-A while earlier-
[Status: ]
Name: Adrianna Riftmire (Lvl. 52)
Class: Illusionist of Monstrous Apparitions – Epic (Tier: V)
Age: 21y
Race: Human
HP: 1600/1600 {+40/5m}
MP: 5100/5100 {+620/1m}
Stats:
Free Stat Points: 0
STR: 23 SPRT: 115
CON: 32 MENT: 25
AGI: 22
DEX: 34
INT: 113
WIS: 62
[Origin Skill: Manifestor’s Cuboid Energy Matrix | Type: Soul/Realm
Desc: On a world yet unknown to the Tower, individuals have developed a vast array of abilities that function in unique ways. Due to the User’s natural talent with the soul, they have gained the ability to compute and display mentally registered magic whenever they wish, disregarding the need for a long cast time and enabling their spells to function on automated commands.
Subskills:
* Soul Construct
* Manifestations of the Mind
* Simulator
Pseudo-Domain – Zone of Control
Awakening: 6% ]
She felt an indescribable sense of déjà vu as she looked at the white-blue screen before her. It was a very strange experience to see her old Level 52 Status again. Well, not quite the same, considering she had never actually been 21 years old at this time, and the 10+ levels she had gained on top of the original levels had their stats distributed differently. The Alter-Ego skill worked just as well as she expected, being a System skill and all. She could even feel her Origin Skill back in place, its silvery-white cube structure represented within her mental power as well as just below the heart area where an Origin Skill was normally only found. She was a little special.
But there were a few slight differences she had sensed over the last few months compared to the Origin Skill she originally had. She looked through the subskills of her skill.
[Sub-skill: Soul Construct | Type: Soul/Psychic ]
Desc: The User’s incredibly high talent for the manipulation of their soul has manifested in the form of an Origin Skill that creates a control centre for all manipulation of mana, spiritual energy, and soul power.
Abilities:
Mental Tesseract – Cube of calculation.
* Gives the User a mental structure that can compute and register multi-dimensional energy-form objects and entities, storing patterns and creating processes.
Soul Configuration – Unique soul talent.
* Gives the User access to SPRT and MENT at Rank-0.
* Gives the User access to the Soul Compression Aspect.
[ ]
[Sub-skill: Manifestations of the Mind | Type: Soul/Magic ]
Desc: Mana may affect natural laws with more ease than spiritual energy, but it is spiritual energy that forms the soul and controls the energy of the material realms. With a deeper understanding of this phenomenon, the borders between imaginary and real are blurred.
Abilities:
Amplified Mana Manipulation – Control of the mind equates to control over mana.
* Enables the User’s mana manipulation proficiency to develop with direct correlation to their spiritual energy manipulation on a 1:1 ratio and vice versa.
Magical Materialisation – Fine elemental control granted by a powerful soul.
* Gives the User the ability to have enhanced control over their elemental affinities. Current affinity: Mid-level compound: Superior Illusion Affinity (99%).
* Gives the User the ability to have their registered patterns materialise without rune arrangement or the User’s mana manipulation.
[ ]
[Sub-skill: Simulator | Type: Soul/Psychic ]
Desc: Through the Mental Tesseract, the User gains high computational power that will allow them to make estimates on the outcomes of spells and their magic when they activate the Mental Tesseract. The higher their knowledge of the fundamental mechanics of reality, the higher the accuracy of their predictions.
Ability:
Microcosmic Emulator – Simulation of Reality.
* Gives the User the ability to mentally simulate the consequences of different rune arrangements, spell models and all registered patterns in the Mental Tesseract, enabling the User to determine if a pattern will successfully materialise or not, and how it will interact in different scenarios.
[ ]
The first two were the same as they had originally been, but not the last one. That one had changed from ‘Pseudo-Simulator’ to just ‘Simulator’. Not that such a change was bad. In fact, it was very good. The structure of her Origin Skill had become significantly more complex, by about an additional 30% compared to her old one. She could tell the abilities of the soul construct were capable of more comprehensive and in-depth analysis.
She had managed to recreate and improve on all the functions of her mental tesseract with spiritual energy and soul power over time, taking her soul’s abilities to another level, but considering her soul clone’s current limitations in that regard, the slight upgrade was a welcome addition. If she had this exact subskill in the last timeline, she estimated her magical progress would’ve been only half as fast, just because of how complex the skill now was. Her past self would’ve struggled to utilise it well.
