I Became a Genius Commander at the Academy - Chapter 1
EP.1
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When I opened the door and saluted, the interviewer said with a very sour expression on his face.
“Are you examinee number 17? I will start the interview now. Test takers, please take your seats.”
At the same time as I said that, I saluted the interviewer in front of me and made a formal statement.
“Testee number 17, Peter! All right!”
When I said that, he gave me a signal with his eyes to sit down.
The interviewer, who was wearing a black military uniform that looked like something out of a fantasy, looked like he was laughing or ignoring me when he realized that I was a commoner with no last name.
In the world of a fantasy novel, a commoner, even an orphan, was possessed and despised in this way several times, but he thought this was his last chance in life and hung on for dear life to be treated like this in an interview he barely managed to get.
It really sucks.
“Then I will ask you a question. Why on earth did you apply to the Imperial Academy?”
In my heart, I thought, ‘If I get kicked out of the orphanage with no money, I’ll end up freezing on the side of the road! ‘Fuck!’ I would like to answer that.
If I do that, I will be immediately rejected from the interview and I will miss my final opportunity.
“To serve the great Reich Empire and His Majesty the Emperor!”
When the interviewer heard that, he got tired of the obvious answers and said clearly that it was very annoying.
“Okay then, we will now begin the actual interview.”
As I was so nervous that I suppressed the moment of hiccuping, the interviewer opened his mouth and spoke.
“From now on, number 17 is to assume that you are a battalion commander in charge of a battalion and answer the given situation.”
From what I heard at first glance, I heard that nobles applying to the Imperial Academy are asked easy questions that appear in moral books, such as a soldier’s attitude and attitude, to increase the acceptance rate.
Even the easy interview questions are given to children of aristocrats who already receive expensive special training to prepare for the interview at the Imperial Academy, so passing is virtually theirs alone.
This is because, even though the path to becoming an imperial officer is open to everyone regardless of social status, as long as it is a country with a caste system, it is preferable for nobles to become commanders.
What is interesting is that despite this discrimination, at least 2-3% of commoners are included in each class due to the instructions of the first emperor.
The trap is that most of the commoners who come in like that are from wealthy merchant families who just need to raise their family status.
Obviously, only one orphan like me is admitted every 10 years.
Asking this question to an orphan who does not seem to have any knowledge about strategic command…
is essentially asking the interviewer to make sure he fails.
Other interviewees, when faced with a situation like this, will feel fear and stutter and ramble even if they know what they know, but for me… it’s a little different.
Because before I was possessed by another world, I had studied a lot about strategy and tactics and had it engraved in my mind.
In most cases, that person will be able to give a satisfactory answer.
“All right!”
“Okay, then I will roughly present the situation, so you can tell me what strategy you think is best. You are a battalion commander in the 1st Division, which has 8,000 soldiers, and is engaged in a battle with Francois’s army, which is the same size as the Republic’s. “Currently, both armies are fighting evenly. How will you give instructions when the Francois Battalion, which is engaged with your battalion, begins to be slowly destroyed?”
Although I have never met aristocratic young masters in my life, I can say for sure.
Since fighting here involves spears, swords, arrows, and a little bit of magic, noble masters who value honor and romantic battles will answer that they need to strengthen their offensive to gain major success.
Even the majority of commoners who have no knowledge of the skills or concepts necessary for command say, ‘We are winning, so we must strengthen our offensive.’ The answer will be .
The examiners will praise you for thinking well at the student’s level and give you a decent grade, but in my opinion, this is a wrong answer.
“Interviewer, before that, I would like to know how much discretion my battalion has.”
The interviewer in front of me answered with a hint of interest, as if he was surprised that a single orphan mentioned the commander’s discretion.
“Of course, you can attack more aggressively at the discretion of the commander, or you can retreat if you think the trend is unfavorable.”
Since I checked my authority like this, the answer up to this point would be considered a pretty good answer.
It would be very difficult to pass the exam by covering my status and low written score like this.
“Thank you for your answer. However, even if the situation seems favorable, as a battalion commander, I will not recklessly go on the offensive. I will report the current situation to the commander and maintain my position.”
The interviewer asked, looking slightly displeased.
“The duty of a soldier is to win the battle. But are you going to put off your chance to win? “I think you are disqualified as a commander.”
That question is half right and half wrong.
This is because commanders who can turn the entire situation of the war around with a single move, such as the commander of a regiment, division, or corps, must exploit the enemy’s disadvantages as much as possible to achieve victory.
