“What do you think?” Marie, Marshal and Chief of Air of the Republic’s Air forces, watched a few thousand silhouettes float around at rather modest speeds and asked.

Aziz shrugged. “Looks like we’re really going ahead with night-time exercises from now on, aren’t we? For our fifth try, however, there’s really a lot left to be desired.”

“Only at night, though.” Marie rubbed her nose. “On the bright side, we’re at least not the East or the Assembly.”

“Wouldn’t it go disadvantage our troops if they had a bright side to them?” Aziz asked, a smile on his face. The smile faded a few moments later as he turned to their partners in the night-time large-scale regiment operation, which could only be objectively described with a phrase.

What a mess.

It had been the fifth exercise of such a nature, and the Eastern airborne troops were still suffering from an overwhelming lack of coordination and intelligence from their commanding officers. Apparently, any offers by the Republic to clear up the mess that was the East’s fliers had been rebuffed — Paragon Ying Xin, though she had cleared up the civilian government in the East, hadn’t had enough time to clear up her military.

Either that, or she wanted the ravages of war to clean up the inept ones. Aziz wasn’t sure which one the Hand of Fate had in mind, but if she went with the second one, a whole bunch of useless soldiers and useful resources would vanish too.

“Maybe we should give the Eastern fliers some dull red lights on their backs,” Marie replied. “That’ll at least stop them from crashing into each other.”

“Didn’t know that you were that optimistic about the Eastern guys.”

“Aren’t you looking at them too harshly?” A voice came from behind them.

Aziz turned around and saw two familiar faces. “Tr— Colonel Oberon, Titania. Good evening.”

“So formal. You’re our superior, so there’s no need to be this nice to us.”

“You two trained me,” Aziz replied. “The fact that I survived my term as a scout has everything to do with you. Even if you ask me to treat you like a subordinate, I can never do that.”

“Your subordinates are lucky to have you, then.” Oberon’s aged eyes glittered. “Right, Titania?”

The old woman beside him nodded. “I’ve seen many young generals become all cocky after taking on positions of prestige. People like you are few and far between.”

“Well, I didn’t want to be a colonel to begin with,” Aziz replied. “After all, I was promoted by an incredibly—”

“Incredibly what?” Marie asked, and Aziz rebuked himself mentally. He’d gotten too used to griping about his unique set of conditions in which he had become Marie’s deputy. But two months of watching his subordinates show off about their new ranks as majors of the air force had taught him some things about bootlicking.

Slip-ups like these were easily overcome by his all-rounded training.

“Incredibly awesome, lovable, wise and caring boss,” Aziz rattled off. “To be honest, I didn’t expect to be made a colonel, since I didn’t think myself as suitable for it. And yet, when I assumed the post, it soon became apparent to me that I had talent as a researcher and military analyst, something that I never knew.”

Sneaking a glance at Marie, whose mouth was hanging open, Aziz pressed his advantage. “If my rank wasn’t increased by Marie, I wouldn’t have been aware of this preference of mine. So…even though there’s a lot of work, I must really thank Marie.”

“True,” Oberon mused. “I never knew that you were an academic kind of person. Never had that impression of you when I was training you.”

“Same here,” Titania added. “But I suppose the scouts were elites of Ark City’s army at that time for a reason.”

At the mention of Ark City, Aziz looked at the giant city, darkened due to the night, floating on the opposite end of the training ground the Five Lands’ combined air troops were using today.

“I didn’t know you thought that highly of me,” said Marie.

“That’s why I didn’t oppose any appointments you made for the kids,” Aziz replied, continuing on with his flattery. “I had full faith that you knew who was best put where, and the result? There’s been no issues from the kids at all.”

“Alright, enough with the flattery,” said Marie, whose face was a bit red. “Go pay attention to the exercise. Ark City’s going to begin the assault anytime soon.”

“Yeah, well, it always ends up the same,” Aziz rolled his eyes. “The East and the Assembly’s going to get pummelled, and then Ark City would fight a battle of the ages with the Republic, and win after thirty minutes or so.”

“You don’t have to spell it out this explicitly, right?”

“I don’t even know how Ark City trains their fliers,” Aziz continued on, ignoring Marie’s words. “There has to be some master at training routines in there, I’m telling you.”

“It’s probably a result of fighting for years on end, though. I heard that Ark City also had fliers operating during their time in the Wildlands,” said Titania. “They already had their own doctrine, right? One that’s quite similar to the East?”

“The airspace thing?” Aziz asked. “I remember we had some issues back when we were helping the East too.”

“It’s just the sheer experience gap, and to a certain extent, this proves that Ark City’s doctrine is superior to our current ones,” Oberon added. “But we still don’t know what kind of operational doctrines the North was using, or else we’d have all shifted to emulate them instead.”

Aziz thought about that time when he was observing the Mortal Light Dynasty, and nodded his head ruefully. The war between the North and the Central Circle was so one-sided that he had very little impression of their airborne forces.

“I wonder what the makers of the Dynamo envisioned,” Marie muttered. “If only we had firsthand information about them.”

“The North keeps their secrets very well,” Aziz replied. “There’s no point in trying.”

“We’ll just have to do our best,” said Oberon.

Hundreds of blue lines streaked out of Ark City, breaking apart into tens of groups that weaved around.

“Looks like it’s begun,” said Marie. “Ready your notes.”

Aziz nodded, along with the couple. “Yes, ma’am!”