It's very easy for me to relate to soldiers. Maybe because I've been one for years now. The thing to remember about soldiers is, they recognize someone with similar experiences, for example, my perfect quarter turn when I walked. They moved the same way. The way I was always scanning the area around me for potential threats, and the way I met every stranger's eyes as I assessed them. I saw them doing the same. People who served at the front lines, even on opposite sides, have more in common with each other than anybody who lives a comfortable life in the rear moving things around on a map.

It helped that I had immediately established myself as 'the Queen of the Battlefield' with my actions during the coronation. It also helped that the assailants were from the Emerald Isle, and those were not popular at the present.

I met the soldiers on their own grounds, they wore common uniforms that were quite familiar to me, having shot at people in them from time to time. But because my visit was such a surprise, they had no chance to dress in their crisp and cleanest. Unsurprisingly as a result, the officer and first sergeant were red faced in front of the formation they commanded.

I approached them and accepted a salute, which I promptly returned with equal crispness. "My Queen, we… weren't expecting you." It was meant to be a kind of excuse, and I honestly felt a little bit bad for the Captain right then, just a little. I was in his position once after all, even if I were left to do my work as I saw fit more often than not.

Given that I was there to win them over, I had no intention of dressing them down over things they couldn't have planned for, especially if their current state was literally their job. Most of them were still covered with dirt and muck from the training they'd just been pulled away from, and not a few were sporting five o'clock shadows on their faces.

"It's fine, units that pass inspection, don't pass combat, units that pass combat, don't pass inspection. You were training when I showed up, I'd be more disappointed if you were clean and spotless on a day like today." I said it loud enough that the soldiers heard all the way to the back, even though I was looking up at the Captain himself.

"I was a soldier after all, I understand completely." I replied as my salute dropped back down and his did in turn. "Albion soldiers were very brave, so I'm not surprised you trained hard. Your mage battalions sliding around on those damn aerial skis moved like bees, impossible to swat unless you got right up close, and if you did that, you're as like to get stung as not no matter what you do." I laughed, and that drew laughter all the way to the back as well.

"It's good to be on the same side, now, how about you resume your training, and show me what my soldiers are capable of even without someone actively lobbing artillery spells at them." I suggested, and he quickly took me up on it.

This was the easiest part of 'signaling' and that was because I lived fairly close to their lives. I watched them train for the rest of the day, and when they paused to eat, I sat down in the common mess to eat with them. I needed to portray the perfect image of a soldier's truest friend and ally. And nothing did that like comfortably sharing in their discomfort. Even better… Being X hadn't screwed with anything lately. I half expected him to kill the Kaiser while we were speaking. But he hadn't.

"I must say, Your Majesty, we were very impressed by the footage of your fight with the assassins, it really did make for a remarkable start." The Captain said. I made a mental note of his name, and that he sat with his soldiers during the meal without catching any of them by surprise in doing so. Perhaps he understood what it took to win their loyalty, perhaps he was genuine, either way that kind of man was a useful tool. 'Schwartz.' I committed it to memory along with the infantry unit. I'd need to fast track useful tools like this.

Despite what I said, the truth was that Commonwealth soldiers had serious defects. Their mages did not work well with their infantry and they were often both uncoordinated with their artillery, plus their logistics was often lacking, half the bodies we checked for ammunition were running very short. Compared to them, we could spend bullets like candy.

"Thank you." I said sincerely while I looked up at him, he was a fairly young man, not much older than Visha, with a slender face and surprisingly gentle brown eyes for a combat veteran. "But you know…" I took a deep breath and then went over my concerns, and my observations from the other side, he and the other soldiers lost all interest in other conversation as I explained.

"...And your mages were good, very good. But that 'good' wasn't used very well considering they never really covered for you, and I noticed that a lot of your soldiers were lacking ammunition. I thought at first they shot sparingly to go for accuracy, but it seems you were often just not carrying a full load in the first place."

They let loose a round of frustrated grunts. "Yes, Your Majesty. I can't deny it, though I wouldn't dare to speak ill of my superiors… we did have some deficiencies to improve on."

It was answer enough, hell it was nearly the same answer I gave about the command I was sent to appraise before the armistice. "Captain Shwartz, draw up a proposal, work with the other company commanders on base, all of you at the lowest level draw up a full list of deficiencies, and then you personally bring it to the palace, I'll present some military reforms on that basis."

"Yes ma'am!" He beamed like an excited child. I didn't have to have the omnipresence of Being X to know I was quickly making allies among the lowest ranks.

And for the next few days, I began making the rounds just like that, visiting bases around the Commonwealth to speak with soldiers and junior officers. Some of my bosses in my past life tried to get information from those 'directly' below them, but the result is a malformed picture of what they 'want' their boss to see. Nobody was going to give them the real truth, or at least, not reliably. If they were, I would have expected those problems to be working toward resolution.

I knew in the near future, traveling from base to base as I did, that I'd have to have some hard conversations with the Commonwealth senior military command structure.

I wasn't looking forward to it.

But they were going to enjoy it even less, if I wasn't happy with their answers.