Reivyn leaned back in his chair, sighing to the air. Detailed reports of each individual mercenary laid scattered on his desk. He pinched the bridge of his nose as he let himself decompress. He had spent several days going over all of the information available on every single mercenary.

As the overall commander, he was in a paradoxical situation. The chain of command existed in a way that he only dealt with the officers and their senior enlisted advisors when applicable. Their mercenary organization was young enough that it wasn’t the case, yet, but it would be one day.

However, that being said, he was still responsible for everyone under his command. He believed it was his duty to have a full grasp of his people’s capabilities. There wasn’t anyone to cover for him if he miscalculated. That was his job to do for his subordinates.

Thus, he had spent several days familiarizing himself with all of the workings of the mercenary battalion. He didn’t just go over the personnel files, they were just the ones currently on his desk.

The supply situation, finance, intelligence… Everything was given scrutiny.

With his Divine Sense, he could instantly scan all of the words written on paper in all of the reports, but he didn’t feel that was good enough. His Divine Sense put that information in his head, but he still had to make that knowledge his.

Previously, the way the Skill worked, it force-fed that information into his consciousness. It was overwhelming to such a degree, it was necessary for him to go blindfold and limit as much sensory information as possible for months after first attaining the Skill.

Now, with being more proficient in the Skill, it worked in a fundamentally different way. It put the information in his brain, but he had to focus on it and summon it to the forefront of his consciousness to “make it his.”

Considering he used to be able to have all of the information at the tips of his fingers instantly but now needed to search within his own mind for it, he assumed with increased Skill and mental attributes, he would one day return to being able to instantly access all of the information as soon as he acquired it.

Skill evolved over time. It seemed his Divine Sense Skill had devolved in order to protect his psyche, but that was just how things worked.

There was always an opportunity cost, and frankly, Reivyn had attained the Skill way before he was ready. The Skill was pseudo-Divine, so it made perfect sense to him that it would progress in a way that appeared on its face to be a backtrack.

One day…

Until that day, though, he would need to focus on the information to use it properly. The papers strewn about his desk weren’t strictly necessary. He had them there for two reasons:

First, almost nobody knew about his Skill, so he was hiding it. He had no real reason to believe there were spies among his mercenaries or the imperial army, but there was no reason to expose his cards if he didn’t have to. It was a simple thing to put up a facade with the paperwork.

Second, it acted as a focus to keep his mind from wandering. His Divine Sense Skill didn’t just plant information in his brain periodically and then lie dormant. It was on at all times. He constantly had more information passing through his mind. He just let his subconscious handle it like the rest of his sensory input. Most of it was discarded, but sometimes things slipped through to the front of his mind without him being aware of it.

Not only the overload of information from the Skill sometimes leaking, but he was always considering new ways to advance his Skills and Affinities. There was no telling when a stray thought that intrigued him would pop into his brain, but there was a time and place. Once he thought it, he could relegate it to the back of his mind until he was ready to consider it, but without the focus, his mind didn’t always listen and he would find himself daydreaming about some little experiment he could run.

Reivyn surveyed the papers on his desk and checked his internal clock. He sighed once more at the amount of time that had been wasted on this endeavor.

Despite his mind working overtime and providing himself a focus to combat it, Reivyn himself wasn’t the actual reason the task had taken so long and been such a chore. Going over paperwork wasn’t really something that bothered Reivyn too much.

He would prefer to be in the field. He was a man of action and always had been, but the little details involved in the administrative work wasn’t a tall hurdle for him to clear.

That wasn’t true of everyone, though.

“Are you not done, yet?” Kayzor cried for the thirtieth time in the past thirty minutes.

Reivyn sat at his desk, but he wasn’t alone in his office. Kazyor was lying across one of the plush chairs in front of Reivyn’s desk with a total lack of any kind of military bearing.

At first, Kayzor had always been as professional as possible in front of Reivyn, but his true personality slowly bled into his actions as they became closer over time. Not only did Kayzor get closer as a natural consequence of occasionally dining with Reivyn during a family meal with Kefira, but they had become genuine friends on their own through their mutual love of sparring and their positions in the military.

“You know you don’t have to wait for me,” Reivyn rolled his eyes. “I’m sure there’s plenty of things you can find to do all on your own.”

“But it’s so boring,” Kayzor complained. “I don’t know how you can sit behind a desk for hours on end with nothing but paper and ink in front of you. A man needs steel in his hands, not quills.”

“I don’t use a quill, thank you very much,” Reivyn shook his head. “And neither do you, come to think of it.”

“It wouldn’t make any sense to say a man needs steel when the pen we use is also made of steel,” Kayzor admitted. “It was the only thing I could think of to not sound like a complete fool.”

“Just an incomplete one, then?” Reivyn chuckled.

“Hah! Kick me while I’m down, why don’t you.” Kayzor sighed dramatically once more. “But come on. Are you not done, yet?”

“I’ve been done for ten minutes,” Reivyn said, sitting straight in his chair and looking intently at his future brother-in-law.

