Chapter 48: Gambling with the Army
In the afternoon, Duwei went to the barrack next to the castle. There were more than 300 barracks for the private army now.
Ever since Duwei had been kidnaped by the magicians, the Family strengthened the internal safety of the castle. A group of infantry had been mobilized to this barrack already. Now there were almost a thousand private soldiers in this area for guarding the castle.
Duwei entered the barrack by riding a horse, Knight Robert immediately brought some people along and met Duwei.
Because Duwei was kidnaped, Robert was demoted by half a grade officially, but in fact, he was still leading the Knight Troop. Probably before the end of the year, they would find an excuse to promote Robert again.
After Duwei had entered the barrack, everyone paid attention to…the horse of this little master!
This horse had been carefully picked and was the best horse in this castle…even Knight Robert wanted to have it for a long time…
But now, the white horse…it’s tails was bald!
Duwei seemed very happy on this horse…but Robert felt creeped out, and doubted; what did this little master wanted to do?
“My dear Knight Robert, I just came to have a look and check what these guys are doing,” Duwei’s laugh looked harmless to both humans and animals..
“Little master, it is still in spring. Therefore the Spring drill just finished. Right now, soldiers are recovering. For the daily patrol, the Knight Troop handles that…I don’t know what kind of thing you would like to see?” Robert looked at the smile of Duwei with a bit of a shock. He tried to test Duwei and said, “Perhaps, you would like to go hunting? If so, I can instantly call a troop and go along with you.”
Roberts thought that this little master might be too bored because of his grounding and would like to have some fun.
Hunting was just a tiny thing.
“No, don’t want to go hunting.” Duwei laughed happily, “Today, I come here because I want to show my new game to all of you!”
Duwei took something from the saddle. Robert saw that it was a small bag.
After opening the bag, Duwei took out a ball!
Right, Duwei spent lots on this ball.
Duwei didn’t have much money to buy the leather, so, he just went to his room and got his leather jacket. Then he just simply described his request to his female servant who knew embroidery…
Just sewing something into a ball shape, this job wasn’t difficult. The maid completed this task very quickly with high quality.
What was the stuffing for this ball…
In this world, since there was no rubber, he could not make a real inflatable ball. So, he could only find some some sort of soft materials to fill it up. The best choice would be something hairy….for example, from a horse’s tail!
So, he donated his leather jacket and the tail of his horse to make a ball.
During the production of the ball, the servants thought that Duwei was using things recklessly. But Duwei didn’t care.
This might be a chance for Duwei to get some pocket money.
“Robert, look, this is my new game. I call it…football.”
“There will be eleven members on each side and one of them is the goalkeeper. Only the goalkeeper can use hands, whilst the other team members can not use any part of the hands to touch the ball. Otherwise, it is a foul! The aim of this game is to kick the ball into the goal of the opposite side using teamwork! Also, you have to stop the opposite side from kicking the ball into your goal…”
Duwei explained the basic rules of football roughly. Since the rules were not complicated, the soldiers could easily understand.
They were using their legs to kick the ball!
On the training field, two saddles were used as the goal.
Duwei also got involved in the game. He picked Knight Robert, along with several cavalrymen who were out with Duwei before. They formed a team. Meanwhile, the other soldiers formed another team and the game began.
In the beginning, there were a lot of funny things that happened. The soldiers of the Roland family hadn’t play football before, so they always violated the rules. Some people even broke the ball because they wanted to pass the ball further.
Luckily, Duwei had predicted that would happen and he had brought some maids that knew sewing, and they sewed the ball immediately…the Knights only had to donate the hair from the tail of their horses.
There was also one knight rushing forward, and when the opponent tried to stop him…they naturally did something violated the rules…Duwei had broadened his horizon!
Usually, one member led the ball and ran for half of the field, the opponent blocked him and then proceeded to kick him. Right, they kicked the person instead of kicking the ball! Then the two persons would give up the ball and start fighting!
