The first rays of dawn roused Aziz from his sleep. Three days had passed since he arrived at the Heaven-cleaving Fortress…the third day after the Human God’s death at the hands of the Lost Star and company. Their little journey had hit a snag, since the advance troops that were supposed to scout out locations to lay out secondary defence lines had rallied together to carry out their task without Aziz and Marie’s instruction.

A day ago, the vice-commanders of all three battalions had decided to petition Marie to let them act independently. As for why she agreed, Aziz had no clue, but those kids would definitely live up to the promises they made, this much he knew.

“Still, why would they suddenly want to go independent? Are we too protective of them?”

After rolling around on his bed for a few fruitless minutes, Aziz got up and pulled on his uniform. He couldn’t find an answer, even after thinking in his favourite position, so he decided to consult the expert in human relations instead.

The expert he had in mind was nibbling away at a huge bun, one that was half a metre tall and wide.

“Morning, Aziz.”

“Good morning, marshal.”

“It’s just the two of us. Marie will do. How many times do I have to keep saying that?”

Aziz couldn’t quite see her annoyed face, since the huge bun was covering it. Sticking a tongue out at her, the colonel said, “What’s with that gigantic bun?”

“It’s a specialty of the Heaven-cleaving Fortress,” Marie replied.

“Are the chefs here crazy?” Aziz asked.

“I have thought about this question for one minute, and I think your conclusion is the best one,” Marie replied. “At any rate, however, nibbling away at this huge bun isn’t going to work.”

“Yes. But how long has it been since you started eating the bun?”

“Five minutes?”

“It took you five minutes to realise that this bun needs to be halved, quartered and then sliced finely?” Aziz shook his head. “Did you not have enough sleep last night? Did the kids’ sudden resolve to become independent get you worried?”

“The latter,” Marie replied.

That reply took the wind out of Aziz’s sails, and he slumped onto the back of his chair. “I was planning to ask you about that, but if you also have no idea about their motivations, it’s going to be a pointless discussion.”

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“What pointless discussion?”

“Were you not paying—” Aziz paused, having realised that the question came from his left, rather than from across the huge bun. “Minister Eventide!”

“Morning to you, Aziz. And please, Eventide will do. It’s just the three of us here.” Eventide adjusted his black robes, which were looking a bit limp, and they began to billow dramatically in the wind.

“That’s what I keep telling him, Eventide, but Aziz just isn’t hearing any of it.” Marie’s voice came from the other side of the bun, one filled with annoyance. “Maybe you can get him to comply or something; Aziz really isn’t scared of me.”

“Are you implying that he’s scared of me? Aziz, are you scared of me?”

“…No?”

“In that case, what makes you think that I’ll be able to convince him?” Eventide laughed. “Give me a moment. I’m going to get this huge bun too. There has got to be something nice inside all that bread.”

Aziz rolled his eyes. “I’m just going to get something more standard.”

It didn’t take long for him to return with a plate of scrambled eggs. The huge bun in front of Marie was now in multiple pieces, and the marshal was busy prying apart the many slices to look for some hidden treasure inside.

“Anything inside the bun?” Aziz asked, curious.

“Nothing but a whole lot of bread,” Marie replied. “Anyway, about the others, we’ll just let them do what they want. They probably think that our workload is already too heavy to begin with, so… “

“Therefore, they decided to take things into their own hands,” Aziz completed. “Right. Well, they’re free to do what they like, I guess, so long as our objectives are met.”

“My thoughts exactly. I’m still worried, though.”

“It’s good that you’re worried,” said Eventide, who had returned with an equally huge bun in his hands. “I know some people who would probably toss as many responsibilities as possible onto their subordinates and do absolutely nothing else.”

Aziz yawned. “Who are you referring to?”

“Some very fine gentlemen, that’s all.” Eventide had a wan smile on his face. “The same issues that plague the other nations have finally settled down in the Republic.”

“What issues?” Marie asked. “Cronyism? Racism? Xenophobia?”

“That…about sums it up.” Eventide stared at the huge bun dully. “Any ideas on how to tackle this before it becomes serious?”

“Education, obviously.” Marie paused. “Quality education that provides fair viewpoints about what happened during the Second Extermination and why. Given that we’ve gotten lots of clues about who was actually behind it and why, it should be something that we should make known to the world at large.”

“That is if Pinnacle Kolya hasn’t gotten around to it yet,” Eventide replied. “But I’ll suggest this to Pauline. Any suggestions to deal with the problematic people currently in the administration?”

Marie and Aziz exchanged glances.

“That’ll be hard,” Aziz said. “I remember sending a recording to you, regarding the issue of payment, right? It’s things like these that probably affect the humans in the Republic. The small bits that pile up and everything.”

“Yes, I remember. I’ve dealt with the offenders harshly; they won’t be employed by the government.”

“It’s probably a structural issue, though,” Marie sighed. “It’ll be hard to deal with.”

“Yeah, well, these buggers are trying to destroy everything we stand for,” said Eventide. “They want us to be the successor of Ark City, to join up with it. Long term solutions aren’t really helping to solve the various issues the wave of beastfolk revivalism has created.”

He levelled an eye at Aziz. “Colonel. Be careful. You’re the first target on their list.”

Aziz stared down at the scrambled eggs. “I see. Thank you for your warning.”

Polishing off the eggs, which were now tasteless, he returned the plate to the washing area. After making some perfunctory excuses, Aziz walked off into a random direction.

It was the same news all over again, just that…