Summera Higher School of Magic.

On the wide field, a group of young people in gray uniform costumes lined up in several rows, facing tall and powerful men in front.

After a few commands, the young men turned sideways at the same time, formed into several columns, and began to run in small steps. The queue, which was not neat in the first place, suddenly became even more crooked.

……

Roderick has been troubled lately, and the lord has given him a "difficult" task - to train a group of recruits.

Training recruits is not a huge one.

The garrison of the fortress increased from 2,000 at the beginning, to 6,000, and in the last six months, it has reached an unprecedented 10,000.

This speed of army expansion, in addition to benefiting from Xiaya's strong grain production, also proves that the lord is likely to make some moves.

As a soldier, Roderick is not afraid of fighting, and even desires to fight in his heart, especially now that his weapons have been greatly strengthened, he often takes the initiative to attack when facing orcs.

He remembered a vague remark one day - Sooner or later, Xia Ya would enter the Plain of Wind Whispers and fight the orcs head-on. No one else may have paid attention to it, but Roderick kept it in mind, and the only concern was whether he would be able to see that day.

Therefore, he raised his hands in favor of the expansion of the army, and these days he has been getting up early and staying late, often taking on the responsibility of training recruits himself, because he knows very well that these recruits, who still look young and immature, are likely to be the first human beings to officially invade the Plain of Wind Whispering.

However, this group of "recruits" in front of them is completely different from the past.

Some of them were students at the school—apprenticeship classes to be exact.

The other part is a magic apprentice who has already graduated from school.

In Roderick's cognition, these people are the pride of the sky, holding important positions in various departments of Xiaya, not only are they knowledgeable in magic, but even once they are lucky enough to awaken, they are immediately official magicians.

Roderick also recognized several of these familiar faces.

Mr. Neham, Mr. Wald's first assistant to the Magic Laboratory, is now in charge of the all-important "Magic Energy Block" project. It is said that the next batch of weapons of the fortress defenders will be equipped with enchantments with magic energy blocks, and the soldiers' melee ability will also be greatly improved, and they can truly fight head-on with the orcs;

Mr. Patrick, Miss Sophia's subordinate, the head of the animal husbandry, and it was by his hard work day and night that the defenders of the fortress were now treated with meat for every meal;

Mr. Steward - the first designer under Master Matthew, even more than Matthew himself in terms of magic and engineering, has been assisting Knight Daeron in building roads before, all drawings and construction plans, have to pass through his hands, this time because the road from Twilight City to Autumnland City was completed, he was called back, and as a result, he began to participate in recruit training as soon as he returned;

Miss Ellie, one of the first 87 magic apprentices in the fortress, the younger sister of Master Matthew, and a teacher at the Charya Higher School of Magic, the magic pattern on the original magic arrow of the fortress was engraved by her own hand;

Miss Nora, a subordinate of Lord Sango, is proficient in pharmacy, and she has made potions from her own hands, and I don't know how many soldiers she has treated.

……

There are many similar characters.

These people would have been greeted politely even by Roderick if they were walking on the road, but now they are participating in the recruit training of the defenders of the fortress with a group of magic apprentices.

If it wasn't the lord's order, he didn't dare to imagine it at all.

As the "recruits" slowly ran away, Roderick heard footsteps behind him.

"Miss Anne." He greeted.

"Lord Roderick, is the training going well?"

The two have the same rank, but Anne, as the Secretary of State for Education, does not like to be called an adult.

"This ......" Roderick, who has always been honest, hesitated for a moment and said, "It's just the beginning, and it hasn't had much effect yet." ”

"It's a bit embarrassing to have all the magic apprentices train as knights—the lord's orders."

As Colin Wayne's classmate, Anne spoke quite casually, but Roderick didn't dare to agree directly, so he could only smile bitterly: "My lord must have his considerations." ”

Anne sighed, "I remember that my lord once said that in the future, all magic apprentices, in addition to their own physical defects, men must reach half of the physical fitness of beginner knights, and women must also pass a certain physical fitness test before they can graduate from the academy. On the contrary, there is no requirement for craftsman apprentices. ”

"If you can do it, it's a good thing." Roderick nodded.

"Fortunately, Lord Lord has pardoned my training." Anne chuckled, "But I'm afraid I'm going to be the worst physical magic apprentice in all of Xiaya." ”

She was proud and regretful for a while, then tilted her head and asked, "Lord Roderick, what is the level of the beginner knight?" ”

"It's almost like two years of training for the defenders of the fortress." Roderick thought for a moment and explained.

In principle, every healthy man of appropriate age, with the right training, can become a beginner knight.

But of course, the truth is not that simple, everyone's physical condition is different, and the level of effort and training methods are also very different, according to statistics, only one-tenth of the soldiers in the army of the Tulum Kingdom have or are close to the strength of the junior knights, and most of them are still at the rank of officer.

"The children of Twilight enter the academy at the age of eight, become apprentices in magic at the age of twelve, and graduate as soon as seventeen. If you intersperse physical training with these nine years, maybe it's not impossible? Anne muttered as she calculated.

"It seems to be." Roderick nodded: "Sure enough, the lord is still far-sighted. ”

"Lord Roderick, what level are you?" Anne asked, tilting her head curiously.

"I don't know." Roderick was a little embarrassed and said: "The knight assessment needs to be carried out at the examination center set up by the military department, and Xia Ya has never had this condition...... I've fought Daeron Knight before, though, so it should be pretty much the same. ”

Anne nodded.

With Roderick's character, it should be slightly better. In this way, this military minister of the fortress and the leader of the garrison, even if he does not have the strength of a grand knight, can be higher than the average high-ranking knight.

"So, all our soldiers, don't they know what their specific rank is?"

"Yes."

"In that case, maybe we can propose to the lord that we set up a knight assessment point ourselves, which will be much more convenient." As the head of the college and the secretary of state for education, Miss Anne's eyes lit up when she talked about exams.

(End of chapter)