Interlude: The Meeting of Battle Junkies

The Astellian Federation was a country with a very varied population with the only unifying quality being their religion. A reasonable trait since the many smaller nations that created the federation only existed due to this religion. They would've never become independent without it and without the hero. In fact, human history was pretty much half being slaved and half hating someone, so there was that.

Due to that, it was commonplace for the population to be fanatically religious and militaristic. Even the central government, headed by an elected-to-life pope, was a face of this. It only oversaw essential infrastructure, the military, and the elections, all else was on a state basis.

Each state could have its own laws as long as it paid its dues to the central government, meaning a share of taxes and resources. They also had to obey some regulations, like not having a standing army, local weapon production, and immigration laws. These, with exception of the last, were reserved for the capital city and only supplied by the states.

Other than that, laws, economy, and even ideology were mostly free to differ from state to state. Again, they were only a unified country because they had a common goal and religion.

The central government wouldn't even, in most cases, interfere if two states were to enter into conflict. Unless they became a problem to the capital supply or stopped paying taxes, the most they would do was mediate the conflict.

Although, one problem that it brought up was how different the baseline living standards were between each place. In most cases even, living in the capital would be many times better than in other places. It was one of the few places with proper labor laws and public facilities, to begin with.

This was why enlisting in the Church’s army was so popular even with its high death rates, especially among the poorer.

Good wages, safety, and, if one was lucky, a job that was only about patrolling the city or watching the border. It was only a bad offer if luck was in short supply to the new recruits.

If they weren’t lucky, then they would be going under command of some paladin unit or, even worse, be the support unit for a saint. And if they were born cursed with bad luck, then they would be sent to the Cathedrals and assigned to the Hero.

Colette Deuver was one of these cursed ones though.

She had no family, no money, no documents, and looked older than she was, all which helped a lot when she decided to lie her way to what job she knew she would get. A very deadly and not that wealthy job, but one she could very well join right away and receive food and a place to go.

It was also one she could manage quite well considering that she survived more than a decade as a slum kid.

Even if training almost killed her many times and no one expected she would last more than a few months, it was still better than having nowhere to go.

The food and the lodgings were very good too, so the young Colette was in a much better position now. She also had good clothing, some authority, and, for the first time ever, some money to spend. It would only be better if she was one of the few chosen to be ‘saint candidates’, but those needed more connections to work.

All would be good long as she kept on surviving still. A condition that would be tried soon for she would meet the new legendary hero today to start preparations for his first mission.

She and a group with almost all seventy surviving Cathedral trainees were now dismounting their transports at their new base. Around them, a well-cared but very old castle outfitted with modern weaponry and with support buildings stood in wait.

Colette could see an area to drill, some makeshift quarters, and basic amenities. Not much considering how important their leader was, but that was fine. As long as they kept her fed, warm, and unbothered, fighting against whatever the grown-ups wanted was good enough. Even obeying their unreasonable expectations was fine if they would look to the other side when she made her fellow, but weaker, companions follow her unreasonable demands.

Hierarchies were a fucking wonderful creation.

So, as was expected from them, the newly arrived unit unloaded their equipment and took a stand in the castle's courtyard. There were some other soldiers in the area, most of them older ones wearing the blade and staff badge of the Hero Corps. The shock troopers and special forces if it needed any explanation.

The Hero Corp was also where most saints were assigned and the corp with the highest replenishment needs in the whole army. And all this was so bad, everyone in the army knew about it.

Which still wasn’t bad enough to discourage many from joining the ‘prestigious’ and ‘powerful’ Hero Corps.

Only the rare enlightened ones, or jaded and unfaithful ones for another term, knew that this place was akin to well-paid suicide. But again, it was dying with a full belly instead of an empty one at some random alley, so that was fine.

Even waiting for whatever pompous leader they would meet wasn’t so bad as long as Colette thought about the nice and big meal she would have in a while. There weren’t more than a hundred soldiers here, with her unit included, so it wasn’t as if they were preparing for some important mission right now.

When she found herself with an army or with some armored carriages, then things would be worrying. More even, as the brunette saw the person meant to be their leader, her worries went even further away.

It had become something very different even.

He was a handsome grey-haired young man in nice officer clothes, with a very well-built body and eyes that seemed to be looking for something. Something that, by how he had one hand rested on the huge blade by his hip, likely was someone to have a good fight. A feeling that Colette knew very well.

She also knew very well that, even with all her experience and the new toys the pope gave her, she couldn’t beat this guy. Not that she was ever someone to flee, or lose, from an impossible fight. Better even, when the young hero opened his mouth after looking around his new troops, his words were very fitting for the ex-slum girl.

“My name is Bejamin Solomon and I have two things to request from you all. First, don’t bother with pleasantries. As long as you won’t be too insubordinate or unreasonable, we’ll be fine and work fine. Forming bonds is a good way to survive…” He spoke with a deadpan expression even if his eyes were very focused on his goal. “And second, I’ll be trying out the fighting capabilities of every single one of you in the next days to assign your roles and training regimen. I’ll even let whoever lands a hit on me request whatever they wish to, only to make it more interesting, so…

who wants to come first?”