Wish upon the Stars chapter 546

Demia and Niles split us up, Demia coming with me and Niles escorting  Callie. When I arrived at my section of the camp, I found Gabe standing  at attention in full armor, waiting for us to arrive. "Commander." He  said with a serious salute, thought I noticed a slight twitch of his  lips that made me sure he was fighting a smirk.

I paused  to think about everything I'd heard of military etiquette, and returned  his salute with an. "At ease." I glanced at Demia, who nodded  encouragingly, and Gabe finally let his grin show. "I can't believe you  and Callie hit E-rank already. I'd already used up my elixir allotment,  or I'd have asked her Ladyship to help me achieve those heights so I  might better protect her."

"Hitting her up for money huh?"  I said teasingly, avoiding mentioning Chelsea was my sister only with  effort. "You sure Bethy won't get jealous?"

He chuckled.  "Of which of us? She and Chelsea have been getting pretty close. I think  it's been confusing her. She doesn't seem to know how to act around us  anymore. At least not alone. I don't suppose you have any..." He trailed  off. "Advice? The situation has been confusing me as well."

"I'm  not getting involved in either of their love lives. Chelsea for obvious  reasons and Bethy because she terrifies me." I said with a snort.  "Figure it out yourself. Now isn't the time for that though. Demia here  is going to help me whip my century into shape, and I asked for you  specifically to aid us in the task. It seems like it would be frowned on  for me to kick them around at E-rank, so I need someone to act as my  fist." I glanced at Demia. "Or is that a bad idea?"

She  smiled back at me placidly. "Not at all. Most commanders have an  intermediary to establish discipline and order. Being forced to  personally punish your recruits is considered a sign of weak  management." Her tone was gentle and incredibly hard to parse for  emotion. Not monotone, exactly, but she sounded the same whenever she  spoke, and it made reading her impossible.

I'd been right.  Politics. It pervaded every aspect of the Empire, including the more  militant parts of the culture. Not to mention as Ascendants we were all  somewhat impressionable, and prioritized reputation.

Recursion  DID happen in the Empire. While the Job system protected people from  individual recursion much better than heroic cultivation, it had its own  effect on its users. Jobs themselves caused recursion, pushing their  users to fit better into the mold. It was less extreme since a Job  didn't define your personality, but the perception of what a thing  SHOULD be definitely affected what it WAS. Given the political leanings  of most of the imperial heirarchy, it was no shock that even lower  ranking Jobs would be swept up in their games, just by virtue of the  assumption that they always did.

These had been some of  the things included in my political lessons, which had been  substantially more complex and nuanced than what I expected.

"Well,  either way, he's here now." I said, straightening up. "I think its  about time I met my century. I'm curious why they have their own  territory though? Shouldn't they be training with Hamill like we were?"  The differing command structures was odd. Hamill must be high up in the  heirarchy, so why was he teaching random grunts.

She  smirked, the least peaceful expression I'd seen on her face so far. "The  General likes to take a hand in the first two weeks of conditioning. He  says it establishes the proper baseline of fear and resentment in the  soldiers, even those not directly under his command. Once those two  weeks are up, they get cycled out to normal commanders. There are eighty  centuries, surely you didn't think you'd seen them all in your training  class?"

That was a good point. I supposed when he  mentioned 'training starting' back during our initial meeting, Camden  meant this particular training cycle. "Ok. So...before I introduce  myself, what am I going to be doing today?"

"That depends  on your management style." She said with a shrug. "I've known commanders  who invite every soldier to attack at once and crush them under their  boots. But that strategy is unlikely to bear much fruit unless you have  subordinates at the same rank, for reasons already enumerated. You can  go with a softer approach, offer rewards for certain milestones, or even  just ignore them like Olena did. I'm hear to give you the tools you  need to train them, not to train them for you."

I stroked  my chin. She wasn't wrong. But I had a few ideas that might work. Ideas  that utilized elements from all of those styles.

Marching  into the cordoned off area in front of the thirty third barracks  (apparently each century had their own after they got through the basic  training cycle) I found a group of ninety nine people in the standard  armor Camden had given us to use in training. Some of them were grouped  up into cliques, some of them lounged by the barracks, and a few of them  were just hanging out individually sleeping or reading.

"Officer  on the field." Snapped Demia, in the harshest voice I'd heard her use.  "Attention!" The shout split the air around us and I jumped slightly,  staring down at the unusually loud for her size woman. They all got up,  lazily assuming loose rows, though most of them didn't seem too  motivated. "This." She said gesturing to me. "Is your new commander.  Solomon."

I nodded to her, and stepped up next to her as I  surveyed the various faces. "My name, as she mentioned, is Solomon.  I'll be assuming command of this unit. I hear some of you are  problematic. I'm sure you resent my presence here, and if you don't you  probably will once you dig into me a bit. I don't actually give a shit."  Demia looked surprised by the tone change, though not disapproving.

