Chapter 16: A request from a friend

While David was outside drilling his men, inside, like usual, Alice was working hard in her office. Suddenly there was a knock at her door. 

"May I come in?" Maria's voice sounds from the other side. 

"Mari!" Alice shouts as she jumps off her chair and runs to the door throwing it open. As soon as she did, she saw a surprised Maria standing there and threw herself on to her, embracing her tightly. Maria, who was surprised to see her friend so spontaneous at first, gently hugged her back for a moment before breaking the embrace. 

"It's good to see you too Alice!" She said with a brilliant smile before her smile slowly fades and she pouts slightly. 

"And I thought I told you to stop calling me that nickname!" Maria protests. "We are no longer children!" 

"Aw!" Alice said, her own face in a mocking pout. "Does that mean we can no longer race each other down the hill near your house? Watch the birds fly overhead or roll around in the mud?" To Maria, hearing this brought back some very specific memories from her childhood. As she recalled the childhood memories, she softly giggled to herself. 

"Yes, yes. Well if we are to get dirty like that I would like to first change out of this dress." Maria said as she picked it up slightly. 

"I am rather fond of this one after all." 

Alice could only think about how good it was to see Maria again, of course she had seen her about a month ago, but when she had come, they still had the unfortunate business with the human traffickers to sort out. At that time neither of them were in high spirits and to top it off Maria had only a short window to stay in the capital so they could not see each other for long. However, seeing her again, without any pretext this time made her day. 

"I'll get a maid to bring some tea and sweets, you take a seat inside." Alice said as she enthusiastically ran past Maria to flag down a maid. Maria could only laugh to herself at her friend's vigor, even at this age she had still not changed, it was refreshing to see someone in such high spirits. The manor had not been the same since David escaped, of course things were improving, but it seemed that everyone was just at least the tiniest bit on edge, most likely due to her father constantly bitching to himself about him. 

After a few minutes the tea and sweets arrived, and Maria and Alice spent a few hours catching up and talking casually. For Alice, it was splendid, she had been getting lonely with David's absence recently, so Maria's visit seemed to come at the perfect time. For Maria, Alice's high spiritedness was exactly what she needed to clear her head. Eventually though the topic shifted to a more serious conversation. 

"So, I heard that David has been promoted to a knight after the raid on the traffickers?" Maria said as she sipped some tea. 

"Yes," Alice said as she sets down hers and takes a more serious tone. "In fact, it is no stretch to say that the success of the operation is largely due to his efforts." A pain squeezed at Maria's heart as she thought about David doing something so reckless. In fact, she had heard that he had been seriously injured due to the affair, the thought of seeing him covered in wounds did not sit well with her. 

"I must say, I do not approve of you getting him involved with that whole mess." 

"Well it's not like I planned to at the start." Alice said, defending herself, leaning forward slightly. "But when he found out about it, if I didn't help him, he would have probably charged in alone anyway, so I had no choice." Alice sits back and takes a breath. 

"Besides when he heard how those people were going to be treated it reminded him of..." She stops herself. She didn't want to bring this up, both for David and Maria, it seemed like this was a topic they did not like talking about.

"It reminded him of himself." Maria said with a saddened look, finishing Alice's sentence. She knew what his reasons for doing such a reckless thing were. She understood what he was thinking, it just didn't make her feel any better about it. 

"Actually," Maria said, putting down her teacup as well. "It's for that reason that I'm here today." Alice was confused, she was here because of David? Why? Didn't he dislike her? 

"I want to ask a favor of you. Or no, I would like to ask you for some advice." 

"Advice?" Alice said quizzically. 

"Yes." Maria said as she took a breath. "I would like to get on better terms with David, but I'm not sure how. Every time I talk to him, he looks at me coldly and I can't seem to get through to him. It may be silly of me to worry about what he might be thinking but..." She pauses for a moment as she closes her grip, her hand over her heart. 

