---

Esther blushed even more when Anton teased her about her clothing malfunction. Thankfully, Leon interrupted him, re-focusing the group's attention to their tour across the fortress and not at her skimpy nightgown.

When they came to the mess hall however, she found chaos going on, with soldiers fighting each other in a drunken cacophony. Anton quickly put a stop to it however with his loud and commanding voice. Esther was quite terrified when he shouted angrily while lifting the firearm. She was never good against loud and harsh words.

She then found Gradon being one of the soldiers laying down on the ground, and quickly, she went towards him, crouching down and saying, "G-Gradon? A-are you okay?" with a panicked voice, her half-dressed state once again forgotten. Thankfully, Leblanc soon came over and checked him, telling everyone present that he just needed a rest. Esther sighed in relief at the good news. Leblanc then took him over her shoulders, telling everyone present that she would take him to his room.

"I-I'm coming too! I-I'll watch over him!" she said to her before she could leave. It seemed Esther was that concerned with Gradon that she didn't pay any attention to the sobbing man.

@Lonewolf685@Mercurial

Althea giggled softly at Esther's embarrassment, her comment for people not to look was a little late as she suspected all the men had gotten plenty of an eyeful already. Anyway, It seemed queries about the nature of their presence at the fortress had been raised and the similarity between the wolf attack on them and the animal attack on Viola’s patrol was certainly curious. She made a slight addition to Tzi’s telling.

“The ghost turned out to be a woman with pink hair and hetrocro… differently colored eyes who was.. Petending? To be a ghost. Then she tried to grope me? It was weird. I honestly have no Idea what she was doing up there.”

She thought for a moment and then released

“...Didn’t the captain say not to speak about the events of our excursion?”

Her tone was not accusatory, as that would be hypocritical, but instead was more that of someone hesitantly trying to remember if what they were saying was correct She wasn’t sure if the captain had said not to speak of the enter incident or just the stuff she and Esther had read in the journal.

At any rate it seemed that they were going on a little journey with Viola and someone who was apparently Leon’s brother to the kitchen. She tagged along to keep an eye on the bruised girls injury, which turned out to be a good idea as they soon ran into even more injured people.

In this case they were all centred around Farris, who she imagined was responsible for most of the damages. While she didn’t exactly trust the dangerous woman’s medical analysis of Gradon there were other matters to attend to, namely the sobbing man on the floor.

“I’ll check in on Gradon once I’m done here.”

She informed the hastily leaving girls before she walked towards the wounded soldier.

“Don’t worry sir, I am a doctor and I am here to help”

Farris had definitely done a number on the poor man, on top of the obvious knee injury he had also seems to have received a strong blow to the throat.

She got to work fixing what she could.

Well, there could have been less violent ways to resolve this madness. But Leblanc’s methods were at least quick and to the point, the two fighters having been severely inhibited from continuing. All weapons had been taken away and confiscated thanks in part to the efforts of Anton. And as for Gradon, well, he would have been happy to see his fellow cadets finally come to his aid.

It was a shame he was rightly knocked out, not even stirring as Leblanc made act to stroke his face and neck. Purely for medical reasons of course. Thankfully his slumber didn’t last too long and he blearily blinked open his eyes to feel the ground being dragged beneath him. Was someone carrying him? Wait no…beneath him. Someone was pulling him away from the residing fight and off to who knew where.

Oh, and there was Esther trailing after him, who looked like she had cried a river. And she was also…half-naked? “Hey, um, Esther? You should probably put a coat on or something-oh. I see you did,” he said regaining more sight and seeing Viola’s jacket upon the girl. “Say, who’s dragging me? Althea if that’s you, there’s no need, really. It was just a punch-whahh!”

As he turned to see who held him, he jumped backwards. Given that he was being dragged, it resided in him scooting away and hitting his head on the stone ground in fright. “Ow…Ow…sorry Leblanc. I just didn’t expect…er, you to be treating me,” he said, scrambling to his feet and trying not to make this awkward. Good thing Esther was here too, lest he be left alone with the trigger-happy salad head.

She supposed it was only to be expected that people would be interested in following, and that it was Esther of all the cadets was not surprising in the least. If there was a chance to throw herself at Gradon that she hasn't taken then Leblanc certainly hadn't seen it.

