Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

After truly understanding the powers and responsibilities of the Garrison Officer, Winters was astonished to find that in the small domain of Wolfton, the authority of the Garrison Officer was simply boundless.

In the Republic of Vineta, the ruthless bureaucratic system detested any growth of military ambition and was strictly on guard against the risks of potential military interference in politics, especially forbidding any military personnel from grasping both military and civil administration at the local level.

Yet, in the Wolfton town of Revodan County, Republic of Palatu, militia, public order, anti-smuggling, border defense, labor service... anything that involved force was under the jurisdiction of the Garrison Officer.

Moreover, the Garrison Officer and the Mayor had no hierarchical relationship. Their areas of responsibility overlapped to some extent, but their statuses were independent of each other. The Garrison Officer had absolute decision-making authority in the matters they were responsible for.

So theoretically, no one in the small place of Wolfton could control Winters.

Only the headquarters of the New Reclamation Area, established in the county capital, could give him orders, and that was at least a hundred and fifty kilometers away from Wolf Town.

In other words... the Garrison Officer in this small town was practically a semi-emperor!

The power of Palatu officers at the local level—or rather, the power of the Palatu military in local areas—left the young Venetian utterly dumbfounded.

Shock aside, Winters was not particularly concerned with the grassroots political ecology of the Republic of Palatu because he considered himself to be eventually returning home, and was merely temporarily placed in this position.

But as long as he was in office, he had to do his job well.

...

"See? Just throw like this. You need to use the strength of your waist and abdomen! When releasing, the spear tip should be tilted slightly upward, or else it won't go far."

At the threshing ground of East River Village in Wolf Town, Lieutenant Winters Montagne held a makeshift javelin and was demonstrating. A few other javelins were sticking out haphazardly from the target boards nearby, the results of his recent throws.

The adult men of the village all gathered around Lieutenant Montagne to watch the demonstration of spear throwing techniques.

The women sat around the threshing ground, chatting and laughing, keeping busy and enjoying the scene. Snotty-nosed children ran wild, throwing sticks and imitating the adults.

East River Village's threshing ground was a bustling scene, like a festival gathering, lacking any of the appropriate tension.

Originally, Winters was annoyed by the presence of the women and children as spectators, considering it a distraction. But he soon discovered it was also a very effective motivator.

"Practice seriously!" Winters purposefully said to the militia, "The ladies are watching you. If you embarrass yourself here, how will you have the face to climb into bed tonight?"

After hearing this, the young and strong men practicing the spear throw from East River Village blushed, each straining to outdo the others.

Winters was not satisfied with the militia of Wolf Town, because they were far different from the Standing Army he had previously led. But farmers were not professional soldiers, and it was already good that they were willing to partake in the training.

While correcting the militia's mistakes, Winters admonished them, "Remember, don't stand in front, don't throw at the head. Move to the side or back and aim for places without bone protection, like the stomach!"

Given the size of the paw prints, hoping to kill that massive beast with a single blow was sheer folly.

Following Hunter Ralph's advice, if the beast attacked the village, the best strategy was to drive it away with firelight and noise. The second best approach was attrition, wearing the beast down until it was exhausted and covered with wounds before making the kill.

Therefore, Winters had specifically added barbs to these hastily fashioned javelins, which would tear out a large chunk of flesh once embedded and pulled out. When used, ropes would also be tied to the spears so that they could be dragged and anchored.

Some of the farm wives voluntarily gathered some blue berries known as "rat arsenic" from the fields for Winters, saying that boiling them in water and applying the liquid on the javelins would be useful.

However, Winters was quite skeptical about the effectiveness of the poison.

Although those blue berries were toxic if consumed, it was unknown whether their toxicity remained when entering the bloodstream, and whether they could bring down a large beast was also in question. Nevertheless, since it wouldn't make much of a difference either way, Winters let them proceed.

"Officers trained by the old Marshal are just different! Everything they do is done so well," Gerard cheerfully told everyone he met, seeing how Winters systematically organized the militia and crafted spears and javelins, "Having Lieutenant Montagne come to Wolfton as the Garrison Officer is truly a blessing from the Lord!"

Under Winters' coordination, all five villages under Wolfton Town had established their own militia units.

The farmers were admonished to guard their homes carefully at night and sound the alarm in case of danger, waiting for the militia of their own village to assemble and come to the rescue.

Winters also specifically borrowed some dogs from two villages that were further away from the forest and distributed them to those villagers whose houses were closer to the woods.

The problem that was currently troubling Winters the most was the lack of weapons.

East River Village and West River Village were still in a better situation, as the villagers at least had some bows and arrows in their possession.

But the two villages inhabited mainly by Protestants were utterly unarmed. They lacked not only swords and spears, but even a good bow, and villagers could only use pitchforks as makeshift spears.

Expecting to take on the owner of those paw prints with pitchforks meant that the Protestants had to show a fearless courage.

Then again, if the farmers could muster such dauntless bravery, why would Winters need to urgently craft these javelins?

Just take up the spear and stab! As long as it's flesh and blood, what cannot be pierced?

But the reality was: shooting arrows from a distance, the militia could barely manage; but when a ferocious beast got up close, the militia would just end up being chased around.