"I know that I do not want to remain distant with him forever. If possible..." Maria pauses again and breathes deeply. "If possible I would like to be friends with him." 

Alice was stunned, Maria was asking for advice on David. Her best friend was asking her about her other friend. Of course, whenever Alice and David spoke, she tried to avoid bringing up Maria whenever because he would always look either disturbed or depressed, but now Maria herself is asking how to approach David. If they were to become friends it would be perfect, all three of them could sit around and talk together, see each other more often, and maybe even becoming friends with Maria would help heal David's past trauma. But she doubted it would be easy.

"He said it himself, he did not hate me. I want to believe that we can become friends, I don't want to go my entire life being indebted to this man only to have him despise me for it." Maria said looking distraught. 

"You do realize that will be hard, he may not hate you, but his opinion of House Velma as a whole is..." Alice trails off, it was pointless to continue that sentence. 

"I know, but if possible, I want him to not at least look at me like he does. It might be unfair of me to say but I had no hand in the way he was treated back at the manor, on the contrary I fought my father nearly every day when he was being treated unfairly. I begged my father to release him, and begged him to give David better food. When I heard they started force feeding him I nearly fell at my father's feet! I begged him to stop but he didn't seem to care. After he was finally released, and I saw him again he looked like a shell of his former self. So, I did what I could, I made him my attendant, gave him his own maid, and even got him his own room. I did all I could to make his life as comfortable as possible. I just..." Maria pauses as she wipes a few tears from her face. 

Alice didn't know what to say, she knew of course that David was being treated poorly at the Manor, enough that he ran away, he also knew that Maria was suffering because of it, but she had never heard the full story, David rarely spoke of his experience other than his hate, and Maria had never told her everything. It came as quite the shock. 

"Please... can you tell me anything that might help make our relationship better?" Maria said as she calmed herself down. Alice opens her mouth to give some advice and then stops. What does she really know about David? She knows he's a hard worker, sometimes stubborn to a fault. He seems resistant to luxury and is fun to tease, but is that all? As she thought about it now, despite all the time they spent together, she really didn't know much about him. What was his family like, who were his friends? What does he like to do for fun? How does he relax? Up until now she thought she knew him so well, but she really did not know anything about him besides that he was an avid reader, sucked at chess, and... 

"He likes chocolate." Alice said, speaking her thoughts aloud.

The randomness of Alice's comment caught Maria by surprise. So much so in fact that she couldn't help but laugh a little. 

"That's good to know." She said stifling a few giggles. "But I was hoping for something more helpful." 

"I don't really know," Alice said with a sigh. "Honestly I think your best bet is to just be straightforward with him. He appreciates honesty for one thing." 

"I have tried to talk to him, but he just doesn't seem to want to." Maria said, slightly downtrodden. 

"I think," Alice said with a straight face. "That your best bet is to be yourself. If he said he doesn't hate you then he probably doesn't, so if you just keep chipping away at him, he'll give in eventually." Alice said with a light smile. She knew her advice wasn't the best, but this was all she could do for her, David had some deep seeded hatred for the House Velma. It was going to be hard to fix that broken relationship. 

"Thank you." Maria said politely as she thought to herself. A few moments pass in silence before Maria looks out the window in Alice's office. 

"Oh my! Look at the time already!" Maria said standing up. Alice turns around and sees that it is already sundown, even though she was surprised how much time she had spent with Maria already. 

"It is getting quite late, so I must be going now." Maria said as she walked over to Alice and hugged her gently. "It was lovely seeing you again, I had fun." Alice hugs her back, 

"I did too, hopefully you can come again soon!" Alice said cheerfully. 

"I will try my best to make the time!" Maria responded with a graceful curtsy. "Until next time Alice!" And with that Maria left. The evening had been wonderful, if the mood hadn't soured at the end it would have been perfect. But her friend had asked her for help, even if she hadn't asked for it directly, coming to her meant she wanted help to get closer with David. As a friend to both of them she wanted to make that come true, so she silently made a pact to herself to help fix their relationship.

