15. Time to leave now.
15. Time to leave now.
"Hey, Commander's son. What are you gonna do?"
Kal, who had been thinking that it wouldn't be bad to just roll around on the bunk and live like a bum, was asked that by the Trash Captain. He tilted his head slightly to the side, looked at the big, burly captain who was a former space mercenary, and dragged out his words, "Well..."
"I gotta do something fun. You only live once, it'd be a shame to live it like shit."
Then, Pig, who was lying sideways on the next bunk and munching on snacks, said,
"Do that, that. Knight. It fits you perfectly, man. You've got the looks for it."
"Yeah, once our training camp buddy makes it big, introduce us to some knights. ...F—k, that knight bitch from the Solar Knights was so f—king pretty. Does a pussy even exist on a bitch like that?"
Rat giggled at that.
"Fuck, you know the bathroom smelled like straight-up cum yesterday? Everyone must've jerked off in there at least once."
Then the Trash Captain waved his hand dismissively and said,
"Hey, but if they're too pretty, I can't get it up. It feels unrealistic, you know? Needs to be a bit more human, don't you think?"
"Retard. Making excuses because you can't get any."
As Pig sneered, the Trash Captain hit back.
"Anyway, the pig bastard doesn't even have any women spreading their legs for him."
"I've already had a truckload of women spread for me."
"Bullshit. Probably not women, but female pigs."
"You retard."
The group leader stopped paying attention to the pig and turned his gaze back to Kal.
"Anyway, you become a knight and introduce us to some women. F—k, get us some hot ones. Let's change our luck with our dicks."
"But if you're the Commander's son, you'll succeed just by having a dick, right?"
"If I were a woman, I'd spread for him myself, hehehe."
"Fuck, I'm gonna puke just imagining that. Ugh."
Kal ignored whether his squadmates were acting like idiots or not and was lost in deep thought.
Truth be told, he wanted to do nothing but poke around in women's pussies and laze about, but that would land him in prison immediately, so he had to do something.
Isn't there anything fun?
Still, he wasn't about to go to some place he knew nothing about and work like a dog, so he had to go through the knight course first. There were plenty of people he knew there, so if things went well, he might even get treated with some seniority.
The problem was what came next. A knight is a knight, but what kind of knight would he be—!
In short, every Knight Order had its own characteristics.
They were usually divided into three main types.
Escort Unit, Combat Unit, Intelligence Unit.
Of course, every Knight Order did a bit of all three in their assigned sectors, but there were still specific duties they were in charge of. Just like how the Solar Knights were responsible for escorting the Imperial Emperor and defending Earth.
Kal found the work of the Intelligence Unit particularly interesting. You know, receiving secret missions and secretly stabbing the enemy in the back. Digging up corruption among Imperial nobles, finding criminals, receiving bribery sex—! At least that would be better than living a boring knight life.
Anyway, if he killed time like that, his father would eventually tell him to crawl into the ship on his own.
Threatening the daughters of corrupt nobles for sex would be fun, suppressing fleeing space criminals for sex would be thrilling, and breaking into the virgin pussies offered by bootlicking dads...
Kal was lost in such delusions when he opened his mouth wide and let out a long yawn.
In just two weeks, training camp would be over. He thought about how bleak it felt to spend half a year here, but it felt like it had passed faster than expected. Of course, that didn't mean he had grown fond of this shitty place. He wanted to escape right now.
While he was thinking about this and that, the duty sergeant shouted from the hallway, "Evening roll call in 30 minutes—!" The squadmates who had been rolling around cursed, "Ah, fuck," and started getting up to clean the bunks and lockers.
After cleaning up and chatting a bit, the Group 5 instructor came in and told them to prepare for roll call. The group leader stood in the middle of the [Dormitory], and the rest sat on the edge of their bunks, waiting for the duty sergeant to arrive.
Soon, the smiling duty sergeant came into the [Dormitory], saying, "Uh, yeah."
"Alright, did everyone have a good day? Yeah, okay, okay, tomorrow is Sunday, so everyone have a good weekend. Yeah, okay, okay, uh, yeah, good work."
The evening roll call ended in a flash, and the squadmates all lay down in their spots.
"Lights out."
With a click, the view of the zigzag ceiling Kal was staring at went dark.
...Father will probably nag me about doing something like being a knight again, right? ...Still, fuck, what can I do. Being a knight is a hundred times better than being a navigator, which is boring as hell.
