Claude lifted his pillow and saw that the dozen or so copper coins he had tossed under it in the morning were all there. The coins added up to four to five riyases.
He had purposely left them under his pillow for three consecutive days. It seemed that the thief didn't like money and only liked food.
It had been more than a week since the seminar began. During that time, Claude had gone to the archives to get quite a number of battle reports. Some of them were truly shocking.
For example, when attacking a small hill guarded by an enemy company, the kingdom's second-line corps would have to pay the price of a full company in order to achieve victory.
When some of the officers in the advanced seminar flipped through the summaries of these battles, they couldn't help but curse the commanding officers at that time for being blockheads. They were the ones who forced the soldiers under them to their deaths.
Claude usually went to the military academy in the morning and returned to Aunty Natalie's place at night.
But he soon realized that he had been robbed. It wasn't his money that was stolen, but a large bag of snacks he had bought in the royal capital, such as egg rolls, biscuits, dried fruits, and so on.
Claude bought them for two reasons. One, he was afraid that he would get hungry at night. Two, his mouth was rather light and he didn't like alcohol, so he felt that it wouldn't be bad to have something to chew on while he read.
However, a lot of the snacks had disappeared. It wasn't obvious at first, but as time went by, when Claude felt the urge to eat some snacks, he was shocked to find that they were missing so much.
Needless to say, there was no one else apart from Aunty Natalie's daughter, Halbena.
She was the only one who could enter Claude's room to clean, pack his clothes, make his bed, fold his blankets, and take them out to dry.
The dozen or so copper coins under the pillow were left there on purpose. He wanted to see if Halbena would try to steal it again.
However, not a single copper coin was missing in the past three days. It seemed that Halbena was just a glutton who stole Claude's snacks and wasn't greedy.
Whatever, Claude didn't want to argue with her. Stealing some snacks wasn't a big deal to him.
Claude had a rather comfortable time in the seminar. The field officers respected him and didn't treat him as a subordinate.
Even when they were analyzing battles, Claude would often be asked to comment on them. After he was called to the podium by Michelic to talk about his participation in the capture of Wilfgang and Squirrel Village, he smoothly blended in with the field officers and they saw him as one of their own.
Claude had to admit that the officers who participated in the seminar were all talented individuals. They would often split into two factions due to the outcome of a particular battle. Claude felt that many of the viewpoints he had never thought of before, but when he listened to them, he found them to be very practical and reasonable. Claude felt that his military skills had improved rather quickly during that period.
The rainy season of March arrived quickly. Claude packed up some of the battle records he copied and brought them to Natalie's house. He planned to write his report during the rainy season.
The documents he brought with him were all about the manpower and resources used up after the establishment of the Ranger Battalion. Only now did he know how many soldiers had gone missing to ambush the enemy scouts while Rosler was in charge of the Ranger Battalion. That was enough to form two more Ranger Battalions.
They recruited soldiers with good marksmanship without any discipline and gave them aubass mark 3 muskets before forcing them to ambush the enemy.
Later on, due to the loss of too many soldiers, they couldn't recruit volunteers, so they sent those who violated military discipline here. They even raised the bounty to attract the outlaws in the army, turning the Ranger Camp into a mercenary camp.
Had it not been for the fact that Claude cast a long-range arrow protection spell on Rosler during the attack on Wilf Hill, making him a target for the enemy's volley and killing him, there might not have been a Ranger Camp in the first place.
All the soldiers in the camp were forced to march towards the enemy's formation. If he didn't die, all of them would have died in battle.
It was only after Rosler's death that Claude gained command of the camp. He ordered the soldiers to get down and use their aubass mark 3 muskets to suppress the enemy's defensive firepower and cover for the rest of the soldiers to charge up the hill and take over the enemy's formation.
That battle marked the beginning of Ranger Camp's glory. It was also the time when the first prince and the royal army started to value the aubass mark 3 muskets for suppressing the enemy's defensive firepower.
