Li Xiu was having a nightmare. Smoke and shellfire filled his dreams, and he lived through one savage battle after another. Even in his sleep, he felt the intense pain. Gunshots and the roar of artillery were deafening. At the dream's end, monstrous tanks appeared on the battlefield, billowing steam and smoke from their tops. Their terrifying pressure bore down on every soldier, including him, their commander.
His eyelids fluttered violently. With a shudder, Li Xiu jolted awake. He had barely tried to move before waves of searing pain swept through him.
"Hss..."
Li Xiu grimaced in agony. Only after several deep breaths did he gradually adjust to the pain.
Damn, no wonder it hurt so much in the dream. The pain was real.
Using his right hand, which seemed mostly unhurt, Li Xiu carefully lifted the thin blanket covering him. Following the pain, he found bandages wrapped around his shoulder and upper left arm. The exposed portion of his right thigh was also swathed in bandages, with blood seeping through.
What happened?
Panic stirred in Li Xiu's heart. What had he been through? How had he gotten hurt?
As if something had suddenly occurred to him, Li Xiu raised his head. Enduring the pain, he quickly but carefully pulled up his shirt with his right hand, exposing his abdomen beneath his ribs. Only when he saw no wounds there did he breathe a sigh of relief and settle his head back onto the pillow.
He wiped the sweat from his face, unsure whether the pain or the nightmare had caused more of it, then opened his eyes again.
As his vision came into focus, Li Xiu's attention finally shifted overhead. He froze for a moment. What he saw was a peaked roof that seemed to be made of gray fabric, with supports beneath it. It certainly was not the ceiling of a hospital ward.
Li Xiu quickly scanned his surroundings, then looked down at the floor. Gray cloth enclosed a square space of roughly ten square meters. Leather bags, belts, and other personal belongings lay on a simple table and a stand. Nothing covered the floor; it was merely packed earth.
Looking down at his clothes, Li Xiu saw that his unbandaged left leg was clad in rather coarse gray fabric. On his upper body was a bloodstained cotton-and-linen shirt...
Am I in a tent? A disaster relief tent, maybe? Was I injured in some sudden natural disaster?
But I was wearing a sweater and a padded coat before!
Where are the medical staff? Does my family not know yet?
Full of questions, Li Xiu gripped the side of the iron bed frame with his right hand. Gritting his teeth, he pushed hard, trying to raise his upper body.
Hss, ow, ow, ow!
Forget it. Lying here is pretty comfortable. There's no need to get up...
Li Xiu sucked in air through a grimace to ease the pain and looked toward the table beside him. Instinctively, he searched for his phone, but found nothing. His gaze finally settled on the most conspicuous leather bag. Perhaps it was inside.
The table stood right beside the bed and was only slightly higher. Li Xiu reached out with his right hand, caught the edge of the leather bag, and pulled it closer.
As he tugged on its leather strap, he noticed how heavy it was. There must have been quite a few personal belongings inside...
When he opened the bag, Li Xiu's train of thought abruptly stopped. The first thing he saw left his mind briefly blank...
It was an exquisite silver-gray revolver!
His heart gave a violent thump. Coming to his senses, Li Xiu immediately covered the bag's opening and glanced nervously toward the tent entrance. Seeing no one and hearing nothing, he opened the bag for another look. An overwhelmingly strong instinct told him that this was probably a real gun!
Caught between fear and curiosity, Li Xiu noticed the writing near the top of the leather bag. It was an alphabetic script that differed somewhat from English. At first, he could not understand it. But a moment later, it was like looking at flowers through mist, then watching the mist gradually lift until the "flowers" became clear. The meaning of the words surfaced naturally in his mind.
A name, belonging to the bag's owner:
Mulan Jonester.
"Mulan Jonester..."
The instant Li Xiu unconsciously read the name aloud, a flood of memories and information flashed through his mind like a racing montage. Within a few breaths, the onslaught left his head spinning.
An age when feudal conservatism collided with surging new trends, an impoverished noble family clinging to old rules, an ever-indistinct father, a mother fading from memory, a loyal old steward, the conviction that he must restore his family's glory...
The irresistible torrent of information was immense. Some of it was vivid and profound, some blurred and indistinct, like watching a lengthy documentary of someone's life at absurdly high speed. It tormented Li Xiu until his will nearly collapsed. His muscles tightened involuntarily, and he clutched the edge of the bed, still trembling without realizing it.
Fragments of information kept flashing past. Above all, the conviction that he must restore his family's glory was so powerful that it seemed determined to engrave itself into his mind, every word a sharp blade drawing blood!
"Ugh..."
Li Xiu could not suppress a cry of pain, though it came out more as breath than sound. People usually screamed loudly when frightened; once pain reached a certain point, they often could not cry out at all.
A long time later, Li Xiu lay limp on the bed, gasping for air. He turned his head toward the leather bag beside him. Looking at the name on it and the cold gun grip visible through a gap, he could not help twitching the corners of his mouth.
Whether he could accept it or not, all Li Xiu felt now was absurdity and a faint bewilderment. Judging by his current body and circumstances, he had actually become this Mulan Jonester. That meant the nightmare he had just experienced was more than a nightmare.
"This can't be real. I must still be asleep! Close my eyes, relax my breathing... Wake up, wake up. I've got a PowerPoint presentation tomorrow, and I still need to climb the ranks tonight... Wake up!"
After keeping his eyes closed and trying for quite a while, he snapped them open. Li Xiu found himself still lying in the tent. By now, his mind was increasingly settling into this body. Even the leather bag to his right felt familiar, and the sight of the gun grip brought back the sensation of holding it.
