Above, In the Warship

Above the training ground was a warship floating in the skies. It was gargantuan compared to the Pelican heavy transport ship. And It looked incredibly menacing, especially with its unique appearance.

Its name was Fang, a triton-class battlecruiser.

The battlecruiser has a shape of a pitchfork, with its tines being enveloped by two gigantic engines on each side. Its size was 1.5 kilometers, and most would wonder how such a thing was flying in the air.

Like the Pelican heavy transport ship, it had a resemblance to black gothic architecture along with some steam-punk design. Fang was a menacing warship, and that wasn't even counting the weapons under its armaments.

Its armaments didn't have a cannon front like the Pelican, but it had hundreds of broadside cannons along with dozens of giant rotary three-barreled ones. The warship had a hanger. Meaning that it was capable of military invasion on its own.

In itself, one could consider Fang as the capital ship of the military fortress Anfang.

And within the battlecruiser known as Fang were the training officers of all the training regiments within the military fortress. This was one of the two biggest events that would happen every year when recruits joined the military.

It was tradition and a way of testing the aptitude of the future soldiers of the Imperium of Avalon.

Captain Phaton arrived at the deck of the warship where many training officers resided. He landed gently on the floor, and his hawk-like wings disappeared as if they didn't exist. Phaton looked around after his landing, noticing someone familiar.

The lady smiled and called for him.

"Phaton, it's been a while."

Phaton raised an eyebrow upon hearing her words as he couldn't believe what he was seeing. He walked to her with an expression of legitimate surprise and questioned upon his arrival.

"What are you doing here?"

"I never thought that you would go back to the outskirts."

"Weren't you staying in the capital?"

Phaton bombarded her with numerous questions. The lady could only chuckle as she calmly replied. "I have been thrown back here after my little one offended the Imperium family."

Phaton, hearing her answer, easily connected the pieces, and he couldn't believe it.

"Wait, what? You're with the legendary and youngest general in the current age?"

"Yes, that is correct. I am her advisor." The lady nodded as Phaton turned his gaze towards the sky as many thoughts passed through his head.

"I never thought that my teacher would become so big after leaving the outskirts," Phaton remarked as the lady before him was his teacher. It has been a couple years, and he still remembered the first days of the Imperium.

It was the dark age, and none of it was calm.

Without his teacher guiding him, he might have ended up like the normal first-generation soldiers who were thrown to the battlefield like body bags.

"Aren't you underestimating me a bit too much?" The lady slyly smiled at him. Despite being older than Phaton, she resembled a 20-year-old lady. No one would notice her real age if they didn't particularly meet her in the past.

"Sorry about that, teacher."

"Anyhow, where is the young general?" Phaton questioned as the lady pointed her milky fingers to the frontmost part of the deck.

Phaton turned his gaze at it and saw a figure standing before the front deck. It was a young lady with silver-white hair and red-crimson irises that encapsulated her black slit pupils. She was incredibly beautiful and pale, as if a goddess had fallen from the skies.

Her name was Reagan Ares, the seventh general(demoted).

She had an apathetic expression on her face as she kept observing the recruits. They were charging through the marathon without conserving stamina despite it being a 100-kilometer one.

"Now I see why the Imperium crown prince fell to her." Phaton quietly muttered as the lady smirked.

"Oh, did you fall like the crown prince?" The lady questioned as Phaton quickly denied it. "No, no, of course not. She is just beautiful. Besides, I already have a wife."

"Never thought that someone with your personality would be love. Is she blind?" The lady asked, wondering what kind of woman would marry the muscle-head.

"That is the question I keep asking myself. She's a good woman, to be honest." Phaton genuinely smiled, which made the lady sigh to herself. "If you're happy, that is good."

"In any case, I heard that Anfang got the third son of Astarte. What do you think of him?" The lady wondered what Phaton thought about the third son. After all, he was an asshole that could never be offended with the Astarte behind him.

"To my surprise, I am his training officer." Phaton honestly replied as the lady wryly smiled. "What did you do in your past life to have such bad luck?"

Handling the third son of Astarte was problematic. It's like taking hold of a ticking time bomb. Most would rather avoid it instead of keeping some hold of it.

"Well, meeting him personally. He is somewhat quiet, with a calm expression as his default face. He doesn't seem to produce arrogance, though he did punch someone violently earlier this morning."

"That guy insulted the wife of that guy as having an infidelity."

"He was arrogant when reasoning his violent actions, but he did accept accountability. He's better than what I had heard of him from the rumors.

"What do you think, teacher?" Phaton inquired, wanting to know his teacher's opinion regarding the third son of Astarte.

"Hmm… Are you sure we are talking with the same person in mind?" The lady asked as Phaton seemed to be talking about another guy.

Phaton shook his head and denied it. "I'm sure that was the third son of Astarte. His name was Dante Regent Astarte."

"It's hard to not notice him."

With Phaton being sure and determined about it, the lady squinted her eyes and answered. "I saw the third son before, and he was a bastard never to be seen before. During a party, he ordered the execution of a waiter for passing right by him."

"I am sure that he is a bastard. Did something chance on his way here?"

For the lady, it was hard to believe. The change was almost immediate.

If the third son of Astarte had arrived in Anfang, he would have thrown his weight around with the name Astarte. Being silent and calm was something that never came to mind when speaking about the third son.

"So he's actually a bastard, huh? Is he hiding his true personality?" Phaton was a bit curious if Dante was trying to hide his bastard personality from the others.

"The third son wasn't a known actor. I doubt that he would be able to trick you with ease." The lady denied the words of Phaton of Dante being an actor.

A while later, the lady sighed and uttered. "Let's stop thinking about the third son and enjoy the show. Besides, soon enough, I'll meet him personally."

The eyes of the lady glinted as she looked directly at the ground, staring at some figure walking within the marathon.

Dante, who was being left behind because of his walking speed, turned his gaze toward the warship after feeling a chill on his spine.

'What the-' He thought to himself, wondering where the chills came from.