The reason why she was checking her Status though was because of her request for Commander Arkenast. The request she was going to make was nearly the same as the one she had made in the past, just one month earlier. But she wasn’t using her main body in the Navy, so she was able to ask now rather than after the Forerunner’s Event as she had done in the past. It was her current primary skills that gave her the combat power needed if he accepted her request though, so she pulled her first one up to double-check it.
After a particularly nasty run-in with a memory-altering effect proving her eidetic memory was not infallible, she had developed the habit as a precaution.
[Primary Skill: Intermediate Mage of Illusion’s Compendium | Type: Runic/Elemental ]
Rarity: Rare
Tier: V (5)
Desc: The mid-level compound element of illusion has some of the most esoteric capabilities of all the elements, yet few truly comprehend the possibilities of the element. This User has begun to explore the infinite potential of an element that can mimic all the elements and has chosen to follow the method of permanently engraving its runes into their mana pool to manipulate it.
Subskills:
Runic Model: Illusion – The crystallisation of modern rune theory come to fruition.
* Grants the User the Intermediate Illusion Mage Aspect (Tier V).
* Grants the User an illusion element runic model that increases in complexity as User adds more runes to it. Current progress: 12% towards advanced level.
Phantasmal Spell Tome – The most important part of being a mage.
* Grants the User access to the following spells based on current runes in runic model: Lesser Illusion Dispersion, Lesser Mirage, Invisibility, Arcane Detection, Arcane Scan….. [collapsed]
* Grants the User access to the basic runic theorem knowledge of an intermediate mage.
Subskill slots:
* [empty]
* [empty]
* [empty]
[ ]
Just seeing it made her feel incredibly annoyed. She spent ages earning the right skills to increase the rarity of the skill, but now she had to do it again. At least she knew the best way to improve it.
Because of how tiering up skills and classes functioned, it could be quite hard to get a better rarity. Tiering up a skill consumed the secondary skills in the skill slots, increasing the tier of the class’s Aspect so when the class itself tiered up it would give percentage-based boosts to things like mana-sensing capability, spell efficiency and effectiveness, mana density, INT and WIS multipliers, and other bonuses. It was these bonuses she wouldn’t be able to gain for her main body because she was going to forego a class, meaning she would never have the same stats as other Users.
When all of a class’s primary skills reached the same tier, the class itself would tier up and these bonuses were gained, and then the cycle started again. If someone hadn’t merged classes to evolve them, then the class would only need its original primary skill to tier up. If their class had multiple primary skills, the skill amount needed to tier up the class drastically increased.
But doing this didn’t increase the rarity of a skill. It didn’t add any new subskill to the primary skill. Only when a subskill in the subskill slot was highly compatible with the primary skill would the skill evolve, and permanently gain something new. This was what made a path of progression so useful to many. They already knew which skills were highly compatible.
For people who didn’t have a path of progression, they could always decide not to use the secondary skills in the subskill slots if they didn’t want to risk losing the skill, but gaining a lower rarity skill locked the User out of gaining a higher rarity one until it disappeared, so it wasn’t suggested. It was a good thing she knew what skills she needed to evolve it the way she wanted.
The actual rarity of a class only changed when two main classes were merged, and then the User selected the evolution they wanted, adding one or two more features to the class’s Aspects, while also increasing the stat gain and maximum class tier cap to fit the rarity. But because her first primary skill was only Rare, its rarity tier cap was lower than her second primary skill’s, and so until she evolved her first primary skill to the rarity level of her second, her class wouldn’t be able to tier up fully. Although, as a Rank-1, she had a Rank tier cap of 6 anyway, so she didn’t need to be too hasty to evolve it just yet.
Her second primary skill was a little more… unusual.
[Primary Skill: Enhanced Soul, Mind and Spirit | Type: Mental/Magic ]
Rarity: Epic
Tier: V (5)
Desc: The field of the soul is not one studied by many of the material realms. Very few not belonging to the Heavenly Realm choose to apply its functions to their abilities, but this User has chosen to do so. Rather than discover the esoteric Daos and wonders of cultivation, they will instead build up a powerful mind to enhance their magical abilities.
Subskills:
Metaphysical Cognition – The presence of mind increases the presence of soul.
