General Interrogation

Clang! Clang!

Two heavy swords hit against each other.

Clang! Clang!

Again.

Trees covered the surroundings, there was no person in sight except for the two, battling it out. The brawny man charged again.

Clang!

The smaller man blocked, he stepped back and taunted his opponent to come forward.

"Come on then! I ain't got all day!!"

The brawny man lost his cool and charged forwards, he gripped his broadsword and attempted to diagonally slash at the smaller foe, yet the small foe just stepped back once. Again and again, this series of steps repeated itself. 

"You're too simple, it's getting boring."

The smaller foe kept taunting the brawny man,

"I got you now, YOU LITTLE RAT!!!!"

The brawny man charged forwards and held his broadsword above his head in an effort to to cleave at the 'little rat'.

The smaller foe saw this and went for a block, however the brawny man dropped his sword at the very final moment and kicked his opponent right in the lungs before he had a chance for jab at him.

"Oof!"

The smaller opponent exclaimed in pain. The brawny opponent stood over him and laughed. 

"You fell for it, HAHAHA!"

Gawain let out a hearty laugh and wiped the tears off his and looked up. The sky was slowly being clouded, and small dark circles of crows could be seen dotting the sky.

"We should head back to base before we get wet on, Fitzgerald"

Gawain suggested to his comrade.

****

They both got up and walked their way back to base. As they walked, they could see the towers and the soldiers hawking out their eyes for any of the enemy factions and spies.

The walls surrounding the base were as very high, but the trees that spanned in front it were a little bit higher.

There was a moat separating the walls from the inner part of the base, a large metallic drawbridge acted as an 'entrance' to the base and an 'exit'.

The front part of the drawbridge was covered in large metallic spikes, which prevented the monsters and beasts in the moat, surrounding the base, from attempting to break in.

Once the drawbridge was lowered, there were many soldiers on standby watching the two enter. They all got down on one knee and said in perfect unison,

"Hail Captains!"

The Captains, Fitzgerald and Gawain looked around and nodded. The soldiers clad in silver shining armour and some in chainmail got up and went back to their respective duties.

Gawain and Fitzgerald made their way to their companies, the current base held 20 troops. Each troop contains 250 men, one company contains 1000 men. Each company is led by a General and each troop is led by a Captain. 

Gawain entered his quarters and called for Captain Leon. Leon entered the quarters and kneeled as he said,

"Hail General Gawain!"

As Leon stood he was very careful as to not led his General notice his recent injury,

"How was the recent quest?"

Gawain questioned Leon in a stern voice, Leon recounted the series of events that took place during the quest,

"We then captured around 10 men."

Gawain nodded and thought for a bit, he took out a piece of parchment and quill, he handed it to Leon.

Leon outstretched his arms in a hurry to receive the parchment and momentarily forgot about his injury, a sharp jolt ran through his shoulder and his shoulder fleetingly seized.

Gawain looked at Leon and as he put down the parchment and quill, he asked

"Were you injured in your last battle? Surely not you're a Captain with Knight core and is close to advancing to a Warlord core. What happened, Leon?"

Gawain probed Leon in a grave manner, Leon described the events of the previous night whilst gripping his shoulder and gritting his teeth out of anger.

" A Foot soldier eh, with a common core?"

Gawain thought of how unlikely this was. There was no way a foot soldier with a measly common core could hurt a Captain, who was close to advancing to a Warlord core, to such an extent.

Gawain wondered about Jahn Frier's true identity, who was how? How did he have such power as a foot soldier? 

A captain's core contains much more essence than a person with a common core, so how is this possible?

Did he lie about his essence level and core? Question after question raced around Gawain's mind, he thought about all the procedures one had to go through to join the army.

He stood up in rush and ran all the way to General Fitzgerald's Quarters too see if he had heard about the incident between his Captain and the unknown foot soldier. He ignored all those that kneeled down and shouted in unison,

"Hail General Gawain!"

He found the door to Fitzgerald's quarter and entered without knocking and spoke in a frantic manner, taking breaths in-between,

"D-did y-you... pant hear a-about...pant L-Leon."

