Luo Jun led the two girls into the tent, but Aisha did not follow them. She bid farewell to her daughter and squeezed into another tent with the other women.
The two girls thought Luo Jun would require their gentle services like those mercenaries. Their beautiful blue eyes looked at Luo Jun, as if awaiting his orders.
In the face of survival, they had lost their human dignity. The lingering bruises around their eyes indicated that they had tried to resist initially.
However, their young bodies could not withstand the torture. Without strong will, even adults would succumb after being beaten.
Those who have not experienced such hardships would arrogantly assume they could endure.
Luo Jun was different. He knew they could not bear such suffering and psychological terror at their age.
"Rest. I'm here to protect you. You don't need to please me," Luo Jun said gently to Hattie and Maria.
They still did not quite believe him. Under the flashlight, they looked at each other suspiciously.
"I'm not with those mercenaries. These clothes are stripped from their corpses. You're also scantily clad, come with me to take the clothes off the three mercenaries I just killed."
Luo Jun glanced at their thin attire, just a lightweight autumn dress. Their slender bodies shivered from the cold.
As he spoke, he opened the tent door.
"Come here."
Luo Jun called out, and the two girls had to leave the slightly warmer tent, braving the cold sea wind to follow Luo Jun towards the three dead mercenaries.
Soon, they found the three mercenary corpses in the woods.
The two girls were too scared to look.
Luo Jun wanted to train their courage. This was a rare training opportunity. Those who overcome the fear of the dead typically have better survival chances.
Since their mother proactively sent the two girls to him, he should give them this opportunity.
This treatment was unavailable to those who did not take the initiative.
Taking the initiative did not mean Luo Jun liked such cunning people, but proactive individuals were more aligned with his interests. Those with shared interests were more trustworthy.
The hesitant women did not fully trust Luo Jun.
Aisha's proactivity, however, expressed her trust in Luo Jun.
With shared interests and trust, why would he not use such people?
"If you want to safely survive the next six months, you must endure the cold for the next three months. I give you seven minutes to strip their clothes. Otherwise, I'll burn them."
Luo Jun warned them in a commanding tone.
Although reluctant to face the corpses, under Luo Jun's oppressive presence, they squatted down and began unbuttoning the men's clothes with their trembling, cold hands.
"Hurry, hurry!"
Luo Jun urged them urgently, shining his flashlight on them.
Prompted by Luo Jun, the two girls quickened their pace.
Within seven minutes, they deftly stripped the three bodies naked. Seeing the bare corpses, they no longer avoided looking at them directly.
If not for their lack of military training, Luo Jun would have ordered them to dismember the bodies.
Courage is an essential psychological element for a warrior, even more important than physical ability.
Many soldiers develop severe psychological trauma after killing an enemy for the first time, even retiring directly because of it.
"Look at them. They are your enemies, the beasts who tortured you. Now they're dead, I want you to stab their corpses with knives."
Luo Jun threw them two daggers.
The two girls looked at him with pitiful eyes, glancing between the daggers and the pale corpses in fear.
"I see you don't want to stab them. You want to decapitate them instead?"
Luo Jun's cold tone was like a demon's summons, causing them to involuntarily squat and pick up the daggers.
"Slap, slap!"
Seeing their inaction, Luo Jun slapped them both across the face.
"They killed your relatives, companions, and raped you! After six months, these people will return. If we want to survive and return, we must be brave and fight like warriors!"
"From this moment on, you are warriors!"
Luo Jun shouted at them. The fear in the girls' eyes turned to anger, the foundation of courage!
Even the most ordinary person becomes formidable when angered!
Although warriors need not only anger but also reason, for now they only needed courage and bravery. Thus, Luo Jun needed to unleash these abilities in them.
"Ahh!"
Hattie yelled furiously and began stabbing the corpse with her dagger.
Maria bit her lip and pounced on the body too, even slicing off parts and tossing them aside like expired meat.
Soon, their hands were soaked in cold, fresh blood.
"Enough! Stand up! Put the daggers down!"
At Luo Jun's command, the girls' eyes widened like bells, taking a while to regain their senses. Luo Jun, experienced, did not approach them to avoid accidental injury.
Only after his second command did they come to their senses, slowly unclenching their bloodied fists and dropping the daggers.
After letting go of the daggers and looking at the corpses they had stabbed over a dozen times, they burst into tears.
"Pick up the clothes and take them back!"
Luo Jun retrieved the daggers and walked ahead.
His training of the two girls was not yet harsh. In the Golden Triangle, he had trained child soldiers by tying live people to posts and ordering the children to torture them by any means.
The more vicious the torture, the greater the reward, accompanied by brainwashing.
Luo Jun understood this process but was reluctant to use it on them, as it would produce formidable warriors unable to reintegrate into normal life.
That would be another form of cruelty.
They returned to the tent carrying the bloodstained clothes. Due to the cold, they no longer cared about the blood stains. They dried the clotted blood and wore the oversized clothes anyway.
Although the clothes did not fit, securing them with belts provided sufficient warmth.
Much better than the other freezing women.
When Hattie and Maria saw the envious looks from the other women, they finally realized the benefits of their mother sending them to Luo Jun.
From initial incomprehension and resentment, it turned to gratitude.