Friendly Enemies

Chapter 1: Recruitment.

At last I've turned 21, I can join the ranks of the empire, I can now finally use my childhood's worth of training by the legend himself, my father, over the past decades he has grown old and fragile, but his body may be weak, his spirit is stronger still.

I bid farewell to my Father and paid my respects to my mother’s grave, she died of labor trying to give birth to me, thanks to her determination and sacrifice I am well and healthy.

Father only gave me a pair of rice balls, in confusion I asked him, "Why do I only get to have two rice balls?", “Your food will be the monsters along the way, you will eat those rice balls if you haven’t slain a monster in 4 hours, your training is enough to even slay a dragon, off you go my son.”, I waved goodbye and gave him a smile and descended from the volcanic ranges.

After a day of dangerous travel, I arrived at the capital.

 Recruitment Finally, I have arrived. The journey towards the Capital had been rough as usual, but still uneventful.

The training that my father has given me had been quite helpful as I was able to easily cut down obstacles that stood my way.

From bandits to beasts it was thanks to my father’s training that there were no real troubles for me and I was able to arrive earlier than expected. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath.

“Alright… First things first, I need to buy a map and locate the Recruitment Base…”, With that thought in mind, I set off.

Thankfully, because the Capital’s immense size, Merchants were found all over the place and I was able to quickly buy a map. Locating the Recruitment Base had also been easy, as it was one of the emphasized landmarks on the map of the Capital.

The journey had been a bit lengthy though, as I also took in the sights of the Capital. It’s beauty and the people doing their everyday life. It was a nice change of pace from the harsh volcano that me and my father lived in. Looking at the map once more, I then looked at the building in front of me.

It was quite big, made of solid stones. What made it stood out however, is the two swords crossing above its arching entrance. Also, statues of warriors stood on its side, holding a pole which hanged the flag of Khraelia, as it danced proudly with the breeze. “Looks like I’m here. Well, time to enter the army!”, I cried out proudly, excitedly running towards the halls of the Recruitment Base.

It wasn’t long before I had met the Registrar. He asked me my name and from where I came from. Although I did tell him the truth, he didn’t seem to believe that someone like me came from the Heimrich Volcanoes. We got into an argument, but an Instructor named Commander Vyn had separated us. He had a steely voice as he asked us on why we were arguing.

After telling him what happened, with another argument beginning to leak out between me and the Registrar again, the Commander had enough and just separated us, with me being allowed to enter the army.

“Yeah!”, I yelled out, kicking the barracks doors open. I continued to have this cheery face before I finally took a look at the other applicants. Many were looking at me with amusement, annoyance, or indifference.

“S-Sorry…”, I sheepishly apologized, before quietly going to the bed that I would be using starting today. Tomorrow was the day that we’re officially starting. Sorting my things out, I gave out a silent sigh as I lied down my bed. The sun was setting down and I decided to take a small nap.

Yawn~! Ahh, it’s always much more comfortable sleeping in bed. Stretching my limbs for a bit, I stood up. Hmm? Now that I looked around, it seems that I’m the only one awake. Well, they’re probably just tired. After all, it was a bit rowdy last night. With a deep breath, I went outside. Looking around, the other buildings seems to be inactive yet, save for some which likely belonged to the Instructors and Commanders. I also saw some guards wandering the grounds dutifully.