Shen was back to himself, yet his trance hadn't been all illusion. A vast lake was behind the Queen of Spring and Autumn and the Lieutenants. The wall there was gone, and a thick forest was on the opposite margin. The other walls remained but were covered by plants and flowers in a marvelous spring. A field of flowers of all colors covered the floor, which had been replaced with earth, and the ceiling was an endless orange sky with white and blue clouds moving quickly.

Shen's senses told him everything was real, and he believed them. Liya had mentioned such a phenomenon to him in case he ever had to run from an A-rank. Simply put, there was no running unless the A-rank let him. He was stepping into the Queen's Path, the materialization of her Realization, her very self made manifest. Everything would disappear with her, but while she was there and willed it, that would be that place's reality. It didn't matter if it broke the laws of physics and logic in that place. Her vision was made real by sheer power of will and her connection to Reality. If she died there, Reality would permanently change in that place.

That brought him many questions about the lives of the worms, ants, and flowers he felt in his Path and the sapient's souls, but he didn't think now was the time to ask.

"I should not be here," the Queen repeated. Her voice was like a flower blossoming in the morning. It further added to her unmatched beauty. "And yet, here I am. The A-rank dragon appointed to La'sing was deemed detrimental to the local functioning of the military. I understand someone made a report to one of the Calamity's neutral parties. We had to swap postings because of that report. Let me help all of you understand the depths of my anger. I was forced to leave my people in an unknown upstart's hands. Your vacations are over."

She waved her hand, and Zyn fell to his knees.

Painfully.

His knees shattered, and half his upper leg gave in before he stopped being pushed down.

"First Lieutenant Zyn, you get a Demerit for not executing everyone who dared to attack you or a colleague. What you did is barely permissible within the confines of the spirit of the law. Barely. I have taken your legs as punishment. Don't let them regenerate for a day. I'll let the aggressors live to honor your sacrifice, but you're unfit for command. Staff Lieutenant Uya will replace you. I heard she badmouthed the dragon. I like her already."

‎ ‎

| Brigade Commander replaced

| You are now directly under First Lieutenant Uya

‎ ‎

The Queen didn't give people any time to think about that. She continued with her tirade. "Captain Abbav, I suspect you made the report that placed me here."

Everyone waited for her to continue, but she just smiled, and the world became a better place. Shen now had something new to think about when imagining "perfect beauty." Nothing could ever be the same for any who witnessed that.

And yet, all plants were suddenly dead and dried.

The scenery had changed. Knee-high snow covered the ground, the lake was frozen, and a snowstorm battered against all troops. Violently. Just at the edge of being enough to cause harm to the D-ranks.

"I'm not saying anything else on the matter, Captain. I wanted to let you know that I know." She looked over the troops and stopped at Luthdel. "Son, I promise not to get involved in your military career. You'll rise or fall at your efforts as you want. I will, however, be this egoistical: I'm informing people of our blood relationship. I shall never suffer one of mine being targeted by an ignorant fool within my sphere of influence again. Speaking of which, remind me to introduce you to another sister when the Calamity ends."

She then moved her eyes to Shen...

...and frowned.

The world stood still. Snowflakes stopped midair. The very Laws remained motionless as if waiting for her decision, afraid of what it would be. Reality drew breath as the Queen deliberated on whatever was in her mind.

Suddenly, Shen felt a thread between him and someone. It was invisible, and he didn't know how he knew about it, but he knew it was there. He was also sure the Queen looked at it and followed it until her eyes stopped at Abbav.

The snowflakes ran backward. The sky cleared. The already-fallen snow melted and instantly evaporated. The trees and lake and skies disappeared.

The mobile fortress was there, and Reality seemed to be lesser for it.

The thread inside Shen snapped.

He coughed blood and fell to his knees as something inside him gave. He puked as a feeling of both wrongness and rightness simultaneously filled him. He knew he had just gotten better somehow, but it had still hurt, like removing a thorn from his flesh, except it had been struck on his soul instead.

"You again," the Queen said. "What did you do? The boy was my Baptized. Mine. Yet, the influence I should have over him is not here. Interacting with my son's friend was one of the two things that made this posting bearable. How did you remove my Baptism's influence from him?"

The draggor's eyes widened, and he became whiter than white. His legs trembled. It felt weird to see Abbav that afraid.

He replied, "I didn't know an A-rank was involved, Acting General. I'm not sure what I did. He's protected from me by mind-reading privacy rules." He left unsaid that he probably had an idea of what he had done. Probably, he wanted to keep the information as some sort of guarantee.

The Queen stared silently at him for an instant. Her following words showed she had just checked some database somewhere. "I see. Special permission for a secret project, is it? So be it. I shall abide by the rules of your identity. Instead of deploying you long-term for three Standard years to have you repay for the time you lost in this busted project, I'll only deploy you for one year. I have long found that the only way to keep researchers in touch with reality is to have them feel the sweat and grime of the earth by themselves."

To Shen's shock, Abbav showed anger. "Busted project?! How dare you?! Look around—"

He became an ice sculpture, and the Queen said, "I have looked around, Captain Abbav. You seem to be used to some form of pathetic ineffectiveness. That is no longer the case. Furthermore, you said it yourself: Staff Lieutenant Zyn is too soft."

Abbav's jaw and snout exploded into a messy gore, and his eyes widened so much it took Shen an instant to understand it was just him widening his eyes, not the Queen popping them from their sockets.

Then, everyone, except Abbav and the Queen, coughed blood like Shen. At least they didn't puke.

Abbav, instead, was instantly unfrozen. He looked up, fell to his knees, and grasped his neck as if suffocating. Blood poured from all his orifices, especially the hole where his jaw had been.

