Soul of the Warrior

Reivyn stuffed the papers into his storage pouch. Anything that was put into it would be preserved exactly how it was placed inside, so he didn't have to worry about them getting crumpled up or shifted out of order. He wrapped the papers up in a thin folder that was in one of the drawers of the desk to keep them all together before putting them away.

He hadn't had time to prepare for a whole lot on the first day. He had only given a simple lecture to the leaders of the company. He used that time to gauge their understanding of the situation as well as their personality, as far as he could see in such a setting, as much as they were evaluating his insights and ability to impart knowledge. The exercises of the soldiers had been quite basic, as well.

He had spent the past several hours devising many different scenarios they could run into. He didn't just use his experience of fighting the war in Drallo, but he also delved deep into his Dreams and came up with things he hadn't personally dealt with.

I seem to have a lot of Dreams covering a wide variety of combat situations, Reivyn thought. I never really realized how many different types of Dreams all centered around the same thing I had had over the years. Something about "every clime and place." A large majority of the dreams focused on desert and urban combat, though.

He hadn't had time to read the reports of where the company was going to be deployed, yet, so he had simply created scenarios for every situation he had ideas for. Most of them were situations that they could realistically come across, but he also had to factor in Magic to his Dreams. In his Dreams, there were weapons used that simulated Magic, but it wasn't nearly as flexible.

He had managed to come up with some truly outlandish situations relative to his Dreams once he combined Magic into the equation.

Scenarios they could be fighting in weren't the only thing that he developed for the education of the leadership. He also wrote up several simple tests. The first one that he planned on giving them the next day was simply to get a look into their inner thoughts. There weren't any right or wrong answers, and he just wanted to see how each of them tackled problems from their perspective.

It included questions like: "In what kind of situation would it be beneficial to split up your forces into their individual squads? What about splitting them even further than that? Who should be in charge of the smaller units, and what would the chain of command look like?"

As a mercenary company, they might find themselves attached to larger units fighting large-scale open battles, but, in his estimation, it was more likely that they would be given more autonomous missions. Developing small unit tactics to increase flexibility seemed like a good route to go down for now.

Reivyn tidied himself up and then stepped out of his office. The building he was in was a simple one designed for classroom learning. There weren't any administrative offices or anything, though the company commander did get his own temporary office. The training grounds weren't restricted to this, though, and Reivyn simply walked out of the building to make his way over to the local administrative building.

He walked in and headed straight to the scribes. He knocked on the door as he entered, and several young male and female soldiers in their non-combat uniforms looked up.

Huh, I've been so used to just referring to the soldiers in the platoons and companies lately as "men" that I forgot that women are fighting in the military, too. It's not that I have a prejudice or anything, Serilla is definitely a good example of a competent fighter of the fairer sex. I just haven't really thought about it. They were all in armor with helmets, anyway, so it's hard to tell without digging.

It seemed like the distribution of the soldiers according to gender was roughly similar to when he was in Magron. It was only an assumption on his part, though, as he hadn't investigated too deeply. It just seemed at first glance that there were more women present in the scribe's office than men, and he made the logical conclusion.

"What can we do for you, sir?" A young lady with sergeant's stripes asked as Reivyn walked up to the desk.

"I have several documents that I need several copies made," Reivyn said, pulling out the folder containing his afternoon's work.

The sergeant accepted the folder and scanned the contents briefly before looking up and nodding her head.

"Certainly, sir. How many copies do you need, and when do you need it done?"

"Let's start with eleven copies for now, and I'll need them done by tomorrow morning."

"Not a problem, sir. Just leave them with us and you can pick them up first thing."

"Thanks, sergeant."

Reivyn nodded his head and took one last glance into the back of the room to see the scribes hard at work. He noticed that their writing speed seemed to be beyond what was possible without some sort of active Skill, and with his Perception, he could tell that they were making exact copies. Not all of them were doing such work, of course, but Reivyn was only interested in that portion, so his eyes were naturally drawn to it.

There are eleven people in the leadership lecture, Reivyn thought as he exited the building. The company commander, his XO, the four lieutenants, one senior sergeant, and four sergeants. I'll need a master copy of my work if I'm going to be training another batch next month. No reason to have to rehash all the same work over again. I'll be able to add to it and refine it, too.

Reivyn was pleased with the outcome of the first day. He hadn't known exactly what he was going to be doing when he had shown up, and he had kind of just winged it at first. After he had gotten into the swing of things, though, he had been able to create a sort of mental road map for himself. He had spent the rest of the afternoon after writing the letters preparing for the rest of the journey.

