Chapter 68: Training
The training ground was nothing fancy. Just a large, beaten stretch of ground not too far from the governor’s building, surrounded by broken walls and some jagged metal sticking out the sides. In some corners, there were wooden dummies, most already cracked from use. The ground had patches of grass here and there, but most of it was just hard, dusty earth. Above, the sky was still that same orange haze. No clouds, Just light.
Julian stood in the center, arms crossed. He had ditched the royal cloak, left the glittering stuff inside, and now he was back in his training armor. He was now in his galactic knight armor, without the helmet, just a simple gear. Thick, worn black steel with shoulder plates and a half-chest guard. The reason for not wearing the helmet was so they could see his face.
Soldiers—some fresh, some familiar—began to line up. Not all were properly uniformed. Some had mismatched armor, while others had bruises still healing from the war. A few looked like they barely survived yesterday.
Julian eyed them all. Some looked scared, some curious, some simply exhausted.
He didn’t smile. This wasn’t a time to smile. He needed to train them. It was not like he had any previous experience on combat and fighting on wars, but it was the perks that came with being the Galactic knight, he got it.
He surprisingly had the experience and knew how to fight like he was a pro that had trained for years when he actually hadn’t.
Julian raised a hand. "Step forward."
They did.
"You’re standing on a training ground, not a graveyard," Julian said, pacing in front of them now. "Now, none of you should slack. It’s not everyday you see an Emperor as myself training his soldiers but what can I do, seems you guys are too amateurish in battle I have to do the hard work of training you guys myself."
The soldiers respected his presence, but they couldn’t hide the joy and excitement of being trained by the Emperor.
Julian, even though he was a cool normal guy who wouldn’t behave like god but at least, something people can hope up to, had no choice but to be strict for this training and so, he would have to talk rough and at least try and see if he could make this soldiers battle minded.