I was about to remind Lord Commander that I am fully independent, but at that moment Valencio approached us.

“Apologies, it was too great of an opportunity to introduce sir Belov to the capital nobility.” (V)

“At least it is still salvageable.” (LC)

“Khm.” I reminded them of my existence.

“My apologies, but sooner or later you would have met them either way.” (V)

“Your part, I get it. But what’s up with that ‘protégé’ thing?”

“Khm-khm. Though you might have gotten a different opinion of him, Lord Commander’s title is not given to just anybody. Until you joined us, viscount Alchetti was keeping the entire was efforts afloat. It was his strategies and organization talents that allowed us to reach this far, from being at the brink of defeat.” Despite being praised by Valencio, Lord Commander just humbly bowed his head.

“My…!” Hearing that he was the reason those guys were standing here made me look at him with a bit of respect.

“Alright, Suvorov, what’s the protégé business?”

“Suvorof…?” (LC)

“See it as being a compliment.”

“Alright. As you can guess, my rank is prestigious enough, and thus His Grace and I decided that introducing you as my protégé will let us get rid of most questions, as well as easily explain what you are doing in our camp. One request, if I may: your planning achievements would have to be turned into mine in this case, do not be offended.” (LC)

“As long as it will decrease the amount of talking to those people.” I nodded towards the noble lords and ladies.

“I will do what I can.” Valencio chuckled.

Since Valencio had an awful lot of time on hand, I asked him to explain why the hell I was dragged in here, even though there are still things to do.

From what I was told, it was a noble gathering with the nobility of the capital, the besieged city.

“My first question: what the hell? Is it fine with you that they managed to leave a city under siege, occupied by the enemy?!”

“Hush, war has its own rules and customs, and the nobility has its own.” (V)

“Crazy.”

“He-he, as long as you do not directly betray your liege, many things would be forgiven, and also nobody would dare hurting a noble when they are not wearing armor. It is nice being a noble, no?” Valencio chuckled, but when he noticed Lord Commander’s wry smile, the duke shook his shoulder.

“Follow me. Enjoy the party, Captain.” (V)

“I’ll wait until the officers gather.”

“Good luck doing that~. Take a look over there.” Valencio pointed at a bunch of people drinking and laughing. Neither of them looked like a military officer on duty.

‘I’m the only white crow [=black sheep].’ I chuckled.

To avoid standing out among the nobles, I approached one of the groups, a few ladies.

Seeing me, they covered their mouths with fans and palms, while I prepared to introduce myself.

“Greetings, my ladies.” My posture and words may be unrefined to them, but I take pride in being at least a bit smarter than a typical officer, who can only order to carry the round and roll the square [There are jokes (or total truth, depending on the person) about ridiculous orders of commanding officers in Russian military. Other examples are painting grass, and sweeping with crowbar.] I noticed how the few servants behave around the nobles to make corrections to my actions.

“Good day to you. You are?” The nobles were skeptical, but it didn’t look like they were angered.

“I am captain Belov, under the Lord Commander.” At the mention of the ‘patron’, some ladies wore gentle smiles.

I continued socializing, exchanging empty compliments, flattering, introducing myself to the cream of society, until the gathering was considered to be over and all non-military noblesonnel left.

But even after it was over, the half-drunk officers were still chatting.

They were so engrossed in emptying glasses of wine and making jokes, that they didn’t notice me getting in the touch distance of them.

“HELLO. WELCOME TO THE ARMY.” I barked, startling them to the point some fell on their knees.