Under the night sky, rubbing sounds can be heard throughout the camps. It’s the sound of the soldiers scrubbing their armor.

 

When a group of people is running together the sweat and breath will cause the surrounding humidity to rise. This is something that people who are members of the running club in school in my previous life must have experienced. The rise of humidity can cause people to feel faint even if they’re only walking.

 

In the case of an army march, it’s even worse. Especially because in the army, people are wearing metal armor and carrying weapons.

 

Armors are more or less made of iron so they will easily get rust because of the moisture filled dust that sticks on armour while wearers are walking and wearers’ sweat which also contains salt in it.

 

That’s why every knight and soldier has to do proper maintenance on their armor and weapons at night. Despite all of the hassle involved in doing so, no one ever complains. Of course, they won’t complain, their armors and weapons will directly affect the chance of their survival on the battlefield.

 

As a noble, I am lucky since I can just have the orderlies polish my armor.

 

“Please convey the message that I, Welner von Zeavert, have arrived.”

 

“Please wait a moment.”

 

The protocol (That I ignored back at the demon outbreak incident) when you want to enter the headquarters is to convey your arrival to the guard, and wait for the guard to confirm it with the people inside.

 

“Please come inside.”

 

“Thank you for your hard work.”

 

I replied to the guard that’s wielding a spear and has a bigger build compared to me. This guard is older than me so I can’t be arrogant but at the same time, I also can’t be servile since I’m a noble so it’s difficult to come up with words to greet him.

 

“Excuse me, it is I, Welner von Zeavert.”

 

“Come in.”

 

Only after being permitted did I come inside. Other executives have already gathered here. Even though it was because I have a duty that I need to finish first, I still feel bad for being the last to arrive. I’m glad that the people here didn’t seem to mind that.

 

“Viscount, you worked hard. How is the camp?”

 

“It is quiet there,” I give Count Engelbert a short answer.

 

The duty I was talking about is to patrol and inspect the entire job. Today is my turn. It was a pretty tiring job to tour the 6,000 people campground. But the people in camp might make light of us if the patrolling officer isn’t one of the commanders.

 

I guess it’s bearable since I don’t need to do it every single night.

 

“Isn’t there some hidden trouble in the camp?”

 

“I guess all hidden trouble has been eliminated by that punishment.”

 

Viscount Kauffeldt’s answer makes everyone here, including me, smile bitterly. I mean that punishment is really…

 

The hidden trouble here is mostly ‘disturbance of public morale’, especially with the woman of the night. Usually, as they did it out of their own free will, it’s a proper occupation but in this kind of time where we need to travel a long way, their action brought nothing but trouble.

 

This might sound ridiculous, but since the distance we have traveled at noon is already quite short we can’t let people also spend their stamina at night. It’s a valid reason since we can’t have a tired army in the situation when we don’t know when and where we might need to fight the demon’s army.

 

To combat the disturbances of public morals, we promise to give anyone that informs us of such activities a huge amount of money as a reward and punishment to the culprit.

 

Because of that, fellow refugees have been on alert for other cases of disturbances or public morals incidents. The power of money is really amazing.

 

As for the punishment, both buyer and seller of the service were needed to clean up the toilets for a day. Although cleaning up the simple toilet made by digging holes on the ground and then covering it with a wooden board might sound easy, as it was a toilet for 6,000 people, the amount of work needed is enormous.

 

Not only is this job tiring physically but the awful smell will also cling to the offender’s body causing them to receive sharp stares from their surroundings for the next few days. The mental pressure is no joke.

 

There were still reports about such incidents on the first 3 days but no one ever attempted it from the fourth day. It must be because the word of the punishment has spread. I feel this punishment is quite harsh even to the standard of professional soldiers.

 

“Baron Kretschmer, how is the situation in the rear?”

 

“There has been no attack from Triot and there have also been no deserters.”

 

Baron Kretschmer, the man who has a physique that didn’t lose to Max, answered. He radiated the feeling of a great general. As someone that’s being entrusted to the army’s rear by Duke Seyfarth, he must be quite a capable person.

 

“Count Vogler, how is our logistics?” Next is the turn of Count Vogler, the commander of the logistic division. It was a really important post. If it was me I would have a stomachache.

 

“The food and medicine provisions for number 28 and number 22 have arrived. According to the report from the escort, there has been no anomaly with the transport. As for the provision for number 18 and number 15, they are in the midst of transportation from the capital. They will arrive in 3 days. The public order near our planned campground has also been maintained. Luckily no rain has fallen recently so the condition of the road is also good.”

 

“Good. Viscount Zeavert, how was the situation of our enemy when we were still marching?”

 

“First, regarding the appearance rate of the demons…”

 

My turn. As the commander of the adventurers, mercenaries, and scouts the Duke will of course ask me this question. I had already created a list and data using based on the reports that I got.

 

This commander meeting is held every day. I agree it’s a necessary meeting but it’s tiring. Then if we need to cross a bridge on our journey the next day, the meeting agenda will include a discussion about how to cross it safely so the meeting will become longer.

 

Then there’s also a discussion regarding price negotiation of water, food, and firewoods. Today we are using boiled river water but if there’s a settlement nearby, we will use their well water.

 

Unexpectedly, firewoods are one of the things that cost us the most money. We need enough for thousands of people so just using branches we found on our journey isn’t nearly enough. There’s even a time we disassemble the woods used to build fences, letting them dry for a few days, then use them as firewood.

 

The army also needs to make a report regarding consumable things like food (including shoes, the rate of shoes’ expenditure is terrifying) and then submit it to the palace. The palace will then cover the cost, but since the receipt didn’t exist here, if there are any expenses you missed then you pay it from your own pocket.

 

To avoid a dispute about money, expenses that were used for the army and for the nobles need to be clearly divided. I have the feeling the accountant in charge of the army’s finance will be seeing numbers even in their dreams.

 

In the games, you only need to think about food and inn expenses. The real world is harsh.

 

In my case, my main job isn’t to think about money but to gather information. When adventurers or mercenaries reported to the Zeavert’s army camp, they didn’t just get their reward but they also needed to provide information about the kinds of demons that appeared and how they defeated them.

 

The knights and the soldiers of Zeavert’s army will also be present to hear the information told by the adventurers and mercenaries. After all, the knowledge will also be useful for the army to judge if there’s any danger or not.

 

There is also the problem of how to handle the injured and the sick, checking the amount of supplies left, giving an appreciation to the people that make an achievement, and punishing the people that break rules. I leave some of these jobs to my second in command, Max. I’m going to faint if I did it alone.

 

I also have my personal works like creating data based on appearance rate and distribution of the demons. I often stayed up late at night to do this. I have a mountain of jobs. I didn’t just leave everything to my subordinate and then play around!

 

I feel bad for people who become the second in command of an idiotic noble… Their job must be enormous.