The Queen could be lying. It was even likely, even. She was A-rank; could she even change her beliefs and personality? Theoretically, yes. In practice? It should be impossible.

Still, just hearing the words from someone described as "arrogance incarnate" was flabbergasting.

The fact that she just kept talking instead of waiting for him to acknowledge her words in any way was further evidence of her arrogance.

"The sixth subject we must address is that Captain Abbav did something similar. I'm not privy to the details, but he certainly manipulated you to help you with your Raw Self overriding your Path, or so he believes, and he knows himself. He also wants to apologize."

Abbav nodded. "I'm sorry, Lieutenant," he said.

The draggor's soul shook so much when he spoke that Shen crouched and looked around in panic, prepared for an attack. Nothing happened. When he looked back at the Captain, he was embarassedly avoiding Shen's gaze, and his soul was shaking with shame.

Abbav felt that bad for what he had done? It made absolutely no sense at all.

"What the..." Shen started but didn't even know how to continue.

The Queen explained, "This is no over-the-top ploy. Captain Abbav has recently unbottled some deeply hidden emotions and is struggling with them. He feels very strongly about what he did to you. It seems he empathizes with you due to his upbringing under a manipulative father who only cared for research and never saw his son as anything other than a test subject. To be clear, I do not empathize with you. I still think what I did was right. I only regret it because you are so against it, and I never meant to be perceived as actively acting against you."

Although Shen was being told a lot of things, supposedly with a lot of honesty, he was only growing more confused.

What was happening?!

"The seventh matter is reparations. You need time to process everything I'm saying. We need time to prove we mean what we're saying. We'll postpone the discussion about repaying you for our mistakes until the Calamityendsr. I believe it'll give us all perspective on everything."

Now, she was talking like a head of state. She was deciding things for him, but as she had said, she was forcing him, not manipulating him from the shadows. He disliked it but could understand it, especially when she explained matters. He even agreed with her assessment, too. In fact, he would have nothing to complain about if she had asked for his opinion.

Yet, she was still A-rank and he C-rank; still an Acting General, and he a Lieutenant; still the Queen or an entire race, and he merely the strongest ant of a weak anthill. She wouldn't change herself just to accommodate his feelings. The extent of her repentance was the apology, promising to discuss reparations in the future, and the unspoken promise not to manipulate him again.

"The eighth matter is your future. SpecOps has selected you to join them. I have been postponing your departure for my son's benefit. Special Operatives die too quickly. However, I'll have no choice but to send you to them in five and a half months. You cannot tell anyone where or when you're going, but I suggest you covertly say your goodbyes while you have the time. Maybe give that Sergeant the time for her life or even call the former Drow Maiden. You'll die anyway; no reason to bow to conventions. It's not an order, just my opinion on your best course of action."

SpecOps? Shen had heard all about them in his elite combat training. 'Die quickly' was an understatement. C-ranks lived less than two Earth months in there on average. Yet, their missions were considered crucial, and serving them was supposedly an honor.

Being pulled into SpecOps was the kind of thing Liya had told Shen to avoid. Supposedly, deserting was better than willingly going to his death "for the greater good."

Shen would have agreed with her before everything he had learned in his advanced course. Now, he had his doubts. He valued his life but wasn't an ungrateful bastard, and the Alliance had given him a lot. Enough to die for them? Maybe. Enough to die so Alicia was safer? Maybe-er. He would wait and see what missions he was given before doing anything he might regret later.

Well, not that he thought he would die. He had limits, but he would find a way to survive. The omnipotence inside him demanded so.

The Queen's suggestion was ignored. He lived and died according to his beliefs. If that meant dying a virgin, so be it.

"Nine, I need a favor. I want you to tell Luthdel his brother is dead. The one you met in the Summit. He was killed for treason the very moment he ordered First Sergeant Marzia Martino to undress. No one heard it because Samir's Acting General prevented it for me. It would be a blemish to the high elves. But knowing Luthdel, he'll look into it and find the truth. He might resent the girl for not willingly giving herself to his brother in the first place. He might do something stupid. Don't look at me like I'm crazy; you never saw how far the boy can go for his brothers and sisters."

Shen frowned. He didn't want to kill Luthdel, but he wouldn't accept such stupidity from anyone. Resent the potential victim of abuse? What absurd was that? If Luthdel merely suggested such a thing, Shen would cut his ties with the high elf. And if Luthdel acted against Marzia or anyone for similar reasons, the high elf wouldn't live long enough to ask his mommy for protection.

Stolen novel; please report.

"The tenth matter is another favor: I want you to guide him. Luthdel was filled with the wrong sort of influence as he grew up. I never cared because he'll die young like all first-class talents. But he respects you. Help him instead of doing whatever is going through your mind. He often acts stupid out of being ignorant of a better way, not out of ill intentions."

Shen's frown deepened. He didn't want to have to convince someone not to blame a victim. But he would wait and see. It depended on what Luthdel actually said or did. Some lines shouldn't be crossed.