Not to mention, these soldiers of the Roland Family were good at fighting, with excellent physical fitness. But Duwei was so weak that after running for a while, he got exhausted and replaced by another soldier directly. He became the judge of the game then.
After giving out a tone of red cards, they finally had a qualified match.
Duwei also showed them how to lead and kick the ball to them, and tried a random passing. Finally, the soldiers knew the basic football rules after that afternoon.
Even the rules of “offside”, “foul inside the penalty area”, “direct free kick” and “indirect free kick”, they understood well.
In the evening, a smart guy even learned diving in the penalty area!
Although this guy was performing very poorly, he got great respect from Duwei along with a Penalty. It was because in his previous life, his favorite football star was Inzaghi, who was the King of Diving.
PR/N: This is…Just how much other culture has this author brought in?! I’m just scared for the future of where this novel goes >.>
This Penalty also won the “black whistle” from the audience.
After the afternoon, all the soldiers in the barrack loved this manly sport!
As one of the Top Sports of the World in Duwei’s previous life, it deserved the love!
In the evening, Duwei found that there were several senior officers who had donated their leather jacket and asked the maid to sew a ball…they also donated a few horse tail hairs.
The sky was almost dark, but the people didn’t want to leave the field. The winning team was cheering like they had won a war, and the losing team were disappointed and asked for another match tomorrow.
Duwei was very satisfied with the result!
At night, Duwei went to his own tower. Solskjaer went home and had a rest. Only Duwei was in this tower now.
He ordered the guards standing outside to stop others from entering.
Duwei climbed up to the third floor and stood at the rooftop, looked at the sky.
“What have you done today?” Saimel was sitting on the fence and asked. Her white and long legs made Duwei feel a bit dizzy.
Duwei tried not to look at her and sighed, “Earn money”.
“Earn money?” Saimel laughed loudly. She had been following Duwei for the whole day. But only Duwei could see her. Saimel laughed for a while and obviously she didn’t believe him, and said, “You lost a leather jacket, and cut the hair off that horse’s tail. Sweated for the whole day, two outfits were dirtied with dust…is that called earning money?”
Duwei ignored her and said, “You know what? Just wait and watch.”
It was already midnight, there were no clouds, and the sky was full of stars. Duwei checked the time and asked, “Shall we start?”
“The training of Star Magic is not hard…but the hardest part would probably be at the beginning.” When Saimel mentioned Star Magic, she looked serious. At that moment, Duwei thought that she looked like the real Saimel.
Duwei sat down in accordance with the guidance of Saimel.
“Use your heart to feel it.”
“What?” Duwei opened his eyes.
“The Stars!” Saimel answered slowly, “Feel the power of the stars.” After a while, she explained, “Of course, in the beginning, you cannot feel the whole space, I just request for to you pick one of them, then after you sit down, you have to use all your magic sense to feel it…feel the energy of the star…it’s hard, and you may not be able to sense it at night.”
Then after Saimel taught Duwei a magic spell, she requested Duwei to use this spell in his heart, and picked one star as his target.
“Which one should I choose?”
“The biggest and brightest one.” Saimel answered.
Duwei was shocked, “The Biggest and the Brightest? Gosh. There are so many stars in the sky, which one is the biggest and the brightest?”
Saimel laughed mysteriously at that moment. She lifted her hand slightly and point to the sky…at the moonlight, Semel’s smile was very gorgeous, with a little mystery, calmness, which seemed unpredictable!
She pointed at….the MOON!
Duwei was shocked!
Moon! That was the Moon!
He was shocked and looked at Saimel…the greatest female Star Reader…She even knew that? According to the previous life of Duwei, the sun was a star, and the moon was the Earth’s satellite. They were the largest in the sky, it was because of their volume, as well as the distance from the Earth!
Actually, in this world, even the magicians would separate the sun, moon and stars into three categories!
But no one should’ve known that… the sun and the moon should be included in the star category*!
