Swordsmanship classes at the Army Academy are held twice a week, starting after lunch. The length of the swordsmanship lessons depends on what time the sun sets.
In the summer, when it gets dark late, swordsmanship classes take a long time. In winter, it gets dark early, so the time for swordsmanship lessons is short. In principle, students are allowed an hour before dusk for dinner.
This leads to a problem: the days are long in summer, and the sun doesn’t set until eight or nine o’clock. The students went to practice long sword practice after lunch and had to wait until very late for dinner. So every time during the last hour of swordsmanship class in the summer, everyone was hungry.
After returning the training armor in the equipment room, Winters and Ike carried long swords and armed uniforms in their hands. They didn't even have time to change into student uniforms. They rushed all the way to the school cafeteria without stopping and started to wolf down the food.
After the two of them finished eating, they went to take a shower. When they returned to the student dormitory, it was almost eight o'clock and the sun was almost setting.
Oil lamps were lit in the student dormitory, and Winters could see that the students in the dormitory whose homes were not in the United Provinces—that is, from the Republic of Seablue, the Republic of Highlands, the Republic of Monta, and the Republic of Vane—had begun to pack their luggage and prepare. Going home tomorrow.
Ike is a native of Guitucheng and can walk home, so there is no rush at all. He was holding a laundry tub to wash his armed clothes, and saw Winters lying motionless on the bed.
So he slapped Winters hard on the back and reminded: "Are you going to bed so early? Aren't you going to pack your luggage?"
"It's okay. I can pack it tomorrow. I don't have many things anyway." Winters, who was full and sleepy, replied weakly.
Tiredness, pain and sleepiness took turns hitting Winters' heart. He didn't even want to move a finger now, he just wanted to sleep.
"What should you do with your armor? Don't you want to wash it? It's all sweat. Will it be rancid tomorrow?" Ike looked at the armor thrown in the tub beside Winters' bed and asked with a frown. .
Winters weighed between "getting up and washing clothes" and "continuing to sleep", and chose "continuing to sleep" without any suspense. He buried his face in the pillow and said: "No, throw it away. Anyway, I won't do it again." wore."
"Didn't you say that you should practice long sword diligently when you return to Hailan? But you don't even want the armor? Besides, you just throw away this nice outfit. Are you too wasteful?" You don't even need clothes just to sleep. The mentality made Ike laugh angrily.
But Winters could no longer hear what Ike said. The sound Ike made went in from his left ear and out from the right. But suddenly, Winters remembered something very important. He remembered that he couldn't sleep yet.
He stood up suddenly, shocking Ike and taking a step back. Winters frowned and said, "I remembered, I have to stand guard tonight."
He took a deep breath and wailed from the deepest part of his chest: "Ah..."
"It scared me to death. Didn't you also sleep when you got to the post?" Ike looked helpless.
Winters quickly got up and put on his clothes. Ike chased after him and asked, "What should I do with your clothes?"
"Then there's no other way. I don't have time to wash it. If you want it, I'll give it to you. If you don't want it, give it to whoever wants it. If no one wants it, just throw it away." Winters was busy putting on his pants and answered casually. road. Then he grabbed his shirt, put it on as he walked, and hurriedly ran out of the dormitory.
There are three gates in the Army Officer School, and each gate has two shifts a day. There are six people in each class, two from each of the first, second and third grades.
The Army Officer School has three disciplines: cavalry, infantry and artillery. The number of students in each grade of each discipline fluctuates between 55 and 60. Therefore, almost every officer cadet has to stand on one shift of day guard and one shift of night guard every month.
Winters trotted all the way to the north gate of the school. The guards at the daily post had not left yet, but the first- and second-year students who came to change the guard were already waiting in advance.
"Hello, squad leader." The junior students all saluted when they saw him. This is a small tradition of the Army Officer Academy. Because when freshmen enter for training, second-year students will serve as their deputy squad leaders, and third-year students will serve as their squad leaders to lead their training.
Therefore, in the military academy, junior students will call anyone who has more tattoos on their arms than themselves, regardless of whether they recognize him or not.
Winters returned the gift casually and hurriedly walked into the cadet duty room and met another third-year military cadet who was on night duty tonight. He was a stocky young man who was over 1.7 meters tall, with thick shoulders, big hands, a broad mouth and a broad nose, thick eyebrows and big eyes.
