Page 78

AnnouncementI just found out you can gift Patreon memberships, so make sure to join the where I'll be giving some away every now and again!

Serena woke to an unfamiliar ceiling in an unfamiliar bed. What was familiar, however, was the warm body of Amelia pressing against her. She was sleeping soundly, so Serena took a while to enjoy the sensation of her girlfriend’s chest rising and falling against her back. It was a comfortable pressure that brought with it a satisfying feeling of warmth and strangely enough, safety.

Her mind felt refreshed and free of burden. The layers of stress that had built up repeatedly over the last month from her military obligations, academy duties, and studying for the commodore exam had vanished entirely. Even with Amelia frequently healing Serena, the mental strain would return the same day.

Was this newfound clarity… due to last night’s activities?

No! Surely not! What kind of indecent woman would that make Serena, if she were the type to destress through such… actions? Although she naturally rejected that, Serena could admit to herself that she felt some level of pride. After all, Amelia was sleeping like a babe, exhausted and entirely satisfied by Serena’s extensive punishment.

Is this what a man feels like, after…? Serena thought, quickly pushing the topic out of her mind and refocusing on mental revision of fleet tactics and logistics. She remained absorbed in her thoughts while the room progressively brightened as natural light diffused through the paper windows and doors.

Not long later, the Asamaywa bell towers began their early morning cries. It was Saturday - the day of Katalin’s weekend session. While a part of Serena wanted to remain in bed, sharing warmth with her girlfriend, she knew the Northern swordmaster would be returning to the North soon, and every session was a tremendous benefit to both Serena’s and Amelia’s training.

With the exception of the cancelled session immediately after the Asamaywa fire, Serena and Amelia reliably attended every one. Katalin’s sessions were split into two parts; the first was a more standard training session attended by perhaps two dozen of the academy’s staff, while the second was relentless, consisting of intense dueling and simulated situations that pushed those that remained to their limits.

Along with Serena, only those with a strong yellow aura could keep up. Other than her and Amelia, the only instructors reliably attending the second part of the session were Ryosuke, Nathaniel, and Joey. Amelia struggled, but that was only due to her minimising the use of healing magic to keep herself going. Her girlfriend had become quite accustomed to pushing herself through difficult experiences, and while she didn’t have the mindset of a soldier, she’d matured greatly over her time at the academy.

Not to mention, Amelia’s body had even built a little muscle, putting the sensation of her body somewhere between firm and soft in a way that Serena was secretly delighted about.

And the arms of that body were now squeezing her tight.

“Morning, Ren,” Amelia mumbled before yawning loudly.

“You knew I was awake?”

“I know how you breathe when you sleep,” Amelia replied, nuzzling into Serena’s back. “Wow, now I’ve said that, it sounds creepy, doesn’t it? Here…” Amelia invoked her magic, healing and cleaning them both. “Katalin’s session today, right? She mentioned she would do something special.” Amelia yawned again, likely more out of habit than any morning tiredness - the latter of which would have been obliterated by her spellwork.

Amelia sat up while Serena rotated onto her back. She idly moved her hand and lightly rubbed Amelia’s back, running her fingers through her silky golden hair. “No coffee here,” Amelia said quietly. She turned her head down towards Serena and asked, “Should we-” Amelia stopped talking, suddenly looking away. “Uh, should we get coffee on the way?”

“Yeah, and some food,” Serena replied. “We can walk slow…” She felt herself frown. “Lia?”

“Mmm?” Amelia hummed, looking away.

“Look at me,” Serena requested, her mouth curling with amusement. Amelia was quiet for a few seconds before turning to face Serena, revealing a flushed face. Not only that, but Amelia found it challenging to meet Serena’s gaze. “Oh?” Serena asked. “What’s made you so timid?”

“I’m not timid!” Amelia exclaimed, puffing her cheeks out. “It’s just…”

“Just?”

“I remembered…” Amelia chewed her lip. “Last night…” Her voice became extremely quiet. “It was so much more than you’d done before…” Her girlfriend giggled. “You haven’t treated me like that since that time we got drunk in Kenhoro! It was overwhelming…” Amelia looked away again. “But also really nice…”

“Ha!” Serena laughed. So that was all she had to do to reverse the deck against Amelia!? For months she’d accepted a relationship where Amelia would relentlessly try and make Serena blush with her lewd compliments and requests. Only now, it was Amelia on the backfoot and Serena relishing her victory!

All it took was a night-long aura-enhanced assault against her girlfriend’s senses!

“Well,” Serena couldn’t stop herself grinning. “It has been a while, hasn’t it? Have to make up for lost time, don’t we?”

