Chapter 89: Military Instruction

"Hey, Tomoyuki-kun. Shall we eat lunch together?"

"Ah, yeah. That's fine by me, but…"

The next day, while my mind was still on the investigation on the ruins, Lilith came over to my seat during lunch break.

Right, I'm supposed to act as her "lover" for one week.

Given that I had an agreement with her, I guessed this was only natural. Nonetheless, when I was invited by a beautiful girl like Lilith, it still made my heart skip a beat.

"Ah, so Lilith-sama wasn't joking after all…"

"Yes, to think that the Lady was so assertive…she's serious."

The military staff in Haemorage's HQ was in a stir, and the female members in particular began to gossip excitedly.

Damn it, we're attracting too much attention…

Feeling a little awkward, I stood up and was about to leave the classroom.

"Sir!"

"Ah, Lieutenant Burado." I returned the salute as the officer in charge of the vampire heavy infantry company that merged with my battalion showed up. "What is it?"

"Here, the documents that you requested."

"Great." I nodded. "I'll show up in the training grounds after lunch. Let the men have a good lunch, then get them to assemble in the plaza."

"Yes, sir!"

Benjamin Burado saluted before he turned sharply to leave. Lilith watched him go, and then smiled at me.

"How's the company I gave you?"

"They're really good."

Lilith shook her head when she heard that.

"They're supposed to be amateurs, though. The reason why I sent them to your battalion is for them to earn experience."

"Uh, yeah. I'm sure they'll get a chance soon."

I nodded, remembering the planned expedition to the ruins a few days later. I wondered if I should ask Lilith about that. She had to be aware of the investigation, especially since Regis mentioned that he had asked her for permission.

"More importantly, let's have lunch together."

"Right."

I followed her to the cafeteria, feeling a little apprehensive about this. It appeared that vampires still ate normal food, despite supposedly being bloodsuckers. After "evolving" into a vampire, I had somewhat recovered my appetite and could eat normal food again. Yay.

"Hmm…this is delicious."

Surprisingly enough, Lilith enjoyed spicy meals. She was eating a plate of curry while sipping from a chalice of blood. I gulped when I stared at her red-hot plate. That looked incredibly scary.

"Want a taste?"

"No thanks. I don't like spicy food."

In contrast to Lilith, I had settled for sweet, mild curry. I had a sweet tooth, after all. Lilith chuckled when she stared at my chocolate ice cream and mild curry rice.

"It's really unexpected…I didn't think you would have a sweet tooth."

"Well, I can't eat much else."

"Really?"

Lilith chuckled as she elegantly scooped another spoonful of rice into her mouth. She smiled at me, amused.

"So you can only eat sweet stuff?"

"It's only recently that I could eat proper food, after all."

I remembered the days when I could only eat meat. Those were horrible. I would throw up anything that wasn't meat, especially vegetables, bread and fruits. It was a relief to finally be able to eat normally.

The only thing that was lacking was blood, but fortunately I didn't need to drink much of it.

"Well, eat up. Once we go to war, we'll be surviving on rations."

"That's true."

I nodded and sighed, not at all relishing the prospect. It wasn't just the food, but the violence and bloodshed that would result. I had been incredibly lucky in my battles so far, but I knew that it wouldn't last. This time, I would inevitably lose a lot of men.

In the last battle, I lost a couple of tanks and most of their crews…

All because I didn't stop them from attacking Hoshizaki Kozue. Speaking of which, I wasn't sure I could trust them. Should have asked them to help me fight Sakaguchi Seiji, which she didn't offer. And now Takeda Tetsuo wanted to nuke Havia City?

Hughes, Alicia, Alan, Princess Merly, Miranda…all the people living there…my fellow mercenaries. Like hell I was going to let the Iron Knights obliterate an entire city just to kill Kobayashi! As much as I wanted my revenge on that bastard, I wasn't about to drag innocent and uninvolved people into this.

I know I'm being hypocritical and naïve, but whatever. I don't give a fuck what other people think. I'm just going to do what I want.