The report Claude was going to write was about Ranger Camp from Rosler's time as the commanding officer to the later stages of the war. It mainly focused on ambushing enemy scouts. Not every soldier equipped with an aubass mark 3 musket was enough to deal with enemy scouts. Claude used his own battle experience to analyze how they should work together, how they should deal with enemy scouts in groups and how they should coordinate with each other, how they should set up an ambush without alerting the enemy, and so on.
Actually, he had already finished the draft back in the military academy. All he had to do was find some time to revise it once he got back.
So, when he woke up to the sound of rain outside, he couldn't be bothered to get up and just laid on his bed in a daze. He didn't have to go to the military academy anymore. Of course, he could go, but there wasn't a need to run three times a day in such heavy rain.
Oh, right. I forgot to tell Auntie Natalie that I won't be going to the military academy during the rainy season. I'll have to eat at her place. Of course, I'll have to pay for my meals, but it started raining last night and I was too busy bathing and changing clothes to discuss it with her.
Just as he was debating whether he should get out of bed or not, he heard the door creak open and a figure hopped in.
Did I forget to lock the door last night?
I remember the door was shut. Didn't I put a bolt on it?
It was Natalie's daughter, Harbeth. The moment she entered, she went straight for the table by the window. On it was the big bag of snacks Claude brought over from the royal capital. Twenty days had passed and the originally bulging bag was now flat and empty.
Claude didn't eat much for himself. Most of it went into the snack-thief's stomach.
All that was left in the bag was a small, flat metal box. Inside the box were pear candies, one of the famous specialties of the royal capital.
It was a kind of candy made from pears and honey. In this world that lacked sweets, it was an expensive and luxurious dessert.
Claude recalled that he had spent a thale on the box of pear candies.
Harbeina reached into the bag and took out the box with great familiarity.
She opened the lid and carefully picked out a small piece of the candy with two fingers. She put it in her mouth and closed her eyes happily to savor the taste.
After a while, Harbena finally opened her eyes. She smacked her lips and reluctantly looked at the remaining Pear Cream Candies in the small metal box. She slowly closed the lid and stuffed the small metal box back into the big bag with clenched teeth.
Claude really wanted to laugh. He had bought a total of four boxes of those candies. Three of them were given to Manrique's three children as gifts during the banquet. His three children were very happy. His youngest daughter even opened the box on the spot and gave Claude a piece of candy to thank her uncle, which made everyone laugh and praise her for being a good girl.
Back then, Claude saw that there were only around ten pieces in the box. Now, it seemed that there wasn't much left in the only box in the bag. It was no wonder Halbena was so reluctant to try just one piece.
She turned around and was about to tidy up the room when she saw Claude staring at her with a half-smile on his face.
What he didn't expect, however, was for Harbena to cry out, "Ah!
A cry of surprise startled him out of his wits.
It had to be said that Halbena's voice was way too loud. It was comparable to a soprano.
Claude felt his ears ringing. He could vaguely hear voices outside that sounded like "What's wrong?", "What happened?"
Following that, Zahirak, Nathalie and Doris barged into Claude's room. Everyone stared at Claude, who was lying on the bed.
"What did you do to Bena?" Zahirak's face was bright red as he waved his fists around like a rabid dog.
"Bena, what happened?"
Natalie questioned her daughter. She didn't know that Halbena's face was red because Claude had caught her stealing the candy and not because he had done something to her.
Doris first looked at Halbena's clothes and then at Claude's blanketed body. She curled her lips in disdain, as if she felt that Claude had no taste when it came to Halbena, who wasn't as good-looking as she was.
It took Claude quite some time to recover from the ringing in his ears. When he heard Zahirak's angry yelling, he couldn't help but feel enraged. He said coldly, "What did I do?
Ask your precious daughter what she has done!
I was lying here all fine and dandy when she suddenly came in and screamed when she saw me. I almost went deaf from the shock. Ask her what she screamed for! "
Claude had wanted to say that Halbena had eaten his food, but he decided to cover it up for her. It was normal for girls to be greedy. Not to mention, the way she ate the pear cream candy looked rather funny and cute.
Halbena finally calmed down. Hearing that Claude didn't say anything about her eating, she couldn't help but look grateful.
