Enduring Such Contradictions Is

The story of serving as an adjutant was from when I briefly rolled around in an assault unit during the early days of my enlistment.

After that, I made achievements and caught the eye of Archduke Aries, then worked in the Archduke’s direct unit, and later rose to the position of commander – that’s a rough summary of my military life.

But there’s one fact that’s easy to misunderstand here: not all unit commanders who lead troops are in the same position.

The commander of one of the assault teams, which has the most personnel allocated in the Imperial Army, and the Red Cross unit, which, although an elite few, was treated as equal to or more important than other units.

It’s not an exact comparison, but the difference between the commander positions of these two units would be like that between a lieutenant colonel and a perch.

Harrison Peter.

He was the commander of the assault unit I first entered, and he was discharged for medical reasons when I was active as the commander of the Red Cross unit.

He did go to the front lines, but he was just one of the many common low-ranking officers, neither a hero nor anything special.

“Well, the world sure is small. To think I’d see the day when the bastard I saved while he was shitting blood with an arrow in his ass, and ultimately sent off with a medical discharge, is now making a living by doing the same things he did in the military.”

“Th-That’s…”

“Well, if you’ve carried on the culture from that time, I suppose it would be polite for me to respond in kind. Don’t you think so, Harrison?”

Looking at him now, I vividly remember the last time I met this bastard.

At that time, he was hit by an enemy arrow in the buttocks, and unfortunately, it also injured his internal organs, putting him at risk of dying from infection if excrement burst into his organs.

However, at that time, it wasn’t easy to use Holy Power.

We had no choice but to cut out all the contaminated areas, and in the end, he suffered injuries that couldn’t be healed even with Holy Power, so he was inevitably carried to the rear and declared medically discharged.

“If I had known this was how you’d repay me for saving you even at the cost of making you half-assed, I should have just left you there.”

“Ugh…”

“You need to bend your arms more, don’t you?”

“Ye-Yes! I’m sorry!!”

And so, meeting him again in the present.

After calling him out to a secluded area behind the training camp, I mounted his back and ordered him to do push-ups.

By the way, although I look thin on the outside, I’m surprisingly heavy. After all, I have plenty of time to exercise since I’m mostly cooped up in the infirmary.

In fact, because I have high mass relative to my small volume, the weight might feel even greater.

-Tsssk.

While mounted on Mr. Harrison’s back, I put a cigarette in my mouth.

As I take a puff, spicy smoke fills my lungs.

“…Mr. Harrison.”

The voice that comes out feels more bitter than the cigarette smoke, and it’s not just my imagination.

“After I entered the academy as a teacher, I was planning to quit smoking. But lately, there have been so many stressful things that I can’t quit even if I want to. Do you know what this means?”

“Th-That’s… Cough!”

“It means why should I come all the way here to add one more such thing, you stubborn bastard.”

As I gather mana in my body, my weight increases.

And of course, I didn’t instruct him to use mana.

If I see any sign of him trying to gather mana, I won’t end this with just words.

“Ugh, ungh…!!”

But does this bastard not find his current treatment very pleasant either?

Judging by the veins popping out from the force of his push-ups, he seems quite angry at me.

“Co-Commander Velvet… Certainly, when we were in the military, you were above me in rank, but… isn’t the war over now?”

“Huh, so are you trying to say something like ‘the war is over, so don’t pull rank on me’?”

“Fro-From the start, those who use this training camp are all prepared for such treatment, you have no place to interfere in what I do…”

“Do you want me to expose that everything you advertised when setting up this training camp was a lie?”

“Damn it!!!”

Harrison continues his push-ups while screaming at my words.

I didn’t hear the details, but I could roughly guess that Waden isn’t the type to bow his head to someone who doesn’t have the qualifications.

He probably took at face value some self-aggrandizing words about being a hero of reversal like Harsion or something, after hearing about his front-line background.

In reality, he’s just a perch-level bastard who worked his subordinates like dogs and then begged for his life while shitting blood with an arrow in his ass, crying snot and tears…

Which would be more bearable: having such mistakes revealed and being socially annihilated, or being bossed around by a senior even after discharge?

“…Stand up.”

But I didn’t come here just to put this bastard down.

If I spend too much time venting my anger, the original purpose might get greatly distorted.

“Huff, huff…”

“…The bastard is breaking a sweat just from doing some push-ups.”

Right, let’s end the scolding here.

Even if he lied, he’s still a soldier who served on the front lines, so we can’t say he’s not qualified to run a training camp.

It’s not beneficial to ruin this guy’s life and complicate things, given his contractual relationship with Maris.

So for now, the best approach is to scold him moderately and use him moderately.

“Harrison Peter.”

Of course, I should say what needs to be said first.

“……”

“You should answer, shouldn’t you?”

“Ye-Yes, sir.”

(Former) Assault Unit Commander Harrison Peter shrinks and averts his gaze at my words.

I finish smoking my cigarette in front of him and ask.

“How many years has it been since the war ended?”

“…Two years, sir.”

“Right, two years and a few months. Don’t you think it’s a bit much to be enforcing military discipline in a place that’s not even the military after all this time?”

“Bu-But Maris’ Disciplinary Committee is a group that needs to focus on maintaining order. To that extent, establishing discipline…”

“Discipline my ass.”

“Gack!”

Harrison stumbles as I kick his shin with my boot.