"Finally, the eleventh matter is that you can go to Samir if you want. I understand that, except for the few human D-ranks on La'sing, humanity is all there. I have nothing to do with this opportunity, and while I could force you to go, I won't. I'll leave the decision for you."

Shen thought about everything he knew and couldn't find any reason for anyone to be sent to a different Node unless there was an emergency, in which case it would be stupid to waste time discussing other matters or giving him a choice. "May I ask how such a thing is even possible, Acting General?"

"You may. Samir's Acting General, the A-rank who was supposed to come to La'sing, has reactivated Samir's Justicar Program. I understand you got a brief introduction to the Justicar Program thanks to your elite combat clearance, but it's not enough for you to get the context. I'll give you a new clearance and more information if you agree to go.

"For now, I'll tell you that Justicars are sometimes used to police troublesome Nodes. It is also an easy way to accomplish particular goals, such as uniting races that don't mingle well with others, like high elves. My absence has caused issues there because I didn't have the time to prepare my people for my departure. My son made things as bad as they could be.

"Of course, things wouldn't have decayed as much without the Acting General ignoring light abuses for three years and heightening the perception of how bad it was. But I approve of his methods. He rooted out even officials of mine that I thought were upright. Sometimes, this is the only way to accomplish a proper cleansing.

"One of the things he needs now, to make the Justicars more easily accepted, is to humiliate Samir's troops and ignite the fire of resentment to fuel their moral progress. He needs an Exemplary Brigade formed by Guardians from other places. He has hand-picked every member of the Brigade from among all front lines. He has requested you and your Lieutenants, but while it makes sense, I have reason to believe he has an agenda. I can't tell you why because he might consider it an attack from me. He also requested Luthdeel, and I have reason to believe he did so to get to me or you. Or both.

"Going to Samir would be excellent for you. Too good, which is the secondary reason I suspect the General's intentions. Earth's other D-ranks and all E-ranks are there, and having you in the Exemplary Brigade telling some tales and sharing some things will help them a lot.

"I have talked to Samir's Acting General, and he agreed to let you bring as many other humans with you as you desire. I did it as a first installment to repay you for the favors I'm asking.

"Changing his picks will cost him a lot. Already, I suspect he was forced to swear to serve on the front lines for decades because anyone can tell he has an agenda for picking certain people from some Nodes. Such punishment might not look like much to you, but it's decades away from the Alliance and unable to directly interfere with important matters. Decades incapable of caring for his people or the ones close to him unless he brings them to Samir. It's like a prison for someone like us, who have so much power and freedom at the tip of our fingers.

"With the added strain of the change, he'll be unable to do anything to you unless he wants to extend his sentence to hundreds of years. Depending on how far he goes and how badly he messes up, he might get sent to actual jail. No one is too valuable if they can't do their job, not even A-ranks. Remember that.

"Of course, he wouldn't be sent to jail now. A-ranks in the military are extra valuable in a Calamity. Yet, the only thing S-ranks hate the most is for Acting Generals to outright act in ways that hinder the military. Don't ever believe any side who wins the Calamity will change the military. Its structure is too convenient. S-ranks have more important things to worry about, and any A-rank transgression beyond a certain threshold is punished. If not now, later.

"That reminds me of something else you might want to know. Let's make it a surprise twelfth topic. You were right: we're all scared that the Alliance might break at any moment. But you didn't get the full picture. We care a lot about one's potential in this place, which is denoted with clearances and, to a lesser degree, Commendations. The more clearances you have, the higher their tier, and the more important they are, the higher you are evaluated. That is how Captain Abbav could get his Node's Acting General replaced despite being a mere B-rank. He was incredibly valued before I discovered how bad he was messing up. He still is because of a classified research he concluded while under deployment, which improved his most valuable clearance. Likewise, you're precious. You could—"

The Queen suddenly stopped talking. She didn't move her eyes away from Shen's, but she obviously had received a warning via a notification. Whatever she had been about to say should not be said.

But she had said enough.

She was telling Shen he didn't need to go to SpecOps if he didn't want to. He could pull his weight, though he was less important than Abbav. She had also just been punished for almost telling him that. Her faux pas should be within the limits of the threshold she had mentioned but would still cost her something.

That was only one thing Shen had to consider after the Queen's lengthy speech. If she didn't lie, she had revealed crucial details about how the military operated. The focus on potential confirmed Shen's belief that the Alliance could run a safer and cheaper military if it wanted and that the weak greatly benefitted from it.

More surprisingly, there was another reason besides fear causing the higher-ups to keep things as they were. They needed people with potential, even if they were willing to spend some of them. After all, they were throwing Shen at death's door by assigning him to SpecOps.

Was that the military's true purpose, using the right potential at the right place? Shen was a fighter, and he would be sent to die fighting. Abbav was a researcher and was given leeway in his experiments.

But what was the military actually seeking? What was the Alliance's end goal besides survival? Why was potential from B-ranks and lower—the Queen's speech suggested A-ranks were beyond that form of evaluation—the only way to accomplish it instead of throwing S-ranks at the problem?

By the way, why was talent so valued by the civilian Alliance, too, if the Queen was so sure Luthdel would die young?

What was all this truly about?