Chapter 5: Conversation with the General

Third personal point of view, General Selena

Although General Selena seemed rather disappointed at the performance of Miss Priston, in reality, it was the exact opposite.

It was extremely difficult to implement magic into one fighting style, and the way Miss Priston managed to do it would make you believe that she had trained for years.

‘Those damn blessings, are all of them such monsters?’ General Selena thought.

However, her hopes would quickly be abolished because the next few people, instinctively tried to use their magic in the fight, but their ability to use it with their weapons was simply put abysmal.

Their bodies were moving without any thoughts and the person couldn´t control their bodies.

‘HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO MAKE THEM INTO CAPABLE FIGHTERS!!!’ yelled General Selena in her mind.

She was cursing the blessings with such vulgarity that if someone would hear it, they would faint from it.

Luckily for everyone around, the remaining people were able to perfume somewhat acceptable and some even surprised Selena.

First was the class president that had the blessing of the fire god, his weapon had been a broad sword.

Although his movement and handling of the weapon were not much better than the majority of the class, he was able to use his magic to coat his sword in flames and even use them to send flames flying toward Selena.

Next up was a girl called Tomoe, she was a tall, slender girl with long black hair that reached down past her waist.

She was one of the school’s most beautiful girls; almost everyone called her a princess.

However, her choice of weapons seemed rather odd.

In her left hand, she held a bow, her left hand was covered by a gauntlet, and strapped to her waist was a long dagger.

A quiver was also strapped over her shoulder.

The fight against Tomoe was in some ways the most bizarre, especially for the classmates.

Tomoe had aimed, without any hesitation, at Selena´s vital organs.

But her arrow was no problem for Selena and the general was quickly able to reach her opponent, and that was the point that Tomoe began to act weird.

Without any hesitation, Tomoe let go of the bow and draw the dagger with her right hand, her left hand made a forward motion, and three metal claws appeared out of the gauntlet.

With a wild expression, Tomoe threw herself onto general Selena.

She fought with such ferocity that general Selena thought that she was fighting a wild beast not a human.

But even then, Selena was able to subdue Tomoe with relative ease.

Others also stood out and surprised the general, but not like any of the two nor Miss Priston.

After no one was stepping forward anymore, Selena looked around and saw that one person still hadn´t been able to decide on a weapon.

That person was none other than Eric.

“Hey, snake boy, are none of the weapons there to your liking?” Selena asked and walked toward Eric, who in turn looked up and only nodded.

General Selena looked at the remaining weapons and frowned because there were still enough weapons of almost every type.

“Do you feel absolutely nothing?” Selena asked.

“I… I feel like something is missing. Something… However, I don´t know to describe it?” Eric said, trying to describe his situation.

“Which weapon is the closest one?”

Eric picked up two weapons, one was a bastard sword, and the other was a whip.

“Ah, I think that I know what kind of weapon you need, but they are rarely used in the kingdom, and I am not sure if we have any at the arsenal. How about coming with me to the headquarters of the knights after the training?” Selena asked after quickly realizing what kind of weapon Eric wanted.

Eric thought for a moment before saying, “Sure, that sounds good.”

Point of view, John.

After talking with general Selena, I looked back at the weapons that were lying on the ground.

I picked up one of them, a spear, and moved it a bit.

For some reason, it felt weird, wrong even to hold it in my hand.

Was this one of the effects of the blessing?

But sadly, before I could continue to think about it, general Selena forced us to continue with the training.

And as expected it was the same hellish training as before, and we went through it until it became dark.

“Now then, from now on, your training will be split into three parts. Physical training, magic training, and training with weapons. The magical training will be under Father Alexander, while the other two will be under me, and some of my subordinates. Me and Father Alexander will switch every day, meaning that tomorrow, you all will be training your magic and the day after, it goes back to me. That is all, dismissed.” General Selena explained.

Everyone slowly walked away, trying to get to their beds as quickly as possible.

