Geon Leventen: I hated carriage rides. I loved them when I got to ride with my friends but when it was just me with a bunch of “important” people it just bored me to death. For one, I could travel faster than any chariot in the whole entire world so riding in one felt like an insane waste of time. Secondly, I hated how cramped they always were. Besides the one that had taken us to the royal party most of them made me feel like I was in a tiny tin can. Lastly, who really wanted to be trapped with a bunch of old dudes who made weird grunting noises and smelled like bad cologne for hours on end? The answer is no one. In fact, I could’ve just stopped at old dudes and that would’ve been enough for most people. Despite all of this, I sat quietly with veteran military officials and generals while they spoke amongst themselves.

I felt better—at least compared to a couple days ago. My injuries had fully healed and my body was back to full strength. It would take me a little while to get used to moving around at full speed again but other than that I felt great. It was weird since I had almost forgotten what it was like to be normal but it was coming back to me now. I took a look inside my pocket and pulled out a little lilac flower which Lila had given me. It would be a while before I saw her again so she had given me a little token to remember her by. I smiled and put it back in my pocket. One of the generals saw me and spoke in a gruff voice, “Got a lady kid?” I looked up with surprise before answering,

“Oh, yes sir.” He nodded,

“Make sure she’s a good one—never know what they get up to while you’re gone.” I stayed quiet for a bit,

“She is a…. a, ‘good one’ sir. I trust her.” He laughed,

“I admire that kid but you never know. I’ve seen soldiers with the most beautiful faith get destroyed.” I stayed quiet. Huh, I guess old men really are terrible when it comes to women-talk.

I spoke in a respectful tone, “Maybe so. But she’s actually fighting in the war so I’m sure she’ll be doing a fine job and not worrying about me or anything else.” He looked at me with surprise,

“A warrior? I see, I wish you luck my boy—that won’t be easy.” I nodded,

“I’m sure many things won’t be easy sir.” He laughed,

“Good answer. We’re here, you finally get to stop listening to us old men. Prepare to meet the members of the first legion—the most capable legion in all of the Taegan empire.” I nodded and walked out of the carriage. The first legion was to be stationed in the north and we were apparently going to be responsible for defending the northern borders, the eastern borders, the upper western borders, and even the southern borders if we really needed to. Basically they were making us do everything—which was nice. There were only three squads in the first legion and therefore only twelve individual warriors. Apparently the lower legions had five to a squad but we only got four—which sucked. I had heard all about the logistics though and I was getting super tired of hearing them over and over again.

The generals led me into the camp and honestly I didn’t know what to make of it—since I really didn’t know what to expect going into camp. There were three large tents—about the size of a house—made of some type of white linen cloth and embroidered with golden vines. Each of them had a name on top of their doors which I assumed signified who the captain of that particular squad's tent was. We stopped at the foot of Captain Lock’s tent and the generals looked towards me, “We wish you victory and success in battle, Mr. Leventen. You may now enter your accommodations.” They saluted me and I did an awkward salute back. They all walked back to their chariots and filed back inside in an orderly manner. I turned back towards the tent entrance and stepped inside. The first thing I did was rub my eyes because the inside of the tent was way, way, way bigger than the outside. The floors were made of mahogany panels and the walls were freshly painted. There was a kitchen with a steel furnace and marble dining tables as well as many rooms for the squad members to stay in. Everything seemed nice—a little too nice. We were supposed to be fighting in a war and yet this place was better than my dorm at Eden academy….. The tent flew open and I quickly turned around.

A woman—about Lila’s height—walked in through the tent door. She had long brown hair and bangs which covered her forehead but kept her eyes visible. She had stormy gray eyes and a slim athletic build as well as a giant musket strapped to her back. Her long, black battle pants and tight white t-shirt gave me the impression that she really didn’t mess around when it came to being comfortable—even on the battlefield. She looked at me for a second before speaking in a fairly normal tone, “What’s up. I guess I’m not the youngest anymore. Welcome to the squad—we’re the two kiddies of the group. It’s nice to meet you, my name is Lara. I know who you are.” She held out her hand and I shook it. I pointed to the musket strapped to her back,

“Cool musket. I’ve never seen one of those in real life before—they’re pretty cool.” She smiled,

“Thanks. Apparently non-warriors use them to go duck and rabbit hunting. It’s kind of weird—I hate killing innocent animals. This one’s filled with liquor technology though so it’s a bit more powerful than your normal musket.” I looked at her with inquisitive eyes,

“You said you don’t like killing innocent animals right? That doesn’t conflict with you being a warrior?” She replied without looking at me,

