67th Platoon

Milia was surprised by the question, although she did notice Nori seemed to be talking with his Magic Energy earlier. 'So that's what you were talking to their group. How much have they told you?'

'That Alvin saved our lives?' Nori made it simple. 'Is that true? Why did you keep it secret from me?'

Milia pondered a bit. It seemed like they didn't tell Nori about the Double Master Connection Alvin, Felia, and Linfel could do. However, she didn't intend to hide it all now that Nori was told part of the story. 'It went like this...'

A few minutes later, Nori turned back to Alvin, who was still puzzled about why Nori kept looking at him. Finally, Nori pointed at him and spoke loudly. "I'm not ungrateful. Thanks for saving me and, especially, Milia. However, I still don't like you!"

"Eh?" Alvin didn't know what to say about it. "You're welcome... I guess? I don't understand why you said that next part, though. Did I do something wrong?"

Nori nodded with a solemn expression. "What Milia is- MmmMhmhmmhmmm..."

Milia instantly grabbed Nori's Core and prevented him from speaking any further. "Ignore Nori. He is a little stressed about what we are doing. You know... he didn't want me to come to join the frontlines. That's all."

"Oh!" Alvin and Linfel nodded together. "That makes sense."

Nori glanced at Milia while speaking with his Magic Energy so that only she could hear. 'Milia, I'm not blind! So what if he saved us? He is not worth it!'

'I don't know what you are talking about.' Milia was still in denial, though.

'Hmph!' Nori didn't insist. 'That better be the case.'

Linfel's group continued to run for several hours. By the time they arrived at Wateva Region, the sun was already going down. Nonetheless, they didn't stop and made their way straight for the Forhu Army, the army that was stationed there. 

"Stop!" Suddenly, Linfel spoke to their group, who knew better than to ignore Linfel's Magic Energy Sense.

Following that, a few soldiers appeared. Some of them were Mguses and their Familiars while the others were normal people.

"Surrender now or we will attack," spoke one of them while the others pointed their weapons at Linfel's group.

"We surrender," Linfel spoke. "However, we aren't the enemy. We found out about the war while we were on an academy task nearby. It took some time, but we managed to get here once that was over. I can see the emblems on your uniforms. You are members of the Forhu Army, right? We would like to join the fight. We are also students from the Magus Academy in Sastasha City."

"From Sastasha? We did indeed receive a lot of your students who are fighting now. Why didn't you come with the other students in the airships?" The guy obviously had his doubts. 

"Because we weren't at the academy when the draft happened," Linfel explained. "Anyway, please check our identities, and you will see we are not lying." Following that, Linfel tossed an MCOM to the guy in front.

Once again, Linfel used his ability to copy Magic Energy Signatures to pose as someone else. 

The man quickly checked the MCOM and confirmed it was indeed an MCOM that you could only acquire at Sastasha Academy. Nonetheless, he took a small device out and asked Linfel to come forward. "Fifob, right? Use your Magic Energy on the device so I can confirm the information on the MCOM you gave me."

Linfel smiled and filled the device with his Magic Energy. Not long after, the information of a Familiar called Fifob appeared on the device's screen, confirming the Familiar was truly who he was saying to be. However, that wouldn't be enough to convince the scout. What truly convinced the guy was the information attached to Fifob.

"No wonder you only got here now. You were lucky to have been assigned a mission to the Coludam Waterfalls Magic Beast Region." The guy raised his hand, and all the other soldiers around lowered their weapons.

As Linfel had mentioned, his group had prepared beforehand to join the army. Linfel did it by using his ability to copy the Magic Energy Signature. To make it more credible, Linfel used the Magic Energy Signature of one of the Rank B Familiars. Not only that, but he also used Fifob's Magic Energy Signature to apply to an Academy Task to the Coludam Waterfalls.

One might think, but what about the real Fifob? Well, turns out Fifob was one of those Familiars without emotions that only followed his masters' orders. Linfel chose this specific familiar because he knew his Master wouldn't take part in the war. Fifob's Master was like most of the students in the Rank A and B classes. He had the necessary background to avoid the war since his elders or organization paid for it.

So, unless the real Fifob, who only moved at his master's orders, suddenly decided to get an MCOM and check his own information, no one would ever notice there was another 'Fifob' taking part in the war. All Linfel had to do was add Milia and Nori to the information he showed in the MCOM.

"Alright, Suan, come here," the scout ordered while he used his MCOM to pass a message to his superiors.

"Here, sir!" Suan, one of the soldiers, quickly got close.

"Bring these guys to the second battalion. They can register there. The rest of you, come with me. We still have a lot of terrain to cover," the guy then put Linfel's group to the back of his mind and left with his companions, leaving only Suan behind.

"You heard the captain. Come with me," Suan took the front and began to run to the so-called second battalion. "Still, the waterfalls Magic Beast territory? You academy students are quite crazy. Be happy you made your way here."

Alvin approached and nodded. "We sure were. We heard about the first strike from the Xanzion Country forces. It was unexpected and generated a lot of casualties. Nonetheless, as you can imagine, we were told to come here once our task was over. There was a problem, though... There were no more airships available."

"Obviously," Suan nodded, already expecting that. "With the sudden strike from the coalition, all the resources were redirected to the war straight away. There was no way you would get an airship to fetch you to the Coludam Waterfalls at such a time."

