Chapter 1
In the working world, everyone eventually encounters at least one superior they feel a violent urge to beat to a pulp.
For the proud soldier of Ivanes, Chloe Amboise, such a superior was an infuriating reality.
“Is this even a life…?” Chloe muttered under her breath.
It was the height of summer, two in the afternoon. The sunlight blazed down relentlessly on the training grounds of the Royal Guard, the elite unit directly under the command of the Ivanes Royal Army.
About forty guardsmen were planted face-first in the dirt. They were in full gear, rifles slung over their bodies.
In short, they were being smoked. A few of them, sweating profusely with their hands clasped behind their backs, grumbled quietly.
“You knew life under Brigadier General Berk wasn’t worth living, right?”
“Ugh, I swear I am definitely escaping the Guard during the next transfer.”
The Royal Guard was an elite unit where only the most skilled and high-born knights gathered. How did these personnel, possessing both high dignity and honor, end up in such a wretched state?
The reason was absurdly simple.
It was because Chloe Amboise’s superior, Curtis Sean Berk, was a crazy bastard.
Originally, the Guard was practicing for a dress parade in preparation for the upcoming diplomatic event with the Kingdom of Glintland. The problem, as always, lay with the 1st and 2nd Squads, who were constantly at each other’s throats.
Their respective leaders, Georges and Ezra, had started picking at each other, and the situation had naturally devolved.
“Poor discipline. Collective responsibility. Commence service inspection.”
With those few words, their highest superior, Grand Duke and Brigadier General Curtis Sean Berk, had slammed every one of their faces into the dirt. That had been an hour ago.
One might argue that soldiers don’t need a special reason to get punished in the army, but Chloe felt truly wronged.
Because technically, Chloe was off duty today.
Which meant she had no reason to be at work.
However, she had been pulling overnight shifts for the past two days to finish tasks the Brigadier General had assigned her. She had intended to submit the report materials, which she barely finished around lunchtime, and then go home.
But the Brigadier General, who she’d expected to find on the training grounds, was nowhere to be seen. As her temper flared, she’d stumbled upon Georges and Ezra in the middle of their childish squabble.
“It’s because of you two fighting like this that I can’t go home! Get it together, will you? Do you want to get chewed out by the Brigadier General again?”
She had only meant to scold them.
“I heard Warrant Officer Amboise’s comment about ‘getting chewed out again’ loud and clear. The Warrant Officer shall join her comrades for service inspection.”
Why did Brigadier General Berk have to appear at that exact moment?
Chloe’s vision blurred; she had been enduring this punishment for an hour with clock-out time dangling right in front of her nose.
Hey.
You crazy bastard.
Please let me go home…
Or rather. Forget clocking out, just discharge me.
“Please, just let me get discharged…” she breathed into the dust.
The words slipped out in her exhaustion, not expecting a reply. But to her astonishment, a reply came.
“It’s a shame, Warrant Officer Amboise.”
Chloe’s eyes shot open. A low voice, one she knew all too well, drilled down from right above her head. A chill ran down her spine, as if someone had doused her fading consciousness with ice water.
“But a discharge is out of the question.”
Chloe gritted her teeth. Someone, please, tell me this is a dream.
“Warrant Officer Amboise. Did you not hear me?”
In the next moment, she sprang up like an automaton and saluted.
“Yes, sir! I, Chloe Amboise, have clearly heard the words of Brigadier General Curtis Sean Berk.”
The man standing arrogantly before her, hands clasped behind his back, scoffed.
Curtis Sean Berk.
The devastatingly handsome, blond man who could charm anyone. He was the infamous Brigadier General Berk, Chloe’s superior, and the Grand Duke of Ivanes. The current king’s half-brother and the nation’s most revered hero, who had led them to victory in over ten major battles.
And…
A crazy bastard.
Of course, ‘crazy bastard’ was something of a nickname. One that the soldiers of the Royal Army under Brigadier General Berk would grind their teeth over and call him affectionately.
And that very crazy bastard smirked at Chloe in this moment.
A cold sweat trickled down her spine.
When did he even get here? He should have made some noise.
There was a saying every new recruit to the Royal Guard learned on their first day.
