A Second Day with Olivia and Gile
In the dead of night, Olivia, looking to quiet the orchestra that continued to play out a rousing tune from inside her belly, slipped from the tent and immediately spotted a shadowy figure barely distinguishable from the trees.
What could anyone be doing out here at this time of night? she wondered, not realizing the irony of the thought.
Hesitantly, she addressed the figure. “Erm...Gile? What are you doing?”
“Waiting for you of course, my valkyrie.”
“Waiting for me...? Do you even know what I’m going to do?”
Gile gave a short laugh. “What sort of vassal would I be to you if I did not?”
Gile was her subordinate and her comrade; he was not her vassal. Olivia briefly considered pointing this out, then gave it up. If she corrected him, he’d only say something she wouldn’t understand.
“All right, where am I going, then?”
“To pick mushrooms in the forest,” Gile replied, guessing correctly.
Olivia, feeling really quite scared of him, said while looking decidedly in the opposite direction, “That’s amazing, Gile. In which case, I’ll just be...” Gile had fallen to one knee. Olivia quickly walked on past him. For some reason, Gile followed along behind her.
Unable to endure this, Olivia turned back, but she didn’t have time to open her mouth before Gile cut in. “What will you do without a guard, ser?”
Olivia recalled that something similar had happened once before, but apparently, Gile’s symptoms had worsened significantly since then.
“I don’t need a guard. I’ll be back before you know it.”
“It isn’t a question of ‘need,’ ser. A guard is automatically attached to your person.”
“Automatically...?”
Gile would not take no for an answer. At last, Olivia resorted to her trump card: an order from a superior officer.
“Second Lieutenant Gile Marion, I order you to await me here!”
“Ser!” Gile barked, saluting. “I must firmly refuse!”
“You refuse?!” Olivia spluttered. “But that was an order from a superior officer!” She studied him carefully. This was not a development she had expected.
Gile, his salute firmly in place, said proudly, “I’m afraid to say, ser, that such orders mean nothing to a vassal!”
“Is that even a thing?!” Olivia’s head tilted as far as it would go. At the very least, In her own limited experience, Olivia had never encountered a subordinate refusing an order. She was beside herself with curiosity to know what Otto, the “walking military code” would say if he heard of this, but before that, she had to decide how, if her orders wouldn’t work, she was going to drive off Gile.
I will go by myself, she thought decisively. You won’t get the better of me!
So, in the end—
“Phew, we picked a lot.”
“R-Right. Yeah...”
In the wake of her defeat, Olivia sat opposite Gile, who was roasting mushrooms on a skewer over the fire.
“This one turned out well.” He held out a skewer, and Olivia took it. The orchestra in her stomach crescendoed, so she took a bite.
“That’s really good...” The words slipped out of her. She stared at the mushrooms. They were the same ones she’d been picking forever, only seasoned with a little bit of salt.
So why do they taste this delicious? She examined the mushrooms from all angles.
“Do you want to know why they taste so good?” Gile asked, grinning. Olivia nodded vigorously.
Gile cleared his throat. “Heat control is the key thing. It can’t be too high or too low.”
“It’s that simple?”
“Yes, but because it’s simple, it takes a practiced hand. The same goes for the meat you like so much, Captain.”
“Huh...”
Olivia was really impressed. She had always thought you just cooked things, mushrooms and meat both. Z had never taught her about how much to cook them.
“The other thing is this.” With a flourish, Gile drew the knife at his belt.
“Your knife...?”
“I actually cut some fine lines into the mushrooms before I cooked them.”
“You cut them?”
“Well, it’s called scoring. It improves the texture like you wouldn’t believe.”
Olivia studied the next skewer Gile handed her, and indeed, she saw fine cuts.
“I thought this when you made that throne, but you’re really good with your hands, Gile. And you know so much.”
At her heartfelt praise, Gile quickly took a step back, then knelt. “All my knowledge and my skills are yours, my valkyrie,” he said, then added. “Which is to say, please eat up.”
As Olivia gave a weak smile, he took a skewer and bit into it.
“Oh!”
“Whattha madda?”
“Now I see it properly, that’s a poisonous mushroom.”
Swallowing his mouthful, Gile laughed cheerfully. “I am a former hunter, you know. I’m not about to mix up...oh.”
“Yep. Those ones are pretty tricky to tell apart.”
“Hah hah...hah...” Before another ten minutes had passed, Gile, with something odd about his gait, strode off into the forest and out of sight.
“Byeee.” Olivia polished off the non-poisonous mushrooms, then she and her orchestra both slipped peacefully into sleep.
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