“Humans are animals too I guess, but no human is ever innocent. Unlike animals humans are cruel, evil, and unnecessarily violent—killing them doesn’t bother me nearly as much.” I shrugged,

“The monkeys I used to steal mangos from were pretty violent. They tried to pull my hair and balls off—do you know how traumatizing that is for a six year old?” She chuckled dryly,

“Maybe if you didn’t steal their mangos they wouldn’t have been like that. Also humans know that they shouldn’t be violent. Animals kill to eat, to live, and they kill because they don’t know any better—it’s their instinct. But humans kill each other not for food or for any good reason at all. They know it’s wrong but they still do it and they go out of their way to make the process as terrible as they can for their victims. Creatures like that aren’t innocent to me at all.” I nodded,

“Fair, so I take it that you’re a pretty good warrior? You’re about my age and you're in the first legion right? You’ve got to be strong.” She shrugged,

“You know how it is—everyone always praises you like you're some god and the next thing you know you’re surrounded by people who can cut mountains in half with their pinkies. It’s a bit humbling but I’m guessing that I may be able to relate to that more than you.” I laughed,

Stolen novel; please report.

“Well if you’re curious I did throw a mountain at someone once—they didn’t die though. That made me seriously reconsider how effective that tactic was.” Lara laughed,

“You know, you’re a lot different than I thought you would be Geon Leventen.” I shrugged,

“Everyone always says that. Do I really look that much like a playboy who drinks, sleeps with like fifty girls, and parties all day? I think I look like a pretty upstanding young man.” She shook her head,

“No—well, yes. You do look like a typical famous warrior who does all of those things but at the same time you don’t. Maybe it’s because I’ve gotten good at reading people but you're good on the inside. That’s very rare—you know that? Usually people who are as strong as us had to go through an immense amount of hardship to be here. That makes people depressed, closed off, traumatised, and angry. It makes people unapproachable but I guess you're different. I’m not saying you didn’t have to go through those things—I know who you are. But you deal with it well—good job man.” She gave me a fist bump and peered at the flower I had in my pocket. “Who’d you get that from?” I took out Lila’s flower,

“Oh, my girlfriend. We’re not going to be seeing each other for a while so she gave it to me as a token. You might know her—her name’s Lila Fairheart.” She nodded and gave me an impressed look of approval,

“Dang—in my opinion she’s a little out of your league. Nice job.” I rolled my eyes,

“Thanks for that. Where’s everyone else?” As if on cue the tent door swung open and two other men walked inside. The first one on the right had curly blonde hair and a lean, slightly skinner build. He wasn’t short but he wasn’t extremely tall either and had light blue eyes and a constantly serious expression. He gave me a sideways glance and seemingly rolled his eyes at me before turning away. I looked at him with confusion.

What did I ever do to you?

The other man was still shorter than me but a lot taller than the other guy. He had broad shoulders and a nice head of ruffled dark brown hair. He had cream coloured skin and a well trimmed beard as well as a solemn and serious expression on his face. He wore a captain's uniform and had a large scroll in his hands. Lara saluted the captain and I did the same. The captain spoke with a deep and silky voice,

“Although I assume that you’re a wonderful person Geon Leventen, we have no time for extended introductions. This is Michael of house Carren and he will be your intelligence specialist. I see you’ve met Lara. You have your very first mission already—it surpasses all rank values.” He handed it to me and I looked at him with confusion,

“Forgive me sir but what does that mean? It surpasses all rank values?” Michael snorted,

“The ranking system for the missions, dumbass.” I looked at him with confusion,

“I heard him the first time motherfucker—what is that?” Michael looked at me with narrowed, angry eyes,

“Shut the fuck up and ask nicely retard.” I dashed towards him in an instant and stated him down with cold and unforgiving eyes,

“You’re pretty bitchy for being built like a scarecrow you tiny fuck.” He looked at me dead serious eyes and spoke in a sarcastic tone,

“Oh no! Geon Leventen, who’s so big and strong, is threatening me with my life! I’ve never been threatened by a big strong man before—I’m so fucking scared!” The captain slammed his foot onto the floor and spoke in a stern voice,

“ENOUGH. Carren I told you to not give the new recruit any additional trouble.” Michael replied without taking his eyes off of me,

“If he can’t handle being called a few names by his own squad mate he’s going to die on the battlefield. He’s failing this mission too—watch.” I spoke,

