"Why the hell did you suddenly get so close to me?"
John looked at Wendy, whose mouth he had just clamped shut, and who was now staring at him in disbelief.
John first cleared his throat, then set the lucky Pighead Squad Leader back on the ground. Under her resentful gaze, he pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the saliva from his fingertips.
Only then did he earnestly lecture the Pighead Squad Leader who had been plotting against him.
"Second Lieutenant Wendy, as my deputy, have you forgotten the order that you must maintain a safe distance from the battalion commander at all times and cannot casually make close contact outside of emergencies?"
"This is a basic rule everyone in the Guard Unit knows. I am deeply dissatisfied with this dereliction of duty in forgetting the rules. Copy the Maslow Quotations ten times and hand them to me afterward. Understood?"
"...Captain, you're definitely going to die alone!"
"Hm? What did you say? I didn't hear that clearly."
"Nothing. I will complete the punishment you assigned, Battalion Commander John!"
Wendy expressionlessly replied to the captain who was deliberately playing dumb. Then, beneath John's flickering gaze, she angrily turned and left the Administrative Office that had broken her heart.
"Wendy, you pighead... can't you read the room? Sigh..."
Watching Wendy's departing back, John muttered helplessly to himself. Yet as he felt his burning ears and his inexplicably quickened heartbeat, even he realized that his prideful calm had briefly faltered just now.
But he quickly threw that subtle feeling to the back of his mind and turned his attention back to the sand table of Crescent Strait before him, his gaze becoming sharp once more.
Based on the intelligence Galil had sent, now that he knew the Bloodhowl Legion had abandoned its advance