You're not my commander

The atmosphere grew heavy.

Pei Ji stared at Shen Que, who stood before him with his head tilted up.

There was no trace of his earlier sweet obedience now.

A hint of cold desolation showed in the slightly upturned corners of his eyes.

Though he was looking up, it felt as if he were looking down on him.

So lofty and superior.

Just like that person...

Pei Ji gritted his teeth. A phantom pain flared in his palm, and crimson blood and a floor strewn with corpses flashed through his mind.

"You really think I'm one of your soldiers, huh? What's this, a pre-battle briefing?"

Shen Que froze, his expression darkening. "You asked me to evaluate you."

Pei Ji clenched his right hand. "Don't you think your evaluation is a little too colored by your personal perspective?"

"I'm stating objective facts," Shen Que said gravely.

The exact same words.

-[I'm stating objective facts. What right does a mere soldier like you have to question me?]

Pei Ji laughed in anger. "Commander Shen, the bugs I've killed could pave a road from Messiah to White Sand Star, and no one has ever said there was anything wrong with my piloting."

Shen Que paused.

"Most of your piloting was fine. But the battlefield changes in an instant. Even if there's only a one-in-ten-thousand chance of encountering the situation I just described..."

"Enough!" Pei Ji cut him off.

"The battlefield changes in an instant, and all you commanders have to do is move your cute little mouths. There'll always be thousands upon thousands of soldiers to pay for your mistakes."

Shen Que's voice turned cold as well. "Are you accusing us of being irresponsible?"

"Irresponsible?" Pei Ji laughed contemptuously. "I'd call you all self-righteous, too."

Shen Que slowly exhaled, suppressing the urge to turn and walk away.

"Every commander undergoes rigorous training before taking up their post. You graduated from a military academy. You should know the command department has always had the fewest students and the strictest requirements..."

"So what?"

Pei Ji interrupted him again.

"Everyone treats you like precious treasures, but once you actually get onto the battlefield, you're still just kittens hiding in the rear."

Pei Ji advanced toward Shen Que, step by step.

"First Commander, have you ever killed a bug? Ever fought on the front line? Ever watched the soldiers beside you get torn apart and bitten to death by bugs, one after another?"

Shen Que's hands clenched, loosened, then clenched again.

Stray strands of black hair fell against his forehead, making the sickly pallor of his face all the more apparent.

His lips moved, softly releasing a few words. "Want to try?"

"Try?" Pei Ji frowned. "Try what?"

"Fight me. A three-minute quick match." Shen Que stared at Pei Ji, his gaze icy. "Experience the situation I just described for yourself."

Pei Ji opened his mouth. "You're going to pilot a Mecha?"

He looked Shen Que up and down.

The Omega before him was already showing signs of exhaustion from standing too long. Even remaining upright seemed to take effort.

His lips were pressed tightly together, utterly bloodless.

Why compete with someone who was ill?

Pei Ji calmed down a little.

He wasn't in good health anyway.

What would beating him prove? What would it change?

"Forget it..." Pei Ji turned his head away. "I'm not fighting you. You're not my commander anyway. I shouldn't have asked today. I won't ask you about combat again."

"Are you scared?" Shen Que asked coldly.

"Scared?" Pei Ji's temper flared at once.

"You're afraid of losing to me." Shen Que added fuel to the fire. "You're afraid what you think is right might actually be wrong."

"Fine, fine, fine." Pei Ji activated the control console. "If I don't make you howl today, I'm a dog!"

"H-hey?!"

Anya looked utterly bewildered.

"General! Your husband came to ask you to have breakfast with him! Why are you going to fight?!"

Neither of them paid the little maid any attention.

They entered the training grounds one after the other.

Anya followed behind, unsure which way to run.

Pei Ji suddenly raised his hand.

Something traced an arc through the air.

Shen Que instinctively reached up and caught it.

It was a round pendant. The black Devour Heaven, stored inside using space-folding technology, lay within it like a toy.

