Chapter Five
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Chapter Five

A/N: Hello! This is chapter five of my story! I originally had a whole different plot for this chapter, but I changed it at the last moment. I was about to write about Cadmar learning Krav Maga, but I changed it to make more plot to the story in its entirety. I believe that the NEXT chapter is going to have Krav Maga in it. I will also be adding some magic into the moves. Krav Maga is dangerous, just so you know. From grabbing a person's face to ( if you're a male) grabbing their family jewels, Krav Maga has it all! Painful, I know. Anyways, let's get started with the chapter, shall we?

Finally, it was the day. Today was the day I had been waiting for, for a couple of days. Today was Saturday, and Feeh and I had seen my talent on Wednesday. At that time, he had also told me that he was going to teach me martial arts. The martial art’s name was Krav Maga. Aside from knowing that it was a martial art, I didn’t know much about it. 

Feeh then told me to take a rest for 2 days. Then, he would teach me Krav Maga. I had been so excited that it felt as if each day was a thousand years long. I had a lot of time on my hands, as I only had to do a bit of chores and some cooking. Nothing else. 

Because of that, I went into the library in our home and started reading. I’ve got to tell you, the library is BIG! There are over a hundred million books in there— I counted. I did that because Feeh was teaching me maths, and we were learning about numbers. I counted up to nine hundred thousand, five hundred seventy-five thousand books. It took me eleven days and thirteen hours to count up to this. 

Eventually, I stopped, but there were STILL a lot of books! It looked as if I barely counted to 1/100 of the entire amount of books……..

I asked how many books there were in the library to Feeh, and he casually said that there were about 100 million books……… He’s crazy. 

I know most of my common sense from the books in the library. The topics range from what the best and most efficient war formation is, to the perfect type of underwear that you should wear during war. Quite a weird selection of books these are, but they’re still pretty helpful. 

If it wasn’t for these books, I wouldn't know that a hundred million books was too many books.  Nor would I know that most people live in cities out in the suburbs. I also wouldn’t know about the kingdoms in Malbix. 

And also, the books are very updated, or so Feeh says. I believe him though, because he goes out of our dwelling every few years and checks up on the continent. I don’t know why Feeh checks up on the continent, because even if he does check up on it, how can he influence the continent? Ehh, I don’t really care, though.  

As I go to the back of the library, I feel just a bit worn out. Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you, but the library is very large. As in length and width, and not just in the volume of books. The library is probably 300 yards long. It is also about 500 yards in width and the height is a few hundred feet. So, you may be asking, how does it fit in the hut? Isn’t a hut a small home?

Well, truthfully, our home is small. At least, the hut is way smaller than the library. The reason that the library can fit inside the hut is because of a sub-division of Darkness Magic. The sub-division is called Space-time Magic.

Space-time Magic is a magic that can control the space around us. The Void, or the place where nothing exists, can be changed and altered using this magic. The library is built inside of a space in the Void which has a gate in the hut( the door to the library) that is linking it to it. 

So basically, there is a whole new dimension inside of our hut that accommodates the humongous library. Going inside of the library through the library’s door leads to the new dimension while going outside the library through it’s door leads us back to our world’s dimension.  

The realm inside of the library’s Void space is technically limitless, so Feeh could’ve easily built a whole new world there. However, Feeh says that there is no use to it. I don’t know the reason for that, but I’m guessing it is something important.
…………..

I sat down on the chair that was next to the table. These pieces of furniture were located all around the library. The same old reddish-brown table and chair set was located all around the library. If you think about it, there were only 3 types of furniture inside of the library: the bookshelves, the chairs, and the tables. All of which were reddish-brown. Yeah, there isn’t much decor. 

The books in the library are a bit artistic with some colors, but that doesn’t help to add more colors into the reddish-brown themed library, since the bookshelves themselves are very large. Each one is 90 yards tall and has a length about 60 yards. The width isn’t that big, only being able to fit one book in one column.(A/N: Kinda like this: [ l l l l l l l l l ]. There is basically no depth. No book can go behind another book, because of the bookshelves’ width. )

I started to read a book that I’d been recently reading. It was called The Kingdoms Throughout History

Numbering a few thousand pages and holding a few million words, this three foot thick and 10 inch long ( A/N: No perverse thoughts. Stay calm. Calm.) book was being read by me. I had just passed past the chapter that talked about the downfall of the Handria Kingdom. It was said to be caused by a war with the kingdom of Haldygh. The next chapter was about the Haldygh Kingdom, the chapter title declared.

