Reborn: The Female Monarch Is My Life’s Greatest Love - Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Eve of Danger

Early the next morning, when the assembly bell rang, Constant and Bai quickly dressed and headed to the gathering grounds.

A month-long period of special training began amidst the bustle. On the high platform, Conrad continued to deliver his usual stirring speeches, but his gaze no longer swept over Constant with intentional frequency; instead, he pointedly avoided making eye contact.

During a tactical deployment class, Bai nudged Constant with his elbow and inconspicuously passed him a slip of paper.

Constant looked down at the note. It read: Has his conscience finally kicked in?

Not sure.

Constant shook his head and wrote back on the paper: But he really didn’t target me today.

Constant found himself almost unaccustomed to this shift, and he didn’t like it. Such a change suggested that the hidden hand in the darkness was drawing closer; perhaps it would cover his eyes when he least expected it.

However, this tranquility didn’t last long. Three days later, Garcia began calling them out of the dorms every night, giving the excuse that they were simply “too idle.”

Flipping tires, weighted jumps, obstacle crawling…

This time, Constant was no longer singled out. With Bai’s company, he felt that the “mistreatment” at the hands of Captain Garcia wasn’t quite as bitter.

During the subsequent mid-term evaluation match, Constant and Bai managed to directly overtake several female bugs in the physical strength category thanks to Garcia’s extra training. In the endurance race that followed, the two even completed the entire obstacle sequence through seamless cooperation.

Under these circumstances, the young master of the Lester family finally lost his patience. On the night the rankings were announced, he led a group of female bugs and burst into Bai and Constant’s dormitory.

Bai, who had just stepped out of the bathroom, was drying his hair with a towel when the room was suddenly plunged into darkness.

“Allex?”

In the dark, sensing something was wrong, Bai immediately entered a defensive stance. At the same time, he heard a suppressed muffled groan, followed by the sound of a body colliding with furniture and hitting the floor.

“Bai, someone broke in,” Constant called out in the darkness. Relying on instinct, he caught a fist aimed at him in his palm, then used a clever shifting of momentum to yank the attacker over his shoulder and slam him into the ground. “Looks like there’s about six of them.”

Clearly, after the two of them had stolen the spotlight, those who despised them could no longer sit still. The first person they thought of was their arch-nemesis here: Lester.

“Is that so?” Hearing Constant’s voice, Bai felt a faint rush of air near his ear. As he ducked and swept his leg to the side, his shin made contact with an object that confirmed Constant’s concerns.

The military uniforms of Zerg female soldiers featured a hook-like metal buckle at the hem of the trousers; the sensation Bai felt when he kicked the person in the dark was exactly that specific metal buckle.

Because of the natural strength disadvantage of a Master, Constant had gradually developed a set of counter-attack methods suited for himself during training. Although the darkness wasn’t ideal for him, he didn’t suffer for it.

He knew where the circuit breaker was, but after weighing his options, Constant decided to use this moment to settle the score for the rib Lester had broken previously.

The chaos didn’t last long before the main breaker was pushed back up. Sunlight-bright light flooded the room, revealing several familiar faces lying scattered across the floor.

With the sudden change in light, Constant finally saw the person whose wrist he was currently twisting—one of Lester’s followers. Not from a particularly noble family, this person had always followed Lester’s lead.

Before anyone could react, Constant swept the person’s leg, tripping him onto the floor. The follower’s head slammed into the head of the already-downed Lester, knocking him unconscious before he could even cry out in pain.

“Stop!” With the sound of a cane striking the floor, Constant and Bai finally withdrew their hands and stood at attention, offering a standard Zerg military salute to the late-arriving Captain Garcia.

Conrad arrived shortly after, having heard the commotion. Of course, he hadn’t just “coincidentally” appeared; he had rushed over after hearing from others, as he hadn’t been able to confirm Lester’s location immediately.

“What are you doing!” Garcia’s gaze flickered toward the hurried Conrad, but his expression remained impassive.

“Reporting to Instructor Garcia, we were preparing to wash up and rest, but suddenly—”

Before Constant could finish, Lester, who was scrambling up from the floor, interrupted: “They clearly invited us here, intending to ambush us under the cover of darkness!”

Hearing Lester’s words, Bai let out a scoff before the sentence was even finished.