"I know you just woke up, but that's no cause to be rude." Leblanc deadpanned as her charge awoke with a fright and threw himself upon the nearest rock to further heap the injuries on what must have been a remarkably thick skull. "If you had expected me to save you...well you must have an alarming degree of faith in me." The sea weed haired woman began to speak in a dry tone only to pause and turn rather plain, thinking that Gradon may very well just think better of people then most others would, which rather took the fun out of it for her.

Waving off frivolous concerns she turned back to the course she'd set and eyed them up form over her shoulder. "Regardless of what either of you say, you're returning to your rooms. Esther, you need to get dressed before I do something we'll both enjoy, and that says nothing of the libido of others here." Leblanc said, an auspiciously long tongue raking across her lips in a blatantly dramatic manner. "And I imagine Althea would advise Gradon to rest his head before he endeavors to break up the next confrontation, so do her the courtesy before the next punch shatters that glass jaw of yours."

@Hammerman@TheWindel

---

Esther smiled brightly when she noticed Gradon gaining consciousness as he was being dragged by the green-haired girl. "Farris, look! Gradon's awake!" she said to her chirpily.

However, Leblanc's reaction to him waking up was not something she saw coming at all, as she threw Gradon to the nearest wall, causing her to gasp. "W-why did you do that?" she asked her before quickly running towards the boy. "A-are you alright, Gradon? H-here, take my hand."

After she helped him get back up to his feet, she heard Leblanc saying how they two should return to their room. She told Esther how she should get dressed, before she did "something that they would both enjoy" while licking her lips. This, of course, sent goosebumps to her neck right away. It reminded her when she first met Leblanc, and how she thought she was a terribly scary person to talk to. Now, after spending quite some time with her, she had become somewhat accostumed to her blunt and harsh personality. Somewhat, being the key word here.

"R-right, I'm going!" she quickly replied. Leblanc's intimidating mannerism had put a nervous fear to her that made her forget once again that Gradon now was added to the list of the males who had seen her in the skimpy nightgown.

Arriving back at her bed, she quickly took off said nightgown before putting on her red dress once again, not even bothering to look around to see if there was anyone else in the room.

@Lonewolf685@TheWindel

---

---

The brawl at the mess hall would come to an unexpectedly abrupt end as soon as the second wave of Cadets, along with Anton pretty much threw a bucket of cold water on the unruly soldiers' spirits. That and the quite bad injury Leblanc inflicted on one of them were enough to cause those who were looking for a way to waste excess stress to cool down.

"Well, look at that! It seems like you are getting used to the life in a frontier fort way far than I thought. That's really a journey full of firsts for you, right, Cadets?" Those words, said in a laid back, yet firm voice couldn't have come from anyone's mouth other than the Captain, who walked into the last moments of the fight, only to cause the rest of the soldiers to scatter around once a commissioned officer arrived at the scene. Interestingly enough, the uniform worn by the Captain matched that of Viola, except for the insignia denoting a far higher rank, of course. "By the way, one of you guys go gather everyone. I have a surprise for you— Actually, you may want to put your shirt back on for this one, Tzi," she said, after taking a look at Tzi's usual state of undress.As soon as the Captain was done with her comments, she was surprised by none other than Viola, who almost pounced at the Captain, with a bright smile stamped on her face. "Oh, Sis, you are really here, like you said you would be," the excited girl said.

The look of surprise was quite evident on the Captain's face as she stepped forward and placed a hand over Viola's head, fixing part of the younger soldier's hair. "So, you arrived already, Viola? I thought for sure that you would not come here before me," the Captain said. She halted her speech when she noticed that mark on Viola's face and asked, "What's this on your face? Don't say to me that you—"

"My squad was attacked by bears in the mountain," Viola said, quickly interrupting the Captain's question, almost as if she didn't want to let her finish it, probably because she didn't want to tell the Captain about the warm reception she got earlier this morning.

"Bears!?" the Captain asked, astonished.Nevertheless, they wouldn't have the chance to finish their talk since the bells of the fort began to toll right away, announcing that the convoy escorting the officer scheduled for the review had just arrived at Fort Orello. However, none of the men stationed at the distant garrison could expect to see who was it that left the main carriage and planted her greaves at the muddy, packed earth courtyard of Orello. No one but the Empire's Crown Princess, Ires, in flesh, bone and draconic armor."The installations are certainly bellow the average, especially for a fortification that spent fifteen percent above the planned budget on the previous year. This definitely doesn't leave a good first impression," the stern looking girl said to the fort's commander, who rushed to the gates, in order to meet her unexpectedly early arrival.