‘If Brigadier General Berk is expressionless, you’re either screwed, or you’re not. But if Brigadier General Berk is annoyed, you’re screwed. And if Brigadier General Berk smiles, you are well and truly fucked.’
I am definitely fucked.
The well-and-truly-fucked Chloe attempted to volunteer for more suffering. “I will take responsibility for my lack of courtesy toward Your Highness and conduct a service inspection for another thirty minutes right here!”
“Service inspection” was code for punishment. I’d rather just die today, she thought grimly. If I die of heatstroke here, at least my family will get a pension.
Chloe squeezed her eyes shut and bent to press her face to the ground again. But just as she was about to bid farewell to her scalp health, her superior waved a dismissive hand.
“I understand your desire to set an example for your subordinate soldiers, Warrant Officer. Rise.”
“Pardon?” Chloe, who was just about to kneel, hesitated.
Curtis frowned, his expression clearly asking, Do I have to repeat myself?
She flinched and scrambled to her feet. In the brief moment she straightened up, a whirlwind of thoughts tore through her mind. Is he planning to hang me today as an example? Some might call her paranoia excessive, but any member of the Royal Guard would have agreed it was a valid concern.
Curtis Sean Berk was precisely that kind of bastard.
A workaholic, neat freak, rude beyond measure, who habitually punished his subordinates for the slightest infraction. Some days, it felt like they received more punishments than meals.
They couldn’t even rebel. In the military, rank is absolute power, and this man was a Brigadier General and a Grand Duke.
And that was exactly why Chloe became Curtis’s aide in the first place.
Before she arrived, the bastard had gone through twenty adjutants in a single year. The situation was so dire that Chloe, a former Navy officer, had been lured over with the promise of a 400 percent incentive.
Dear God, can’t I please be the twenty-first adjutant to quit? she prayed.
It was impossible. In exchange for that 400 percent incentive, Chloe had signed a contract with a clause stating she would “serve a mandatory term of two years as Curtis Sean Berk’s adjutant.” She should have known better than to sign a contract so carelessly.
“Warrant Officer Amboise.”
“Yes, sir!” Chloe answered, her voice crisp with military discipline, carefully masking her urge to rip the contract to shreds.
Brigadier General Berk issued his order without preamble. “You will assist me at the royal diplomatic banquet tonight. The Duchess of Glintland will be in attendance.”
“Pardon? But sir, today I’m…” She nearly blurted out, But sir, I’m off-duty today! She reflexively bit her tongue and forced out a different reply. “Am I truly worthy of assisting you at such an event, sir?”
A sharp retort flew back.
“Are you defying authority right now?”
“I beg your pardon?”
At Chloe’s reflexive answer, Curtis’s violet eyes narrowed. Chloe answered frantically.
“Forgive me, Your Highness. I do not have a banquet dress…”
Curtis’s face shifted to a look that implied she was pathetic.
“What use would it be for a Warrant Officer to wear a dress there? Did you take a bullet to the head?”
I should have just said I’m off duty today.
“Are you saving your Royal Guard dress uniform to rot?”
She could hear the suppressed snickering of Georges and Ezra behind her. Those jerks. Chloe gritted her teeth, smiled brightly, and saluted.
“Yes, sir! I will comply.”
Curtis clicked his tongue.
“Be at my residence by 6 PM in your Guard dress uniform.”
“Yes, sir!”
“And.”
The man narrowed his eyes, then reached out and swiped Chloe’s sweat-drenched forehead. Just as Chloe flinched, the man annoyedly pulled out a handkerchief, wiped his hand on it, and spoke.
“Fortunately, there is no stench.”
“Pardon?”
“Still, make sure to wash up before coming.”
“…Yes, sir.”
Chloe answered a beat late. Then she clamped her lips shut.
I want to hit that bastard just once. I’d sell my soul for it.
Of course, she never thought such a thing would actually be possible. As she’d reminded herself, in the military, rank was paramount, and that man was a Grand Duke.
But life rarely goes as planned. And so, Chloe unexpectedly got the opportunity to smack the back of her superior’s head.
And on that very evening, no less.
However, she just never imagined the price would be her own marriage.