Kayzor’s body froze for a moment before he slowly sat up and glared at Reivyn.

“You mean to tell me, you’ve just been sitting there doing nothing for ten minutes, while I’ve been asking you every minute whether you’re finished or not?”

“I haven’t been doing nothing,” Reivyn shrugged. “I’ve been enjoying watching you squirm. You’ve made me suffer for days, so what’s an extra ten minutes for you?”

“But, but… we could have been doing something for the past ten minutes. Like sparring in the training yard.”

“It’s lunch time,” Reivyn pointed out. “The yard will be full of people streaming in and out of the mess hall with a lot of foot traffic in the yard.”

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“Alright, but then we could have been eating for the past ten minutes,” Kayzor argued.

“No, the mess hall opened just now. It’s just now lunch time. Ten minutes wouldn’t have been enough to get any kind of serious sparring in, and then we would have been interrupted. Then you would have been frustrated at being interrupted and lost your appetite, storming off to who knows where.”

“So you’ve really just been waiting out the time before lunch was ready,” Kayzor narrowed his eyes. “Then what was all this nonsense about watching me squirm?”

Reivyn laughed.

“You’re fun to tease,” he answered. “Come on, let’s go get some lunch. Then once the yard clear out, we can have that spar, and then you can go do whatever it is you do in the afternoon.”

“Alright,” Kayzor said, leaping to his feet. “I was getting hungry anyway.”

The two officers made their way to the mess hall. There was a long line for the enlisted mercenaries on one end of the hall. Reivyn and Kayzor didn’t go to that line. They circled around to another entrance reserved for the commissioned officers.

Even though the kitchen was on place, there were three separate places for the troops to get their meals. The regular enlisted had the longest line. The next spot over was for the NCO’s and Staff NCO’s. Finally, on the other end of the room was for the officers.

The mess hall itself was also cordoned off in a similar fashion. The officers ate together, the SNCO’s and NCO’s ate together, and the regular enlisted ate together. There was no mixing. It wasn’t just Reivyn’s sensibilities of eliminating fraternization, either. It was common practice in the imperial army, and Reivyn assumed Willowan wasn’t the only one.

Reivyn remembered the story of Kefira disciplining his former Captain with a whipping for fraternizing with the soldiers, so he assumed it was a common practice in the more diligent military organizations across the Realm.

No sooner had Reivyn and Kayzor placed their own trays down on their secluded table than a third on joined them. Reivyn had already noticed his friend approaching with his Divine Sense, but Kayzor looked up in surprise at the intrusion.

“Wel, well, well. Look who’s finally shown up,” Reivyn leaned back in his seat and looked up at the interloper.

“What do you mean, ‘look who’s finally shown up?’” Teilon rolled his eyes as he took a seat. “You told me to do my own thing until you called, and you just called. It can be argued that I’m early. I did come right away.”

Kayzor raised an eyebrow at Teilon’s words and turned an inquisitive gaze toward Reivyn.

“Ahh, you two haven’t been introduced, yet,” Reivyn said, smacking his fist into his open palm. “Kayzor, this is Teilon, my best friend from my hometown. Teilon, this is Kayzor, general of the imperial army and older brother of Kefira.”

“I’ve heard so much about you,” Teilon and Kayzor said to each other at the same time. Reivyn suppressed a chuckle.

The first time Teilon and Kimberly had arrived in Willowan, they had spent most of their time out and about in the city. They mostly interacted with their own band that was part of Refix’s crew, but they also occasionally interacted with the mercenaries. They had been introduced to Kefira through Ameliyn, but they hand’t interacted at all with Kefira’s family members. Their social circle was just different at the time.

That didn’t mean they hadn’t learned about Kefira’s family. Of course Ameliyn talked about her future in-laws, and Kefira definitely had a thing or two to tell them about her family.

The same thing could be said in the other direction, as well. Reivyn had spoken of his friends from time to time at family dinners with Kefira before he had deployed, but Kayzor and the others had truly learned what little they knew of Reivyn’s friends from Kefira talking about them after having met them herself.

Kayzor knew that Teilon was a bit of a rascal, but he was also a reliable man who had spent time in the military. He ran an Adventuring crew with discipline learned from Refix, too. He had respect for the younger man.

Teilon knew that Reivyn was friends with Kayzor independent of his relationship with Kefira, and that was good enough for him.

“A pleasure,” Kayzor extended a hand.

Teilon grasped it firmly and the two shook with smiles.

“Likewise.”

Reivyn nodded his head as the two looked to him.

“Kayzor, Teilon is going to be in charge of intelligence,” he explained. “It’s a secondary role, though, and not a public one. On paper, he’s a ‘morale’ officer. This will give him cover for his subordinate to run counter-intelligence among our own people, too.”

“I’ve heard of you unique skill-set in infiltration,” Kayzor said to Teilon. “I would definitely like to see that in action some time. Maybe we could even have a spar in a setting where you have access to it, like in a building of some sort.”

