whole army is competing tomorrow. A batch of people are bound to be chosen.
We should use the time we have now to get ready," Jack said.