A few weeks later and the platoon had mostly finished endurance training, not only were they all in better shape, but they also had better cohesion with their squads. By this point David had separated the 50 men into 5 squads of ten, with the squad leader to be picked at a later date. The goal was to create smaller webs of intel gathering that could operate independently of each other but have access to the same resources. David's next step was to begin training them in the skills they needed to handle the missions he would send them on. It was here that their real training would begin. 

The "real" training consisted of a large variety of different lessons and exercises. He ensured that everyone was sufficiently literate and for those who weren't he set aside time to either teach them himself or get someone to help them learn. Luckily for him, no one in his platoon was completely illiterate at worst they just had underdeveloped skills, which was lucky for David, he did not know how long this training would take, but he knew he didn't have a year to train them, so teaching them to read from scratch would have not been an option, he didn't even plan for this, he truly just lucked out. He also teaches them simple codes, where codes are used, and how to create a code. They were mostly simple examples, but they still needed to learn about it if they were going to get better. 

He also taught them skills for hiding in plain sight, both in the forests and in the towns and cities. He taught them how to hide their scent, cover their tracks, use the shadows and blind spots to hide. He also showed them how to bury themselves in the ground and cover themselves with mud and leaves to hide themselves completely. Tracking and pursuit skills were also taught. With the limited knowledge he had, he taught them how to follow someone without being spotted by keeping a certain distance away and not staring. Or by remaining out of their line of sight by using buildings, other people, or anything else in the environment that might be helpful.

The "specialists" as he began to call them, he set up a rotating shift to teach the other members of the platoon, himself included, their knowledge. 6 of the specialists had skills that could be taught to others, however the other 5 had skills that were unique only to them and therefore could not teach anyone. Lastly, he began to teach them his Namba walk and the new refined sword style he had picked up while training to be a knight. With the Namba walk, he had an easy enough time teaching them since he practically had diagrams of teaching steps burned into his head from childhood. There were definite differences in skills when it came to learning this, but he was confident that with enough time they would all master it. It was a different story for teaching them swordsmanship, however. Unlike all the other classes his soldiers were going through, he seemed to have no talent when it came to teaching them the sword. The problem was that, although he could replicate the motions 100% of the time, he was very poor at explaining how it was done. So, progress was slow on that front.

He had decided to, one day, go visit the knight's training area to see instructor Dan again. When he arrived, he saw a bunch of new faces and some old faces on the training grounds sparring. 

"Oh hey!" Dan said enthusiastically. "Look who it is! My favorite student!" Dan grabs David and puts him in a friendly headlock for a moment before letting him up. 

"So, what brings you back here? You got rusty and wanted to get some practice in?" 

"Actually. I'm here for you, instructor Dan." David said as he straightened his uniform that had been wrinkled by Dan's unusual greeting. 

"I told you when you left, I'm no longer your instructor, just call me Dan." He said with a big grin. "Well then, what do you need from ol' Dan?" 

"You may be aware that I was given my own command, a platoon of 50 soldiers." David said. Dan is confused at the word "platoon" but doesn't bother asking and instead continues listening. 

"I was trying to teach my men the sword style you and I developed, but it turns out I do not have the talent for teaching swordsmanship." David said a bit bashful at his own incompetence. "So, I wanted to know if you would be able to help teach my men for a bit, even if it's only for one afternoon." 

"Well," Dan said, scratching his beard as he thought it over. "Do you think they will be able to keep up?" He said with a cheeky grin. 

"I will ensure that they do." David said with a bit of a smile himself. Dan slams his hand against David's back a few times as he laughs to himself. 

"Alright, I'll help you out. Have them come to this field next Sunday in the morning and I'll whip them into shape for you!" 

"Thanks Dan." David said, putting his hand out for a handshake, which Dan takes firmly and shakes vigorously. 

