Three Side Quests [1/5, Please Support the First Subscription Upon Release!]

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The afternoon sunlight was a little blinding. As Noah stepped out of the hospital doors, he instinctively raised a hand to shield his forehead.

"Damn it!"

"Of all times to get promoted to rear admiral, it had to be now!"

As he hurried along the tree-lined avenue toward the dorms, he grumbled indignantly to himself, "I never should've said anything about sitting in front of Sengoku's grave and basking in the sun. It should clearly have been Fleet Admiral Kong's grave!"

Thinking of the teasing smile on Momousagi's face when he left made him feel irritated all over again.

Above rear admiral was vice admiral. That was already a genuine high-ranking Marine position. Expecting a fresh recruit to get that rank right after graduation...

Setting aside whether his strength qualified, where was he supposed to accumulate military merit?

Even beasts like Sakazuki and Kuzan had only been rear admirals when they first graduated. They had spent a year or two building up merits before Marine Headquarters promoted them to vice admiral.

Still, he could not really blame anyone. It was all just unfortunate timing.

Although the Marines had suffered a crushing defeat in the battle at the G-7 Branch, Momousagi had indeed made considerable contributions. Before the ambush, she had taken down several officers with bounties close to a hundred million Beli.

Besides, she had already been a brigadier general for several years. Her promotion to rear admiral was only natural.

"What a headache."

Noah shook his head and stopped thinking about those annoying matters. Stroking the stubble on his chin, he began savoring the memory of Momousagi's kiss from not long ago...

—Though he had no idea what had gotten into him at the time,