"I'm most sorry for the state of the fort, Your Highness. We were expecting your arrival for tomorrow, this wasn't supposed to—" the Commander said, trying to make up for the bad first impression as well as he could. Suddenly, a malicious gleam shone on his smile as he said, "Yes, indeed, everything was in order, until we received those Cadets from Cadenza and the Aquarians—"

"Your excuses are of no concern of mine, Commander," the Princess said harshly, interrupting the Commander's grovelling. "It's your responsibility to keep your own garrison in perfect order at all times. Yet," the Princess said as she walked past the Commander, reaching the aftermath of the mess brawl, "I see that you are having trouble keeping even your men on the line."

The Princess turned her gaze toward the standing Cadets as as well as the Captain, Anton and Viola, prompting the last three to drop their conversation and salute her with posthaste.

Interestingly enough, the next words to come out of the Princess' lips were kind of unexpected, at least for Viola. However, the Captain was quite aware of what to expect from one of her former pupils, as the was made evident by the slight smile on her face. "Commander," she said, addressing the Commander once more, "given that you need to fix this mess for tomorrow's review, but just as you say, the Cadets and the Aquarians are in the way. I declare that they are to take a night's leave at Orello Village. All expenses shall be covered by the Imperial Court, under my name. Meanwhile, your men are to work at double pace, if this fort isn't ready to be review by dawn's first light, cutting your budget by half will be the least of your worries," the Princess declared, smiling back to the Captain before leaving to the interior of the fort with the Commander in toll.

Leon Brandeau

It turned out Gradon was in better shape than Leon had expected, which was just fine by him. He was a little concerned by how Leblanc was carrying him, however, but that ended up being moot when Gradon suddenly jolted awake, seemingly no worse for wear. Leon was disturbed by the turn the conversation took upon his revival though; he wasn't much for innuendo, and he could only guess that Leblanc had something filthy on the mind as she spoke. Whatever was going on with them, Leon wanted no part of it. He would leave Leblanc, Esther and Gradon to do whatever it was they were talking about.

Of more interest to him was the arrival of their Captain. Her arrival came with the even more shocking discovery that Viola was her sister. "Who's that, Leon?" Anton asked him as he returned from rebuking his comrades.

"That's our Captain. She came with us to the fort." Leon told him.

"Oh, so she was there for the ghosts and s-"

"Yes." Leon quickly cut him off. "She was. Don't mention it again." He still couldn't believe Tzi had blabbed about that so casually. Now even Anton knew about the strange events of their patrol. He didn't expect it to matter that Anton knew, but goodness knew they shouldn't have told anyone.

Upon the tolling of the bells, Anton told him, "That's the signal that the review is beginning. But they weren't supposed to arrive until later..."

"Is this going to be a problem?" Leon asked him. There had been so much chaos since their arrival, he imagined it would have a poor impact on the fort's appearance.

"Maybe. But chances are it could just be some half-arsed officer who doesn't care too much. Still, try to look sharp." Anton's semi carefree attitude towards it all ended up being poorly considered, as the Imperial Princess of all people appeared to be the one leading the review. Anton hastily stood at attention and saluted her as she arrived, with Leon following suit. She announced indirectly that they would all be lodged in Orello village to get them out of the fort's way before leaving to further inspect the fort. With her gone, Leon relaxed, though Anton was less so.

"Bloody hell. We didn't know it was going to be the princess showing up. Look, I should probably go help and try to salvage this mess. You have fun vacationing in the village, eh Leon?" He gave Leon a final pat on the shoulder before leaving in a hurry, with Leon waving him goodbye. He felt bad for him, knowing he was probably going to have a hell of a time with this review, but he was still dwelling on the sudden arrival of the princess. He wondered why such an important person would be sent to review a fort. He would have thought that a review like this would only be important if they were expecting Orello to be ready for something...like a war. Leon hoped that was just his imagination going wild, but he was still certain there had to be a reason for this visit, especially since nobody seemed to know Ires was the one coming.

Approaching their Captain, Leon spoke to her. "Um, Captain, if I might ask; did you know anything about this?" He had already suspected she might have known about the review, though he wasn't a hundred percent certain. However, given he knew as well as anyone that Ires was a student of Cadenza until recently, he wondered if it wasn't possible she knew it was her that was coming here too. It was just idle speculation on his part, however, and he would have to take his Captain's word for it.

