Oh My, I Messed Up the Story

Chapter 173: Training

Abby ignored all of the political talk and focused on making sure Adam was eating his carrots. He really didn't like them.

"If you finish all of them I'll give you some fruit snacks after," she whispered conspiratorially. Adam ate his carrots with gusto after that.

Fruit snacks were one of the things she and Sia had worked on creating together. They weren't as sugary as the ones back home since they were made with real pureed fruits and vegetables but they were a novelty here, kind of like marshmallows because of the gelatin.

One day Abby had desperately wanted a fruit-by-the-foot but they didn't exist here. They created a type of fruit leather that wasn't terribly similar to the highly processed taste she loved but it got her wondering what else they could make. Thus fruit snacks shaped like tiny circles were born.

An entire project spanning the better part of two months began after that. Sia's family handled the bakery while she and Abby were holed up in the kitchen at her house trying to recreate things from memory and limited knowledge.

She did this because she missed foods from home, not expecting anything else to come of it. The cookbook had been a surprise but it also brought a lot more money into the village that allowed them to build the inn faster than they would have otherwise. The props and costumes at the theater became slightly better too.

The Kanta were doing very well for themselves considering there were only about two hundred adults and teenagers between the two villages. Everyone else was too young to contribute much to the economy or infrastructure.

But that was why Abby had founded the school; she wanted those kids to have more tools to help them help their homeland when they got a bit older. The first of those children had already "graduated" and moved to the workforce when classes ended for the summer.

There were about four of them and they had already proved to be fairly innovative at their apprenticeships.

One worked at the printing office and wanted to write a novel for older children in addition to making picture books. Another worked under a stonemason and had already worked together with his mentor to discover a more efficient way to use this world's version of cement.

All in all, she considered the limited education she was able to offer the Kanta children a success. She wanted to tell Blaise about it but wasn't sure how long he would be stuck in his camp. With any luck it would only be a few days.

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Blaise and the other Warriors hadn't been allowed to leave the camp for two weeks and he was seriously considering sneaking out to meet Abby and simply accepting the punishment at this point. She was so close yet felt even further away than she had when he was in Shibatsu.

Training began a few days after they arrived once there was time to set up a schedule.

This year they would go through basic training for the men of Ilmir and next summer they would move their camp close to Raisha to do the same thing. The last year of their mission would involve more specialized training, splitting the time between each village.

Alamar and Carrick hoped that by the time they finished up here there would be enough young men coming of age to begin specific military apprenticeships. Those who had already been through the program could mentor them and the Kanta military would slowly be able to build up from there.

By the time King Franz no longer sat on the throne (he was still young and healthy, barring any unforeseen accidents), the Kanta would no longer need the promise of his troops protecting their borders from invaders. That was the plan anyway.

Every day, thirty to forty males from ages twelve to forty-five came in one of three rotating shifts so they could still get their other jobs done. All of the adolescents came in the first group of the day and Blaise wondered why that was.

When he asked, the boy who had been talking to Abby the day they arrived looked at him like he was stupid. "Because we don't want to miss play practice. Almost all of us have rehearsals right after lunch and still have work to do before and after it."

Play practice? Was that what she had been doing on that stage with all of those children?

It appeared that she had been quite busy while he was gone. She had gone from a stranger to someone highly respected in the clan. Lian wasn't the only one who thought the world of Abby. He frequently heard other boys whispering about her when the thought the commander couldn't hear them.

"I wish Abby could see this; she would be so proud of us."

"Maybe we could use what we learn here in one of our plays! Do you think she would like that?"

"I wish I had known how to use a sword for real while doing Lord of the Rings. I was Aragorn and I had no idea what I was doing waving that stick around."

"When we get out of here let's stop by the bakery. We can bring Abby those doughnuts she likes so much and tell her all about it."

These boys obviously spent a lot of time with her and thought the world of her for it. Blaise really shouldn't have been jealous because some of them were ten years younger than she was but not all of them. There were at least a handful of sixteen to eighteen year olds who could feasibly be considered suitors even though she was now twenty-four.

Men married women that many years younger than them all the time. It wasn't completely unheard of for the reverse to happen as well though it was much less common.