Wenzel soon went to the Chief of Staff and Supreme Leader to discuss the matter. He came alone this time. The two were sitting together at a large table, planning something, when the boy walked towards them. "There will definitely be a famine this winter. Preparations are in full swing to make the best possible use of this for our recruitment efforts and the expansion of the resistance's activities in other regions," August explained. Theodor nodded at him and made a few notes. Then he spoke: "I have every confidence that you’ll manage this well. The Imperial Army, sorry, 'Confederate Army' has massively increased its activities here in the south. I also hear that the pressure on the territorial lords, the Duenitz, has been further increased to provide more fighters. None of this will stop us, but I still propose a "strategy of water". Whenever the enemy attacks, we evade." - "That makes sense to me." - "Yes. I'd say we should move soon." - "We agree on that. I'll send a few scouts north right away to find a suitable place for the new headquarters." - "North is good. They don't expect that."

  "Anyway, we need to do a fundamental reorganisation of the forces. The reason for this is that we are expecting a much larger influx of fighters. Although, also in general with the return of the Chosen One, an actual army structure, i.e. one that can replace the current enemy army, must now be established," August continued. Theodor replied: "And you can do that?"- "Definitely. It's a lot of work, but what must be done, must be done." - "Okay. But I would like the smaller, more professional structure of the Martyrs’ Brigades to be retained. My preference would be for us to include the better trained ones in the Martyrs, but organise the broader masses in a different way." August looked at him and thought for a moment. Then he replied: "I think that's possible. We could call the second organisation the 'People's Army' or something similar. That would imply that the people are on our side." - "Very good idea." - "All right. So, I'll be doing that and I'll rename the ranks in the Martyrs' Brigades so that they sound more official than before."

  Theodor replied: "Maybe we'll just name them after the current army ranks in the so-called Federal Army. They only took their ranks from the old Imperial Army anyway. That way we'll show that we are the true Imperial Army. After all, we also have the Chosen One on our side." - "That makes sense. Yes, let's do that," replied the Chief of Staff. "That means you'll be the Field Marshal in the future." - "That’s fine by me. Though, terminology doesn’t matter. What counts are results," the future Field Marshal stated.

  Suddenly Wenzel was standing in front of them. "Theodor, August, would you have a minute? There's something I'd like to discuss with you. ALONE, if that's possible." The two looked at each other. "Sure, we've already finished the most important things anyway," replied the Leader. The Chief of Staff quickly glanced beside and behind him to make sure that no one was too close to overhear them. The coast was clear. Then he spoke: "So, what's the matter?"

  "There have been a lot of rumours going around the camp lately that you-know-who has returned and is among us." The lad now became very quiet and moved close to the two. "The men already have a strong suspicion that it's me. I'm sure it won't be long before someone asks me personally. Should I just deny it then? I don't think anyone would believe me. Basically, it's only a matter of time before it becomes common knowledge around here." August made a thoughtful face. Theodor, on the other hand, showed no emotion. " It can't stay like this. What should I do?" he addressed the two of them.

  "You're not doing anything," replied Theodor. August looked at him in surprise, but it would get explained to him and Wenzel: "It's time to tell our men. There is little point in keeping the matter secret any longer. On the contrary, the more the news spreads that a new Chosen One has appeared, the more people will flock to us. That will play into the hands of our future strategy." However, the Chief of Staff replied with a slight snarl: "The structure of the new army has not yet been created. We first have to..." The leader interrupted him. "I’d have liked to wait a little longer. Okay, let's say we clear things up for the troops in a fortnight." - "Two weeks? I .... that’s a very tight schedule!" complained August, feeling left out. But Theodor simply replied: "Things will work out, my friend. I have every confidence that you can do it!"

  The head of the staff huffed in exasperation, but did not resist. Thus, it was decided. Wenzel's identity would be revealed, at least to the Martyrs. Furthermore, they would move the following week. This meant that everything and everyone in the camp would be packed up and moved to a new location to avoid detection. This was a huge effort, but necessary. From the Limesian Mountains they headed north and into the Karantian Forest. This was the largest contiguous forest area on the continent. And the boy realised this when they entered it and then travelled through dense forests for days on end. The troop had also split into several groups to be less conspicuous. A large trek travelling together would definitely have been far too conspicuous.

  This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

  Eventually, they arrived at a village deep in the woods. All sorts of trees and bushes were growing out of a number of ruins, an indication that this place had been abandoned for some time. Although, they couldn't pinpoint the reason why this place had become a ghost town, it was very suitable for the purposes of the Martyrs' Brigades. Away from civilisation, hardly anyone would find them here and their sabotage squads could penetrate into the very heart of the country unnoticed. Nevertheless, some of their troops had remained in smaller formations in the south and would continue to be active there. The next phase of the conflict had begun.

