I slowly looked over the list in the report Helga had brought.
Spare parts for the new tanks, luxury goods to be issued to the officers, special winter gear, and the latest medical instruments for field hospitals.
Every last one was an item that determined the “quality” of the unit’s operations, and every last one had either been delayed or rejected.
On the other hand, essential supplies needed for immediate training—ammunition, basic rations, fundamental fuel stocks—were coming in perfectly normally.
‘……That petty old bastard.’
I laughed inwardly.
It was a typical back-room old man’s way of enforcing discipline.
If he had blocked essential supplies like bullets or food? With an amphibious operation approaching, that would have been clear treason and an act of aiding the enemy.
If Marshal Ludwig found out, he would have ripped Dietrich’s head off on the spot. The old man had avoided doing anything that would get his own lifeline cut.
That was how trivial the pressure was. Even if the third-rate reporters he had bought off spread their tabloids around, my position would not be shaken.
His plan was merely to irritate me until I lowered my tail first, bowed my head, and said, “Senior, please let me off just this once.” It was, in the literal sense, nothing more and nothing less than an attempt to put me in my place.
‘How utterly clumsy.’
Now then, how should I deal with this adorable little tantrum? There were several options.
First, I could tattle to my backers, such as Marshal Ludwig or Major General Falkenheim.
It was the surest method, but also the worst.
I could not look like some whining brat who could not handle even this level of administrative trouble on his own. Hiding under the umbrella of a faction was a card to be played only in a fatal crisis, not in a petty political squabble like this.
Second, I could crush it with my own money.
I could use the slush funds and shell companies Aiden was operating to sweep the black market and make up for the supplies. But why? Spend my precious money because of that one old man? Absolutely ridiculous.
Third, [Material Conversion].
I could grind down my own blood-like mana circuits to transmute the missing tank parts with a ta-da. Madness. If I did that even once, I would be pouring blood from my nose all day and collapsing unconscious. It was not something a commander should do before an amphibious operation.
To begin with, I had no sense of how many times I would have to faint to cover the quantity needed by an entire brigade. Rejected.
‘Then there’s only one answer left.’
I placed my clasped hands on the table and looked back and forth between Aiden and Helga.
“Chief of Staff.”
“Yes, Colonel.”
“You must have seen a great deal while working under the brigadier general. I assume you can point out the holes he’s been exploiting?”
At my question, a strange light entered Helga’s gray eyes. She opened her mouth without hesitation.
“Of course. I can shake out every last speck of dust for you.”
‘Analyze Status.’
[Name: Helga von Strauss]
[Status: Firm resolve, proof of loyalty]
[Emotion: This is my chance to settle the past. I’ll prove my worth to Colonel Jaeger with concrete results.]
It seemed there was no need to worry about Helga. If anything, she seemed to think of it as a good opportunity… After all, there could be no surer way to prove loyalty than personally dealing with one’s former superior.
Next, I turned my gaze to Aiden. My loyal retainer beyond any doubt.
“Lieutenant Aiden.”
“Your orders, sir.”
“The back-alley informants and third-rate journalists that old man bought. How much would it cost to buy them back?”
“We have more than enough funds. Looking only at the money immediately available, we could already buy and sell them three times over.”
Okay.
With this, the preparations were complete.
“……Colonel. Lastly, how shall we ‘deal with’ that old man?”
At length, Aiden asked, emitting a terrifying killing intent.
Helga, standing beside him, also wore a serious expression.
However.
“No, we won’t kill him.”
At the unexpected words from my mouth, both their eyes widened.
“You mean you do not intend to destroy him?”
I chuckled and lightly tapped the desk with my finger. Tap, tap.
“Think about it, Aiden. The brigadier general’s connections are still useful. Rather than blindly cutting that old man down……”
It would be better to use this incident as an excuse to put a proper leash on him.
Then I could use him for the rest of his life. Until the old man retired—no, perhaps until the day he died.
‘You’ve used me until now, so from now on, I’ll be the one using you.’
Humiliation is temporary. Death is a single instant, and pain eventually dulls. But structural bondage is permanent.
A way to bind for life the hunting dog that had bared its teeth at me.
