Steel, gunpowder, and spellcasters

Chapter 10 Enthusiasm for Running a School
Many rules are initially well implemented, but over time they gradually change and become unhealthy.

Just as Field Marshal Ned stipulated when he formulated the "Night Regulations" for the Army Officer Academy, all faculty members, regardless of rank or position, were required to take turns on night duty.

When Field Marshal Ned became the principal of Ned, this rule was implemented literally.

Because Ned Smith set the rule, he would actually bring a small blanket to the instructors' duty room for the night shift.

With him as an example, no one dares to shirk their responsibility.

After Principal Ned stepped down, this rule gradually evolved into the current "rule": those assigned to the night shift are all newly hired, low-ranking, single men living in the staff dormitory.

Not only have the instructors' scheduling rules changed, but the way trainees take night shifts is no longer the original model.

The original plan was for each person to stand guard for four hours, patrol for four hours, and then catch up on four hours of sleep. But somehow it turned into a situation where third-year students could go into the duty room and fall asleep immediately, while the first- and second-year students had to painfully stand guard for six hours and patrol for six hours.

So Winters hated night shifts the most until he was in his third year.

Because one of his greatest hobbies in life is sleeping, he becomes particularly irritable when he is sleep-deprived and develops severe self-destructive tendencies.

So after Winters entered his third year, whenever he was on night duty, he would lie down on the bed in the duty room and fall fast asleep.

He slept soundly because, in his mind, he had already completed all his shifts in the previous two years, and now it was his turn to sleep.

This human psychology is why so many unreasonable rules with obvious bullying connotations can exist and persist in this world.

Because these "bullying systems" all retain an upward mobility channel, a glimmer of hope, promising those who are oppressed: "If you endure the pain now, one day you will be sitting on someone else's head."

The saying goes that as long as a daughter-in-law doesn't die, she'll eventually become a mother-in-law; junior bachelor instructors will eventually get promoted and marry; and junior officer cadets will eventually become senior students.

So everyone had a glimmer of hope, and they gritted their teeth and endured, waiting for the day when they could bully others.

However, they often fail to realize that this "perpetual motion machine of the bullied/bullied" design actually causes everyone to bear more unnecessary suffering.

The torment of working three consecutive night shifts with "eight hours of duty and four hours of sleep" is not as great as working one night shift with "enduring twelve hours of hardship and having to go to class the next day".

A Silk Road sage named Treeman commented on this distorted system, saying, "It takes a generation to endure the hardship of being bullied, and to become noble enough not to bully others, before this cycle can be broken."

This time, Winters didn't just disappear into the cadet duty room and fall asleep as he used to; instead, he shouldered his halberd and prepared to go on patrol.

It's not because Winters is particularly enlightened; he simply couldn't possibly think that far ahead right now.

In fact, he wasn't supposed to be on duty today; he specifically switched shifts with someone else to come and see Bard.

Bader was also from the United Provinces Republic. But unlike Ike, his home wasn't in Guido, but in a small village more than a hundred kilometers away from the west gate of Guido.

The Allied Army—more precisely, the United Provinces Republic Army—had a fervent passion for “running schools.” This passion, theoretically, should have been inherited from Field Marshal Ned, who “opened cram schools,” but it seemed to be different in some ways.

Although the "Army Officer Academy" was established to train junior officers, this was clearly insufficient to satisfy the enthusiasm of the United Provinces Republic Army for running schools. Therefore, they also established the "Army Officer Preparatory School" to train students of the Army Officer Academy.

Then, the "Army Junior School" was established to train students for the Army Officer Preparatory School.

Winters entered the Army Junior School at the age of nine, embarking on a career path he had no other choice but to follow.

But did you think that was the end of it? Of course not. While only junior schools were established in other republics, in the Republic of the Mountains, fervent educators went on to open an army enlightenment school to train cadets for the army's junior schools.

If this trend of endless nesting continues, one day we will surely see army kindergartens, army early education classes, and army prenatal education classes appear on the land of the United Provinces Republic.

This strange idea of ​​starting officer training almost from the womb has led to a situation where:
Although, in theory, the Army Officer School's admission requirements have never included the requirement that applicants must be graduates of the Army Preparatory School;
Although the Army Officer School holds an open entrance exam every year to recruit students from Allied countries;
But very few people who are not from the preparatory college can get into this place; the interview alone stops the vast majority of external candidates.

The interviewers believed they were absolutely unbiased, stating that "external candidates were far inferior" and "had no military bearing whatsoever."

But they didn't consider that external candidates are not soldiers, so how could they possibly compare to internal candidates who have risen through the ranks from elementary school in terms of military bearing?
Regardless of the process, the final result is that the vast majority of students in military academies are admitted through internal channels, while those admitted from outside are extremely rare.

People do not yet know whether this phenomenon is good or bad, nor do they know what impact it will have on the future of the Forward Republic and even the entire Gulf Alliance.

Who can predict what will happen next? Let's get back to talking about Bard.

There are always some people in this world who can win your trust the first time you meet them, and Bud is one of those people.

His appearance wasn't aggressive; he had broad shoulders, large hands, a wide mouth and nose, and was slightly cross-eyed, which made him look a bit simple-minded.

He speaks slowly and softly, his voice is a little hoarse, and there's always a hint of a smile on his thick lips. He has a mild temperament, and his temper only turns sour when he's starving.

Upon enrollment, the school provides each student with a summer uniform and a winter uniform. Wealthy students will have several extra sets made by tailors for changing.

Bud only had one set, but he washed it clean every day.

Among the young people who were keen on dressing up, he wore his faded but clean and tidy clothes, and there was no trace of embarrassment on his face.

So when you see him for the first time, you'll know he's a reliable person.

An Eastern sage once said, "Those who find joy within themselves are unaware that their physical comforts are inferior to others." Winters didn't know if Bard had truly reached the level of the Eastern sage, or if he was merely trying to appear composed.

But Winters didn't want to speculate or investigate, because either way, it meant Bud was a person with extremely high self-esteem. And Winters respected people with high self-esteem.

(End of this chapter)