Chapter 1.1. Long-Awaited Homecoming

“The local units from countries A, B, and C to E have reported from a total of 5 locations! All have confirmed the destruction of the target! Operation Test No. 0033, the ultra-long-range remote saturation bombing operation, is a success!”
The lively voice of a young female soldier, the operator, echoed in the large command room, and a roar of approval erupted.
“Well… it took quite a while to confirm, didn’t it?”
Awakened by the loud cheers, I, Kamiya Yuusuke, got up from the makeshift bed formed by several office chairs in the command room.
As I stood up and uttered my first words, the bustling command room fell silent.
This is the large command room inside the headquarters building of the military’s joint staff.
It’s not common to take a nap here, especially during such a critical moment.
“Major General Kamiya… Observing highly classified information and exchanging it securely takes time.”
An elderly man in a military uniform with a distinguished white beard spoke to me as if advising.
“I see. I’ve only experienced the battlefield front lines, so this is how it feels at the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Well, it was educational. No wonder the response to reinforcement requests from the field is slow.”
“Hey! You’re being disrespectful to Marshal Tachibana!”
The adjutant or whoever stood next to Marshal Tachibana raised his voice angrily.
“Sorry about that. You see, I was thrown into the battlefield without proper education as a kid, so I never learned military etiquette. Well, I’m still just a 15-year-old kid.”
“…………”
Despite my words, the adults around me fell silent as if frozen, ignoring my lack of remorse.
“At that time, our country was in a very dire situation, but forcing a young person like you into a soldier’s life, from a military perspective… no, as an adult…”
“No, I just complained about the hardships of the field a bit. I apologize for my impudence.”
I bowed my head apologetically to Marshal Tachibana, who was about to express his apologies with a gloomy face.
My insolent attitude was just a slight venting. Since this is an ultra-secret operation, my words won’t get recorded anyway.
I must admit. I’m a troublesome kid.
“Anyway… today is a historic day for our country. Major General Kamiya, our country’s greatest force, can now deploy to multiple battlefields.”
“This is largely thanks to the achievements of Second Lieutenant Hayami. If you want to praise someone, praise Lieutenant Hayami.”
In response to Marshal Tachibana’s words of praise, I shifted my gaze to Lieutenant Madoka Hayami, who stood beside me.
“No! I just assisted Major General Kamiya in his movement.”
While I, still in my combat uniform, lay on the makeshift bed of chairs, Hayami Madoka, Second Lieutenant, had changed into a neat military uniform.
With her long black hair tied into a bun and her polished leather shoes, she looked like the picture-perfect elite female officer.
“No, it’s thanks to Lieutenant Hayami’s dimensional teleportation ability that we can deploy across multiple battlefields.”
“It’s thanks to Major General Kamiya’s saturation attack soul gear. I’m just a porter.”
“No, no, I’m really grateful to Lieutenant Hayami. Thanks to her, I can end the life of traveling the world and jumping from one battlefield to another.”
Dimensional teleportation refers to the ability revealed 10 years ago to borrow various abilities of Soul Armor, resulting in the manifestation of supernatural powers.
Equipping the power of the soul is called Soul Armor.
While the power of soul gears varies individually, my Soul Armor ability allows me to annihilate enemy bases single-handedly.
As a result, requests have been coming in from various fronts, and for the past few years, I’ve been constantly moving from one battlefield to another.
“For the enemy, it must be a nightmare. The nightmare of the saturation attack, which used to be localized, will now make them tremble in their sleep every day.”
“I’d like to see the faces of the enemy staff members when they learn about this information.”
“If it were me, I’d get a stomach ulcer from the stress.”
“No doubt.”
The high-ranking military officials around me also seemed pleased with the results of this test operation.
“Well, since we’ve confirmed the results, I’ll return to my office. I also want to change out of my combat uniform.”
“Ah, you’ve been through a lot.”
With the marshal’s voice behind me, I, with Lieutenant Hayami, left the command room.
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