Chapter 1403: Prologue (Part 1)

There was never any social interaction between Fritz and Jansen Cornelius.

Fritz came from a poor family in a small village called Nise, thanks to the strong educational enthusiasm of The Federated Provinces Army, he had the opportunity to study.

Jansen Cornelius hailed from a top banking family in Guidao City. Even if he did not join the military, his future would still be bright.

During their time at the Military Academy, one was the lowest-ranked private cadet, while the other was the decisive Colonel Head.

After graduation, Fritz was an inconspicuous Centurion in the National Guard—a second-tier unit—while Jansen Cornelius was the de facto principal of the Army Officer Academy with extremely high social status.

Even though both were participants and executors of the “revolution”, they never had a conversation in the same room because they occupied completely different levels in this so-called “revolution”.

That is to say, there was no personal friendship between the two.

However, when Fritz sat in that chair, he naturally assumed the role of the one being questioned, even he himself was somewhat surprised by this.

Cornelius returned to his seat behind his carved desk, opened a drawer, and asked without looking up, “How is the work in the War History Department?”

“Very well, sir.” Fritz instinctively replied.

“Very well?” Cornelius raised an eyebrow and stared at Fritz: “Do you plan to continue doing it forever?”

Fritz was silent for a moment; then he answered with restraint: “No, sir. But if this is what’s planned for me, I can continue doing it.”

Cornelius nodded slightly, but from his serious expression, Fritz could hardly discern whether this nod represented approval or indifference.

“Reading more war history won’t hurt.” Cornelius seriously educated Fritz: “It’s someone else who wrote the war history poorly.”

After that, Cornelius took out a file folder from the drawer, which had no external markings on its appearance, and placed it in front of the former cadet across the desk.

Fritz noticed that the drawer opened by the former Head Colonel contained many similar file folders with no external markings.

However, the latter not only did not open it to examine it but also did not search for it, simply pulled out the folder and handed it over.

Fritz was completely unable to discern whether the other party randomly pulled out one to give to him or was already familiar enough with this file folder that he wouldn’t take the wrong one without looking.

“Have a look at this.” Cornelius commanded succinctly: “Tell me your thoughts.”

Fritz picked up the file folder, opened it, and pulled out the document inside, surprised to find that what he held was actually a student record from the Army Officer Academy.

He immediately wanted to check the name and student ID, but the part containing this information on the cover, along with the first page recording the cadet’s basic information, was folded.

He wanted to open the folds but was stopped by the former Head Colonel.

“First, look at the content and tell me your thoughts.” Cornelius commanded: “Then look at the name.”

Fritz didn’t understand whether this was an exam or if the other party wanted to convey some information to him.

Now, he could only look at the file first.

He nodded, directly flipping to the second page of the file.

A table appeared before him, with the writing on the left side fairly neat, listing subjects and scores, and the handwriting on the right very sloppy, with some boxes simply blank—a record of one academic year’s general education courses grade.

Fritz first took a quick look at the grades:

[Mathematics 1][A-]

[Rhetoric 1][A]

[Geometry 1][A+]

[Law][C]

[Old Language 1][B+]

[Ancient Language 1][C]

[…]

After quickly scanning through his somewhat blurred memory, Fritz confirmed that the file he held was not his own.

Whose file was this then?

Fritz could only continue to look further.

He initially planned to discern some clues through the teachers’ comments in the table, but the teachers’ comments were extremely lazy.

The comment for one year’s mathematics course only read [acceptable], geometry’s comment was just a circle, while law and rhetoric were entirely blank.

Only old language and ancient language had a whole sentence, but it spanned two boxes, written across the dividing line—if memory serves, these two courses were taught by the same teacher.

Fritz exerted quite a bit of effort to identify what those flamboyantly cursive words said: “Too lazy, need to practice diligently!”

Fritz found no effective information, so he could only keep reading.

The second page contained the military science courses for one academic year, clearly much better than the general education ones.

Fritz quickly flipped a few pages forward, skimming through them.

Regardless of whether it was the first year, second year, or third year, the military science grades of the dossier’s subject were consistently better than the general education grades.

However, this didn’t signify anything, as almost all cadets from The Federated Provinces had similar tendencies.

Further on were awards, punishments, and other miscellaneous items, with very little content.

There were no punishments, whether due to good luck or being very obedient.

Three commendations were listed, all for winning second place in the school-wide Longsword swordsmanship competition [Cadet Group].

Fritz was somewhat speechless and carefully recalled, confirming that the other party was neither a contemporary nor a fellow junior or senior of his.

If there were such a person among his contemporary or junior or senior colleagues, it would be impossible for him not to have any impression at all.

He continued flipping through the pages, until finally reaching the graduate evaluation section, where he found some more valuable information.

The first page of the evaluation section was scrawled with:

[Determined will, strong character, if favored by fate, will surely achieve great things.]