Chapter 52: CH 46

Under the night sky, rubbing sounds can be heard throughout the camps. It’s the sound of the soldiers scrubbing their armor.

(Info dump warning! Here to skip. Summary:

Running in a group like this army march will cause the army’s armors and weapons to easily rust because of the humidity that’s why the soldiers and knights do maintenance on their armors and weapons every single night, including the cavalry. Nobles like Welner will have their armors maintained by orderlies)

When a group of people is running together the sweat and breath will cause the surrounding humidity to rise. This is something that people who are members of the running club in school in my previous life must have experienced. The rise of humidity can cause people to feel faint even if they’re only walking.

In the case of an army march, it’s even worse. Especially because in the army, people are wearing metal armor.

Armors are more or less made using iron. It will collect dust while the wearers are walking. Dust contains moisture. Adding to that, the armors will also be bathed with sweat that contains salt in it.

The result? It’s simple. The armor will easily rust. It might sound unbelievable but in this kind of circumstance, the armor can rust in just 1 day.

That’s why the everyday night routine of the knights and soldiers is to do maintenance on their armor. Of course, their weapons also need maintenance but as the tool that can protect their lives, their armors are the most important. If they didn’t do maintenance on their armors then it might cause problems later on.

As for the breastplate? It also needs maintenance because if rust appears on the armor that has contact with their hips it will have a huge effect on the soldiers’ movement. The rust might even spread to their undergarment and if left alone it might lead to ulcers. No matter which part of the armor, the soldiers need to rub them and oil them to prevent rust.

As a noble, I am lucky since I can just have the orderlies polish my armor but that’s not the case for the normal soldiers. For them, they need to polish their armor themselves every single night so it’s quite a hassle. The cavalries have it even worse. They also need to do maintenance on their horses’ saddles, harnesses, and hoofs. Well, the maintenance of horses is the job of stable boys though.

Despite all of the hassle of maintaining armors, no one ever complains. Of course, they won’t complain, their armors will directly affect the chance of their survival on the battlefield. As for maintenance of the weapons, it’s equally important but since armors have more complicated shapes so the maintenance will take a longer time.

By the way, there is one piece of armor that is the bane of both the soldiers and orderlies. That armor is chainmail. The reason? Well, I don’t think I need to explain it.

[Info dump end]

As I was thinking about how it is the nobles’ privilege to make others do the maintenance, I arrived in front of the headquarters tent.

“Please convey the message that I, Welner von Zeavert, have arrived.”

“Please wait a moment.”

The protocol (That I ignored back at the demon outbreak incident) when you want to enter the headquarters is to convey your arrival to the guard, and wait for the guard to confirm it with the people inside.

“Please come inside.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

I replied to the guard that’s wielding a spear and has a bigger build compared to me. This guard is older than me so I can’t be arrogant but at the same time, I also can’t be servile since I’m a noble so it’s difficult to come up with words to greet him.

“Excuse me, it is I, Welner von Zeavert.”

“Come in.”

Only after being permitted did I come inside. Other executives have already gathered here. Even though it was because I have a duty that I need to finish first, I still feel bad for being the last to arrive. I’m glad that the people here didn’t seem to mind that.

“Viscount, you worked hard. How is the camp?”

“It is quiet there,” I give Count Engelbert a short answer.

The duty I was talking about is to patrol and inspect the entire job. Today is my turn. It was a pretty tiring job to tour the 6000 people campground. But the people in camp might make light of us if the patrolling officer isn’t one of the commanders.

I guess it’s bearable since I don’t need to do it every single night.

“Isn’t there some hidden trouble in the camp?”

“I guess all hidden trouble has been eliminated by ‘kick the sand with one hind legs’ (1) punishment.”

(Note: an idiom means not only betraying the person one is indebted to but also causing even more problems. If you know an English equivalent, please tell me in the comment.)

Viscount Kauffeldt’s answer makes everyone here, including me, smile bitterly. I mean that punishment is really…

(Info dump warning! Here to skip. Summary:

Woman of the night often sell their service but that’s trouble for the army since they can’t let the people that are already exhausted at noon also spend their stamina at night so the army decided to punish the people that buy and sell the service. Those who reported buying and selling the service will be given reward money enough for a family to eat for 2 months.

The punishment for the culprit is clean the toilet. They also need to gather ashes from kitchen and bonfires, trash, leftover animal fodder, animal waste, and plants and throw them all into the holes of the toilet before covering the holes. Then, they also need to clean the wooden board covering the toilets. The smell will cling to them to the point that the next day they won’t be able to enjoy food properly and will receive stares from their surrounding. This punishment cause incidents to only happen in the first 4 days of the journey.)

The hidden trouble here is mostly ‘disturbance of public morale’, especially with the woman of the night. Usually, as they did it out of their own free will it’s a proper occupation but in this kind of time where we need to travel a long way, their action brought nothing but trouble.

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This might sound ridiculous, but since the distance we have traveled at noon is already quite short we can’t let people also spend their stamina at night. It’s a valid reason since we can’t have a tired army in the situation when we don’t know when and where we might need to fight the demon’s army.

To combat the disturbances of public morals, we promise to give anyone that informs us of such activities a huge amount of money as a reward and punishment to the culprit.