When she heard her mother ask her why she screamed, she pointed at Claude on the bed. "You … Why aren't you at the military academy yet? You gave me such a fright."
It was clearly a misunderstanding. Halbena came in to clean up. Usually, Claude would have gone to the military academy by now. Today, he wasn't there and was still on the bed. Halbena didn't know that when she saw someone on the bed, she screamed in fright. It was that simple.
Claude said helplessly, "Sis, it's raining so hard outside. How am I supposed to go to the military academy?
It's the rainy season and the academy told me to write my report at home. I'll only go to class after the rainy season is over. "
The misunderstanding was cleared up. Halbena could only blame herself for being too cowardly and speaking too loudly.
Zahirak didn't say a word and turned to leave with a cold expression.
Claude really wanted to curse. Why was that old man so fierce just now? What kind of person did he take me for? Now that things are cleared up, shouldn't he apologize to me?
Don't blame me for being rude in the future if you leave without a word!
Claude's gaze turned cold. Natalie, on the other hand, apologized profusely and scolded Halbena for being so impudent and making a fuss out of nothing. She even caused a huge ruckus in the house.
At the same time, she said that since Claude wasn't going to the military academy, he definitely hadn't had breakfast yet. She told Doris to go to the kitchen and make breakfast for him.
Claude took the opportunity to get off the stage and discussed with Natalie about their meals during the rainy season. After a long discussion, they finally came to an agreement on the cost and specifications of the meals.
Claude's only request was that he didn't want to eat at the same table as them. That was because he didn't want to see Zahirak's expression and for the sake of peace and quiet, he had to have his meals delivered to his room.
Natalie happily packed up Claude's clothes with Halbena and left the room. Claude was very generous and gave her a thale for their meals. With the rainy season lasting for more than 20 days, Natalie could probably earn half of that if she scrimped a little.
Apart from a meat dish for lunch and dinner, Claude didn't have any other requests. He didn't have high expectations for their meals anyway.
However, the breakfast Doris brought him did surprise him. She actually gave him two poached eggs and a bowl of oatmeal along with some black bread, salt, butter and a bowl of oatmeal.
Just as Claude was about to thank Doris and ask if there were any sausages to eat with the bread, he saw Zahirak loitering under the eaves outside the door. His eyes darted into the room as if he was watching over Doris and him.
Claude immediately lost his appetite. That old man was too disgusting.
He nodded at Doris and thanked her before sitting down and picking up the poached eggs with his fork.
Doris didn't say anything and turned around to leave.
After a while, Doris came to clear the plates and found that Claude had only eaten the poached eggs and oatmeal.
Claude told her to leave the black bread there for now and eat it when he was hungry.
After Doris left, Claude heard the unpleasant sound of sawing wood from outside. He went to take a look and saw Zahirak sawing wood under the eaves of the house. He didn't expect the old man to know how to do carpentry.
Claude didn't want to see what was going on and closed the door to his room to read and write.
After lunch, Claude wanted to take a nap, but the noise outside was rather loud.
He got up and went to the kitchen to make some hot water for tea. When he went out, he saw Zahirak on the stairs to the second floor. He didn't know what he was doing, but his banging caused the entire staircase to shake. It was no wonder he could hear such loud noises even in a room with such good soundproofing.
Doris was the only one in the kitchen. She sat in front of the stove with her eyes glazed over. Claude couldn't tell what she was thinking and she was rubbing a wooden stick as thick as a cucumber in her hand. One end of the stick was smooth and round. Claude didn't know what it was used for.
She only snapped out of it after Claude called out to her twice. When she saw him, her face flushed red and she didn't know where to put the stick in her hand.
After she calmed down with great difficulty, she asked Claude what he wanted.
Claude said that he was going to get a pot of hot water and asked what Zahirak was up to.
Doris looked at Claude and said that the old man decided to install a wooden door on the stairs to separate the upper and lower floors.
He said that it would prevent any accidents from happening. Old people tend to sleep more soundly at night, so he wouldn't be able to hear anyone coming up the stairs. With the door, he would be able to relax.
What the hell! This old man! How dare he!
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