“I can handle being called names—that’s what everyone’s been doing to me my entire life. But laws regarding warriors threatening non warriors, or established warriors, have made it so I’ve never got to really retaliate. Those laws have made it way too easy for people like you to say whatever the fuck you want.” Michael scoffed,

“Oh yeah, so standing over me really helps prove how you're so much better than me though, does it?” The captain dashed in between us in the blink of an eye and separated us. He spoke in a commanding voice,

“I will not tolerate this level of infighting in my squad. You are the first legion and I expect you to act like you are in the first legion. Carren—I expect you as a senior to know and respect these rules and I expect you, Leventen, to be able to pick up these rules as well—famous or not. You two will be relying on each other and if you can not hold it together I will be happy to select new warriors. Understood?” I angrily stared into his eyes and he did the same. The room suddenly got really dark and the countertops, the floor, the furnace, and the air itself started to glow a dark purple and slowly envelope itself in black. The captain looked at us with dark purple eyes, “Understood?” We nodded and the room went back to normal once again. I gasped for air and Michael plopped down on the couch as the captain relaxed. I guess the commander is the commander for a reason. He pointed towards the scroll in my hand,

“Surpassing all rank values means that mission is so important it doesn’t even have a rank of difficulty or classification. It is a direct order from the Imperial government itself. Usually these missions are given to the Ace warrior of the MTOS unit but currently that unit is being held inactive by the emperor—he believes it’s too early in the war to deploy their power. So the next choice is the most proficient combatist in the first legion. You have been declared as that combatist, Geon Leventen.” I opened up the scroll and read.

My blood turned to ice.

“Sir—sir it says here—“

“Geon, Leventen, I Commander Lock hereby deliver the message of the Imperial government in accordance with Emperor Batara. On the tenth hour, of the tenth day, of the tenth month you will fully execute Savian Yelenta of the Raga nation as payment for his crimes of treason against the Taegan empire.”

Fuck.

Lara whistled, “They’ve got some history sir—might not be the best idea.” Michael spoke up,

“You can’t reject an rank-surpassing order from the government. He has to take it or he faces the risk of being charged with treason.” Commander Lock turned towards the tent doors as a giant hawk adorned with red and gold feathers swooped onto his arm. The hawk had a small letter in its beak and it gently placed the letter in his hand. He opened it, looked at it a for a brief moment, and then looked at us all,

“The camp on the western shore has been attacked. A scouting mission has turned into a battle and Praga forces are approaching our soldiers. Apparently the information specialist conducting the scouting mission was captured and the two ground scaling specialists have made it out alive. They’re using this attack as a springboard to launch what appears to be a massive offensive. Geon you must go now—Savian Yelenta is approaching from the east side.” Lara stood up,

“How and why did they choose to engage? Can’t we obliterate their camp now? They have no reinforcements and they’re on enemy territory right? What are they doing?” Michael answered without taking his eyes off of the messenger hawk,

“One possibility is that Praga has coordinated with their surrounding allies and we’re about to face a full assault on our empire. I think this unlikely due to the fact that intelligence would have picked up on any attempted coordination since Praga would have to go to great lengths to try and communicate with far away allies on enemy territory. Another possibility is that Mevillime and the western nations are coming early—which is likely but it would make no sense to just attack based on that information. That means it’s most likely that there’s an information leak in our military who told Praga about our scouts and most likely took out the information specialist. My best guess is that they’ve been able to extract some information from the captured specialist and may even be sending us false information through her.” My eyes went wide,

“Savian is still here—he’s actively feeding them information about us. He's the one who leaked our military plans and took out the information specialist. I don’t know exactly how but he’s within our borders right now—he’s probably—“

“On our soil. Go.” I looked at Michael who was looking at me with indifference. Commander Lock spoke,

“You must hurry—if Savian Yelenta is free he is a major threat to our empire. Go now and may blessings be upon your soul.” I nodded and walked out of the tent door. The sky was a hazy orange and the cool air felt wonderful on my skin. It would’ve been a really nice atmosphere if it wasn’t for the fact that I had to kill someone. I floated off of the ground and prepared to blast into the air before Lara came rushing out,

“You need directions. Don’t take off yet.” I looked back at her,

“I know where he’s going to be—trust me. I have to beat him there though—it’s important.” She nodded,

“Failing missions like this is never good for a warrior’s career. If you fail…. that might be it, Geon. You might never get to be a warrior.” I laughed,

“The good thing about me is that I don’t really care about any of this. I literally can’t feel the pressure—I’ll be ok. Besides,” I slowly ascended higher into the air, “Who do you think you’re talking too.” I smiled and blasted off into the air as the bright orange sky washed over my face.