43 Chapter 43

The journey to camp Herolds took several hours and the inside of the carriage was quiet, the mages of the academy were experiencing being in the outside world for the first time in many years.

The mages were taking their time to observe the outside of the carriage and observe the world after many years in semi captivity.

'This country has good development of its infrastructure.'

Grey observed as he viewed good roads and buildings as the carriage passed cities, the cities were clean and the structures well designed. The country might not have things like electricity, but it would not be a bad place to live in.

'The tension due to the war is very palpable in these cities. The recruitment of people to war must have increased the tension in these places.'

The cities they passed all had a certain tension that could not be ignored. The young mages all had good awareness and they could recognise the slight fear in the eyes of the citizens of the cities they passed.

The carriage was a military transport, thus it was not slowed down when it passed through these cities.

They managed to reach camp Herolds later in the afternoon. They had left Witfield Academy in the morning and it had taken the better half of a day to get to the camp. Camp Herolds was located several kilometres from a medium sized city called Bocholt.

The camp was large size and was located on the side of a mountain. The military camp housed both the Mage Army and the regular human troops, thus it required being large sized.

The two male carriage drivers who were also soldiers gave the documentation to the person in the gate of camp Herolds, and the carriage was allowed to enter. The atmosphere of the military camp was much more serious, men and women walked more straighter and there was a glint in their eyes.

Most of these people had large muscles and great body builds, since most of the people in any camp are regular cold weapons soldiers. Thus these people spent most of their time doing exercises unlike mages who need to meditate and also study magic.

The carriage went to the holding zone of the military camp.

"Mage recruits from Witfield Academy you follow me to the assembly zone, your luggage will be taken to your rooms."

As the mage recruits from Witfield were exiting the carriage, there was a man in front of them. The man looked to be in his twenties with blond hair and black eyes. The man looked very serious, and he did not seem to want to be refused.

'2nd Lt badges.'

The mage recruits all observed the man as he was observing them. They mostly observed the man's military mage uniform. The uniform was the same as their uniform, but the man had 2nd Lt badges, when compared to them who had no badges.

The man left after giving the order to the mage recruits to follow him. The mage recruits from military mage academies were well trained soldiers and no one asked a question, all 17 of them followed the man to what he called the assembly.

'They are mostly going to put us in our squads.'

It was not difficult for Grey and the mage recruits to figure out that, especially with the incoming war, they have no time to waste. The man took the mage recruits into a large open field, there were young people wearing military mage uniform, the same as them. The people were standing in an orderly fashion in their own groups.

'Mage recruits from different academies, there are three groups representing three academies, ours will be the fourth and only one will be missing to cover the five military academies.'

The Arin Kingdom had five military mage training academies, with the most famous being the ones named after the tier 7 Arc Mages. The other two were less famous, they were named after two successful tier 6 Arc Mages of the military's tier 6 mages.

"Witfield mage recruits, you will stand in your spot until told otherwise."

The man did not say when that time might be, however mages had strong bodies and just standing would not be difficult. They stood next to Schein Academy, the number of mage recruits that academy had sent was only 15 when compared to their 17.

Grey even saw Schneider Academy, they had sent 16 mage recruits.

'The youngest age in these people seemed to be 12 years old, it looks like those mage recruits who have just reached tier 1 were not deployed.'

The use of magic crystals had allowed mage recruits to reach tier 1 after 18 months and the mages are mostly 11.5 years old after reaching tier 1, like how it happened for Grey and the other mage recruits from Witfield.

'I wonder if that tier 5 talent is here.'

Grey thought as he glanced at the mage recruits from Schneider Academy, but he would not find out anytime soon because he did not even know how Ursula Aachen looked like.

The mage recruits waited like that for 30 minutes until the last military academy mage recruits came. These recruits were from Wagner Academy and had a roster of 18 people. They were being guided by the same man who guided the mage recruits from Witfield.

The mage recruits stood next to the 14 recruits from Olupis Academy. The total number of mage recruits from the five academies was 80.

'I wonder how many of mage recruits will survive when the fighting starts. Considering the casualty rate amongst tier 1 mages, at least 40 of them will never come back.'

Grey was thinking of the survival rate when he saw the man who guided them go towards the front of the assembly field.

'I am guessing we are starting.'

Grey however was incorrect, the man just stood there as without saying anything as if he was still waiting. Grey was wondering when this assembly would start, he would only find out why they had not started after an hour of waiting.

The quiet assembly field was disturbed by a noise created by a large number people who were talking at the same time.

"So this is how a military camp looks like, it's not very clean?"

"Keep quiet, you are making people look at use with contempt."

"The uniform of those mages looks handsome."

"What military, these are just dogs who take orders from us nobles."

"If I do well in this war, our family might a chance to rise."

"Do you think we will survive the war, I don't want to die."

"Father forced me to get recruited, I did not want to join the war."

"Mother said if I do well in this war and get merits, I might get a chance to be the main inheritor after she steps down from being family head."

Immediately after he spotted the source of the noise, Grey and the other mage recruits observed these people. They were all young people and all of them were tier 1 mages.

They were all wearing different clothes, the many colours of their clothes made disharmonious when compared to the uniformed military mage recruits. These people had different thoughts about the military and the war they were going into.

'Noble scions and scions from merchant families who were recruited to bolster our forces. I can also see people from humble beginnings as well.'

Grey observed what he believed were noble scions and scions from merchant families and people from humble beginnings. As Grey was observing these scions, he could feel large amounts of mana being released.

Grey was surprised to find that it was the 2nd Lt who guided them, the man had an annoyed face as he looked at the disorderly mages. This man was definitely a true military man, he could not stand sure behaviour and subconsciously released his mana.

'Approximately 80 of them, it looks like they were kept else as they waited for all of them to arrive. This will get messy with the addition of these people.'

Grey was also annoyed as he observed these people.

"Civilian mage recruits go stand next to the military mage recruits."

The person who was leading them was a female 2nd Lt who did not seem to care about their disorderly manners. After leading them to their standing positions she went to stand next to the man in front of the assembly.

"Calm down Guwain, most of them will be first to die when the conflict starts."

The women did not keep her voice down at all, with the awareness of mages, everyone heard her. There were horrified faces amongst the faces of the civilian mage recruits, though there were faces that were full of disdain as well.