“Five hundred or so snowpyre corpses need to be handled, should we do the usual?”

“Yes, please.”

“Okay. Next, we have a court-martial coming up, the one regarding the small tussle between Lance Corporal Hugo and Corporal Liam. Who should be appointed to the panel of judges?”

“If I recall, Corporal Liam’s from Thunderbolt, while Hugo is from Stardust, right?” Aziz asked, without looking up from the papers he was reading.

“Yes, sir.”

“Their respective company commanders will take one slot each. For the last seat, appoint one officer from division headquarters,” the colonel replied. “Make sure that he or she has no past history with either battalion.”

His assistant scribbled a few things, and in the few moments of silence his secretary gave him, Aziz took a sip of water. After adding his own signature to the force disposition of Stardust and Thunderbolt for the Conference of the Four, which was tomorrow, he picked up another paper and began to scan through it.

This was the life of an officer when there wasn’t a war going on. Just paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork. The most exciting things that occurred every so often would be a staff meeting, and the biannual military exercises that everyone looked forward to. As the deputy commander of the First Aerial Division, Aziz was no longer in charge of planning daily trainings — he was now looking at the overall picture, ensuring that the division’s operations weren’t impeded at the macro level.

There were a whole bunch of staff officers that were handling the nitty-gritty bits of it, but that didn’t mean he could slack off either. After cross-referencing the research paper — the one he’d just finished reading — into his own work, the colonel rubbed his temples and yawned.

“Sir, regarding the procurement of replacement artefacts, Major Trang An has completed her assessment of the suppliers. Do you want to read it?”

“Hmm?” Aziz looked up. “That’s faster than I expected. Send her my compliments. Place it on my desk, I’ll look through it during lunch.”

“Yes, sir.” Captain Violette placed the paper down, and walked over to Marie’s own secretary, Captain Barret. The two discussed something for a moment, and then walked over to Aziz, who had been sneaking glances at the pair when they talked.

“Colonel, do you need us to get lunch for you?” Captain Barret asked, his keen eyes focusing on the mountain of papers on his desk.”

“Oh, it’s lunch already?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Much appreciated, then. Where are you guys going?” Aziz asked. The colonel definitely wasn’t interested in a possible romance between the two secretaries of his office, definitely not. It was just that people should be a bit more straightforward, given that the demons were coming soon. Nothing more, nothing less.

“There’s this restaurant with rave reviews from the West,” Captain Violette replied. “I wanted to check it out.”

“I see. In that case, get me the chef’s special,” Aziz replied. “Oh, and could you guys drop by the intelligence department when you return? Help me check on the status of those kids in Machia.”

“What do you want to know?” Captain Violette asked.

“Just check around if there’s this kid named ‘Gaius’ killing off lots of snowpyres, that’s all,” said the colonel.

“‘Gaius?’ Okay.” Violette nodded. “Anything else?”

“No, not really.” Aziz licked his lips and sighed. “Me and the marshal” —he looked at a table in the centre of the room, which was stacked with papers— “would love to join you two, but we’re really swamped with work.”

“That’s why you draw a high salary, sir.”

Someone sitting behind the table Aziz just looked at laughed, and the colonel suddenly found himself on the verge of a coughing fit. After stifling his urge to cough really obnoxiously, Aziz returned to his papers and said, “High? That’s debatable, really. But do be on your way.”

The sounds of the door closing came a few seconds later. The laughter he’d caught earlier intensified a moment later, and Aziz stopped reading, annoyed.

“Hey.”

“What?” Marshal Marie, who was also working on her own report and other commander-y stuff, replied innocently.

“Where’s my pay raise? My check just came in, and I’m still paid a captain’s salary!” Aziz asked. “Can you do something about it? Or should I just resign my commission?”

“It’s in the works,” Marie replied. “Just because I’m laughing doesn’t mean that I’m not going to fight for your benefits. I’ve sent in a few strongly-worded letters about inherent discrimination against humans in the military to the State Council, and your case is serving as a prime example.”

“Haaah. Fine, thank you,” Aziz replied grumpily.

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“More importantly, what was that about Gaius?” Marie asked. “I know he probably fled to the North, but we’re talking about the Phrontistery of Scientific Reasoning here. That’s a school for elites in the North.”

“Just in case. The kid’s someone special, and haven’t you heard? The Human God’s actually coming to this,” Aziz replied. “He’s pretty much a wanted criminal by the Preserver.”

“He’s not going to come here,” Marie replied. “That’ll have to take some brass balls, and then some. I mean, he left the East the moment Paragon Shizo and his cronies turned against him, right?”

“True.” Aziz relaxed on his seat. “He’s abnormally bright, even for a child from Earth. Putting that aside a bit, Paragon Shizo…is he really now the ruler of the Eastern Territories? Did the East’s Demigod approve of him?”

“I wish I knew, but the State Council — the Republic’s State Council — isn’t going to trust that bugger any farther than they can kick him,” Marie replied. “We’ve done some checks on him. Do you know what vows he actually made?”

“Vows?” Aziz looked up from his report. “What did he make?”

“To act for the best interest of all,” she replied.