There was nobody to escort Reivyn this time. Kayzor had gone with him in the morning to not just take him where he needed to go but to also introduce him to the soldiers. It wasn't a complicated path to get back to the Imperial Palace, so Reivyn wasn't too concerned about not having a guide.

He walked along the streets, marveling sights and sounds of the city. Now that he wasn't moving with purpose with Kayzor, he was able to really take everything in. He hadn't missed too much on his trip to the practice grounds, but he could now focus on the little details.

If Reivyn didn't have Divine Sense, he might have missed it, but he caught a glimpse of a familiar figure sitting on the second story of a nearby restaurant. Reivyn looked around and smirked, but he didn't show any outward change in his gait. At the end of the block, he turned off the main path and headed into an empty alleyway.

He took several steps into the alley, and then he just stopped and waited. He saw the man coming for him with his Divine Sense as soon as he entered his range. He didn't turn around, curious as to how the man would approach him.

The man didn't say anything, and he quietly charged toward Reivyn's exposed back, thrusting a long dagger at his kidney. Reivyn frowned at the action.

If that's how you're going to play it...

Reivyn twisted his body as he ignited his entire self with a conflagration. He hadn't displayed any of his magical abilities in front of anyone in the capital before, and the man was caught completely off guard. Reivyn's hand swooped down and clamped on the man's wrist. There was no playing around this time.

Reivyn applied his full Strength, coupled with Gravity Mana, and crushed the man's wrist bones into dust. The dagger clattered to the floor, and the assassin took in a deep breath to scream in anger, pain, and fear, but Reivyn's other hand came over in a chop and destroyed the man's throat. His actions were extremely deliberate.

Reivyn held the limp man's wrist as he turned and looked up into the eyes of the familiar figure in the restaurant. Reivyn used a wisp of Air Mana to scoop up the dagger. The Fire still raged around him, and the man's clothes and skin were melting from the heat, but he could only give out silent screams. Reivyn inspected the dagger briefly before turning it over and plunging it into the back of the man's neck, severing his spine and ending his suffering.

Reivyn stood back up, flipped the dagger over to hold it by the blade, and launched it up through the open window of the restaurant. Remfort stared wide-eyed down at Reivyn, the dagger, still dripping blood, pierced into a beam an inch away from his face from where he was watching from the window. Reivyn smirked at him, turned back onto the main road, and continued his walk back to the Palace.

He had scanned the man's body with his Divine Sense, and there hadn't been any incriminating evidence on him. It would simply be his word against Remfort's if it came to that.

He wouldn't hide the information from anyone, and he would immediately report it to the Imperial Guards at the Palace. They didn't have jurisdiction over the occurrence, but it would be better than Remfort lodging a complaint of murder against Reivyn from out of the blue. Reivyn did perform a slight trick and mentioned that there had been a mastermind watching from somewhere, but he had only seen his shadow.

He told Prince Garet immediately about what had happened, though, and he didn't hide that it had been Remfort's doing.

He whistled a happy tune as he departed the scene, not caring about the aftermath.

Reivyn had been correct in his actions of not hiding anything. His little trick of not mentioning who the mastermind was to the guards had put Remfort in a tight spot when he had come forward with the allegations. If he had been smart, he would have gotten one of his underlings to do so, but he had thought that he had a solid case against Reivyn and didn't think clearly.

The Imperial Guards delivered that information to the constables, and an investigation was launched. There had been zero witnesses in the alley, and Remfort claimed he was the only one to witness Reivyn brutally attacking someone for no reason from the restaurant. Reivyn hadn't completely disfigured his assailant's face, so it was very strange when there was no body discovered. He would have implicated Remfort by having been in his employ.

The entire thing turned into Reivyn's word against Remfort's, but since there was no body, no weapon, and no witnesses, it didn't amount to much. It did make Remfort lose a lot of prestige in the noble social circles, though, as Reivyn hadn't been shy about spreading the truth of the matter. To use a sneak attack against someone's back was the epitome of dishonorable.

Of course, Remfort had his diehard friends who would believe anything he said. They also wouldn't have cared if he was guilty anyway. He was a noble, and Reivyn was a nobody. The entire debacle only ended up making Reivyn look like someone decisive when choosing to kill, and Remfort looked like a cowardly idiot.

The weeks went by after that first day, and there were no more incidents other than rumors about it. The training that Reivyn devised, while not perfect on such short notice, was good enough, and he was seeing positive results from both the leadership and the soldiers.

Reivyn never became friends with the other officers, and they didn't hang out after the training was done. They would be going off in a month anyway, and it would be a long time before Reivyn would see any of them again. It made more sense to use this experience to become friends after they came back from their expedition if Reivyn was still where he was.

