Echo (Part I)
Echo (Part I)
Once the white landscape slowly faded away, the trees on both sides began to sprout again, everything became green once more.
The land to the east of the town had already been cleared by Anna with her flames, and His Highness had temporarily turned it into a training ground for the First Army of Border Town.
At the training ground, Carter Lannis was holding a casing and was checking if the bayonet was firmly installed.
This was the newest invention of His Highness, but compared to the automatic operating machine and the modified snow powder, this new invention seemed to be a little too simple. When holding it in his hands, Carter instantly realized that it was not a qualified weapon.
In short, it was just a sharp iron triangle, with the middle line as the base, with the other two sides pointing inwards a little. Although it had a sharp edge, it was impossible to use it to cut down enemies—the blade was just too narrow after it was bent. Even if he was to attack an enemy without armor, if he tried to slash out horizontally, Carter was not sure he would even be able to cut apart the enemy's clothes.
This weapon had only one purpose, and that was, stabbing. And it required being connected to the flintlock for its use. When used alone, it would not be as handy as a dagger.
In the eyes of the chief knight, wasting so much pig iron, only to forge such a simplistic weapon was totally unacceptable. If a blacksmith within his territory had dared to create such a weapon, he would have tied the man and given him a proper beating.
But even for a bad weapon like this, he could still see His Highness' attention to details. For example, the design of the casing. The mouth of the barrel had two grooves with a right angle at its end, so as long as the pieces were fitted properly and the bayonet was turned slightly it would become fixed. Because of this design, the pieces did not need to fit perfectly, and if they were a little too loose, some paper could be inserted between the two iron pieces and the grooves, and in case there was no paper, even tree leaves would work instead.
''Put the bayonet on the gun!''
Hearing the command, the members of the Flintlock Squad who had a bayonet allocated to them took them out of their bag and put them on the gun's barrel—until now there were only about forty pieces of the new weapon and supporting bags. So the ones who did not receive a new weapon had to use a short stick instead.
They practiced this action for almost the whole morning, and now most of them only needed just a few seconds to adjust the bayonet. According to His Highness' words, the bayonet should only be used as a last resort. He did not want his men to fight a close combat fight. Carter disagreed with this statement, he thought as long as someone did not personally stab an enemy, they would still be considered as children. Only when they saw their enemies' first blood, they would transform from ordinary miners and hunters into soldiers.
Iron Axe was also in the platoon. Although he claimed to only be a hunter, Carter could see from his skills that the man had definitely received military training before. His skills were not much worse than that of the other knights.
When His Highness asked Carter to teach the soldiers how to use the new weapon, he did not feel very confident. He never heard of a weapon called bayonet before, so there was a chance that he did not even know how to use it. However, after seeing the prototype, he became full of confidence. After all, the bayonet was just like a short spear, and due to its special blade, it was much easier to use it compared to a spear.
The advantage of the bayonet was in the simplicity of learning to use it. There was no need to learn how to slash, lift, block or sweep, there was only one move, stabbing. So the chief knight let all the platoon members line up and taught them the most appropriate way of stabbing—placing one foot behind the other, bending the knees and the waist and pushing their arms forward with their maximum strength.
This kind of repetitive training was extremely boring. But what amazed Carter was that everyone was meticulously completing the stabbing training. Before the winter they were all still a bunch of weak and lazy civilians, but now they were behaving properly. They would immediately follow any command, and training them was even easier than training a squire. Of course, if he were to give them a sword, or using the words of His Highness "cold weapons", these people still would not stand a chance against his men. But in terms of willpower, their progress was really notable in his eyes.
After half an hour of training, Carter let the flintlock squad sit down and rest. At this moment, His Highness the prince showed up on the training ground, accompanied by a woman who was wearing a hood. The knight was not surprised. His Highness had informed him in advance that they would be assisted by a witch during today's training.
However, that witch was pretty tall, she was almost as tall as His Highness. Girls are more attractive if they are shorter, Carter thought. He then told everyone to stand up and greet the fourth prince.
"Greetings Your Highness!" The soldiers shouted and raised their hands.
"Thank you for your effort," Roland nodded. As he was about to speak to the knight, a soldier suddenly rushed out of the team. Carter Lannis frowned, he stepped forward placing the prince behind himself with his hand already touching his sword. Nightingale had also appeared, grabbing Roland's arm waiting to drag the prince into the mist in case something went wrong.
The person who appeared was exactly Iron Axe.
He did not run to the prince, but instead to the unknown witch, immediately falling down to his knees in front of her. It was not the Kingdom's normal kneeling posture, instead, he threw his whole body flat on the ground, with his head buried between his arms, "Clan Leader!"
With this, the flintlock squad's training came to an end.
*******************
"Tell me. Why did you do that?"
Back in the castle hall, Carter, Echo, and Iron Axe stood in a row, while Roland sat on the throne, he asked clearly dissatisfied.
Discipline, discipline! You have to always maintain discipline in the platoon! Not to mention seeing a clan leader, even if you were to see the King, you should not move an inch. If there is any request, there is always time for a report later.
"Your Highness," Iron Axe wanted to kneel down but just as he leaned over, he was stopped by Roland.
''Stand straight and speak!''
''Yes!'' Iron Axe swallowed nervously, and said, ''Master Silver Moon is the clan leader I served back in Iron Sand City.''
"No, Kabago, I am not the Clan Leader…" Echo quickly waved her hands.
''No, you are,'' Iron Axe responded, ''After the death of your father and brother, according to the Mowkin custom, you became the clan leader of our Osha clan. I heard that you were sold to the Port of Clearwater, but I didn't find you there, so I thought you were… dead.''
''But I'm——''
Roland interrupted Echo, ''One by one, you first Iron Axe.''
"Yes, Your Highness."
...
The story was not complicated, so Roland quickly understood the general idea of what happened.
Echo was originally a member of the Osha Clan in Iron Sand City. Her real name was Drow Silvermoon, and her father was the clan leader of the Osha Clan.
The Sand Nation was not unified and Iron Sand City was only able to accommodate a limited population, so every now and then, each clan had to take part in a sacred duel, and the six victorious clans would gain the right to live in the city, while the other clans had to either live outside the city, or camp at the Green Sea. Although there were water resources in these places, the wild beasts and the sandstorms would cause a great threat to the Sandpeople. So during each of the sacred duels, the warriors of the various clans would spare no effort in order to win.