The words that it wrote were: “However, soon Haldygh was also destroyed. The cause was that the toll of the economy from the war was harsh. The peasants were almost penniless, and many were dying of hunger or dehydration. The stingy merchants weren’t a help, because they especially raised their prices during the war to gain profits. 

Now, in this situation the commoners should be turning to their feudal lords and other nobles. However, the nobles had been a bit rash during the war and had lost a lot of land and money [page 798]. They themselves weren’t any better off than the commoners. 

A feudal lord is nothing without his people and land, and commoners are nothing without the feudal lord who protects and governs over them. The only money that the feudal lord makes is from the taxes he collects from his citizens. Even then, he must give a part of that tax to the royal family.  

Since the commoners couldn’t rely on their feudal lords the feudal lords seeked help, but the question was, who could the feudal lords rely on? The answer was simple: the Royal Family of Haldygh. But you should know by this sequence of events that the Royal Family was also poor after the war. Sure, the Royal Family was richer than the other nobles even after the war, but they were too poor when regarded as a Royal Family.

Before the war, the Royal Family of Haldygh made about 20,000 Jade Coins every year(A/N: I did all the math for you. The Royal Family made about $20,000,000,000,000 or $20 trillion. This was possible because a Jade Coin is worth one billion dollars. Your welcome. ;)) However, after the war, the Royal Family only made about 5,000 Jade Coins every year($5,000,000,000,000 or $5 trillion).

The country of Haldygh was large, but many had died during the war. Many nobles as well as commoners were killed, and even more were injured. The commoners were close to revolting and the disappearance of nobles allowed many areas of the kingdom to become weak points. The situation was a complete mess. The Royal Family first hired mercenaries with the limited amount of money that they had, and it was a pretty good choice to do so as well. 

The reason that it was a good decision was because the countries surrounding Haldygh, (Galganiza[page 600] , Richmond [page 850], and Lancator[page 5,904]) were ready to pounce upon the delicious meal called Haldygh. You couldn’t blame the political leaders for their choice, though. Since the founding of the countries on our continent Malbix, many had to fight for survival. The law of the jungle was(and is) in full force.  

So, why wouldn’t the countries divide up Haldygh to gain new territories? It would have to be split into three parts, but Haldygh was big. Just one third of it would be enough to expand a country’s territory by a humongous amount. The countries were just about to start negotiating with one another and were ready to start a war which would later be called the Demon’s War, but Haldygh’s wise Royal Family stalled some time by getting mercenaries. 

The mercenaries were by no means cheap to get. The budget of 5,000 Jade Coins had been shortened to 4,500 Jade Coins($4,500,000,000,000 or 4 trillion five hundred billion). With the wise usage of money, the kingdom lasted for another year. This wasn’t because the mercenaries were strong and were protecting the country. 

No, this was definitely not the reason. The true reason for why Haldygh hadn’t fallen yet was because of the political battleground. Yes, not the physical battleground, but the political one. The king of Haldygh was a terrifying existence in the political world. 

He proved this by hiring the mercenaries. Most people would think that they were hired to use for the chance of war, but only the most skilled political experts saw what it was actually about. The reason for why the mercenaries were hired was to have a political leeway. 

You see, even if the countries allied and won the waged war, they would need new nobles to govern over the commoners. The commoners already at Haldygh would have to occupy most of the land in the sieged area because the conquering countries couldn’t waste their populace in a place that was new and had a chance to fall apart quickly. 

What would happen if the populace living there rejected the rule of a country? They couldn’t be killed, since there then wouldn’t be anyone to occupy the area of land, and the commoners living in the country that was attacking would also be startled, thinking that might happen to them if they were disobedient. That would cause distrust between the nobles and commoners. The country would soon fall into ruin, because a feudal lord is nothing without his people, and the commoners are nothing without their feudal lord. Then what would happen if the Royal Family didn’t get a percent of the taxes from their feudal lords because the commoners had distrust towards the feudal lord? The commoners might not pay their taxes, but the nobles couldn’t do anything. Maybe after a couple of years of ruling the new territory, the populace would start to trust the feudal lords, but not in just a few weeks or months. 