The next Sunday came and Dan trained his men hard in the new sword style. Even though he was already aware of this fact, seeing Dan teach, he got a real sense of appreciation for the skill he had to do so. It also was interesting to see his men being pushed so hard. He had of course been through the same level of harsh training in the past but seeing others have to suffer through it made him wonder how he managed to survive through it all. By the end of the day, all of his men were on their backs or butts breathing heavily. Still though, through Dan's teaching and their efforts they all managed to get a handle on the new sword style. Of course, they were far from mastering it, something even David had yet to do, but they could at least now make use of it in combat. 

The last thing that David was having his men do was exercises, the first exercise was modeled after his own experiences. There was a forest behind the Palace and near their normal training grounds. So, David set up a "game" of manhunt in the woods that took place every night. He would select 2 of the squads who would be the "hiders" in the forest and the remaining 3 squads would have to find them within 1 hour. In order to keep the game simple, he used the "tag" system to designate whether someone was "killed" or not. If a person was tagged, they would be eliminated and have to leave the forest with their hands up. Once all the people on one side lose the game is over. To incentivize his soldiers to put their all into this "game" the losing squads would have to stay an hour longer doing nothing but log exercises the whole time before they could go home. Needless to say, with the punishment in place, the games got intense. It was through this that he began to pick up on who the squad leaders would be. After much consideration of the skills shown he came up with the 5 people he would promote. Klaus, Richard, Luthor, Bart, and Jason. Jason being the man who he met during the human trafficking raid. He was surprised that Jason made the cut, but he was by far the most talented individual out of the entire group. He was intelligent, cunning, quick, strong, had a good sense of his surroundings, and most importantly had a charisma that made him a great leader. 

After he had officially selected the squad leaders, and promised higher pay for them he was about to move on when Jason requested to not be chosen. 

"Do you have a reason?" David asked him bluntly. 

"It's just that I don't believe that I have what it takes to lead men." Jason said, completely serious. 

"Oh?" David said, interested to hear his reasoning, after all Jason was by far the most promising candidate. "Please explain." 

"I'm just the son of a poor farmer, I'm not the kind of person who should be leading other men." Jason said, still serious. David begins addressing the group as a whole.

"Do you know how I got my knighthood?" David asked. Like he assumed no one responded. 

"The King saw fit to reward me for my efforts in a raid on human traffickers. I did not get this posting because I was born a vampire, nor because my father was rich, nor because the king liked me personally. It was because of skill and effort. In life these are the two things that matter most. I do not care what your pedigree is, leadership is not something that only the noble-born have, it is something that is inside everyone. The ability to inspire, to command, to take charge. These are all skills, some are better at it, some are worse. In this platoon, for those under my command, I only care about two things, effort and ability. If you don't have enough ability, then put in more effort. If you have ability but no effort, then you damn well better be the best there is at it." He stops and looks over to Jason. 

"I don't care whether you were born to a whore or a noble, I chose you for this position because I believe you have the ability to lead it. Now, after hearing what I had to say, do you still wish to decline?" Jason said nothing for a moment before he responded. 

"I will gladly accept the commission sir!" 

"Good! Now, form up with your squad leaders, I have a special treat for you tonight."

David had been waiting for this, the real first test of their skills. After they had all formed up, he explained the rules to them. 

"Tonight we are having a special manhunt. All 5 squads are hunters, you all have to find and "eliminate" the target within 2 hours. However, your target this time..." David pauses as he begins to take off his uniform jacket. 

"Is me." He walks over to a tree nearby and hangs it up. 

"If you succeed in catching me then tonight, I will take everyone out and you can all drink all you want on me!" At this there were a few excited faces from the crowd and even a cheer or two. 

"However, if you fail to find me before the time limit, or if you all get caught by me, then you can kiss sleep tonight goodbye. You will have two extra hours of drills tonight, and tomorrow you will come in at 4 instead of 6!" This got a much bigger reaction from the crowd, most of them were terrified, a few even began to mumble amongst themselves. 

