The Royal Guard Legion's Grand Humblebrag Show

On the high ground not far from the Champagne Legion's camp, several thousand soldiers craned their necks to peer down. The General Staff had even prepared more than a dozen telescopes for them to take turns using.

Soon, they saw a thin white line of soldiers run out from the training field, moving so fast they could hardly believe it-if they ran at that speed, they would collapse from exhaustion after a kilometer at most.

Yet the Royal Guard Legion's soldiers maintained that high speed for almost the entire course.

A Champagne Legion soldier who had gotten hold of a telescope suddenly exclaimed, "They're carrying things on their backs, too!"

The others immediately snatched the telescope from him and exclaimed in turn, "He's right! They've all got guns, and blankets, too..."

An officer from General Staff Headquarters heard the soldiers' discussion and called out with a smile, "Each of them is carrying eighteen pounds. Ahem, we're supposed to use standard measurements now, so that's a nine-kilogram load."

The Champagne Legion's men froze. They had carried nothing earlier, yet after running five kilometers-or, to be precise, walking it in most cases-they had all been so exhausted they felt ready to die. These Royal Guard Legion soldiers were actually carrying such heavy loads, too. How could they possibly finish in twenty-two minutes?!

Ten-odd minutes later, the Champagne Legion soldiers watching the demonstration fell silent. From their vantage point, they could clearly see that those men had already completed half the course and begun turning back without slowing down.

At last, someone muttered, "Are they all monsters?"

After a moment of silence, a lieutenant sighed and said, "Perhaps we're simply too poor."

Napoleon rounded a bend in the winding mountain road, feeling as though his legs were about to lose all sensation. The