Country of Eruchea:-

The new year celebrations had gone splendidly.

The firecrackers were a hit amongst the crowd.

But Harry had planned to not allow their sales for now.

The production was low and the danger was high.

He couldn’t let his citizens be harmed because some kid shot a stray rocket and set fire to someone’s house.

That’s why this will have to wait another year.

In that time, they would be only available if the person took prior permissions from Harry.

But they would still be used in official events and stuff. Just not by the general public.

Harry looked at the ever-growing stack of papers on his desk as he reminisced about the events from a few days ago.

Since all those nobles had boycotted the country, his job had become even more stressful.

‘I really, really need some sort of proper governmental structure in this country!

Otherwise, all this work will kill me!’

Harry started lamenting about all the work that he had to do.

The only good thing that he could see was that the old animal hide parchments were almost completely phased out and were replaced by plant-based paper.

And just as he was crying about the country being one huge black company, he remembered one very important detail.

“Dang!

I totally forgot about the military exams with all those missions and stuff that were going on!

I’ve been forcing one guy to manage almost 5000 people on his own!”

Harry had planned to take examinations for the military rankings long back.

He was just waiting for the soldiers to get a bit stronger.

That’s why, he had added several other things to their daily routine, like hand-to-hand combat and mountain climbing among various other things.

But because of that sub-mission that Harry had received from the system, his initial plans had flown out of the window and replaced by the mission’s details.

And after nearly seven months of overworking his General, Harry had finally remembered about it.

“Government structuring can wait!

I first need to help that guy before he ends up committing suicide from all that pressure!”

No wonder George had applied for the special training from Harry.

If that guy didn’t put a hundred times more effort than the others, his heart would have collapsed from the pressure of managing the entire army alone, while his king ran around making steam engines.

“I’ll just make it into a surprise exam sort of thing!

Maybe this might help to hide my forgetfulness!”, Harry said to himself as he ran to his butler.

“Stephen! Can you clear my schedule for the next couple of days?”

“The next few days, milord?

Forgive me, but I don’t think that it would be advisable to postpone so much work…”

“Right! I’m already dying from overwork and if I pile up more work, I’ll ascend straight to heaven!

But still, can you at least clear up tomorrow?”

“Yes, your majesty.

One day is a lot more doable for both me and you.”

Harry’s original plan was to do the exam over the next couple of days but it seemed that that would need changes.

“Right!

I’ll be there the first day to explain everything and start it off and Qing and Shin can take over from the second day onwards!

Stephen, also make preparations for an announcement for the military barracks.

I have some events planned for the soldiers over the next couple of days.”

Stephen nodded.

“Anything else, milord?”

“Oh, and ask General George to meet me this evening.

I need to have a discussion with him regarding the proceedings of the next few days.”, Harry added on.

“As you wish, your majesty.”

With this, the butler took his leave.

Next, Harry went over to inform Qing and Shin about the meeting that he had planned in the evening.

Since Jeanette wasn’t half as knowledgeable about military matters, Harry decided to leave her out.

She would probably only participate in the future after he can teach her about such matters. Otherwise, who would look after this country when Harry was out on missions and some dumb creature decided that Eruchea looks weak.

She needed to know how to make this country function normally if Harry isn’t around.

And knowing her thirst for knowledge, all Harry had to do was take some time out to be with her. (Which looked pretty impossible at the moment with the mountain of tasks that he hadn’t even touched.)

‘And speaking of the mountain of tasks, I should probably get back to doing that!’

Harry rushed back to work.

He had been a very lazy person back on Earth.

The guy used to find almost anything more interesting than doing the work that was assigned to him.

He was the guy who’d rather watch paint dry or even those useless “How to close a door” type YouTube videos than do whatever task was assigned to him.

But ever since he came around to this country, he was beaten into shape, brutally.

His choices were to either work his a*s off or to have his country collapse and/or have a part of his soul ripped out.

That’s why he was always forced to suck it up and pick option 1.

What other choice did he have?

So, Harry, as usual, kept going through all the reports and stuff on his desk until lunchtime.

And when he got back to work, he made some basic drafts of the layout of the military exam pattern and the announcement for the soldiers.

The final versions would come after the discussion with everyone.

Once Harry finished with this, he only had to wait a few more minutes before he heard a knock on the door followed by a voice.

“Your majesty, General George is here.”

Stephen informed him from behind the door.

“Ah, please direct him to my study.

I’ll just be there in a moment.”

Harry quickly put down his quill, covered his inkpot and rushed out to get Qing and Shin.

The two seemed dressed and ready for the meeting.

Harry had already changed into some presentable clothes after lunch.

So, the three of them proceeded towards his study to meet with George.

Harry could have held the meeting in some other place, like the throne room that he visited once in three blue moons.

But he figured that he could be informal enough with George to invite him to his private study.

And when they walk in, Harry was greeted by a saluting military officer.

George looked like he was some pro wrestler from his body structure.

And one could tell from his eyes that he was ruthless to both his enemies and teammate alike.

‘Bunch of specially tailored training along with doping by the system.

And in less than a year, a scrawny kid turned into a buff war veteran.’

“No need to be so formal.

We’re literally in my private study!

You can just relax here…”

George had stood up in a salute the moment he saw Harry opening the door.

But when he heard Harry telling him to relax, he immediately stopped and sat down comfortably.

“This is just standard military protocol that you only set, your majesty.

Always salute your seniors when you meet them.”, said George, still sounding a bit like a private addressing the army general.

“Well, in that case, I order you to behave informally when we’re in this sort of a situation.

All these military-style talks come when we’re surrounded by your juniors and stuff.”

“SIR, YE- I mean, I understand, your majesty.”