That would lead to an economic crisis. Then the fate that happened to Haldygh would happen, and most kings wouldn’t be as strategic as the king of Haldygh. The countries wouldn’t even last a month without being split into different parts and ruled by different kingdoms. 

This would all happen if the commoners rejected the rule.  The commoners wouldn’t really care who was ruling the land and territory that they were living in as long as they were treated fairly, and were supported by the Commoner Pact [page 7,890]. 

What do you think would happen if the commoners’ villages and homes were to quickly be taken over by invading soldiers, even though they had mercenaries guarding them and things looked like they would be peaceful for a few more years? Wouldn’t they resent the invaders? Even if in the back of their minds they knew they were being unreasonable, the psychological impact would be too much. 

The thing that was feared by the higher ups of the countries would happen. That is why the countries could only gnash their teeth and wait for Haldygh’s wealth to run out and they couldn’t hire mercenaries anymore. Haldygh’s wealth was slowly being consumed, and everyone knew that. 

Despite the mental pressure directed at them, the Royal Family of Haldygh still held their heads high. The family was known to be great rulers, both politically and militarily. Each person was a general whose name was written down in history books. The king of Haldygh at the time was one of the most known and influential people from their family in history. 

He was known to be unafraid of death and had accepted it. He was a strong soldier and was one that wasn’t afraid of death. People that aren’t afraid of death can be dangerous to their opponents, even the weakest footsoldier. When someone isn’t afraid of death, they can keep fighting even if their stomach was stabbed, or even if their brain was as well. Even if they are burnt by flames and were stabbed by many blades, they will persist to live. 

A child who isn’t afraid of death can be a threat to an experienced knight, so imagine how the king of Haldygh, who is originally a terrifying knight, would be feared by people. It was said that he even took on an entire battalion of knights with just his sword once. He had exhausted his magic power and had nothing but his fighting spirit, but he still defeated the battalion. He was called Haldygh’s God of War. 

When the inevitable happened and Haldygh ran out of money to keep hiring mercenaries, Haldygh’s War God called a meeting at the royal capital, Jargenson. The army was only numbering 7.8 million while the invaders had over 20 million soldiers. More than 19/20 of the army was made up of mercenaries who had a special nature.

For mercenaries, dying like a dead mutt was a common way to die. In their line of work, they were prepared to die at any time, however, it didn’t mean that they didn’t care about their lives. In fact, mercenaries were probably the people who cared the most about their lives. 

To those mercenaries who were supporting their family, their work was work that had to be done to put food on the table for them. With their lives, they could earn money. If they died in a battle or war and couldn’t support their family, then they wouldn’t be able to die in peace. In this fact, mercenaries were no different than regular knights and soldiers.

However, there is a major difference between the people. Mercenaries tended to be the first ones to flee from a losing battle, for to them their lives were more important than others’, and if their side was winning, mercenaries were usually the liveliest of the people in the war. Mercenaries couldn’t be trusted completely, and only a few who were veterans would fight for how much was paid to them, even if it cost their lives. That was the so-called honor that veterans in a job have.

For the Haldygh army that was going to war, it was expected that only a few hundred thousand soldiers would be fighting until the end. The mercenaries were going to run away, everybody knew that.  

Even so, no one cared. That was because all of the people knew it was inevitable that the mercenaries would run away from the moment they were hired. Until that moment where the soldiers had to go to war, they had holed themselves up inside of a dream where the mercenaries would keep fighting with them. Such a sweet dream, but it would never come true.

As the uneasiness that war started spread, the soldiers felt as if death was upon them. The thick scent of war always causes uneasiness, wherever it goes. The morale of the troops was low, and it could be a fatal mistake during the war.

Any side with high morale could go beyond their strengths. The side could show strength surpassing what they truly should have. In a way, an army with high morale was like a watered down version of an army which had soldiers that weren’t afraid of death. An army that wasn’t afraid of death was much stronger than an army with high morale, though. 

