Training

Roland drilled the very basics into the recruits for an hour before taking them for a run around Border Town.

"Is that all you have got, you maggots?!" Roland shouted while looking behind him as he was running in front with quite a large lead. Thankfully for Roland, there was no one outside the town other than the recruits and some patrol guards therefore only several people saw him...like this.

"*huff* How is it possible for His Highness to have such great stamina?!"

"I have no idea, I have been doing manual work all my life so I thought myself to be relatively strong with a lot of stamina but...His Highness is something else."

"What did I say about chit-chatting during the training?! If you have something to complain about, come to me and shout it out like a man!" Roland shouted back at them when he heard some voices behind him.

"?! We apologize Your Highness! No complaints here!" The recruits that have been chit-chatting shouted back, putting more effort into running.

"Focus on your breathing and not on using your useless mouth!"

"Understood!"

"You are to keep up with me and run behind me until I stop, if even one of you stops before I do, no meat, no eggs for any of you! You will eat old bread!" Roland shouted, getting into the role. Now he was slightly regretting not being born as a military commander, the idea of training men into the most disciplined and strongest army in this world brought him some excitement.

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After several laps around the Border Town, Roland stopped at the position where they first started running, right outside of the newly built wall.

"...Hmph!" With a slightly ragged breath, Roland looked behind him just to see all recruits either sitting on the ground or holding their knees to stabilize their wobbling legs.

"Your Highness!" Carter brought a wet towel for Roland to clean his face.

"Thank you, Carter" Roland nodded his head with a faint smile.

"*No problem Your Highness, however, is this type of training truly good enough? And does Your Highness need to do this with them? We can just instruct someone to train them or if you don't trust anyone else to do the job, I can do it personally.*" Carter asked in a low voice.

"Stamina is important so it's definitely a good training as for why I am participating...I want to humiliate them, I want them to realize that I, a fourth prince am much stronger than them despite them working manually all their life. The results are excellent, everyone completed the training, and even those lying on the ground, looking half-dead, finished it in fear of depriving everyone chance to eat meat and eggs. There are so many scarier things in this world than some demonic beasts, some of those things are completely regular things we usually don't think much about. For a commoner, the feeling of disappointing tens of people can bring great stress but at the same time motivation to do their best." Roland explained while giving others some time to catch their breath.

"Hmm...I think I understand what Your Highness means but not even bowing to you...Are you sure it won't influence your power and how people perceive you, Your Highness?" Carter asked with a concerned look.

"Kneeling and bowing in the army is just a distraction. Unless they will be coming to report something to my office, I don't see any reason for them to greet me so exaggeratedly. Anyway kneeling and bowing is just for a show it doesn't show whether you respect the person or not and I don't need their fake respect."

"...But how can anyone know whether someone respects them if not by kneeling and bowing?"

"Carter, why do you think I told them to stand straight while looking straight into my eyes when speaking out? The only way you can see whether someone's respect or admiration is genuine is from their eyes, the same applies to hatred and fear which I am sure you already are familiar with." Roland explained to which Carter slowly nodded his head in understanding, thinking more thoroughly about his words.

'If in the field, kneeling or bowing can certainly cause distraction.' Carter thought that he was starting to understand Roland's thinking despite him being a bit reluctant since he was a knight and like any other knight, he was a bit of a traditionalist.

"Alright, enough of the rest! Form 10 rows and keep standing straight and still with your arms glued to your sides, keep on looking straight in front of you." Roland shouted at the recruits.

There were no audible complaints but some people were releasing low noises from their mouths that sounded a bit annoyed.

"...Are you perhaps tired, my little men?" Roland asked in an odd tone while staring at them with no emotions in his eyes.

"..." The recruits felt an odd pressure, some of them wanted to say yes but they were afraid of what would happen after.

"Y-" When someone wanted to agree...

"No, Your Highness!" A few other recruits shouted in unison with worried expressions.

Hearing their answer, Roland narrowed his eyes and smiled.

"Truly? There seemed to be some delay in your answer. Well, I will ignore it this time. All of you will maintain this position for 3 hours straight, right under the sun. If any of you just bends his knees, none of you get to eat meat or eggs. This is the last part of the training for today, after all, I don't want to scare you all too much. Every one of you will get one cup of water before you will begin since you just ran several laps around the town." Roland said before gesturing for the maids to give out wooden cups filled with water.

Recruits instantly gulped down all contents of the cup in one go with excited expressions but that quickly changed when they tasted salt water instead of normal water.

"Drinking salt water on an empty stomach can cause vomiting, I made sure not to add too much salt but some of you might feel a little urge in the next 3 hours. If any of you vomit, the training counts as a failure for everyone. Iron Axe, please look after everyone and make sure they won't cheat, if they complete it successfully, you may distribute the meals to them and make sure they maintain discipline even during the meal." Roland said with a "warm" smile before walking off back to the castle and the recruits could only watch his back with dumbstruck looks on their faces. The only word they could think of when thinking of Roland after this training is 'demon', however, there were also a few those who ended up subconsciously smiling for a second.

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Roland returned to the workshop he created in the castle for creating gunpowder and steam engine and any other stuff. Most of the gunpowder he created till now was hidden inside his inventory because he didn't want anyone stumbling onto the barrels of some powder with the torch in their hand.

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[Musket: Flintlock - 300 Gold Coins (+20 lead Musket balls)]

[Musket: Percussion lock - 400 Gold Coins (+ 20 lead Musket balls)]

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'If I remember right, flintlock had some troubles during the wet weather and its reload time should also be slower than Percussion lock. As far as I know, Percussion lock only needs additional components but it shouldn't be that much harder to make...Let's go for Percussion lock for now' Roland thought before he stuck his hand into one of the bags before purchasing the weapon to make it look like he already had it stored there. This show was just in case Nightingale was still watching him from somewhere, maybe she promised to announce her presence but this isn't just any small secret so Roland wanted to play it safe.

[+ 1 Musket: Percussion lock, 20 lead Musket balls]

[Current money: 1900 Gold Coins -> 1500 Gold Coins]

'So this is the Percussion lock, looks different in front of my eyes than in the movies. The percussion lock is better in wet weather than Flicklock but no lock of such old weapons is waterproof, however, coating the lock with a bit of wax could do a trick. It would be amazing to have the help of a witch with the ability to coat the surface of things with any kind of material...' Roland thought as he took the musket out of the bag and began carefully inspecting it.

He put it on the table and started slowly taking it apart while drawing everything on the blueprint next to him.

'This Store is designed to only help me create things on my own. I can buy ammunition from the Store but it's so much more expensive compared to the expenses for creating it on my own. After the months of the demon are over, I really need to make fully functional showers. I have never been the type to enjoy luxurious things but a shower and normal toilet is the must. I also need to start building better houses and insulating the current ones to stop any excessive waste of firewood and coal. Cement should do the thing...I hope' Roland thought while working on disassembling the musket in front of him.