"The game will begin in a few minutes." David said as he began to enter the forest. "Coordinate with your squad leaders and do your best not to disappoint me!" David completely disappears into the forest.

This was a big test; it was to see how well they had learned to track a target in a large area as well as being a test for himself. Certainly, being hunted by 50 people who already knew his general area was not easy in the slightest, but unlike vampires, humans had a lot of disadvantages when hunting at night and he would take full advantage of every single one. The game began shortly after he had fully entered the forest. For the first 30 minutes he simply hid to run down the timer, to his disappointment no one even came close to finding him in that entire time. So, he changed tactics, instead of hiding and keeping out of their way he would eliminate them all one by one. This task would be much harder than hiding would be, but if he was to teach them anything then he would have to pull out all the stops. The first group he found was walking in a line, they all passed him and then he, one by one, tagged each of them until the whole line was gone. From there he became the hunter.

He set up fake trails in several areas to lead them into ambushes, he would use the terrain to jump out and gain the advantage, and he would run away if he ever found himself being surrounded. After an hour was over David had eliminated almost all 50 men, only a few remained 

"Clearly I have been too easy on them in training." David said to himself quietly as he tried to calm his breathing. Since he had been running around for about an hour now he was nearing his limit. 

"It seems they need a lot more training if I can manage to outmaneuver 50 people like this." Suddenly David hears a branch breaking nearby and hides. He then sees Jason walking alone in the forest. 

"Ah, there you are. Sorry, but it looks like you just ran out of time." David thought to himself as he used the Namba walk to sneak closer. However, as he is about to jump out and tag him, he gets a very bad feeling. All of a sudden Jason jumped at him trying to tag his body. David escaped by mere inches from the tag and was now standing out in the open facing down Jason. 

"How'd you know I was there?" David asked, legitimately curious. 

"Because you were doing exactly what I would have done." He said, an excited grin on his face. They hold there for a moment staring at each other before they both pounce.

It became a game of slapping each other's wrists away as they desperately attempted to dodge the other's tags. In the rules, you could tag anywhere besides the arms or hands, in other words you could use your arms as a shield, the goal was to make this simulate a sword fight or a knife fight, and that was exactly how it felt as these two fought. David, who was already spent by this point, found it incredibly difficult to seize any advantage from Jason. However, eventually Jason accidently slipped on a pile of leaves while evading David and fell over. Before he could react David dove in and tagged him right on the chest. He did it, it took considerable effort, but he won! 

"Pretty good, but it looks like my win!" David said with a small smile as he tried to catch his breath. 

"Actually sir," Jason said, also out of breath. "It's our win." At that moment, David felt a pressure being pressed into his back, he turned around and saw that the other squad member who had yet to be caught had his hand pressed firmly into David's back, he had lost. 

"Did you... did you set an ambush for me?" David said almost in disbelief. 

"You are the one who always tells us to look for a weakness sir. I knew you would not miss the opportunity to tag me if you got the chance, you let your guard down just long enough for Abel to come out and tag you.

David just stared at him for a moment, so everything that he had done, the walking out in the open, the sudden attack, the long drawn out battle, and even the slip at the end, was all just to create this opportunity? Damn, Jason was good, far better than he ever could be. All he could do now was concede. 

"Alright, I lost." David said, his hands up in a surrendering motion. He then offers Jason a hand to help him up, which Jason takes gladly. 

"Do me a favor, you two." David said to the two surviving members as they all walked back out of the forest to where the members "eliminated" were waiting. "Before you let them know you won, let me teach them a lesson first." David said with a slightly evil smile.

After David had successfully told off the entire platoon about their failures, he then revealed to them that they won but only due to Jason and Abel. Afterwards, true to his word, he took them all out for drinks. David had a few but most of his men went loose and drank the night away. He learned pretty quickly that if Alice had not been paying him so generously, he would have been drunk out of house and home.