Swirling fog, blurred, visibility terrible, frightening.
This was Sergeant Birrell Liva of the Repentant Fire Legion's First Company's first impression of Sabredolon IV, and it certainly could not be called a favorable assessment. Fighting in an environment like this was also a first for her.
At the pre-battle operational meeting, the senior officers had introduced the finalized battle plan to them, and that was what they had said as well. Sergeant Liva had offered no opinion. She had remained silent throughout the meeting. It was one of the habits war had left her with.
These days, she preferred silence even more.
As a sergeant, Liva held command authority over every soldier in the First Company whose rank was lower than hers, but she rarely used that right. Her superior, a bearded man, addressed her as "Lady Liva."
Judging by the form of address alone, you might have thought the hierarchy between them was reversed, or that this superior had feelings for Liva.
But in truth, neither was the case.
Her superior, First Company Captain Avatos Calto, was an extreme pragmatist—in other words, he believed that emotional exchange in any form, and the accompanying physical exchange, were nothing more than a waste of time.
Though he never demanded that others be like him, abstaining from smoking and drinking and living an ascetic life, this way of dedicating himself completely to war and The Emperor had still won him a following among some soldiers.
And the reason he called Liva Lady Liva had, in fact, originated from a wager.
We need not know the contents of the wager, but the result was that Liva won. She had piloted a Thundercloud mech and destroyed four artillery positions belonging to the traitors. After the battle, she was awarded the "Steel" medal, and her name