On the other hand, I had no such luxury, because I had agreed to accompany general Selena back to the headquarters of the knights, to look for a weapon that might suit me.

“Good looks like you remembered your promise. And here I was worried that you might have forgotten.” General Selena said with a small smile.

I shook my head and answered, “It took me a lot of willpower to stay, the training was quite exhausting.”

“If you weren´t exhausted then the training wouldn´t have any purpose. You all need to become strong as fast as possible. Even as we speak, every single country of the alliance is gathering its armies to wage war against the demons. Although Father Alexander thinks that it will be easy to defeat the demons, I have a feeling that it won´t be as easy. This is why the strength of the heroes will be necessary, even though I am not a fan of this plan.” General Selena said, at the last part she seemed rather annoyed.

“You are against the heroes?” I asked in confusion.

“In a way, you could say it so. I believe that this is a problem that should be solved with our own hands, not by the hands of someone that has been dragged into this mess. I also don´t like it that we kidnapped you and are forcing you to deal with our problems. But my personal opinions aren´t important here, the king has ordered me to train you, so that is what I am going to do.” General Selena said.

General Selena moved inside the church and signaled me to follow her.

The two of us walked through the church, many priests and other personnel were moving around, and as we were passing them, all of them bowed down before us, or more precisely general Selena.

The looks that were giving me were filled with causing and some had even hints of fear.

But I couldn´t understand why they looked at me like that, I had not much interaction with any of them nor do I think I had done anything that would make them afraid of me.

A few minutes later, we exited the church again, what stood before us was a large horse-drawn carriage.

A soldier stood beside the carriage and kneeled as soon as he saw the general.

He then opened the door to the carriage and stood beside it.

Without a single word general, Selena entered the carriage and sat down.

I hesitated for a moment before also entering it and I sat down opposite the general.

The soldier closed the door and shortly after that, the carriage began to move.

“Did you notice the looks that the priests and the other people were giving you?” General Selena asked suddenly.

“I… I have, but I don´t understand why they were looking at me like that. Have I done something wrong?”

General Selena shook her head in denial, “No, you haven´t done anything wrong. The thing that makes them fear you, is that the situation with you is something that they don´t know about, and that is exactly what they fear.”

I couldn´t understand what she meant by that.

Seeing my confusion, General Selena sighed and explained, “The followers of Athena have recorded the history of the world for a very long time. Not only that, but they have also written down everything that they think is important, ranging from detailed information about a monster or animal to the structure, politics, and management of countries.

The knowledge that they have gathered over this long time is so great that they had to split their records between multiple locations, each of them specializing in certain parts. For example, the one that had summoned you is in charge of history, of course, each branch has a basic collection of information and receives information from the other branches and vice versa.

Their knowledge had been used to help the world many times. But even so, all of it brought also a great change in the followers, they became afraid of what they couldn´t understand. No longer seeking out the unknown, they now fear it, and everything that isn´t in their records, or contradicts them.”

My eyes widened in surprise, I understood now what the general was trying to tell me.

I had been blessed by the snake goddess, something that had not happened before, in other words, it is something that the followers of Athena couldn´t understand.

Seeing my realization, General Selena smiled and continued, “Not only were you blessed by a goddess that had never blessed a hero before, but it seems that you also have some sort of connection with Tiamat, the queen of dragons, a being that is older than most of the other gods. So, it isn´t a surprise that the followers are afraid of you because for them you are unknown.”

“What about Father Alexander?”

“Hmm, as far as I can see, he doesn´t seem to fear you, or he just hides it well. But then again, that old man is not someone that you can read easily. He is obsessed with exterminating the demons, and I don´t know how far he is willing to go for it. I know that you have a good opinion of him but believe me when I say that you shouldn´t let your guard down against him.”

I nodded to her warning, General Selena didn´t continue the conversation after that and remained silent.

I didn´t say anything as well and the carriage remained silent until an hour later, we had arrived at the headquarters of the knights.