“You…” Amelia rolled her eyes, “Look so smug right now.”

“I’ve been taught by a master of smugness, after all!” Serena reached out, pulling Amelia into a hug. They held each other for a while before agreeing to get moving. They quickly dressed, helping each other adjust their kimonos. They would have to stop by their rooms in the academy to get into their uniforms before going to the session.

Suddenly, Serena’s enhanced ears picked up the sound of someone knocking; not at the door to the house, but at the unstaffed gate at the estate entrance. The individual knocked out, before calling out Amelia’s name.

Serena sighed. She was concerned it might be a friend or an acquaintance of Lord Kanamori, but it was neither of those things.

What was he doing here, so early?

“As Head of House Thornheart, why don’t you go and greet your first ever visitor?” Serena offered. “I’ll come out in a bit.”

“Mmm! Sure!” Amelia nodded happily, her golden hair rising and falling in waves. The wards surrounding the building were released as Amelia bounced out of the room and down the gravel path winding through the well-kept gardens.

Serena tied her hair, only moving after she sensed Amelia cast more magic.

She followed after Amelia, quickly reaching the gate where she found a very annoyed-looking man knee-deep in the entryway of the estate. Amelia’s earth magic had made him sink, trapping him completely.

“I remembered!” Amelia declared proudly, putting her hands on her hips as she twirled to face Serena. “To put him in the ground! Remember?” Amelia turned back to the trapped man, lecturing, “This is what you get when you make plans behind our backs! Hmm!? Are you sorry now, Aiden!?”

“...I wasn’t the one who made the plans…” Aiden countered, his voice exasperated. “Besides, look!” He held a suspiciously bottle-shaped gift in one hand. “I bought a house-warming gift! Ah, can you let me up? I can feel dirt getting into my shoes…”

Ignoring his complaints, Amelia grinned and took the gift.

“A house-warming gift?” Serena questioned.

“It’s a popular tradition in Centralis,” Aiden explained as he slowly sank further into the ground. “And I haven’t met Amelia since Kenhoro so I thought it would be appropriate!” His voice sped up as the stone reached his thighs. “Amelia, can we do something about this?”

“Oh!” Amelia beamed, ripping open the gift. “It’s loqua! Blue!” Amelia showed the expensive bottle to Serena before turning to Aiden. “Bribe accepted! You’ll live for now, Aiden!”

“Give me that,” Serena instructed, taking the bottle from Amelia. There was no way that Aiden the Drunk would willingly give up a whole bottle of loqua. As it turned out, she was right. “He’s already drunk a third!” Serena exclaimed, pointing out the level of liquid to Amelia. “You idiot!” she said, chastising Aiden. “Who paid for this? Intelligence? Are you planning to drink all the diplomatic gifts you give? Amelia…” she intoned, making herself frown and seem serious. “It’s bad luck to have your first guest be a man controlled by greed and alcohol. Better bury him completely. We’ll tell the Old Guard we never saw him.”

“Mmm!” Amelia crossed her arms, nodding. “It was nice knowing you, Aiden. We’ll drink to your memory!”

“No! Wait!” Aiden cried as he sank to his waist. “I have your deployment orders!”

He stopped sinking.

Amelia looked at Serena with an expression that said, “Should we bury him anyway?”

Serena shook her head. “I suppose he can live a little longer.” She snapped her fingers. “Let’s see them, then.”

Aiden fished a thin, sealed letter from his pocket and handed it to Serena. The envelope was addressed to Captain Serena Halen and sealed with the sigil of the Imperial Navy. She tore it open. There was only one piece of paper, and it didn’t take her long to find the important part.

As she read it, she frowned. She was to take the Southern Passage west to the Southern Terra Firma and make land at Ishaq, where she would then receive information about her next destination. The orders gave no information about what she was supposed to be doing other than travelling. They only clarified she was to establish her elite team of recruits by the semester's end.

If… if Ishaq wasn’t the true destination, were they going to have to traverse the Arakian Desert? Lift engines didn’t work over the red sand of the Southern Terra Firma nor was there any rail network - the local wildlife made it impossible to maintain. The residents of the south had to either walk the sands or ride animals.

“W-what’s our destination!” Amelia asked, bouncing on her toes.

“Secret,” Serena answered, folding the paper and putting it back in the envelope. “What?” she asked, seeing Amelia frown. “These are military orders and you are a civilian. You’ll find out our destination when the rest of the crew does.” Despite their relationship and closeness, there were still lines she shouldn’t cross.

“Fine!” Amelia pouted, but didn’t chase the matter. “Can you at least tell me if it’s somewhere different?”

