“Good morning, Mrs. Hashimoto! You’re early as always.” Oliver said upon seeing Ayano.

“Good morning, Oliver! I was just waiting for you.” Ayano said, looking Oliver in the eyes. “Be careful on the mission. As a mother, I ask you to take care of Aria and as a mentor I ask you to do a full analysis of that material. You’re taking the parts of the Elemental Gun that worked, right?”

“Yeah, I am taking them.” Oliver responded. “I could get inspiration on how to improve the Elemental Gun while I am on the mission.”

“Just as I expected from you!” Ayano said with a smile. “See if that material works for the Elemental Gun and record the results.”

“But isn’t this material valuable, am I allowed to do that?” Oliver asked. “Once the mission was complete, I was going to ask for some steel reinforced by Magical Energy.”

“You’ll be the Head Researcher on the mission. It’s up to you how you conduct your research.” Ayano replied. “Take advantage of this opportunity being presented by you. You’re not doing anything unethical; you’re just conducting experiments on how that material works. It’s up to you to figure out some uses for the material. You’re my apprentice, so live up to the expectations you set for yourself when you asked me to be your mentor!”

“Thanks, Mrs. Hashimoto!” Oliver said, with a big smile. “I am so lucky to have you as my mentor!”

“Go ahead to the platform. You don’t want to be late!” Ayano said. “Take care of Aria and yourself! I’ll see you guys when you get back!”

“Yeah! I’ll see you when we come back!” Oliver said before walking towards the platform.

When Oliver arrived at the platform, he saw a spaceship with a length of about 100 meters. The lower compartment of the spaceship was open, and robots were busy loading crates into the spaceship. Near the spaceship’s entrance Oliver could see Aria alongside four other soldiers. All of them were wearing black t-shirts, khaki pants, and black boots.

“Oliver! You’re finally here!” Aria said with a big smile.

“So, you’re Oliver! I have seen you around.” A muscular guy said, extending his hand. “The name is Roger, Roger Yee! Nice to meet you, Oliver!”

“It’s a pleasure, Roger!” Oliver shook hands with Roger.

“I am the one in charge of Platoon 12. You can put down your luggage over there” Roger said, pointing to where everyone else's luggage was located. “Now everyone, please introduce yourselves!”

“Hello Oliver, I am Nicole Miyamoto!” Nicole, a young woman with red-brown hair said with a friendly tone. “My Dad is Colonel Kenta Miyamoto!”

“I am Yuri Park! Nice to meet you!” Yuri, a young woman with deep black hair, introduced herself.

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“And I am Jin-Woo Park and Yuri is my little sister! I hope we get along, Oliver!” Jin-Woo, a young man with dark brown hair, said with a playful tone.

“LISTEN UP, EVERYONE!” Roger drew everyone’s attention to himself. “We’ll depart at 1200 just as scheduled. We'll arrive at Muna at around 2000. Make sure to relax during the 8-hour trip! Once we get there we’ll meet up with the personnel at the base and head towards the cave. Once in the cave we’ll fight while Oliver collects samples of the material. During the second day, Oliver will conduct research on the material while we continue to clear the cave. Hopefully we can accomplish our tasks within the one-week deadline. We should be back in Lunaria next Monday at around 2200. Any questions?”

‘Do we have any idea how strong these monsters are?” Aria asked.

“If all the monsters inside the cave are as strong as the ones in the entrance, then this should be some light training.” Roger responded. “But we don’t know how strong the monsters inside the cave are, so it’s better to be safe than sorry. If the monsters become too much for us to handle, we retreat!”

“What happens if we don’t finish by the deadline?” Jin-Woo asked.

“We are staying until we clear it or if the monsters become too much for us to handle.” Roger replied. “The one-week deadline is what they expect from us, if we take longer, then our platoon’s prestige goes down.”

“Then we better work hard, if our prestige goes down, we might get stuck with boring missions.” Nicole said, while looking at Oliver.

“Don’t worry about that! I must do well to get my funding!” Oliver said, blushing.

“My mom will be angry if I don’t do well.” Aria said. “I mean, I am a 27-year-old woman and I'm still getting scolded by my Mom.”

“Yeah, Mrs. Ayano is scary and so is my Dad! We have scary parents, Aria!” Nicole said, hugging Aria. “And not to mention they are friends! Well at least we’re friends because of that!”

“But why do I feel you have something against, Oliver?” Aria said.

“I have nothing against him, I am just seeing what kind of guy has piqued your interest!” Nicole said, pulling away from Aria.

“What?” Aria was blushing.

“...” Oliver was also blushing.

“Let’s board the spaceship!” Roger said. “You’re free to spend your time during the trip as you like. You should see your name on the door of the room assigned to you.”

Oliver quickly ran to grab his luggage. As he began boarding the spaceship, he could notice that Aria and Nicole were observing him. He didn’t know how to respond to what he had just heard. His heart was beating fast, and he wasn't paying any attention to his surroundings as he walked inside the spaceship, so he quickly reached the end of the hallway and bumped into the wall. He started blushing more and noticed that the door at the end of the hallway had his name and he rushed inside the room.

That hurt quite a bit! Oliver thought as he put his luggage down. I am supposed to be a soldier! So why did I escape from that? I mean I never thought about Aria like that, but it would be nice if we became a couple. This room is as big as my room in my apartment.

Oliver looked at the neat room. He noticed the bed near the window, he spotted a closet door and when he opened it, he saw that there was plenty of space for clothes and shoes. Next to the bed there was a desk with a computer. Oliver turned on the computer and could see that the computer was connected to the military’s intra network. He then navigated to training videos on magic engineering and started watching the videos. After half an hour, Oliver got out of his room to find the restroom. As he was looking for the restroom, Nicole approached him, and he could see she had a smirk.

“Please tell me how you see Aria.” Nicole said, getting closer to Oliver. “If you only see her as a friend, how about we go out?”

“Do you know where the restroom is?” Oliver asked, ignoring Nicole’s questions.

“I see how it is.” Nicole said, observing Oliver. “Go past the entrance and on your left, you’ll find the restroom. Neither you nor Aria have clarified anything to me, so I’ll chase after you!”

“Do as you like. But why me?” Oliver asked.

“You’re Ayano Hashimoto’s apprentice and at the age of 25 you are one of the top magic engineers in the military.” Nicole responded, looking directly into Oliver’s eyes. “And you don’t seem like a bad guy, overall, a pretty good catch. Way better than those meatheads I am around all the time.”

“Thanks, I guess.” Oliver was blushing and scratching his head. “I better go to the restroom.”

“Go ahead, we still have plenty of time to get to know each other!” Nicole said with a smile.

As he walked towards the restroom, Oliver couldn’t help but peek behind to sneak looks at Nicole. He couldn’t help and focus on her plump lips. He couldn’t help himself from comparing Aria and Nicole and noticing that each one of them had a different charm that he was attracted to. His feelings became conflicted on what he wanted, but he decided to not think about it deeply at the moment and instead focus his mind on the upcoming mission.