It could be said that many soldiers in the Red Maple Cavalry Regiment had grievances about this reassignment, with Mario being the most resentful of all.
Mario was an ordinary soldier, thirty-five years old this year. His grievance was that he had only been three Sika People heads away from a promotion, but now his plans had been disrupted.
His promotion would have been from Superior Private to Lower Centurion. This step was extremely important to him, almost a qualitative change. If he succeeded, it might not seem like much within the Red Maple Cavalry Regiment, but once he retired, the treatment he received would be worlds apart from that of ordinary soldiers—after all, he would be a Centurion by then!
That would more or less guarantee him a life free of worries about food and clothing for the rest of his days.
And he was no longer young. He had finally encountered a chance to earn military merit in this war. If he let it slip away, who knew whether he would ever get another opportunity? If his luck was bad and he had no chance until retirement, then retiring as a Superior Private would mean having to struggle for the rest of his life.
Damn it!
The more Mario thought about it, the angrier he became.
He actually hoped the Sika Kingdom would put up more of a fight this time, instead of signing a treaty with the Alliance after only a few battles like before.
He was also somewhat dissatisfied with his own regiment commander. Usually, the man was incomparably stern, scolding their squad leaders and battalion commanders as though they were his sons, while ordinary soldiers like them got scolded as though they were grandsons. But at a critical moment like this, why had he gone