“Maybe,” Serena answered, giving Amelia a sly smile. “On a different subject,” she said, eyeing the half-buried Intelligence officer. “How did you know she was here? No one followed us here.” Serena had been extra careful the night before, flaring her aether to make sure there wasn’t anyone lurking around any corners. With Amelia’s wards of privacy they should have been invisible to the world.

“Ah,” Aiden mumbled. “You were seen walking into this area, and given Amelia’s recent acquisition - congratulations by the way - it was easy to figure out where you both were. Now, if that’s all your questions…” Aiden’s voice took on a hint of annoyance. “Can you please release me! I want to die surrounded by expensive liquor and elegant women, not buried underneath some noble's estate!”

Amelia giggled. “Okay!” she exclaimed. Moments later, Aiden was standing on solid ground. Amelia's cleaning magic took care of everything before he could complain about the state of his clothes. Before he could thank her, Amelia leapt forward and hugged the man.

“Long time no see!” Amelia stepped back. “Did you hear about me becoming a saint? Want to celebrate after? I doubt we’ll have a chance to drink much while sailing to wherever!”

Empress save me, Serena thought. She’s worse than him!

While Amelia and Aiden caught up, they walked towards the academy. They stopped at a nearby coffee shop, where Amelia brought them all a cup of steaming Jimari coffee. They found a stall selling wraps and Amelia was happy to see they sold a wrap filled with choco meat and a tangy cream sauce.

They arrived at the academy shortly after finishing their breakfast. Aiden bade them farewell, but before he left, Amelia healed him, citing how haggard he looked. Serena had to agree. Intelligence was putting Aiden through an accelerated course on fieldwork to get him up to speed before they left. He told them he was averaging four hours of sleep.

“I…” Aiden mumbled after the golden light died down. “It really is amazing… your magic I mean.” He looked at Serena. “You’re blessed, to be able to access this ability whenever you want… Seven hells, now that I really look, it’s made you younger hasn’t it? You look like you’re in your mid-twenties! That’s crazy…” He shook his head. “No one would suspect that you’re really-”

“See you later, Aiden,” Serena said, clicking her tongue and guiding Amelia through the academy entrance.

“B-bye!” Amelia said with a wave.

“I can’t believe he’s coming with us,” Serena said once they were alone. “Hope he can adjust to life on a ship.” As she said that, she remembered something about Aiden. Didn’t he once tell her he got terribly airsick?

He would be okay… wouldn’t he?

“I’ll see you there,” Serena said. She returned to her quarters, changed into her instructor uniform and walked to the training hall. She lingered outside until Amelia appeared before entering together.

Katalin, as usual, was there. She was warming herself up, seemingly not paying attention to them, but Serena knew the highlord’s senses were sharp. Something about the Northern demon made her want to be better. Feeling herself almost unconsciously straighten her posture, Serena collected her training sword and began warming up with Amelia.

The first session was, as expected, intense but manageable. While a few less experienced warriors had to step out occasionally to rest, the remainder powered through. Katalin took them through exercises, one of which involved forming groups of eight, where one person would stand in the middle of a circle formed by the rest of their group.

They would then take turns attacking the defender in the middle, who would need to adapt and counter. At first, the attacks were prescribed and done sequentially in a clockwise order. Then, changes were made to slowly make things more difficult for the defender in the middle.

The first change was the requirement that they had to counter using a different strike each time. Then, the attack order was changed to be random, forcing the defender to rely on their instincts and aura-enhanced stances. Next, the attacks were no longer prescribed, allowing the attacker full freedom on how to conduct their assault, requiring the defender to react instantaneously to a slash or stab targeting anywhere on their body. The final change was that there was no longer any restriction on how many people could attack at once.

That last rule essentially turned it into a brawl.

Serena was defending, and when Katalin barked the order to begin, she flared her aura into a bright yellow, slipping past the defense of a junior instructor's orange and throwing him at the rest of the group. She twisted out of the circle, parrying an incoming blade away before kicking sand in the faces of her attackers. She didn’t stop and give them a chance to organise themselves, she struck, kicked, punched and tripped everyone she could, striking as often as possible and only defending when necessary.

Katalin’s prior lessons on fighting groups formed the basis of her actions.

Even as Serena moved, she couldn’t help but consider how much real combat experience the highlord had. How Katalin handled herself, how she moved, how she explained martial concepts… the rumours that she lived a reclusive life in her father’s estate couldn’t be true.

Serena fought desperately for another few seconds before Ryosuke managed to overwhelm her, tripping and putting her on the floor. He wiped sand from his face while keeping his sword tip against Serena’s chest.