"You use Devour Heaven," Pei Ji said. "Otherwise, it'll look like I'm bullying you."

Shen Que stroked the pendant holding Devour Heaven, his gaze lingering for a moment on the black sphere.

"I won't use it."

He tossed Devour Heaven back.

"Give me a D-class training Mecha."

He paused.

"It needs a manual control console."

A manual control console?

Pei Ji froze.

Generally speaking, all combat Mechas had to have manual control consoles so they could still be operated to some extent if the Mecha sustained damage and its neural synaptic connection failed.

But they were almost never used.

Manual operation offered poor coordination and a high error rate.

The design existed solely to give the pilot a chance to escape under the worst possible circumstances.

It wasn't meant for combat.

"You really don't think much of me..." Pei Ji said through gritted teeth.

Shen Que clasped his hands behind his back, standing with a soldier's posture, his lips lightly pressed together.

It wasn't that he looked down on Pei Ji.

His current mental condition simply made establishing a neural synaptic connection impossible.

But he couldn't be bothered to explain that to Pei Ji, nor was there any need.

Glancing at the utterly unresponsive commander, Pei Ji put Devour Heaven away and called up two D-class training Mechas.

"Fine... I'll play along! Don't cry when you lose."

Anya watched helplessly as the two of them boarded their Mechas.

"Boo-hoo... I don't know whether your husband will cry, but I'm going to..."

"They're going to dock my entire day's pay, boo-hoo..."

His hands touched that familiar hard surface once more.

An irrepressible tremor stirred in Shen Que's heart.

His fingertips skimmed across the pale blue screen.

This feeling was still exhilarating, no matter how many times he experienced it...

He murmured the words he had said countless times before.

"Pilot ready. Activate."

[Hello, pilot.]

[I am D-312, a medium-sized, high-attack Mecha.]

[In the battles to come.]

[I will be with you.]

Everything was etched into his body like instinct.

Shen Que deftly maneuvered the Mecha into the air.

The holographic arena simulated a rainforest.

Two identical Mechas leaped above the canopy at the same time.

Pei Ji hadn't originally intended to fight for real.

But for some reason, when he saw the opposing Mecha assume a textbook-perfect ready stance, he suddenly felt eager to try.

That was First Commander Shen Que.

Even if it was a D-Class Mecha.

Shen Que was still inside it!

The instant that thought surfaced.

A beastlike drive to win overcame all his hesitation.

Pei Ji launched his attack.

In a three-minute quick match, speed was everything.

The standard light blade that came with the D-class training Mecha sliced through branches and leaves. The other Mecha darted left, evading it with ease.

"Pretty quick." Pei Ji clenched his back teeth, but his excitement only grew.

He really was good.

Then he saw Shen Que's Mecha duck down and disappear into the forest.

"We've only got three minutes! What's the point of hiding?" He gave chase.

Yet as if in answer, several small homing projectiles flew out of the dense woods.

Pei Ji twisted aside to dodge them, immediately aiming toward the direction they had come from.

In that split second, a fierce gust swept up beneath his left wing.

Pei Ji froze. Just as he adjusted his wings, a black shadow shot up from below.

The light blade aimed straight for the joint of his left arm.

"Damn!"

Pei Ji's expression sharpened. His Mecha was still adjusting and couldn't dodge in time.

But he reacted extremely quickly, turning to catch the blade with his other hand.

A harsh tearing sound rang out.

The light blade pierced his right hand, and the exposed components erupted in bursts of blue light.

Pei Ji's brow furrowed. Instinctively, he drove his shoulder back against the force.

Shen Que jolted.

Though his surprise attack had succeeded, he couldn't withstand that much force. He could only watch as Pei Ji gripped the blade and hurled him downward with an over-the-shoulder throw.

Without a mental connection, the Mecha fell like a leaf.

Amid Anya's shriek of "Your husband-!"

Pei Ji suddenly snapped back to his senses.

Had he just... thrown his Omega with thirty-two fractures?!!