Returning to the Capital 1

"Jack, it is very difficult for me to find soldiers and guards as skilled as you are, so unfortunately the most talented subordinates I have always have to work harder than the others."

"I'm going to give you a few days to rest, and then you come back here because I have another assignment to give you."

"Can you tell me what mission this is now, captain?"

"I can, you know that our capital is known for being always very safe for the residents, the reason for this is that the same walls that protect our king, also protect the people."

"We have some thieves here in the city, but the guards we have are able to take care of them without much trouble."

"As you well know the reason for this is that people who commit crimes or who do not want to pay taxes are sent out of the capital, normal people go to the forests and create villages or live in the villages that exist."

"But criminals go to the mountains near the capital after the forests, normally these criminals would go to other countries or steal from traders who are forced to hire security guards if they want to protect themselves."

"What happened is that some soldiers have found that the number of thieves has increased a lot and they are no longer leaving for other countries, luckily it seems that the thief groups are not united and even fight among themselves."

"I want to gather a group of soldiers and go to the mountain to eliminate some groups of thieves, to do this I will send 100 of the best soldiers and it will be you who will lead this group, what do you think of that?"

"I agree to do this, Captain Max, I just wanted you to select some soldiers who were with me on the Royal road and speak to the soldiers you select so that I don't have the same problem as I did in the forest."

"Okay, you can choose some soldiers, you don't have to worry because no soldier I choose will disobey your orders."

Jack was happy to see that Captain Max had accepted his requests, Jack thought he would have fewer problems facing a group of soldiers than several wild animals after all the soldiers were trained to kill people and not animals.

Jack had heard about mountain thieves while talking to Ron in his village, just as Captain Max said mountain thieves were bandits who decided to leave the capital to commit crimes or people who were expelled from the capital.

These thieves just did not attack the villages because they feared the hunters, because the villages were too far from the mountains, and because normally the people in the villages did not have much money.

So it was better for thieves to kill merchants than villagers, Jack hoped that the soldiers that Captain Max personally chose would be more skilled than the soldiers who went in his group to the forest.

As the captain said, Jack also thought he needed a few days to rest, so he spent two days locked in his tower room just relaxing and taking advantage of the little time he had.

After those two days resting Jack went to meet his old friends, he talked a lot with Paul and Aaron who were his best friends in the army, he told how it was the hunts in the forest and impressed them saying that he led 60 soldiers for the forest and brought everyone back without any injuries.

Paul was older and calmer and just listened to Jack telling the most difficult stories and fights, but Aaron was very excited and liked to hear Jack's stories about hunting, so his hunting stories were much more interesting.

On the other days, Jack just talked to his friends and went to the capital's shopping center to buy some things and things he liked to eat taking advantage of the time he had, Jack hardly spent any of the wages he earned and was already collecting too much gold again.

Having lived his entire life in the village and even being a hunter for a few years, Jack learned to live without luxury and with little money, he had good clothes that were made in his village and he paid very little for them, and when he had to go somewhere special he could wear the army armor that was an honor for the people of the capital.

Jack didn't think about spending dozens of silver coins for an outfit that was uglier than the clothes he bought in his village, he also didn't have to spend money on weapons and armor because the army gave everything to him.

So the gold coins he earned were hardly spent, after all, Jack just bought some food in the capital, Jack was very handsome and the women in the capital were interested in him.

But the customs of the capital meant that women had to wait for men to take an interest in them and try to win them over, and Jack had no love experience and did not even know the customs of the capital.

In the village, if any woman liked him, they would come to talk to him and so Jack understood that they were interested in him, Jack was very concerned about fighting in the army and looking for some way to get revenge to notice the customs of the capital.

After a few days, Jack went to look for Captain Max again to tell him that he was ready to fight, but it looked like something had changed in the capital and Jack realized that the soldiers were tense, so it took Jack a few hours to get to talk to Max.

"Captain Max, what happened that the soldiers seem concerned?"

"Jack, it looks like some soldiers on the Royal Road found spies from the neighboring kingdom trying to cross the border, the spies were captured and said they were just thieves who were trying to escape from the neighboring kingdom."

"These spies are still being questioned, but for the time being I decided to suspend all army missions and get the soldiers ready for a possible war that could start, so your mission will also be canceled, for now, Jack."

"If they really are spies sent by the neighboring kingdom, does that mean they may be starting to prepare to attack our kingdom, do you intend to do anything, Captain Max?"

"No, the only thing we could do was start a war by sending in our army, but we want to prevent that from happening and if it has to happen, the king has to make that decision and not me."