General Ty Nikolai sucked in a breath of air and then breathed out before looking directly at Jace Steel, "you are an idiot."

    There were a few minutes of silence before Jace tilted his head, "I assume I am missing something." Jace had come from finishing his day of tests. They really were tested on just about everything from knowledge about guns to how to drive a vehicle.

    "Yes," The general nodded as he leaned back in his chair. "As far as I can tell you have the capacity to be a good leader. Probably even a great leader. But you would rather let someone else take the lead whenever given the opportunity."

    Jace looked around the nice office for a moment before shrugging, "I do not see how that is a problem. I honestly just prefer not being in charge of others."

    "But you can do it." The General sighed before he leaned forward and pulled open one of his drawers and tossed a very thick file onto the desk. "I was granted all the knowledge about you. Even stuff you do not know." Sёarch* The N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    Jace frowned for a moment before he realized where this man was going with this and his face began paleing. There were a few things he did not and would not do. Commanding others was part of that. Simply because of something that happened in his past.

    "I read the file. I know for a fact that there is only one reason why you might be opposed to being a leader." The General leaned forward so he was sitting on his elbows. "Back when you were in the orphanage you got an up close look at how various types of leaders operated. I can only make an assumption since there is no evidence but you saw many things that bothered you. Among them was likely a corrupt leader that sold out his own people."

    Jace looked away and his hand absentmindedly tapped the arm of the char he was sitting in. They stayed like that for a few minutes in silence. The General staring down Jace and Jace avoiding the generals glare.

    Jace sighed and shook his head, "yeah. The local gangs that supplied the orphanage with just about anything always had a cost. Usually they required my services. Which consisted of hacking, torture, or on the rarest occasions bomb making."

    The general raised an eyebrow. "Your point?"

    "I have had the displeasure of torturing leaders of opposing gangs and mobs. They were always the first to break. The information they had was always compromising for their lower ranks. But they would sacrifice them in favor of protecting their own secrets. That is only one instance when I first saw the darkside of leadership." Jace explained as he slouched in his chair.

    "Not all leaders will sacrifice others for themselves." The general pointed out.

    "That may be true, but when they are not sacrificing others they have to sacrifice themselves. That is not something I will do." Jace answered.

    "Sacrificing others or self sacrifice. I suppose with that type of view I would not want to be a leader either." The general shook his head, "but you are taking a very rigid view of something that can have an array of outcomes."

    "Array of outcomes? You do realize the emperor, the leader of our great empire, has already decided to sacrifice some of his family for the wellbeing of others." Jace pointed out. Getting a chuckle from the General in response.

    They stayed seated across from each other for a few minutes. "Regardless of what you want you will be given command of others. You can stay lower down if you want. But I still need you to take the leadership tests and training seriously."

    "Do I not have to worry about any other area or subject?" Jace asked in confusion.

    General Ty Nikolai leaned back in his chair. "No, by all means you are an exemplary soldier. Flight, driving, weapons, hacking, mechanics, electronics, just about everything we tested in you were passable. Some of them even marked you down as being exemplary."

    "But?" Jace asked, expecting another part of the general''s explanation.

    "But as I said before, you are not pushing yourself to be the best you can be. When you are interested in something you will push yourself. But when you are not as interested you do not work as hard. So while you are going through the leadership training I want you to spend time also working on everything else and helping others with their own training." General Ty explained as he motioned to the door.

    Jace frowned and slowly stood up from his chair. He walked out of the office glancing back as he left. The general clearly had some sort of plan in mind. While Jace considered trying to figure it out he decided he might as well do what the general asked.

    So he went to the location where the training for his weakest subject was taking place. His weakest subject happened to be unconventional weapons. So he headed to one of the armories to pick up the equipment he needed for his training.

    He picked up various types of knives, stones, bottles, and then a few other things that could just be found in a normal household. He literally threw misshapen objects until they were hitting the target the majority of the time.

    While he was there he noticed many others working and training with their own weapons. So while he was training he distracted himself from his repetitive practice by watching and picking out the others'' mistakes.

    Whether it was their stance, how they held the gun, or even how they were reloading them. Jace was noticing even the common mistakes some of them were making. After a while Jace had decided his practice was enough.

    But before he moved on he decided to do something different from what he would usually do. Jace walked over to one of the training candidates from the Tartarus Project. Her stance was completely wrong and each time she fired the gun she flinched. Her bullets were hitting the edge of the targets.

    "You are firing that completely wrong," Jace informed her as he watched her with a frown. "Can I help you fix your stance and firing technique?" Jace asked, waving his hand at her feet.

    "Umm… I guess. It is not like it could hurt. I can fire a sniper rifle just fine, but machine guns like this are an issue for me." The woman responded, showing him the submachine gun she was using.

    "Okay, adjust your feet like this." Jace helped her fix her stance. "Then hold the gun like this and- no do not do that. Relax your shoulders and fire." Jace used his hands to fix how she was holding the gun. Then she began firing, quickly going through half a clip.

    Afterwards she looked at Jace, "What about holding a gun from here? During the academy I was taught it was quicker for reloading if it was held from here." The woman pointed out while relaxing her stance.

    "There is a technique for quicker reloading, but that is far too advanced for someone who struggles with hitting the target. So I suggest focusing on perfecting your technique using the submachine gun before going to advanced techniques." Jace informed her.

    The woman frowned, "Fine, then what do you suggest I do now?"

    "Continue firing the rest of the magazine and then another magazine. Then switch to another weapon. You will come back to the submachine gun later." Jace told her. "It will help build your habit to leave it and then come back to it later. You should do the same with any other gun''s you need to practice on." The woman nodded in response and went back to shooting.

    "Hey, uh… what''s your name? Can you help me as well?" Another person asked from another part of the shooting range. He was holding a handgun.

    "Yeah, show me how you are shooting and I will adjust you after a few shots." Jace told him as he walked up behind the man.

    For the next few hours he spent helping people with how they fired guns. It was similar to what he did with Nina during the torture training. But this was more repetition and memorization rather than just teaching them how to shoot once. Some of them would spend a few hours fixing their habits. Others would spend only an hour.

    As dinner came around he decided to head to the cafeteria. When he arrived he was greeted several times by some people he helped out in the shooting range. It took him ten minutes of getting greetings, thanks, and people asking for more pointers before he was able to sit at the table with Salem. Who was looking at him with an eyebrow raised and a smirk barely hidden.

    "What?" Jace asked as he sighed in exasperation.

    "General Ty Nikolai does not have protection against mind reading. So I got a bit of a glimpse into his mind when I talked to him." Salem told him with confidence. "So I know for a fact that he has already played you. Leadership training can also consist of teaching and helping others, gaining recognition and camaraderie with your fellow soldiers." Salem pointed out nodding at one of the groups that talked to him and were now sitting in a group.

    Jace sighed in annoyance, she was right. But she was wrong about something else. "The General probably does have a way to block you from reading his mind. Because apparently he read my undoctored file."

    Salem frowned the blinked and sighed loudly, "shit I got played too!?!"