“Although I am indeed in-charge of overseeing this initiative, we ultimately cannot overstep our boundaries.” Major Degurechaff glowered at the sleeping officer in front of him. “Which is why people from supporting vocations vie to be sent here. It’s a comfortable environment, and there’s rarely any work for logistics and communications unless a new recruit joins or we’re holding a ranking event.”

“Pardon me, Sir, but his rank does look somewhat higher than yours,” said Gaius. Indeed, the man’s epaulette was more ornate than that of the officer beside him, and his chest was noticeably more decorated.

“Not that kind of ranking event, but that isn’t the point. He is of a higher military rank, which is why I cannot simply wake him up, as much as I want to right now.” The major shook his head. “Fortunately, my rank as the Initiative Overseer does take precedence over the chain of command. But you don’t want to go pull rank over soldiers like him — he’s backed by a faction.”

“No one wants to piss off someone who’s a faction representative, eh?”

“I’m glad you understand. But this is about as bad as it would ever get.” Major Degurechaff shrugged. “Believe me when I say that no country in the Four Continents wants to replicate the horrifying excesses of military red tape and bureaucracy that Champion Lunaris told us about.”

“Champion Lunaris?”

“The Cardinal Champion of the Moon. In his home world, he apparently came from a country that had mandatory conscription for males of age.” The soldier shivered lightly, although Gaius suspected that the cold really had nothing to do with it this time. “Turns out that the so-called professional soldiers were prone to what he called power-trips, which was slang for abuses of authority, against the conscripted soldiers, resulting in multiple unwarranted deaths. The champion did not mention what happened to the country afterwards, but records had it that a terrifying expression would appear on his face whenever the conversation shifted to the topic of home countries.”

“Doesn’t bode well for that country, doesn’t it, Sir?” Gaius couldn’t quite recall which countries on Earth had mandatory conscription, unfortunately, but it was fairly popular in the Middle Ages, if his memory served him well.

“Indeed. We’ve taken it as a precautionary tale…but time has shown troop commanders do slip into abuses of authority easily when given quite a lot of power.” The major rubbed his nose, and then silently gestured for Gaius to keep talking.

An indirect means of getting that man to wake up. Genius. After all, we can’t be faulted for waking the officer there up if he wasn’t supposed to be sleeping anyway. Gaius could only shake his head inwardly.

“Sir,” asked Gaius, “exactly how much influence did the Champions have on modern military formations and doctrines today?”

The major laughed loudly. “Almost everything, in fact! The gods chose well when it came to picking the Champions — two of the four were unparalleled masters of warfare and strategy. Champion Lunaris in particular came out with a thesis called Lunaris' Thirty-Six Stratagems, pointing out how we could use the hostilities between the demonic tribes to our advantage for instance.”

“Does the thirty-sixth stratagem talk about retreating?” Gaius asked.

“I see you’ve heard about Champion Lunaris’ work.” The major’s eyes glittered. “Yes, he taught us the importance of retreating when necessary, rather than to let our forces flee piecemeal.”

Gaius’ laughter was hollow, but he was fortunately spared from listening further as the logistics officer grunted and woke up. “Oh, Major Degurechaff. Erm, nice day today.”

“Indeed, Colonel Wickers. Looks like your job’s rather tough, if you were tired enough to sleep in such an uncomfortable place,” said Major Degurechaff. His face was straighter than an arrow, and Gaius, no matter how he searched, could not find any trace of irony or mockery in his expression.

The Colonel’s scrutiny apparently bore no fruit too. “It’s a bad habit of mine. I’ll try to finish work earlier in the future. Now, is that a new recruit you’ve brought here?”

“Yes, Colonel.”

The colonel looked around. “There’s never a clerk here when you need one, eh? Let me go and get your stuff for you then, err, Gaius.”

Gaius blinked in surprise. “It’ll be my honour to have you get my stuff, sir.”

As the man left the tent, the major placed his finger up in a shushing gesture, and Gaius’ words died in his throat.

“It won’t look good if the logistics officer doesn’t know the new man’s name, so I told him the same way I spoke to you now, through voice transmission.” A voice whispered in Gaius’ right ear, and he nodded subtly. “You do seem experienced with these sorts of politics, despite your background though.”

“Sir, it’s actually due to my background,” Gaius corrected quietly. “Slum children don’t survive for over a week if they didn’t pay lip service to gangs. In fact, free education for everyone probably increased the survival rate of slum children, since we knew how to flatter gang members and bosses. It’s a really small price to pay for food and protection.”

“I cannot help but object to you equivalating the military to gangs. On principle, at least.”

Gaius smirked at that.

Their conversation was cut short as the Colonel entered the tent, his hands carrying multiple boxes. “I hope you weren’t talking smack about me, Major.”

“Won’t dream of that, Colonel,” replied Major Degurechaff. “That’s a lot for a newcomer, eh?”

“Gotta justify our expenses somehow,” said the Colonel. “The logistics department doesn’t want to give up on beer, so we decided to give the newcomers more benefits. Everyone’s happy.”

“Except for the finance department, maybe,” the major muttered.

“They’re never happy in the first place,” replied Colonel Wickers.

“Good point,” said Major Degurechaff. “Of course, unless the Congress tells them to shut up and give us the money, at which point they force a grin out for a day or so.”

“Hoho. Well, Major, you should get the newcomer accustomed to his new lodgings and his job here. I have…” The colonel stifled a yawn. “…some things I want to do.”

“Naturally. Colonels are always busy men. Should I hang up the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign outside?” asked the major.

“That’ll be nice, thank you. Now, if you’ll excuse me…"

Placing his hands on Gaius’ shoulders, the major herded the boy out of the tent, before hanging up a red palm sign on the tent. He rolled his eyes and said, “What do you think of him?”

Gaius licked his lips. As far as he could tell, the major wasn’t intending on punishing him if he gave any negative answers, but there was no point in being too blunt either. The best answer would be a backhanded insult, mollified by general praise for this question.

“I find him a bit pompous, sir, but he’s a decent person.”

“You apparently know how to answer questions cleverly, recruit.” The major’s expression was difficult to read, even for Gaius. It seemed that he had managed to exceed the major’s expectations with his answer. “Well, keep that habit with you. It’ll be useful in the weeks to come.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. Now, let’s get you settled down. Your sister is already waiting for you.”