The Golden Throne

"Worked with humans once before?", Liu Feng stopped for a second. "What does she mean by that? I am absolutely sure that Elves have not worked with humans before in a war, none of the history books talk about them.", Liu Feng muttered to himself.

"You are too trusting of your own kind, Liu Feng. You know too less of the true face of your father, and of the kingdoms that you work with.", Avian's voice rang out.

"What are you talking about?", Liu Feng asked him.

"I am talking about the Night Kingdom. Just do some digging yourself, and you will find out for yourself what really happened.", Avian said.

"The Night Kingdom? I think I heard that somewhere before.... but where? This is too frustrating, why can't anyone just tell me a straight answer.", as Liu Feng was struggling to figure out where he heard about the Night Kingdom, the elf barked at the recruits.

"What are you lot doing? Get in line and follow me."

The woman started running around the grounds. More than running, she seemed to be gliding on the ground, as she was considerably faster than the normal recruits. Liu Feng saw her and knew immediately that she was running. 

"Does she have a contract with a wind spirit or something?"

"Yes, she does. Good observation Liu Feng", Avian's voice rang. "Well, it is highly unlikely anyone other than wind spirits know who has gotten a contract, mostly because we are the last people in the entire four elements to choose a spirit. We are very selective in a person's personality and temperament. As for the contract with you, I hate to break it up to you, but I was just a placeholder, keeping tabs on you."

Liu Feng chuckled. "Don't worry, no hard feelings here. But, I am sure that she does not have the capacity to use magical energy for more than thirty minutes if she is using it so wastefully like that. And to use it for running, is she an idiot?"

Liu Feng and Arad were able to run without any discomfort because of the excellent state of their physical bodies, but their peers were clearly struggling. Most of them were mere towns folk who did not require fitness of any kind. Add to the fact that they were barely catching up to a woman that was of a race that was historically thought to be frail and weak physically, and the whole group was downhearted.

Liu Feng instructed Arad to feign discomfort and to pant unnecessarily to blend in, just to make sure that no extra attention is put on them. After a while, the elf stopped running, and the troupe came to a grinding halt. Most of the members fell on the ground instantly with exhaustion. The elf looked at them and laughed.

"Look at your pitiful state. Get up now, I have much that I have to do today. If you are like this after the basic warm up, I wonder how you will be after the actual training."

"This was just fitness? There is something more difficult coming up?", one of the men asked her, shivering. Clearly, he, and many others were getting to fear her.

"What? Done already? Look at the other troupes over there. They are still up and going. I want all of you to be the last to go down, okay? You can't possibly be the worst of the bunch. Now, I want all of you to start marching around the ground, through the same route that we were jogging."

While she was saying this, Liu Feng felt that something was wrong. As he looked slowly, he saw indeed that the elf was using the city walls as a support to keep herself standing, and that she was probably as exhausted as the rest of the people.

"Ah! The things that people would go through just to cover up the truth. Just to maintain a facade and convince everyone else.", he chuckled to himself. Everyone else was too busy catching their breath to listen to his ramblings. They fell in line into a much more compact marching band. One of them stepped forward.

"My father taught me how to march when I was young. I can be the captain."

"Oh yeah sure, my father taught me as well. I think that I would make a better captain.", another person chipped in. Soon, multiple people were fighting among themselves for the position.

"Idiots! I told you to march, and here you are fighting for a stupid position. All of you, run another two rounds."

"But commander, we were not a part of the fight.", one of the bystanders pitched in.

"Like I care. You should have stopped the fight before it escalated and caught my attention. That is the duty of all of you. That is why all of you will be punished."

All of the people looked at the group of people who were fighting. Ashamed, they were looking down to the ground. Tired already, all of the people started running another two laps around the grounds. This time, the languishes of the people next to Liu Feng were more audibly apparent, and they were panting quite loudly. 

Liu Feng looked at all of them with visible disgust, and he put some distance from them, trying to make sure that their sweat did not fall on him. He continued the run, but some of the men collapsed in the middle of the second lap. Everyone stopped running and went to the collapsed men.

"Would you stop running from enemy fire if one of your comrades dies? Keep running, it is not like anyone is going to die of exhaustion here."

Everyone grumbled as they continued the run.

After completing the rounds, everyone collapsed onto the ground. Liu Feng also followed suit so that he would not stand out.

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