The next day, I was very determined not to lose the competition. For this reason, I had decided to subject the recruits to training slightly heavier than usual
Now, don't think too harshly of me. I intended to do only what I needed to in order to win the competition, not start issuing beatings for every infraction. And I was only going that far because I knew that Tanya would not spare her subordinates.
I had had the opportunity to discover, thanks to some "informants", the way in which Tanya treated the cadets under her command. Apparently, Tanya had become a real sergeant from Hell: the cadets under his supervision were forced to take longer shifts for heavier exercises, with fewer opportunities to rest. A heavy and draconian training, which however would not fail to give results against my cadets. I knew that, unless a miracle happened, I had little chances to win our little competition.
To remedy this, however, I could try to regain points by timing. If, for example, I had been able to prepare and deploy cadets under my command before Tanya did the same, I would have been able to put myself in a good light and consequently gain a sufficient advantage to be able to give myself a chance.
For this reason, I decided to wake up my cadets personally.
When the Academy reveille sounded, I was already inside the dormitory.
To be honest, I had been there for several minutes, and I had looked at the men under my command with an omnipresent question in mind: could they help me to win this challenge?
I looked at them again. They looked more like a team of sloths than a group of army cadets. To carry out this transformation, I would have to put a lot of effort into it.
Therefore, I took a trash bin and beat it with all the strength I had. The noise that I produced in this way was very loud and annoying.
"Wake up! Wake up!" I shouted as loud as I could "Put your pants on and slip into your uniforms! Today we have a great joint exercise, and we are the star attractions!"
The men, albeit with a few mumbles, got out of their beds and began to get ready.
Slowly. Too slowly.
I hit the trash bin again with force, producing more noise. Some of the cadets covered their ears with their hands, trying to protect themselves from the sound.
"Faster, faster!" I screamed. That was not the time to be kind.
For all the time necessary for the cadets under my command to prepare for training, I was there, encouraging them to be as fast as possible. It was a race against time: even one second could make the difference.
In the end, however, all the men were ready, in shiny uniform, at attention from the inner courtyard of the academy. To make it sweeter, only a part of Tanya's soldiers were present as well. Questioning one of Tanya's subordinates, I had known that there had been a "little problem" and that Tanya had to come back to deal with it. In my mind, this meant that Tanya would have arrived "slightly" later.
While the soldiers waited at attention, I was constantly looking at the time on the Academy clock, which was placed just above the main entrance to the courtyard. Externally, I tried to give an image of myself worried and impatient, but deep inside was an explosion of joy. Every second that Tanya accumulated of delay was a point that was added to my personal score for our little challenge.
I rechecked the clock. There were five minutes to go and Tanya had not yet appeared. I know I should have worried, and yet the thought that something bad might have happened did not touch my mind.
I still remember seeing Major Von Rerugen at one of the side entrances to the courtyard. He was conversing with another officer (I do not know about what: it was too far away) but for a moment, just for a moment, he moved his head and our eyes met. He smiled for a second, before resuming his conversation.
And then… it happened.
I was looking at my cadets when I heard the explosion. My first thought was that we were under attack. Whose? I did not know it, but I was afraid I would understand it soon. Perhaps some Empire power enemy had decided to hit the Academy with a betrayal attack, Pearl Harbor style? But then, why hit the Academy? It did not have such a high strategic value.
At least, not in itself.
I looked up. An Academy window had disappeared. In its place, there was now a steaming gash, from which came a smoke so thick that you could not see beyond.
"What's' going on?" yelled someone I did not recognize.
Surely not an enemy attack, I thought silently. But then what had happened? An accident? Alternatively, a fool who had stuffed himself with explosives without thinking about it?
A scary thought crossed my mind: had it been a kamikaze attacker? So far, nothing had suggested that they could exist, but only because I did not believe they were there did not mean that they could not really exist.