The church wasn´t located inside the capital of the kingdom but was located a few kilometers away from it, although I had no idea why.

As the general and I exited the carriage, I saw a giant stone building that seemed like a large block and seemed like the builder had cared more about the functionality of the building than the appearance.

Not waiting for me to collect myself, General Selena walked toward the entrance.

I hurried after her as soon as I was able to collect myself.

Although the hour was late, many knights and soldiers were walking through the halls, and many of them were transporting piles of papers.

“Surprised? The knights are not only a part of the military, but we are also responsible for the protection of the capital, the guards that are patrolling the capital and stand at the gates work for us. We also have other duties, but you will learn about them at a later date. Let´s go to the armory and look for your weapon.”

As we walked past the knights and soldiers, all of them bowed before the general, but unlike the priests and people at the church, they seemed to have a great deal of respect for her.

We continued to walk for a few minutes before entering an office, a middle-aged man.

He had short brown reddish hair.

His face seemed relaxed and warm; his short beard supported that feeling.

He was also wearing the armor of the knights.

“Still battling with the paperwork, William?” General Selena asked.

The middle-aged man looked up; his expression seemed rather bored.

“Don´t even joke about it. When I took over the position to look over the arsenal and so, I didn´t think that I would drown in paperwork. I can´t even see it anymore, and yet you have even more to deal with than me, and yet you still have time to train the heroes… *sigh* I envy you.”

General Selena began to laugh, “Unlike you, William, I have multiple people to help me with the paperwork, although, I have to admit that most of it are just me giving the final go for things and signing stuff. Most of my time is spent in meetings with nobles and such things. *sigh* What a pain in the ass. But I am not here to talk about annoying work, but I am here to help him find a fitting weapon.”

William looked at me, his eyes became sharp and seemed to see through my entire body.

“One of the heroes?” he asked in a cold voice.

“Yes, none of the weapons that I had brought seemed to have been fitting for him. And after some experimenting, I believe that I know which weapon he needs. So, I ask you, is that old thing still gathering dust at the end of the arsenal?” General Selena said and smiled at the end.

William raised an eyebrow; he instantly knew which weapon the general meant.

“That weapon? As far as I know, it is still there, not like anyone would try and take it. None of the knights here use such a weapon in the first place, let alone that one. But where are my manners, I haven´t even introduced myself yet? My name is William Knight, and I am in charge of the arsenal and the equipment of the knights.” William said, stood up, and reached out his hand to me.

“It´s nice to meet you, my name is John Erling.” I said while shaking William’s hand.

After I let go of William’s hand, he brought us to the arsenal, the door to it was on the right side of the room.

As we entered the arsenal, I was shocked, the room was easily more than three meters high and gigantic, but that wasn´t even the most impressive thing.

No, that would be the fact that the room was filled to the brim with weapons.

Regals are filled with all kinds of different weapons.

“Most of these weapons had been collected over the many years of the history of the order. Most of them have never been used, but we still take care of each one of them.” William told me as I tried to find a weapon that seems to fit me.

“What he means is that we use it as a punishment and as work for the recruits of the order. I remember wasting hours trying to maintain these weapons. *sigh* Good old times. “General Selena said, her eyes filled with nostalgia.

William laughed and said, “Well, I hardly think that you were thought of it as a punishment whenever I sent you here.”

General Selena nodded and answered, “How could I see this as a punishment when this room shows the history of the order? I have learned much from the history of these weapons, teacher.”

“*sigh* If only you had put as much enthusiasm back into your training under me.”

“Wait, so you were the teacher of the general?” I asked in confusion, I found it hard to believe that William was the trainer of the general, since both of them seemed to be around the same age.

“Don´t let his look deceive you, he is much older than he looks. He has barely aged since I became his student. Many tried to figure out his secret, but he never revealed it.” General Selena said shrugging her shoulders with a frustrated look on her face.

“Oh, you won´t get far with compliments. But maybe one day I will tell you.” William said and looked away so that neither I nor the general could see his expression.