Seeing that Commander Yao was about to speak again, Rowan quickly said, "Commander, don't say anything more. I don't agree to let my wife join the army."
Commander Yao looked at his firm attitude and said, "If she wants to, you can't stop her."
"She doesn't want to."
Rowan knew clearly that if his little wife agreed, it would probably be for his sake. He didn't agree. Being a soldier was too hard. Even though it was honorable, one soldier in the family was enough.
Commander Yao thought for a moment and said, "How about this then? We won't make her join the army. She can help train the soldiers when she has free time. We'll pay her. If we have a special mission and need her help, we'll give her a bonus."
Seeing Rowan's expression, Commander Yao added, "Don't rush to say no. Whether she joins or not should be something you two discuss. Go talk to your wife before you decide."
Rowan thought for a moment and said, "Alright, I understand."
Once he agreed, Commander Yao sent him away. "That's all. You can go now. Don't come bothering me if there's nothing important."
"Yes."
After speaking, Rowan went to the training field. As soon as he arrived, Felix ran over and let the soldiers continue training on their own.
"Rowan, did the commander call you in for anything serious?"
"What could it be? Don't guess things."
"I was just worried it was because of yesterday."
"No, the commander just asked about our last mission."
"That's good."
After their conversation, Rowan started leading the team's training. Seeing their results, Lin Chen was very unhappy.
"These are your results? This bad? While I and your vice captain weren't here, were you playing around? With results like this, are you planning to train forever and never go on missions?"
Everyone felt ashamed from being scolded. They thought their results were pretty good. They couldn't compare to their captain, who was ridiculously good, but compared to others, they were excellent.
"Starting tomorrow, your training will double. No slacking off."
"Yes."
After training, Rowan rushed home to cook for his wife. But when he got home, Sienna had already finished cooking and was waiting for him.
"Wife, why did you cook again? Just wait for me to do it. You don't need to do anything."
"I just wanted you to rest a bit more when you got home."
"Alright, let's eat. But this afternoon, don't cook again, okay? Be good. If Mom finds out I let you cook, she'll hit me."
When Rowan mentioned Cuilan, Sienna said, "Husband, I miss Mom."
"Then write her a letter."
"It's been a long time, and we haven't received a reply. Do you think the letters got lost?"
"No, probably just the busy farming season. They haven't had time to go into town. Let's wait a bit more."
"Alright, I'll write another letter in the next day or two and send it back."
"Good."
After eating, Rowan rested a little, then went back to training. Sienna was home alone with nothing to do, so she started writing a letter. She planned to send it the next time someone from the military district delivered mail.
After finishing the letter, Sienna began practicing martial arts in the yard. Even though her skills were good, they came from muscle memory. She still needed to build up her strength. If not for her strange, sudden strength, she would just be a pretty face. Without enough power, it was hard to hurt anyone.
She didn't know whether the strength came from the original Sienna or if it was something special given to her when she arrived.
So whenever she had time, she trained a bit. She planned to slowly build up her stamina.
Even though she sometimes got angry that Rowan wasn't gentle with her and wouldn't let her go, she had to admit that kind of "exercise" really did help her build more strength. Once she became stronger, she would definitely turn the tables on him.
After doing a few sets of martial arts routines, she took a break. She didn't have much to do lately, and Rowan didn't need her protection, so she focused on building her stamina.
That evening, Rowan came home and, before going to sleep, told Sienna what the commander had said. He asked if she was willing to help train soldiers and assist when there were missions.
Sienna's eyes lit up when she heard about helping with missions. That meant she could go on missions with Rowan and protect him.
After thinking for a moment, Sienna said, "I want to talk to your commander."
"Okay, I'll take you tomorrow. So you're agreeing?"
"Yes."
"Wife, I didn't know you had such loyalty to the country."
"Oh, not really. You're thinking too much. My mission is to protect you. I exist for you. Everything else has nothing to do with me. I care about your parents only because you care about them."
Rowan was happy hearing Sienna say she existed for him and didn't care about anything else, but when he realized she wanted to protect him, he got mad. He was jealous of the version of him from that other timeline, the one Sienna wanted to protect.
"Sienna, I'm not some weak man who needs protecting."
"Ah, I know that. I'm in a different world now. Right now, I'm Sienna, a human being, not 001. I'm your wife. You're my husband."
"Then why do you say your mission is to protect me, that you exist for me?"
"Because in a marriage, it's a duty to protect your partner. I came here and met you. I married you. Isn't that enough reason to say I'm here for you?"
"No matter if I was a robot or not, you're special to me. If I was a robot, then my program chose you. I'd protect you until I died. I'd self-destruct for you. Now that I'm human, I agreed to marry you the first time I saw you. You are my husband."
After hearing Sienna's words, Rowan stopped overthinking. What he needed to do now was teach Sienna how to understand emotions.
"Honey, if we have time, I'll teach you how to fight. You're too weak."
"Okay."
Rowan had a headache hearing his wife say he was weak. He didn't know how to respond.
He turned to Sienna and said, "Wife, I don't think I'm weak at all. I think I'm pretty strong."
"You can't even beat me. What's so strong about that?"
"Fine, then let's fight and see if I can beat you."
"Sure. Why don't you believe me? I have hundreds of martial arts styles in my head. There's no way your current fighting skills can beat me."
Rowan suddenly picked up Sienna and said, "We'll see after we fight."
What followed was a chaotic battle between two "monsters." Sienna was completely defeated.
In the middle of it, Rowan's voice could be heard saying, "Wife, can you beat me or not? Am I strong or not?"
"Rowan, you cheated."
"I didn't. This is also a kind of fight. It's called a monster fight."
"You shameless guy."
"Yes, I'm shameless. But say it—am I strong or not?"
At the end, Sienna mumbled sleepily, "You're strong. Rowan is the strongest."
Satisfied with her answer, Rowan finally let her go and held her as they went to sleep.