The Legendary F Rank

"Uh…" Jake stuttered nervously as he looked towards Haru yet again for help. He didn't want to be the one to admit it since it wasn't his secret to share in the first place.

"Come on. How long have we been friends? Do you really think that I would tell anyone? I knew that you were both strong, but from what happened today, I am starting to question just how much you guys have been holding back.

Before I passed out, Haru and I spotted an S rank mage who was leading the enemy forces. I was about to attack him, but Haru pulled me back, and the next thing I knew, I woke up on the ship without any injuries, and there wasn't any news of an S rank mage being spotted anywhere in the area.

And as for you, Jake. I was told that you defeated around thirty soldiers alone in a single strike from a fireball. I might not know exactly what happened, but there's no doubt in my mind that you are both hiding your strength. But for what reason?" Captain Liegan explained before asking again. 

Jake gulped as he was found out. It wasn't that he wanted to hide his strength. He just never found an opportunity to use it, and he wasn't the type of person to show off, so his real power went undetected. 

But as for Haru, he had a deeper secret to keep. Although she knew that he was hiding his strength, she didn't know that he was a cultivator, so he didn't feel worried as he answered her question first.

"I never claimed that I couldn't use any other magic. When I enlisted, the examiners just assumed that I was a body enhancing mage, so I just went with it. But since there's no point in trying to keep it from you, then I should probably tell you that I know a lot of strong magic and don't just specialise in one thing. I just didn't want any extra responsibilities pushed on to me, so I never mentioned it." Haru replied as he was confident that his explanation wouldn't cause any more suspicion, but Jake was still nervous that she would be able to see through him.

"You little bastard… Just when I finally thought that I found someone in the same boat as me, you turn out to be a fake. You don't even specialise in body enhancing magic, and you still managed to avoid all of my attacks and only let me win to save face.

I guess I need to work a lot harder." Captain Liegan said as she sounded a little angry before accepting that she lacked in her training if she couldn't beat Haru, but that couldn't be any further from the truth.

"Then wait about you? Why are you hiding your strength? Don't tell me you're lazy and don't want extra responsibilities too?" Captian Liegan asked with a smirk as she looked back at Jake, who had yet to answer her question.

"Well, I- I just never had the opportunity to show my real strength. When training back at base, I never went against someone who was strong enough for me to use my full power, so I didn't. I don't want to hurt someone needlessly." Jake said with a stutter as he told her the real reason why he never showed off his abilities.

"I see. Well, that makes sense. And there are no rules that state that you are supposed to show your full strength at all. But it would have been nice to know that you were both a lot stronger than you claim to be. I feel kind of bad for using my rank to order you around when I'm obviously not as strong as you guys." Captain Liegan said with a sigh as she looked at the two of them for a moment before Haru spoke up again. 

"Your rank or qualifications have nothing to do with your strength or power. You have your rank because you have the skill and patience required to lead. If something goes wrong, you know how to deal with it and make things right. Those are things that make you a great leader. 

I don't care about strength. You have proven yourself to be worth following into battle, so that's what I will do. The same can't be said for the other two guys from earlier—especially the one who tried to take over the camp. An oppressive leader is the worst kind. 

They're likely to sacrifice other people for their own survival. Even if he ordered it and used his rank, I wouldn't follow him anywhere." Haru said as he tried to cheer her up so she wouldn't feel too bad about not being able to compare to Haru or Jake in strength. 

But it was to be expected of a normal soldier. Jake was from a military family and went to the most prestigious school in the country to learn to become a mage. And Haru had the experience from his previous life as the strongest mage and his current cultivation level. There was hardly anyone who could compare to Jake and even less who could compare to Haru.

'I don't think she would tell anyone about me. But even so, I don't want to needlessly tell people about me being a cultivator. That is something that I don't want leaking at any cost.' Haru thought as he looked at her for a few moments as she took a while to reply. 

"You really think of me like that?" Captain Liegan asked as she seemed a little surprised by what Haru had just said.

"Of course. The whole unit knows you are a great leader. Why do you think they would put up with you beating them during training if they didn't respect you? There's only so much you can scare someone before they go insane.

Yet, not a single one of them has tried to kill you regardless of how much you beat them up or shouted at them for not following orders. They all respect you even if they do like to make jokes about you being the devil." Haru said with a chuckle as he tried to make her understand what he meant.

"I- I don't know what to say. I thought that most of them hated me. But when you put it like that, I guess it does make sense." Captian Liegan said as she felt a little sad to know that she didn't realise how they all felt about her sooner.

She never thought that she did anything special to earn their respect, and she shouted at them quite often, but that wasn't a big deal to any of them since they could see that she cared about them and was only trying to make sure that they were prepared for the day they would go to battle. Yet, no one thought that it would come so soon. 

"The whole war thing hasn't really set in yet. It feels more like a training exercise. I guess everyone is scared right now, aren't they? They don't know whether or not they will make it out of this alive and see their families again.

I don't know why but I didn't think about it until now. Thank you, Haru. I don't know if I ever would have realised this if you didn't bring it up. I think I have an idea to make everyone relax. I don't want them to remain scared if I can do something about it." Captain Liegan said as an idea came to her mind as she thought about the other soldiers.

"You do? Well, what is it?" Haru asked as Jake's eyes also widened in anticipation. 

"You will just have to wait and see. I don't want to ruin the surprise." Captain Liegan said as her mood changed drastically and she was now motivated to do something for her unit to ease everyone's nerves.

"Did you just get upset about us keeping things from you? Now you're doing the same." Jake said as he felt robbed of information since he willingly told her why he kept his strength a secret. 

"Well, this is different. I plan to tell you about it right before it happens." Captain Liegan said before walking off into the distance.

"What do you think that was about?" Jake asked as he turned back to see Haru smiling. Since they had arrived in China, Jake didn't see Haru smile at all. In fact, it seemed like he was hurting. But at that moment, as he watched Captain Liegan walk away, Jake saw something he didn't expect.

'I'm glad that there are still people like her in the army. She reminds me of my old unit leader during the great war. I wonder if she is still alive today?' Haru thought as he didn't know much about the people that were around during his previous life, but they would probably be in their sixties or seventies, so he never thought about reaching out to them.

But as he judged the state of the military, he couldn't help but think about his final night alive when his commanding officer had invited him for a drink at headquarters only to end up dying afterwards. 

'I sure hope that you didn't betray me back then, Torus.' Haru thought as he desperately wanted to know what happened to him before he died since he knew that the government said he had died in battle and they never recovered his body. But Haru knew for a fact that he died while back in Japan and that they had lied to the public about it.