“Sir, the artefact you told me to keep an eye on has been released for public use.”

Colonel Aziz looked up blearily from the desk, and he winced as the quick movement sent spikes of pain into his brain. He blinked at Hans, who retreated a few steps back immediately, and then massaged his aching head. “What artefact was it again?”

“The Display M2,” Captain Hans replied. “The one released alongside the C1 version.”

Aziz slapped his face twice. “Nice. You did help me and the marshal place a pre-order, right?”

“Yes, sir.” Hans rubbed his hands, and took a deep breath. “I don’t have enough money left for myself, though. If I might ask, when are you and the marshal going to pay me?”

“We haven’t paid you?” Aziz rubbed his head again. “M’ apologies. We’ve been burning ourselves out in recent days. I’ll transfer it to your bank account now. Is that alright?”

“That thing Pinnacle Kolya finally rolled out to the other continents?” Hans asked. “I don’t have one yet.”

“Forget it,” Aziz replied. “Let’s go over to the finance department first, then. I still have ten months of pay that those monsters refuse to wire over to my account yet.”

“Thank you, sir.”

After spending a minute or so to lock up the paper he was vetting — doctrines for troop training submitted by a junior officer, who had ideas that others thought were good — Aziz straightened his collar and checked that there wasn’t anything crooked.

As there were regulations that prohibited flying around military installations unless it was an emergency, the two could only walk to their destination, which was a blingy tower a few blocks away. People nodded at them as Aziz and Hans made their way through a corridor, which necessitated Aziz to nod back in reply. On a normal day, this much was absolutely nothing, but the colonel hadn’t had a break for the past four days.

“Are you alright?” Hans asked.

“No worries,” Aziz replied, thumping his chest. “Just peachy. The marshal’s doing even more. The past month has been insane, so it can’t be helped. Who knew that Ark City’s return would stir up such a fuss?”

A klaxon sounded, but it wasn’t anything that warranted alarm from Aziz and Hans. The two of them stopped and watched as Avalanche Battalion took to the skies three minutes after the klaxon’s wailing ended. Tracking their ascent, the colonel covered his mouth to hide a smile.

“At least I’m not subjected to that every day,” Aziz said.

“I think I’ll go insane too,” Hans replied. “They’ve been activated every day just to prevent the new Ark City from throwing down with the Assembly forces stationed here. Shouldn’t Ark City be bored of that by now?”

“The Assembly is just asking for it, though.” Aziz rolled his eyes. “Didn’t expect them to actually insult Gemini and the others during the memorial. I didn’t know such heights of idiocy was actually possible, but maybe I’m just being very optimistic.”

“Can’t we just arrest them all for rioting on Republic territory?”

“That’s legally possible, yes, but Ark City’s a bomb now. You can do that, but I can guarantee you that your commission’s going to be stripped before the day is out.” Aziz chuckled, before lowering his voice. “Let me tell you a secret — we’re wondering if we should stop intervening in those skirmishes between Ark City and the Assembly. No one’s died after all; it’s just bruised faces.”

“Bruised faces?”

“No one’s died so far, remember?” Aziz said. “The First Suborbital Wing apparently uses the Assembly forces as training for High-Value Capture operations.”

“High-Value Capture…” Hans shook his head. “Who’s their main target?”

“Important personnel from the three houses dispatched here.” Aziz began to count off his fingers. “d’Artagnan, Varita and Ishtar.”

“Ishtar…” Hans mused on that word for a moment. “What a nostalgic name. Wasn’t it the first House we encountered when we were still called Camp Napoleon?”

“Yeap. That House is just plain unlucky; in the past month, Ark City captured the leader of the Ishtar forces dispatched to Liamar’s border twenty…three times.” Aziz shrugged. “What’s that fellow’s name again?”

“Lord Esther.”

“Right. Last I heard, she was busy sending a strongly-worded missive to the Assembly, telling them to apologise for their faux-pas.” Resuming his slow pace, he yawned twice. “Apparently, she’s threatening to get her House Patriarch to secede from the Assembly if they don’t comply.”

“That’s not going to fly at all, right?”

“Don’t be so certain,” Aziz replied. “Who knows how those crazy fellows in the Assembly think? Besides, the Houses were never unified to begin with. They call themselves an Assembly, but it’s more of a ragtag bunch who stick together based on some nebulous morals and values.”

Yawning twice, the colonel rubbed some dust out of his eye, before feeling sorry for himself. Even if there were no issues between Ark City and the Assembly, his workload would just drop by a tenth or so. For some reason, a great deal of doctrinal, tactical and strategic work had been assigned to the Republic of Francois by the other continents.

Of course, the other nations were handling their own issues; the Western Holdings was handling raw material, while the North was handling manufacturing of military hardware. As for the East and the Assembly, the only thing they had was manpower, so they would form the bulk of the anti-demon armies when the Great Divide finally fell.

The Republic, however, had been recognised as the forerunner of military strategy and tactics for some reason, and had been assigned their duties accordingly. Of course, the Minister of State was happy to accept such work…because she wouldn’t be bogged down by it.

The same couldn’t be said for War Minister Eventide, however. Rumour had it that the poor fellow spent his free time scolding the Minister of State, who in turn treated his grousing as entertainment. Whether those rumours were true or not, however, no one dared to find out.

Aziz’s lips curled up at that thought, and in a companionable silence, the two men continued their slow walk towards the finance department, where a welcome distraction would probably await.