That Time an American was Reincarnated into Another World

Tana was awake and Feiden had arrived in the Capitol. Although Tana would need to go back to her parents estate to check in, she would be coming right back. 

There wasn’t much time until graduation, but we wouldn’t actually need to attend. Apparently, all of the fourth years who survived were having issues even if they didn’t gaze upon Anarchy, so going to a graduation ceremony wasn’t in the cards. 

They would simply send us a nice certificate stating that we had graduated along with a display of all our accolades and achievements. Our identification cards would also be updated to display the fact that we were alumni. 

All of that hardly mattered now though; only 6 weeks after the graduation was official, we would ship off to basic training. 

They weren’t wasting any time. It wouldn’t be long before I was a military man. It was strangely ironic that I, the American, would be joining a force other than the US military.

Well, we had all already experienced military life and were generally adapted to it. Now, after some training that would mold us into what the Kingdom wanted, we would be living that life every day for the next several years. 

I didn’t have any hopes of ending my contract soon. Apparently, those that came out of the Magisterium were automatically contracted to serve for 12 years. The Kingdom was under constant threat, so they didn’t have any room for short-term contracts. It took time for Magi to become strong, and due to their greatly increased lifespan, they had plenty of time and energy to give. The Kingdom had no qualms taking advantage of that.

I understood why. It was just an unfortunate reality here. My only issue was how I would go about dealing with the people.

The night after we met up with Tana and Feiden, all of us decided to go out for a nice dinner. Tana wasn’t leaving just yet so we would all have one more day together as a squad. We all promised to meet the next morning. In fact, they would be coming to my hotel room. 

For now, I was hanging around the room with Umara. I stood by the glass, staring out at the sunset-illuminated streets of the city with my fancy eyeballs. Those posters of me that sprang up after the Magisterium Tournament were all gone now, the usual assorted advertisements and notices of Capitol life having replaced them. 

My mind was on the military though. I could only sigh, thinking that it would be more  years of trying to keep myself safe from my fellow humans. 

“I am not looking forward to this.”

“The military?”

“Mm. More bullshit politics, more angry old assholes I’ll have to dodge. Question is, how am I supposed to keep myself safe? I barely survived a year. How am I supposed to get through a dozen?”

“It’s not going to be the same. The military isn’t the Magisterium.”

Umara set down her book, looking up from the couch. 

“The Magisterium is full of a bunch of immature children that have yet to really experience what it’s like to fight for their lives. Elites and fourth years are only a bit better off due to their greater experience with missions and combat. But it’s a fact that the military does a good job of beating that out of them, even the noble children. There’s a chain of command that can’t be flaunted. Sure, there’s plenty of nepotism, but remember your own words on who keeps the nobles in check.”

“The Scourge does that.”

“Exactly. We’re in a state of constant war, now even more critical with Anarchy on the loose. Nobles have little time to deal with their petty and dramatic children because they’re needed on the battlefield. Even more than that, they can’t go around sabotaging their fellow soldiers because that directly reduces our ability to fight the Scourge. If there’s too much infighting, we’ll collapse. They know that, so they’re forced to bend. If a noble child comes and tries to oppress a higher ranking officer, they’ll get their teeth kicked in, and they’ll have nobody to blame except themselves. Of course, there are limits and exceptions, but that’s generally how it is.”

“...”

I rubbed my chin in thought. 

“So if I’m the same rank as a noble child…”

“You two will be equal. They can’t do anything to you, nor can their parents. Chances are, you’ll be underneath my mother. If anybody does anything to you unjustly, there will be hell to pay. There are rules in the military and they aren’t loose like those at the Magisterium. Once again, without order, we fall. You’ll prove yourself to be valuable in short order, and with that charm of yours, I have a feeling you’ll be just fine in the military.”

“Hm, hope so. Anything better than how things were at the Magisterium is acceptable to me. You’re my next concern though. What about your marriage? Won’t they keep trying to get me out of your life?”

“No. At least, not nearly as much.”

She shook her head. 

“The reason they were trying to marry me off so quickly was precisely because of the military. There’s no time for marriage negotiations and courting, our full focus is on fighting and growing. And children aren’t that valuable unless the parents who have them are at the ends of their talent anyways.”

“So why was your marriage such a big deal now? Wouldn’t it be customary to wait until after the military?”

“Because they wanted to lock me in. A lot of things can happen during one's service, and they don’t like to risk any potential love affairs. So they marry us off while at the Magisterium. And then the military is just a decade or two of fighting. A married couple may not see each other for years during that time, but since they’re already married, when the time comes to continue the bloodline, there are no arguments to be made even if they have different thoughts.”

“So it just minimizes variables.”

“That, and it opens up the alliance. If I got married right now, even though I wouldn't have children for a decade, the husband’s family could start working with the Talerria household. That means business acquisitions and political favors. It’s a decade’s worth of profit to be made before even considering children. There are more than enough reasons to make it happen now.”

“And we fended them off.”

I smiled. It seemed like I pissed some people off a lot more than I realized. 

Umara nodded. 

“Yes, we managed to hold off until we could be safe. But we still can’t do anything right now. If we were to suddenly talk about getting married, all those issues would pop right back up and they’d be coming at you full force. That stuff isn't even supposed to cross my mind in the military, so we’ll need to act like that’s true.”

“So we wouldn’t be able to get married for another 12 years at the least?”

“Correct.”

“That’s… a long time.”

I propped my chin up with my fist, eliciting a knowing smile from Umara.

“That’s exactly why I asked if you still wanted to wait. It would be a long time to wait.”

“... I’ll have to think about it. Wouldn’t there be a risk of having kids though? Or do you know the magic for that stuff?”

“I don’t know the magic yet since my affinities don’t align. But I’ve got things that do the same thing.”

“And the risk of someone finding out about Inception?”

“Well, given how powerful my Aura is now… Only the most powerful people I would come across would notice if they looked.”

“You mean the only ones that matter?”

“...”

“...”

We both stared at each other before she sighed. 

“I guess we have to wait.”

“Not necessarily that long. It’s not like they can watch us all the time. Eventually, we’ll get our chance.”

“Or we can just do it right now.”

“Y-You just said we have to wait!”

“Fuck that.”

“Girl, I outta-”

I stomped over and grabbed her leg, yanking her off the couch before throwing her over my shoulder and marching to our room. 

She squeaked when I threw her on the bed, her face already thoroughly flushed.

We stared at each other, both of us understanding exactly what was about to happen, the anticipation rising before shirts flew off.