However, no one had managed to create an army of soldiers who could look death in its face for over a thousand years. If any country managed to do so, they would undoubtedly become one of the Top Ten Kingdoms. 

It is said that when someone’s life or the life of a loved one is in danger, it brings out that person’s potential to the maximum. This fact held true for the King of Haldygh as well. 

He went to the balcony and watched his army from overhead. Then he gave a speech that went down in history. In his exact words, the King boomed: “Welcome, the warriors of Haldygh! It is I, the King of Haldygh! I must thank you for participating in this war! Remember, if you ever want to give up, you may do so! Run if you want, or even during battle! No one will blame you for that decision! However, I hope that you don’t. Many of you are hoping to become stronger, aren’t you? You want to surpass the boundaries of normal humans, right? It would make your job much easier if you could! What if I told you that I could make that dream come true? 

Should you join my service, I will make you strong enough to each fight against a battalion! It may seem like an impossible task, however, I can make it come true! There are two ways! One, become a person who isn’t afraid of death!

Many of you may have tried to do this long ago and may have failed! I have personal experience in that regard! However, after grasping the true concept of a soldier that isn’t afraid of death, I became one! Listen to my words carefully, those of you who want strength!

A soldier who isn’t afraid of death lives life as if it is death. They do not have to worry about what happens after death, since the soldier has already deemed that he’s died. The soldier will not have to fear anything, for they are already dead! I tried to practice this and I’ve only gotten 60% of the results that should be expected! I’m tied down to my family and kingdom, so I can not live as if I’m completely dead, yet.

However, you! You, those that don’t have anything to tie them down, may practice this to its fullest! This is one way that you can get stronger! Do not be worried! If you have something to protect and things are tying you down, there is another way to get stronger! That solution is….... magic.

I know that it isn’t a common thing that can be found anywhere, but I hired two of the most famous adventurers in Malbix who know magic! They will be teaching you how to use it, and if you don’t have any talent for magic, then you will be given an enchanted item that allows you to temporally use it! The adventurers I hired were the famous Oo Oooooooo (A/N: Pretend the "o"'s are crossed out.?  and her husband Oo Oooo. 

As you may know, these people are relatives of the famous wizard Oo Oooo! He is the guardian of our continent! However, because of this, Oo Oooo can’t fight nor involve himself in too many political matters! However, his family isn’t involved in that!

The husband and wife have gotten tired of war and upcoming wars and want to just bring peace. They had been working on trying to stop the war from behind the scenes, but couldn’t effectively stop the upcoming war! They have decided to openly support us! So let me introduce them!”

That was the end of the speech and the King of Haldygh introduced Ms. Oo Oooooooo and Mr. Oo Oooo. You probably already know about them, so I won’t tell you their tales. With the husband and wife pair, the king of Haldygh had increased his troop’s morale.

Not only that, but he gave the mercenaries who may have fled a temptation. Some people may have also become warriors not afraid of death. This was all right before the full confrontation. 

That way, the troop’s morale would be at an all time high when facing off with the warriors. There would be no doubts. Then we come back to Ms. Oo Oooooooo and Mr. Oo Oooo. They were brought up just right before the battle. The monstrous couple were shown so suddenly that the opposing kingdoms couldn’t prepare, for none of their messengers made it in time. 

If the kingdoms had known, they would have at least tripled their complete army. That was how dangerous the couple were. They were not only skilled in magic, but in basically every other field of work. Expert politicians, adventurers, fighters, soldiers, generals, etc.. But they weren’t even close to the great wizard who was their brother/ brother-in-law.”

That was as far as I got into reading the book before I heard a call from Feeh saying,” Cadmar! Are you in the library? If you are, come on out! I’m going to be teaching you Krav Maga now!”

“I’m here! I’ll be out in just a moment!” I said back at Feeh, using wind magic to make my voice travel through the library to the spot Feeh was. 

“Okay!”

Now, I also have a question for Feeh. Why were the names of the couple and their brother/ brother-in-law crossed out? I’d never seen this before, so this was probably an accident. I’ll ask Feeh about it later. Now, Krav Maga here I come!

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