He turned to look at Fitzgerald and then saw another man with both his hands behind his back in the quarters.

Fitzgerald's quarters was smaller compared to Gawain's, it was damp yet it smelled very fruit; like apricots.

There was not area to see out of the quarters and not place to see inside it. It was yellowish in colour and there was a desk centrally placed.

Fitzgerald opened his mouth and said in a slow manner,

"You, Jahn Frier, managed to inflict damage to a captain, as a foot soldier with a common core? Is that right? Did I get it right?"

Jahn looked down as he mumbled under his breath,

"Yes General Fitzgerald but I don't know how. I just got angry at myself and just jabbed with all my might."

Gawain looked at Jahn with his eyes wide and smiled,

"Yeeeees, I found you."

He excitedly said. Fitzgerald looked at Gawain, critically and told him,

"General, please leave for a moment."

Gawain looked at Fitzgerald and knew whenever he called him General it was very serious. He turned around, opened the wooden brown door and left.

"Ok Jahn Friers it seemed you lied, and do you know the consequences lying?" 

Fitzgerald asked Jahn.

"N-no General but I never lied, I swear I am telling the truth!"

Jahn exclaimed, he didn't want to die, he had kids and a wife to go back home to.

"It seems you need an audience with the Prince, all the Generals and all the Captains!"

Fitzgerald severely said. Jahn looked down and gulped. He didn't want to get into trouble, he just wanted to earn more money to support his family. Jahn earnestly replied,

"General Fitzgerald, I don't know how I did it, I never lied to any of the Generals and Captains. I truly have a common core. How? How can I prove it to you?!"

Jahn was starting to sweat from all the pressure placed on him, he didn't know what to do, what to say so he just said whatever he could think of. The quarters was quiet.. Too quiet. Jahn started to wonder if he was going to die here.

Fitzgerald thought for a moment and said,

"Okay, lets test if what you are saying with a Soul shard, of a common core beast."

Fitzgerald left the quarters and headed to the armoury. Jahn watched as the General left the quarters and wondered if this was going to be his last day to live, he thought about his kids and wife as he gritted his teeth and felt a sharp wave of longing in his chest. He thought to himself, I never lied. I went through all processes.

The door to the small quarters opened, there was Fitzgerald holding two soul shards.

"One of these is Common and the other is Soldier ranked core, each of them can hold their respective amount of essence."

Fitzgerald explained to Jahn and handed him the Common ranked soul shard, Jahn held the soul shard and began to infuse it with all his essence. After a short while the soul shard... cracked and cracked, eventually breaking up into large sized pieces. Jahn looked at the soul shard and back at Fitzgerald,

"Wait, wait, General, I don't understand how this happened, when I signed up to join the Conquest of The Bonerparte Kingdom, I was definitely a Common core."

Jahn explained himself and after he was done the quarter was silent again. Eerily silent. Is this it? Is this where I die? Jahn thought to himself.

"Take."

To Jahn's surprise, Fitzgerald seemed to be giving him another chance. He took the Soldier ranked soul shard and infused it with all his essence and it... gave off an ethereal azure glow.

This indicated that the essence satisfied the core. Fitzgerald glared at Jahn wondering if he lied to him, he thought, a foot soldier does indeed have the chance to grow like those above them but it was very very rare.

Fitzgerald dismissed Jahn and took out a yellowish piece of parchment and on it he wrote.

Subject: Jahn Friers

Hail Crown Prince Thorian De-Kline. In your base today there is a foot soldier who was a Common core upon entering and seems to have become a Soldier core in the 20 days that we have been out here fighting against those filthy troops that The Bonerparte Kingdom have sent. Should I execute him for his lies as it is impossible for one to increase their rank in 20 days, it took me 30 years to reach the stage of Warlord core despite being born as a Soldier core.

Your sincerely, Fitzgerald Hwein

He closed the piece of parchment and stamped it with a wax crest of the De-Klein Kingdom. He then gave it to a courier knight posted near his quarters and gave him the instructions to deliver it to the Crown Prince.

"Jahn Friers, you want to lie to me. Okay!"