Brina arrived at the training grounds the next day with regular soldiers already doing their daily physical exercises to keep them fit and prepared for any situation. Meanwhile, the new possible recruits were being filtered into another space.
The commander welcomed them with a passionate speech that he had most definitely reused every time he did one of these recruitments.
When that ended, veteran instructors were there to begin their initiation rites.
Brina was assigned to platoon Bretta. They were divided into three platoons, Alina, Bretta, and Cindy, forming a single company.
There were fifty recruits in each platoon, making them a company of a hundred and fifty people.
Now each of their platoons were further divided into two, Alina one and two, Bretta one and two, and Cindy one and two, each having twenty-five recruits. The leader of the twenty-five would be a Junior Grade Lieutenant, and he would have two Junior Grade Sergeants, each leading eleven recruits.
So the platoon is going to be led by a Junior Grade Captain, and the entire company would be led by a Company Commander, that will have the rank of an Elevated Junior Grade Captain, he/she will be taken from the veteran town guards who have the rank of lieutenant and will be promoted into his/her new rank.
Junior Grade signifies that he or she is a recruit and an Elevated Junior Grade signifies that he or she was already a soldier in the Guardsmen with the rank of Lieutenant. But instead of treating it as a demotion they treated it as a promotion to become a full fledged captain and this will be their own company when the recruits graduate their current basic training and become full fledged Guardsman.
Now although this may be for now a temporary grouping, as the higher-ups still do not know how many of these recruits are going to survive the filter-out method during the first week, and they would have to consolidate another platoon into its final form and the overall company.
In total there would be one Company Commander ranked as Elevated Junior Grade Captain, three Junior Grade Captains, six Junior Grade Lieutenants, and twelve Junior Grade Sergeants, which will likely be chosen amongst the hundred and fifty recruits, except for the Company Commander, which will be taken directly from Helwind's Guards.
The process of making a new unit was always like this, at least for the town of Helwind Valley. Other towns could differ in their practices, while some follow a standard protocol directly mirroring the kingdom's own professional army, not the guardsmen.
Although they are called soldiers, they are in truth correctly termed or called as Guardsmen.
When a recruit passes the basics, they would then become Guardsman, with a rank of Guardsmen one to five. They would have one chevron for each rank. While officers would have chevrons and then a moon-shaped insignia for each rank. From sergeant, one chevron and one moon. Lieutenant, two chevrons and two moons. The rank captain would have three chevrons and three moons. Also major would have four of each until the rank of colonel, which would have five of each. Then when they reach the highest rank attainable, which will be the Captain General of the Guards, they will have one bronze star.
Now the recruits will also have to learn all of this information while they train from morning to dusk.
They are not yet assigned quarters from the barracks, which means that they are allowed to go home.
They are only accommodated in the barracks when they have passed all stages of the training phase.
Phase one was called Make and Break Phase. Phase two was Mold into Gold phase. And phase three was called Golden Maggots, which was their final test to become a certified guardsmen. Each phase would run two months each, and a break of one week would be provided after every phase.
Make and Break meant that the recruits would be broken from their current civilian mindsets and they would be remade into the standard which the guardsmen uphold. Currently this is where they are at and thus where most are going to be filtered out from the rest.
The second phase, Mold into Gold, is the phase where the recruits would learn more than just the basics and have more advanced learning and combat drills incorporated into them.
The third and final phase, Golden Maggots, is where the recruits are already expected to know their basics to advance. Here more theory, coordination, tactics, and strategies are going to be instilled among them. Although they aren't expected to become officers, at least those who are eager will learn it as early as now.
Currently Brina and her team two in Bretta Platoon are also being put through brutal physical tests. It also includes psychological and emotional tactics where their instructors would scream at them with profanities and everything else that would break them. Why do they do this you ask? Simply say that the world wasn't as conforming to people as they thought it was. Out there, no one would defend them when they are on guard duty, and there will always going to be an asshole among the many, especially nobles.
And the military understood this, so as early as now they wanted to know who would endure such brutalities of reality. And yes, the physical tests are just as important because how could they perform their duties as both spear and shield of the town if they couldn't even endure standing up for hours on end with little to no rest. Well, there is rest because they have rotations, but there are times when they don't have any replacements.
And thus the brutal arc for Brina had begun. But unfortunately for them, Brina was a headstrong woman with so much optimism in her veins. She was smiling while doing her best to do awkward exercises her body was not yet used to such as push-ups, sit-ups, and whatnot. She never buckled even with the sweat she was showing. And yes, all of the recruits here are treated the same as the next.
There are also other women here right now, which had a significant number compared to the last time they made such recruitment efforts, which was once every three years or during emergencies like this one. Currently out of the hundred and fifty recruits, fifteen of them are women, and this includes Brina.