The officers and senior NCOs took learning the things Reivyn was teaching them very seriously. They weren't stupid, either. Once Reivyn opened the door for them, they pretty much were able to extrapolate the next steps for themselves. Reivyn was just there to guide them and point them in the right direction if there was a hiccup in their understanding.

After a week of training, a reply finally came from the Magic Academy, and it was accompanied by twenty Magic Academy Students. They had a wide range of specialties for their Affinities, and Reivyn was pleased to see that they could pick up on what he wanted from them very quickly. They weren't first-year students, but he could tell that even if they had been, they were all a cut above what was found in Garoq.

He wasn't surprised at their competency, though. From all the talk and the things he had seen from Kefira and the Mages that had accompanied Kayzor's army to Drallo, Reivyn knew that they were capable people. He only told them what he wanted from them, and then they got to it. He didn't even have to give them safety guidelines while practicing throwing spells around really close to moving soldiers. They handled all of that on their own.

Reivyn put forth a requisition letter to Prince Garet, not going through Kefira, to set up the contribution points and other rewards for the students. Reivyn didn't have to do anything, as the entire purpose of the training was the Imperial Family's idea to begin with, and he was simply given a promise that it would be handled appropriately.

The last week of the training was spent in the field, and Reivyn had pitted the company against Trevor's company. He had recently been promoted to captain, and he had been looking for a way to get some training and experience in for his troops aside from running Dungeons and regular drills. Reivyn didn't leave him high and dry, either. He supplied him with exactly the same information he was teaching the "mercenary" company.

The two companies had a blast collaborating, setting up battles and situations for each other to solve. The company Reivyn was training wasn't stingy with reciprocating the favor, and they seemed to benefit almost as much from devising tactics for Trevor to solve as they did the other way around.

The battles between the companies looked nothing like the traditional setup of soldiers lining up en masse and Marching into each other. They were spread out all over the place, divided up into multiple smaller units across a wide range of terrain. As a bystander, Reivyn had been not only impressed by how quickly they adapted, but it was entertaining as well.

There were several times he had forgotten himself as he watched a squad or platoon move about knowing that there was an ambush nearby. His heart would pound and he would wonder how they planned on getting out of the situation.

They didn't always. There were times when the platoons and squads had to accept a defeat and go back and reflect on what they could have done better. Reivyn had made them agree with each other not to pit each other against impossible odds. There was never a situation where one of the entire companies ambushed a single squad or anything like that. Every situation had a solution to it, so they needed to figure out what it was.

By the end of the week, Reivyn finally had to step in and put an end to some of the shenanigans going on. They had gotten more and more complicated to the point that it was no longer making sense. Reivyn had shaken his head at Trevor and the company commander he was training, and they had simply said they were having too much fun.

"Well, get it out of your system!" Reivyn yelled, real anger in his voice. "This is war. It's not fun! It's alright for you to enjoy a job well done and be proud of yourself, but don't get lost in it. You should take pride in being competent fighters, and it's fine to have fun. What is not fine is ignoring the purpose of your training in pursuit of entertaining yourselves!

"People die in combat. You need to take this seriously."

Reivyn tapped into his Heroic Bearing Skill while he used Commanding Shout to yell at the officers. It was the first time he had raised his voice, and he could tell that none of them had been ready for it. He had been pretty soft-spoken, all things considered. The officers stared back at him with deathly white faces, Trevor included.

Did I go overboard? Reivyn thought. He didn't change his facial expression, though, and he continued to stare them down. A blinking notification caught his interest, and he opened it up to check.

[New Skill Unlocked!]

[Tier 5:]

[Aura {Bloodlust, Heroism} (0 ->1)]

Oh. Reivyn was stunned. I guess that's what it was.

Reivyn hadn't realized that while using his Heroic Bearing to inspire awe into the people he was chastising, his own experiences and anger had turned it into something else entirely. He had thought that he might get some sort of intimidation Skill sometime soon with how he had handled Remfort and his cronies, but he hadn't expected an Aura of Bloodlust.

With a mental flip, he could switch between being a pillar of strength, raising the morale of his own soldiers to being an emissary of doom, instilling fear into the enemy. He was only at Skill Level 1, but it didn't seem difficult to switch between the two. He seemed to have an intuitive grasp of how to do so. Maybe the higher Levels increase the potency and range, not the ability to invoke the Skill.

Reivyn didn't storm off in anger or anything, though he could tell that some of the officers had wished that he had. They moved about awkwardly in front of him for a while, but they eventually got their heads screwed on straight again.

Overall it had been a fantastic success. The two companies, though they wouldn't be seeing each other for a long time, had bonded quite a bit over the experience, and the officers had built a good rapport, as well. It didn't hurt that Trevor was very Charismatic. Reivyn stayed on the sidelines, watching.