@KoL

Szeren walked into the fort behind the Princess, still unable to shake the feeling that this duty had been a punishment for missing the departure with the rest of the group. It hadn't felt like a punishment and she had no idea why the other cadets had been singled out either. But the feeling still persisted, even though the delay had been anything but her fault. It was likely that it was simply a matter of convenience.

The fort was about what she had expected for something so remote although the Princess didn't seem to have gotten a good first impression. There wasn't the relief of having finally reached a destination, sleeping on the road did little to bother her as grass and dirt were still an improvement over cold stone cobbles. There was also the fact that it seemed that they were moving along again anyway. Most of the other cadets she knew by sight, if not by name. And the Captain... anyone who attended the academy would know her. Without any new orders she stood just inside the gate to see who might take action first.

"I guess we're moving on again already."

---

Esther returned to the group just in time before the Princess made her appearance. She did not expect her appearance at all, so when she first saw her, she froze in place for quite some time before saluting her nervously.

Oh, how she was glad that she didn't catch her in her previous state of undress. She couldn't imagine standing in front of her wearing that semi see-through night gown, showing her her undergarments in all their glory. She would probably punish her for that even, for a lewd act unbecoming for a soldier of the Empire.

Esther, like the other Cadets, had seen her before in their times in the Academy. She always admired her, with how graceful and composed she was. She thought she exemplified the perfect noble woman, something that she wanted to become.

When the Princess declared for them to spend a night in the village, with all expenses paid by her, she was terribly surprised. She didn't expect her to come here and give them a vacation, albeit a short one. She couldn't help but smile looking at the commander's reaction to the announcement. Serves him right, she thought inside her heart.

"T-thank you, Your Majesty!" she said to the princess, retightening her salute posture to the point that it looked somewhat ridiculous. Her ladylike look really wasn't suited for doing a spartan soldier act after all.

@KoL

She was busy attempting to fix the man, Farris’s blow had managed to dislocate his knee, when the princess arrived in the room and so was a little late on the whole saluting thing, what with her facing the wrong way initially, and so only noticed when the wounded man himself saluted. She spun round and after she managed to recover from the shock of turning around and finding royalty standing in the door frame and gave an awkward salute from her kneeling position next to her patient.

She was surprised as everyone else that they were getting leave while the fort they were in was getting it’s royal inspection. Maybe they just wanted rid of the anomalies so they could review the fort in its normal state, or the princess, who had been a student at Academy she remembered, was bias towards her fellow magic users and also wanted something to rub in the face of the Commander who had tried to blame them for the state of affairs.

At any rate, after the princess left Althea forcibly rammed the mans knee back into its socket using her gauntlet and then stood and joined the others. The man himself quickly fled and left the Cadets and Aquarians on the own in the mess hall.

“I’ll go get ze others I guess, I need to check on Gradon anyway.”

She was a little unsure if she wanted to be outside the fort right now, what with the hostile column heading their way. She briefly wondered if this was some weird elaborate preemptive flanking maneuver disguised as an outing to fool spies or something, though that was probably her tired mind making conspiracy theories where none existed.

She went and found Gradon and Ferris, telling them that the princes was here and that they were going on a trip outside the walls to the town. She also checked on Gradon’s injuries but fortunately they did not seem serious, some light bruising for which she prescribed the same treatments as she had to Viola.

@DracoLunaris@KoL


"Don't think the Cap'll mind too much," answered the tall young man with a shrug. "But yeah, that was a was a real freaky adventure we went on."

Gradon was already waking up, which was a solid thing to know; even though he wasn't pretty tight with the other guy, it was always good to know that they had made it through a rest day without anybody getting stuck in a hospital bed. He remembered how bad those out-of-ring fights could get back before he joined up with Cadenza; boy, they were pretty fun, but the cleanup could get a bit messy. This time around, it looked like only a few folks had gotten hurt. Leblanc's methods were really effective against stuff similar to bar brawls, weren't they?

Any further thoughts Tzi might've had were interrupted by the arrival of the Captain. And the fact that the Viola girl they'd helped out was their boss' little sister. That explained the physical similarities, actually. The uniforms were really similar too.