I grab his hair at that moment and push his body against the wall.

Bringing the cigarette in my mouth close to his eyes.

“Sure, the Disciplinary Committee does the toughest jobs in Maris, so it’s important for them to learn not to let their guard down at any time.”

“If, if you know that, then why…”

“But shouldn’t that be done within the scope of education, you idiot? They’re students who haven’t even had their coming-of-age ceremony yet, before being part of the Disciplinary Committee. What era’s educational method is it to forcibly use violence against them? Do you think the kids are your emotional trash can?”

A facility that demands military discipline from kids?

There were such things in my past life too. Thugs who, under the guise of training camps, would make 4th-grade elementary school students walk like ducks around the playground and do 100 squats for money.

Even that culture disappeared after I became an adult, but seeing that such things are considered normal in this world, I guess the times here are quite backward.

“…I-I’m sorry.”

Harrison Peter finally bows his head.

But given his personality, there’s no way he’s sincere. How could he be sincere when the target is wrong from the start?

“You should apologize to the head of the Disciplinary Committee, not me.”

Of course, I won’t force him to apologize.

An insincere apology is nothing but mockery in the first place.

Moreover, this Disciplinary Committee head is too rigid in character, so if he receives a forced apology, it will surely make him uncomfortable.

“But knowing your personality, you probably won’t apologize, so if you have any shame, just shut your trap and do as I say while I’m here. Do you understand?”

“……”

“Answer.”

“Yes, sir…”

“…What’s with that tone.”

Damn perch bastard.

Clicking my tongue, I dragged him into the training camp.

---

And, after some time passed and the necessary work was completed.

“Co-Commander Velvet. The preparations are complete.”

“It’s not Commander, but Teacher, Director.”

“Ah, yes. I’m sorry, Teacher Velvet…”

“Hey, why so formal with the last name? Call me Teacher Seine, more friendly-like.”

“…Urgh.”

The guy facing me grimaced, then turned around and retreated from his position.

He left to carry out what I had instructed beforehand.

I’m not completely over my anger yet, but for now, he’ll obediently follow my words for the next three days.

“I didn’t originally plan to do this much.”

I was just going to assist from behind and step in only when necessary, but given how the situation turned out, I have no choice.

As I headed straight to where the Disciplinary Committee members were waiting, Waden stood up and approached as if he had been waiting.

“Teacher, the Director…”

“Cheek.”

“…Pardon?”

“Show me your cheek.”

“……”

Waden silently took off his hat and presented his face to me at my request.

Seeing that the area where Harrison had hit him earlier was greatly swollen, I felt my heart grow heavy.

“It’s quite swollen.”

I should have stepped in earlier if I was going to interfere.

I applied light as a gesture of apology, but his face still showed stiff dissatisfaction.

“You brat, you came here for training, how can you just quietly accept being hit? If you see something clearly wrong, you should speak up right away.”

“I can endure this much.”

“Enduring such contradictions is the problem.”

“……”

“Anyway, we’re moving to the training ground now, so please lead the members.”

For a child who should be focusing on youth and studies to be adapted to unreasonableness to the point of enduring such harsh treatment. How could such a thing be normal?

Hiding such complaints inside, I moved forward, and Waden reluctantly began to follow me with the members.

“…What happened to the Director?”

“He wasn’t feeling well, so he decided to leave the guidance for this training camp to me. I’ll be teaching you in his place for the next three days.”

For the Disciplinary Committee, who had originally hoped for my education, this was not a bad story at all.

But for a principled person like him, how easy would it be to accept that the original plan had fallen through?

“You can speak up if you have any complaints. You have the right to do so.”

“…No. I’m the one who asked for your help. As long as things don’t get blown out of proportion, I think there must be a good reason for this.”

But contrary to expectations, Waden decided to let this pass without complaint.

He seems to have his own thoughts, but well…

If it means preventing unreasonable treatment towards the kids, that’s fine by me.

“Well, we’ve arrived.”

Upon reaching our destination, I stepped aside and showed the Disciplinary Committee members the scene inside.

“Is this… a classroom?”

“That’s right, it’s a classroom.”

A place with all the objects found in a school, including rows of desks, a blackboard, and lockers.

It was created by slightly modifying the lecture room in this training camp.

And the Disciplinary Committee is a group aimed at subduing problem students within the school.

“It’s also the main battlefield from your perspective.”

Where else could there be a more suitable environment for training the Disciplinary Committee?

Standing in front of the classroom, I turned to look at the Disciplinary Committee members following me and emphasized again.

“As I said before, the Director of the training camp has delegated all authority for training to me, so I hope you’ll all listen well to the teacher for the next three days, understood?”

“…Yes!”

The Disciplinary Committee members answered in unison to my words.

“Now then, let me explain about the training we’re going to do…”

Thinking that their quick unity and compliance was a good thing, I perched on the teacher’s desk and said to the students gathered at the entrance.

“Oh wait, come to think of it, I haven’t made any training plans at all.”

“What!?”

At that moment, bewilderment spread through the group.

It was a reaction they never expected from me.

“Hey, calm down. I’m not saying we’re going to ditch the training or anything like that, so listen to the teacher until the end.”

Worried that it might lead to disappointment, I hurriedly restrained them and looked back at Waden.

His eyes looking at me were severely stiffened.

It was an understandable reaction, as it seemed I was about to repay his trust with crap.