Lieutenant General Dordon is in the midst of replacing the bureaucrats, often referred to as “paper-pushers,” in the military. Even his own secretary is one of those bureaucrats, chosen from the neutral nobility faction close to the King’s camp.
Replacing the secretary alone required months of careful work to eliminate the nobility’s detrimental influence from the military’s Personnel Bureau.
During this time, the issue of cadet Bruce’s assignment has surfaced, causing a major uproar.
When Director General Dordon was first informed of this problem, he had the reaction of “Here we go again.”
After hearing about Bruce’s performance, Dordon sighed and said, “Well, then we’ll take him in Personnel.” But this was quickly rejected by those around him.
While it is truly in the nation’s best interest to assign Bruce to supply-related work based on his aptitude, many nobles strongly oppose this, as it would endanger their vested interests.
Supply-related work is generally considered unglamorous and less conducive to advancement and distinguished achievements. Therefore, it is often shunned by ambitious cadets, especially those from the upper nobility, who face pressure from their family patriarchs or faction leaders.
Supply-related work, however, is quite lucrative.
This sentiment is shared across the military staff, who are determined to protect the more rewarding and profitable positions,
not just in supply, but also in personnel work.
This is why the King and the Space Force Chief have long struggled to finally breach this stronghold, but the influence of these elements has not yet been completely eliminated. Not only Dordon’s immediate colleagues, but also those who are about to be excluded from the lucrative positions, are voicing their opposition out of a sense of crisis.
Dordon had thought about using this opportunity to earn some goodwill and keep Bruce as a pawn. However, he also genuinely wanted to eliminate the nobility’s influence as soon as possible. But with the resistance from his close associates, Dordon was now struggling with how to handle the cadet Bruce.
“I need to have a talk with the military leadership. I want to gather the personnel staff from the First and Second Fleets.”
It has turned into a much bigger issue than anyone expected, just over a single cadet.
The bureaucratic officials cannot comprehend how this could escalate to such a degree.
However, for the uniformed personnel, especially the military elite, this is a matter they cannot ignore.
If left unattended, this issue could endanger the very system that produces the military’s elite. This concern is unanimously shared by the uniformed officers gathered at the meeting.
If this were a regular officer school graduate, they could have simply assigned him and moved on. But the issue is that he is a graduate of the elite officer school, meant to train the military’s future leaders.
Allowing him to be assigned to supply-related work would break the tradition where graduates of this school are virtually guaranteed to reach at least the rank of major or higher.
This would open up opportunities for the regular officer school graduates, threatening the special privileges enjoyed by the nobility and high-ranking military officers’ wealthy families.
Rare exceptions are made to allow commoners to enter this elite school, but the norm is that only those who have been properly educated from a young age can gain admission.
This has allowed the nobility to comfortably enjoy their special postgraduate treatment.
The school is widely open to the public, but there is a pretense that only those with real ability can become the elite.
Even if a few commoners manage to enroll, they are a minority and can be easily absorbed into the existing system.
However, the education from enrollment to graduation is strict and impartial, so the enrollment of commoners is gradually increasing.
But these “commoners” are mostly from wealthy families who have been educated from a young age. Enrollment and graduation of those from the very bottom of society is still rare.
While the issue of family background has always existed, it has never caused such a problem as this time.
The problem is that this particular student’s abilities are extremely lopsided, but he is exceptionally talented in that specific area.
Normally, he would be smoothly placed on the path to become a staff officer, which would be beneficial for both him and the military. However, the staff officer position is the elite track, and one that has been monopolized by the aristocratic class.
Many aristocratic and high-ranking military officers are opposing him solely on the basis of his family background.
But the staff officers have additional reasons why they absolutely cannot accept him.
The issue traces back to a war simulation exercise in his second year.
The simulation was based on actual past events twenty years ago where this kingdom suffered a devastating defeat.
This was a exercise that used real data from a war that resulted in a severe defeat for the kingdom, causing the loss of one of its star regions. Students were tasked with experiencing the role of supply staff.
Due to numerous changes in military plans, changes to the supply plan were ordered, resulting in almost all students being unable to properly supply. However, candidate Bruce, was different.
He could spot flaws in the assigned format and independently improved the format, consistently meeting the requirements with each plan change.
Unable to submit his original format, he went through the trouble of creating the supply plan in his own format first, then recreating it according to the military’s format.
This alone wouldn’t pose any threat, but the problem was that he used actual past data.
At that time, corruption was rampant within the military, although not as much as it is now.
Naturally, embezzlement of supplies was commonplace.
With his unique format, he not only eliminated waste in the movement of goods but also exposed the embezzled supplies.
However, since he didn’t know about the embezzlement, he prepared separate plans with “uncertain use” designation as a thoughtful gesture.
Reflecting on the military history of that time, they were barely surviving until the defeat, but the kingdom was forced into a necessary retreat due to supply delays.
Subsequent historical research concluded that if the supply had been proper, they wouldn’t have lost.
Since the issue of embezzlement was concealed from the public, candidate Bruce, naturally didn’t know about it and, in practice, struggled before managing to separate and manage the funds under “uncertain use.”
