Bonus Short Stories
A Day with Olivia and Neinhardt
Fort Caspar
Following her orders from Otto, Olivia knocked on the door before her.
“Second Lieutenant Olivia, reporting, ser!”
“Enter.” The voice that replied wasn’t Otto’s. It sounded gentler, somehow. Olivia opened the door and found herself looking into the eyes of both a blonde man seated on the sofa and a mountain of mouth-wateringly delicious food on the table. Not that the food had eyes, but they may as well have for all that Olivia stared.
“Sorry to call you up here all of a sudden. Why don’t you have a seat?” said the blonde man. Olivia did so, taking the chair across the table from the man so that she faced him.
“Um... May I ask what you called me here for, ser? I don’t think we’ve had the chance to meet...” she said. The man looked a little surprised at this, then smiled crookedly.
“We have met at least once before, actually. In the command room at Galia Fortress.”
“Wait, seriously? Er, I mean... Is that so, ser?” There was a pause.
“Oh no,” the man said. “That must mean you don’t know why you’re here.”
“Yes, ser. Colonel Otto said he was too busy to explain, and that I should just come and hear what you had to say,” Olivia said. The man put a hand to his brow.
“This is how he gets back at me,” he muttered, the crooked smile returning. “My name is Colonel Neinhardt of the First Legion. Do you really not remember meeting me back at Galia Fortress?”
Olivia frowned, thinking hard. She only had two memories from the command room at Galia. The first was the delicious cake Paul had given her. The second was Otto’s furious face as he pounded his fist on the table. As she wracked her brain trying to remember, Neinhardt spoke again.
“No need to strain yourself. If you don’t remember, you don’t remember,” he said, then made a gesture at the food on the table to encourage her to take it. “I called you here today to thank you.”
“To... thank me?” Olivia had absolutely no clue what he meant. For now, seeing as he’d offered, she decided to take a bit of the food—all cut into evenly sized pieces—and pop it into her mouth. As she bit into it, the outer layer split apart, and a sweet liquid filled her mouth. This was a thousand times better than sucking the nectar out of a flower.
“I am told that before you enlisted in the army, you slew a number of imperial soldiers on the Canalia Highway. One of them was a man of particular martial ability by the name of Samuel. He killed my closest friend. It may have been entirely coincidental, but by killing Samuel, you avenged that friend for me.”
“Huh. Okay,” said Olivia. The truth was, she didn’t remember the events Neinhardt was talking about, and she didn’t really care either. She was far more interested in this food full of sweet liquid.
“Er, anyway, I wanted to express my gratitude to you. Thank you, really.”
“You’re welcome. By the way, what’s this called?” Olivia asked, pointing to her mouth.
“That? It’s a type of fruit... They’re fairly common, I think...” Neinhardt went on to explain that this fruit was eaten throughout Fernest.
“What about those round ones in the basket?”
“What? Oh, those just haven’t been cut up yet.”
“Can I have them, ser?”
“I mean, I don’t see why not...” said Neinhardt. He looked lost.
“Thanks—I mean, Thank you, ser! May I be dismissed now, ser?”
“Oh, um. Yes, that’s all I wanted to say. You’re dismissed, Second Lieutenant.” Neinhardt nodded at her stiffly. Delighted at her luck, Olivia took the fruit basket, cradling it in her arms, and left without so much as a salute.
For some time after this, Neinhardt sat frozen, his mouth hanging open.
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