  The troops were also finally informed about who among them the Chosen One was. From that day onwards, they treated Wenzel with great respect, but also kept their distance. From his point of view, it was totally excessive behaviour, but he had to accept it. Constantly resisting it would undermine the morale of the troops, so to speak, and above all it would serve no purpose. From the conversations the young man had had with them so far, he had come to understand that they were hopelessly ideologised. Tilting at windmills was not his life goal.

  But now he could practise his magic openly without having to hide. And he’d now have a couple spectators, but luckily not too many, as most had too much to do to spare the time. As previously, nothing he could do with magic was particularly impressive. He could now levitate whole tree trunks or rocks and of course he could fly, but none of that was "a spectacle", although it was of course still extraordinary. The respect that the others now had for him was starting to somewhat isolate him. Not too much, though, as Isidor and Brahm spent a large part of each day training with him. Both had now become very good friends with Wenzel.

  Brahm always was very hard on him when it came to training, but he was an honest, cheerful and fun-loving guy. He was always cracking jokes to lighten the mood or sometimes just because he felt like it. Isidor was different. He was quite talkative and always wanted to know more about Wenzel and his life. He did the same with Brahm, with whom he got on very well, but Brahm didn't want to talk much about his past, just like Wenzel. Many more weeks passed in this way, primarily consisting of training for Wenzel while the martyr brigades reorganised themselves, while simultaneously fighting the kingdom from the shadows. Oh yes, one more thing! Theodor was now the Field Marshal and no longer the "leader". However, Wenzel didn’t know what this meant in concrete terms. One fine day, August and Theodor out of the blue just asked him whether he agreed to them calling themselves the "official" army of the empire. The Chosen One was only asked to agree for the sake of formality, which of course he did. Seriously, what else could he have said?

  They now set up camp in the small village whose former name had been lost to history. It was no longer a tent camp, but they adapted the remains of the houses, rebuilding them and moving into them. The headquarters was now a fully-fledged base. Also, Wenzel got his own house! It was quite small, but the boy had insisted that it should be as small as possible. He didn't need luxury. In his own mind, he was now one of them, in spite of him not agreeing with them on many issues and them literally glorifying him. Time didn’t stop.

  Some more time passed. It was another morning like any other. Wenzel was once again doing sword training. Opposite him stood Isidor as his sparring partner. It was a freezing cold day. The remaining yellow leaves that were still hanging on the trees were about to fall down, so that soon everything would be bare and winter would have set in. Wenzel looked at his counterpart with a concentrated gaze. With each exhalation, small clouds of smoke formed in front of him. He had raised his sword above his head and pointed it forwards. Everything around him was silent and the tension was literally hanging in the air.

  Then the boy suddenly thrust forwards towards the opening he thought he had discovered. But Isidor backed away and used the distance to launch an attack himself. Wenzel just managed to get his sword into the right position to fend off the lightning-fast counterattack. They both exchanged a few blows and seemed to keep swerving to the right, going round in a circle, almost as if in a dance. The metal clashed against each other: "Clang!" Oh yes! They were using real swords by now! Finally, August prepared to strike a large blow from above, but Wenzel recognised this early enough and quickly intervened with a thrust. Hit! He had stabbed Isidor on the shoulder. "Stop!" Brahm shouted in that moment. The two lowered their weapons, whereupon the referee inspected Isidor's wound. It was only superficial and nothing serious, fortunately.

  Both of his friends congratulated Wenzel. "You've done really well now, lad!" it came from Brahm. "But do you know what you did wrong at the beginning?" - "No," he replied. "You took 'Ochs' as your basic position, whereas 'Pflug' would have been much more suitable. Do you remember what 'Pflug' is?" The lad stared at him blankly. Brahm understood. "So, you hold the sword at waist height, close to your body," the man explained as he demonstrated with his sword. "This position is good for a thrusting attack, exactly what you wanted to do. "Ochs isn’t a very smart starting position here." - "Okay," he briefly replied. "But apart from that, you’re doing reasonably well. Your parrying is good and you know when it's wiser to take a step back and manoeuvre around your opponent." Wenzel was delighted with this praise. He knew that Brahm never praised him without good reason. Isidor also confirmed the clear progress he again had made. They would then spend the rest of the day practising spear fighting, with Brahm taking on the role of fighting partner this time.