Our Family Has Fallen

After finishing, everyone sat down to chat. Lance started telling them some interesting stories that happened in Hamlet, and everyone joined in the laughter and conversation.

He also mentioned those soldiers who stood out in the battles, with bravery, determination, fearlessness, and the human virtues of inspiration and focus shining brightly on them.

But then Lance would turn to talk about the brutality of war, and although they might not understand the feudal, bureaucratic, and church upper structures, it was enough to bring up the suffering of ordinary people.

They felt this deeply, with some soldiers empathizing, recounting stories of what happened to them, which resonated with everyone.

Suffering is not worth praising, nor is slaughter worth advocating.

Lance said that this was more about ideological construction, explaining what can and cannot be done and why things should be done this way.

The army is a violent institution, and needs the right ideology to guide it; otherwise, if it loses control, it would truly be worse than bandits.

An army with fighting power may not necessarily have ideals, but an ideal-driven army has its combat power fully maximized; sometimes, will truly can surpass the limits.

They are Lance’s last weapon, absolutely not allowed to lose control.

After coming out of the training camp, Lance’s expression shifted from previous worries; he saw the future of Hamlet in those new recruits.

The Corrupting Wind that swept over Hamlet couldn’t corrupt their passionate and pure hearts.

But one must still inspect, so Lance visited other camps for review.

Soldiers lost in recent continuous battles have been replenished, and after experiencing the baptism of warfare, their state has become more elite.

Especially the cavalry, having clashed head-on with Bastia’s Order of Knights; basically, they’ve ”died” once, and after coming back, there was an apparent difference compared to before.

A quality difficult to put into words, a bravery bold enough to charge at anything.

Lance already gained confidence in the next actions...

Then, the Lord’s figure appeared in the school, and compared to before, there were a lot more children here.

Most of these new students had lost their parents among the refugees, generally being ten and above, because if younger they wouldn’t be able to reach Hamlet.

It could be said that coming here was already a stroke of luck, and even more so because Lance accepted them, providing clothes, food, shelter, and even education.

They were directly placed in the school, receiving a cultural transformation of Hamlet’s traits starting from literacy.

Lance thought it simple: just a year or two, and he’d have a group of knowledgeable youths; wouldn’t self-cultivation be more reassuring than people from outside?

Certainly, this posed a significant challenge to the school’s capacity and management skills, but some talents from the cities were found among the refugees.

Lance even allocated the cleared cemetery space in front of the church to the school for building new dormitories and teaching buildings, simultaneously erasing any trace of the Church.

Building schools on cemeteries, this was somewhat traditional.

And with Lance’s daily propaganda, no one minded this; now, Hamlet’s people’s thinking, compared to the entire Empire, was relatively advanced in the whole world.

Lance wandered around the school, then communicated with some students, especially those he paid attention to with Extraordinary Talents, brushing up his presence.

”The homework is so difficult~” Mary pouted, seeming a bit aggrieved, but her gaze secretly glanced at her brother beside her.

Lance saw her expression and chimed in, ”Is it that if you don’t finish your homework, your brother won’t let you play?”

”Exactly!” Mary’s face suddenly changed, nodding furiously to Lance, showing no sign of previous gloom.

Lance couldn’t help but laugh seeing her like that; learning to report at such a young age, eh?

And seeing his sister talking bad about him to the Lord, Tom was a bit anxious, quickly opened his mouth to retort.

”Who told you to never learn, idiot!”

”Brother is the idiot!” Mary also got anxious, turned her head, ”Hmph! Not talking to you anymore.”

Lance could immediately tell that it must be the brother teaching the sister and getting impatient as she couldn’t grasp her homework; their relationship crumbling in the face of assignments.

Indeed, homework is quite evil, and as Lance set the assignments, he’s even more the ”devil.”

”Alright~” Lance gently intervened between them, comforting Tom, ”Your sister is still young; not understanding some things is normal, we need patience.”

The sister felt quite pleased hearing this, but Lance also turned to her and said.

”But homework needs to be done, don’t rush on things you don’t understand...”

Lance learned about Tom, a diligent learner, not wasting this rare opportunity; his performance in school was quite good.

However, Mary’s age was just at that troublesome stage, having some quirky character was normal.

But one can’t simply give up; Lance knew better than anyone the consequences of indulgence, spending practically his past life paying for his choices...

In the principal’s office, Lance learned about the school situation during this period, praising with a remark.

”Mrs. Rosa, you’ve done very well!”

”It’s my duty; it’s you who gave these children a home.”