Sorry I'm Mated To The Commander novel Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Bullseye!

Layla had taken down a mobile, aggressive target.

:

‘Good, good, she thought. Even though her body was weak, her reflexes were still sharp.

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Meanwhile, in the monitoring room, the instructors were watching the students’ progress on a large screen displaying the real-time scoreboard.

Unsurprisingly, Tomas Coffey was at the top, his score of over two hundred putting him far ahead of the others.

It was unclear if the other students were simply intimidated by him or if he was just that good at evasion, but not a single one had managed to land a hit on him.

Nor had any of the mobile targets.

“Tomas is incredible! He must be the best student in this year’s class,” one instructor gushed.

“Well, he is the Crown Prince’s cousin, after all.”

A chorus of praise followed. Tomas’s performance was, by all accounts, exceptional.

Then, one of the instructors, staring at the leaderboard, let out a surprised “Huh. Hey, who’s this Contestant 10, Layla Sullivan? Her score is climbing awfully fast.”

Another instructor sounded even more shocked. “Tomas just got hit! Was it… by Number 10?”

Just moments after they had hailed Tomas as the future star of the Empire, the instructors were eating their words.

For a long, stunned moment, the observation room was silent.

Antony Hernandez, the department head, walked in and glanced around. “What’s with all the long faces?”

“Sir, just look at the scoreboard… Holy crap! How did Layla get to third place?” an instructor started to say, then swore as he did a double-take at the rankings.

While all students in the College of Military had to train in marksmanship and mech piloting, it was common knowledge that troopers were the most proficient, followed by commanders, with mech engineers at the bottom.

The previous cross-country race had seen seven troopers, one commander, and two mech engineers in the top ten. For this solo shooting competition, the instructors had assumed the top thirty would be almost entirely troopers.

As for the top ten, they’d expected it to be all troopers, with the sole exception of Tomas.

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Chapter 22

Who could have guessed that Layla, a mech engineer, would surge into third place?

Her score was still climbing, too, now just twenty points behind second.

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Antony studied the board. He saw that Layla’s score had jumped by a hundred points after hitting Tomas. That meant if she hit him again, she could potentially surpass him.

“This student has a real talent for marksmanship. Why is she in the mech engineering division?” he wondered aloud.

He then recalled that she had been the first to arrive at the training grounds when the boot camp started.

Why would a student with her talent and a high-tier shiftform choose mech engineering?

Shayla Mcgrath remained silent, a look of exasperation on her face.

Another instructor spoke up. “I heard that when Layla was first accepted to Imperial Academy, she enrolled in the command division. But somehow, her major was changed to mech engineering.”

Changing majors at the Academy was difficult, but not impossible for exceptionally talented students.

“After this training exercise is over, give her the option to switch majors,” Antony decided.

“Yes, sir.”

Shayla opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it again.

As they spoke, they noticed Layla’s score had stopped climbing so rapidly. This seemed more normal to the instructors. No matter how much of a prodigy she was, she couldn’t possibly beat Tomas.

Hitting him before must have been a fluke.

In reality, it wasn’t Layla’s luck that had run out, but her stamina. She was now slumped in a concealed corner of a dilapidated building, gasping for breath.

‘My score should be pretty good by now,’ she thought.

For the rest of the time, she just needed to avoid the mobile targets and the other students.

That was easier said than done.

She had barely caught her breath for a minute when someone appeared in her line of sight.

“Layla?”

It was Annie Knight. She had entered the simulation a little after Layla and had the bad luck of running into a gauntlet of mobile targets.

Fortunately, her agility had kept her from getting hit.

Her current score was decent, placing her somewhere in the thirties or forties.

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Chapter 22

Layla looked up at her. “If you need the points, you can take a few shots at me.”

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“What do you take me for? My score might not be the best, but it’s not terrible. You’re the one in a tight spot. Too bad you’re not worth many points to me.”

“I’m doing okay. Just… out of steam.”

Seeing how weak Layla looked, Annie decided to stay, sliding down to sit beside her against the wall.

Layla was surprised. “What are you doing?”

“Someone’s bound to see you like this and try to get an easy shot. I’m just here to pick off the vultures. Don’t get all emotional on me. I’m not protecting you,” Annie said, feigning indifference.

Layla couldn’t help but smile.

What a stubborn, soft-hearted cat.

And Annie was right.

It wasn’t long before another student, seeing Layla’s pale, exhausted state, decided to seize the opportunity for some easy points.

Just as he was about to pull the trigger, a blur flashed before his eyes, and he was hit.

The student vanished, respawning at his starting point.

Watching the guy disappear, Annie snorted. “Damn, only half a point. That guy must’ve been at the bottom of the barrel.”

“That’s why he was desperate enough to try and ambush me,” Layla said. “It was a risk, but hitting me would have jumped him up dozens of places.”

Just as she finished speaking, her optical computer buzzed.

She was surprised. ‘Is it a group message from the instructors?’

She opened it and saw it was from Atlas.

Atlas: [I’ve opened a secure comm channel for you. Contact me if you need anything.]

Even his text messages carried an air of command.

Layla’s eyes lowered, her expression unreadable.

‘I need to figure out a way to divorce this prince, and fast.

Just then, her optical computer chimed again. Thinking it was another message from Atlas, she was stunned to see it was from her mentor, Weston, whom she hadn’t heard from in over two years.

Weston: [Layla, what are you up to? Did you get into Imperial Academy? I sent a gift for you to the Sullivan

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Chapter 22

Manor. Make sure you get it. Mwah!]

Layla was shocked.

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Her comms were supposed to be restricted, only able to receive group messages from the instructors and, apparently, Atlas.

Before she could ask her mentor how he’d gotten through, a sudden chill ran down her neck.

Instinctively, Layla’s left hand shot out. The mechanical gauntlet instantly transformed into a vine-like whip, snaking out to wrap around the wrist of her attacker and yanking him forward.

Oh, it was Contestant 9, Chaim Howard.

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11:54 Wed, Jan 7