Love Began with the First Meeting

Jake was a person who loved to gossip. "Maggie, you and the Captain..." Before he had finished the sentence, he was pulled hard by Garth.

"Shut your mouth, if you don't want to die." Garth, being a detail attentive type of person, had noticed that there was something between Edgar and Maggie. Whether this had begun during the mission that they carried out together, or it was because the senior military officer had instructed her to take care of Edgar when he was injured, was a mystery. Even though it sounded a bit awkward...

Jake stopped saying anything more because Edgar had briefly scanned in his direction. Even though it was only one glance, they were afraid of continuing along those lines of discussion.

After the meeting, they held a party to boost everyone's spirits. There was no beer, but every table had four more dishes added. Taking cold drinks instead of beer, Edgar made a toast to the entire brigade, which heightened every soldier's morale.

Maggie was sitting with the other student soldiers. Gazing at the manly face of Edgar, she couldn't help licking her lips. All the soldiers started to cheer, and naturally she was also affected by the high spirits of the brigade. Seeing the spirited faces around her, she couldn't help thinking, 'How many loyal followers can one man summon? Perhaps, Edgar is the best to answer that. In the Eagle Special Brigade, he is the undeniable leader; the legend; the God, even... The God of war!'

"Alas, I can only wait in the director department and watch the show," Jake grumbled. "Why did I even need to attend this meeting? It's like showing you some desirable sweets but then forbidding you from eating them."

"Absolutely," Edith said, agreeing with Jake. Unlike Jake, who was eager to experience a real war, Edith simply wanted to join to have fun.

Garth, however, casually said, "I don't want to have such a chance to experience it in my life." When everyone turned to him curiously, he sighed, "War is a merciless thing. You don't understand."

"Oh please!" Jake and Edith rolled their eyes, ridiculing what Garth had said. "Don't act like you are really experienced. You sound like you have already been through wars."

Garth didn't intend to explain further and just shrugged quietly.

Among them, the only one who had been on a live mission was Maggie. In a dangerous situation, life was preciously fragile. Anyone could die at any second. It was not a game. When one died, that person would never be resurrected.

"I agree with what Garth said," Maggie suddenly quipped. Her face was doleful and her eyes had narrowed with self-reflection. By accident, she happened to know some things about Edgar's past. She knew that when Edgar was the Sharp Blade Commando's captain, a first sergeant, who was planning to retire, had died for him.

'At the moment that he saw his brother die in front of him, he might have felt such pain that he didn't even realize it was called pain,' she thought sadly.

Full of sorrow, she snuck a glance at Edgar, who was talking to Daniel regarding something she couldn't hear. Then she focused on her bowl and quietly ate her food.

"Hey." Edith got worried when she saw Maggie's saddened look and she poked at Garth, cuing him to look at Maggie with a nod of her head.

Garth turned his head, but he didn't say anything to console her. He simply said, "Hurry up eating. Though we are not joining them in this drill, who knows whether the captain will give us any extra tasks to do?" Finding Garth's words to be sensible, they stopped chatting and focused on eating. Maggie, however, still looked in Edgar's direction.

Edgar, while talking with Daniel, would scan in Maggie's direction from time to time. He had noticed that she would occasionally fix her eyes on him, but he didn't look into her eyes and pretended that he didn't notice. He was saying to Daniel, "Although Maggie has been in the patient ward with me these past few days, she wasn't just wasting her time there. She had passed on the relevant research materials to Cathy. Talk to Cathy later and do a test. If the results can really lengthen the effective shooting range, it's going to be our secret weapon."

"In fact, Maggie and the other students have been training with the Falcon. They may not be able to keep up with the training intensity of the Falcon, but they have been working really hard." Daniel glanced in their direction. "It's going to be a waste to put them into the director department. I believe this drill is going to benefit them a lot."

"The senior military officer has his considerations," Edgar sighed, also saddened to loose promising candidates. "Later I will talk to the commissar and see if they can join the Blue Force as a backup force."

"That's a good idea." Daniel grinned and continued, "I'll find Cathy now. If the research works, I will get the Falcon familiar with the new weapons."

Edgar nodded with acknowledgement and Daniel left. After having a few quick bites, Edgar also left to find the commissar. Despite Edgar's assurance the commissar did not feel completely reassured that there wouldn't be any problems. He was still reluctant to agree. After all, the students had only been trained for a mere seven months. Although they had received their training in the Eagle Special Brigade, the commissar was still not fully convinced.

"Sir," Edgar said in a serious tone, "It's only a drill. The bullets are replaced with blanks which will only activate the laser receiver's smoke. Even if they get captured, they will be in a controlled environment led by the Red Force. The most they would do is keep them in a special prison. There is going to be no chance of real harm." Edgar paused strategically to give the commissar some time to ponder it over and added, "What if they face danger in the future? Then that will be the real thing instead of a drill."

Upon hearing this, the commissar frowned as he stared at Edgar.

"A student soldier, is still a soldier," Edgar added, continuing to persuade the commissar.

"Give me some time," the commissar finally replied. It was a rather hard decision to make. After all, the order which he had received was that the student soldiers were to be assigned to the director team. If he violated the rules of the drill, who would be there to bear the consequences? Even though he wasn't really scared of bearing the responsibility, it was more than that.

In the army, an order was more important than everything else. To disobey an order was the last thing that a soldier should do. It was inconceivable to even consider doing so. D