It didn’t take long for Marie’s predictions to bear fruit. Pinnacle Kolya’s little speech about amity and cooperation soon broached the topic of divisions between the Five Lands’ aerial troops, which was more than enough to make Aziz roll his eyes.

Even within the same nation, entire units had their own rivals and competitors. Granted, none of these little rivalries were of any actual significance, but even a fool would know that units of different nations would look down and demean others, if only to maintain morale. He’d seen enough of such little games in the run-up to the Great War, as well as the invasion itself.

Asking for cooperation and amity was pointless, and Aziz found himself tuning the Pinnacle’s words out. To his side, Marie was doing the same thing, and as for Major Xi…he was already dozing off.

“Cut this speech,” Marie muttered to herself. “Everyone’s falling asleep, Pinnacle. Can’t you cut this speech or something? Come on. They say you’re smarter than anyone else…”

“What’s the point of you muttering under your breath?” Aziz asked.

“He’s at least a Paragon,” Marie replied. “If I mutter under my breath, he is definitely going to pick up on my words.”

“Are Paragons really that awesome?” Aziz tilted his head. “Or are you just giving them a lot of credit? I mean, I badmouth Pauline and Eventide on a regular basis if they do anything stupid, and you don’t hold back either. Yet, nothing has happened to us so far.”

“Well, they don’t usually expand their senses unless necessary. I’m just hoping that now since Pinnacle Kolya is having a speech, he would enhance his senses and things like that,” Marie replied. “Sir Pinnacle, please cut this part of your speech out — there’s no point in trying to promote fluffy irrelevance at this juncture.”

Aziz shrugged, before adding his own quiet wish to Marie’s words.

Maybe Pinnacle Kolya heard him or something, since his speech came to an end a minute later. For a moment, Aziz could swear that he saw some resignation flicker across the Pinnacle’s neutral face, but before he could take a second, closer glance, his face had returned into a mask of neutrality.

Making some excuses, the Pinnacle returned to his seat. It was Minister Pauline’s turn to speak.

“Ladies, gentlemen. It’s been a long night, so I won’t keep you back all that much.” She looked around, before nodding to herself. “General mobilisation orders have been sent down to your individual governments, so refer to that for further instructions. Second, there will be a huge banquet for everyone tomorrow night, as a celebration of sorts. Feel free to come down and make friends. Alright. That’s about it. Dismissed.”

“Was that part about the banquet really necessary in a late-night speech like this?” Aziz mumbled.

“I’m pretty sure Eventide was the person who forced her to add that particular bit to her speech,” Marie replied. “If Pauline had it her way, her so-called ‘speech’ would only have been a single sentence telling us about the general mobilisation orders, reducing her overall presence.”

“What is Eventide even trying to do?” Aziz asked. “Never mind. There’s no point in playing games like this, especially with yet another crisis on our hands, is there? I haven’t had a peaceful day without any danger ever since I joined up with the armed forces. There’s always an enemy waiting for us…this is par for the course.”

“It’s been one wild ride for me too. Always wars. Always something huge hanging above the head.” Marie nodded. “I won’t be surprised if a third, fourth and fifth crisis were to pop up too, at this rate.”

“…I feel very demoralised for some reason,” Aziz noted bitterly. “Can we just let this Abyss Sovereign win and create this new world? I’m quite sure a few more great gods are going to bite the dust, which will just create more changes to the world. Even if we win, our next opponent will be the environment itself.”

“Thanks for bringing up reality, jerkass.” Marie reached over and flicked his forehead. “Can you not?”

“You were the one who brought it up first, Marie. Don’t go blaming me for this,” Aziz replied. “It’s your fault, not mine!”

“By the power of my military rank, I declare that you’re the one at fault,” Marie replied.

“That’s just a horrible abuse of power! And I don’t think you can do that without the formal trappings of a military court!” Aziz turned to Major Xi, hoping to enlist him as a witness of sorts, only to see him dozing away merrily. “Darn it, he’s useless.”

“Hah! I win.” The grin on Marie’s face faded. “Still, we should head over to the two ministers. They seem to have something for us and whatnot. See that shit-eating grin on Eventide’s face? They probably have more sordid affairs for us to take care of and everything.”

“Or maybe they just want to dump some more paperwork on us,” Aziz replied. “I find the latter far more plausible, since they’ve never wanted us to take on shady things and deeds. I’m quite sure there’s a head of espionage in the administration doing the evil deeds of the Republic, but from how I don’t know who the perp is, it’s clear that they don’t want us to do anything questionable.”

“Even if it’s for the sake of the Republic?” Marie asked.

Aziz nodded. “Even if.”

After that short exchange, they headed over to the two ministers, who were just drinking from plain old canteens of water.

“Good evening to the two of you, Minister Pauline. Minister Eventide.”

“Good evening, eh? Marshal, you have a very profound sense of humour,” said Pauline. “If only this was actually a good evening…well, either way, we would have been fighting anyway. If this emergency hadn’t cropped up, we would have been preparing for war with the Southern Assembly.”

“This is our last chance to even things out with the Assembly,” said Minister Eventide. “Our envoys have been thrashing things out with their own envoys sincerely, but the Assembly isn’t a monolithic block.”

He paused. “But enough of the sad stuff for a moment. I need the two of you to help me out with some paperwork. All the relevant authentications have already been completed, so do get them looked through by tomorrow night.”

“That’s it,” said Pauline. “Dismissed.”

Aziz found himself looking back over and over again as he left the auditorium. The two ministers were still deep in thought, their faces lined with fatigue. For some reason, he had the impression that they had gotten the short end of the stick when they took on the highest positions in the Republic.

“They’re burning themselves out again,” Marie replied.

“Burning…” Aziz sighed. “Maybe that’s true. They look a lot less lively than I once remembered them to be.”

“Yes. Precisely.”

Marie fell silent after that short, curt reply, and the colonel found himself wondering what the marshal meant.