Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

Chapter 376: Chapter 35: The Parachuting Boss_2

…

Boiling water, wheat flour, vegetables, meat, sprinkled with a pinch of salt and spices, turn into a pot of fragrant noodle soup.

Attracted by the smell, Pierre got up, and Anglu also led the draught animal back to the stable.

Bell, Berlion, Pierre, and Anglu sat around the fire. As usual, Berlion always served everyone else first.

Pierre pulled out a wooden bowl from his bag, wiped it carelessly with his clothing, and handed it to the blacksmith.

Mr. Mitchell looked around sleepily, yawned, and asked, “Where are the four of them?”

“Gone to play,” the blacksmith answered curtly.

“And they haven’t come back?”

“They just left this morning.”

Berlion handed a bowl filled with noodle soup to Pierre, who took it and stared blankly at the fire, lost in thought.

After a while, he sighed, “They say we’re militia, but what’s really the difference between us and the laborers?”

“Of course, there’s a difference, laborers get paid, but you don’t,” said Bell without looking up.

Meanwhile, Anglu slurped the noodle soup with loud slurping noises.

…

On October 27, in the year 558 of the Empire, Montagne’s centurion team reached Maplestone City.

After receiving their weapons at the main camp of the stationed legion, the centurion team headed straight to Hosencorp to transport supplies without stopping.

In addition to weapons, the legion also assigned twice as many laborers to the centurion team.

The experienced conscriptor Gerard was right; so-called militiamen were, in reality, just laborers with weapons.

Lieutenant Winters Montagne had, nominally, eighty militiamen and one hundred and sixty laborers under his command, but in fact, he had two hundred and forty laborers.

In the nearly two months that followed, Winters led his men all over the Republic of Palatu, escorting supplies, loading and unloading, building camps, repairing roads…

The Kingdom of Galloping Horses had already come to blows with the Hurd tribes, but it was basically unrelated to the centurion team from Wolf Town.

When the 6th and 7th legions of Palatu crossed the Border River in mid-October, Wolf Town had not yet been conscripted.

As the subsequent troops advanced into the territory of the Hurd tribes, the centurion team from Wolf Town was driving wagons on the country roads.

For the people of Wolf Town, “war” was just hard physical labor, the loudly recited dispatch of good news on the streets, and occasionally news heard from other soldiers.

Pierre and the other Dusacks sighed; for them, the war was supposed to be about hanging sabers on the wall, adventure stories told by fathers, and the boasts of drunk uncles and granduncles.

They all harbored some dreams of achieving great deeds and exhibiting the spirit of a hero. Yet now, after two months of service, all they did was two months of physical labor.

But being spared the risk of combat, Winters was quite satisfied. In camps like the one in Maplestone and Shuangqiao Main Camp, he even had unexpected reunions with many classmates.

Previously, Lieutenant Vineta was scattered across Palatu, rarely seeing each other. Now that the army was conscripting the local militia, they had the chance to leave their stations and would occasionally bump into each other on the road or in camps.

During these few months in Palatu, the life of Lieutenant Vineta and his peers was very tough, and they had endless things to talk about.

After asking around, Winters received bad news: none of the Lieutenant Vinetas had seen Gold, and naturally, none had received the Gold Coins sent through Thor Gold.

The pirate leader embezzled the money for his own greed?

Impossible, if that were the case, Xial couldn’t have possibly made it alive to Wolf Town. The only possibility was that Gold had encountered an accident.

Without other means, Winters reluctantly wrote to Gerard for help, hoping Gerard would use Major Ronald’s connections at the County Garrison to inquire about it. But for now, he had received no reply.

By mid-December, the material conscription within the borders of the Kingdom of Galloping Horses had come to an end.

The supplies, which were a mountain of grain, arms, and ammunition, were stored in Shuangqiao Main Camp. The Palatu Army was not short on supplies now but lacked the ability to transport them to the frontline.

Therefore, starting from mid-December, auxiliary military units from various regions began to converge on Shuangqiao Main Camp.

Montagne’s centurion team had arrived at Shuangqiao Main Camp for over a week.

…

Disappointed as they were, they still had to eat.

A pot of noodle soup was devoured clean by the four men.

Scraping the bottom of the pot with his spoon, Anglu praised, “Blacksmith, how come everything you make is so delicious?”

