Marionette

Chapter 2

They took us to an army camp in the middle of nowhere. The scenery did not change. There were just green fields and hills all over. No towns or any other sign of civilisation in sight.

The camp looked precisely like a Roman Army one. It was square-shaped, surrounded by wooden walls, with white tents. I remembered how they looked from the pictures I had seen in my history textbooks.

To call this surreal would be an understatement. I was still processing everything, and I cannot lie; it was a lot to process.

Had I actually died back in the real world?

I could not remember much about my past self. Still, I was pretty sure I had done nothing to justify such a punishment. Becoming a slave soldier in another world is a heavy fate and certainly not befitting your average university student who spends his days studying, playing video games, and largely remaining unnoticed.

 
What was certain, though, was that this was not a dream.

"Arne!" shouted the king, standing before the camp's open gates.

A knight rushed from the line of their soldiers, stood before him and saluted him.

"Your Majesty!" said a young man with golden hair, clad in armour, kneeling before the king.

So, this was that Arne guy they mentioned before.

"I'm entrusting them to you...," said the king. "You have three months to turn this lot into soldiers."

"I-I won't fail, Your Majesty!" answered Arne, with a hint of fear.

"Well, Elise and little James depend on that..." said the king threateningly.

As he kneeled there, Arne's right hand twitched a little.

I had no idea what Elise or little James were to this Arne dude. Nonetheless, the king would do something terrible to them if he failed to turn us into soldiers. I understood that much.

Good luck with that.

"I'm leaving twenty knights to assist you," continued the king. "Right, let's head back to the Capital."

The queen was not done, though. She stood before us and smiled devilishly.

 
"If you do anything out of order, I will crush your hearts..." she warned. "Do not forget this..."

"Mirela, let's go!" shouted the king impatiently. "The bastard Senators are waiting for us..."

The queen gave us another sinister look and rushed back to the king.
What did I do to deserve this?

Soon after the king and queen were gone, Arne, who told us to call him "Captain Arne," and his twenty knights paired us up randomly.

There were a thousand of us, but only five hundred tents, so we would have to share.
First, we gave them our names, which they noted on a list. Then they called five hundred people one by one, gave them the number of their tent and told them to stay in and wait for their partner.

I was not among the first five hundred called, so the sun had set by the time I stood outside tent 436, the number they gave me.

I sighed, cursed my fate and walked into the tent.

My eyes bulged at the sight.

Why was there a girl inside?

Why do I have to share a tent with a girl?!

The majority of Earthlings summoned had been dudes. It was a total sausage fest, yet I somehow ended up in the same tent with a woman.

And not one hard on the eyes either!