The soldiers straightened their backs again. No matter how reluctant they were, under Jonah’s gaze, they could only shout against their will, “Lieutenant General Valor, we apologize!”
Raven’s sharp gaze swept over the soldiers, her tone neutral, “You should thank General Yardley. Otherwise, your names would have been removed from the military roster.”
The nine were stunned, thinking, ‘Removed from the military roster? What does that mean?‘ The next moment, they recalled the crazy ass words they had just heard, the order to assemble within ten seconds or get out of the military.
The nine looked at Raven like she’d just grown a second head. ‘The hell is this kid on?‘ they all thought. ‘We bled for Vyrdenia! We damn near died out there!
‘And now this little punk thinks she can just waltz in here and kick us out with one sentence? Who does she think she is? Just because we call her Lieutenant General Valor, she thinks she’s hot shit?
‘Girl, please. Even if she really made it to lieutenant rank, at her age, she’d be a damn second lieutenant at best. Meanwhile, every single one of us has been at least a Captain.
‘We’ve seen war, we’ve earned our stripes, and she–this brat–thinks she can tell us to get lost? She’s out of her goddamn mind!‘
Raven swept her gaze over them, immediately picking up on their thoughts. She raised an eyebrow and chuckled. “Oh? Not happy about it?”
The tanned soldier took a step forward again, standing straight, shoulders squared, voice crisp and unwavering, “Yes, Ma’am! We are happy about it! You’re here to run our pre–training, so of course, we follow orders!”
Jonah narrowed his eyes. The sarcasm in that answer was thick enough to cut with a knife.
However, Raven suddenly smiled. ‘Damn,‘ she thought. ‘How long has it been since someone in the force had the balls to talk to me like this?‘
Her gaze swept over the group again, lips curving into a slow smile. But something about that smile sent an icy chill down their spines.
But she didn’t say anything to the nine of them. Instead, she turned to Jonah. “General Yardley, you can leave these great heroes to me. You get busy.”
Jonah gave the soldiers a worried look, then said a silent prayer for them in his heart. He nodded respectfully to Raven and turned to leave.
As soon as Jonah disappeared from sight, the soldiers all let out a collective breath, their stiff postures instantly relaxing.
“Jesus, thought we were dead for a second there.”
“Yeah, thank God we didn’t piss off General Yardley. That would’ve been bad.”
“Props to Captain, though. Dude didn’t even hesitate before sucking it up and apologizing to that girl. That probably saved our asses.”
“Man’s got nerves of steel. Knows exactly when to eat shit in front of the brass.”
Caleb looked at the nine who completely ignored Raven, looking way too pleased with himself. ‘Oh, this is gold,‘ he thought. ‘This chick didn’t even bother to have Jonah tell them her rank.
Now that he’s gone, even if she claims she’s a general, no one’s gonna believe her, Seriously, how the hell did someone this dumb end up with that title?”
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