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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Wjin
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Sergeant Boris was at his wits’ end. At first, he was angry and annoyed, but now he just wanted to give up and lie on the ground.
He had volunteered for the Special Operations Brigade, hoping to become an elite combatant, but to be hazed immediately upon arrival, without even being allowed to change clothes, was absurd.
His clothes were covered in dirt, and his hair, which he had styled with wax to commemorate his new life in the new battalion, was a mess. His legs ached, and his arms were sore, but the red-clad figures in front of him didn’t even blink and just kept pushing him.
Was this a penal battalion? Had he been caught embezzling supplies and sent to the military police instead of the Special Operations Brigade? As such thoughts crossed his mind…
Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding—!!
A sharp bell rang through the air. Simultaneously, the drill instructors had the soldiers stand up.
“Owls, get on your feet and look at the sky!!”
The exhausted soldiers staggered to their feet, but it didn’t take long for their expressions to turn to shock. A giant ship, flying in the sky, blocked the sun.
“…!!!”
An overwhelming presence. Sergeant Boris’s jaw dropped at the sight, which crushed one’s thoughts just by looking at it.
“Look closely! That’s your future! So that you can firmly engrave your grit into those weak minds!!!!”
As the training instructor spoke, a dozen people jumped from the airship. Eagles gliding through the sky without hesitation. They freely roamed the sky, doing backflips and somersaults.
‘Flying in the sky…?’
To be precise, it was closer to gliding than flying. But there was no reason to be nitpicky. They were moving through the sky, weren’t they?
A dream everyone had at least once as a child. As the spectacle of those who had achieved that dream unfolded before his eyes, a spark of romance that had been dormant in Sergeant Boris’s heart ignited.
It was amazing. It was wonderful.
‘I’m going to be like that…?’
It was an unbelievable scene, but having witnessed it in person, negative thoughts were no longer possible.
Soon, those who had been flying in the sky lined up and landed in the training ground. It was only natural that a tremendous cheer and thunderous applause erupted from the soldiers who had been staring blankly at the scene.
And among those soldiers… was Sergeant Boris, clenching his fists and cheering.
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The morale of the recruits, which had been on the verge of collapsing, exploded after witnessing the jump.
The grumbling voices that had been heard even while being hazed were gone, replaced by looks of admiration for the drill instructors and training instructors.
Thanks to that, the first day of training ended successfully. And I threw a grand party for them, to boost their morale and offer some comfort.
“Welcome to the 8th Assault Magic Infantry Battalion, you bastards!!!”
“Assault! Assault! Assault! Assault!”
“Tomorrow is another day of hellish training. Eat your fill today, and I’ll give you a hell of a time tomorrow, so look forward to it!!”
“Aaaagh—!!!!!”
The recruits devoured the feast of meat under the control of the drill instructors and training instructors. I liked that the spirit of airborne was already alive in their eyes.
‘This is why we should recruit volunteers.’
I nodded in satisfaction and passed by the soldiers’ barracks. If I went in, I would just ruin the mood, and right now, they needed to focus on training. I had heard that Sony Zeppelin would be back by the time the full-scale airship parachute training began, so it wouldn’t be too late to see them then.
A friendly commander was for when I was a company commander. Now that I was acting battalion commander, I couldn’t act like I did when I was a company commander. Especially in an elite unit like this, the commander’s charisma was also important.
Unlike when I was a low-ranking officer, it was better to build a strong relationship with the non-commissioned and commissioned officers under my command.
As I passed the barracks and entered a pub in Stout Village…
“Battalion, attention!!”
The unit members, who had been chatting noisily in their drill instructor and training instructor uniforms, all stood up.
Thud, thud
the sound of their boots was sharp and precise.
“At ease, at ease. I’m not the real battalion commander, so you don’t have to do this.”
“At ease.”
The pub, which had been as if time had stopped for a moment, came back to life, and those who had been silent resumed their conversations.
The unit members had completely shed their previous half-hearted appearance and were now showing the perfect image of an elite unit that worked when it was time to work and rested when it was time to rest. So they had been in real combat, huh.
“Is Captain Claude here?”
I approached two non-commissioned officers who were chatting near the entrance and asked, and a thick voice soon answered.
“Here.”
“Lieutenant Erwin Luce is also here.”
“Have a drink, Deputy Commander!”
As I sat down, Lieutenant Erwin, who had brought another glass, poured a clear liquor. “The owner released a large quantity of stock since the new recruits came.”
“Maldiva whiskey. A good liquor.”
I swirled the glass Erwin had poured for me and raised it slightly. Claude and Erwin lightly clinked their glasses and drank it in one go.
“Ugh. This is my fourth glass, but I can’t even taste the alcohol.”
“My kind of drink.”
As if to prove he was a heavy drinker, Lieutenant Claude also had a very satisfied look on his face. It was quite moving to see him show an expression he had never shown in the 3rd Battalion, here in the 8th Battalion.
“By the way, how was it, now that you’ve personally hazed them?”
“They’re still trash. Since they’re volunteers, their mental state might be a little better, but it’s hard to expect much in terms of combat ability.”