[TL – Note I think the author is trying relate how moon shines because of the sun at night.]
“Feel it, feel all the fluctuation! Even a slight shock. The duration will be long. It can be one day or even a year…if you can pass this stage, you will be able to learn Star Magic…otherwise…that means you don’t have this talent.”
After Saimel had finished her words, she was lazy and sat aside, looking at Duwei who was closing his eyes trying to focus on the sky…
With the “horn” on his head, the perception of Duwei was very strong, he could even feel the current and the wind in the sky, also the river miles away…he could even hear the sound of the river…
But, stars and the moon…
They were too far away!
Too far away!
Duwei tried his best to expand his spiritual power, but his power was getting weakened when he reached towards the sky…even when Duwei tried using all of his force, he could only feel the wind…that was his limit!
Moon?
Duwei was a reincarnated person, of course he knew the distance from the here to the moon…but how far was it actually! With that distance, Duwei won’t believe that his spiritual power alone could allow him to pass this distance!
Obviously, Duwei failed in the first night.
“I cannot give you the guidance specifically because you have to feel it by yourself.” Saimel sighed, “This thing you have to feel yourself; I will not be able to help you perceive this.”
Luckily, Duwei didn’t feel disappointed. Just as Saimel said, this was not an easy thing. Duwei had plenty of time! He didn’t have anything else, but time.
In the morning, although Duwei didn’t sleep for the whole night, he did his meditation for the entire night and he felt very energetic without any tirelessness.
Duwei felt that the spell Saimel told him was helping him with the growth of his spiritual power! It was a much better and efficient method than the meditation method of those normal magicians!
This type of growth, did not refer to the total increase in the spiritual power,but was the practice of refining the spiritual power!
In the morning, Duwei went to the barrack again, and he called more soldiers to come…almost all the soldiers except those that were patrolling came to the training field.
Yesterday, they only spent half a day and all the soldiers who did participate in the football match, loved this sport.
Today, Duwei raised a new method to play.
“I will give out one hundred coins” Duwei laughed, “You all can form your team freely and participate in the game! The match will be grouped by drawing…loser will be eliminated and the winning team can continue to compete with other teams! The final winner will get the prize.”
Although Robert thought that this game was a bit worthless…but this game is good for the soldier as it can strengthen their physical fitness. Also, the Spring drill just passed and the soldiers were in the recovery period. Training could not be too harsh for them.
Additionally, this little master was so interested in it, it’s not good to turn him down…
Of course, the main reason was that Knight Robert also loved this game too.
The suggestion from this prestiged noble was accepted by the officer, surely the soldiers would not reject this suggestion too.
Also…there was the prize!
To ensure the continuity of this “match” and maintain the fitness of the soldiers, Duwei shortened the period of the competition.
In his previous life, the regular duration was ninety minutes, and now, Duwei had cut it by half.
Soon, the many officers who were responsible for back-up, were responsible for the registration of the soldiers, who, according to their own personal inter-relationship, formed their teams and entered the competition.
The situation was very busy and lasted for the whole morning. Finally, there were 40 teams registered.
According to the rule that Duwei wrote, there would be 15 people in a team; included were 11 participants and 4 substitutes.
The total participants were nearly 600! That included more than half of the entire troops in the competition.
Luckily, the size of the training field was large, and there was a large area of forest and grassland. So, location was not an issue.
Duwei started to draw the lots for grouping. Thus the first session of Roland Family football Competition started…
Since the competition was adopting the elimination system, after the first round, there would be 20 teams left.
Because of the location, this first round could not be processed simultaneously. So the top twenty were born in the afternoon!
At that time, Duwei had already watched most of the matched. With his strong spiritual power and his memory, he got enough information!
Which teams had a better fitness, which team members knew diving, which team members were more talented, and which teams were weaker…
Duwei remembered these details firmly.
Then, before the next round started, Duwei smiled and suggested,
“It’s quite meaningless and boring if we just watch others playing…perhaps, we can do some betting!”