Berlion smiled, didn’t speak.

Pierre belched and casually asked, “On duty this afternoon?”

“No, today it’s the turn of the people from Little Shizhen.”

“Then, shall we play dice?”

“I can’t,” Andre replied while eating, “I have to take Rejek out for a run this afternoon.”

“What about you?” Pierre turned to the Hunter.

Bell shook his head, “I have something else to do.”

Pierre then looked at the blacksmith, a man he didn’t even need to ask.

Mr. Mitchell burrowed back into his blanket, “Then I might as well sleep.”

As they were chatting, a man with a military saber in his left hand and a knapsack over his right shoulder entered the Wolf Town camp.

The man stopped one of the Wolf Town militia and casually asked, “Is this Montaigne’s centurion unit?”

Inside the army, unit numbers were seldom used; it was customary to refer to a unit by the commander’s last name, such as Montaigne’s centurion unit or Kongtai’er’s battalion, and so on. However, for the militia, they preferred to call themselves after their town.

The stopped Wolf Town militia was stunned for a moment, then nodded in confirmation.

“Where are Bard’s centurion unit and Cherini’s centurion unit?”

The confused Wolf Town militia countered, “What Bard’s centurion unit and Cherini’s centurion unit?”

“He means the Saint Town and Blackwater Town people,” Pierre interrupted, crawling out of his blanket. “They’re over there, those are Lieutenant Cherini’s men, and farther over there are Lieutenant Bard’s men.”

Pierre casually pointed, his gaze inevitably drawn to the man before him.

This was a tall and strong male, dressed in an old cavalry uniform. His jawline obscured by a thick beard, a prominent nose bisected his features.

Anyone would remember that face, since a black eyepatch covered the man’s left eye – he was a one-eyed man.

Yet when he used his remaining right eye to examine someone, it exerted a pressure greater than that of any other person with two eyes combined.

“Where is Lieutenant Montaigne now?”

“He should be in the officer’s quarters,” Pierre asked as politely as possible. “May I know who you are?”

The one-eyed man did not answer, but instead said coldly, “Have Lieutenant Montaigne, Lieutenant Cherini, and Lieutenant Bard come to see me.”

“May I know who you are?” Pierre persisted, asking again.

“I am John Jeska,” the one-eyed man seemed to smile, dropping his knapsack on the ground. He stared intently at Pierre and said, “I am your battalion commander, a major.”

…

When Pierre found Winters, the three centurions were having lunch with Priest Caman and Brother Reed.

Upon hearing someone claiming to be Major Jeska, Winters, Andre, and Bard dropped their utensils and headed for the Wolf Town camp.

Although the auxiliary legion was indeed an auxiliary force, it had a complete organization with a battalion command layer between the legion and the centurion unit.

The Montaigne centurion unit was nominally part of the Newly Reclaimed Lands Province First Auxiliary Legion, Third Battalion, First Centurion Unit, while Andre and Bard commanded the Second and Third Centurion Units.

The entire Third Battalion currently had only three centurion units, considered a half-sized battalion.@@novelbin@@

Previous tasks were carried out at the centurion unit level, so there had been no battalion commander, and Winters received orders directly from the Parlatu Army logistics department.

It was only yesterday that Winters and his colleagues were informed: Major John Jeska had been appointed as the Third Battalion commander and would soon take office.

They had just been chatting and speculating about the origins of the new battalion commander at the dining table and hadn’t expected this “Major Jeska” to arrive so quickly.

No sooner had the three arrived at the Wolf Town centurion unit’s camp, they learned that the major had already gone to the headquarters of the legion. The three centurions, who had just sprinted over from the officer’s quarters in the center of the main camp, had no choice but to turn back.

Eventually, they met the one-eyed major at the legion archive.

The one-eyed major stood at the desk of Colonel [Karl Heinrich Angus], commander of archives, with a saber and a rucksack placed on the colonel’s work desk.

Major Jeska himself was using his only right eye to examine a dossier.

Seeing the three lieutenants knock and enter the room, Colonel Angus found an excuse to leave, allowing Jeska and his three subordinates to be alone.

“You three,” the one-eyed major leaned on the desk, his tone unfriendly, “how did you end up commanding militia?”

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