“Huh?” The colonel rubbed his eyes. “Betraying the little kid to the Human God was for the best interest of the East?”

“Apparently so,” Marie replied. “But at any rate, the East is going to be relegated to a logistics and frontline role in battle. That’s near certain.”

The two began to muse about why the Paragon had sold out Gaius, speaking every so often while reading and writing their reports, passing time in that fashion until their secretaries came back from their date.

Aziz’s stomach began to rumble every few moments, as was Marie’s, and after looking through yet another research paper from last century, the colonel began to wonder if their secretaries were too busy making out with each other to buy them their food. His eyes drifted over to Marie, who was essentially the girl of anyone’s dreams right here, and then stifled a giggle at the fact that she was quite the workaholic.

Given her station, however, few even dared to talk to her. From what he knew, she had at least a hundred-plus admirers within the Republic’s bureaucracy, and even more within the military itself. But the general consensus was that none of them had the dignity, position and poise to be a match for her.

Which was somewhat unfortunate, since the colonel knew full well that she didn’t discriminate by social class or race. She had always been a charming person, but her meteoric rise up the ranks of the Republic’s military had turned her lovely charm into a charisma unrivalled in raising morale.

“Can you stop your stomach from rumbling?” Marie asked, as what seemed to be thunder echoed around the room.

“That wasn’t me this time.” Aziz pointed at the window. “It’s about to rain heavily.”

“Oh.” Marie cleared her throat. “My apologies.”

“We should sound the lightning ale—”

A high-pitched noise began to roll across the Central Circle, one that somehow combined the droning of insects to the ear-piercing bugle call that sounded every morning. A few moments later, a carpet of water began to fall, drawing streaks on the window Aziz was looking through. It was a beautiful scene to behold — rain like this had been very rare prior to the Lifespring’s passing.

“When are the great gods arriving?” Aziz asked. The question had just struck him for some reason — maybe it was his thoughts about the late Conrah that made him bring it up.

“Probably tonight or tomorrow,” Marie replied. “The great gods haven’t told us anything yet.”

She got up from her seat, and began to stretch. Aziz found himself sneaking a few glances at her, and it was only with the mental discipline he built up from the years of war that he forced himself away. Ever since he did it with Rene, the colonel hadn’t done it again.

“Something wrong?” Marie asked.

“Just my mind,” he replied. “A war’s coming. Mortals and gods about to talk as equals for the first time in countless millennia. And there’s me, thinking about things like love.”

“Love, eh?” Marie asked. “You’re two to three years older than me — have you fallen in love before?”

“Most of the people around me back then were guys. They were great people, but unfortunately, I’m only attracted to women.” Aziz tapped his feet. “Oh, there were some who liked people of their own gender, and those were the ones who found happiness earlier.”

“You aren’t the, uhh, judgemental type, eh?”

“Why would I?” Aziz shook his head. “But when I see the proverbial end of the world on the horizon, I can’t help but envy those who’ve gotten a partner.”

“I know what you mean. Our secretaries…” Marie walked over to him. “Should we encourage them?’

“You were the one that brought that up, not me.” Aziz grinned. “I was going to give them a bit of help. Violette’s a good girl, and Barret is the kind of guy every man should be. The only thing holding me back was—”

The door opened at that moment, and Aziz clamped his mouth shut. Captain Barret and Violette walked into the room, water streaming around their own Engine’s Barrier and wetting the ground.

Marie looked at them. “You could have waited in the rain. We’re not going to punish you just because our food was a tad late.”

“But you’re doing important work for the Republic. Having an even later lunch would be bad for you and the nation as a whole,” Captain Barret replied.

Marie shook her head, a smile on her face. At the same time, her voice spoke in Aziz’s ear. “Quite the good match, right?”

Aziz rolled his eyes and transmitted his voice in reply. “Told you.”

The two captains, meanwhile, looked on bemusedly as their bosses traded private words with each other. After a few moments of exchanging praises about their secretaries, Aziz remembered that they were still watching him, and cleared his throat.

“Violette, did you find anyone with that name?” Aziz asked.

“No, sir. I checked around, but the kids in Machia are killing snowpyres only a bit faster than the regular soldiers. There wasn’t anyone outstanding, so I’m not sure if there’s really a Gaius with them,” she replied.

“I see.” Aziz stroked his chin. “Thank you for your hard work.”

If the boy was indeed in that group, Aziz was certain that the division’s intelligence would have picked up on it. Gaius was a combat prodigy, which meant that snowpyres would just fall like flies. But since that clearly wasn’t happening, it could only mean that the boy really wasn’t in that group.

He would be safe from the Human God, then. Aziz smiled, and then picked up the food that the two secretaries had gotten for them. Biting into them, he briefly wondered what kinds of food the great gods ate — if possible, a culinary exchange between the mortals and the gods might even happen…

Rain continued to fall outside, but his body was comfortably warm. The occasional lightning bolt would fall, but in this office of his, no one really minded.

But the lightning did remind him of one thing.

The Conference of the Four — the talks that would decide how the Five Lands would stand against the demon invasion — was tomorrow. History would be made on that day... and for a long time to come.