On the courtyard floor, a few meters from the exploded window, were lying some cadets, apparently intact but badly battered from the explosion. Quickly, I ran to the nearest. I toppled him to his back, and put my fingers on his wrist to check his pulse.
"Cadet, are you OK?" I said without hiding my fear "What happened?"
In response, he raised his arm and pointed to the gash. It was then that I realized that something, or rather someone, was emerging from the smoke of the explosion.
Someone I knew very well.
"What's wrong?" said Tanya in a very intimidating tone, made even more frightening by the fact that he was holding a rifle "You're twitching like a shrimp."
"Tanya, what the hell?" I said, realizing what just happened "You just used a bombardment spell inside the Academy?"
She ignored me, preferring to concentrate on the cadets on the ground a few feet away from me.
"Want me to feed you to the pigs, you maggots?" she said almost with a snarl.
I was shocked. I never saw her so much angry. Moreover, seeing her in this mood made me shiver on my back.
"Wh-why is this happening?" another cadet with dirty blond hair said. It was evident that he, like me, could not believe what had just happened.
Tanya flew down from the gash, landing a few inches from the cadet. I had a bad feeling about it.
"Why?" she said looking at the cadet "You can't be ready five minutes before is time to go, and you don't know why the Fatherland is better off without you?"
"Y-you little brat…" the cadet said, trying to get up. But as soon as he noticed it, Tanya hit him with the butt of her rifle, making it to fall to the ground again. The cadet hit the floor with his head, and this must have hurt, because I saw him shelter his skull with his arms.
"You're free to hold whatever opinion of me you like, but resisting a superior officer should be harshly punished."
"Tanya, stop. That's enough!" I shouted to her, trying to draw her attention. However, I got nothing.
Tanya aimed the rifle barrel toward the cadet's head. What if she decided to stick him with that?
"Tanya, you're going to far!" I shouted again, with no avail.
"I'll open that brainless skull of yours and carve the damn rules inside!" she shouted, looking at the cadet with a very determinate face.
I was afraid. Was he really doing it? Was she going to kill that cadet for real?
I saw the Tanya rifle trembling. One, maybe two seconds, and she would do what she had just said she would do.
I do not know what I thought at the time. Maybe it was fear, or anger, I do not know exactly.
But I know what I did. Without thinking twice, I magically thrown myself toward her, my hands pointing to her rifle to deflect it and save that cadet. It was an impulsive move, dictated by emotions and made without any weighting on the consequences.
My hands grabbed the rifle just as Tanya was about to push him forward, applying new inertial energy that led the bayonet to stick into the ground, a few millimeters from the cadet's face.
"Tanya, what the hell are you trying to do? Kill him?" I hissed in a disconcerted tone.
"Frederick" she hissed looking at me with a terrible gaze "Get out of the way. I have to discipline a disobedient recruit."
However, I did not move.
"Are you damn insane?" I hissed back, trying to apply sufficient force to the rifle to push it away from the cadet "We cannot kill our subordinates!"
Technically, I was wrong on this point: insubordination was a crime that was punished with the death penalty in the army, usually applied by firing squad. You always had to obey your superiors, in any condition and situation, even if your superior had less years than you did.
Of course, however, there was a certain line between what the rules said it was allowed to do and what a man was willing to do. No officer, no matter how hard and loyal to the rules, would have executed or tortured his own subordinate in cold blood.
This was something that I called Humanity.
"Cadets Degurechaff and König" said an approaching voice "What happened?"
Taking care not to divert too much attention from Tanya (in case she tried again to kill the cadet below us) I looked in the direction of the voice.
It was the Major von Rerugen. And he didn't look very happy.
"Sir, we…" I tried to say as I saluted
"Sir, Cadet Frederick König is interfering in my duties as a senior officer by preventing me from punishing an unruly cadet" Tanya beat me on time.
"Really? It seemed to me that he was trying to stop you from executing him on the spot!" von Rerugen practically yelled.