George almost replied in the standard military way before quickly calming himself down.

But even then, some amount of formalness remained in his speech.

He couldn’t exactly start treating his king as some random dude on the street, could he?

“Okay, that’s good enough.

Now, I have called you here for an important meeting and these two will also be taking part in it.”, said Harry while pointing towards the pair behind himself.

“I understand”

This was followed by a quick reply from George.

Once everyone sat down, the meeting finally began.

“So, the thing is that I have planned for a surprise military examination starting tomorrow.

I know that it was supposed to happen much earlier but I was too busy with other things to remember.”, said Harry as he started telling the other three about his plans.

“Oh, no, no, your majesty.

No need to apologise!

It’s only because of you that so many things have improved throughout the country.

So what if the little task of a military exam slipped out of your mind in the middle of doing all that?”

George tried to brush the matter aside.

“Well, it is a big deal!

I left you alone to handle like 5000 men!

I’m running a country, not some black company, okay?

And also, you shouldn’t try to brush such matters aside.

Everyone makes mistakes and others must point out those mistakes to make them make amends.

If and when someone makes a mistake, don’t try to brush it aside like you just did.

Make them own up to it, doesn’t matter if the other guy is some ruler, some immortal god or even me!

You see a guy making a mistake, point him out. You have my permission to do so.”

Harry felt that it was necessary to get rid of this sort of honeying others.

“I understand”

This was met with yet another standard reply from George.

“All right!

Coming back to the matter on hand, I have prepared some rough drafts about the schedule of the examination and would like to hear your inputs before we finalise everything.”, said Harry as he pulled out the sheets of paper with the drafts he had made earlier in his office.

He gave a few minutes to each person to go through everything on the papers before continuing.

“So, what do you guys think?”

“Elder brother, these plans are for the next few days, right?

Are you really that free right now?

I mean, you usually spend your time either running around or sitting in your office these days…”

“Of course not!

I only got tomorrow off for this event!

That’s why I got you two along for the meeting.

I’ll just be there for tomorrow and then you two need to manage stuff, okay?”

The Long siblings nodded at Harry’s words.

They usually had a lot of free time every day and this would be a good use for all that time.

“Your majesty, do I also have to take part in this exam?”, asked George.

“Um, I mean, if you really want to…

But you don’t really have to take part in it right now.

I’d prefer it if you were part of the judging group for this exam.

Like, you’re the senior-most officer and I have personally trained you to be fit enough for your post.

This is mainly for all your juniors to get their proper rankings in the army.”

Harry’s words were met by a quick nod.

George decided on being an examiner for this exam instead of an examinee.

And now, it was Shin’s turn for the questioning.

“Um, Harry, what’s with this mountain thing?”

“Oh, that!

That’s for evaluating how good they are at strategising, infiltrating and teamwork.

They will need to form teams and set up temporary bases in the Kunsan mountain range that’s beside our country and defend their bases while trying to take down their enemies.”

“So, it’s like that capture the flag game you told us about!”, Qing asked excitedly.

Harry had told them about many of the games from back on Earth during their stay in the forest and capture the flag was just one of them.

“Close, but no cigar.

It’s more like tag actually.

As you guys can see on the papers, everyone is supposed to wear bands that they’re supposed to protect and collect.

So, it’s more like if you can get the bands from a person, they will be out of the match.

There isn’t much of a ‘flag’ in this.”

“Okay, so there’s this mountain survival ‘tag’ thing, and then there’s a hand-to-hand combat followed by a sword fight and a written exam?”, asked George as he went through the list of events.

“Yes, but the entire hand-to-hand combat thing is supposed to happen during the mountain part only. It’s not a separate test.”, replied Harry.

Just then, there was a knock on the door and Stephen came in.

“Your majesty, the chemists have sent a message stating that something called ‘smokeless powder’ or something has been successfully mass-produced.”

Smokeless powder, aka, the stuff that bullets use.

This meant that Harry could finally begin making good-old firearms!

No more metal swords. (Though Harry did plan on making those iconic lightsabers from Star Wars in the future if possible.)

“Oh really!? That’s great news!

Thanks for informing me, Stephen.”

Stephen gave a quick bow before leaving the room.

Everyone looked at Harry’s reaction with confused expressions on their faces.

“What’s this ‘smokeless powder’ thing, your majesty?”, asked George.

“Is it like some beauty product or something?”, added Qing.

“What? Beauty product? Hell no!

That stuff’s the opposite of cosmetics!

It’s actually for military purposes.

Do you two remember my old guns?”, Harry asked Qing and Shin.

“Guns?

Oh, you mean those metal stick things?

Yeah! But I haven’t seen those recently.”, said Shin.

“Yup, the bullets I shot out of those guns used this powder as a propellant.

So, since it’s been successfully made, we can say goodbye to swords very quickly!”

Qing and Shin looked quite excited by this news.

They had seen Harry in action with his guns and they knew just how strong their country would become once guns were made.

George, on the other hand, looked very confused.

Guns?

Bullets?

Propellant?

Saying goodbye to swords?

What was his majesty saying?

Looking at his expression, Harry decided to keep the topic aside for the moment.

“Oh, right.

Um, you don’t know about this stuff right now.

But don’t waste time on this stuff.

Just focus on the exam for now and tell me what do you think of my plans.”

“Uh, okay…

Um, your plans for the exam sound perfect, your majesty!”, George replied.

“Okay, good!

That’s one yes.

What about you two?”

Qing and Shin nodded.

“Okay, so this schedule is final!

I’ll just finalise these and we’ll inform the soldiers about it!”

With this, the meeting was over and it was time to prepare for the military examination.