SEVENTEEN
The one blessing you saw in Mario’s lessons was that they exempted you from morning assembly. Then, a new benefit gradually appeared. When Mario received new instructions to increase the number and intensity of the lessons in order to save time, you were freed from the task of whipping disobedient recruits, in part because the news that the recruits would not be going to war against their own countrymen had decreased the cases of disobedience.
They got used to your absences and consequently stopped assigning you any at the base. Then came a third blessing, when the recruits began to wake up just before dawn to travel to Mount Gharyan where they spent all day training in mountain warfare while you idled blissfully in bed.
Offsetting these blessings, Mario’s lessons also took yo