Of course, someone might think it's nice to sit in the navigation room with their legs stretched out, patting the firm asses of female staff and enjoying a relaxed navigation life, but that was too boring and lacked thrills. If he were just a bum who did nothing but eat and play, that would be one thing, but he had to do the work, and his young life was too precious to suffer in such a closed space with no romance at all.
And strangely, Kal didn't get along with the nerds who sat at their desks studying every day. The difference in experience between administration and fieldwork—that was actually the most decisive reason.
...But then again, those kinds of bitches don't spread their pussies easily.
And it's not like the knights put out easily either. Whether they were knights or navigators, they all had such high pride that even if he pushed with his looks, they didn't fall for him easily. You can tell just by looking at Alisa right now. ...Of course, there are always exceptions everywhere.
...Yeah, this time, let's live like a selfish, crazy bastard. Not like before. ...What's the point of living like that? When you die, it's all over...
Kal let out a long sigh and closed his eyes.
Nothing in this world is eternal.
Just like how the universe will eventually disappear into eternal darkness—
· · ·
A week before graduation, Kal submitted his specialty application, writing down Knight Order for the organization and Intelligence Unit for the specific department. He couldn't guarantee whether it would happen or not, but since he was first in his class at the training camp, he'd probably get what he asked for. Surely there would be at least one such spot in this vast universe.
Of course, he couldn't join officially right away; he had to spend a period of time determined by the Knight Order as a probationary knight. It was usually 6 months, but depending on the Knight Order, it could be 1 year or even 2 years. For reference, the probationary period for the Solar Knights was 2 years.
If there was an internal judgment that he could faithfully perform his duties as a knight, he could join the order even if his probationary period remained. In short, it was, "If we use you once and you're okay, we'll eat you, and if not, we'll spit you out."
In fact, since they could use obedient and skilled talent to their heart's content for money that was practically unpaid, it wasn't much of a loss for the Knight Order either. So, they probably pick them up from training camps like this, acting like they're doing a favor by saying, "We'll give you a fair opportunity."
Three days after filling out and submitting the application—
As expected, Kal received news that he had been selected as a probationary knight for a place called the Keuble Knights. It was a Knight Order that Kal had never heard of, even while he was in the Imperial Army for a long time. ...It probably wasn't central, so he thought it might be some Knight Order on the outskirts.
Kal heard a rumor that Alisa had also been provisionally accepted into a Knight Order. But wasn't the name of that Knight Order the same as his?
...What the, how could this happen?
He hadn't written the exact name of the Knight Order, just his specialty, so the fact that two people ended up in the same place could be interpreted in two ways.
One was that it was just a coincidence, and the other was that someone had intervened.
Kal saw the latter possibility as more likely. It didn't mean the former was impossible, but he didn't really trust coincidences. It makes people's attention span drop.
Who could it be?
No one came to mind immediately. He didn't think his father would do that either. ...The person most suspected was, as expected, Ellis. Only she knew roughly about the relationship between Kal and Alisa.
...Geez, she's still as much of a worrywart as ever.
She must have remembered them joking around about being close and blew a little wind from behind the scenes so they would end up in the same Knight Order.
Of course, Kal wasn't the type to make a fuss about it, so he just let it slide. Actually, just because they were in the same Knight Order didn't mean they would be incredibly helpful to each other. They were both just probationary knights anyway.
Alisa knew Kal had become a probationary knight, but she didn't seem to know yet that it was the same Knight Order. Of course, he intended to hide that fact as much as possible and reveal it at the last minute. Then a pretty interesting scene would unfold. Wouldn't she look at him with disgust, as if to say, "You're going to the same place as me?"
That bitch, she's surprisingly fun to tease.
Thinking about it again, it seemed like it would be quite fun if they went to the same Knight Order. Of course, she would hate it to death.
Kal looked up at the dull-colored sky, saying, "Huuu." You couldn't see the kind of blue sky you see on Earth on Hell-Lugal. That must be why they built a prison in this shitty place and threw all the vicious criminals in here. They wouldn't even allow them to see such a beautiful sky.
...Someday, when I'm really old, will I miss this shitty place too?
He fell into a rare moment of sentimentality and thought that, but with a smirk, he let it drift to the back of his mind.
Even so, I don't think I'll ever miss the training camp.