It was a moonless night, and for the Federation soldier Zeke Delbrook standing night watch at the triangular fort, it was just another common night of the siege.
Zeke Delbrook was the youngest son in his family, and his father loved this youngest child so much that he beseeched the priest to give his son a saint's name as a baptismal name.
However, the name was overly long and cumbersome, with hardly a few people able to pronounce it smoothly. Because his face was full of freckles, the other Federation soldiers simply called him "Freckles."
As the son of a subsistence farmer, Freckles' reason for choosing to become a soldier was simple—his father's land was little, yet his father had many children.
Freckles had four older brothers and three older sisters, and his parents had only lost two children. This was an unusual stroke of luck, but also an unusual misfortune.
So until Freckles turned sixteen, his eldest sister Zhuoya had still been unable to marry.