We had given the reward money, enough to feed a family for 2 months in front of the masses. 

Because of that fellow refugees have been on alert for other cases of disturbances or public morals incidents. The power of money is really amazing.

As for the punishment, it’s quite severe. Named ‘kick the sand with one hind legs’ this punishment will be given to both the seller and the buyer of the service, even if the buyer turned out to be one of the soldiers in charge of the night watch. 

This punishment is to clean up the toilet. Though cleaning up the simple toilet made by digging holes on the ground and then covering it with a wooden board might sound easy, as it was a toilet for 6000 people the amount of work needed is enormous.

The toilets here also include the toilets used by horses and oxen. There are 200 warhorses and a total of 400 animals. The culprits need to collect the animal excretion as much as possible and then throw it inside the toilet holes.

After that, they need to gather ashes from the bonfire and cooking fire of the entire camp then also throw them into the toilet holes. Gathering ashes feel suffocating but they also need to transport them.

Lastly, they also need to gather leaves, grasses, and the leftover animals’ fodder and throw it into the toilet holes along with garbage, ashes, and plants before finally covering the holes. They also need to clean the wooden board covering.

Not only is this job tiring physically but the awful smell will cling to their body. I’m sure they won’t be able to enjoy anything they eat the next day. No one will ever want to do this punishment for the second time.

But the most terrifying part of this punishment is what will happen the next day after they complete the punishment. As the awful smell clings to their body, they will receive sharp stares from their surroundings. The mental pressure is no joke.

On the first 3 days of our journey, there were still people buying and selling the service but after the last report on the fourth day, no one ever attempted to make another incident. It must be because the word of the punishment has spread. I see this punishment is quite harsh even to the standard of professional soldiers.

[Info dump end]

Before they went to sleep, I heard the soldiers pray half-jokingly that someone will cause the incident. 

Normally, this dirty toilet job is given to the soldiers on rotation. That’s still the case even if someone did cause the incident since the amount of toilet job is too much for just the culprit to complete.

Despite that, since the culprit is being punished, the harshest part of the toilet job will be given to them. That’s why the soldier prayed every night for someone to cause the incident. 

“Baron Kretschmer, how is the situation in the rear?”

“There has been no attack from Triot and there have also been no deserters.”

Baron Kretschmer, the man who has a physique that didn’t lose to Max, answered. He radiated the feeling of a great general. As someone that’s being entrusted to the army’s rear by Duke Seyfarth, he must be quite a capable person.

“Count Vogler, how is our logistics?” Next is the turn of Count Vogler, the commander of the logistic division. It was a really important post. If it was me I would have a stomachache.

“The food and medicine provision for no 28 and no. 22 have arrived. According to the report from the escort, there has been no anomaly with the transport. As for the provision for no 18 and no 15, they are in the midst of transportation from the capital. They will arrive in 3 days. The public order near our planned campground has also been maintained. Luckily no rain has fallen recently so the condition of the road is also good.”

“Good. Viscount Zeavert, how was the situation of our enemy when we were still marching?”

“First, regarding the appearance rate of the demons…”

My turn. As the commander of the adventurers, mercenaries, and scouts the Duke will of course ask me this question. I had already created a list and data using based on the reports that I got.

This commander meeting is held every day. I agree it’s a necessary meeting but it’s tiring. Then if we need to cross a bridge on our journey the next day, the meeting agenda will include a discussion about how to cross it safely so the meeting will become longer.

Then there’s also a discussion regarding price negotiation of water, food, and firewoods. Today we are using boiled river water but if there’s a settlement nearby, we will use their well water.

Unexpectedly, firewoods are one of the things that cost us the most money. We need enough for thousands of people so just using branches we found on our journey isn’t nearly enough. There’s even a time we disassemble the woods used to build fences, letting them dry for a few days, then use them as firewood.

The army also needs to make a report regarding consumable things like food (Including shoes, the rate of shoes’ expenditure is terrifying) and then submit it to the palace. The palace will then cover the cost, but since the receipt didn’t exist here, if there are any expenses you missed then you pay it from your own pocket.

To avoid a dispute about money, expenses that were used for the army and for the nobles need to be clearly divided. I guess it’s true that a third of the pay received by Roman soldiers is used for consumable things like shoes. I have the feeling the accountant in charge of the army’s finance will be seeing numbers even in their dreams.

In the games, you only need to think about food and inn expenses. The real world is harsh,

In my case, my main job isn’t to think about money but to gather information. When adventurers or mercenaries reported to the Zeavert’s army camp, they didn’t just get their reward but they also needed to provide information about the kinds of demons that appeared and how they defeat the demons.

The knights and the soldiers of Zeavert’s army will also be present to hear the information told by the adventurers and mercenaries. After all, the knowledge will also be useful for the army to judge if there’s any danger or not.

There is also the problem of how to handle the injured and the sick, checking the amount of supplies left, giving an appreciation to the people that make an achievement, and punishing the people that break rules. I leave some of these jobs to my second in command, Max. I’m going to faint if I did it alone.

I also have my personal works like creating data based on appearance rate and distribution of the demons. I often stayed up late at night to do this. I have a mountain of jobs. I didn’t just leave everything to my subordinate and then play around!

I feel bad for people who become the second in command of an idiotic noble… Their job must be enormous.

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