"Sisters, huh?" he mused out loud. "Explains that sorta knightly elegance thing you both got going on. But man, I have to put the shirt on?"

His last words were accompanied by a grumble, but it was clear that despite his distaste for doing so, he was still going to comply with the recommendation. The talk of a review, and the sound of those bells - when coupled together, that obviously meant that there was a bigwig coming, and the bigwigs were in charge of letting him fight stuff, so it was best not to disrespect them too much.

"I'll be back in a jiffy," Tzi said casually, heading off to grab his shirt.

Of course, by the time he returned, his prominent chest now covered by a simple white shirt (although he was still donning his familiar mantle), the princess was standing there. Which he didn't expect at all. The pieces fell in place - this was the surprise the captain was talking about. Royalty coming along on that review?

Consider me surprised, Cap!

Despite his late arrival, he immediately stood at attention, shuffling over behind his fellow cadets.

Biggest of bigwigs was here, after all.

Watching the sergeant slink off... disdain, contempt and disgust simply filled Clean, making him feel anything but. Straightening his tie and grimacing he seriously considered stabbing the sergeant in the back, but that would simply get messy. Probably a court marshaling, being discharged before even getting beyond being a cadet and then executed. Letting himself simmer in his disgust, Clean clenched his teeth and a vein in his neck bulged. As he imagined the head fly off the sergeant's shoulders... he could swear he saw the mismatched girl bending out of the way almost as if she were made from rubber.

Hmm... a suppose a strong opponent is something hard to get out of your head, flexibility like that... how should I deal with it? he got stuck in his own head fighting a ghost... a memory... it was maddening. Before falling into a state Clean stalked off ignoring those around him, even the one that was the whole reason for him intervening. This whole place is filthy. Watching dust settle and moving into the mess hall, Clean saw the aftermath of Leblanc's intervention. It looked rather standard for her, either a bruised body or ego for everyone but her. Then there was a tone of voice.

Imperious. Brooking no argument. A tone he knew well, it's nobility. Even in his head the word dripped with vitriol. Inherited positions led to complacency. It's easy to look down and give orders if you have laurels to rest on. To prevent an outburst, Clean pivoted on his heel and leaned against the wall outside and listened in.

Hmph, look at me letting personal bias cloud my judgement. shaking his head is deprecation, Clean listened to the marching orders given by her majesty. The village. It caused conflicting emotions, he hated this fort, but he also hated that nobility was kicking out not only him, but also the wounded from Arcadia, forcing the burden on the local population. Still, nobility aren't the class mere cadets or even a captain can disobey without good reason. Entering the room Clean pointedly ignored the princess and saluted his captain.

"Cadet Crispin Clean will gather what supplies we have left and will attempt to assist the Arcadian troops in finding proper accommodations within the village proper for their wounded."

@KoL

---

---

"At ease, Clean. She's one of your Academy mates, Ires wouldn't behave like you think she's. You'd better show her some respect the next time, though. Like it or not she's both your Sovereign and Commander," the Captain said, placing a hand on Crispin's shoulder while drawing Viola with the other.

"Either way, gather whatever belongings you want to bring with you to Orello and head for the Golden Sheep. I'll explain everything once we are there," the Captain said as she left to round all of the remaining Cadets, including the most recent arrivals who came from Cadenza along with the Princess' escort as well as Natus, who was proving to be far more of a headache to keep track of than the Sonata thought when she picked the names of the Cadets to bring to this mission.

Once everyone was reunited and ready, it was time to follow the Royal Orders and leave for an all-paid night. Hopefully no one would complain about it, right?A little while ago...

Natus would find that his prowling around the fort would yeld a decent notion of its layout, including the locations of a few important installations —whose access he was denied to— like the armory, larder and the entrance to the underground dungeons. Along the areas where he could enter were the medical installations, the stables —given it's location, Orello still used sturdy mountain horses as primary means of transportation and work— and library.

The trail of the Sergeant would end when he entered the other section of the fort's barracks. The commotion caused with the Princess' arrival would make any attempts of impossible, given that Orello soldiers swarmed their barracks, quickly running around to try and set things in place as fast as they could. The last thing that stood in this brief scouting, right before the Captain herself came to fetch Natus, was a large wagon that the Soldiers brought from outside, through one of the side gates. Even though it was covered with a tarp, the ferrous smell coming from it, along with the occasional drops of blood dripping from it.