* Grants the User the Soul Mage Aspect (Tier V).
* Grants the User the ability to be conscious of their soul’s presence at all times, enabling them to detect the application of spiritual energy when casting magic.
Spiritual Control – Soul over mind over matter.
* Grants the User the ability to imbue their magic and mana with spiritual energy. Allows for remote control and extended field of influence.
* Grants the User access to the basic spiritual energy and soul power knowledge of a Rank-1 soul mage.
Subskill slots:
* [empty]
* [empty]
* [empty]
[ ]
Technically speaking, there was no such thing as soul magic, for all that it was called that. Soul wasn’t an element, nor were there any runes that influenced it, and so she wasn’t a soul ‘mage’, but that was the term the System decided to use as her designation. The class enabled her to enhance her spell-casting ability by creating mental structures that were capable of computing runic algorithms and spell models more easily.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
In that sense, the class was mostly a support class to be used in conjunction with another magic class. It didn’t give her the capability of supporting the constant information load received through her perception field she kept permanently active with her main body though, so besides in combat, she wasn’t using a large perception field.
It was with the soul mage class that she learnt how to make ‘cores’ of spiritual energy that she stored her monster constructs in, then added illusion mana that mimicked a monster’s mana to form the body. Using the ‘Scan’ function she designed with her Origin Skill, she was able to record the abilities of monsters to use for her purposes, if at weaker strength. As time went by and she quit being Admiral, she stopped using the magic she developed in the Navy. Considering she was going to be using the status of a military member for some time, she was interested to see how much further she could take her old magic.
She closed the screens and jumped down off the wall ledge she had been sitting on. The training camp had officially concluded the day before, the second last day of October, and now was just the day when everyone said their goodbyes and left to go spend the next three months elsewhere. As the mana ice-storm period of the Distorted Depths was far too dangerous for most new members of the Navy, they and all new members were given leave until February. They had received their badges that indicated they were Officers of the Navy yesterday.
She didn’t believe that when Griffin came back the next year his discovery of her decision would be an issue. She had firmly ‘proved’ to him she was in no way a person from Earth in the first timeline, and with that misconception having lasted over two hundred years, it was unlikely he’d suddenly sense something was off. She had used an illusion spell to disguise herself as someone else so she didn't use her real or Adrianna identity when she went to the Forerunner's Event, after all. She expected him to attribute it to his so-called win during the last battle motivating her to gain strength, which would probably make him rather self-satisfied. Well, the more incorrect assumptions he made, the better for her.
What would possibly be an issue is that she planned on revealing her inability to sense killing intent to the Commander. He had actually discovered it last time and got mad at her for hiding such a weakness and not having enough trust in her crewmates to reveal that to them, especially when they were frequently in life-or-death combat. It hadn’t been a matter of trust. She just didn’t want them to know she was even more abnormal than they thought.
Typically, mages weren’t expected to be able to detect killing intent very well, but her complete incapability of doing so quickly became obvious when the stronger monsters’ intent knocked everyone else of her Rank unconscious. She had masked her weakness when it came to sensing attacks by developing many detection spells and using her scanning function often.
But she was pretty sure Commander Arkenast would be more curious than anything if she revealed it. She didn’t think it was even possible for her to lose his ‘favour’ as her crewmates had put it, although that was the wrong description. Her abilities weren’t why he paid attention to her in the past, and now.
……most of their past interactions had stemmed from him just trying to get a reaction out of her. He could be very annoying when he found someone interesting. Maybe that was why Ross had always complained to her of all people. He felt some bond of shared suffering.
But she could tell that the last of the members of the training camp had left, so it was time she went to go find Ross and ask to meet the Commander. All going well, she would not be leaving like the rest of the former cadets, and would instead stay during the most dangerous months of the Distorted Depths.
…
“Why are you still here?” the dark-haired man exclaimed, aghast.
She had found him as he was just about to leave the training camp section of the fortress layer. He was staring at her with what seemed to be horror like he was appalled at the idea of willingly choosing to remain in White Squall Fortress any longer than necessary.
“I want to meet the Commander,” she replied.
He gazed wearily at her. “You do realise I’m no longer head instructor, right? I’m not in charge of you anymore.”
