Peasant Soldiers

Advance, retreat, leap...

Slash, thrust, defend...

Aaron trained methodically with the Cross Sword in hand. Before long, he was panting, large beads of sweat appearing on his forehead.

"Whew... This greatsword packs a punch, but if I go all out, I'll be exhausted in just a few minutes... I'll need to keep that in mind on the battlefield."

Nothing drained a person's energy like a fight to the death.

As some people said, if a fight to the death between two people lasted longer than five minutes, it was just an act.

Aaron understood this all too well. He also knew that the opening clashes on a battlefield were often the bloodiest, and that soldiers' strength would run out fast.

"If I can just get through the initial danger and watch out for stray arrows, I should have a decent chance of surviving..."

He thought to himself as he spotted Colin nearby, excitedly trying on a suit of armor.

It was a gift from the lord: a full suit of finely forged armor worth as much as a knight's manor. Once worn, it offered astonishing protection on the battlefield and greatly improved the wearer's odds of survival!

Aaron himself, on the other hand, had only a set of leather armor...

Perhaps he would get a suit of armor only when he left the estate and became a knight errant. Even that would depend on Colin's generosity.

Aaron didn't feel much envy, though. He quietly returned to the castle.

After lunch, he told the maid not to disturb him and immediately settled down for a nap.

It was possible to dream during the day, too.

Rumble.

The same darkness, the same sensation of falling and twitching.

Aaron was used to it by now. He opened his eyes and saw a dark sea.

Blood, scales... They still floated on the surface, seemingly recounting the horror of the battle that had come before.

He looked up and saw a night sky like a black velvet curtain, and... a crimson moon!

"Damn... The moon wasn't this color before. But the moon—or rather, the satellite at night—reflects the light of its star. So it turned crimson, too?"

This world might not follow the rules of his previous life exactly, but that was the most reasonable explanation Aaron could come up with.

"Sorry... I really didn't mean to."

Aaron Sothoth apologized to the air, then began to examine himself.

In this world, he was a pure observer, existing beyond multiple dimensions. Apart from changing the sun last time, there was little he could actually do.

But tonight, something seemed different.

"I... can move?"

Aaron drew his viewpoint closer, shifted it... and finally confirmed that he had moved a short distance. He could have wept with joy.

Thank heavens!

Ever since he began dreaming as an infant, he'd been stuck at these coordinates, looking at the same scenery until he was nearly sick of it!

And now, he could finally move his viewpoint!

"It seems all the changes started when I altered the sun..."

Aaron carefully recalled the subtle difference.

"Could it be just as I suspected? After sixteen years of accumulation, something finally changed qualitatively... Even though I used up the power I'd built up over sixteen years to alter the sun, something about my very essence changed, and that change won't be undone. So after I dreamed tonight and accumulated one more unit of energy, I could move?"

Aaron called the small increase he gained from dreaming each day one unit of energy.

His movement just now had consumed some of that energy. Since he'd only accumulated energy for one day in the real world, he had only moved a short distance.

"If I can do this, then life in the dream world won't be so monotonous anymore..."

Aaron let out a long breath.

To be honest, when he'd changed the sun earlier, he had to admit that a kind of madness had surged within him. It contained some of his darker, more deranged thoughts—even an outpouring of the desire to destroy the world.

After all, he'd been stuck here, serving a sixteen-year prison sentence. It was a wonder he hadn't gone mad.

"But what will this altered world look like, exactly?"

Aaron felt a little excited. He picked a direction by the moon and stars in the sky and began to move.

"I hope there's a continent at the end of the ocean... Though... I have no idea where I am now..."

The Sothoth Family occupied Lower Green Forest, with Sothoth Castle at its heart. Their settlement was roughly the size of a small town, with a population of over ten thousand.

In addition, a dozen or so villages had been gradually cleared and established in the forest, and several tribes of wild people were also under their command.

The castle kept a standing force of a hundred or so guards—close to the limit of what was possible in the feudal era.

Of course, if a real war broke out, they could conscript peasants and turn them into peasant soldiers. But they had little discipline or fighting ability. In Aaron's eyes, they were good for little more than making a show of force.

At that moment, Aaron was frowning as he looked at a group of men just dragged in from the fields. Most were barely clothed, and they were armed with crude weapons such as pitchforks.

Men like these would be nothing but cannon fodder on the battlefield...

The leader of the cannon fodder, commanding a battalion of cannon fodder—that seemed about right.

Aaron stared at the ragged militia lined up in crooked ranks, his expressionless face betraying nothing. Then he shouted, "I'm Aaron of the Sothoth Family! Aaron Sothoth, your captain! From today onward, you'll all follow my orders! Now, form squads of ten and pick your own squad leaders!"

He watched the peasant soldiers immediately descend into chaos again and pondered.

In the feudal era, wars between the nobility were actually quite polite.

For instance, during the Spring and Autumn period, warfare was governed by strict rules of etiquette. They might not even capture the enemy ruler, and they tried not to kill or injure enemy nobles. Instead, they treated them courteously and waited for their families to ransom them.

Things were much the same in Fusang and medieval Europe. Even the dispossessed descendants of nobles were often treated with sympathy.

The fact that tales like "The Prince's Revenge" could be played out again and again was due in part to this mindset.

But this is another world, and things are a little different. This time, it isn't about a wild boar.

Two lords summoning hundreds of thugs to fight over a piece of game might have been a medieval lord's idea of entertainment.

But this time was different!

Aaron could sense the ambition in Theodore's heart. Green Forest was simply too small to accommodate both lordly families!

The Davis Family upstream seemed to feel the same way.

That meant this war would be anything but ordinary. It was also the last thing Aaron wanted to see.

"Perhaps after this battle, one of the families in Green Forest will be wiped out completely..."