Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

Antonio opened a bottle of wine, but Winters, having witnessed Major Moritz's situation, avoided alcohol as if it were the plague and stuck to water instead.

Winters carefully reflected on the lieutenant colonel's performance during the meeting today and said, "Actually, I might not make it, Lieutenant Colonel Field was very popular today, and I expect there will be quite a few people applying to his command."

"Do you want to go?" Antonio asked his nephew casually after taking a sip of wine.

Winters nodded vigorously, "Of course, I do."

"Then go for it, it'll be good for some training," Antonio said in a relaxed tone.

Winters' eyes lit up; he understood his uncle's meaning and got a little greedy, "I also have a friend from the cavalry who's applied to go to Lieutenant Colonel Field's, uncle, could you possibly..."

Antonio didn't mind at all, smiling as he said, "Then he should go with you. What's your friend's name?"

"Bard, Gerard's Bard."

Aunt Kosha came out with a basket of cut bread and, seeing the two men in the house drinking and chatting, slapped her brother on the back with an air of indignation, "You two sure have it easy, starting to drink before even setting the table, come and help out."

Antonio and Winters were herded toward the kitchen by Kosha. Antonio seemed to remember something and cocked his head to ask his nephew, "You do know what department that kid Field is in charge of, right?"

"Something with an M, I didn't quite catch it; Lieutenant Colonel Field didn't mention it himself." Winters felt too embarrassed to admit to his uncle that he had almost fallen asleep at the time.

"Haha," Antonio laughed, patting his nephew on the shoulder, "It's MP, Military Police."

"What? Military Police?" Winters was certainly familiar with Military Police; weren't they just the military school inspectors? Hardly a popular role.

"Dad, you take this, and brother, you take this." Elizabeth assigned tasks to the two men before rushing off to attend to something else.

Antonio and Winters each carried a deep iron pot, one filled with stewing meat and the other with soup. The aroma of the stewed meat was appetizing, but Winters' mind wasn't on it at all, "Lieutenant Colonel Field is in charge of Military Police?"

"To be precise, Field is just the head of the Military Police department at Vineta Army's headquarters," Antonio carefully explained to his nephew, "The soldiers of a Standing Army regiment are managed by their Military Police unit; any army personnel who commit offenses in Sea Blue City come under the jurisdiction of the garrison command's Military Police unit; the Military Police department that Field oversees is an empty establishment set up just for that thorn in their side. It has a very narrow jurisdiction and practically doesn't manage anything."

After explaining these intricacies unknown to outsiders, Antonio asked his nephew, "So, do you still want to go to Field's now?"

"I do," Winters affirmed with a nod.

"Oh?" Antonio seemed puzzled.

"Lieutenant Colonel Field is a very capable spellcaster, and I want to learn magic techniques from him."

"Then go for it, go and learn, that will be good," Antonio nodded, his attitude still relaxed, "Although Field has never worked under me, the fact that Zio has been driven half mad by him a few times and still couldn't bear to send him overseas, setting up a sinecure just to keep him at the headquarters, shows that the man must be capable of something."

With the food all set on the table, the four people took their seats again. Kosha, clearly delighted, began the prayer before the meal, and the four joined hands to form a circle as Kosha began chanting.

All spellcasters in the Gulf Alliance are atheists, firmly believing that their abilities come from knowledge and training, not from the grace of any existing deity.

Winters was naturally no believer; he just played along with Kosha not to hurt her feelings. However, he had his own convictions—never to recite the prayers, remaining silent every time.

Winters was now preoccupied with thoughts of his internship; as soon as the pre-meal prayer was over, he couldn't wait to ask his uncle, "I don't understand why the internship places are all in governmental units? Why aren't we allowed to intern with the real army?"

"Because there aren't that many armies," Antonio said.

"What?"

Antonio patiently explained: "Where are there so many troops for you to intern with? Otherwise, why would you be thrown into governmental units? These days, most officers work in governmental units, and not many actually lead troops. There are three regimental numbers in Vineta, two of which are Standing Armies; each Standing Army also only maintains half of its troop strength in peacetime, namely one chief company plus four companies."

Winters was astonished by Antonio's words. According to his uncle, the entire Vineta Republic, in theory, had three regiments, but only two were Standing Armies, and the actual force was just a little over one regiment, more than five thousand men.

After the Sovereignty War ended and Richard IV withdrew his troops, scholars began seeking answers from ancient texts to the question "What to do without an emperor?"

Finally, they found the answer they wanted: In ancient times, the people of Muro had also overthrown their king and established the kingless Muro Republic, which thrived for hundreds of years.

"So, we are not the first to do this," the scholars breathed a sigh of relief.

Since history had an example of success without an emperor, it meant having no emperor was no big deal.

Thus, from then on, the Senas Bay Alliance feverishly imitated the Muro Republic in all aspects, from politics and military to even artistic works, fully reviving the Ancient Empire.