Chapter 318: Jaraht, the Classless General
In a large path of land just outside the town, a large camp had been set up with various tents and a fire roaring in the center of the campsite. The campsite was filled with fifteen soldiers wearing the black and red uniform of the Radgan Royal Army, and they were all moving around in groups or sitting around the campsite and laughing while enjoying the heat from the flames. There were fifteen dragons lying on the grass around the campsite or walking through the town to look for any livestock to eat, and about a hundred meters away from the campsite was a large Yellow Gate that spun slowly as it floated in the air.
These soldiers were Royal Army members who belonged to the Regiments under the General known as Jaraht. Jaraht was an SS Rank General who oversaw twenty members of the Royal Army, and he was a soldier who truly believed that camaraderie and unity were the key components in building a successful army. So when Jaraht heard that one of the soldiers in his regiment had been tasked by the Sovereign to go and retrieve the Princess from Earth, he knew that this was another chance for him to carry out some necessary team building with the members of this Regiment!
Grinot was the soldier that the Sovereign had told to go and bring back the Princess, but Jaraht refused to allow him to go alone! Instead, Jaraht had commanded every single member of his Regiment to go with Grinot to the location where the Dimensional Tear to Earth had opened, and he told them that they would all wait here for Grinot and the other members of Grinot’s regiment to return so that they could go and see the Sovereign together!
Right now, Jaraht was seated on a large stone a few meters away from the rest of his men, and he watched as the men laughed around a campfire and shared stories with each other. He was wearing his black military outfit, but the shirt was open to expose his well-built chest. On his hands, he had a pair of bronze gauntlets that were made from the same Dragonsteel that the other soldiers used for their swords. There was a woman standing at Jaraht’s side with her hands behind her back and a hard look on her face. She had flaming red hair and narrowed black eyes, with scales going down her cheeks and neck just like the other members of the race. This woman was named Runa, and she was one of the Regiment Commanders under Jaraht as well as Jaraht’s direct lieutenant. She was the one who spent the most time with the General in the group, so she could tell at that moment that there was something bothering Jaraht.
Jaraht sighed as he spoke up while still looking at his men.
"I wonder what they are talking about down there."
Jaraht’s words made Runa look at him curiously and she said,
"It is probably something stupid, sir. They’re likely comparing the size of their dragon fire. Or they’re talking about how big a woman’s behind can be before it is considered too big."
Runa frowned when she said that second part. She had actually caught the men talking about that once before, and she had to leave after it got too childish for her to listen. Jaraht grunted at his subordinate’s words, and he said,
"I want to join them."
Runa immediately narrowed her eyes when she saw Jaraht standing up, and she put her hand on Jaraht’s shoulder while saying,
"General... I’ll have to say no."
Jaraht frowned in annoyance once he heard Runa calling him by his title! It was only whenever Runa was very serious that she would start calling him by that title! This woman and her bullshit rules! What do you mean it’s not proper?
"I am their superior, and I want to bond with them. What’s so improper about that?"
"Sir, the last time you tried to ’bond’ with your men, you ended up intoxicating all of our dragons by feeding them concentrated Firerum. They then went on to cause a hundred thousand Gold Coins’ worth of damage to the central city and killed twenty civilians! You slashed our Regiment budget by half in one night, and you even received a warning from the Sovereign! If anything happens this time, the Sovereign won’t let us go!"
Jaraht’s excitement suddenly fell once he heard about the Sovereign, and he sat back down and put his elbows on his thighs while resting his chin on his folded fingers. Yes, that had been a pretty bad day, all things considered. The damages weren’t even the main problem since they could pay for that, but the civilians who were killed were members of high society, so some members of Jaraht’s regiment had to serve some time in prison for their actions. But the worst part of it was the fact that Jaraht himself hardly remembered that night. He had been drinking at an even faster pace than the dragons, so they had all gotten drunk together.
"But you have to admit, it was a good night. Who knew dragons could get drunk so easily?"
"Sir, that was something no one should’ve ever tried to find out. I still have nightmares from when we tried to rein in one of the drunk dragons. It almost killed us."
Jaraht chuckled roughly from the memory, and Runa just sighed tiredly. Runa knew that on paper her job was to lead a small Regiment of Jaraht’s soldiers and also to help Jaraht in his day-to-day activities, but in truth, that was all nonsense! Ninety percent of Runa’s job was simply to make sure that Jaraht and the rest of the men didn’t do anything stupid that would destroy their Regiment! Jaraht was a General who truly enjoyed spending time with his subordinates, and he was the sort of man who believed in camaraderie completely! And even though Runa also thought that camaraderie was a good thing, Jaraht just took it too far! Jaraht was a troublemaker who would rather spend time setting fire to the tails of sleeping wyverns than actually leading his Regiment! He was a free-spirited man who would happily throw away all his responsibilities in a heartbeat so he could have a good time in the club! And if not for the fact that Jaraht was so powerful, then Runa was sure that he would have ended up in jail a long time ago!
The soldiers in the Royal Army saw Jaraht as the "classless General" because of how different he was from all the other Generals who made sure to maintain their composure and regality in every situation! If Runa knew that this was how difficult it was to handle Jaraht on a daily basis, then she would have joined another Regiment during the recruitment! But if Runa leaves Jaraht alone now, she is sure that the whole of Radagan would fall in less than a day!
Jaraht turned to look at the Yellow Gate, and he narrowed his eyes as he said,
"How much longer are they going to take? Weren’t they going to some backwater Rank II world? They should be back already."
Runa nodded to the General’s words. It was true that no Rank II world should be capable of putting up a fight against Grinot and his men.
"Maybe the Princess gained allies in that world. They could be fighting to help her."
"Then Grinot should have just killed all of them and brought her back in chains. I’ve grown tired of sitting here. Go down and prepare the men to enter the Gate with me."