“Incorporate him thoroughly into the lower structure of our cartel, so he won’t even dare think of betrayal.”
At my order, a brief silence fell between the two of them.
‘Analyze Status.’
Out of habit, I read their thoughts.
[Name: Arthur]
[Status: Loyalty, recalling the past]
[Emotion: The boldness to turn even someone who pointed a blade at him to his own advantage. It must be thanks to that boldness that I’m still alive now. ……As expected, he truly is the person I should serve for the rest of my life.]
[Name: Helga von Strauss]
[Status: Admiration, chill]
[Emotion: To think he would tighten the noose around Dietrich’s throat in this way. ……Thank heavens I did not become Max Jaeger’s enemy.]
The two of them were breaking out in cold sweat inwardly.
Their reasons were different, but they were the same in that they overestimated me.
‘I’m just charging ahead because I trust my cheat skills, though.’
Embracing an enemy as an ally always carries the risk of betrayal. Fundamentally, it is high-risk, high-return. But I could sweetly enjoy only the return while cleanly tossing aside the risk.
The color of the dots shown on the [Minimap]. And the inner thoughts I could read with [Analyze Status]. The system was structured so that it was impossible for me not to notice before being betrayed.
I would never be betrayed by my allies.
The two, unaware of those circumstances, misunderstood as they pleased and valued me highly. Their loyalty deepened, the chance of betrayal decreased, and the back of my head grew safer by the day.
It was, in the literal sense, a virtuous cycle created by cheat skills.
“I will bear it in mind, Colonel.”
“We will handle it as instructed.”
Aiden and Helga saluted at the same time.
The two veterans who would become my hands and feet began to move swiftly.
*
A few days later.
The office of the 7th Brigade commander.
“……He isn’t answering the phone. It says the number is no longer in service.”
“What?! That can’t be! They were the bastards who took the advance payment just the other day!”
Brigadier General Dietrich shouted, veins bulging in his neck. His adjutant broke into a cold sweat and picked up the receiver again, but all that returned was the dry tone of the call connecting.
It was strange. Things were unfolding in a bizarrely strange way.
The informants he had entrusted with digging into Max Jaeger’s background had suddenly disappeared as if fleeing by night, citing “personal circumstances.” The editor-in-chief of the newspaper who had promised to write negative articles had abruptly gone on an extended leave under the pretext of recuperation.
Even the warehouse manager he had bribed to delay logistics had, at some point, begun subtly avoiding contact.
“Brigadier General…… That is not all. The errand agency we had commissioned has completely vacated its office.”
“……”
All color drained from Dietrich’s face.
If it had been one or two cases, he could have dismissed it as coincidence, but for his hands and feet to be cut away simultaneously like this was clearly artificial.
Karl von Dietrich. A man who prided himself on having gained plenty of experience in politics and administration within the Imperial Army. And yet there existed a force that could block his schemes so quickly and perfectly without leaving even a trace?
‘No. That can’t be.’
Max Jaeger? The bastard was still far too young. No matter how extraordinary his mind was, he had no way to control the underworld press and manipulate the Logistics Command however he pleased.
Helga had joined him, yes, but there was no way she alone could have overturned this enormous board in only a few days.
Then who was it? Had Marshal Ludwig personally intervened?
Anxiety slowly tightened around Dietrich’s throat.
As each clue fell into place, a fear bloomed within him that he had brushed against the reverse scale of a massive monster he should never have touched.
He needed confirmation.
Dietrich hurriedly picked up the receiver.
“Hello. Yes. Summon Colonel Jaeger to my office.”
*
Click.
The person who entered after the door opened was not Colonel Jaeger.
It was a man he had never seen before.
“W-who are you?”
He looked to be in his late twenties to early thirties. He was a man with bloodless, pale skin and deeply sunken eyes.
Thud, thud.
The man approached the desk with the sound of military boots, then saluted. Dietrich’s shoulders flinched.
“Loyalty. Lieutenant Aiden Hunt, attached to the Jaeger Brigade.”
“L-Lieutenant? I clearly asked for Colonel Jaeger…!”
“The colonel is currently so busy preparing for the amphibious operation that he has no time to breathe.”
