Praise poured down on me. Franz looked up at me with sparkling eyes, and Walter slapped my shoulder hard enough to give it a cramp. Seraphina and Erika were gazing steadily at me.
Then the regimental commander approached me.
“Lieutenant Max Jaeger.”
“Yes, sir! Colonel.”
I snapped into a precise salute. The regimental commander looked down at me with a strange glint in his eyes. Until now, it had been the look of a man appraising an excellent chess piece, but now…
‘Status Analysis.’
[Name: Carl von Dietrich]
[Emotion: Recognizes Max Jaeger not merely as a military hero, but as a “benefactor” who will solidify his own political position.]
Bingo.
I could almost hear the calculator in that old fox’s head whirring furiously. He’d thought I was only good at fighting, but I was skilled at politics too? That was a goose that laid golden eggs.
“You are… truly astonishing.”
The regimental commander gripped my shoulder tightly.
“On the battlefield, you displayed courage like a demon, and in the conference room, you showed eloquence that would put a diplomat to shame. Thanks to you, our regiment’s honor has been preserved.”
“Thank you. But it isn’t over yet.”
I changed the mood at an appropriate moment.
“Lieutenant Colonel Zwinger hasn’t backed down. If anything, he’ll be nursing a grudge. In the document audit that begins tomorrow, he’ll try to find fault somehow.”
At my words, the regimental commander’s face darkened again.
“…That’s true. There’s no way that viper would simply retreat. Supply ledgers, operation logs… if you shake them hard enough, what doesn’t produce dust?”
No matter how much I’d pumped everyone up with my speech, reality was cold. Military administration was riddled with holes by nature. Even if no one had embezzled anything, it was common for the ledgers and actual quantities not to match, and when operations were carried out in a hurry, mountains of reports got omitted.
Zwinger would dig into those gaps.
*
A short while later.
The regimental commander, Major Helga, Quartermaster Hermann, and the relevant officers all gathered to prepare for the inspection.
The atmosphere was that of a funeral. The spirit with which they had been shouting at Zwinger only moments ago was gone, and everyone merely sighed as they looked at the piles of documents before them.
“…Colonel, I’ll be honest with you. Getting all of this to match in a single day is practically impossible.”
Quartermaster Master Sergeant Hermann reported with a tearful expression.
“The food supply is 15% short compared to the ledgers. The more serious issue is the ammunition. The issuance ledger says it was distributed, but thousands of rounds are missing from the actual combat consumption reports. And on top of that, the supplies we seized from the orcs… How are we supposed to handle the ones the soldiers privately divided among themselves without entering them into the ledger? If Zwinger searches their lockers, they’ll be sent straight to the stockade.”
“You call that a report at a time like this?”
The regimental commander clutched his forehead and growled.
“Haven’t I always told you to be meticulous with paperwork?”
“Y-yes, sir, you have, but… the situation at the forward supply depot was such a mess…”
Hermann trailed off, gauging the mood.
‘Status Analysis.’
[Name: Carl von Dietrich]
[Status: Despair. Currently simulating his own future in which Zwinger catches him by the tail and ruins him.]
[Emotion: Desperate for anyone at all to pull him out of this cesspit.]
Now.
I quietly raised my hand.
“It isn’t as if there’s no solution at all.”
Everyone’s eyes fixed on me.
“Go on, Lieutenant Jaeger. Let’s hear it.”
The regimental commander’s eyes trembled with the desperation of a man clutching at straws. I opened my mouth without drawing it out.
“First, we need to reconcile the ammunition consumption.”
At my words, the regimental commander nodded.
“Yes. The report says only 30% was used, but if you look at the actual issuance ledger, 45% went out. The whereabouts of the remaining 15% are unclear.”
He tapped the ledger with his finger.
“If we can’t explain this, it’s embezzlement. I’m sure it was omitted somewhere, but… we can’t exactly find it now…”
I closed my eyes for a moment. A 15% gap. There was only one way to fill it. Not as “consumption,” but as “disposal.” Considering the environment of the Ashen Forest, there was more than enough of an excuse.
But the problem was justification. To shut the mouth of a fastidious inspector, I had to shove the regulations he worshiped right under his nose.
But even I didn’t know the entirety of the imperial regulations. Besides, time was tight. It was nearly impossible for the officers gathered here to read through them and handle everything overnight.
…However.
There was no need for me to do it myself. As it happened, I had the perfect skill.
‘Connect.’
Flash—
[Skill “Gallery of War Greats (Lv.1)” is activating.]
Time to work, you wraiths.
I took the ledger and rested my chin on my hand with an appropriately serious expression. On the surface, I must have looked like an officer deep in anguish, but inside my head, a typewriter was clattering away at the speed of light.
[I’m trying to cover the current 15% ammunition gap by treating it as disposal.]
