Chapter 12: First Settler Recruitment Mission
"Trainees line up! Count off!"
"One!" ,"Two!" ,"Three.." , "Ten!"
The trainees began to count off as part of their assembly routine.
"Alright, it seems like everyone is here, did you bring your training swords?" Helena asked.
"Yes, Captain!" The trainees responded.
"Put them down to the side for now. First, light jogging again for 2 hours, begin!"
The trainees began their daily training again. After jogging, they performed the training regimen in this sequence :
Basic Punching Training - 45 Minutes
Basic Kick Training - 45 Minutes
Lunch Break - 45 Minutes
Afternoon Nap - 1 Hour
Basic Knee and Elbow Strike Training - 45 Minutes
Swordsmanship Training - 2 Hours
Mock Battle - 30 Minutes
Cooldown Jogging and Stretching - 30 Minutes
The training regimen above is what the trainees will follow for the next few months.
Although this is indeed hard for newbies, Helena believes that a strong foundation will take them very far as warriors.
During sword training.
The trainees have been going at it for an hour now and differences began to surface among the ten.
Some of them have progressed faster than the others. Some cannot master the forms as quickly as others.
For example, Alexander and Leif are visibly more talented than the others in the way of the sword.
While the others are more or less the same in progress, Eden was lagging behind everyone. Seems like he is not that talented in swordsmanship.
Another hour passed and the trainees have already been taught the basic forms and basic strikes. Helena has also already explained when to use certain strikes and when not to.
Next in the training regimen will be mock battles for thirty minutes.
Helena arranged five one on one matches based on their progress during the two hour swordsmanship training.
As expected, Alexander and Leif won their matches easily, while the other matches had winners and losers they were quite close except for Eden, who was beaten up quite badly by his opponent, Sabre.
Although he was beaten badly, Eden seems to have a strong heart and doesn't look like the type to give up easily. Everyday, he secretly trained his swordsmanship alone for 1 extra hour.
Another three months passed.
The four large warehouses were completed along with some few extra hut accommodations.
The reason why Blanc ordered the construction team to continuously build huts is because they soon plan to gather more settlers who will willingly settle in their village.
He tasked Helena to go back to the kingdom capital's east gate and gather settlers secretly by paying someone to spread the word among the refugees.
The trainees already know their training regimen and don't need supervision all the time so Helena can now be assigned to tasks like these once in a while.
"Hey weakshits, I have an announcement to make, gather up!"
"I am currently entrusted by Blanc to go back and gather more settlers along with some of our villagers. "
"In the future, once you are ready, you will be leading your own settler caravans. For now just continue training. If Blanc reports to me that you guys are slacking off, I'm going to beat the shit out of the slackers. Understood?!"
"Yes, Captain!" The trainees responded.
"Good, just follow our usual training regimen but increase each set training time by 15 minutes. I hope to see your improvements once I return."
"In addition, I will be procuring new training materials for all of you so look forward to it."
After some preparations, Helena together with some villagers drove 8 of the large horse carts they had.
They brought some of their products such as live chickens, live rabbits, and some special rare herbs which can only be fetched in the forest of echoes.
They plan to sell these at the capital in order to procure more funds which in turn will let them accommodate more settlers.
They plan to bring back at least 100 new settlers and they likely wouldn't be back if they still don't have enough settlers with them, so it might take a while.
Good thing though, is that on their first time coming to the gloomy plains, they already marked the dangerous areas and the safe areas and they now have a "safe and fast route" that they can take which will lessen the danger and travel time by quite a lot.
The first time took them 2 and a half months before they reached the gloomy plains. This is due to not exactly knowing which path to take and this issue delayed them for quite a while.
Now however, they have mapped a good route and can reach the gloomy plains in only 5 weeks.
This travel time will likely improve more in the future once they know the areas around their territory better.
5 weeks passed.