The endlessly polite voice chilled Dietrich’s spine.
Silently, he placed the briefcase he had brought on the table.
Click.
The case opened, and something slid out onto the desk.
“W-what is all this?”
“Materials to correct the ‘administrative errors’ that have occurred within the jurisdiction of the 7th Brigade over the past few days.”
Aiden tapped the document lying on top.
“First. Handwritten statements from the informants and editors with whom you recently made contact, Brigadier General. They contain very detailed testimony that they attempted to spread malicious falsehoods about Colonel Jaeger and the brigade. Their thumbprints are clearly stamped as well.”
“……!”
“Second.”
Aiden unfolded the next document. This time, it was a format Dietrich knew all too well. The internal confidential ledger of the 7th Brigade’s logistics department.
“An itemized record of military supplies embezzled from the 7th Brigade supply depot over the past year through document falsification and diverted to the civilian market.”
“Y-you bastard! Why is that in your hands?!”
“Chief of Staff Strauss had recorded it very meticulously. When we ran our own information network a little for cross-verification, we even clearly confirmed that the final destination of the funds was your borrowed-name account, Brigadier General.”
Bang!
Dietrich planted his hands on the desk and stood. His legs were trembling like aspens.
“T-this is clearly…!”
“What will you do, Brigadier General?”
Aiden leaned his upper body slightly forward and met Dietrich’s eyes.
“Our Colonel Jaeger treasures very dearly the connection he has had with you since the days of the Ashen Forest. That is why he wishes to overlook ‘minor’ administrative errors such as these.”
“Haa……?!”
Dietrich collapsed back into his chair. It felt as if his brain were about to burst with a pop.
“N-no, this is…… No, but……! S-so what I mean is……! Immediately, the supplies headed to the Jaeger Brigade…….”
Dietrich’s tongue began to twist grotesquely. The words would not come out properly. What had I been thinking just now? Should I kneel?
“H-how on earth……?”
What came from Dietrich’s mouth was the most fundamental question.
It was not as if Dietrich had handled things carelessly. The reporters he had fed money to were hidden in back-alley cells, and he had contacted the warehouse manager covertly under a borrowed name.
And yet, in only a few days, all of this had been wrapped up without a single gap, and even Dietrich, the one who had planned everything, had not noticed?
It was an ability that could not be explained unless they had stolen even Marshal Ludwig’s intelligence bureau.
But Aiden merely smiled faintly and did not kindly answer.
That indifferent silence burned Dietrich’s insides even blacker. He was being overwhelmed, unable to say a single word to the mere lieutenant before him.
Once again, he became certain that he had brushed against the reverse scale of a massive monster he should never have dared touch.
The name of that monster was Max Jaeger.
‘I-I raised a tiger—no, a fucking mad monster……!’
Whatever was going on inside him, everything Dietrich had to say and do was already decided.
“L-listen, Lieutenant Aiden. I will promise you myself. I will lift the restrictions on all supply lines. I’ll lift them! I p-promise. I swear it on my name and on the honor of a brigade commander.”
“An excellent choice, Brigadier General. As expected, the colonel’s judgment was not wrong.”
Aiden gave another perfectly angled salute.
“Then, we look forward to your unstinting administrative support for the Jaeger Brigade in the future.”
*
Immediately after Aiden left the office.
Ring—!
Dietrich, who had been sprawled on the sofa after the tension had drained from him, jumped in fright at the sound of the telephone. He hesitated for a moment, then picked up the receiver.
[Ah, Brigadier General. It’s me.]
“……You, you bastard.”
It was a media lackey Dietrich had newly made contact with. The fool prattled on without a clue.
[About that Colonel Jaeger, sir. As you instructed, I was thinking of digging into the supply monopoly issue and his private life. Should we steer the article all the way toward painting him as a debauchee?]
At that moment, Dietrich’s eyes rolled back.
“Has this insane bastard gone mad trying to get himself killed!! Scrap it! Right now!”
[What? Sir? Why all of a sudden—]
“Colonel Max Jaeger is! A great hero born of the Empire! And a precious junior I’ve cherished ever since the Gray Forest!! Do you understand, you son of a bitch?! You dare try to put a blemish on my junior?! Rewrite the whole article! Praise him, I said! If you write even a single word that finds fault with him, I’ll blow your damned head off!!”
