Kapitel 14: Maggots
"Move your feet! What are you? Snails!?" An officer was shouting from his lungs towards the last strugglers of the group.
"Do you see that kid back over there!? He is outrunning you all! And you call yourself adults!?"
The soldiers were breathing heavily and gritted their teeth. Carrying their heavy equipment with each step hurt more and produced even more blisters. They could not even care much what the instructor was telling them now because they fought with the temptation of just giving up.
The kid that the drill instructor was talking about was obviously Yuri. And since Yuri was at the head of the group he could dictate the pacing.
So he slowed down a little and looked at his comrade directly behind him.
"Mika, can you take over the lead and keep the pace a little bit lower? We are still on time. It´s fine.", asked Yuri the black-haired guy.
"Sure, I can do that.", confirmed Mika.
Then after hearing his response, Yuri himself jogged back to the rear and approached the drill instructor who was jogging alongside the struggling last lights.
Reaching there he marched alongside them.
"Sir! I would like to take the equipment from them for a while!"
"Cadet Romany! Don't feel pity for these maggots! They need to keep going!"
But Yuri just went over to his comrades and took a few things from them so they had it easier to breathe and pace themselves. All in all, he took some equipment from 3 cadets that seemed to have it the hardest.
"Alright, I will take these for a while. Get some breath. We are nearly there." Yuri was smiling at his fellow soldiers and they were surprised that he would take their luggage like that.
They knew how heavy that was and could only wonder why he did it while also looking exhausted like them. At least they thought he was just exhausted as them. Especially as a child. Then they looked at their drill instructor with complicated gazes.
"What are you looking at me for!? Did you not hear cadet Romany? Get moving!" Even though the instructor was looking stern and as if he had a bad mood, he internally smiled and approved about Yuri´s action.
The strugglers still were exhausted but because they had less luggage now they started to regain some second wind. Especially when they saw Yuri marching side by side with them while carrying their burden.
They even managed to get to the other group that seemed to distance itself further and further from them.
Then after contemplating it they could not take it anymore and soon took their equipment back from Yuri. They could not just let a child so much younger than they take all this burden. And they already had enough breath back.
Soon the others seeing that also started to share this comradery and kept everyone in a coherent group. They helped each other out and pushed moral to the peak.
At the end of the extremely long march with full equipment that went for nearly 50 km they finally could rest.
"Well done! Now before you even start thinking that you can just rest, you start digging!!"
That order shocked most of the people but they soon took their shovels into their hands after seeing Yuri start it and finally build an entrenchment where they then sat inside and finally could get some rest.
While this went on an officer from the general staff was looking at the performance and smiled. he wrote something down and then went onwards to other groups.
"Hey...Thanks, Yuri." Now the soldiers that were resting were finally able to thank him for doing that.
"Don't mention it. We are a team. Whatever we do, we do it together, right? Isn't that why we train together in the first place?", asked Yuri back, and most did realize this by now.
They knew that as long as they have someone to back them up, they would keep going. All that just to make sure to not let the others down. The comradery was a strong thing when one fosters it.
And when a group becomes like family. That is the moment where soldiers become elites. They will do anything for their family. To protect them no matter what.
Yuri could see the potential of these guys. And they kept going. Day after day they were drilled non stop into soldiers. Physically and mentally.
At first, it was said they were the odd group out of the rest. The worst of the new fresh cadets. But now after a while, they became rumored as the most disciplined group. A major factor was the rumored blond child leading them.
Yes, Yuri at some point became the group leader.
His skill went far beyond theirs and the other cadets from new to even the older ones learned a lot from him.
He was also tactically not ungifted. That brought him further up the ladder in his career and soon he even joined the officer candidate school while not even a year had yet passed. The OCS was a tier further up and showed that he had potential.
It was a laughing matter in other groups at first how adults can just get commanded by a little child but whoever saw their training regime only shut up.
Not only that but there seemed to be a certain fear surfacing in their eyes when they saw him.
That was thanks to a certain rumor of yet another child spreading that was doing the same. A girl of all things that was also even younger than the rumored kid.
But if people were asked where they would like to train, it would be by the boy´s side. When both of these children surpassed expectations and finally became drill instructors on their own. It was soon found out who was the demon and who the angel.
The fair-skinned little girl that looked like a doll had the devil's demeanor. Failure to do the drills ended up in cruel punishments.
On the other hand, the boy´s handling of training was harsh as well but it was always fair. The soldiers under the boy always ended up having a greater feel comradery.
One example of such was when a new recruit looked down at Yuri and showed insubordination. The only thing Yuri did was smile innocently. People that knew that smile got dreaded sweat run down their faces.
That was easily understood because the next thing Yuri would do to all the soldiers in that one cadet's group, was to let them run many laps around the barracks. So many that they all started to glare at the new cadet that pissed off their instructor.
Cohesion in a group was a useful thing to drill discipline into even the most troublesome soldiers. You didn't really need to punish them with violence.
Just put enough pressure on them through their group. Because, if the others have to suffer for one's own mistakes, it soon would dawn on them to keep low. So basically the others would do the job for him.
And if all cadets really are rebellious, then punishment with taking away food rations was also a thing easily done. He did not have to make his hands dirty after all.
Guilt would either drive them to better themselves or Yuri would just throw them out from the military as unsuited for service. In a country where the military had a great value, it was a bad sign for the future of that individual.
Luckily, that did not have to happen even once and the soldiers under his tutelage all became great soldiers.
On the other hand, the girl was harsh in drills and even harsher in punishments. Even going to the extent where she used physical violence towards her own cadets she trained or other fellow soldiers in her class.
"The contrast of these two is so glaring..." The staff officer that had visited this academy more than once by now had already made his mind about these two. Especially after he saw directly how out of control that little girl was about it. "To actually threaten a fellow soldier with lobotomy."
He scribbled something on paper again. "Yuri Romany, extraordinary prospect. War Collage recommended. Tanya Degurechaff...Exemplary Mage Trooper should be good enough. War Collage not recommended..."
The man sighed. "What is about these two children anyway...The one saying she has no other path than this and the other saying that it serves his goals...Why is the better of the two having an ulterior motive...former Russy nobility, is it?"
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein