After breakfast, Anna rushed out to the spot where her she had tossed out the puppet. And she found it missing. She was horrified at the idea that someone had noticed her puppet and took it back.
She frantically looked around for it throughout the garden, searching every bush and shrubs. The gardener was not also working as if nothing had happened.
Then, returning to the shed here Anna had kept her puppets locked up last night after they helped her pull the other one up, she saw that the puppet had returned.
Anna slumped against the shed wall, letting out a shuddering sigh of relief. "Thank God, it's not found by anyone." The immediate crisis was averted, but a new, more insidious problem presented itself.
She then put her hand on its head and looked inside to see what went wrong with the code. She found the problem to be in time she had placed for the puppet to return.
Anna got down to work. She now must recheck all the codes for any typos or logical errors. Otherwise, she was unable to think what could go wrong next time.
Soon after a thorough check, she was convinced that the faults had been sorted out. There were quite a few minor ones that could've become fatal later.
Once done, she started to create more puppets increasing the number to a platoon from a squad. It took hours and what she started at morning took until mid day to finish.
Anna sighed, this time, the magic drain was not too much. As a result she was not too much tired like yesterday.
"Hah, it seems my capacity improves every time I use magic." She said to herself as a matter of fact.
This was a welcome discovery because this could allow her to expand her forces more easily when she'd later introduce more troops (puppets) and equipments.
The process was draining, both magically and mentally. She had to materialize each new feminine form, summon the appropriate uniforms and equipment, and meticulously imprint the corrected code onto every single one.
This time she was not wearing her military outfit because she had rushed to the spot below her window so she could return directly to the dining room.
She heard her father Gustav talking to her mother Angela. She silently came in and took her seat on the table. His face was hung low. Anna knew there was some trouble in the territory.
While she ate her lunch with her parents, her ears were standing straight, focused on what her father said.
"...and the trade caravan from the northern pass was attacked again," Gustav murmured, pushing his food around his plate. "The garrison commander sent a report, but his men are stretched too thin patrolling the main roads."
Angela also murmured something that Anna couldn't quite catch but from the looks on her face she knew it was probably serious.
She understood that this was her chance to help her father. She already got a platoon of troops with codes that are proof checked. She could deploy them to hunt down the bandits.
Anna kept her head down as the conversation at the table shifted away from the bandits.
Angela was criticizing Gustav's subordinates for being lazy and letting "mere thugs" run wild on their lands.
Anna, however, was hardly listening anymore. Her spoon rested in the soup, untouched.
This is it. My chance. I've got a platoon, codes checked, weapons ready. If Father can't spare soldiers, then… I will. I will become my father's first soldier.
She bit her lip, glancing at her mother's piercing eyes. "But I can't say it here. If Mother even hears a whisper of this, she'll have me locked in my room with embroidery lessons until next winter."
As soon as dinner was over, Anna rushed outside. To the shed where her platoon was standing by. She changed her uniform and planned to go with the puppets.
But the problem was that, she couldn't handle the weapon in her hand. The recoil of the Luger was too powerful for her to handle.
Letting the puppets go alone was also not an option because, they were not combat tested yet. Though she had done a successful patrol last night, actual combat against bandits are different.
She sighed. Thinking for a while about what do, she remembered another German service pistol, the Walther P38 with less recoil. Now there was a gun she could handle.
She immediately summoned one, and then fired a few rounds as practice. The targets were the ones she had set up previous day for her puppets for practice. Though the targets missed, she found it lighter and easier for her to handle than the Luger P08.