Bang—!
Dietrich slammed the receiver down. Gasping for breath, he repeated it over and over in his mind.
‘Ha, yes. Of course. Colonel Jaeger is a hero. A precious junior I should support even if it means devoting my retirement to him. Haha, of course. G-Glory to the Empire.’
Half out of his mind and drenched in sweat, Dietrich was struck, for some reason, by an abrupt thought.
It felt as though he had just woken from a long dream. The events of the past several days scattered to pieces like a mirage that had led him astray in the middle of a desert.
And when he awoke from that dream, any thought of ever defying Jaeger again vanished from his mind forever.
*
At the same time. The office of Brigade Commander Jaeger.
Leaning back in a plush chair, I was looking at the [Minimap] floating in the air.
In one corner of the map, near the headquarters of the 7th Brigade, was the marker for Karl von Dietrich.
That white dot suddenly turned green.
“Hmm.”
It was a perfect defection guaranteed by the system. The corners of my mouth rose in satisfaction.
Knock, knock.
“Colonel. Lieutenant Aiden Hunt has returned.”
Soon, the door opened and Aiden entered.
“Good work, Aiden.”
“It was all thanks to the materials the chief of staff provided. The brigadier general has completely tucked his tail between his legs.”
Major Helga, who had been typing beside me, also reported.
“We just received word from the Logistics Department. A special freight train carrying the new tank parts and medical corps supplies that had been held up will arrive soon. With this, all material preparations for the landing operation are complete.”
“Perfect.”
That wasn’t the end of it.
That evening, I opened the freshly delivered evening paper.
[The Pride of the Empire, the Great Hero Colonel Max Jaeger! A War God Sent by the Heavens, the Overwhelming Majesty Displayed by His Brigade!]
[A Flawless Commander Who Strikes Terror into the Hearts of His Enemies, 207th Brigade’s Landing Drills Proceed Without a Hitch!]
“Well, now.”
A screaming headline across the front page. It was that third-rate rag Dietrich had supposedly bought off.
‘War god? Flawless? What a load of shit.’
It was nothing but praise so cringeworthy that merely reading the print made my hands and feet curl.
“The direction of the article has changed rather… drastically.”
“……At this point, it’s practically a hymn.”
“He wanted to live, so I suppose he had no choice.”
I let out a snort and tossed the evening paper onto the table.
“Good. That takes care of Dietrich.”
As I rose from my seat and walked to the window, Aiden and Helga also stepped back and stood sharply at attention.
“Chief of Staff Strauss. Lieutenant Aiden.”
“Yes, Colonel.”
“Distribute the supplies we secured this time to the first-wave landing force as soon as they arrive. Push all the new parts into the armored battalion and bring tank operational readiness up to one hundred percent, and stock the medical corps with painkillers and combat stimulants immediately.”
“Understood. I have already completed all the administrative procedures.”
Looking down out the window, I gave a short nod.
Beyond the glass, the acrid smell of gunpowder and diesel exhaust mingled and hung thick in the air. Coastal mock drills continued day and night. The rough shouts of soldiers. Landing craft filling the sea.
“Suppressive fire! Keep your heads down and run!”
Rat-tat-tat-tat—!
Blank rounds poured down over the training trenches, and the infantrymen of the 207th Brigade, rolling through mud that rose to their waists and crawling beneath barbed wire, looked like a swarm of ants.
On the other side, the tanks led by Frederica were repeating loading drills like mad, moving up and down the ramps of mock landing craft.
Time passed in that breathless fashion.
The military supplies Dietrich had coughed up arrived on schedule and filled the unit’s stores to the brim. The train stations around the coast were on the verge of paralysis from disgorging troops and supplies every day, and searchlights that did not go out even at night embroidered the strait with light.
Beyond the sea, black smoke rose day after day from the wreckage of the bombings poured down by the Imperial Air Force, and dozens of transport ships, along with a large fleet to escort them, gathered in the harbor.
And then.
At last, the day of the landing operation arrived.