As a result, this came to the attention of one of the staff members entrusted with the military class by chance, causing a stir within a certain faction.
Hence, he is now firmly convinced that he must never get involved with the supply chain which controlled by the elites.
On the other hand, in the field unit known as the combatants, where corruption was also prevalent, there was a tendency to dislike even those slightly familiar with numbers due to the advancing corruption. They didn’t want to take care of those who lacked any field qualifications.
However, both sides understand that if they don’t adhere to the traditions and customs of the elite officer training school, they have no future. So, while they don’t want to accept him, they also understand that it would be bad if he were not accepted elsewhere.
Therefore, both sides take a stance of refusal, but it’s more like pushing responsibility onto each other.
Thus, even with the intervention of the personnel department, no agreement can be reached.
That’s why a space was provided where discussions could be held without involving intermediaries.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
The gathering in the conference room at the Space Force Headquarters in the capital was an impressive one.
Representatives from the First and Second Fleets, along with their respective fleet personnel staff and the administrative department’s director, were all present.
Interestingly, there was a clear difference in motivation between the bureaucrats and the staff officers in uniform.
Normally, there would be a lot of friction between fleets, but this time, instead of fighting between fleets, they were merely appealing to the other side, saying that the field wouldn’t accept it. However, there was still no air of discussion, nor was it tense.
Each fleet’s bureaucrats looked on coolly at this scene.
It was as if they were saying, “This is getting tiresome.”
While there was corruption among the bureaucrats as well, there were no troubles like those in elite training schools.
They were originally all suited for bureaucratic work, and their assignments were divided based on their backgrounds.
There is already a system in place to send troublesome people to dangerous places and take care of them. Officials are simply fine as long as there is no trouble, truly indifferent.
The king, feeling a sense of crisis over the state of such a nation, has sent the head of the personnel department, Dordon, who seems to have considered taking charge of personnel for a while but has since given up and is observing the situation.
He already knows that the third princess is scheming to create an organization.
No, he is one of her collaborators, and in a sense, he is also keeping an eye on the candidate Bruce who is the subject of this issue.
Since Bruce is someone who is so disliked by existing factions, he can be sent to serve under the princess without hesitation, but Dordon is considering what to do in the meantime.
“Should we gather directly and discuss it, neither of us will give in. In that case, should I transfer him to the supply coordination section of the Space Force Headquarters?”
Upon hearing this, the nobles all changed their expressions.
Even the officials who had seemed calm until then hurriedly tried to stop Lord Dordon.
“Isn’t that going too far?”
said the chief of staff of the First Fleet, and the chief of staff of the Second Fleet expressed agreement.
Even the section chiefs from the personnel department who were participating in this meeting were in a panic.
The section chiefs were still not under the control of Lord Dordon’s faction and were being assigned by their respective factions.
Lord Dordon, who had been waiting for this, inwardly thought, “So they’re that corrupted,” and it was just a remark to confirm the state of this nation, not that he really intended to transfer him there.
After all, there are many benefits from departments close to supply.
In any case, as he showed in the training, they were clearly afraid of the flow of materials and funds becoming visible.
There were too many people actually committing embezzlement and misappropriation, and no one really understood the actual situation.
Moreover, the king was honestly more afraid that no one felt a sense of crisis.
Of course, it would be easy for Lord Dordon to forcibly assign him to a department of the Space Force, but since he had confirmed the situation was this bad, in a sense, it might be easier for the princess to transfer Bruce away from the military .
“Come to think of it, His Majesty has long expressed concern about the personnel rigidity in the Capital Orbital Defense Force. It’s not good to have only personnel from the military on temporary transfer or permanent transfer. How about recruiting people directly from the elite training schools and training them as regulars?”
There had already been problems arising here and there due to the extremely poor quality of personnel temporarily transferred from the military.
For the Space Force, which was essentially just a good dumping ground, they could not let them go, but they could tolerate high-ranking officials coming from outside the military.
What was more frightening was the possibility of misconduct being exposed by him.
The First Fleet and Second Fleet reluctantly accepted Lord Dordon’s proposal,
as if to say they were creating a debt to the king.
As a result, an unprecedented personnel decision was made in this nation.
Although he was a graduate of the school that trains the elite of the Space Force, it was decided that he would be temporarily transferred to the Coast Guard, which is considered the second military force of this nation.
It would have been fine to simply assign him to the Coast Guard instead of the Space Force, but there was a feeling of not wanting to leave the Coast Guard, where there were still benefits, so an unprecedented personnel decision was made to have him temporarily transferred immediately after graduation.
With this, the issue of the assignment of the candidate Bruce, which had been causing a stir for some time, was resolved, and those nobles gathered here felt relieved and left.
Everyone here was too busy with other jobs.
If they had known about the numerous incidents caused by Candidate Bruce in the future, they might have turned a blind eye to some problems and accepted him.
In the end, the corruption caused by the nobility is gradually exposed by his actions, but that’s a story for another time.
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Thanks for the treat.
Can’t wait to see how his actions expose the corruption tbh