The Acting General continued, "This is the military, Captain, and the rules will be obeyed in my presence, including the ones pertaining to respect and proper address. If you don't obey, you aren't needed here. It's as simple as that. I'll not run a nursery; I'll run an efficient warrior organization.

"But I shall entertain your challenge. In public, for that was how you challenged me. Your project is a failure because it was tainted by your arrogance and hope. You're blinding yourself to what you don't want to see. You obviously have no idea what the Realization you were keeping hidden from the military is doing to those who touch your domain, or you would have stopped it the moment you knew an A-rank was appointed to La'sing. I have no doubt you even expected to be praised for it. This is why we don't let B-ranks run amok for too long. You start forgetting yourselves and think you know better. You don't.

"Now, your year of deployment is only to make up for your failed experiment. The way you hid your Realization and what it was doing to the thing inside Lieutenant Shen is enough to have you executed, even if you were unaware. I'll be merciful because of the Calamity. I can't waste even a stupid B-rank, much less one well-informed, properly trained, with the right clearances, and with a Realization. Ten Demerits will suffice. That said, rejoice. I know someone who can give you the answer you're looking for. And yes, what you want to accomplish is possible and has been done before. I'll consider revealing it to you if you survive your deployment. Think of your life choices while there."

The Queen waved her hand, and Abbav was teleported away.

Before he disappeared, Shen saw the draggor's eyes stare at the Queen with raw greed and obsession. Whatever she had offered him, he wanted it more than anything.

She turned back to the troops, who were looking at her with a mix of horror and wonder. "I'll take Captain Abbav's place in informing you about your Expeditionary Training. In that Voided Subnode, you were protected by Captain Abbav, then by the Acting General who was supposed to be here. When you were taken back to this fortress, you were healed from everything, including soul trauma. The previous Acting General liked you, it seems, because I would not have spent the resources on such a comprehensive regeneration. Nevertheless, that's why you don't have even a headache and woke up so quickly.

"As you can see, First Lieutenant Uya and her Staff Lieutenants were not so lucky. Look at their faces. That's what awaits you in the military—if you survive. Playtime is over. People in La'sing are ridiculously soft. Now, excuse me. I was told I can find people in the Investigation Department to kill for treason. I need to kill someone. As I said, and I want it to really drill into your tiny minds: I do not want to be here. Don't get in my way. I won't cross any illegal lines, but don't any of you ever give me the excuse I'm looking for to get rid of you just to feel ever-so-slightly better." She looked straight up. "And if I catch a single scent of politics here, there will be consequences."

Shen had no doubt all of La'sing had heard her voice.

From Liya's accounts, the High Elven Queen was arrogance incarnate, and politics ran in her veins instead of blood. But she saw politics as a positive force to be used where even the spirit of the law was too rigid. A way to avoid needless bloodshed. That it almost always worked to her benefit was just a coincidence.

So, by refusing to allow politics in that place, she was sending a clear message to any who knew her: she wouldn't play nice in La'sing. And when the news of what happened here spread, everyone would know it was likely Captain Abbav's fault.

That's why she had outed Abbav when she arrived. She wanted him to suffer for what he did to her. However, she hadn't thoroughly analyzed the Captain and found new things when she approached, including that he seemed to have some sort of special identity.

So, in a way, deploying him for a year was to his benefit, almost to make up for the danger he placed him in. Anyone who did anything to him during deployment would be committing treason. On top of that, her declaration against politics helped Abbav. She emphasized she would abide by military rules, and so should anyone below her, or she would punish them for it.

Then again, Abbav's last line of defense would always be the Acting General's willingness to look at what was happening around him and investigate his demise. Moreover, she could always make him disappear as long as she could ensure no S-rank would look into it—which was unlikely to happen to begin with.

So, Abbav became persona non grata and needed to be careful of desperate people on the front lines. Meanwhile, he would always wonder if she would change her mind and policies the following day. He would wonder if he should try something stupid, like fleeing, to survive. Or if he should persist, hoping to meet the person the Queen had mentioned, which he evidently really wanted.

There was no way out for the draggor; he had dug his own grave. Now, he had to do his best not to be pushed into it.

The Acting General had played the draggor masterfully.

Shen decided there and then never to go against her unless he had no doubt she had gone against him first—or he reached S-rank.

Speaking of her going against him, there was the matter of the Baptism. He had to look for it and find out if it proved any bad intentions on her part. More specifically, he had to determine whether she knew his Will would eventually override his beliefs. If she did, he would wait until S-rank. If not, maybe some form of compensation would be more appropriate—also after he reached S-rank because he couldn't get anything from her if he were weaker than her.

Shen had limits, and Saelihn Herfiel was definitely one of them.

Captain Abbav, not as much. He had done something to Shen. To everyone, really. He had a Realization! And he had hidden it from the military! And secret projects!

Shen grew angrier and more worried about Abbav the more he learned about the draggor.

He could take care of that one after he reached A-rank. The Queen had effortlessly exploded the guy's jaw despite his Realization. Evidently, there was more to the A-rank than having a Realization or mastered Axioms.

Shen just had to beat Abbav in the race for greater power. He just had to take the lead for an instant, even if it was only after both parties reached A-rank. Then, he would be able to punish the guy.

The length of the punishment would depend on the Captain's exact sins and good deeds. For instance, from the Queen's words, even she didn't know the Will-Path Merging technique, and he had taught it to Shen, which made Shen immune to whatever influence the Baptism should have over him. Figuring out the exact truth relied on questioning the guy, which could only be done after Shen was strong enough to ensure Abbav wasn't lying.

So, Abbav would have to wait—but his name was on Shen's list.

As for everything else...

Well, Luthdel eloquently summed it up as he broke the room's silence.

"Fuck," he said.