Rewards Ceremony

After two whole hours, the aide, John, finally finished calling out the names of the squad captain and battalion commander promotees.

A sum of 160 squad captains and 16 battalion commanders were appointed, with each battalion commander overseeing ten squads.

Once the squad captains and battalion commanders were done, it was time to announce the promotions of the strongest warriors under Helena.

"Jack Ledger, Greyson Holler, Warren Greyhound, Kael Fernandez, Finnegan Whitlock, Vance Madden, Zander Blackborne, Sabre Barlowe"

"For your massive contributions of leading your battalions and slaying droves of enemies during the war, the Rougenfort Kingdom hereby promotes the eight of you to Regiment Commanders!"

*CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP*

Everyone in the room clapped with smiles on their faces and not a single one had a frown. 

This is because everyone knew that these 8 absolutely deserved their regiment commander promotion for their valiance in battle and unwavering determination to protect the Rougenfort Kingdom.

Blanc planned to have these eight regiment commanders command two battalions each to sort out the somewhat chaotic command chain of the Rougenfort Army due to sudden military growth and wars.

If nothing goes wrong, once the rewards ceremony is finished, the Rougenfort Army would be able to establish a proper command chain which would help the army execute orders efficiently and with pinpoint accuracy.

After receiving their Regiment Commander badges and monetary rewards, the 8 regiment commanders returned to their positions.

Meanwhile, Helena watched the proceedings with a proud smile on her face. 

She personally trained all of them and she couldn't be more proud to see them grow from chicks to soaring eagles.

Once the promotion of the regiment commanders was done, it was time for the biggest promotions.

John pulled out a list of names before looking towards the crowd and calling out the names one by one.

"Alexander Lionheart, Eden Riverbow, Leif Adler, please come forward."

After hearing their names called out, Alexander and Eden walked forward in a dignified manner, they worked hard to get here and they're one of the few people who has served King Rougenfort every step of the way.

It can even be said that they were one of the pillars who built the kingdom into what it is today.

In contrast, Leif seemed to be a little uncomfortable. 

Although he was indeed one of the top contributors in this war, he felt a bit uneasy about getting a promotion because he left the kingdom for a year to focus on himself and he just got back.

He felt that it was a bit unfair for Sabre and the others who had been consistently serving the Rougenfort Kingdom to rank lower than him.

Unbeknownst to him, none of his brothers thought that way. 

They knew how hard he worked to improve himself and become a better warrior for the sake of Rougenfort Kingdom. 

In addition to this, it wouldn't be an overstatement to say that he was the one who won the Battle of Fort Shadowsong for Rougenfort Kingdom.

Due to his timely arrival at Blasridge City, the hidden Samaran Strike force wasn't able to conquer Blasridge City and even provided an opportunity for them to lure the entire Samara-Kairuku Coalition Army inside the walls before ultimately wiping them out in one fell swoop.

If Blasridge City were conquered, the Rougenfortians would have to give up Fort Shadowsong.

Fortunately, Leif wasn't the same insecure person as before and he simply told himself that if he didn't deserve the promotion now, then he would just make up for it in the future.

After a few moments, Blanc stood up and personally gave them their general badges and monetary rewards.

He also spoke a few words of gratitude to the three of them before returning to the throne.

Alexander was pretty happy about this because thoughts of starting a family with Adelaine have been popping up in his mind every now and then so a huge monetary reward is a huge help for him.

Now as long as he could get Helena's permission, then he could marry Adelaine.

Once the promotions were done, it was time for Blanc and Helena to introduce Emille to the military.

The two of them didn't know if he would be well received but they were sure that Emille was a good person and would be accepted sooner or later.

For now, they could only hope that the Rougenfortians wouldn't treat him too badly because he was responsible for the deaths of a few Rougenfortian soldiers.

To make sure that Emille's introduction goes as smoothly as possible, Blanc stood up and personally took over the proceedings.

"Everyone, I would like to congratulate all of you on your well-deserved promotions. I hope that everyone will continue to support the development of our newly risen kingdom."

"As a token of gratitude, I promise to give your families the best life I could possibly give them."

*CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP*

Naturally, his warm speech was met with a warm round of applause from the recently promoted soldiers.

Blanc scanned the crowd and upon seeing that everyone was in a good mood, he decided to take this chance to introduce Emille.

"Since everyone is here, I would like to take this chance to announce something big."

Naturally, after hearing their king's words, everyone stopped clapping and listened attentively. However, since they were in a good mood, they listened with a slight smile on their faces.

"I know that all of you lost at least one brother-in-arms whom you've deeply bonded with starting from your training days and I deeply regret that I couldn't prevent those losses."

"However, as you all know, losses are inevitable in a war and the best thing we could do for our fallen brothers is to make sure that their families are well loved and well protected."

"This is why I and Grand Marshal Helena have decided to enlist a person from the Samara Army after a series of thorough investigations."

The smiles on the recently promoted soldiers' faces were replaced by confusion after hearing Blanc's words.

However, they gave their wise king a chance to explain because in the past, all of his decisions were done for the benefit of the kingdom and its citizens so they thought that he must have a reason for doing this.