“As an Elite Officer, I don’t have the authority to meet with the Commander. You weren’t going to be dismissed from your position until the day after the training camp-” She gestured to him and then the open door of the building. “-which I assume you were going to do now.”
He ran a hand down his face exasperatedly. “Oh, that’s right, I’m talking to the person who memorised the entire rulebook of the fortress’s Navy operations.” He paused and narrowed his eyes at her with suspicion. “Did that happen before or after your little adventure down to the mainframe level?”
“I read it before that.”
His expression became strange as he heard her answer. “…I’m not sure if that makes it better or worse,” he muttered. He pulled back his sleeve to check his wristwatch, glanced at the open doorway, and sighed. “It’s true I was heading there, so I may as well take you. I doubt you’d waste his time with something stupid.”
She opened her mouth to respond but he glared at her before she could. “No, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know what you plan to ask him. I was here, expecting to be free from dealing with you lot.”
He began walking to leave the building and headed towards the main command building, and so she followed, staying silent as he started his complaining yet again.
“I can tell you, I am not ever accepting one of the Commander’s offers again. Becoming head instructor was the worst mistake of my entire life. If he tries to get me to transfer, or take another position, or even promote me I will firmly decline-”
…there was a lot she really wanted to say about that topic but she kept quiet.
“-quit if he tries to do it anyway. And if I hear one more ‘training grounds’, ‘training camp’, or ‘spar’ I am going to punch someone. I swear, this month has made me lose more years of my life than ever before, regardless of my current lifespan. Nothing the Commander has done in the past has come close to what I’ve had to put up with these last-”
It continued like this until they reached the main command building and entered it, making their way to where the Commander’s office was. They earned quite a few looks as they went through the building, no thanks to the overly verbal Officer next to her.
“Sixteen years under the Commander, and I am at wit's end. Now if he offered to transfer me to another fortress, that I would accept, if only to escape him and his-”
“You do realise,” she interrupted. “We’re outside the Commander’s door? He can probably hear you.”
“-tendency to-” He paused when he registered that she had spoken up. Then he realised what she had said, and glanced between her and the door in question.
Right at that moment the door opened for them to see the smirking blonde-haired Commander Arkenast there. “You ruined my fun. I was interested to hear what else he had to say about me.”
Very predictably, Ross Stanhope glared at his superior. The scarred man glanced between them both. “Now, are you here for separate reasons or?”
“Separate reasons, but it’s fine sir. She can listen.” Ross glanced at her. “In actual fact, she already knows what I want to request.”
“Is that so? Well, come in,” the Commander replied, standing back so they could enter his office. The Commander sat down behind his desk as the dark-haired Officer stepped forward.
“I request to take leave,” he asked, standing up straight with his hands behind his back.
The battle-scarred man raised an eyebrow. “The instant the training camp ends? Are you still mad at me for the training grounds prank?”
The Officer very nearly glared at his superior once more but coughed to recompose himself and shook his head. “I had planned to request this before that.”
Commander Arkenast smirked and crossed his arms. “But what if I don’t want to give you permission?”
Ross sighed wearily. “Please sir, I believe a two-week break is an acceptable request.”
“Hmmm.” The Commander drew out his hum, smirking as he registered the twitch of the Officer’s expression. “Well, alright then. But on one condition.”
The dark-haired man gazed dully at him before shaking his head. “If it gets me away from here, I don’t care what I have to do.”
Commander Arkenast turned to Adrianna with a toothy grin. “Did you hear that? He’s accepted. This came out of his own mouth. You’re witness to this.”
The man turned back to Ross and spread his arms. “Congratulations, Stanhope, on your promotion from Elite Officer to Head Officer!”
He stared. “What-”
“Now, obviously you wouldn’t take on the duties just yet, considering you’ve just taken leave,” the Commander continued quickly, pulling out a draw of his desk, “But once you come back you will immediately receive your tasks and responsibilities.” He got up with a small object in hand and walked speedily towards the man. “The workload may be hard at first but I have full confidence you will succeed at it.”
“But, sir-”
“The training camp under your authority had exemplary results, so I expect you will achieve great results in this position too.” He roughly shoved the Head Officer badge into the dark-haired man’s hands and began pushing him out the door. “After your holiday, I expect we will be seeing each other much more often.”
He smiled and waved to Ross as he began to close the door. “I look forward to working with you, Head Officer Stanhope.”
