FFF-Tier System, SSS-Rank Wife

***Capital City of Plenaria Empire, Second Army Training Grounds***

"Faster!"

The drill sergeant's screams carried through the air, reaching every single corner of the massive, open space of the training field.

"Faster, you scum!"

Over and over again, the group of fresh recruits continued to lap around the field.

Each lap, nearly two miles long.

And with less than a week's worth of stamina-building exercises, this simplest of their training easily became known as the hellish race.

A hellish race that they all had to complete twice in the morning and then twice at the end of their daily training, lest they wanted to continue their struggle well into the night.

"Faster!" the drill sergeant screamed, his face telling everyone just how little he thought about all of them.

'Summoned heroes my ass,' the man thought, gritting his teeth at the thought of all the privileges those slackers would be afforded just by the benefit of being summoned from other worlds.

Sure, they each came with an above-average system. And while there were some with measly ranks of their destined fates, there were also outliers with destinies as strong as S or even double S rank!

That, however, had nothing to do with those people themselves. It was merely the limit of talent they were born with. And all of them, with just one or two exceptions, had hardly any stamina to work with!

Which is why Ume, the drill sergeant of the Second Army training camp, had to bear the brunt of turning these trashes into people.

'I'm really not getting paid enough for this,' Ume thought, watching how those damned otherworlders continued to struggle with this easy exercise.

They were so bad, in fact, he had to separate them from the batch of the fresh local recruits not to let their bad influence affect the actual soldiers!

"Ume!"

A familiar voice called out for the man. Before he would turn his face away from the struggling kids, though…

"Keep going, or tonight you will go to sleep for a dinner!"

Ume shook his head, trying to rid himself of the disgust he had left in his mouth after merely watching those jokes of humans.

'Just how could they ever let themselves go so much? How could they live their lives never even knowing the limits of their bodies, not to speak about growing so damn fat and lazy?'

He gritted his teeth, trying not to let his emotions get to him.

It's been a week since he was assigned to work with them. In other words, he had the time to calm down and grow accustomed to the sad reality.

The supposed heroes summoned to change the fate of their once glorious country… were, at best, an example of what will happen to a man if they lack discipline and never work hard for a single damn day in their entire life!

An example to shame slackers with, rather than an example for the actual soldiers to follow!

"Ume! You damned bastard, stop pretending you can't hear me!"

Finally, Ume turned his head only to bite down on his bottom lip and then execute a poorly mannered bow.

If it was anyone else, they would easily earn themselves an honest flogging if they dared to present such an unsightly bow to the country's second prince.

Ume, however, didn't care in the slightest.

After what he went through, a flogging would amount to no more than a nice massage for his stiff and sore muscles.

He was a fair man, after all. And the only reason why he stood still while his recruits continued to run was because he had completed a total of ten laps before those trashes even dragged themselves over to the running track!

His status as the seventh prince of the kingdom also allowed him some leeway, one which he vehemently refused to accept.

"What seems to be the problem, my prince?" Ume lowered himself down to one knee and then lowered his head in an actual respectful bow.

Today, the second prince appeared bearing the insignia of the Second Army rather than his royal status. In other words, he wasn't here as a delegate of the crown, someone for whom Ume didn't have an iota of respect. No, with those insignia, he transformed into a higher charge, a nameless person Ume would unquestionably obey and respect.

After all, with the insignia of the two spears crossing pinned on the man's chest, he was no longer a person but an extension of the Second Army's will and future.

"I've heard of your struggle with the newbies," Donovan, the second prince and the Vice of the Second Army, waved Ume off, allowing the man to rise.

"They are a tough material to work with, Vice!" Ume rose up only to stiffen up while standing at attention, looking above the man's head as if not daring to look upon the Vice's head. "But I shall mold them into proper warriors nonetheless! All shall be according to the Second Army's fate!"

"I'm not here for them," Donovan countered with a shake of his bearded, yet perfectly well-groomed head. "I'm here to bring you the news. Two days ago, the Kharan Fortress fell."

Ume froze on the spot.

Then, his eyes moved down, slowly inching closer and closer, all the way to when he looked his Vice directly in the eye.

"Is that true and tested?"

Donovan closed his eyes before slowly nodding his head.

Those news were heavy for both of them. And while for reasons that couldn't be any further apart from each other, both men had little to no other choice but to endure them.

Donovan, as the Vice of the Second Army, bore the brunt of the shame of his soldiers failing at their task, along with all the burdens of writing to the families of the fallen soldiers, providing the compensation from the already strained army fund, organizing the new recruitments to fill in for the now empty ranks…

For Ume, however, those news were a lot more personal.

The garrison of the Kharan Fortress was a unit he originally hailed from, after all, recalled only once he advanced through the ranks high enough that said fortress, as strategically important as it was, could no longer provide him with the tasks befitting his station.

For Donovan, this loss was a logistical, strategical and political nightmare.

For Ume, however, it meant a loss of the people he considered to be his brothers more than the men he shared ties of blood with.

"Is that all?" Gritting his teeth, Ume asked. He then raised his head and pushed his eyes up above Donovan's face, keeping to the protocol of how a high-ranking officer was to interact with an army's Vice.

"Officially, yes," contrary to his younger brother, Donovan could afford to bend the protocol a bit. "Unofficially, I come bearing warning for the future," he said only to turn on his heel and look due north, where the thick, black clouds continued to gather, as if to spell the disaster in the making that only waited to spill through the kingdom's defense lines and wreak havoc through the crown's hinterlands.

"With the fall of Kharan, Primaris decided to speed up the schedule. And that leaves you with just three more months to shape them…" Donovan looked over at the field, where a bunch of young adults struggled to complete a single lap, a feat even capital teenagers could complete with ease, "to shape them into something worth the armor we will put them in."

Donovan then heaved a deep sigh and shook his head, only to look his younger brother directly in the face.

"Can you do it, Quadre?"

Ume stood at attention the moment his official officer's title came up.

This was no longer a question from his older brother, but a question of a Vice directed to the fourth highest officer of the entire Second Army.

"Yes, Vice!" Ume shouted in response, his body tensing up as if he wanted to pierce the heavens with his chest, "It shall be done, Vice!"

Then, without waiting to be dismissed, Ume relaxed right as he turned to face the struggling otherworlders again,

"Faster, you filthy scum!" he screamed out from the bottom of his lungs, already running towards the stragglers of the group with a whip in his hand, "If you don't want to get whipped, get your filthy ass moving!"