“That’s the problem. No matter how many times I tell you, you won’t fix it. Your pride and vanity may be the cause, but both are unnecessary.”
“I take pride in my work as an Imperial military officer.”
“That pride of yours is only sullying the name of the Imperial military. Your presence is dragging down the reputation of the Imperial officers.”
“…Ugh.”
For some reason, Lieutenant Mospitza glares at us. What a rude fellow. But I was told by Captain Lorenzo to ‘go easy on him’.
Top-down order. I have no choice but to endure it, as this is the fate of an employed military officer.
“Anyway, I’ve managed to find you a new job.”
“…Huh?”
Mospitza stares at the parchment with blinking eyes. I must say, I’ve found him a quite decent job placement, if I do say so myself.
“Personally, I think being an upper-class slave for the military magician would be best. As a regular slave, your few strengths like your magical abilities wouldn’t be put to much use. But I’ve actually found a good employer who…”
“That’s outrageous!”
“outrageous?”
Mospitza suddenly shouted, slamming his fist on the desk. This unexpected reaction caught Hazen off guard, as he had no idea what had provoked such a strong response.
“Upper-class slave? That’s the lowest of the low! Why on earth would you suggest that to me?”
“Well, since you’re already at the bottom, what’s the problem?”
” …… What the hell?
Mospitza stared at him in shock. Hazen had been explaining this for days,
yet the lieutenant still didn’t seem to understand.
“You clearly can’t even assess yourself properly. You’re in your early forties, can’t ride horses or fence well, and you’re not very bright. Yet you call yourself an elite, puffed up by your rigid ego and warped personality. It’s the worst. The world isn’t so forgiving that a mess like you could find another job,” Hazen said bluntly.
“What? That’s bullying, isn’t it!”
“Bullying?
Hazen asks again.
“Yes, that’s right. I acknowledge that the lieutenant has high abilities. But looking down on and mistreating those with lower abilities is outright bullying.”
“…I see. So you play the victim the moment you become the one being mistreated.”
“What?”
“You said it’s ‘cruel,’ but weren’t you the one who treated the deceased lieutenants and warrant officers cruelly in the first place?”
Upon hearing this, Lieutenant Mospitza looked aghast. Hazen took out a diary of Sergeant Chomo, who had once been executed, from the shelf in the room.
“What do you think this is?”
“Th-that is…”
“Yes. It’s the evidence of the ‘bullying’ you tried to cover up. Eight lieutenants and warrant officers, huh? You’ve certainly kept it up for quite a while.”
“Eek…”
At these words, Lieutenant Mospitza’s face turned pale. In the first place, the suspicious deaths of ten people—more than half of them were the result of this man harassing newly appointed lieutenants and warrant officers.
And Sergeant Chomo was merely tasked with cleaning up the aftermath
“I didn’t want to become like you – I don’t engage in such petty bullying. But based on your abilities, efforts and achievements, the assessment is upper-class slave. I searched quite hard to find you even that,” Hazen said sternly, grabbing Mospitza’s hair.
“That can’t be true.”
“But it is true.”
“Eep!”
Hazen grabbed Mospitza’s hair and glared at him.
“You’d better wake up. A despicable wretch who unreasonably demeans and kills his subordinates is unworthy of being an imperial officer. This is the right placement for you. You’re not even worthy of being an upper-class slave. You should be grateful.”
“I… I don’t want to be a slave.”
///
scene transition
///
“Then, do you want to die?”
“Eek, eek, eek!”
Mospitza started crying and clawing at his now thinning hair.
“I’m only keeping you alive for Lieutenant Lorenzo’s sake. Otherwise, I would have had you executed the moment I became your officer, submitting this evidence. A filthy wretch who demeans his subordinates like this is unnecessary.”
Mospitza had subjected the talented lieutenants and ensigns to abnormal “training”, even ordering the sergeants to physically abuse them. The disturbed junior officers were then discarded like broken toys.
Mospitza groveled on the floor, begging for mercy.
“I’m so sorry! Please, please have mercy!”
“…And what did you do to those junior officers who begged you for mercy? Did you show them any at all?”
“Eek… I did show them mercy. Yes, I did. It’s just not written in that diary. I did show them mercy.”
“True, that part isn’t written. But Sergeant Chomo said no such thing happened.”
