I made Kasily our cuartel for the training, where there was no busy civilian activity to interrupt. Not to ntion that the town proper was already housing 150 recruits. A hundred more and the town would be as busy as Boac, and I didn’t think the townsn there had signed up for that.
Alicia helped greatly with the preparations. As it turned out—though not entirely surprising—her father was the cabeza of the barrio. She knew exactly whom to talk to, and the villagers, out of gratitude to and respect for her, cooperated without hesitation.
Two storehouses had been emptied of salt and copra to be converted into the quarters of the recruits, while a large hut had been arranged to accommodate the four officer cadets.
Alicia’s house, one of the few bahay-na-batos in the area, would host , the senior officers, and the two tenientes.
I had contacted the gobernadorcillo in the town proper to arrange the delivery of the necessary supplies to feed us in Kasily, since that would be an overwhelming task for the small barrio.
The modified Garay warship, with its reduced crew and oaring ports, had enough space for a hundred passengers. It landed along the sa shore where the pirates did several weeks ago.
I was smiling as I watched them jump down to the sands, until I noticed soone jumping done who wasn’t supposed to be there. Isabela looked like she enjoyed the journey, smiling and waving at the curious crowd of villagers that had gathered at the beach.
"Vicente, why is she here?" I asked the lieutenant. I had not indicated in the letter for Isabela to be brought. In fact, I wanted Sargento Guzman to take the role of guarding Isabela and taking command of the security around the Casa Real.
Teniente Triviño placed his hands on his hips and gave Isabela a hard stare, to which she responded with a pout and a shrug. "She insisted, Heneral. Told that if I were to stop her, she would tell you to hang ."
I raised my eyebrows. "And you believed her?"
Vicente sighed. "Of course, I didn’t. But she wouldn’t stop whining and crying."
She eventually reached where we were standing and gave Vicente’s arm a punch before mumbling out, "I wasn’t crying..."
"Alright," I finally let out a chuckle. In hindsight, having her here would actually work. I wouldn’t need to constantly worry about how she was doing, and she could help out with the chores. "...Isabela, this is Alicia."
Alicia had been quietly smiling by my side. She perked up upon the ntion of her na.
"Alicia... this is Isabela, my daughter."
They exchanged polite nods and warm smiles. I hoped they’d get along. Both were kind-hearted girls, but Alicia was more reserved, more mature in how she carried herself. Then again, that could be the lingering trauma... and the fact that I was still, in many ways, a stranger to her.
I shifted my attention as Colonel Abad, Teniente Dimalanta, and the two captains approached.
"Please... tell us, Heneral, where did the battle occur?" Capitán Roque asked.
"Right where you are standing, Capitán," I left Vicente and the two girls to greet the senior officers, suddenly excited in retelling the event. "This is the sa sands where eight pirates had fallen."
They quickly followed my hand as I pointed at the coconuts to our left. "And that is where Sargento Guzman and his platoon had taken cover, and where they released their deadly volleys."
The three stared at the trees and the ferns for a minute, as if visualizing the scene.
"And I was told you weren’t with them. That you attacked from a different direction, with your escorts," said Colonel Abad with an amused smile. "Where did you kill the three pirates... including their captain?"
"Ah!" I softly laughed. "Well... follow ."
I proceeded to tell them the rest of the details of the events. I inford them where each of the killed pirates had fallen as we walked the streets. In a low voice, I told them of the unfortunate death of the child in the incident... a detail that didn’t quite make it into the rumors.
When we arrived at the house, I brought them around to the back, retelling the scene in full. I described how Alicia had burst through the back door, a pirate chasing close behind. How I had crept through the shadows, inch by inch, until I reached the antesala. How I killed the second pirate before he could react. How the pirate captain had nearly sliced in half—if not for the doorfra that saved at the last second.
I showed them the gash in the wood, still visible and untouched.
Of course, I did the retelling without Alicia around. She must still be outside getting to know Isabela. Her maid, though, was in the house and intently eavesdropped on the conversation, utterly entertained by my story.
Before long, everyone was called to gather for lunch. Alicia had supervised the won of the barrio in turning the supplies from the town proper into a feast large enough to feed more than a hundred n.
The officers, including the cadets, ate in the front sala, while the recruits sat outside in the shade of the many trees, eating off unfurled banana leaves.
I would have wanted the training to start earlier in the dawn. But yesterday I was not too sure we could finish the stations in ti and only wrote and sent the order already late in the day.
They left Boac early in the morning today and only arrived near noon. With half of the first day already gone, I decided to only conduct the orientation and so basic drills to start the week.
After lunch and a brief siesta, I finally brought them to Landi.
Needless to say, the recruits could hardly believe their eyes at what I had prepared for them. The wide spread of structures and earthworks looked like a small town in itself.
The laborers had done their part—now it was their
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