This would be her daily life for the next few weeks, and you could say that the commanders are surprised at her tenacity. And even the other women, though it might have stemmed and formed to become some form of competition, but they managed to hold on even with the struggle.
The first day was the hardest. Not because the exercises were impossible, but because Brina's body wasn't used to this kind of sustained physical activity. Sure, she'd worked in the fields and hauled produce at the market, but this was different. This was relentless.
"DOWN! UP! DOWN! UP!" the instructor screamed at them as they did push-ups in the dirt. "You call that a push-up?! My grandmother can do better than that, and she's been dead for ten years!"
Brina's arms were shaking, but she kept going. Down. Up. Down. Up. She could hear some of the other recruits grunting and groaning beside her. One man to her left collapsed face-first into the dirt.
"GET UP RECRUIT!" the instructor yelled at him. "No one told you to stop!"
The man struggled back up and continued, though his form was terrible now.
Brina focused on her own movements. She couldn't worry about anyone else. She just had to keep going. One more. Just one more. And then another one after that.
After what felt like an eternity, the instructor finally called for them to stop. "On your feet! NOW!"
They all scrambled to stand, though many were wobbling. Brina's arms felt like jelly, but she stood as straight as she could.
"Pathetic," the instructor said, walking up and down the line. He was a grizzled man with scars on his face and arms. His name was Sergeant Vorik, and he seemed to take pleasure in making them suffer. "Absolutely pathetic. Half of you won't make it past the first week. The other half won't make it past the second."
He stopped in front of one of the women, a tall girl with blonde hair. "You. What's your name?"
"Elena, sir," she replied, her voice shaking slightly.
"Elena what?"
"Just Elena, sir."
"Well then, Just Elena, why are you here?"
"To become a guardswoman, sir."
Sergeant Vorik laughed. "A guardswoman? You? Look at you. You're shaking like a leaf. How are you going to protect anyone when you can't even stand still?"
Elena's face flushed red, but she didn't respond.
"I asked you a question, recruit!"
"I... I'll get stronger, sir."
"You'll get stronger," Vorik repeated mockingly. "Everyone says that. But words don't mean anything here. Only action. Only results." He moved on down the line.
He stopped in front of Brina next. She met his eyes, still wearing that slight smile she couldn't seem to shake even when exhausted.
"You think this is funny, recruit?"
"No, sir."
"Then why are you smiling?"
Brina thought about it for a moment. "I'm happy to be here, sir."
Vorik stared at her like she'd grown a second head. "Happy? You're happy? We just ran you into the ground for two hours straight and you're happy?"
"Yes, sir. I wanted to join the guard, and now I'm here. So I'm happy, sir."
For a moment, Vorik didn't say anything. Then he shook his head and moved on. "Crazy girl," he muttered under his breath.
The rest of the day continued in much the same way. Running laps around the training ground. Carrying heavy sacks of sand from one end to the other. More push-ups. Sit-ups. Squats. Drills with wooden practice swords that made Brina's hands blister.
By the time they were dismissed for the day, Brina could barely walk. Her entire body ached in ways she didn't know were possible. But she'd made it through the first day.
As she limped toward the gate, one of the other women recruits caught up with her. It was Elena, the blonde girl Vorik had singled out earlier.
"Hey," Elena said. "You're Brina, right? I heard the instructor say your name."
"Yeah, that's me."
"I just wanted to say... Thanks for what you did back there. When Vorik was yelling at me, I was about to break down. But then I saw you still smiling and it helped me hold on."
Brina smiled again, though she was tired now. "I'm glad. We have to stick together, right? All of us women."
Elena nodded. "Yeah. There's a few of us trying to meet up after training sometimes. Just to support each other, you know? Would you like to join us?"
"Sure, I'd like that."
They exchanged a few more words before parting ways. Brina dragged herself home, where Ren was waiting with food already prepared.
"How was it?" he asked, taking one look at her exhausted state.
"Brutal," Brina admitted, collapsing onto the bed. "But I made it through. Day one down."
"I'm proud of you, sister."
"Thanks, brother. How was your day?"
"I talked to auntie Marta about apprenticing with a merchant. She knows someone who might be willing to take me on. I'm meeting with him tomorrow."
"That's great!" Brina said, genuinely happy for him despite her exhaustion.
They talked for a while longer before Brina fell asleep mid-sentence, still in her training clothes. Ren covered her with a blanket and let her rest.
The next morning, Brina woke up so sore she could barely move. Every muscle in her body screamed in protest. But she got up anyway, washed her face, and headed back to the training grounds.
Day two was just as hard as day one. Maybe harder, because now she was starting from a place of pain and exhaustion instead of fresh energy.
But she kept smiling. She kept pushing. And slowly, day by day, she started to get stronger.
By the end of the first week, several recruits had already quit. The hundred and fifty had dwindled to a hundred and thirty. But Brina was still there, still smiling, still determined to make it through.
And the instructors were starting to notice.