Camp

On the open-air Training Ground before the castle.

Zhou Ming held a spear and charged the straw dummy before him again and again.

Zhou Ming was extremely focused, his attention fixed entirely on the dummy. With every charge, he struck the dummy's mouth, eyes, throat, chest, and heart with speed and precision.

Before long, the straw dummy before him had been stabbed beyond recognition.

Ten years. Nearly ten years. Aside from the two months or so he had spent recovering from his injuries, he had never missed a single day of spear-thrust training.

Even while living in the castle, he took the sandbag and Birch Pole from beneath his bed every night and practiced against several points drawn on the wall.

During this pre-battle training, he did not hide his strength. In a corner where few people paid attention, he struck with all his might again and again, treating the straw dummy before him as an enemy on the battlefield.

"Ryan, when did you start practicing with a spear? Your spearwork is even better than that of the Hebrew Pikemen I've seen," Knight Morris, who had somehow appeared beside him, said.

"Is that so? Could my spear thrusts keep me alive on the battlefield?"

Zhou Ming stopped and turned to look at the middle-aged knight.

Knight Morris paused, thought for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't know. Pikemen are only somewhat useful against knights when they gather together. Your spearwork might be useful against farmers, but against knights and mercenaries... well, good luck, child."

Zhou Ming lowered his head and continued practicing his spear thrusts. Although he had only been assigned to transport provisions in this war, he had already vaguely guessed that what awaited him would not be something as simple as hauling supplies.

Fighting desperately on the front lines might be what awaited him instead. In his hundreds of years of survival experience, this kind of intuition had never been wrong.

Twenty days later.

The sky was clear, and the autumn day was warm.

Crowds of people who had come to see them off filled both sides of the road outside the castle gates of Glan Territory.

Tiny rose petals drifted through the air, mothers stuffed sweet bread into their sons' hands, and young women clung to their departing husbands and wept bitterly.

Beneath the fine weather hung a heavy gloom.

"Ryan, you must be careful. Watch out for those arrows flying around overhead. When you come back, we'll go teach that damned fat pig Baum a lesson together!"

Donny grabbed Zhou Ming with an indignant expression. Ryan was his only personal servant, yet Baum had sent him to haul provisions. In such a huge castle, were they really short a few servants to move supplies?

Zhou Ming, who was driving an ox cart loaded with baggage and provisions, slowed slightly and said to Donny, "Donny, while I'm gone, please take care of Alice. Whether I come back alive or not, you must help me look after her. Can you promise me that?"

"Leave it to me! Ryan, I promise you, while you're away, no one will get away with bullying Alice!" Donny pounded his chest in assurance.

When it came to protecting women, no one was better at it than him, especially beautiful women...

"Then I can rest easy." Zhou Ming nodded and continued driving the ox cart.

"Brother, brother, you must be careful! You have to come back in one piece!"

At that moment, a lovely young woman with a graceful figure stepped through the gazes of the surrounding men, carrying a basket filled with cakes, dried meat, bread, and other food.

She handed the basket to Zhou Ming, tears glistening in her eyes as she held his hand tightly. "I know, Alice. Trust your brother. I'll definitely come back!"

Zhou Ming nodded firmly and bid farewell to the sister he cared about so deeply.

"Tsk, tsk. That tempting figure, that adorable face, those full breasts and hips... Young Master Edward, there probably isn't another woman in all of Glan Territory who can compare to Alice, right?" Riding a tall horse and staring hungrily at Alice's retreating figure, the fat Baum felt his mouth go dry and his blood race.

"After this war is over, make Alice my personal maid. Annie is already getting old. It's time to replace her with someone new." Edward was not all that interested in women, but after hearing Baum's words and looking at that figure, even he felt a little stirred.

"Yes, Young Master Edward!" Fat Baum replied with a fawning smile, though inwardly he wanted to slap himself twice.

On a stretch of high ground north of Glan Territory.

A well-organized camp enclosed by wooden palisades had risen there, bringing unprecedented noise to the peaceful grasslands.

Accents from all over rang through the camp. Warhorses neighed in the stables, bards sat atop haystacks singing heroic epics, traveling merchants who had caught wind of the gathering sold all kinds of goods and souvenirs, and prostitutes in covered wagons solicited customers day and night with moans that made people blush.

Zhou Ming stared dumbfounded at everything in the camp. This was a military camp? A camp for soldiers about to march out and fight, soldiers who would soon shed blood and battle to the death?

It would be more accurate to call it a hodgepodge of a marketplace, a concert venue, a horse track, a traveling brothel, and all sorts of other things.

Yet everything existed for a reason. Looking at the mercenaries spending money like water and drowning themselves in pleasure, the noble knights lying in barrels of wine, and even the farmers who normally begrudged spending a single copper coin but today generously pulled out ten just to touch a prostitute's soft, pale breast, Zhou Ming understood.

Existence was justified. With an unknown tomorrow where death might strike at any moment, indulging in the present had become these soldiers' main way of relieving pressure.

Zhou Ming also spent ten copper coins to buy a cup of malt ale from a merchant selling beer, hoping the drink would ease the pressure in his heart.

"Ryan, so you were here. I've been looking everywhere for you. Here's the situation: Mr. Wade accidentally twisted his ankle while marching today. He won't be able to stand at the front tomorrow, but the Third Peasant Team is short one man. Young Master Edward discussed it with the captain of the Third Peasant Team and decided to transfer someone from the baggage unit."

"You're strong and healthy, so there shouldn't be any problem with sending you in to fill the spot, right?"

Just as Zhou Ming was about to taste the malt ale, he heard the words he least wanted to hear.

"No problem, Mr. Baum."

Zhou Ming poured the malt ale onto the ground, returned the cup to the beer merchant, clenched his fists, and headed back to the baggage unit's tent.

Baum, sooner or later, I'll slaughter you with my own hands!