Beyond the Zenith

“You have a chance at winning, but you don’t seem to care either way, so just think of it as winning one for me. Can you do that?” Mira asked, voice and gaze softening at the end.

She had already thrown away all pretense the moment she had turned back to chase after Han Qingyu, so she figured she would just commit to it. Her authority could always be rebuilt, and it wasn’t like she’d been building it for long, as she had only started trying earlier that day.

As she had caught Han Qingyu by the arm, the two of them were standing very close. Han Qingyu stared at her, gaze unmoving, until Mira felt uneasy.

Finally, he hesitantly opened his mouth. “Um...”

A greedy shamelessness briefly flashed in his eyes. Mira’s heart jumped, then a surge of irritation followed, and she hastily released his arm.

“Um,” he tried again, completely oblivious to her reaction. “Platoon Leader Mira... Do you have any savings? What I mean is, since the military doesn’t give out prize money, maybe we could work something out between ourselves...”

“Huh?” Mira was stunned.

“Never mind, just kidding. I’ll give it a shot.” Han Qingyu walked off, looking deflated.

Mira stood there, still frozen in shock. Was it really a joke? His expression had seemed too serious for that.

***

Dormitory 11 had caught wind of the two-way selection process for recruits leaving the boot camp, and a lot of things fell into place.

Mira’s situation, for instance. It was all but confirmed that she would become a platoon leader soon. She was here to form a new platoon, which meant she had come down to handpick, or rather recruit, her members.

Seen in this light, her strange behavior finally had an explanation—one that was admittedly a little absurd, but understandable.

So she was scheming this whole time... The group collectively sighed, but still found it impossible to dislike her for it.

“So Miss Mira really wasn’t interested in any of us after all?” Grave Robber remarked, his sigh echoing wistfully in the darkness.

Judging by the weight of his sigh, he had been dwelling on this for a while. He had a unique talent for delivering even the most ridiculous statements with utter sincerity. This time, though, everyone felt the genuine emotion behind his words.

“Yeah...”

It was a painful realization. Dormitory 11 wallowed in heartbreak at the shattered illusions for roughly two seconds...

Then the mood abruptly turned cheerful. Getting rejected together was far better than watching one lucky bastard among them succeed. That would have been truly unbearable.

Dormitory 11 was a jilted lovers’ alliance that night, though hardly a sorrowful one. After the laughter died down, each of them lay quietly in bed, lost in thought and unable to sleep.

“It doesn’t matter. I’m still going to train hard these next few days. No more slacking off for me,” Yang Qingbai said seriously.

“Yeah, me too.”

“Same here.”

A few voices agreed. Then silence returned.

“I really want to make Miss Mira happy,” Liu Shiheng suddenly said.

“Yeah.”

“She really has been trying so hard to train us.”

The conversation ended, and Dormitory 11 fell quiet again.

“We probably can’t win no matter how hard we try...” Grave Robber said after a moment. “I’m not saying I won’t try. I will. It’s just the result will probably be the same.”

“At least we can put on a better performance.”

“Yeah.”

Another brief silence.

“Someone clearly has a chance to win, but if he doesn’t even try...” Wen Jifei coughed pointedly and cleared his throat. “I’m sure that someone knows I’m talking about them, right? Don’t play dead, or I’ll tell everyone about all the embarrassing stuff you did in high school.”

Han Qingyu smiled to himself in the darkness. “Relax. I’ll do my best.”

His idea of “best” meant not tapping into the last traces of liquid source energy still inside him and relying only on his body’s physical capabilities.

“Alright then. Good luck, Little Qing.”

“Yeah, good luck. We’ll do our best not to embarrass the platoon leader either.”

Dormitory 11’s conversations that night continued in this way. They would say a few sentences, followed by an abrupt stop, though nobody actually fell asleep.

This time, the pause was a little longer.

“Platoon Leader Mira’s source energy integration level probably isn’t very high. It’s probably pretty average...” Yang Qingbai said quietly.

“Shh.” Seven voices shushed him at once.

In truth, they had all already guessed as much. It was evident from the rumors about her struggling to become a platoon leader. They could even see it in the way she handled a gun like a natural, yet told them she didn’t want them to become like her; her worries and dedication that bordered on excessive; the silly things she did out of fear that she wouldn’t find platoon members; her desperate need to prove herself...

They had all figured it out. They just didn’t want to say it, nor did they want to hear someone else say it either. Spelling it out felt cruel.

But now the can of worms had been opened.

“That’s probably why she’s trying so hard to recruit strong members. She’s most likely trying to reach out to veterans too. At the end of the day, it’s a battlefield. She has every reason to worry,” Wen Jifei said with uncharacteristic calm.

While he was walking back after dinner, Mira had gone out of her way to find him and apologize. He hadn’t expected it at all and had told her not to worry about it. After all, other instructors beat them up for no reason all the time. Mira refused his easy acceptance, saying that it was different and that she should have found a better way to explain the concepts of acceleration and restraint.

“But why does she want to be a platoon leader so badly? Honestly, with the casualty rate on the front lines, it’s not exactly a promotion worth celebrating. She’s a girl. Why is she pushing herself so hard?” Liu Shiheng asked, genuinely puzzled.

Nobody answered. Dormitory 11 stayed silent. None of them had an answer.

“Probably because of her brother,” said an unexpected voice from outside the dormitory door, abrupt yet calm.

It seemed Zhang Dao’an had been standing there for a while.

“Mira’s family has lived in the Oriental Republic for a long time... Her only older brother was killed in action on the front lines ten years ago, serving as a foreign-born platoon leader.”

With that, his footsteps faded into the distance.

***

The next morning, after Han Qingyu finished breakfast, a few people from higher up in the military came looking for him.

They went through the Supply Depot 700 incident again from beginning to end, pressing him for details. Afterward, they took his fingerprints.

Keeping Lao Jian’s earlier advice in mind, Han Qingyu held his tongue this time and didn’t bring up the matter of money as a reward.

“Oh, by the way. Second Lieutenant Mira Jo is your dormitory’s direct instructor now, correct?” an officer called out to Han Qingyu as he was about to leave, as though the question had just occurred to him.

Han Qingyu stopped and turned around. “That’s right.”

“How is she?” The officer smiled. “You’ve been with her for a while now. Do you personally think Second Lieutenant Mira is suited to become a platoon leader?”

Han Qingyu thought about it seriously for a moment, then looked up and said in a flat but certain voice, “She isn’t.”

This shocked the officer. “Oh? Do you two have... some conflict? Or do you think something is lacking in Second Lieutenant Mira’s character?”

Given Han Qingyu’s accomplishments, the officer seemed to place real weight on his opinion.

“No, she’s a good person. I believe that if she became a platoon leader, she’d be willing to give her life for her platoon members. In fact, everyone in Dormitory 11 is very fond of her.” Han Qingyu knew he was shattering Mira’s dream, yet he continued, “But I still don’t think she’s suited for it.”

The officer still seemed confused.

“I hope you’ll weigh your options carefully.” Han Qingyu paused. “It’s about being responsible for what happens on the front lines, and also out of consideration for Miss Mira’s life.”

After a moment of thought, the officer nodded slowly. “Alright. Go back to your training.”

Han Qingyu never told anyone about that conversation.