Guard Captain Pt 3

Jacobs himself was also quite surprised with the outburst, having been a member of the Margave's personal guard since he was no older than the two guards before him, he knew the Margrave typically looked after his garrison, and only the most egregious of offenses would receive harsh punishment. These two must both be extremely new if this was their reaction, he shot Cassius a look, hoping the young lord could calm them down now that things had gotten out of hand.

Cassius, knowing anything more would only break these two young men down more, sighed and shook his head before stuffing a spoonful of his meal into his mouth, surprised that such a questionably plated meal could be so flavorful. 

"This is good!" He commented to the two young men, who didn't know how to respond. "By the way, you're both fine, relax"

Through mouthfuls of his meal, he continued to ask, "Now then, 'Nevermind that', and 'Isn't that' what are your names?" he pointed at them with his spoon before returning for another bite. "I can't keep referring to both of you this way, can I?" 

The oldest of the bunch who was faster on the take than the other was quick to answer. "M'Lord, That is Carmen, and I am Horace… we just arrived here from our village no more than fifteen days ago." 

Cassius raised an eyebrow as he glanced at Jacobs, who just shrugged in response, the normal garrison members were outside of his purview and he didn't have time to learn all their names. 

"Very well Horace, you mentioned you were both kicked out of your families to come to serve here, please explain," Cassius asked, full of curiosity about the practices of the time.

"As you may know M'Lord, the farmland surrounding Strom is mostly owned by House Stenfall and is leased out to farmers, the properties can only support so many mouths though… so when a family gets too large like mine and Carmens, the youngest children are sent out once they've come of age. Carmen and I decided to join the local militia and got sent to the castle earlier this month." The boy smiled in a self-depreciating way.

Cassius was happy to have been educated and realized through their conversation that he had finished his meal, and devoured even the stale bread, which Jacobs thought was amusing. From what he heard, the boy was a rather picky eater. Says who?

He studied the appearance of the two men again. Horace was a muscular youth with short-brown hair, and brown eyes to match. His jawline was square and robust, and Cassius saw the kindling of potential in this one. The armour he was wearing was a short-sleeve chainmail shirt with a red linen shirt underneath it, with the Stenfall soft-crimson tabard overtop the entire suit, with a leather belt securing it all together. 

A helmet lay close to him on the table, appearing to be similar to the "Oskol" helmets he had read about in his personal library and was in considerably good condition with a conical shape and a removable facemask made out of chainmail, a pair of iron plated gloves sat underneath it. Cassius noted that nobody carried weaponry outside of a short dagger on their belts while in the hallway, with the exclusion of Jacobs who was probably always armed with a sword.

Carmen, however… seemed haggard and appeared as if he was just getting over the plague. His face was thin, and he was almost a full head shorter than his adjacent friend. His gear looked… well used. A simple slightly rusted chainmail shirt, a new Stenfall Tabard, and his helmet looked like a simple iron cap with a leather neck to it—certainly a sharp contrast to Cassius who had been used to the Militant uniformity of the 31st Century.

"Where were both of you equipped? Carmen, is that your father's armour?" Cassius asked innocently. 

"No.. M'Lord, it was granted to me by the Armory here" Carmen nervously responded, still unsure of what to think of the boy. 

Cassius raised an eyebrow and looked towards Horace. "And yours?"

"It was a gift from my family, our family is large, and our cousins helped pool together the money to help M'lord." Horace stated, feeling less concerned with their future well-being and unsure of where this conversation was now going. 

Cassius scratched his jaw, pondering the revelation that a peasant farmer is better equipped than somebody equipped by the Armories of the Stenfall family themselves. He was going to look into this.

"I see, then what have you two been doing since you came to Castle Sturm? And how did you two meet? Give me the cliff-notes, I don't need your life's story."

Unsure of what the unfamiliar term 'cliff-notes', Horace nevertheless took the lead as he explained that Carmen was a member of the tenant farmers operating on his families private land, and they had been childhood friends growing up but his family had fallen on hard times with a failed harvest and had to cut down on mouths to feed. The local militia paid families with silver or food per-head they were able to raise for the garrison if they passed through a short basic training.

Horace went on to explain that his family had a relative who worked in the castle administration who managed to secure them a position within the castle garrison itself, as opposed to being sent to some distant location such as the border forts which saw conflict multiple times a year.

Their normal day consisted of patrolling the Castle proper I.E the walls, halls and grounds, the occasional patrol throughout the town and forest, and when they had first arrived they were immediately called on to deal with a group of peasants who had turned to robbery to avoid starvation after their crop had failed.

"And, have you trained once since you arrived in garrison?" Cassius asked, feeling a little confused with the matter.

"A little, M'lord… Captain Jacob's and his honour guards or Captain Noal normally take us into the Bailey and have us practice formations and some mock-combat…" Carmen spoke up and responded to his question with some hesitation.

"And outside of that..?" Cassius asked, fearing the answer.

"We sleep, and drink, M'lord…" Responded Horace

Cassius released a frustrated sigh while he mentally prepared himself to draw up plans for a functional garrison with some structure and discipline to it.

If he was going to make a comfortable life here, it would seem he would need to build up his fathers military from scratch.

--/// Authors note ///-- 

 Computer crashed, ended up losing close to 8,000 words, or in other words almost 3 chapters