This is my gun, an extension of my body. It carries me out of nightmarish peril. It is power at my command, blazing with fire, tearing through flesh!
A strange feeling rose within Li Xiu. He opened the leather bag again and, following that sensation, slowly reached for the grip. The roar of the battlefield seemed to echo faintly in his ears. His fingertips touched the gun, cool yet smooth and gentle. The moment he closed his hand around its grip, an invisible wind seemed to stir through the tent. A faint red glow appeared to lurk within the silver gun.
A natural connection formed between Li Xiu and the revolver. A powerful resonance arose alongside his old and new memories: the moment this gun had been forged years ago, and the sensations of the recent fighting. As Li Xiu's heart stirred, a force flowed into the gun, and a peculiar will flowed back.
Gun's name: Ring of Light. My master, Mulan Jonester, has granted me will. Iron and blood, flame and light!
At that moment, a line of small letters, as though carved by a blade, slowly emerged along one side of the silver gun amid a shower of burning sparks.
It was an alphabetic script Li Xiu could understand, yet not one familiar from his memories. The words meant "a ring of light," and also carried the sense of radiating brilliance.
Li Xiu watched and felt it all in astonishment. The emotions within him were beyond words.
"Ring of Light... Ring of Light! This is my gun!"
A soldier in a gray uniform and a tall military cap resembling an old British shako hurried along. After passing through a stretch of tents, he reached the quieter officers' quarters.
By now, however, hardly any officers were staying there. Signs that this terrible war was drawing to a close had appeared long ago, and now it was finally over. Those gentlemen officers could hardly bear to remain idle in this encampment. Most had already rushed into the nearby city to enjoy themselves.
Even allowing for fighting on multiple fronts, this war had unquestionably been a disgrace for the Dilga Empire. But that mattered little to the noble officers stationed farther behind the lines.
There were always exceptions, of course. At least one officer was definitely still in these tents, and the soldier had hurried over to see him.
After passing through the forward section and asking a member of the support staff walking by, the soldier finally found his destination. Standing outside the gray tent, he instinctively straightened his uniform.
"Who are you?"
An approaching nurse spotted the soldier and immediately questioned him. He turned toward the nurse, whose hair hung in two thick braids, and promptly raised his hand to his brow in salute.
"Jerry, assault trooper under Second Lieutenant Jonester, Third Battalion, Second Corps! May I ask if the second lieutenant is awake?"
The first half of the soldier's statement was firm and forceful; the second half came much more quietly.
"You lot again. You can go in, but keep your voice down."
The nurse was clearly used to this. With that, she lifted the tent flap.
Inside the tent, Li Xiu had his hand in the leather bag, playing with the revolver. The voices outside made him jolt. He hurriedly withdrew his hand, closed the bag, and pressed his right hand over it. Then he saw a nurse in a pale green dress and a soldier enter.
The soldier immediately spotted Li Xiu lying on the bed. Delighted surprise spread across his face, and even his fists clenched instinctively. The Second Lieutenant Jonester before him had no blanket covering him. Bandages wrapped his left arm and right leg, with blood seeping through. His face was pale and haggard, but he could turn his head to look at the soldier, which meant he was conscious. His condition was not as bad as the rumors claimed.
"Second lieutenant!"
"Oh, you're awake?"
The soldier was excited; the nurse was surprised.
Li Xiu looked at the nurse and soldier in turn. He had no memory of the former, while the latter seemed vaguely familiar at first glance. It took him a while to recall the soldier's name. But seeing how agitated the man was, he could not tell whether it was out of devotion to his commander or because he held a grudge against him, so he dared not start blabbing.
"I'll fetch the doctor right away!"
With that, the nurse turned and ran out. Majeri and Li Xiu watched her leave, then their gazes simultaneously settled on each other. Seeing the soldier's slight trembling and reddened eyes, Li Xiu even spent a moment considering the quickest way to draw his gun.
"Second lieutenant, thank goodness you're awake! I know your health comes first right now, but they're going to blame us for the defeat at the Battle of Moxia Ridge!"
Huh?
Li Xiu froze. What was going on?
The soldier had held himself back all the way here. Now that he saw the second lieutenant awake, his deeply suppressed emotions broke free. He recounted what he knew through practically gritted teeth.
"As the highest-ranking commander who survived at the time, you're going to be court-martialed. The tribunal has already been formed, and since they believe you're in a deep coma, they intend to hold the trial without the accused present. Tomorrow morning! Even when we soldiers asked to appear in court, they told us we weren't eligible..."
The soldier continued indignantly, growing more agitated with every word.
"Before this, we'd already taken turns visiting you so many times. Thank the gods you woke up!"
The words "stand trial" seemed to provoke a powerful reaction from his body, leaving Li Xiu caught between its agitation and the calmness of his thoughts.
At that moment, scenes from his nightmare and the earlier fighting kept flashing through Li Xiu's mind. His awareness briefly wavered before he quickly regained his focus. He understood now. They-or primarily he, the unconscious man-had become the scapegoat!
Mulan Jonester was merely a second lieutenant. He carried no weight in the war as a whole, but he could still take the blame for the breach in their lines during the final battle. After all, several senior officers from the Second Corps' Third Battalion had been attacked during the march and become scattered (fled), while a few had died. That had left Mulan as the Third Battalion's highest-ranking commander during the Battle of Moxia Ridge.
Then Li Xiu painstakingly searched every remembered scene in his mind. He had only one assessment of the Third Battalion's conduct in battle-valiant!
Thus, all Li Xiu felt toward these military charges was their absurdity, followed by an anger he now shared as though it were his own!