What Natus would make of these findings was up to his own judgment.

---

---

As the evening came and sun lazily hid behind the mountain peaks that encircled Orello Valley, the day gave in and the night sky soon wrapped the bountiful land under its starry blank. The Cadets found themselves finally gathered around a proper table, sharing the gift that was brought unto them by Princess Ires' generosity.

If there was one thing real about the village of Orello was that its famous sheep and beer were truly fine quality items. In fact, the village's specialty which lend its name to this very same tavern was lamb, slowly roasted so that its juicy fat could permeate every fiber of the sheep's tender meat seasoned with generous amounts of stout beer sauce. The mere smell of which was enough to fill Viola's mouth with drool, as she waited for the main dish to arrive at the great feast table they all sat around. Even though such table was located at the tavern's second floor."Very well, then. I guess it's time to tell you all about this mission, Cadets," the Captain said after drinking a full beer mug in one gulp and slamming it at the table to call for the Cadets' attention. Despite the feat, and the strength of the alcohol in question, Sonata didn't look tipsy at all as she did so.

"First things first, I should introduce you to a few of your class mates that missed the chance to follow us in the initial part of the patrol, Cadets Cormier and Szeren. Thankfully, Ires was considerate enough to allocate them as part of her personal scout. And this one here —as some of you already know— is Viola, the poster child of Aquarian's Royal Guard, while we may not be related by blood, she's someone important to me. If possible, treat her as one of your own," the Captain said, gesturing toward each of the girls she called for, before continuing, "This concludes the introductions."

"The truth is that I have indeed kept Ires' plans a secret. Of course, I knew it all along. Nevertheless, I meant to surprise you, as a reward for your scores," Sonata paced back and forth with arms crossed around her back as she continued her explanation. Her mannerism was pretty much the same as when she did any other lecture, though she evidently was much more laidback when off duty. "It's a shame that you couldn't take part in the festival, so I thought that have you take part in a live operation, joining a hunt patrol to take down an unknown dangerous monster that is driving the wildlife of Orello to attack humans was going to cheer you up. Ires came to review the fort personally, to be sure that it could contain the beast, in case it can be captured alive. She'll join the expedition as well, so yes... you all have been chosen to be the Imperial Princess' escort for this hunting mission, including Viola, who came as a representative of Aquaria.""The 'encounter' we had wasn't planned at all, obviously. After reporting to Orello's Commander, I have sent a message back to the High Command at Arpeggio. It's still highly classified. You may inform the others later, but none of this information can be discussed in the open. I have talked to Ires about it. She decided to use the expedition as bait to whomever is behind it, turning whatever traps they have may have planned on themselves," The Captain finally stopped talking once the barmaids began to climb the stairs, who let a characteristic creak, bringing their order.

"Anyway, Cadets, enjoy yourselves for the night. You have it free, so do whatever is it that you feel like doing but... don't go too wild. I'd hate to have to fill the paperwork to explain undue property damage. And," Sonata said, raising, her mug which had been refilled by one of the tavern maids, "remember your favorite Captain, when you are choosing the name of any baby girls you make tonight, right?"

"Oh, Sis!" Viola shot up from her chair. Her face was beet red as she glared at the Captain, shocked that Sonata could ever do a joke such as that.

"Just kidding, kiddos. If you do that I'll have even more paperwork to fill, after all!" the Captain said, taking a good laugh at Viola's expense, before silencing herself with another drink.

---

"Yes, Captain!" Esther replied enthustiastically to the Captain's order. She was getting excited for their little outing, especially with everyone going together there including the new cadets that came with the princess.

Returning to her bed once again, she took her things with her. She pretty much carried all her luggage, which was mostly clothes and the like.

After they all gathered back in front of the Captain, they marched towards Orello and their destination, The Golden Sheep. On their way, Esther feasted her eyes on the calm and soothing scenery of the village. Countryside really was the best place to live, she thought. Her home was in the countryside as well and when she had her couple excursions to the city, she still thought the countryside was the better of the two. Sure, the city could be really impressive and the countryside could get boring at times, but she felt like the city was too crowded for her liking.

Once she arrived at the Golden Sheep, they immediately took a seat on one of the tables in the tavern. As they were served alcohol, Esther made sure only to drink a little as she really was weak to the stuff. If she drank too much, she would instantly be drunk and she certainly didn't want that while they were being briefed by the captain. And speaking of the captain, she just gulped her beer down like it was nothing. She really was on a different class of her own, she thought.

