Chapter 80 - Isll Make A Man Out Of You! (1/2)

Back in the Hegemony, the military base that Princess Bang-gwi was stationed at was officially known as Dresden Base since it was located near Dresden in what was formerly Germany. Unofficially, this base became known as "The Meat Grinder" since all fresh recruits were first sent here before being distributed to other bases. The oldest soldier at the base was merely 25 while the youngest was 16. The Hegemony believed that 18 was old enough to voluntarily serve, but with your parent's or guardian's consent you could join at 16.

Military life was harsh and almost all of regular soldiers were commoners with most of the officers being nobility. The Hegemony may be a feudal government, but they were also not so dumb to admit that only nobility could lead others so occasionally commoners did become officers. The Marquis was actually the highest ranked commoner in the entire Hegemony Military, but very few knew how he earned this position. Regardless, due to the jealousy of nobles, Marquis Mehhnk would forever be relegated to this base and training rookies. This actually worked for him since he could relate to commoners more than nobles.

Princess Bang-gwi was very popular with most of the new recruits as they were younger and felt they could relate to her, of course a lot of them were merely interested in getting to know her just because of the possible fringe benefits of being friends with the Princess. At meal times, the Princess found herself surrounded by other young soldiers and pilots. Xiǎng Pigu had become her best friend at the base so a seat was always reserved for her.

The Princess was looking around for someone and finally saw whom she was looking for among the people around her. "Hey! Vinnie! Sit here!"

Vincent was honestly hard to miss as he was taller than the average person by a head. He walked over towards the Princess and sat down across from her in the seat that was opened up for him. "Princess, please call me Vincent, Vinnie sounds childish to me."

"Alright, then call me 'Ban'" the Princess said with a smile.

Vincent blushed a little, thought about it then said "Ok… B… Ba… Princess Ban." Unable to still call her Ban, he settled on Princess Ban.

"Closer… take your time Vinnie!"

Chuhan Jwi walked over carrying two lunch trays and placed one in front of the Princess while sitting down next to the Princess on the other side from Xiǎng Pigu. "Princess, here is your dinner."

"Jwi! You don't need to do that! I can get it myself!" the Princess said with an annoyed expression.

"I am aware of that Princess, but I was already getting mine so I figured I might as well get yours. Unsweetened tea, pinch of salt on your meat, meat cooked medium rare, and the bread not toasted of course."

Xiǎng Pigu was amazed that Chuhan Jwi knew exactly how the Princess liked her food and said "Wow, your bodyguard knows you very well Ban!"

"She's been with me since I was an infant, she is much more than a bodyguard to me. She is irreplaceable!" Princess Bang-gwi said affectionately while leaning her head on Chuhan Jwi's shoulder.

Chuhan Jwi smiled warmly and gave the Princess a gentle squeeze and said "Yes, we are more like family to each other, she is like a sister to me."

The Princess nodded her head in agreement and said "Yes! An older sister, a much older sister!"

Princess Bang-gwi missed Chuhan Jwi's eyebrow twitch at that last part when she heard her say "What was that last part, Princess?"

"I said a mu_" The Princess gagged and wasn't able to complete that sentence as Chuhan Jwi shoved the entire slice of bread into her mouth while saying "Yes, just like a sister indeed!"

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After several rounds of Capture the Flag, Gray was able to distract himself from his negative thoughts of earlier. Capture the Flag didn't reward as much as a standard team fight, but mechs wouldn't be destroyed or damaged, just disabled by the simulation once a certain amount of damage was taken. Gray really preferred these types of objective games over the standard death matches, but they were less popular in some games since they required teamwork over individual skill.

Even though the individual skill of the Steel Wolves wasn't as impressive as others, their teamwork and cooperation was significantly better than average, even approaching the levels demonstrated by the military despite the lack of intense training. Using their teamwork, they were able to win 8 out of their 10 matches before it became dark.

After the 10th match, Gray addressed his team and said "Guys, I need to go talk to Major Valen again, let's meet up later for dinner, no pajama party tonight."