The first thing Aziz saw when he walked into the east wing’s cafeteria was Marshal Marie, who was busily adding ice cubes to her jasmine tea. It was the same type of jasmine tea that they had drank quite some time ago, before this wretched war began.

“Good morning, ma’am.”

“Morning to you too, Aziz.” The marshal took an elegant sip from her teacup. “You don’t look so good.”

“Had a bad dream,” Aziz replied. “About a bout of insanity.”

“Of rebelling soldiers,” Marie continued, her eyes adrift. “Where they were…”

Her words came to a halt. “Aziz. You…had that dream too? A misty world, where you were fighting against an endless army?”

The colonel eyed his boss, and then nodded. “Wasn’t that supposed to be a warning from my subconscious? How on Orb did I end up sharing a dream with you?”

“Maybe it’s because we were thinking about the same thing, right?” Marie replied. “After all, we did discuss that yesterday. It would make sense that we would dream about it.”

“Makes sense.” Aziz let out a sigh and decided not to think too hard about it. There were more important fish to fry, like plans to stop the Five Lands from moving forward with their insanity. “Anyway, are you able to do anything to stop the Republic from at least sending us to attack the Wildlands?”

“Who, exactly, do you think I am?” Marie shook her head and lowered her voice. “Soldiers are supposed to stay apolitical. We should not have the power to influence the civilian government. What do you want me to do? Stage a coup?”

“Right.” Aziz rubbed his head. That nightmare earlier had probably addled his brain or something, which was why he wasn’t thinking straight right now. “Still…what kind of conditions do we need, if we are to prevent the Five Lands from invading the Wildlands?”

“Conditions?” Marie mused over that word. “Unless we suffer a devastating defeat in the upper airzone, or in the battle between the great gods. The latter is very much possible, but with the North about to attack the Demon God with their Locomotives, it’s really hard to say what the results will be.”

Aziz waved a waiter over and ordered a tall glass of jasmine tea. Glancing at the departing waiter, he said, “There needs to be a rather fine balance between not getting obliterated by the Demon God, and not getting needlessly sacrificed in an attack against the Wildlands.”

“Yes,” said Marie. “In fact, I believe that our goal is best achieved if the Demon God is forced to retreat into the Wildlands. According to the data Ark City released, it seems that the Demon God is far stronger in the Wildlands. An attack against him there would be bound to fail. Our leaders must know that.”

“But they might do it anyway,” Aziz replied, before taking a sip from his hot jasmine tea. It was too hot for such a drink, so he waved the waiter over for some help, in which time Marie chose to remain silent.

“If other units advance first and take a heavy beating…” Marie shook her head. “I’m quite a nasty person, right? I’m even thinking of letting allied units take substantial damage to preserve the First Aerial. And we’re almost certainly going to do rearline duty in the first place.”

“For the greater good,” Aziz replied. “To be honest, I don’t know what to think. If we don’t push our technological advantage, we will almost certainly suffer in the future to come. But if we force our way into the Wildlands, we’re no longer defending from the safety of the Heaven-cleaving Fortress. Casualties will mount. A lot more people will die.”

Marie nodded. “If only the demons weren’t immortal. Did you know that a blood pool can actually be built underground? It would be nasty if the demons burrowed out from the earth and attacked our vulnerable rear areas after the invasion started.”

“And it’s not like we’ve faced their elites yet,” Aziz added. “I’m almost certain that the God of Earth just killed off all the cannon fodder, the demons that were battering at the Great Divide. If we made this much progress over a hundred thousand years, why can’t our enemies?”

“I wish everyone saw things as clearly as you.” Marie downed her small teacup. “Hey, give me some of yours.”

“What? No! Go get one yourself!”

“That’s an order!”

“And that, ma’am, is an utterly flagrant abuse of authority.”

His protests did little to stop Marie from helping herself to his jasmine tea anyway. It wasn’t like Aziz could beat her, so…

“Ah, nothing beats cool tea on a hot day.”

“Then maybe, ma’am, you should have considered buying a bigger glass. Sheesh.” Aziz eyed his half-empty glass — which was probably a darn good way of expressing his pessimism right now — and then downed in one shot before a certain magical marshal could steal it from him.

The colonel let out a long sigh, one fit to make any of his soldiers run around in a fluster, and sprawled over on the table.

“That’s not a very fitting look for a colonel,” Marie noted.

“Give me a break,” Aziz replied. “It’s just one of those days when I feel like sprawling around and crying, you know? It sucks to see so many issues, yet be unable to address them at all. Being powerless sucks.”

“Well…can’t say I don’t know that.” Marie poked his empty glass. “But moping around isn’t going to do anything, is it? Might as well think up of some plans.”

“What plans?” asked a rather familiar voice.

“Hmm?” Aziz turned around to see a rather familiar teenager. “Who are you?”

“Have you forgotten about me?” the teenager asked. “You know, the godslayer, Gaius?”

Marie’s mouth turned into a perfect O, and Aziz couldn’t blame her. That short kid he’d seen back at the Eastern warfront was now all grown up. His features were still the same, but there was this added touch of maturity to them now.

Which was odd, considering that the kid had been really mature for his age, but that was beside the point.

“Oh, and hi, Isabelle,” Marie added. “Didn’t expect to see you here.”

The golden-haired teenager beside Gaius smiled. “It’s been some time. Anyway, what has gotten the two of you so down?”

“Oh, we’re just worrying about what might come next,” Aziz replied. “You want to hear it? It’s a rather depressing chain of thoughts.”

The duo, who were holding hands, glanced at each other, and the colonel found himself amused. Clearly, an upgrade in their relationship had happened, which was something rather refreshing to see. For some reason, relationships within the First Aerial just weren’t working out for some reason; if not for the fact that manpower was sorely needed, Aziz would have shipped some of them off to gauge the effects the tag ‘colleague’ had on relationships.

“Well, we do have some time to spare,” said Gaius.

“And whatever you’re concerned with might affect us too,” Isabelle continued.

Marie cleared her throat. “Alright, then. Just don’t blame me afterwards.”