Sorry guys, the reaso for the late posts is because of exams... once this week passes.. we wi have early posts again

Anyway... I want to give a big shout out to "Merifu" who was the first to comment yesterday, and ....heheheh... ding!.. ding! Ding!!.. we have a tie.. "Joshk' and 'Woofromearth' for their comments

Thanks for all the love guys... hope you enjoy..

Now as always, let's get the show on the road.

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The soldiers were sleeping and snoring peacefully within their sleeping units.

Every military dormitory had 4 long vertical stacks of straw: 2 on the left side of the room and 2 on the right side of the room.

There where also several iron lockers that were placed all around the each wall in the room.

The lockers resembled the gym lockers back on earth...but each locker was 2 meters tall and 1 meter wide.

All of the lockers had locks on them, and also had number tags placed on them.

The center of the rooms were kept straw-free, creating a large corridor space for morning roll call.

The stacks of straw on the each side were separated by a 2 meter gap, leaving the center space to 4 meters wide.

Some rooms had less stacks, while others had more..... it basically depended on the dimensions of the rooms.

In this era, most peasants slept on straws, grass, leaves, and other plants that were deemed comfortable.

Previously, Landon had wanted to place the straws in fabrics to make mattresses.

But the men complained that loose heaps where more comfortable to sleep on, compared to compact ones.

When straws were forced and pressed in to clothe, they ended up poking people when they slept.

Some of the straws might even poke out of the fabric, giving the straw mattresses a spike-like feeling to them.

Hence Landon placed long vertical stacks of straw in every room.

The straw was changed every 3 weeks by all the soldiers in each room, as per the room roster.

In future, there would be bunk beds for them. But for now, the straw was their best alternative.

Afterall, that was what they were used to anyway.

And as for the blankets, each soldier had a 2 meter piece of clothe, to cover themselves up at night...

For now, there were no pillows, since the men preferred so sleep without stone pillows.... And Landon didn't blame them...

Who would want to sleep on rocks or pebbles?

In this era, if peasants were really keen on pillows, they would place several pebbles and dried seaweeds into a piece of fabric and call it a pillow.

More like a torturing device.

Would that give you serious neck injuries?

Anyway, each room had a minimum of 30 soldiers residing in them.

Since no one was in the rank of drill sergeant, Landon had the Warrant officers look after the new recruits.

Drill Sergeants were those ranked in the 'Enlisted ranks' between Sergeants and Master sergrants.

Everyone in the military fort was either overqualified (warrant soldiers and above) or underqualified (new recruits).

That's why the warrant soldiers were the best options for now.

Each room had a warrant officer that would be in charge of waking up the new recruits and supervising their morning training.

It was 6:00 A.M.

In Kersten's room, there were 40 soldiers sound asleep as they waited for a new day to begin.

Each vertical stack had 10 soldiers on them.

'Phiiiiip'

The whistle blower.

"Get up! Get up! Get up! Get up!.... you all have 5 minutes to be fully dressed and assembled at the center of the rooms!" Warrant officer Justin yelled out.

Kersten immediately jumped up and rushed towards his locker.

Kersten had just arrived this July, and was still not use to all the new routines that were done in Baymard.

He had always wanted to be a knight growing up. And when he was 7, he started training as a page in his home town.

By the age if 13, his town was attacked by a fierce blood gang and his grandparents died while protecting him and his sister.

His grandparents and all the other adults, tried to stall the gang, while him, his sister and all the other children and some adults fled for their lives.

His mother died during childbirth, and his father died while he was out hunting in the forest.

All he had were his sister and his grandparents... But when he fled with his 6 year old sister at the time, he knew that he would never see his grandparents again.

He had lived the next 3 years of his life begging, doing petty thievery to feed his little sister and working as a loader in a shipping dock in Fringa city, within the empire of Terique.

It was there that fate finally decided to smile on him.

While he was loading items unto a ship, he had overheard a man, presumably the owner of the ship, ask about where he could get refugees and buy slaves within the city.

Several days later, the man brought a lot of people by the dock and started reassuring them that where they were going would be a happy place with equal pay and good times.

Although he was intrigued, he still felt that it was a scam.

Ever since he had fled with his sister, people had bullied him and treated him like a piece of horse sh**.

He would get beaten up by the sailors on board most of the ships while he was loading items, or even have dirty moped water, thrown on his face when his colleagues were having a bad day.

He had preserved through all the torture because of his sister... She was all he had, and he would atleast try to make her life as comfortable as possible.

But now, he had heard that there was such a place that would treat him with respect, and apparently even catered to the poor?

Bulsh**!!

Wasnt this just a typical slavery scam?

But then again, something in his heart kept saying 'what if'.

What if, what the man said was true?.. what if he could really become a knight and earn enough money for his sister and him?.. and even if it was a scam, was he not already treated like shit were he was?

Although it was risky, he finally gathered enough courage and begged the man to add him and his little sister to the list.

And the rest was history.

Once he arrived he immediately noticed that this city in particular, had soldiers and not knights.

As he was already 16, he immediately volunteered for the army since that had always been a life longg dream of his.

Within these 2 weeks, he had also realised that everything that his highness Landon promised them, was true.

He made new friends, attended lectures, had enough food to eat and passed his days in peace.

His sister was also happy with her life, and lived in the estate with all the other slaves and refugees.

Since he was in the army and couldn't live in the refugee/slave estate, his 9 year old sister had to live with 1 other child and 1 caretaker in single large room.

So she was fine and well taken care of daily.

Plus, during his free time, he would make stops to her estate to check up on her regularly.

He loved his time here in Baymard,especially the army experience.... Tsk! To think that he actually hesitated on giving up this golden opportunity.

He also made up his mind that he would never betray Baymard, because they had given back his dignity as a man back, taken care of his only sister, and fulfilled his dream to be a knight.. or should he say soldier... Plus he had already made an oath and signed documents of confidentiality and loyalty towards Baymard.

"Times up!"