It was when Ky had gotten his second promotion inside a year that Sol started seriously questioning just what kind of army he'd joined here. How Ky had gotten it was straight-forward, the rules on promotion weren't exactly hard to grasp, but all that policy about emphasising skill and talent over age or experience sounded a whole lot better before it put a sixteen-year-old boy a hop, step and a jump from running the whole show. Officers with decades more experience than that kid were now third-in-line candidates for future commander-ship – and normally Sol might've enjoyed that just because it pissed off a lot of people he liked seeing pissed off, but when the result was that the army was one crucial retirement from being run by a kid who still blushed slightly when Sol used any swearword stronger than 'damn' he was starting to wondering whether old Kliff had missed his date for retirement altogether and gone senile while still on the job.
"The old man likes you too damn much," he grumbled out loud, but for once in his life not even the kid rose to the bait of the implied insult.
"Sol, I'd hope even you have enough respect for our Commander to trust he wouldn't hand out promotions based purely on who he does or doesn't like," said Ky, sounding faintly surprised and faintly bemused, but nothing worse.
"You think he's gonna leave his army in the hands of someone he didn't like?" asked Sol testily. It might've held more weight if their last visit to headquarters hadn't involved the old man trapping Ky in his office for a whole evening to chew him out over every hair-brained decision he'd made during the fiasco that had been the Battle of Rome, but it was nothing the kid hadn't deserved.
"I would say the opposite is more likely," said Ky authoritatively. "Commander Kliff is far too wise not to know that a leader must occasionally make a point of promoting a few men who will disagree with him. After all," he added, giving Sol a pointed look paired with one of his more frustrating smiles, "every leader can benefit from having at least one advisor who's willing to tell us the things we may not want to hear now and then. Don't you agree?"