I knew there were many readers who thought I wasn't edgy or ruthless enough, and wanted me to kill everybody in my way, even if they weren't my targets. There were readers who were badgering me to kill my whole class, even those who didn't bully me. And there were those who wanted me to exterminate all the human followers of Kobayashi purely because of their affiliation with him. They wanted me to be more brutal.

Yeah, who cares what they said. If I didn't want to kill the uninvolved civilians, then I wasn't going to. I knew it was stupid, but I had friends there. I wasn't going to nuke them just to take my revenge. Otherwise I couldn't call myself a friend.

And then there are people who insist that I'm letting my targets off too easily and I should torture them and make them suffer a lot of pain before killing them, to experience even a quarter of my suffering.

That was bullshit. Firstly, I honestly wasn't going to take the risk. All stupid villains tended to shoot themselves in their feet when they refused to kill the heroes immediately when they had the chance. By torturing the heroes and allowing them to leave, I was giving them the chance to survive, escape and mount a comeback. More than a million times, I had seen a gloating villain get the tables turned on him when the hero escaped his torture or capture and reverse the situation. And the heroes didn't even bother gloating or torturing the villains, which proved the decisive factor in their victory.

Secondly, I wasn't exactly innocent myself. I was a huge hypocrite who beat up my bullies. It wasn't as if I was a victim. When Kobayashi hit me, I hit him back. When his cronies picked on me, I beat them back. So what suffering? They caused me suffering, but I made sure to return a great deal of pain. I wasn't entirely blameless or innocent.

I was only taking revenge because I was selfish, and because they started it. I was no under illusions that I had the higher moral ground, or that I was some victim whose revenge was justified. Hell, my revenge wasn't even justified, but I didn't care because I just wanted to take revenge on the people who bullied me.

I didn't need justification. I just needed to do what I wanted. It was as simple as that.

"Tomoyuki-kun?"

I snapped my head up when Lilith called me, realizing that I was zoning out. Realizing that I didn't have a lot of time left before lunch break was over, I quickly resumed eating.

"Sorry, just had a lot on my mind."

"Ah…you're going to meet up with your company later?"

"Yeah."

I needed to minimize the casualties later. For that, I was going to train with them as best as I could.

*

After lunch, I met up with my vampire company in the plaza. We were going to practice battling and sparring.

"Sir!"

"Hey, Ben. How are the men holding up?"

"They're doing well, sir!"

Benjamin Burado saluted.

"We're ready for inspection!"

"Screw the inspection. I'm here to join the training, so carry on. Treat me like one of you. We're going to practice for the mission in two weeks' time."

"Yes, sir!"

I had already briefed my battalion on our mission to Moria in a couple of weeks, and how we were supposed to defend the place.

We began with the basics, such as cover. As the former Haemorage 597th Heavy Company was a heavy infantry company, they were dressed in heavy armor and equipped with heavy weaponry such as Gatling cannons and machine guns. There were even high-powered laser rifles that drew energy from a hi-tech backpack mounted on their body armor.

Vampires? They look more like futuristic soldiers from a science fiction story.

Then again, it was only possible to carry such heavy weapons and be clad in such heavy armor because they possessed the physical strength of vampires. Most other species, such as humans, would be weighed down by the heavy armor and weapons. In contrast, these vampires were able to march for days without being weighed down by their armor and weapons, as long as they had a constant supply of blood.

"Cover us! We'll advance one wave at a time!"

Sergeant Marko was shouting as he waved his soldiers into formation. I followed suit, watching as my men staggered their advance against an invisible enemy. The first wave rushed forward as the second half of the company covered their progress by laying down a suppressive layer of fire. Once the first half hunkered down in cover, it was their turn to cover the second half's advance. We repeated these maneuvers until we grabbed the objective.

"Good work, men!"

As the token commander with no real military knowledge and experience, I was just there to give encouragement and praise my men. I must have made a few mistakes when I rushed forward with my men, but my officers tactfully didn't reprimand me in front of the men. They focused on talking about the company's mistakes as a whole. They pointed out where we could improve, where we were too slow, how to react quickly.

I felt a little relieved. Unlike the fresh recruits, the officers seemed a bit more seasoned and experienced. Sergeant Michael Marko, particularly, looked like the grizzled veteran who had been through his fair share of campaigns.