As the captain introduced their newcomers, Esther greeted them cheerfully, introducing herself in the process. She certainly hoped they would get along nicely.

"A-an unknown monster?" she said once she heard the captain talk about their secret mission. "A-and we're going to do it with the princess on our side?"

Esther's eyes immediately lit up. She couldn't believe she was going to fight with the princess side by side! She was both excited and nervous at the revelation. She certainly didn't want to mess up in front of her for sure!

After that, the captain told them that they would have the night free to themselves (while making Esther blush at her baby-making comment). Esther looked around, not sure what she wanted to do.

Oh, I know! I should take a bath! We haven't had one in qute some time after all!, she thought as she remembered the hot springs bath they passed when they were walking here.

She remembered however that the bath seemed to be mixed gender, which made her reluctant to go. But after taking a sniff at her armpits (away from the others, of course), she decided to steel herself and went anyways. She just hoped that there wouldn't be any man in the bath.

@KoL

Hardly any time had passed and Leblanc went from one one tavern to another without the intention of getting smashed to make any sort of pub crawl worthwhile. Still, vacation time was never to be turned down, especially when the alternative was getting gang pressed into cleaning the garrison and ultimately taking any culpability for failing to cover their own laxity.

Snickering at the captain's sense of humor she imbibed a hearty drought of her beer, but left the mug idle to contemplate how best to use her time. Considering it's proximity to a military outpost, Orello village was adequately stocked for sating the needs of soldiers alongside the citizenry, and that left open a wide host of options though not much time at all to properly browse them all considering the lateness of the hour.

Out of the corner of her eye she was treated to the amusing sight of a prim young lady sniffing herself in disgust, and found the idea of the communal hot springs rather tempting. It wasn't like she needed more blades, and she still had the poisons she acquired from home while any medical supplies were superfluous with the abundance of physicians the cadets boasted. Books were passable for whiling away the idle hours, though Leblanc had a propensity for people watching that left what little bored downtime she had otherwise filled.

Which left her docket in a toss up between antiques and bathing, a dispute easily solved by opting to bathe first and checking out the antique shop afterwards. "Excuse me, I'm going to go wash Esther's back in the hot springs."

And with the added bonus of teasing the noble girl, how could Leblanc pass up the chance? She blushed brighter then Crown Princess being groped in the cadet's showers. Those were good days.

@Hammerman@KoL

Finis was disappointed that by time he found the library of the military fort, he was asked to leave. The city had a library, but it would like not have some of the same resources, however it might had what he need. However, now was not the time for that.

Finis carried very light, and all of his belongings could fit into a moderate sized bag: several changes of clothing, some basic goods, travel rations designed to be light, compact and efficient, and his journal. He would clean his body later when there was no prying eyes, though it would be harder to do consider the bath's seemingly neglecting any privacy. He had a certain respect for the common people of the empire, however some of their choices and believes seem very strange and foreign to him. However, they are the backbone of the empire, and thus are more than deserving his protection.

However, now that he had the opportunity, he went to the church. He waited if the priest was busy, however if the priest was free the strange, very short kid dressed in all black approached, did a small head nod out of respect and uttered a small family pray, "The sun purifies, the stars guide, and the moon hides."

“Um…yeah…thanks again Leblanc…” Gradon said, keeping both eyes on the snake-themed girl for as long as he could before she finally walked away. Not that he had anything against her, but he would rather not leave his wounds to be treated by the one flaunting a knife around. “Er, goodnight to you two Esther,” he called out, not sure what had just happened during his brief period of unconsciousness. Best to take the advice then, and so he began to limp back to his room.

He was stopped however by a concerned Althea who began to vigorously check his founds. Thankfully, nothing too serious seemed to be out of place and even better news was given alongside this diagnosis. The Princess of all people was visiting them! Apparently, this was all part of the routine checkup he had heard some of the other soldiers speak about in hushed tones of whisper. While that was all good and well, Gradon’s head still rang like a doorbell.

Seeing Althea go off to join the others, he opened his mouth to call out to her. He would have liked it if she told the Captain he would be absent for the time being, but another spike of pain in his head made him stop altogether. Sighing, he wobbled back into his sleeping quarters and hoped a nap would ease his weary head and jaw.