As I handle only 5% of the soldiers mobilized by our army, the information and perspective I can obtain is greatly different from those of those people.
In addition, if even one person makes an unexpected action during the battle, the resulting damage will increase.
“There are two reasons for making that decision. The attitude of working hard to establish a major first is desirable, but it is meaningless if you do not achieve victory before that. I thought that in order to win, I needed to receive troop support from a superior commander. Secondly, it could be a trap where the commander of the Francois Republic is deliberately trying to create a gap and lure the allies. “We judged that it would be difficult to obtain information on the entire army from the perspective of one battalion.”
In fact, when a battle occurs between large-scale troops, a commonly used strategy is to intentionally retreat one small unit, induce the opponent to attack, and counterattack.
Like I said, when the fierce battle continued and the commanders and soldiers got excited, they deliberately pretended that one unit was being breached.
Mid-level commanders, such as battalion commanders, are greedy for achievements, and when their units are captured, they gradually chip away at the stupidly fooled units and achieve victory.
Even the interviewer, who had been trying to end the interview as quickly as a second a few minutes ago, showed a bit of surprise on his face, as if he had not expected this to happen.
I don’t know what the level of military strategy and technology is in this world, but I would have never thought that a test taker would be able to answer at this level.
It looks really nice and the cider is sweet.
“I understand the point well. So, let me ask you one last question. “If you were the commander and received a request for assistance in that situation, what would you do?”
I thought about that question for a moment and then came up with the best answer.
“We mobilize the archers and wizards in the rear to provide primary support to the battalion that requested support, and we mobilize half of the reserve forces to assist. In addition, the enemy will quickly provide additional infantry support to prevent the formation from breaking through, so we will mobilize knights to target the flanks of the enemy reinforcements to delay their movement and increase damage.”
After hearing my answer, the interviewer spoke in a rather friendly voice, unlike before the interview started.
“I understand. Now that the interview time is over, you can leave. Next time, it would be nice to see the relationship between academy cadets and instructors.”
It may be something interviewers say as a courtesy, but considering my status, this is not something that can easily come out of the interviewer’s mouth, and it seemed to mean that I could expect a positive situation such as passing the exam.
It would be nice if it meant that I could definitely pass, rather than just expecting it.
No, you will definitely pass.
Then I saluted the same way I came in and walked out the door at an angle.
When I opened the door and came for the interview, I felt like my heart was shrinking due to the anxiety that I had to pass.
I felt relieved now that I had completed the interview perfectly.
**
After completing the interview with number 17, the interviewer, Major Hans Weber, muttered in a voice filled with astonishment.
“When the commander of the regiment asked me to be an interviewer at the Academy, I had no expectations and honestly, it was just annoying, so I thought about doing it half-heartedly. Especially when I saw that Orphan Nabulaengi received disastrous results in written exams for subjects such as Imperial History and Sociology. “I tried to humiliate you by asking you a few questions to make you regret applying without even knowing the topic, and then give you a rejection.”
This is true even if the commander’s duty is to fight and win.
This is because officers are treated as having a status at least equivalent to that of nobility, so they must have appropriate culture and knowledge.
Similar things are required of academy cadets who are prospective officers, so what if they fail the test to find out in advance?
It is right to reject it for the sake of the dignity of the Reich Empire.
Hans Weber thought again as he recalled Peter, test taker number 17, answering with confidence in his voice.
Would an officer who received gifted education from an aristocratic family and graduated from the academy be able to answer ticks like that?
The brilliant mind of Hans, who ranks in the top 2% among academy players in the same academy in terms of success rate, responded as follows.
‘Unless you are a genius or a genius, you will not be able to come up with an insightful answer that quickly.’
If you were an orphan before receiving military education at the academy, you would have only learned basic military terminology as a soldier.
“If that guy isn’t a genius, it’s impossible for him to come up with such a strategic idea.”
And as a nobleman and commander of the empire, it was thought that it was not right to deprive such a genius of the opportunity to enter the academy because he was an orphan and lacked culture.
Moreover, the fact that this system was created with the intention that ‘among the common people who have a strong desire for improvement and genius talent should be given an opportunity for the development of the empire’ was judged to be a solid basis for admitting a genius named Peter to the academy.
Major Hans thought so and wrote this in the interviewer’s special information.
[Although he is an orphan from a commoner background, he is a talented person who will be of great help to His Majesty the Emperor if given the opportunity. I decided that I definitely had to give it a chance. Interview score 100/100]
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