"Hmm, you're still a little green, sir."

Marko was wise enough to take me to the side to tell me about my mistakes after the training, when the men were resting a short distance away.

"Yeah, sorry about that. To tell the truth, I've never had any formal military training. I'm not sure why his majesty appointed me as a major."

"For morale." Marko shrugged. "I've heard of you and your achievements. Even if you're not a soldier, your exploits on the battlefield are legendary. I mean, you actually took down five of Evelyn's Chosen. No other demon warrior can boast that."

"I was just lucky."

Marko gave me a look. "Luck doesn't happen five times in a row. Trust me on that."

"Yeah…I'll be relying on you, Sergeant. Please teach me and help me shore up on what I lack on."

Marko laughed at that before slapping me in the back. "Don't worry, sir. You're the type to lead from the front and go off to do your own thing. I honestly don't think you'll have a problem. If anything, this training isn't useful for someone like you. You'll be off fighting the Evelyn's Chosen in some sort of flashy battle. Your job is to win those – if you can pull that off, you'll lift the morale of your men, and we'll be able to turn the tide around."

"I hope so. I'll do my best."

"I know you will. I've seen you fight. You'll be fine."

Giving me an encouraging pat on my shoulder, Marko turned to the resting men and began bellowing again.

"All right, break time is over! All of you, gather up! We're going for another round again!"

There was a collective groan as the men struggled to their feet and put on their heavy armor again. As I watched, something occurred to me.

"We're going to need to integrate the heavy weaponry with the rest of the battalion. Usually you guys will support the lighter infantry, like Captain Kratz's troops, right?"

"That's right." Marko nodded. "This isn't ideal, and I would prefer having a combined battation exercise, to be honest. Maybe we can try one or two cases when we reach Moria, to get them ready for the actual thing."

"Sounds like a good idea." I nodded vehemently in approval. "I'll talk to Kratz, Vanni and Dressia about it."

"Good. I'll leave the admin matters to you then."

Marko turned to leave to direct the men. I was about to join them when I heard laughter. Turning around in confusion, I caught sight of a company of much flashier dressed knights strolling across the plaza, their faces filled with scorn.

"Look at those newbies…"

"I can't believe we're sending such noobs to the frontlines. Morten is really doomed if we've to rely on such fresh meat."

"What do you think their attrition rate will be?"

"I'll be surprised if more than ten percent of them make it back alive."

It didn't surprise me that their mocking gazes were directed toward my company. Annoyed, I stepped forward.

"Hey…"

"Ignore it, sir."

It was Ben. He had quickly strode over to where I was to stop me with a shake of his head. He looked a little glum.

"That's the third Blood Knights Company. They're one of the most prestigious and revered Knight Orders in Haemorage. They have a very high standing here in Haemorage, and most of their knights are nobles."

In other words, it would be troublesome to get into conflict with them, huh?

However, I couldn't ignore the depressed and demoralized looks on my men when they listened to the cruel verbal abuse from the esteemed knights. Somehow I was suddenly reminded of myself when I was being bullied by Kobayashi and the majority of my former classmates.

"Oh…that's the new commanding officer?"

"He looks just as green as his recruits."

"Ha ha, I feel sorry for his men already."

"Yeah…with a commanding officer like that, there's no way most of his company is going to survive."

"Hey…"

This time it was Marko who was advancing upon them, murder on his face. Ben quickly rushed over to stop him.

Unfortunately, the moment he did that, I found myself in front of the knights, smiling pleasantly.

"So you guys are the…Third Blood Knights Company?"

"!"

The troop of knights were taken aback, having not tracked my movements. They didn't expect me to show up in front of them all of a sudden.

"You…"

"I'm the commanding officer of Magna 1,087th Battalion, Major Tanaka. I'm honored to meet you."

They stared at my outstretched hand, but didn't deign to take it.

"I'll look forward to fighting beside you during the Moria mission two weeks from now."

"Hmph. I'm not sure if we'll be fighting alongside you."

"It'll be a miracle if you can survive even past the first hour."

"Don't worry. The average life expetency for a Guardsman is fifteen hours. I'm aiming to drag that to fifteen years, enough time for them to retire safely."

