V
When Claudia called an end to the training, the new recruits all collapsed in a heap on the ground that was now turning crimson in the light of the setting sun.
She, Olivia, and Ashton turned from the whimpering recruits and set off for Leticia Castle, where Cornelius awaited them. Ashton let out a sigh.
“You like sighing, don’t you, Ashton?” Olivia remarked. “That’s the tenth one.”
“What’re you keeping count for? As if anyone goes around sighing because they like it.”
“Then what’re you sighing so much for?”
Ashton paused for a moment. “I didn’t know Lord Cornelius was going to show up all of a sudden.” He should have known that using dusksight wolves in their training regimen was a step too far.
Claudia turned around with a loud huff where she was walking in front of them. “It’s a bit late for that now, isn’t it?” she snapped. “What’s done is done. There’s no point bringing it up.”
“I mean, sure, I guess,” Ashton grumbled, “but this is all Olivia’s fault. She’s the one who said setting dusksight wolves on them would make for better training than stray dogs.” His eyes bored into her, and she saw a touch of resentment there. It was a strong accusation he was making.
“Ashton, you said, all serious, ‘Good idea. That’ll make the training stick better.’” Olivia pointed out. “What you’re doing is called an ‘about-face,’ did you know that?” Olivia turned her own face from side to side to demonstrate.
“Yeah, well,” Ashton retorted, “I was obviously joking, wasn’t I? No one could’ve predicted you’d show up with real dusksight wolves.” He turned to Claudia. “You agree, don’t you?”
“Well, yes. I suppose so,” she said with a forced smile.
“Why’d you think I was joking?” Olivia asked. There were dusksight wolves all over Duvedirica. They weren’t all that hard to find, and in the end, she’d had no trouble running into the pack in the nearby forest. She’d caught three of them and brought them back to the training ground.
“Because dusksight wolves are a class one dangerous beast,” said Ashton. “This isn’t like you picked up some dogs and cats off the street.”
In a last-ditch effort, Ashton had demanded that, outside of training hours, the wolves were to be shut up in a cage that the new recruits had worked like demons to construct. To Olivia, this went against all reason. The natural thing, she thought, was for beasts to romp about all over the place.
“They’re not even dangerous, though,” she said. “Patch, Spot, and Pooch are adorable.”
“‘Patch, Spot, and Pooch’?” Ashton repeated incredulously. “You can’t give cutesy names to the dusksight wolves.”
“I don’t see why not. Besides, they didn’t eat the new recruits, did they? Just like I told them.”
“Of course not! If anyone had been eaten by a wolf, all hell would’ve broken loose. Honestly, in all the wide world, you are the only one who’d ever call dusksight wolves ‘adorable.’” Ashton finished with a look of disgust.
Privately, Olivia was perplexed. Dusksight wolves, with their sweet indigo eyes and fluffy coats that engulfed them like summer clouds, had more than enough adorable qualities.
“That’s not true,” she said. “Right, Claudia! You definitely think Pooch and the others are cute, right?”
“Me?” Claudia hesitated for a moment, then said, “As they are under your control at present, ser, I don’t feel threatened by them, but I don’t know if I’d go as far as calling them ‘cute’...” She looked away, uncomfortable, while Ashton nodded with the air of saying I told you so.
But Olivia had a counterargument ready to go. “What? That doesn’t make any sense,” she said.
“What doesn’t, ser?”
“I mean, there’s that soft toy that looks just like Pooch in your ro—?!” Olivia was yanked forwards as Claudia’s hand shot out and grabbed her while another closed over her mouth.
As she reeled from the shock, Claudia leaned in and hissed in her ear. “What’s this all of a sudden, General?”
This hardly seemed like the relevant question when Claudia was the one who’d suddenly blocked her mouth, but Olivia knew for certain that Claudia was a yaksha right now. She was too scared to look at her face, but she was sure all the same. The frozen look of terror on Ashton’s face was irrefutable proof. Recently, Ashton too had come to notice Claudia’s habit of turning into a yaksha, and the two of them had agreed together to do their best not to incite the transformation. This was, of course, kept absolutely secret from Claudia.
Olivia quickly raised her hands to indicate she meant no harm, and Claudia’s grip slowly loosened. Stealing a tentative look at the other girl’s face, she saw Claudia’s usual ordinary serious expression there. She had changed back.
Phew, today’s transformation was a short one... Olivia thought. But I wonder why she transformed? Musing on this question, she let out a little sigh of relief.
“B-By the way,” said Ashton, “did Lord Cornelius and Lord Neinhardt come all the way to the training ground just to see our training routine?”
Claudia observed with a wry smile that lately, Ashton had gotten a lot better at taking a hint.
“The lord marshal and Nein—the major general are extremely busy with the coming operation. I seriously doubt they have time to waste on observing training routines...”
She referred to the great counteroffensive strategy against the empire, dubbed the Twin Lions at Dawn, in which Olivia’s task was to conquer the imperial capital of Olsted. In order to do this, they would have to defeat the imperial army’s most elite Azure Knights, and it was this which had Claudia day in and day out frantically trying to whip the new recruits into shape.
Olivia too knew the commander of the Azure Knights, Felix von Sieger, very well. She had only seen him once, at the exchange of prisoners at Kier Fortress, but she would never forget that face. In her whole life, he was the only human who had ever made her wary.
“—thing, Olivia?”
“Huh? What?”
“You weren’t even listening!” Ashton rolled his eyes, and Olivia laughed sheepishly.
“Sorry, sorry. What were you saying?”
“I wondered if Marshal Cornelius had told you anything.”
“Oh, that. I’m not really sure. He just said there was something really important.”
“If it’s really important, why’d he leave without saying what it was? Just between us, now it’s taking up twice as much time for all of us.”
“It is odd...” Claudia agreed. As though they’d choreographed it in advance, she and Ashton folded their arms in unison. The two of them had been in perfect sync lately. This thought cheered Olivia for some reason.
Copying the gesture, she said, “I’m not sure. He just said he was worn out.”
On the way back to the training ground, Cornelius had ordered Olivia to report to the castle. Olivia thought nothing of the distance between Leticia Castle and the training ground, but it was a rather long way, and Cornelius was very old. It must have been quite hard on him.
“I can see why, after seeing dusksight wolves and a unicorn on the same day.”
“Even Lord Cornelius couldn’t have been prepared for a unicorn.”
Claudia and Ashton exchanged knowing smiles.
“How could seeing a unicorn make you tired?” Olivia asked. Disappointment she would have understood. Unicorns were not good to eat.
“Okay, look,” Ashton said. “Maybe unicorns are old hat for you, Olivia, but they’re not something normal people see every day. If anything, normal people would prefer to not see one even once.” He finished with a shudder.
“Until Ashton told me, I thought you were joking,” Claudia added softly, a distant look in her eyes. In the end, Olivia still hadn’t learned why Cornelius was so worn out, but it didn’t especially concern her, so she decided to let it go.
“Well, I don’t mind the extra work at all,” she said. “If we go to the castle, Lord Cornelius might bring out tasty sweets again.” And with an impish grin, she grabbed each of their arms to draw them to her.
After this, the three of them made their way to Cornelius’s workroom, where he told them that it was highly likely that Northern Perscilla was planning to invade Fernest. Ashton and Claudia both tensed when they learned that the duty of subduing the invasion had fallen to the Eighth Legion. Only Olivia sat slumped in her seat, staring glumly at the empty table.
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