“Wait-”
Click.
The door shut on him, leaving only the Commander and her in the room. The wild-haired man dusted his palms with a satisfied smile and grinned at her. “That was much easier than I expected.”
He walked back over to his desk to sit down, then reclined back in his chair as he looked at her. “It can be quite hard to get that man to open up, but I’ve found when he does, he can be very talkative. The fact that he’s acting like that after only a month of knowing you is quite astonishing.”
She hadn’t exactly done anything for him to be like that besides be subjected to too much of the Commander’s attention as well. But she was sure the man in front of her knew that.
“It seems it hasn’t quite clicked for him that out of all the people to complain to, he chose the one with eidetic memory,” she replied.
Commander Arkenast’s bushy eyebrows shot up before he burst out into loud laughter. “Oh dear, it seems he’s shot himself in the foot this time,” he said, chuckling. He waved to her to come closer, so she did. “Well, let’s hear what you’re here for now.”
“I came here about two things, sir,” she began calmly. “One is to inform you about a feature of my capabilities that would be important for you to know as I continue working in the Navy.”
He raised an eyebrow curiously. “Oh?”
She took a breath and continued, “I can’t detect any form of killing intent.”
Her answer made him pause, and consider it for a moment. “Reduced sensitivity?”
“No,” she replied, shaking her head. “Complete incapability of sensing anything. I am immune to it, and can’t emit it myself.”
He went silent as he observed her, likely thinking over the implications of this for her time in the Navy, and possibly wondering how true it was. “I think this needs testing,” he said after a while. He gestured to her. “Do you mind if I…”
She shook her head, and so he watched her as his irises gained a red-hued outline. As the seconds ticked by, the hue deepened in colour indicating he was increasing the strength, but she was perfectly fine with no outward symptoms and experienced none of the sensation of deep fear nor imminent death most experienced when subjected to killing intent. As a Rank-5 combatant over several centuries old, he definitely had accumulated strong killing intent.
The red hue disappeared as he leaned back, looking very intrigued. “While I’m certain there’s stronger killing intent than mine out there, I think that was quite enough for me to know you’re telling the truth. That is… very interesting,” he said, tapping his fingers on his desk. “Any idea why that’s the case?”
“It could be a side-effect relating to my talent with spiritual energy but I’m not sure,” she replied.
“And I guess you’re telling me this so the fact it wasn’t revealed won’t become an issue later,” he mused. “I can tell you that it won’t be too much of a problem, as we don’t expect high killing intent sensitivity from magic users anyway. Although I am curious about how this works in a physical combat setting,” he added with a grin. He gestured to her. “What was the second thing you wanted to talk to me about?”
“I want to request to stay here for the next three months,” she responded.
“I see.” He observed her with a smile as he held his chin. “You do realise I’ve had a few requests like these in the past, right? Very few have I ever accepted. What makes you think I won’t deny your request?”
“Well sir, for one thing, I’m not an adrenaline-filled battle addict without a sense for their own capabilities, nor a young noble with little succession rights who thinks they’ll become their clan’s new favourite by bringing back a few stuffed king-ranked monster heads, and I don’t intend on trying to fast-track to the next Rank by attempting to slay a deadly monster way above my pay grade,” she stated dryly.
He laughed. “All right, you got me. Those are exactly the same reasons why I denied their requests. Then I’ll ask a different question.” He pointed at her. “Why do you want to stay here?”
“To become familiar with the Navy,” she replied. “Especially as I’m now a Squad Leader, and will soon be in charge of the M.W.S. Dawnlight. I’ll have to deal with the ice-storm period of the Distorted Depths next year, and I want to get experience with it now when I won’t get killed instead of experiencing it for the first time next year on the ocean.”
“So it’s due to you wanting to prepare,” he commented, eyeing her curiously. “What would you do if I declined your request?”
“I’d probably go back to doing mercenary work,” she said with a shrug. “That, or adventuring. It’s best if as the Squad Leader, I’m at a much higher level when the others come back.”
“Hmm.” Commander Arkenast crossed his arms. “If I accepted, you’d have to be temporarily demoted from Squad Leader.”
“I need a squad to be a Squad Leader.”
That made him chuckle. “Right. You get it.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he considered her request, and then he smirked.
She did not like that smirk.