A mercilessly harsh evaluation. As expected of Claude Lane.
“But their eyes seemed to have come alive after the jump.”
“We’ll have to see. We’ll be lucky if even 80% of the current personnel pass.”
“…What about the magic parachute harness?”
“That was quite useful.”
Claude added as he refilled his empty glass.
“I definitely learned that magic engineering is a convenient technology.”
The official name was the Zeppelin Magic Parachute Harness Type 1. We called it the Type 1 Harness for convenience. It was a new Ukrainian invention. To be precise, it was a joint invention of Reinhardt and Ukraine.
Count Ferdinand of the Reinhardt Empire was overjoyed that the Pearl of Premonition had been safely recovered and immediately began a project to build a giant airship in his country. And the Reinhardt Empire army was also seriously considering ‘air assault’ because of this operation.
It was a next-generation parachute harness created by Sony Zeppelin, who had strongly advocated for it after taking my previous idea. The personnel who had jumped this time were half mages, including Claude Lane, and half ordinary infantry who couldn’t use magic.
And all of them had jumped with this Type 1 Harness equipped.
“Directional control and altitude adjustment are revolutionary. Of course, since it’s a newly developed piece of equipment, it’s inevitable that it’s incomplete. But if it’s properly improved, unless the user is an idiot, they won’t die from falling.”
I took out a notebook from my front pocket and quickly jotted down Claude’s words. Claude was someone who made terrifyingly objective judgments, even among the unit members.
If even he had acknowledged it to some extent, there would be no major problems in mass production in the future.
“Oh, and Captain, I heard you’re being temporarily dispatched to the Reinhardt Empire. Their beer is amazing. I recommend you try some before you come back…”
“What?”
What kind of nonsense was this now? As I widened my eyes, Erwin Luce also let out a dumbfounded sound.
“Eh…?”
“No, wait a minute. Where am I going?”
“T-To the Reinhardt Empire… weren’t you going? Chief of Staff Joseph said so─.”
Throb.
My head ached for the first time in a while.
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I left the pub and went to see Major Josef Lewandowski. The answer from him, who was enjoying a relaxing cup of tea, was─.
“Ah, I’m sorry. It seems I forgot. A letter arrived from Brigadier General Sony Zeppelin the other day. I completely forgot to give it to you.”
“No, how did Lieutenant Erwin Luce know when I didn’t?”
“He was at the staff office at the time.”
Joseph nonchalantly brushed it off and sipped his tea. I took the letter he had pulled out from a pile of documents and slowly began to read it. Every time I read Sony Zeppelin’s messy handwriting, a sense of bewilderment welled up in my mind.
“Is this a one-month schedule?”
“Yes. It seems the Reinhardt side is also very interested in the Captain’s other ideas. I heard there’s an exhibition being held, and they’re probably planning to use that as an excuse to get you out.”
I already knew that I had become a person of interest to the pro-Soviet faction within the military. The Lymansk Armory had been completely burned down.
Even if they controlled the information, there was no way that high-ranking officers, at least lieutenant colonels, wouldn’t know.
Anyway, now that I had the leverage of the mutant development, the Empire, to avoid making things bigger, had officially acknowledged that the Lymansk Armory was due to an attack by Red October.
But those who knew, knew. And in that situation, I was visiting the Reinhardt Empire? Whatever the justification, it would be an eyesore to the higher-ups. But if the reason for visiting the Reinhardt Empire was to attend an exhibition, it would be a somewhat acceptable excuse.
The problem was…
“Why did you tell me this with only a week left?”
“How would I know? It’s strange to think that anyone can still predict our Brigadier General. I thought the Captain had given up, but it seems that wasn’t the case?”
“……Then who will be the acting battalion commander?”
“Of course, it’s me. Since it’s just training, she said it’s fine if I take over.”
Chief of Staff Joseph grinned.
That, that…! Was he supposed to go, and he was passing it off to me? My reasonable suspicion was confirmed by the Chief of Staff’s words.
“If I go, the staff office will be paralyzed, so you’ll have to take the trouble.”
“My god, are you abandoning me now too, Chief of Staff?”
“What would happen if I went there and vomited blood or had a nosebleed at an official event? I can’t let the nation be disgraced.”
It was true that the frequency of Chief of Staff Joseph vomiting blood had decreased recently. It seemed that his stress had been relieved as the battalion began to run smoothly. But that was a different story.
“I-I also have a very weak constitution.”
“Haha, where would you find someone as handsome as our Captain Enoch? I heard a rumor that at the party hosted by Count Pedro last time, all sorts of young ladies were clinging to you.”
Chief of Staff Joseph’s eyebrows wriggled playfully. How did you know that? Belle Meyer, you traitor!
“It’s not right to keep such a talent stuck in this backwater. Who knows? You might be able to establish a diplomatic connection.”
I had been in charge of all sorts of things, from reorganizing the battalion to establishing a training plan, so I was planning to take a break and just observe the training…
“Get to work, Captain Enoch Levandal. There’s still a mountain of work to do, and I can’t die alone.”
The world was starting to mess with me.
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