"Sir, the cadet Simon ignored my order to prepare twice, and resisted my authority. According to the military code, I am authorized to punish him as I think best"
In the meantime, I realized that Tanya's "outburst" had attracted many people around us. Most were cadets, but there were also many officers. Some, who were not present in the courtyard when the event had occurred, desperately tried to acquire information by asking them in a whisper to the presumed "witnesses".
In a second, I realized that the moment was terrible and delicate: it was necessary to immediately give the right impression, before men could get their own ideas wrong.
What could I do? I certainly could not deny what had just happened, moreover in front of a senior officer.
Suddenly I had an idea.
"Sir" I said trying to gain the attention of Von Rerugen "Please do not blame Tanya. The fault of what happened is mine!"
Silence. Tanya and von Rerugen had stopped arguing, and they looked at me now with an uncertain look.
"Yours?" asked von Rerugen gazing over me "Why do you say this?"
"Sir, because it's true!" I said standing in attention, "Tanya and I had made a bet the other day, on who would have achieved the best result today, and I think this has stressed her. I think it could be a symptom of a nervous breakdown, and with your permission, I ask permission to conduct Degurechaff in the sick bay!"
It was a very risky move, but sharing the responsibility for what had happened between Tanya and me, maybe she could get a lesser penalty. At the same time, removing Tanya from von Rerugen with the excuse of bringing her to the infirmary, I could prevent the situation from escalating further.
The greatest risk was that Tanya was thrown out from the Academy, and I with her, since I had said that part of the responsibility for what happened was mine. If this had happened, our chances of finding a safe place in the rear would have ended.
But before von Rerugen could speak, a voice of greater weight was heard.
"Konig! Degurechaff!" Brigadier General Christof Weitz shouted immediately saluted from everybody "Would you please tell me what the hell is happening here?"
"How much did the general give you?" Tanya asked looking at me.
"A formal rebuke and one week of service" I answered her without looking up from my chocolate.
Tanya sighed, making the chocolate in the cup tremble.
"Yourself?" I asked with a bitter tone.
"Same" she responded to me in annoyed tone.
I grunted, trying to drown my anger in chocolate.
"Frederick?" said Tanya looking at me "Are you ok?"
"I'm perfectly fine, Tanya, no need to worry about me" I said lying.
"Frederick" Tanya said with her face full of determination "Do not try to lie to me. You are clearly angry. It's true?"
I reflected for a few seconds, looking for an answer that could satisfy Tanya, but there was too much anger in me not to tell her the brutal honesty.
"Yes, I'm angry, and I'm angry with you" I said, looking directly into her eyes "They could expel us from the Academy for what you did!"
"Hey, it did not concern you. You could stay out of it for me." She replied as if to defend her conduct.
"Maybe I should have. At least now I would not be here thinking about the shifts in the kitchen that I have to do!"
I tried to look the other way, trying to suppress my anger, but Tanya suddenly grabbed my hand, making me turn around again
"Listen to me, doll-face: I know you're probably scared, but..."
"Scared!" I said glaring at her "Of course I'm scared. With this little action of yours you may have compromised everything we have built up to now. And if Von Rerugen would send a report demanding an investigation into the matter?"
"He won't" she said, taking me by surprise.
"What?"
She smiled again, making me shiver into my chair
"Believe me, I know how HR works. And I know that we are too precious and irreplaceable to be severely punished. As long as we keep bringing good results, they will close an eye on matters such as this".
I stopped talking, to focus my mind on what she has just said.
Tanya's words were not too far from the truth. In almost any type of organization, individual results tended to be placed before personality defects. The big guys in charge did not really care who you were as long as you did your job well and did not disobey them.
In fact, I remembered more than one occasion in my previous life when I had seen this happen.
"So, do you think they'll let the whole thing go smooth?" I asked
"Yes, absolutely. I think they will value two first-of-the-class wizards above one lowly regular human cadet," she said giggling.
"Ok then" I replied "But let me tell you one thing: next time something happens like that, I will not help you!"
"Never expected it".