“Sure, that sounds like a plan,” Teilon nodded along. “I’ll be upfront, though. It is a huge advantage in the right circumstances. The quality of the material I can phase through isn’t nearly as restricted as it is in proportion to how much you’ll be able to plow through it with your Martial Skills and abilities.”

“It’ll be a good learning experience, either way, for both of us,” Kayzor grinned.

Teilon leveled a suspicious gaze at Kayzor before looking to Reivyn. He indicated Kayzor with his thumb.

“Is this another training-lunatic like your father?” He asked.

Reivyn shook his head with a smile.

“No, he’s just a battle maniac,” Reivyn explained.

“Hey! I’m not a maniac,” Kayzor held his hand to his chest like he had been offended.

“Hah! Says the man who wanted to squeeze in a serious spar ten minutes before the chow hall opened,” Reivyn retorted.

Kayzor just shrugged.

“Teilon, I called you at this time as I figured you would make a good observer for the Dungeon runs we’re going to be conducting,” Reivyn explained.

“Are you going to have me test out potential members of the ‘morale office?’” Teilon asked, tucking into his food.

“Not this time,” Reivyn shook his head. “I’ll let you come up with the tests for that. This is just going to be a regular inspection. Even though your forte is infiltration and intelligence, you have the necessary background and experience to judge the fledglings.”

“Sure, sure. Do you have a squad in mind, or can I choose my own?”

“Up to you,” Reivyn shrugged. “I can randomly assign you one, or you can pick your own. I don’t mind either way.”

“Alright, I have a squad in mind already,” Teilon replied.

Reivyn was taken aback a bit. He quirked an eyebrow at his friend.

“I thought you were staying away from the battalion this entire time,” Reivyn said. “Have you been secretly keeping abreast of the mercenaries?”

Teilon shook his head with his fork still in his mouth.

“Nah, nothing as responsible as that,” He replied after swallowing his bite. “I just met some people a while back who helped me out at the cost of a recommendation to getting into the mercenary training. I heard he made squad leader as a newbie, so I wanted to see for myself if he’s the real deal or not.”

“Yeah, I’d heard that you’d done something like that,” Reivyn said.

“You did?” Teilon glanced at Reivyn in surprise. “From who?”

“Kefira told me.”

Teilon rolled his eyes in exasperation.

“And how did she know?”

“Kimberly.”

“Ahh, of course. You’re not mad, are you?” Teilon asked.

“Nah, it’s fine. We still conducted a background check on every applicant regardless of where they came from or who they were recommended by. It just goes to show that this guy was lucky and resourceful to get what he wanted. I doubt there are any nefarious actors within our organization.”

“You don’t think some of these empires have sent out people with fake stories to infiltrate the ranks of the various militaries they’ll be facing across the Realm?” Kayzor chimed in.

“That’s not what I said,” Reivyn shook his head. “I said I doubt there are any ‘nefarious’ actors. I don’t doubt there are people from some of the enemy Regions, or even the empire in charge where Aeriella’s from, amongst us. That doesn’t mean they’re necessarily here to sabotage us or feed information to our enemies.”

“What other possible reason could they have?” Kayzor asked.

“I don’t know,” Reivyn shrugged.

“You don’t really seem to be taking the potential threat too seriously,” Kayzor pointed at Reivyn accusingly with his fork.

Reivyn shrugged.

“We’ve done what we can upfront. We’ll just have to keep an eye on anyone and everyone to make sure while moving forward. Plus, we have some advantages against them, like Teilon and his ‘morale office’ among other things.”

“Alright, if you say so,” Kayzor returned his focus to his meal.

“Wait a minute,” Teilon said, placing his own fork down. His plate had already been cleared. “Am I missing something? Who’s Aeriella?”

Kayzor gave Teilon a serious look.

“A crazy person,” he replied. “One who’s apparently from a Tier 6 Empire and obsessed with our boy, Reivyn, here.”

“Obsessed with Reivyn? Like, she has it out for him or something? Wait, why? Where could you have possibly run into someone from the empire in charge, and how did you manage to piss her off?”

Kayzor threw his head back and laughed. Reivyn gave Teilon an incredulous look.

“We’ve explained this to you,” Reivyn shook his head. “Have you not been paying attention? Am I making a mistake in placing you in charge of intelligence?”

Teilon looked back and forth between Reivyn and Kayzor. Kayzor finally stopped laughing and addressed Teilon again.

“She’s not trying to kill Reivyn,” he said. “She wants to force him into marriage or something.”

“Ooohhh, are you talking about that girl Kefira calls Jezebel?” Teilon’s expression brightened as he finally put it together. “Sorry, sorry. Kefira always interrupts and calls her Jezebel whenever she’s mentioned. In my head, they weren’t the same person. It didn’t… click… right away…

“I’ll go ahead figure out which squad this Gulley character was assigned to and let you know,” Teilon scooped up his tray and made a beeline to the exit.

Reivyn just rolled his eyes and chuckled.