“What are you laughing at!” Lester’s anger flared, his head already throbbing from being knocked down by his rival. With Conrad standing nearby, his confidence was bolstered. “A mere sub-female actually thinks—”

Before he could finish his sentence, Garcia, who had been watching the scene play out, suddenly turned cold. Before Conrad could stop him, the instructor swung his cane directly into Lester’s face.

Constant winced and closed his eyes just looking at the force of that cane.

As expected, Lester let out a scream and clutched his mouth, collapsing to the ground. He rolled around, let out muffled groans of pain that echoed through the room.

Bai understood why Captain Garcia had acted, but Conrad found the behavior incomprehensible.

“With all due respect, Captain Garcia…” Conrad began. Although this young master of the Lester family was indeed pampered and arrogant, he was still a member of the Lester family, and Conrad naturally intended to back him up. “As instructors, we shouldn’t—”

“Are you trying to say we shouldn’t use our authority to physically punish these recruits?” Garcia showed no mercy to the assistant beside him. “Perhaps you shouldn’t be saying those words to me, but rather to Private Allex.”

It seemed Conrad’s deliberate targeting from the previous month had long been noted by Garcia; he simply hadn’t spoken up because no significant loss had occurred at the time.

Silenced by Garcia’s words, Conrad finally shut his mouth.

Although Constant and Bai hadn’t sustained any injuries during the night raid, they were still sentenced to three days of solitary confinement for fighting. Their cells were right next to those of the young master of the Lester family and his lackeys.

But before Constant could be released, something happened outside…

“Drafting privates?”

Hearing the commotion outside, Constant scrambled up from the floor of his cell and pressed his ear against the inspection window on the door.

“Are all eighteen Zerg legions just eating for free? You’re sending a bunch of recruits to the battlefield?”

Because the confinement cells were located on the ground floor of the dormitory and the instructors’ lounge was diagonally opposite them, their conversation was clearly audible.

“Allex!” Bai was clearly excited by the instructor’s words. “Did you hear that?”

Bai was extremely proactive regarding the prospect of going to war.

“I heard it.” Having been to the battlefield before, Constant wasn’t exactly resistant, but the encounter with the Bee-race soldiers last time had left a significant shadow on him.

“The Empire needs us, Allex!” Bai was so excited he could no longer control the volume of his voice.

No, I think the Empire doesn’t need us to be sacrificed…

The argument in the lounge continued.

“I’ve said it before, they aren’t up to battlefield standards yet!” Captain Garcia roared at the light-brain projection. Even though the person on the other end was a Colonel far outranking him, he didn’t back down an inch.

“This is an order from Marshal Christian! Teacher Garcia, I understand your concerns, but this is an instruction from above. We have no way to change it!” The Colonel in the projection looked helpless; he truly couldn’t bring himself to be sharp with his former mentor.

“The Bee-race has remained hidden in the shadows since the last incident, coming out to interfere every few days. To prevent them from infiltrating amidst the chaos, we deployed a large number of reconnaissance soldiers to the Western District.”

“But who could have guessed it was a feint? The Butterfly-race forces are now right in front of us in the Western District. Because every legion is currently pinned down by the Ant-race’s flanking maneuvers, we cannot adjust our troop strength for the Western theater. This has created a loophole in our reconnaissance, and Butterfly-race soldiers are pouring in.”

During the explanation, the Colonel received a report from the front line: Initial battle failed. 1,462 Zerg soldiers killed or wounded. All those captured chose self-destruction.

Special Note: The Butterfly-race utilized an unknown weapon during this engagement, causing our soldiers to lose combat capability upon contact, without exception. Please designate an engagement plan as soon as possible, reorganize strategic deployment, and discover the attributes and usage of this weapon!

“Teacher Garcia!” Looking at the death toll on the battle report, the Colonel’s eyes grew red. “They are soldiers of the Empire! They do not fear death because behind them lies not just Zerg land, but their families!”

The Colonel’s voice was now raspy. He stared quietly at his former teacher through the projection. “You taught us this, Teacher!”

After a brief silence, Garcia’s clenched fist slowly relaxed. He finally turned to the other instructor behind him. “Pass down the order: every soldier in this training center, regardless of rank—if they want to go to the front, record their names. Tonight, you will lead them all to the Western District to join the battle!”

“The glory of the Empire is with us!”