Linfel took the chance to ask. "By the way, friend. We heard a friend of ours, a guy called Connor Triglan, was also sent to the west borders like us. Do you know if we can find him?"

"Sorry, but I'm not exactly free to go around and ask for names," Suan shook his head. "You can inquire once you get to the second Batallion, though."

"Alright, thank you," Alvin sighed.

Milia was still puzzled, so she asked Linfel through Magic Energy. 'How did you do that? I know Fifob and his master, and you and Alvin definitely aren't them.'

Linfel faintly smiled. 'I told you, didn't I? We had our methods.'

'But that was a Magic Energy Signature!' Nori spoke on the side. 'Wait, did you hack the system back at the academy and swap your information? No, that is not possible... You... You have some insiders on the academy board, right? You asked these contacts of yours to alter the information about your group.'

In the end, Nori didn't consider even for a second that Linfel might have just copied someone's Magic Energy signature. In fact, even Milia believed that to be the case, as she also fixed her eyes on Linfel. She always found Linfel to be too weird.

Linfel pondered a bit and smiled at them. 'Sorry, that is Alvin and my little secret.'

Neither Nori nor Milia liked that, so they made a mental note to investigate it once they returned to the academy.

---

The second battalion wasn't much further since there were scouts around this area. It only took around an hour for their group to arrive there. Suan passed his identification forward and brought Linfel's group in, quickly delivering their group to the registration booth. "Alright, you can be assigned here. I need to go back to my companions, so I bid you farewell here. Good luck."

"Thank you, Suan," Alvin spoke.

Linfel and the others entered the booth, which was quite empty.

"Hum?" One of the soldiers registering everyone was puzzled when he saw their group. "The next batch of soldiers was supposed to arrive in two hours. How come you are here already? And where is the rest?"

"Sorry, sir." Alvin shook his head. "We are students from Sastasha City Magus Academy." He then proceeded to tell the same lie as before... which became the truth with Linfel's little help.

"Well, you are all pretty young indeed," the soldier said as he checked the MCOM. After nodding, he went to a box and took another five MCOMs from inside. Three made for Familiars, and two for Maguses. "Wear those. You can use your Magic Energy Signature to bind the MCOMs to yourself. You can check your assignment through it as well. As for your own MCOMs, you will need to leave them here. That's the army's rules."

Alvin, Milia, Felia, and Nori passed their MCOMs to the soldier, except Linfel. Well, it was pretty obvious Linfel wasn't holding any MCOM anyway. Still, Milia narrowed her eyes as she remembered something. 'Didn't he have an MCOM a while earlier? Where did it go...?'

Naturally, it was back inside Linfel's Spatial Storage.

Still, she quickly shook her head and activated her new MCOM after passing her own MCOM back to the soldier.

The soldier saw them following his request and nodded. "All MCOMs from you Students and Familiars of Sastasha Academy will be sent back to the academy later. You can take it back once everything is over... if you survive, of course. Now, go away. We are done here."

Alvin didn't forget to ask, though. "Sir, I'm also looking for a friend who was drafted in the first batches. His name is Connor Triglan. There shouldn't be any other students here in Wateva with this name other than him. Would it be possible to locate him?"

"What do I look like, a detective? The position of all the Maguses and Familiars can only be checked by the higher-ups. Also, you said he was in the first batch, right? The first three days of the war were quite bloody. That should be pretty obvious since the war was pushed all the way here to the Wateva Region, which is almost five hundred kilometers away from where the border armies usually are stationed. They truly took us with our guards down. Lots of the maguses from the academies died in these first three days, so I wouldn't hold much hope he is still around."

Alvin swallowed hard. "Isn't there a way to verify?"

"You can try to talk to the captain of your Platoon. He should have access to the information. I can't do anything from here. Anyway, I have other things to do, so leave already."

Their group nodded and left the booth. Alvin activated his MCOM, which only had very basic functions related to the army. You could receive orders, had a map to locate yourself, things like that. "According to what is said here, I'm assigned to the 67th Platoon. Linfel, even though he is independent, is still classified as my Familiar in this MCOM, so he is with me. What about you, Milia?"

"Same here," Milia confirmed in her MCOM and Nori's. "Makes sense since we are both students and arrived together."

Their group walked through the second battalion, looking for their Platoon. "Oh, there it is." Linfel pointed in the distance, and they saw a tent with the number 67 on it. They quickly got inside, but there were only two people there at the moment.

"Already?" A man who seemed to be in his early thirties approached. "I thought I would receive more members a few hours later with th next batch. Well, even better. I'm Claus, the 67th Platoon commander."

A woman, the second person in the tent, approached as well. "Already talking about yourself as commander, uh? You have just received that promotion, so don't get cocky." She turned to Linfel and the others. "I'm Falagita, second in command, not that it has much of a meaning in a small Platoon like ours."

Alvin was just about to introduce himself. However, it was at that moment all their MCOMs vibrated.

Without even looking at it, Claus already knew what it was about. "Shit! Already? The next batch isn't even here yet. Fuck that. Let's go!" 

"Go where?" Milia asked on the back.

"Where else? To the frontlines, of course!" Falagita spoke with a serious expression now.

---

Author's note: We got a contract. :D

Thank you all! Don't forget to leave some power stones to help. ;)