Mitsnari resisted the impulse to point out that he wasn't young. He was almost thirty, and over half of those years had been spent serving as one of the Emperor's most trusted courtiers. And while he may never have participated in battlefield combat, he was no stranger to the infighting of the Imperial Court. There, wars were fought with rumor and influence... and they, too, could be deadly. Mitsunari knew what it was like to have blood on his hands, figuratively if not literally, and to taste the bitter sweetness of victory.

"Is that what the people of Amestris are to you? Toys someone else has to set up so that you can knock them down again and again while you pretend to be a soldier? Do you need to attack other kingdoms now that you've grown too bloated to play in your own sandbox?" His lips curled onto a snarl as he regarded the Major, and his fingernails dug scratches into his clenched palms.

"Which of us is truly a child, Major?"