[I’m planning to push it as disposal of defective ammunition due to the humidity of the Ashen Forest, plus loss during engagement, but I need the relevant regulations.]
I wrote that and hit the post button.
Comments soon sprouted like bamboo shoots after rain.
Corsican Artillery Officer: Field Manual Chapter 4, Supply Rules, is too weak. That alone won’t be enough.
Top Political Instructor: Found it. “Wartime Emergency Materiel Management Regulations,” Article 14, Paragraph 3. This is it.
Founder of War Studies: There’s precedent too. Cite the Hindenburg case from the Third Northern War, and they won’t be able to move an inch.
Okay.
That was exactly the clause I wanted.
I immediately deactivated the skill and returned to reality.
“Colonel. This 15% wasn’t lost.”
“What? Then where did it go?”
“It was disposed of.”
“Disposed of?”
I began explaining with a serious face.
“The Ashen Forest is a region with high humidity. The older bullets that had not been stored properly absorbed moisture, and there was a high risk they would misfire. During combat, misfires are a factor that threatens the lives of our own soldiers. Therefore, I issued an immediate disposal order on-site. No, I issued it.”
“But there’s no disposal report, is there?”
“It was a wartime emergency. There was no time to write a report in the middle of an engagement.”
I recited the clause I had found through the skill.
“‘Wartime Emergency Materiel Management Regulations,’ Article 14, Paragraph 3. ‘A field commander has the authority to take preliminary action regarding defective materiel that may pose a critical threat to an operation and report afterward.’ If we prepare a post-action report based on this clause, there will be no issue.”
“……!”
The regimental commander’s eyes widened. He hurriedly flipped through the regulation book, found the relevant clause, and clicked his tongue in astonishment.
“…That’s right. It is. To think I missed this. Article 14, Paragraph 3. My word, Lieutenant Jaeger. You even had such an obscure clause memorized?”
“I merely found the logistics lectures at the academy rather memorable.”
“Incredible. Most people only dig into tactics and neglect administrative regulations like this…”
The way the regimental commander looked at me changed yet again. It was no longer the gaze he gave an officer who was merely skilled in the field, but that of a man looking at an elite who had mastered administration as well.
‘Status Analysis.’
[Name: Carl von Dietrich]
[Status: Admiration. Repeatedly reevaluating Max Jaeger’s abilities.]
But this was only the beginning.
“Then what about this? The food supply records. The subsistence expenses claimed are too high compared to the number of troops. Someone might think they were cutting into steak at every meal.”
Master Sergeant Hermann scratched his head and held out the documents.
“Show me.”
I skimmed through the ledger. Indeed, the food expenses were quite high relative to the troop count.
‘They ate a lot? Then we just say they moved a lot.’
I drew up the bigger picture in my head. Combat stress, the need for high calories, and disposal of enemy supplies. I just had to tie those three together.
The problem, as expected, was the regulations. Even I didn’t know every imperial army regulation, but…
If I had a cheat skill, that changed the story.
‘Connect.’
[Issue: excess subsistence expenses. Need relevant regulations.]
I wrote that and posted it.
Comments
Corsican Artillery Officer: An army moves on a full stomach. Given the situation, it seems suitable to push this under the category of “high-calorie special rations for high-intensity operations.”
Top Political Instructor: Mix in the issue of “contaminated captured supplies.” If you say it was a measure to avoid violating Hygiene Rule Article 7, it looks perfect.
I nodded and gave Hermann the answer.
“Let’s say special rations were provided to boost the morale of soldiers ahead of an intense battle. And the food seized from the orc positions was incinerated in its entirety due to concerns about toxins, so additional friendly supplies were issued instead. It was a measure taken to prevent a violation of Hygiene Rule Article 7.”
“……! I-I’ll write the report immediately!”
Hermann exclaimed in admiration and began moving his pen.
Time passed quickly. As the night deepened, the problems grew more complicated, but the collective intelligence of the gallery’s veterans had no limits.
“What about the excessive claims for clothing expenses?”
“Corrosion of uniforms caused by orc acidic blood. Emphasize the need for early replacement.”
“What about the shortage of medical supplies?”
“Say they were used for preventive quarantine measures. Disease prevention is sacred ground that even the Inspectorate finds difficult to touch.”
“This operation map doesn’t match the actual route of maneuver. Lieutenant Colonel Zwinger will latch onto it as a violation of the advance plan.”
“It was a judgment made within the scope of the field commander’s discretionary authority. Field Manual Article 2, Paragraph 5 explicitly states the possibility of minor route deviations due to unexpected changes in combat conditions.”
I glanced at the documents, stared into empty space for a moment (gallery browsing), and within less than a minute, produced the perfect answer.
As that process repeated, the officers gathered in the conference room gradually lost their words. At first, they had been impressed, but now they looked at me with something beyond shock—something akin to awe.
‘Status Analysis.’