288 Graduation

Sometime later…

*Clap* *Clap* *Clap*

On a wide, expansive stage that peered out into a crowd of thousands walked a smiling man with a microphone in hand, all the lights directed at him, making his rather well-kempt face even brighter yet at the same time highlighting the thick black bags under his eyes. In all his years of being general, this year specifically, he had never looked better.

But today, for some odd reason he seemed to be looking far more cheerful than usual. People knew that something was off and that It couldn't be from a simple graduation ceremony— there had to be something beyond that yet no one knew.