Chương 15: Training Command

The Prophecy Festival held that spring ended on an ambiguous note when Garlik collapsed. Fortunately, she had merely lost consciousness. Nothing as terrible as her death had occurred. However, immediately after reading Karath's future, assuming she had truly read it at all, Garlik had aged rapidly. She announced afterward that she could no longer perform sorcery. Naturally, she began teaching the shaman's arts to Kairin, a sixteen-year-old girl, in preparation for the next festival.

Kairin would probably assume the role of shaman beginning with that year's Harvest Festival. Although the disturbance at the Prophecy Festival had been settled, that did not mean the settlement remained unchanged. The tribespeople's attitude toward Karath shifted slightly. They began looking up to him and showering him with praise because he was destined to become their chief.

"Krahahaha! The future chief has come out bright and early!" Or rather, nothing of the sort happened. They remained as busy as ever treating him like an adorable child. When Karath first heard the prophecy, he had wondered whether Garlik, who already appeared old for her age, had finally become senile. Declaring that a random nine-year-old child would become chief was no small matter. It was not the same as telling a nine-year-old in Earth that he would become president one day.

This was a dictatorial tribe where the chief claimed his position through strength and possessed absolute authority. It was closer to someone in S. U prophesying that a child would one day become the new stalin of the union. After hearing the prophecy, Karath's eyes had naturally moved toward the chief. A terrible possibility had occurred to him. What if the prophecy offended Grild enough that the chief decided to eliminate him? Fortunately, Grild had shown no such signs.

In fact, rather than showing even the slightest hostility, the chief had taken the lead in pampering him.

"Krahahahaha! Once you become an adult, I will be counting on you to take good care of our tribe, Karath!" Honestly, the chief and Grandfather Jark fussed over him even more than Delina did. Karath could not understand why they treated an orc who was supposedly destined to take their authority so warmly. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. For nearly a month after the prophecy, he had lost sleep wondering when the chief might change his mind.

By now, however, Karath had decided to accept the situation for what it was. There was nothing particularly bad about becoming chief. No, in truth, becoming chief was extremely important to him. He needed authority if he wanted to improve the lives of the orcs trapped in a primitive hunter-gatherer society. There was a limit to how much change he could create alone.

The construction of the earthen houses during autumn had already proven that introducing anything new to the settlement required a large amount of labor. Therefore, Karath needed the authority to order the tribespeople around as he pleased. Naturally, he would only use it to improve their environment and guide them toward a better future. There was no reason for him to feel guilty. Karath spent his days entertaining such profoundly dictatorial thoughts.

"Karaaath! Come plaaaay!" As always, the neighborhood children were the ones who dragged him back to reality.

"Karath, what are we going to play today?" There were younger children whose birthdays had recently passed, making them eight years old.

"Karath, what should we start with today?" There were also hulking fourteen-year-olds who would soon undergo their coming-of-age ceremonies. They gathered in groups according to age and waited for his instructions. They had behaved this way before, but the condition had grown even more severe after the Prophecy Festival because of the chief's response. Rather than restraining the child destined to take his authority, Grild had openly supported Karath.

The chief had declared that from then on, all authority over the children's training would belong to him. Things had already been halfway there before the announcement, but an official declaration from the chief carried a different weight. Karath had now become their officially appointed caretaker. After considering how to manage them, he decided to train the children using the only method he knew.

"First squad, ages eight through ten, will play tag! Second squad, everyone aged eleven or older who has not yet begun their second maturation, will play hide-and-seek! Third squad, those who have completed or progressed far enough through their second maturation, will begin hunters and prey! Move to your assigned positions!"

"To our positions!" After repeating his command, the children formed ranks and marched toward their designated areas.

"Training is battle!"

"Individual combat!" That was the command system Karath had chosen. It was the command style of the National Army. It was the only method he had learned through direct, painful experience, so he had little choice. In his early twenties, he had spent two years running himself ragged while constantly wondering whether any of it would ever prove useful in his life. He had never imagined those experiences would help him in this way. That did not mean he conducted their training entirely according to military doctrine.

Ninety percent of military training consisted of drills, specialist training, or ideological education. What purpose would any of that serve here? There was no reason to make the orc children scream that S. U was their principal enemy. Although they probably would if he ordered them to. The thought of orcs playing tag while shouting about reunification through the destruction of communism was ridiculous enough to make his head hurt. In any case, the training itself remained based on games.

Karath had merely borrowed his former military experience to organize and command the children.

"Let us inspect the first squad." Karath approached the younger children, who were happily playing together while producing a series of cheerful thuds. As he had learned from hide-and-seek the previous year, leaving the children to play among themselves would never allow a game to develop into proper training. Hide-and-seek had transformed into survival training only because Karath had introduced a variety of outrageous tactics.

He therefore rotated through the three age groups and joined each of their games, teaching them different methods along the way. He taught them how to dig traps, lure opponents, and simply surround and beat someone during a one-on-one crisis. He wanted to ensure that even if another Horn Boar invasion occurred, or if something worse than Horn Boars attacked the settlement, none of the children would die. Karath devoted himself wholeheartedly to turning them into masters of survival games.