They stared at me, as if I had gone mad.

"Who the hell retires after fifteen years in the Guard?!"

Oh…right. I forgot. These were vampires. They had very long lifespans. It wouldn't be strange for them to spend fifteen decades or even fifteen centuries in the Imperial Guard.

"Ahem." I cleared my throat, trying to gloss over my embarrassing mistake. "Well, I do find it funny for you to say that…especially since you guys don't seem tough enough to beat Evelyn's Chosen."

"What's that?"

"The truth." I smiled as I raised my hands in a deceptively helpless manner. "You're making fun of a battalion who has survived two encounters against Evelyn's Chosen. I wonder…how long will you last if you were to fight against Evelyn's Chosen?"

"Hmph, are you mocking us?"

The leading Blood Knight drew his sword. Slitting his thumb on the hook that curved from his hilt, he allowed his blood to flow and harden around his blade. Blood arts, huh? Combined with vampire sword techniques, it made for a truly formidable skill.

However…

"As I said, it's the truth." I shook my head. "I wonder if your whole order can even beat me. If you can't do something as simple as that, I wonder where you get such confidence from…that you can survive an encounter with Evelyn's Chosen…something that my battalion can boast about."

"Impudent bastard!"

The lead knight charged at me before his comrades could stop him.

"Wait!" one of them shouted. "Don't do it! He's the Hero Slayer!"

It was too late. In one motion I kicked the sword out of the Blood Knight's hand. In a second, I had spun around and delivered a kick to his chest, sending him flying across the plaza and smashing into the wall of the military building on the other side of the training grounds.

"Whoops. Sorry, but I acted out of instinct." I raised both hands. "He came at me with a sword, so I was only acting out of self-defense."

"You…!"

"I'll kill you for your insolence!"

"Get him! All of you!"

Except the guy who shouted the warning, the rest of the vampire knights had drawn their swords and were charging at me.

"Oto…"

I hopped back to avoid the first slash, and then kicked the nearest vampire high up into the skies. As he flew, I ducked under the next swinging sword before sweeping my legs under my assailant and tripping him up. Springing back to my feet, I stepped in to block someone's sword by hindering his sword arm with my elbow and then brought a knee to his solar plexus. As the third vampire went down, I was already moving on to the next opponent, smashing my elbow into his face after avoiding his sword strike, and then kicking another before he could swing his blade down.

In under a minute, I had taken out six of the revered Blood Knights.

"!"

The rest retreated quickly, eyeing me warily. Meanwhile, the guy who had shouted the warning buried his face in his palm.

"I warned you guys…"

"Just what is this guy?!"

At the moment, the guy I kicked high up into the air crashed down heavily, leaving a small crater.

"The answer to that is still up in the air," I remarked, looking at the poor guy.

"I told you, he's the Hero Slayer!" the guy who shouted the warning earlier snapped in exasperation. The rest of his comrades turned to him.

"Who's the Hero Slayer?"

"The guy who slew five of Evelyn's Chosen! That's the guy! Goodness, do you guys not know what's happening in the outside world?"

"…ah."

The Blood Knights realized they had made a horrific blunder. Even though the guys I had beaten up earlier were slowly getting to their feet, their vampire regenerative powers allowing them to heal from the shallow injuries almost immediately, they were backing away with a measure of fear written across their faces. Even if they hadn't heard of me, they knew that someone who killed five of the human's heroes was not someone they could easily mess with.

Furthermore, I had just defeated six of them without using any weapon except my bare hands. Smiling, I tilted my head.

"Would you still want to exchange a few more…pointers? This sort of training is pretty useful, especially for esteemed knights such as yourself. I could also benefit from improving my close combat skills."

"Let's go."

The Blood Knights didn't want to linger around any longer than they needed to. They quickly departed the scene, fuming in humiliation, and no small amount of fear. Dudes probably didn't even know I had fought the Eight Guardians of the Iron Knights by myself and won.

I could easily take out the entire company of Blood Knights if I had to. But I decided to leave things as they were because evidently I needed their help, and I couldn't start making enemies now. Rather, I was sure they owed me a favor now.