In Winters' opinion, all the physical characteristics of this young man showed that he was a gentle, simple and tolerant person. When the young man saw Winters approaching, he punched Winters on the shoulder with his fist, grinned and showed two rows of teeth, and said with a smile: "You're here."
Winters gasped in pain when he touched the bruises left during today's sword fight.
"What's wrong?" The young man didn't understand how his light punch could make Winters react so much.
"I was hit hard on my shoulder during the swordsmanship class today. It's nothing serious." Winters said with a smile.
"Master, can you do it?" The young man understood immediately and said with a smile.
Wen Tesla came over a chair, sat on it carelessly, and said proudly: "You didn't see it today, but I got seventeen points from Ike's hand, which made Ike anxious. If I hadn’t been too tired later, I would have broken Ike’s undefeated golden body.”
"Really? You're not bragging, are you?" The young man was surprised, because the difficulty of getting seventeen points in the master's hand was only slightly worse than defeating the master.
"How can I brag? There are so many people watching in class. You will know it as soon as you ask." Winters said confidently.
The young man punched Winters on the other shoulder and laughed loudly: "Seventeen points! That's awesome! It's a pity that if you win, we will be avenged for all the years of being beaten by the master.
At this time, a head poked through the door. It was a first-year student. The junior student saluted and said, "Squad leader, the instructor on duty is here."
The two Winters quickly tidied up their appearance and walked out of the student duty room. The night shift is different from the day shift. The day shift has no patrol duties. Six people are on duty for a whole day, and a group of people is on duty for four hours. Arrive at work before going on duty and leave immediately after going on duty.
But the night shift is more complicated, as it also has patrol duties. Therefore, the night shift duty process is that each group of people will stand for four hours, patrol for four hours, and sleep for four hours. This ensures that at the same time, one group of people is patrolling, one group is standing guard, and the remaining group is sleeping.
Night shift workers cannot go back to the dormitory to sleep, so two small brick buildings were built next to the gate and inside the wall, which serve as the student duty room and the teacher duty room respectively for the night shift personnel to rest. The guards resting in the duty room can also play the role of "available to provide support at any time in case of emergencies."
Why is there a faculty lounge? Because teachers also have to take turns working night shifts. The school believes that the night shift situation is complicated and that just having students is not enough. Once an emergency occurs, an active-duty officer must be present to ensure safety.
In theory, all teachers, from principals to lecturers, are obliged to work night shifts. But in fact, only the hard-working young teachers have to work the night shift. Their common characteristics are: "newly hired, with low military ranks, living in staff dormitories, and singles."
However, teachers do not need to stand guard, as long as they sleep in the teachers' lounge.
The person who came was a short weapons teacher with a red face, and the button of his jacket was unbuttoned to the third button under the collar. He was obviously drunk. The two people who had not left their posts during the day shift and the six who were on the night shift, a total of eight people, led by Winters, formed a horizontal line.
Everyone stood up energetically, and the teacher who came on duty nodded expressionlessly - no one on the night shift was in a good mood - picked up the duty list and began to call the roll call.
"Winters Montagne!"
"Here!" Winters answered.
"Gerald's Bud!"
"Here!" The stocky young man who knew Winters well answered, and this was his name.
Bud's name is odd because Bud doesn't have a last name. Gerard was his hometown, and calling him "Gerard's Bud" was to distinguish him from other people named Bud.
The surnames of this era are the product of pragmatism. Different from the orderly "first name, surname, surname, surname, and code" of the Silk people of this era, going back hundreds of years, even emperors and kings did not have "real surnames."
Maybe one day Bud will take Gerald as his last name in the future, but for now he is called Bud, and formally he is called Gerald's Bud.
After that, the teacher called the names of the remaining people, dipped the quill on his tongue, and ticked the names in the book one by one.
Then he asked again: "Have you fired the weapon?" Winters had just been busy chatting with Bud and had not fired the weapon at all. But Bud nudged him lightly, and Winters understood. It seemed that Bud had clicked.
So Winters felt confident and replied loudly: "Six halberds, six muskets, the count is correct."
"Okay, dismissal! Call me if you need anything." The teacher on duty nodded, and then went into the teacher's duty room to sleep.
The two juniors who were standing guard said goodbye and hurried back to the dormitory. Winters and Bud began their final night shift.