It wasn't that he was anti-social. He would be perfectly happy to make friends with any number of officers, especially ones that were already friendly with one of Kefira's siblings, but he just didn't have the time to invest. He knew that he would have to continue to train more companies to send out into warfare, and he and Kefira were both waiting for the next move from her mother on the social front.

He simply said that he was impressed with how well they had grasped the concepts and ran with them to make them their own, but he continued to caution them to not lose sight of the forest for the trees. They didn't have to treat each individual soldier like a chess piece.

The companies returned to the city, and the Magic Academy Students returned to the Academy. There would be another bunch of students for the next company training if they thought it was worthwhile. Reivyn knew that it definitely had been for the soldiers, but he would have to wait on a response from the Academy on whether or not they thought it was a good idea to continue sending more Mages. He was optimistically hopeful.

"So, what did you make of him?" Rupert asked as he flipped through the report.

Rupert was the Headmaster of the Wispan Magic Academy. It wasn't just students that he had sent at the request of the Imperial Liaison, but they had sent an instructor to witness it, as well. The man Rupert had sent had been a trusted confidant of his for many years.

"Him, sir?" Polai, the supervising instructor asked. "Are you asking about the Imperial Liaison?"

"Who else?" Rupert snorted.

"Umm, I'm not sure I understand, but it's all in the report, sir."

"Quit being so wishy-washy. I have the damn thing in my hands," Rupert rolled his eyes. "I'm not talking about your thoughts on the exercise, I can see it right here. I'm asking you what you thought of the man. The Liaison as a Mage. What would your opinion of him be if you were an instructor and he was your student?"

"Well, I didn't get to witness a whole lot of his Spell Casting, but from what I did see, he had a fantastic grasp on even some fairly high-level Spells. I would say I was more impressed with his thoughts on Magic in organized combat, but I put that in the report.

"If I may, why do you care so much, sir?" Polai asked.

"I don't, really," Rupert said, placing the report down. "I would have cared, but he's already technically graduated. Maybe we can send him an invitation to put his thoughts on military Spell-Tactics into a treatise or even teach a class on it..." Rupert trailed off, lost in thought.

"I'm not following, sir."

Rupert was brought out of his musings and he looked up at Polai. He rolled his eyes at the man.

He's always been trustworthy, he thought, and he has a great grasp of Magic. Anything outside of that, though, he has no interest in trying to figure it out for himself. What am I going to do with him?

"He's that random kid that Princess Sophia came running in here all those months ago to get transferred to our Academy," Rupert reminded Polai. As soon as he mentioned it, recognition dawned in Polai's eyes. "Yeah. That one.

"I thought it was just a favor for the Princess and we'd have to keep an eye out for someone who probably didn't belong. Then this guy shows up, already an Imperial Liaison - with all that entails about graduating with honors - and he's flinging fireballs, firestorms, lightning chains, and all kinds of Spells about like they were nothing. And. And he has some unique concepts about warfare."

Rupert slammed his fists on his desk, loudly. The papers and pins jumped into the air, and Polai flinched at the sound.

"He could have been my student, dammit!" Rupert leaned back in his chair and sighed. "Do you know what sort of prestige mentoring such a talent would get me? Well, that's out of the question, now, but if he can't be my student..." Rupert gave Polai a cunning look, a twinkle in his eye. "Maybe he can be my teacher."

Rupert sat in silence for a few moments, watching and waiting for Polai's reaction. The other man just stared back before replying.

"But what could he teach you? You're the Headmaster," Polai said.

Rupert smacked himself on the forehead.

"I meant he could be a teacher who works for me, Polai. That's almost as good as being a mentor. I'll get less credit for what he does, but I'll still get some."

"You would steal his credit?" Polai was taken aback, flabbergasted by such a prospect.

"What are you talking about?!" Rupert slammed his fists on his desk again, not quite as hard as last time. "He would get his credit, and I would get mine. They're two different things, Polai. When have you ever seen me steal anyone's credit?!"

"Oh, right," Polai said. "Now that you mention it..."

"Just go," Rupert held his head in one hand as he motioned for Polai to excuse himself. "Go, go, just go. Post this cooperation on the notice board for the Third Years. We'll keep sending anyone that wants to volunteer."

Polai scrambled from his seat, grabbed his copy of the report, and left the Headmaster's Office. Headmaster Rupert sat with his head in his hands for several minutes.

How do I get that Liaison over here? He's apparently attached to Princess Kefira, and he's currently working for the Imperial Army. Hmm... He did say to contact him if there's anything we need to make the cooperation possible... Yes, yes, this could work...