“I’ll let you stay on one condition,” he said, lifting a finger.
She gazed wearily at him. “Could I please hear what this condition is before I agree, sir?”
The battle-scarred man clicked his tongue. “Learnt from Stanhope’s mistake, have you? Oh well.” He grinned wickedly. “You help me test out how this no killing intent thing works, and I’ll let you stay for the next three months.”
She went silent as she considered what he meant. Then she sighed slightly as she realised she was talking to one of the aforementioned battle addicts. “You want me to spar with you?”
His grin widened. “It would only be for the next month, as my ship will set out in December to head for the central waters. I won’t occupy all your time, maybe every few days.” He rested his chin on his hand. “But I have a feeling you could make a very interesting physical combatant if you wanted.”
It wasn’t actually a bad suggestion. She did have some experience with fighting physical combatants up close, even if not with her limbs as such, and she knew her inability to manifest killing intent meant she was a very unpredictable fighter for them. If she could use the experience with her main body it would be useful. The only issue was she knew exactly what the man in front of her was like when fighting. But it was a little detail in the scheme of things.
“I’m fine with it. Learning how to fight a physical combatant up close might be helpful,” she eventually replied.
“Very good.” He smiled. “Now, as for what you’ll do during these next few months…” He paused to consider something, seemingly having had an idea. He glanced at her again. “As the future leader of the crew of Dawnlight, it might be a good idea for you to become familiar with the combat operations of the fortress’s main attack crew, rather than just stay here and combat shoreline monsters.” He tapped his fingers on his desk thoughtfully.
He leaned forward to gaze intently at her. “I’ll tell you what. My ship will be doing several rounds this month as we prepare to head into the central zone, getting back into the right habits after 8 months without the ice-storm period. If you,” He pointed at her, “Can prove your abilities with us during this time, then I’ll put you on my ship for the rest of the ice-storm period.”
She stared at him for a few seconds, feeling quite surprised. He wasn’t one to ever let a new, low-ranked, young member of the Navy do something like that. “But sir, I’m still Rank-1. And Level 52.”
“We have a few Rank-1s on the ship. You’d never be asked to enter combat unless under very specific circumstances, circumstances we try to avoid, so your level isn’t a worry.” Then the Commander raised an eyebrow. “But they’re highly talented individuals who’ve performed far, far better than their peers. Which is why I need to see in person how you’ll go over the next month.”
She nodded. “Then I’ll do my best, but I’m not sure I’ll meet your requirements.”
He pointed a finger at her. “And that answer has instantly made you better than the hundreds of idiots who’ve come to me before spouting words of unfounded self-confidence. Nothing is proven yet, so I’m only asking for your full effort. As for who you’ll be placed under….” He thought for a moment and then grinned. “I’m sure my new Head Officer will be interested to know who’s going to be one of his subordinates when he comes back.”
And things were working out just like they had been in the past timeline. Ross would never be able to escape the curse of being given more work. She nodded, expecting the Commander to direct her to someone to arrange for her continued stay in the Navy, but the blonde-haired man said something else.
“And there’s someone I’d like to introduce you to, but….” He blinked and then smiled. “Ah. Here he is.”
Then she saw him. She felt her body freeze up as she felt a very familiar presence enter her perception field, and knock on the Commander’s door, a stack of papers in hand.
The Commander called out to him, “Come in.”
The door was pushed open to reveal a young man in his early twenties with tousled sea-green hair, sea-green eyes, and cyan wave patterns that trailed down the right side of his face and neck, appearing on his forearms as well. The tips of his ears were semi-translucent and luminous aqua veins could be seen within them. He paused when he saw her and gave her a smile and nod, before walking up to the Commander’s desk to deposit the documents.
“Thank you,” Commander Arkenast replied. “Now, Wharifin, this,” he said, gesturing to her, “Is Officer Adrianna Riftmire, who is the new Squad Leader chosen from this month’s elite training camp. She’ll be working with you for the next few months.”
The young man blinked in surprise. “You mean Ross’s group? I see.”
She stared with slightly wide eyes at the young man who turned back to her, holding out his hand for her to shake as he smiled. “Hi. My name’s Caspian Wharifin.”
He was the man who had been her closest subordinate for 25 years in the Navy and was quite possibly the worst person the Commander could’ve ever chosen to put beside her.