In late April, temperatures in Xiongzhanli remained low. This was especially true on the Siberian Plateau, where the Front's official institutions were located; sub-zero temperatures were still a frequent occurrence at night and in the early morning.
In fact, when selecting sites, most organizations and institutions across the various Azure Fronts sought to build in remote, sparsely populated areas as much as possible. Territorial coverage was primarily accomplished through Rejecters, the various field armies, and frontline squads.
Barring a few exceptional circumstances, the personnel numbers and scale of each Azure Front generally depended on two factors: territorial land area and population.
Of the two, the former was rather more important.
After all, the Great Spikes did not go, "Wow, this country has a lot of people, let's land more of us here; that country has fewer people, so let's send fewer."
Thus, in terms of size, the Xiongzhanli Front was actually not much smaller than Huaxia.
Correspondingly, the proportion of the Xiongzhanli Front relative to its national population was vastly greater than that of the Huaxia Front. Its government and military had also infiltrated Azure to the most severe degree.
Xiongzhanli Front First Officer Academy.
The uncemented ground was hard nevertheless, clicking under leather boots whose soles were embedded with dead iron plates.
Milla wore black military-issue ankle boots, blue jeans, and a light camel-colored trench coat. Her hair had grown long and naturally wavy, tied loosely behind her head.
She walked across the campus with a thick stack of documents in her arms, her slender legs swishing against the hem of her trench coat.
In truth, Milla's current work at the officer academy was closer to that of a clerk.
Consequently, her recent duties had felt utterly hollow... Milla found that the documents lately were invariably either devoid of substance or showed obvious signs of fabrication.
This seemed sufficient to show just how dire the current situation had become.
*Whoosh! Boom!* Dead iron weapons clashed against one another as the sudden noise of combat erupted in the distance.
Hearing it, Milla broke into a jog toward the sound, filled with worry and urgency.
Cadets were brawling again.
"Stop! I order you to stop! This is an officer academy!" Standing on the periphery, Milla shouted sternly... and repeated herself.
Yet it had no effect whatsoever.
The cadets who had instigated the fight saw her, but didn't even pay her any mind... She was merely a desk-bound officer, and Grade E, according to rumors.
"I am an academy instructor! I demand that you immediately—" Milla was forced to emphasize her status.
Instead: "Piss off!"
barked one of the troublemaking cadets.
Forces of the Splinter Faction had long since infiltrated the academy. Lately, as the situation deteriorated, clashes between cadets over political differences had grown frequent, and they had even ceased to respect their instructors.
"In short, Ivan's choice is the choice of this nation! Mosorijin has already guaranteed that Ivan will join us!" The cadet ignored Milla, turning back to speak.
That was Butcher Ivan, ranked fifth on the Dome Leaderboard! Crowds of Splinter Faction cadets shouted in agitation and lunged forward again.
"After you destroy Azure, the world will be destroyed along with it, including our nation! Understand that, you idiot?!"
A cadet on the opposing side replied firmly—both with words and with the blade in his hands.
Milla couldn't stop them...
"Assholes!" Along with that roar, a figure in a field-grade officer uniform charged between them.
*Bang! Bang!*
Yelena didn't draw her blade. Spinning in midair, she kicked both instigating cadets to the ground, one after the other.
Then she landed with dashing poise, turned her back, and said, "Don't talk to me about politics. I can't be bothered to reason with you anymore. Stop brawling and get the hell out of here. Scram right now if you don't want to end up in the hospital."
The cadets finally dispersed.
"Good heavens, those brats actually dared ignore you. Looks like they really don't know who our Milla used to train," Yelena said with a light skip as she walked over.
In fact, aside from the group that had returned together from Indedu, very few people in the academy knew about the connection between Milla and Han Qingyu's circle.
Because that knowledge could invite danger.
Yelena wasn't one of those people. She had found out by coincidence—by peeking and eavesdropping when she was tailing Milla a while back.
Lowering her voice for the second half of her sentence, Yelena stepped up to Milla with a grin, leaned in, linked arms with her, and snuggled close.
"I just got some huge news. Want to hear it?"
