Chapter 72: Wartime Appointment

The western station looked different once people stopped trying to kill each other around it.

There were no more horns warning of another incoming formation, no Griffin circling over the defenses, and no enemy officers forcing their way through whatever remained of the barricades. Soldiers continued moving through the station, though most of them were carrying stretchers, collecting equipment, reinforcing damaged positions, or helping organize the wounded for transport.

Several medical <anno data-annotation-id="c4eb1210-dd37-4d18-cdc6-636b0db33de0" data-title="Aether Crafts">Aether Crafts¹</anno> had already arrived from farther east.

"What the hell are those flying things?" Zishan muttered as he watched one descend toward the station. "They look like giant flies."

Zishan stood near one of the roads leading through the station and watched another group of injured soldiers being loaded inside. Some would recover after a few days of proper treatment, while others needed Magic and facilities the field healers could not provide.

They were being sent back to the capital.

He had heard that word several times since arriving in Cyrune, yet it had always sounded distant enough that he never spent much time thinking about it. His entire life in this world had consisted of military camps, battlefields, medical stations, defensive lines, and people trying to explain basic things that everyone except him seemed to know.

The capital sounded almost suspiciously civilized compared with everything he had experienced so far.

"Soldier Walker," a familiar voice called.

Zishan turned toward the voice and found Commander Holtz standing several meters away with a collection of officers gathered around him. Corporal Tagum was among them, along with the Lieutenant Zishan had seen several times since arriving at the station.

High General Holmes stood at the front.

Zishan’s posture straightened before he walked toward them, saluting. "High General! Commander! Seniors!"

"No need to be so stiff," Elinox said, her eyes locked on him.

"Hmm." Zishan nodded and went back to his usual self.

Elinox looked significantly better than she had immediately after the battle, though anyone capable of sensing Mana would have noticed that her reserves had not fully recovered. She had spent the time since the retreat moving among the wounded, helping stabilize whoever she could before the medical transports arrived.

"Your performance during the defense has been reviewed," Elinox said.

Zishan glanced toward Commander Holtz.

The Commander gave him no useful indication of what was coming.

Elinox continued, "You entered the engagement as a Soldier. During the course of the battle, you contributed to the destruction of a significant portion of the enemy formation, protected the western station from an aerial assault, defeated an enemy Captain, and assisted in preventing the defensive line from collapsing."

Several of the nearby soldiers had started listening.

Zishan noticed more heads turning from farther down the road.

Elinox folded her hands behind her back. "Because of these multiple achievements, I am offering you a wartime promotion to Captain."

For several seconds, Zishan thought he had misunderstood her.

Then, the silence around them told him everyone else had heard exactly the same thing.

His eyes widened. "What do you mean? Captain? As in the Military Rank Captain?!"

Commander Holtz’s expression barely moved, though the Lieutenant beside him looked as if he had been waiting for Zishan to react.

Corporal Tagum stared straight ahead.

Zishan looked from Elinox toward the officers around her before pointing at himself. "Me?"

"Unless another Zishan Walker is standing among us right now," Elinox replied.

Zishan checked, though he knew it was stupid for him to do so. He might find other people with the same name as him in other parts of this world, but the probability of finding one within this station was basically zero to none.

A few soldiers nearby failed to hide their reactions.

The promotion was absurd by ordinary military standards. Zishan had been a Soldier for only a short period of time, and at Level 86, he had not even reached the usual power expected from several ranks he would now be skipping.

He was jumping straight from Soldier past Senior Soldier, Corporal, Sergeant, and Lieutenant to Captain. In only a short time, he was being promoted to a rank he never thought he would reach this soon.

A voice, laced with hesitation, from among the gathered soldiers finally broke the silence. "High General, with respect..."

The man speaking wore the insignia of a Senior Soldier. He had fought during the defense as well, judging from the damaged armor covering one shoulder and the bandage wrapped around his forearm.

And his hesitation lasted only briefly. "Soldier Walker is Level 86."

Zishan glanced at him.

The Senior Soldier continued, "There are men here who have served for years. Some have completed multiple campaigns. Officers who reached their positions through the normal requirements are being asked to accept someone who hasn’t even completed his First Ascent as a Captain."

Several expressions around them changed, because the Senior Soldier had a point. Some of them even felt envious, although no one openly agreed with the Senior Soldier. Nobody told the Senior Soldier he was wrong either.

The Senior Soldier noticed that and continued. "He also gained dozens of Levels in an amount of time that should be impossible. He has Skills no Soldier should possess, multiple Mana Affinities, and there were already questions about where some of his abilities came from. Promoting him again this soon will only make people wonder whether—"

"Whether what?" Commander Holtz’s voice cut through the road.

The Senior Soldier stopped.

Commander Holtz stepped forward. "If you have evidence that Soldier Walker committed a military offense, present it."

"I didn’t say he—"

"You were about to."

The Commander looked directly at him.

"We investigated the irregularities surrounding him. We tested what could be tested. During the battle, I watched that same Soldier hold positions that officers several ranks above him were struggling to maintain." The Commander gestured toward the ruined section of the station. "That aerial assault would have continued if he hadn’t brought the Griffin down. Whatever opinion you have of him does not change what happened here. If you were him, do you think you could do the same?"

The Senior Soldier’s jaw tightened.

Corporal Tagum spoke next. "I was responsible for him before he was transferred to the medical section."

Zishan slowly turned toward him.

Corporal Tagum noticed his gaze, and his expression suggested he already regretted becoming involved in the conversation.

"He was Level 20 when he arrived under my supervision," Corporal Tagum continued. "I thought Commander Holtz had lost his mind for assigning him as a Soldier instead of a Recruit."

Zishan’s eyebrows rose.

Corporal Tagum ignored him completely and continued speaking. "Then I watched him fight during the Stampede. I saw him reach Level 50 while half the western approach was burning because of his destructive Fire Magic. I’ve also seen enough since then to know that whatever his Level says, treating him like an ordinary Level 86 Soldier would be idiotic."

The Senior Soldier then countered, "That doesn’t make him qualified to be a Captain."

"No," Corporal Tagum replied, shaking his head as he looked at the Senior Soldier. "But his battlefield record does."

Zishan’s mouth started curling upward.

Corporal Tagum caught his reaction, but he ignored the guy again.

Unbeknownst to him, Zishan had already decided this was one of the greatest moments of their relationship.

Elinox let the exchange end before looking back at the Senior Soldier.

"Military requirements exist for a reason. They prevent unqualified people from receiving authority they cannot handle. They are not chains preventing command from recognizing exceptional merit when it appears."

Her voice carried far enough that the surrounding soldiers no longer needed to strain to hear her.

"As a High General of Olmost, I hold the authority to issue wartime appointments when the circumstances justify them. I would not appoint Zishan Walker because someone recommended his name to me. I would not appoint him because of who he knows, where he was born, or which family might stand behind him."

Zishan listened more carefully.

Elinox’s expression had changed slightly. "In this military, merit carries more weight than connections. A name can open a door somewhere else, but it cannot fight your battles for you."

Several senior officers exchanged brief looks.

They understood those words in a way Zishan did not.