Chapter 42 - The Mad Saints!

Hao Xuan walked into the forest, followed by the legionaries. They continued walking for more than 30 minutes until Lt. Kuo finally plucked up enough courage to go talk to him.

"Um, Captain, my name is Kuo, I'm the lieutenant directly under you. I was just wondering if you could brief us on the mission." Hao Xuan stopped in his tracks. He was in such a good mood after killing the envoy that he completely forgot about the legionaries.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about you guys. I set camp up ahead, let's go there and talk," he replied after thinking for a few seconds.

They walked for several more minutes until a clearing appeared with a tent and a fire in front of it. Bai walked next to the fire and sat down and closing his eyes.

Hao Xuan went up to Bai and sat down as well, with his back leaning on him.

He took off his mask and started cleaning his face with a piece of cloth when his hair moved and Zhurong walked out from behind his neck and sat down in the lap.

All the legionaries stood in front of him without moving a muscle, staring straight ahead. Only the four newbies were curious enough to look around through the corner of their eyes and look at their new captain.

Mia usually had a very aggressive attitude but her one weakness was cute things. As soon as Zhurong stumbled into Hao Xuan's lap she couldn't take her eyes off of him, and who could blame her. He looked really cute and cuddly with his pure white fur and extremely small stature.

She would look at him every few seconds, hoping he would see her and come over, then she would HAVE to pick him up and pet him so as not to be disrespectful towards Hao Xuan. Unfortunately for her, Zhurong didn't care about anyone other than Hao Xuan. No one else mattered.

Hao Xuan was sitting in front of the fire while petting Zhurong who was purring delightfully.

"Our mission this time is to find a trading party that was headed towards Fortuna City but never called in after entering our borders. Any questions?" he said in one breath without even looking up.

"Um, Captain, what's so special about the party that instead of the normal army the Red Legion was deployed?" asked Aria while raising her hand. This was indeed not a normal procedure.

First of all, it wasn't the kingdom's business if random trading parties reached their destinations safely or not, secondly, they wouldn't dispatch the elite units to find them.

"Apparently there are some royal's masquerading in the trading party as normal merchants. I don't know who they are or why they are doing this but our job is to find them," Hao Xuan replied as he looked up at Aria.

This was the first time any of them had seen him clearly and they were all mesmerized by his greenish-red eyes which seemed to glow in the dark like torches.

He looked so peaceful and holy, sitting there in front of the fire with Zhurong in his lap with the wind gently blowing through his long hair and Bai right behind him, looking almost ethereal.

For a few seconds, none of them could take their eyes off of him, not until he looked away first.

Maybe it was his natural charisma, maybe it was his eyes but to the legionaries, he looked like an unapproachable being and they almost felt ashamed looking at him.

"Anything else?" he asked when no one said anything for a few seconds.

"N-No Sir!" Lt. Kuo hurriedly said, waking up from his daze with a reddened face. He was an experienced soldier, how could he get so muddleheaded with a single look from his newbie captain?

"Alright, it's quite late already. Camp here for the night and we'll leave at first light."

"Um sir, my apologies but have to first give us a name first. These 100 soldiers all will be under your command from now on, you have to give us a name," Lt. Kuo said quietly after moving closer to Hao Xuan. This was something every leader knew and they had named their own soldiers.

"Hmm? Name? I have to choose it?" Hao Xuan asked furrowing his brow. This was the first he had ever heard of it, but it made sense after he thought about it for a bit. This would be his own personal army from now.

None of the soldiers moved, still standing in their positions waiting for Hao Xuan to name their unit.

Hao Xuan, on the other hand, was drawing a complete black. Not a single name was coming to him which made him even more nervous. He didn't wanna lose face in front of his subordinates. They would think he was retarded if he couldn't even come up with a simple name.

"The name of an army has to be awe-inspiring for their allies and fear-instilling for their enemies," he thought to himself.

"What about the Crimson Death? No, that is way too cheesy. Spartans? Nah, not enough naked men. Shit, come on brain, just give me something!" he pleaded with his own subconscious, almost on the verge of crying.

"Heroes!! Something heroes would be good. No wait, that sounds even worse than the other two." More than five mins passed out in the real world while Hao Xuan was trying to think of a single name. The soldiers were getting a bit annoyed, what was so hard about this? Was their captain simple?

"The Saints, the Mad Saints! That's the name of our unit," Hao Xuan spoke up calmly as he looked up at the legionaries.

"We will be the spear of our kingdom. We will rush into the enemy camps and reap their lives with our blades.. This very name will frighten our foes to death!" he almost cringed saying the words but he still kept the same straight face throughout.