For Thunderbolt Platoon — the official designation for Thunderbolt squad — of Camp Napoleon, one fateful day two weeks ago had been marked on their calendars as the day that their lives changed, beating out even the start of the Second Extermination.

Lieutenant Marie — or rather, Lieutenant Colonel Marie, of Camp Napoleon’s armed forces — had came down with a force that surpassed the mightiest thunderstorms to ever strike the Southern Continent after the platoon’s disastrous defeat again a single trainer. The next week that followed was one that had traumatised the men and women of Thunderbolt Platoon, and the members of Thunderbolt were still discovering pains and aches in places where muscles shouldn’t exist.

It was precisely this reason why Sergeant Aziz — or rather, Captain Aziz — was having a headache now. His sudden placement into the officer corps wasn’t the issue, but when the admirable Squires of Thunderbolt came to talk to him, his new position as an officer wasn’t helping.

But he still had to try.

“You want to fight more?” Aziz asked. “Practical combat against the bandit bands?”

The pair nodded eagerly. There was nothing wrong about a passionate duo asking for a random boon — if one didn’t take into account the content of their conversation, that is. Aziz was sure that this lot wasn’t just talking out of their hat either; they were the representatives of Thunderbolt Platoon, after all.

Just what did Marie do to get them this bloodthirsty? He’d tried to ask many times, but the answer he kept getting was that as an officer, he would never understand the emotions of his soldiers. Putting aside the fact that he just changed his ranks a week ago, this was simply utter discrimination against a particular job.

“Captain, we’ll never go any further if we just stick to training equipment!”

“June is right, sir, we need to experience actual combat!” The boy added on. “There are so many bandit bands around this place, we can pick on some of the weaker ones. None of us have experience in killing, after all.”

Aziz nodded. None of them had any experience in killing people at all, being a group that was made up of scions of martial families that had perished in the Second Extermination. The only thing worth mentioning was that they were Squires, which meant that of the few thousand combatants in Camp Napoleon, only they could serve as a flight-able squad.

“I’ll see what I can do,” said the captain. “The lieutenant…colonel’s quite protective of you lot, after all.”

“Augustine and I know that,” said June, “but we don’t want to let the colonel down in actual combat!”

Aziz couldn’t help but curl up inside when he said “protective”, and the bashful smiles on the two’s faces just made the feeling worse. He could understand Augustine’s reaction — Marie was really pretty, after all — but the way the duo put it, it seemed that the entirety of Thunderbolt had been charmed by the colonel. “Alright, I shall convey your intentions to Marie, and see what she has to say.”

A bell rang twice. “Alright, newbies. Lunch time is over.”

The two saluted and ran off. Aziz sat around in his room for a few minutes, and then raised his voice. “So, what do you think?”

“Aww, you found me.” Colonel Marie rippled into existence a few metres behind Aziz. “How did you do that?”

“Please. Camp Napoleon only has three Engines. Everyone who’s close to a Knight knows their abilities well,” said the captain. “I didn’t expect you to advance that quickly though. Now I’m feeling the heat.”

She laughed. “Alright, enough with the flattery, Aziz. What do you think of their request?”

“You’re answering my question with an exact same one?” The captain shook his head. “Fine, I’ll go first. Despite the excellent combat abilities Thunderbolt Platoon has, they lack ferocity and bloodthirst. If they were locked in physical combat against one of Camp Napoleon’s regular infantry companies, they won’t stand a chance, even though their cultivation is higher.”

“I see that you were thinking the same things as I do too,” said Colonel Marie. “None of them have the drive to kill, to survive. Rather, they seek to excel, but this drive is one that burns out the quickest and leads to deaths the fastest.”

“Precisely. I take it that you’re supportive of their suggestion then?” Captain Aziz asked.

“Before that, however,” said Marie, “I want them to take part in ground combat, hand-to-hand with the best infantry companies in Napoleon. No point sending them out for a real fight if they can’t do anything on the ground.”

“I’ll make the arrangements for that.” Aziz smiled. “It seems that Thunderbolt is getting antsy, however. You should go down and…reassure them in your own way.”

Colonel Marie cracked her knuckles. “Indeed, since we’re going to have a hand-to-hand fight with the infantry…I should make sure that they don’t throw our faces away.”

Aziz glanced at the colonel, whose eyes were gleaming with fey light. The two of them had been promoted to their current ranks because of their positions in Thunderbolt, but the man didn’t know that such a change in rank would affect Marie that much.

He didn’t know that much about Marie, now that he thought about it. He was certain that Marie was a beastfolk, but he didn’t know what her trait was, either. I never saw her use her beast trait either. Or is it something as simple as enhanced strength?

The captain shook his head. The general rule of thumb regarding beast traits in an organised military was to not use them, since their use could affect their squadmates. It was therefore natural that Marie got into the habit of never using them, but the fact that he hadn’t thought much about it was somewhat disturbing.

“Aziz?”

Marie’s voice, tinged with concern, brought him back to reality. The captain shook his head and said, “Zoned out a bit. You should go train them a bit. I’ll arrange the bout by today.”

The colonel looked at Aziz again, a curious expression on her face, and then left the small tent that served as Thunderbolt Platooon’s command tent. Aziz watched quietly as she left the tent, before picking up a bunch of files to find a suitable sparring opponent.

Since the entire squad had sent in such a request, Captain Aziz couldn’t help but reciprocate in kind. His lip curling upwards, the newly-minted officer scoured through the files for the toughest bunch of infantrymen that Camp Napoleon had.

It was going to be…interesting.