“That’s not…”
“Don’t lie. I can tell.”
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
Hazen had learned the magic to hear the voices of the dead during his time in the western continent. This was part of gathering evidence to execute Mospitza. But listening to Chomo’s sickening report made Hazen’s stomach turn.
At that moment, Mospitza’s fate as a slave was sealed.
Still, the lieutenant kept groveling and crying. Eventually, Hazen relented and asked him.
“Do you truly hate being a slave?”
“Y-yes!”
“And dying?”
“I hate that even more!”
“…Then train as if your life depends on it. I’ll evaluate you solely based on your abilities and achievements.”
“Y-yes, sir!”
Hazen sighed heavily. What a pain it was to show any compassion to such a wretch.
“But you know, I still think an upper-class slave position would be better for you.”
“No! I don’t want to be a slave at all!”
“Even as a personal servant?”
“I won’t be happy about it! Please, have mercy!”
“Hmm…”
Hazen hated wasting time on useless things. He had actually suggested the upper-class slave position with Mospitza’s interests in mind.
“Alright then.”
“S-so…”
“But remember, if I see even a hint of your current lackadaisical attitude, you’re instantly demoted to a regular slave.”
“Yes, sir!”
“But I must tell you, not an elite slave. If you refuse this, you’ll just be a regular slave.”
“Yes!”
“…Sigh.”
Hazen looked at the cheerful Lieutenant Mospitza and sighed involuntarily.
During the afternoon training, Lieutenant Mospitza had tried his best (though it was still quite lacking). But that was hardly even worth mentioning.
Hazen observed him for about 2 seconds, then shifted his gaze to the rest of the 8th platoon. Sergeant Baz was indeed a capable commander. Normally, he would have wanted to promote him to 2nd lieutenant immediately, but non-commissioned officers could only rise to the rank of sergeant.
“We need to change the laws,”
Hazen muttered. No matter how incompetent Mospitza was, he had still reached the rank of lieutenant. And no matter how skilled a sergeant was, they were stuck at that rank for life. This could definitely lead to a decline in their motivation.
In the middle of the training, Mospitza Lieutenant came over to Hazen.
“Huff…huff, huff. Lieutenant Hazen, how was it?”
“……”
His desperate attempt to impress while out of breath was extremely annoying. After all, he lacked physical fitness, while the sergeants of the 8th platoon could easily handle the training regimen.
“Sergeant Baz. Later, give me Sergeant Chomo’s logbook. If you feel that Lieutenant Mospitza is slacking off even a little, wave that logbook at him and sentence him to caning.”
!?
“Wha-, Lieutenant Hazen!?”
“Your sudden bursts of effort are not to be trusted. At best, your minus 100 rating has only improved to minus 99-999. Things are built up over time, so keep it up like this.”
“…Ugh.”
Mospitza Lieutenant gave an [unbelievable] expression. But Hazen didn’t care. He didn’t believe in him anyway.
After inspecting the other platoons, Hazen’s overall assessment of the unit’s combat capabilities was complete. Being at the forefront of the border guard, each platoon had impressive combat power.
After the training, Hazen had the lieutenants and sergeants of each platoon submit their training plans. Among them, there was one who was late in submitting – Sergeant Marde. He had severe dark circles under his eyes, so he was probably unwell.
“…You’re the only one who’s late in submitting this.”
“I’m very sorry! I worked through the night, but… as a commoner, I have a lot of typos and mistakes, so I’m still proofreading it.”
“I see. As long as it’s readable, that’s fine. Let me take a look.”
Hazen flipped through the documents, correcting the typos and omissions in red pen. Soon, the papers were covered in red markings.
Also check out my friend Localizermeerkat for more LN translations!
BUY THE SOURCE MATERIAL TO SUPPORT THE AUTHOR !!!
Kindly click on the green button above and contribute to filling the green bar if you’re interested in having another LN from the request page translated. Also, every donation is being used to purchase the source material and to fund more English translations.
Please consider joining my Ko-Fi membership. By becoming a member, you’ll also gain access to 2-10 additional chapters of all of the novels from this site translated into English. Last but not least your support will also assist me in upholding the translation quality and speed. For more information, please follow the link.
Donation for faster release is always welcome
Additionally, I am now accepting translation requests.