Assaulting a higher-ranked officer in front of so many witnesses…if I chose to report this, they would be in deep trouble. Moreover, they knew that I had let them off, especially when I claimed that this was just "an exchange of pointers."

That warning should suffice for now.

"That was amazing, sir."

Marko was shaking his head, impressed. He grinned.

"I told you that there will be stuff that you're good at."

"You should teach us how to fight like that, sir!"

"Yeah!"

"Please teach us those moves, sir!"

The men, in particularly, were gaping at me and pleading me.

"Uh, well…"

"That's enough, men!" Benjamin quickly stepped in and clapped his hands to save me. "The major is too busy for that. And besides, it'll take too much time for us to suddenly change our specializations and switch to close combat now! We've invested too much time and resources into being heavy infantry!"

"And besides, you guys have a very important role. I need you to cover my weaknesses and do the things that I can't do."

At my words, the men brimmed with joy and delight. Great. After the insults they received from the 3rd Blood Knights company, their morale had been restored…no, their morale was much better than before. Probably because they saw their commanding officer fight firsthand.

"Sir, yes, sir!"

With that, I left them to continue training for the Moria mission.

*

"Ha~"

I sighed as I sank down on the chair in the library, feeling a little tired.

"Ara, tired already? Well, it has been a long day."

"Whoa!"

I jolted upright at Lilith's voice. When I hadn't noticed, she had somehow crept into the library and was now sitting in the same desk as me, sipping from a chalice of blood. She smiled warmly at me before placing her goblet on the table.

"I saw what happened today. That was quite the lesson you taught the third Blood Knights Company."

"Ah, no…that was…sorry."

"Why are you apologizing?" Lilith chuckled. "I actually appreciate you doing that. They were getting a little arrogant lately and looking down on all the other regiments. It was high time someone knocked them off their high horses."

"If it's arrogance, it's not as if I'm completely innocent of that either."

I couldn't deny that I myself was guilty of being arrogant. Showing off and boasting about my battalion like that was not exactly humility.

Lilith shrugged. "There's nothing wrong with bragging, especially if you can back your words up. But at least you're not looking down on others and being condescending. It's a problem, especially if you end up affecting the morale of the other regiments."

So she was going to do something about it and stepped in if I hadn't. That was a relief. Maybe. I didn't know.

"Anyway, what are you doing in the library so late?"

"Oh? I was thinking of reading up on military strategies."

I gestured toward the books that I had borrowed. They were no Sun Tzu's Art of War, but they were Restia's versions. Military tactics, knight formations and command strategies, particularly on how to expose and take advantage of the enemies' weaknesses.

"I was thinking that I should do my best to be a proper officer at least. Even if I somehow ended up with this rank by luck or mistake, I should at least fulfil my job properly and not let my men down. Especially since I'll be responsible for their lives."

"…"

Lilith was quiet for a moment.

"Indeed. Being responsible for the lives of my subordinates is something I had have to live with, and I still can't get used to it."

I started. That was right. Lilith was the queen of her nation. She was certainly responsible not just for her soldiers, but also the citizens of her domain.

"Well…I hope it all goes well with you."

"Yes…that's why I hope I'm at least granted this small selfishness of not being forced to marry whoever I don't want to."

I smiled. "I'll help you as much as I can with that."

"Ha ha." Lilith laughed softly. "And I'm grateful to you for it. There's no one else I can rely on for this sort of thing…to pretend to be my lover." Her eyes darkened as she glanced faraway. "The elders are too powerful politically…it's taking my all just to stave their demands away. And then there's the encroaching war."

"Yeah. Life just doesn't make things easier for us, does it?"

"It certainly doesn't."

Lilith nodded. And then she beamed brilliantly, her beautiful face almost seeming to shine in the dim lighting of the library. I watched her, mesmerized a little.

"And I'm also grateful to you for allowing to spend a little bit of time with you like this." Stretching in her chair, Lilith glanced at the ceiling and closed her eyes. "I feel a lot more at ease with you than in my castle."

I said nothing and merely nodded. The library fell back into a comfortable silence as I returned to my books and allowed the weary Lilith a good rest.