Chapter 59

"Ouch, it hurts so much!" Simo Häyhä staggered out of bed and walked to the bathroom, splashing cold water on his face a few times to feel better, as if trying to wake up from a splitting headache.

His memory was stuck at last night's celebration banquet; he had drunk so much that he couldn't even recall how he made it back to his accommodation.

Washing his face helped him clear his mind, and he remembered what the German crown prince had said to him on the competition field.

"Stay here as an instructor?"

His Highness had even mentioned arranging for a leave with the German Ambassador and the Finnish Minister of Defense. Wasn't Simo just a mere soldier? The crown prince seemed to hold him in high regard.

However, the crown prince did promise him good treatment. Since he granted him leave, Simo wouldn't be considered a deserter. One more or one less soldier in the army wouldn't make much difference, so staying seemed like a reasonable choice.

"I'll stay then." With a decision made, Simo went downstairs to the restaurant to order breakfast. While eating, a young stranger walked in, scanned the room, and approached him. "Excuse me, are you Simo Häyhä?"

Simo nodded. "Yes, I am. And you are?"

"Hello, I'm a soldier sent by Director Schwartz. He sent me to get you. Can we leave now?"

Director Schwartz must be the academy director mentioned by the crown prince. "Sure." Simo quickly finished the last piece of bread and followed the soldier, getting into a car that took them to a nearby military base. The layout was somewhat similar to an ordinary school, but the training ground was much larger and divided into several areas.

The soldier led him to an office where a middle-aged man in his fifties warmly welcomed him. "Welcome, welcome, Mr. Häyhä. I also went to see that competition yesterday; it was truly remarkable. I must admit that, as a marksman myself, I was astonished by your skills. You are indeed exceptional."

Simo blushed and modestly replied, "You are too kind, Mr. Schwartz."

Director Schwartz became serious. "No, I speak from the heart. I consider my marksmanship to be excellent, but yesterday I realized that there are people beyond my skills. Haha, you seem a bit embarrassed. Let's get down to business. Do you have any teaching experience?"

Simo straightforwardly shook his head. "None."

As expected, Director Schwartz seemed to have anticipated this response and nodded slightly. "Then I'll have you serve as a temporary assistant instructor to get familiar with the teaching procedures here. Conveniently, we are starting a new class today at the academy. Once this current class concludes, you'll be able to independently teach another one.

Let me briefly introduce the course content of the academy. Our students undergo a total of 260 hours of training, which includes 100 hours of shooting, 50 hours of tactics, 40 hours for digging and constructing sniper hides, positions, demolitions, and 30 hours of radio communication and navigation, with 60 hours allocated to other topics. Here's a sniper teaching manual for you to reference."

Taking the manual handed to him by Director Schwartz, Simo flipped it open, finding a sentence on the inner page that read: "When the enemy is within your sniper range, remember! You are also within the enemy's range!" He continued to the table of contents and widened his eyes.

The book contained information on equipment, disguises, laying traps, communication, emergency protocols, mission completion, and retreat strategies, among other detailed aspects of sniper operations.

What astonished him even more was the author of this manual—Wilhelm Hohensohren. Wasn't that the German crown prince who convinced him to stay as an instructor? "Is the crown prince also a sharpshooter?"

Director Schwartz shook his head. "As far as I know, the crown prince hasn't received any formal shooting training."

Simo was even more puzzled. "Then, this book?"

Director Schwartz showed genuine admiration on his face. "He only compiled this sniper teaching manual by reading various military-themed books. I can only say that the crown prince is a genius. This sniper manual of his might remain relevant for decades to come."

After talking for a while, Director Schwartz instructed the soldier to lead Simo Häyhä to the back door of a classroom. Inside, there were already over thirty young students listening to a lecture. "After class, just greet the instructor who's giving the lecture. Your dormitory is on the fifth floor, room 512, and it's already equipped with daily necessities. Sit in the last row to listen to the lecture. Here are a pen and notebook; you might find them useful."

"Thank you." Simo Häyhä took the paper and pen handed by soldier and walked into the classroom, taking a seat in the last row.

As soon as he sat down, he felt a gaze directed towards him. Turning his head towards the source of the gaze, he realized it was the runner-up from yesterday's competition. Seeing the burning determination in the runner-up's eyes, Simo Häyhä sighed inwardly, nodded politely, and then looked towards the podium.

He saw various sizes of scopes placed on the podium; it seemed like this class was about scopes?

The middle-aged instructor on the podium picked up one of the scopes and started explaining, "This is the 1.5x ZF41 scope, which can be mounted on the sniper version of the Karabiner 98k rifle on the left side of the rear sight. Its advantages are that the scope mount is relatively low, close to the baseline of the iron sights, and it doesn't interfere with using the clip-loading bridge, but its drawback is the narrow field of view. It's almost outdated now, replaced by the 4x ZF42 scope. It comes with two mounts, one fixed on the receiver ring, and the other fixed on the left side of the receiver."

The instructor then proceeded to introduce the Zeiss Zielvier, the Hensoldt Dialytan, the Fumegarten 4, and the Oigee Visier scopes, and so on.

"Of course, there are higher-quality and higher-magnification scopes available, but due to budget constraints, the military won't purchase them. If you have spare money, you can buy one yourself, or you can earn one as a reward by eliminating twenty enemies. If you manage to take down fifty enemies, you'll get a professional sniper rifle. Let me emphasize this: it's a professional sniper rifle, not some makeshift rifle with a scope attached. It comes with a high-magnification scope, a suppressor, and compatible ammunition. Although the suppressor may slightly reduce the range and accuracy, just imagine your enemies not knowing where you're shooting from while seeing their comrades falling one after another. It will undoubtedly create tons of psychological fear in them."

"The two most important points: This sniper rifle was personally designed by the Crown Prince and bears his signature along with your name on each rifle. If you achieve a record of 100 kills, after you retire or sacrifice yourself, a life-size wax statue of you will be placed in the Imperial War Museum, along with a detailed presentation of your heroic deeds for future generations to admire."

Simo Häyhä couldn't help but be amazed at how much importance the Crown Prince placed on sniper training.

"Wow!" The students below couldn't help but applaud, and one of them raised their hand to ask, "Report, Instructor, why don't you just provide us with those sniper rifles?"

"Because those sniper rifles use special metals, and the barrels need to be handcrafted by skilled artisans. But let me advise you not to foolishly exaggerate your achievements for these rewards. Your superiors will believe your accomplishments, and they will assign you even more challenging tasks next time! Your vanity will only harm you; if you want to survive longer, face your true abilities."