And so the young man slept through the Commander’s instructions as well as her relay of the next mission to come. Not that it was too much of a problem, since surely one of the other Cadets would inform him of the things to come in the approaching morning. Regardless, the evening was still lit with busy, bustling life and light as the citizens of Orello Village went about their nightly activities.

For a young Natus, his journey to the village church would not be in vain. For instead of a priest waiting to greet him, he would see a peculiar-lookng man sitting in one of the pews. Arms outstretched and resting on the back of the pew, he had a leg lazily crossed over his knee in content to be…well, lazy. Only when the doors of the church opened and slammed shut did he turn around to face Natus.

“Well, looky, looky. Here to confront your sins kiddo?” the man called out with a grin. “As for me? I’m here cause the old woman’s gone and put a curse on me again…hah! As if! So what brings you here anyway? Have you been a good boy?”

---

When Esther arrived at the hot springs bath, she was greeted by an old lady who seemed to be owner of the place. She told her how lucky she was since the springs were empty now, so she would have the entire place to herself. Of course, Esther immediately rejoiced at this knowledge, not wasting any time to pay the entry fee, head to the changing room, change to the towel provided, put her dress and undies inside her locker, and flung herself into the springs, leaving her towel on the ground nearby.

"Aaaaaah, so warm... It feels so nice... And this scent... it's simply lovely!" she said to herself as she soaked herself in the waters.

It didn't take long for her to feel drowsy, due to how nice and relaxed the water made her. It couldn't be helped. She had quite the rough days behind her and this was like heaven to her. And so she slowly drifted off to dreamland as she let her tired body rest on the walls of the bath.

Surely, it wouldn't hurt to take a little nap here...

---

It was a very eventful day. Almost too much for the young noble lady, or "noble" as some would emphasize. Regina's father has always told her never to let the royalty or the rest of nobility give her any kind of impression. Then again, her father never seemed to ever respect anyone. To put it simply, her father was not a nice man to anyone but his own family, and even then why was she forced to go to the academy if he was nice to her? Still, he was her father and her mother still loved, or tolerated, him even to this day. She was not exactly sure which was which at this point when it came to her parents.

Either way, here she was sitting in a tavern in Orello after having been to a frontier fort and now being told that they were vacationing here. However, the time came for her to have to introduce herself after the Captain introduced her own and Szeren. "It is a pleasure to meet you all." Regina said after the introduction, but then listened to what the Captain had to say. They were to go on a mission soon, and it was about capturing a dangerous beast. The reason for the Princess to be here was revealed, but right now that didn't matter so much as the free time they were to be given.

Maybe I should go to that hot-spring bath. Regina thought. She had to travel a large amount during the course of the past few days. Regina did not mind that it was a mixed bath as she was not that bashful, mostly thanks to her father and mother's....activities, but she saw a few of her classmates take interest in the bath as well. This might prove to be a good opportunity to see how they are like, but she did not want to talk to them immediately. No, she was going to simply observe unless someone came up to her. Adjusting her glasses and the bracelet she wore that was her vessel, she made her way into the bathhouse reading a final chapter in her book before closing it and getting ready for the medicinal properties that the bathhouse offered. Who knows? Maybe it offered something....more valuable than that. After all, her father always stressed the philosophy of "don't get caught."

The snake themed woman found herself at the hot springs with little issue, proximity making it the easiest place to reach outside of crashing in a bed. There was an old lady there who'd informed her one of the other cadets had just barely beaten her there, but that was only to be expected when one is stalking someone.

"Thank you." Nodding stiffly to the owner as she accepted Leblanc's money, and went about divesting herself of her torn clothing and assorted knives back into a convenient locker. Considering the usefulness of her Vessel it remained as the only stitch upon her as she departed for the spring itself, towel haphazardly slung over her arm.

"Hmm?" Her brows arched upwards to find that Esther seemed to be a in state of bliss bordering on slumber. Was she really so trusting as to leave herself exposed in public yet again today? In that case, best not to discourage this behavior....

Silent as a serpent amidst the grass, she slid into the embrace of the steaming waters and leaned against the stone wall a few feet to the drowsy cadet's right. Heckling her coworkers was indeed a source of amusement, but she wasn't so cold blooded as to pass up on enjoying the hot springs itself. Better to lull them into a sense of security, anyway.
@Hammerman