"Everyone , Halt! We shall park our horse carts here, we cannot go further since we may attract the attention of the kingdom if we come back with such large amounts of horse carts."
Helena ordered.
She and the others parked their horse carts just far enough from the east gate but they were still hidden from the guards.
Poaching such large amounts of refugees is bound to attract the attention of the kingdom higher ups if not done carefully.
"Let's stack the products on these two carts. five of you stay here and watch the carts, then you three come with me and help me finish all our agendas inside the capital."
"Remember, we need to act like merchants."
They stacked all their products into two horse carts and went inside the east gate to deal with their business matters first.
They have to procure funds first and prepare additional necessities for the new settlers before going to recruit again.
Helena managed to buy all the necessities along with four extra large horse carts containing new kinds of seeds and animals such as pigs, cattle, sheep, and goats, as they plan to breed such animals in the future.
This will also turn the kingdom's attention away from them as they look like a group of agricultural merchants when they have such stuff in their carts.
In addition, training materials such as bows, arrows, and target ranges were bought by Helena for the trainees.
After making all the necessary purchases, they hid the four additional large horse carts along with the rest of the horse carts.
Helena then proceeded to talk secretly to one of the refugees that were part of their group in order to ask for information about the ongoing rebellion.
"Lady Helena, the war is still ongoing, more nobles are now participating in the war. "
"The loyalist forces seem to be holding their ground and not conceding any more territories but it is still the rebel forces who are on the offensive."
"The loyalists can't seem to find a chance to counterattack currently." The refugee said.
As a result, more and more refugees are going to the kingdom capital for safety.
After confirming the status of the ongoing war, Helena asked the refugee if there were any more refugees in their group who changed their minds and now want to settle with them.
"Are there people in our old domain who changed their minds? Can you help me confirm?" Helena said
"It is my honor to help you, Lady Helena." The refugee responded.
After a while.
"Lady Helena, there are a total of 30 refugees from our old domain who changed their minds including me."
"Is that so? That's good, I guarantee you will not regret this decision, everyone in the village is now living fairly comfortable lives and it will only get better in the future."
Helena then continued.
"30 refugees is not enough though, as we plan to bring back at least a hundred this time for the development of our village."
"Can you help me recruit more? We will be staying around until we gather 100 settlers. For those 30 confirmed, tell them to meet me in small groups later so I can give them instructions on what to do."
"We cannot stand out too much or the kingdom will surely notice."
"Understood, Lady Helena."
The thirty confirmed refugees talked to Helena in small groups and in different time intervals.
In small groups, they left the refugee settlement and proceeded to the hidden horse carts as instructed by Helena.
Such small groups leaving does not attract the attention of the guards as these scenes are quite normal in the refugee temporary settlement.
A week passed.
"Will you join us? The lady over there guarantees that you will never lack food, shelter, and protection. She confirmed that the last group of refugees who left with them is now living happily!"
The "agent" refugee named Arlo is still busy recruiting more refugees as instructed by Helena.
Although he never said anything about a new village and where they are going to live, some of the refugees were still convinced by him.
With the same plan as earlier, they slowly left in small groups , in different time intervals.
Soon, they even exceeded their quota and were able to recruit 120 settlers.
In the hidden area where the horse carts were parked.
"Arlo! Good job on the recruitment! I will tell Blanc, the village chief, of your accomplishments. Thanks a lot for the help."
Helena thanked Arlo as he was quite skilled in convincing the settlers without revealing sensitive information.
"I do not deserve such praise, Lady Helena." Arlo replied humbly.
After finalizing their preparations, Helena together with the new settlers are now ready to go back to the village. The settler recruitment was a success!
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Meowder
Meowder Chapter 12 is out! :)
Yayy +120 population to our lil village
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The wonderful results of my first ten chapters inspired me to continue releasing more chapters. I promise to be consistent in releasing chapters daily without sacrificing the quality of each chapter. Again, thanks for the love and support
<3
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