"Let's hear it," Milla said, nodding with a smile.
"Then give me a kiss! Better yet, love me during the time you have left before you leave." Yelena pouted her lips and leaned in with a giggle.
*What does 'love you before I leave' even mean? Here she goes again.* Milla looked helplessly at the young girl before her.
Yelena was actually only twenty years old. Having grown up in the academy since childhood, she had a pure, straightforward nature.
The girl had once deeply admired and liked Aleksei. But after having her heart shattered by that playboy's antics, she had abruptly decided she was done with men altogether, and made up her mind to steal away the goddess of Aleksei's heart—Milla.
Blocking her with a hand, Milla said, "Stop fooling around, you'll smudge your lipstick. By the way, does this huge news of yours have anything to do with me? If not, you don't have to tell me."
Saying that, she made as if to walk away.
"Of course it does! Why else would I come running to find you in such a hurry?" Yelena hastily pulled her back. Not daring to tease any longer, she stood on tiptoe and whispered slowly into Milla's ear: "Your Major Qing made the Dome Leaderboard."
Milla froze.
Yelena seized the chance to leave a lipstick mark on her cheek... and before Milla could get mad, she shifted her tone, speaking with rare seriousness:
"Just look at the mess around here. I really hope he comes to get you soon."
"And until they arrive, I'll keep protecting you!" With that, the mischievous girl ran off.
Only then did Milla snap back to her senses.
Wiping the lipstick from her cheek, she murmured with a soft chuckle, "The Dome Leaderboard, huh?"
Suddenly, she missed the days at the very beginning, when they were still raw recruits.
"When we meet again, he'll be a big shot. Wonder if he'll act like one... or even like a grown-up."
Thinking of this, Milla smiled from the bottom of her heart.
She knew Han Qingyu and the others would definitely come. She decided she would trim her hair and buy a cosmetics set... *This afternoon, then,* she thought.
After finishing work that afternoon, she bought the makeup first. By the time she returned to her freestanding courtyard at the officers' quarters, it was around dinnertime.
Milla cooked some noodles, ate, tried putting on makeup, washed it off, took a bath, and then read the newspaper for a while, getting ready to turn in early.
A tremendous uproar suddenly came from outside.
Sounds of fighting.
Shouts.
"What do you think you're doing?!"
"This is an officer academy!"
"..."
The Splinter Faction had struck without warning.
Nobody knew what was happening out there, but clearly, they were attempting to seize control of the officer academy. Young junior officers were always fiercely courted by competing factions; this was only natural.
Milla quickly got up and strapped on her apparatus.
*Whoosh!* The roar of a source energy apparatus surged into the courtyard.
"Run, Milla! Hurry! They're capturing the instructors!"
It was Yelena's voice.
Then came the whir of more source energy apparatuses—perhaps an entire squad—appearing in the courtyard.
"Bastards!" cursed Yelena.
Combat erupted...
And just as quickly, it ended.
In the courtyard, Yelena slumped in a corner, her blade dropped to the ground, a knife held at her throat.
*How humiliating. Absolutely mortifying,* the girl thought to herself.
"Please come out, Lieutenant Colonel. We have no intention of slaughtering anyone, so long as you choose obedience," the leader of the Splinter Faction squad shouted toward the door.
Inside the room, Milla turned around.
She opened a cabinet on the wall and pulled out a rectangular wooden box...
When this gun was secretly delivered, Azure had assigned it a name.
Milla, however, had renamed it herself. Its name was now "Captain Lady."
"Come out, Lieutenant Colonel, or I cannot guarantee there won't be accidental casualties."
"Come out!"
The men in the courtyard were growing impatient.
"Honestly, Colonel Boris, there's no need to waste your breath on her. She's just a Grade E woman," said the voice from earlier that day—the ringleader of the troublemaking Splinter Faction cadets.
"Just let me go drag her out," he said.
With that, he turned and prepared to breach the door.
*Crash!* The glass window shattered.
Shards fell outward onto the ground.
A dark gun muzzle poked through the gap.
"I think you'd better let her go," Milla said.
Chapter 535