"I'm  supposed to train you." I continued. "To guide you. And to learn by  doing so. The skills I'm going to pick up from this are important for my  future, and I'm not going to let some whimpering devil may care  assholes fuck up my plans. If you have intentions to fuck around,  abandon them, if you're expecting this to be easy, don't." I nodded to  Gabe. "This is Gabriel. He's a friend, and he's also my second in  command. As an E-ranker, it's unseemly for me to discipline you  personally, so he's going to do it for me. Which one of you is the  strongest here?"

Everyone turned to look at an unassuming  girl standing near the back. Her hair was ivory, her eyes a virulent  toxic green, and her pale face delicate in a way that reminded me a bit  of Callie. Her eyes met mine, and she smiled. "I guess that's me. My  name is Alanna Sunwell. It's nice to meet you...sir. I take it you want  me to face your friend there in combat? Establish his chops in front of  us all to show it how its done?" Her tone was sarcastic and snide.

"Sure,  but you can say no." I said with a shrug. "I'm sure someone else would  be interested in the five E-rank chits I'm going to pay the winner."

Every  eye in the place snapped to me, and I grinned internally. These people  had signed up here as mercenaries. They respected money, wanted money,  and would demonstrably FIGHT for money. I had officially begun speaking  their language.

Alanna stared at me suspiciously. "That's...a lot of money. Are you really going to pay up if your boy loses?"

"I  want you guys to fall in line." I said with a shrug. "That only happens  if you're incentivized. Not only will I put up five E-rank coins on the  outcome, but I'll be setting up a little tournament. Once Gabe proved  his mettle, he'll be withdrawn, and I'll let the top ten percent of you  fight it out once a month for an E-ranked chit."

An  E-ranked chit was ten F-ranked chits and a hundred G-ranked. G-ranked  chits were usually base currency. Acting as a single unit in most  markets, which made the prize pool a decent chunk of change. Especially  with Gabe being counted out.

I had to do that, because as  an Adamant with a path he was almost definitely going to crush the  competition, and if they decided I was fleecing them it would have the  opposite effect.

It was two birds and one stone. I would  earn some goodwill and establish my lieutenants superiority, thereby  preventing future challenges.

As Alanna accepted and  followed Gabe to a training field in the center of our designated area,  Demia stepped up next to me. "You sure he's going to win this?" She  asked casually. "It's going to bite you on the ass if she puts him down,  and Sunwell is a nasty fighter."

I just smiled knowingly. "Gabe can handle it. Just watch." I pointed at the training ring. I was looking forward to this myself.

Alanna  strode out into the ring, hands in the air like a returning champion,  and several of the other unit members hooted and hollered encouragement.  Seemed like she had a rep among my people. Good. That would make this  so much more effective.

Gabriel  flipped his wrist, and the massive lance he used for his charges  appeared in his hand. I saw him adjust his grip as the pressure and his  current near mortal state made it a trial to hold it up, but hold it he  did.

"Wow,  compensating for something?" Taunted Alanna gleefully. "Not that I can  complain, I tend to work with a lot of hardware myself." She waved a  hand, and a fan of gleaming spears made of ice arrayed itself behind  her, shifting in the air to point straight at Gabe.

Demia  nodded. "Lancer Job. Ice based main Skill. She uses it to deadly  effect. Like I said, she's going to be a tougher opponent than you might  think."

Of  course, Gabe didn't seem phased. He stomped his foot, a starlight  charger manifesting beneath him as the crusader took his stance,  preparing to charge. "You may wish to defend." He said politely. "It  would be a shame to kill such a promising recruit by mistake."

From  anyone else that would be arrogant, or at least mocking, but Gabe  wasn't like that. He wasn't arrogant, he was just certain. The charge of  an Adamant wasn't something just anyone could withstand.

Alanna  sneered, about to respond with some kind of scathing remark, but before  she could Gabe began his charge. I'll give her this, she wasn't stupid.  She could sense the momentum, the sheer POWER behind his assault, even  as his roar of 'RUBRUM GLORIA' split the air and his body was endowed  with the power of his Path. Adamant. Unyielding. Nothing could stop him.

The  hooves of the charger thundered across the hard packed dirt as his  lance flashed toward her, and Alanna panicked. Her hands went up,  grasping two more ice spears from the air as the others overlapped in  front of her, positioned in front of the incoming holy lance. Gabe hit  her makeshift shield like the fist of an angry god, his lance punching  through the ice and smashing into her defending spears as she crossed  them to tank the attack.

There  was an explosion of light and force and Alanna was sent sliding back,  desperately trying to stop herself. It wasn't to be though. Her feet  left divots in the ground as she was driven backwards until her spine  hit the barracks building.

Her  eyes were wide with terror as she stared down at the lance, the tip of  which was pressed flush against her windpipe, having pushed just past  the skin and drawn a trickle of blood. Following the lance up, I could  see that Gabe's arm wasn't fully extended. He'd stopped on a dime before  spearing her through the throat. He retracted his lance, and she fell  to the ground, shuddering. Damned if that man didn't know how to make an  impression.