Leaving the tent, Nozomu found the camp much more active than usual. Dust had been kicked up a bit, the low clinking and clanking of gear moved around whirred in the background as everybody was busy packing and making preparations now so they'd be ready for tomorrow's march. Seems like even young entitled brats could be motivated to work if the prize was going back home, back to civilization, back to luxury and pampering. Captain Blatta (or "Roach" as some would call him when they made a literal translation of his name from High Imperial to Tolanese) himself was in front of his own tent, supervising the recruits. 'Now that's something you don't see every day,' Nozomu thought bitterly to herself as her antipathy for the man remained strong as ever.

The two of them had gotten off on the wrong foot since the moment they met. He was supposed to be some sort of veteran from the Great War - as he eagerly told and reminded anyone unfortunate enough to stand still in his presence for more than 5 seconds - but given his age he had ether been some sort of crazy child prodigy rushed early into the front lines or he had only seen the very tail-end of the war when the conflict had been all but over at that point. Given the fact that he was stationed in Nozomu's home town rather than a more prestigious place, the excessive debauchery, corruption, abysmal training regiment at the garrison and not having performed a single thing that would even remotely be categorized as a military action for over a year, she leaned more towards the latter theory. Brownish ginger hair, brown eyes, his "hobbies" having aged him to look like a man in his 30s even though he was in his late 20s, but to his credit he was at least not overweight, clean shaven and his arms and armor not rusted. So it's not like he was a total slob, just an asshole who couldn't be bothered.

"What, dice game today? Guess he must wanna make sure tomorrow's trip goes without a hitch. Probably wants to get to Hashikoshi more badly than we do. Heard the booze ran dry last week," Jirou commented as he exited the tent to stand next to his companion.

-"He's probably more worried that when we arrive he'd look anything less than the stellar captain he wants his superiors to think he is."

-"Oh yeah, I could totally see that. If brown nosing didn't exist he would have invented it!"

The two shared a laugh at the captain's expense but twice now Nozomu found herself giving him the squinty eyed look of suspicion in as many minutes. She had expected some playful back and forth bickering and protesting as she tried to saddle him with her responsibilities, again, but strangely enough today he gave in easily. Too easily. Didn't even try to put up a fight, just absentmindedly agreed and went along with her antics. Granted, she'd probably have been able to get her ways in the end, but it didn't always happen and she doubted Jirou had finally learned how he was supposed to behave! No, he was a lot of things, determined, driven, eloquent (when he wanted to be), fiercely intelligent with some very weird ideas at time, and certainly an oddball unlike any noble she's seen or heard of sure, but a doormat and a pushover he was not one of them. Something was up and she was pretty she knew what troubled him: like her, he was thinking about what the future had in store and what would happen once he was home…with the added complication that his parents almost certainly had plans for him. Maybe with a fiancé waiting for him. She almost laughed out loud when she thought of the expression he'd made if that were the case.

A strand of hair in her mouth, Nozomu mulled it over for a few seconds before she shrugged. “Let's go north to the higher viewpoint for one last look over the valley while there's still a bit of light.”

The whole camp is located on the side of a mountain overlooking the canyon created by the Shinzan river. The south route was a nice, wide, well traversed path that eventually curved around and rejoined the Hashikoshi-Eboracum highway. If she were to guess, she'd say this location was probably where highway patrols frequently broke camp. To the north was a much narrower animal path that lead farther up the mountain to the peak. It was treacherous, but at least it was traversable because the rest (east and west) was untamed wilderness, sheer cliffs, loose rocks, uneven slopes, thorny shrubs, and pretty much any other natural hazard one could think of. Even animals wouldn't traverse it save for maybe small critters. If it wasn't for the fact that humming trees were planted nearby and the region was frequented by humans, it would be exactly the kind of place one would expect to find monsters.

As the two made their way through the camp, the other recruits seemed content with ignoring them. As much as they'd love to put the arrogant "daughter of the coward general" and upstart "country bumpkin noble" in their place, they had all learned early on not to mess with - hands down - the best fighters in the camp (except maybe the captain, but no one's ever seen him fight so who knows?) until they were back in civilization and could leverage their parents or guards or other elements of society to do their bidding for them. It befuddled them too how Nozomu and Jirou had ended up in their outfit. While hotshots among nobility and even the commoners who intended to pursue a military career after the 1-year mandatory service (the proverbial bottleneck that separated of men from the boys) were not uncommon in a country with such a strong militant tradition, those were usually assigned to actual active duty, not this one. Everyone here was "above" such uncouth matters and destined for "more important" things, and they all knew it. The only reason they even came here was so that their families could at least save face/pretend/brag/exaggerate their pedigree in the royal court. Their parents would hear about this dishonor when they got back and the dimwit who had made such a logistical blunger would be demoted down so far he'd be saluting privates, or reassigned somewhere so far away the people living there had heard of it!

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Captain Blatta however did not share the same sentiment, "Hideaki! Andertharious! Why aren't you two packing?! When I said I want everyone bright and early tomorrow that included you two because I ain't stopping for nobody!" he barked at them.

-"You do realize that's a double negative, right si-"

-"SHUT UP!!!"

There's some of that Jirou weirdness Nozomu could never wrap her head around. "We're already packed, sir. Just going on patrol. We'll make it a short one and be back before you know it," she quickly added to placate the officer. The man glared at one, then the other. There was a rumbling in his throat like he really wanted to say something but was biting his tongue. After several tense seconds he huffed and stomped away, flipped over some recruit's baggage, telling him he did it wrong and to do it over again, then disappeared into his tent.

Releasing a breath, Nozomu shot her own Roach-like glare at Jirou who just grinned sheepishly and shrugged. Shaking her head, she lead the way out of camp and he followed.

In some respects she understood the dynamic. Jirou's family was the highest, most powerful nobility in Hashikoshi - which wasn't much in the grand scheme of the Imperial court - but might mean something to, let's say, a non-noble military captain who happened to be exhaled stationed there. As the 1st born and heir to the family, Jirou was no stranger to people ether jealous of his family's wealth or total toadies, kissing his ass with empty flattery, telling him what they think he wants to hear in hopes of exploiting him in the future. The good captain had been the latter. This is where Jirou's "strangeness" seemed to manifest. As far as Nozomu had seen, he ignored such people but disengaged politely rather than acting as if he were (rightfully) above them. In fact, she'd never seen him behave like a noble should in the sense of invoking his station in any capacity (by the Divine, he was her best friend. Her, a commoner and a pariah!), opting to treat everyone equally. He didn't even do the usual noble things like throwing money around on frivolous things or debauchery or wholes... But then captain Roach had made his opinion of Nozomu clear. After finding out that she was Jirou's "pet" he had immediately stopped, no doubt with the intention of getting into Jirou's good graces. While being ignored was far from ideal, Nozomu knew the man could make her life a living hell (had made her life a living hell before discovering her friendship with Jirou), it was much better than the other options.

And this is the part Nozomu couldn't understand. After that day Jirou had gone out of his way to give the captain as much sass as he could get away with, stopping just short of insubordination. His hold over him wasn't great, and they both knew it, Roach's brown nosing stemming more from the hopes of getting bribes for preferential treatment than from fear of reprisal. Why would Jirou unnecessarily antagonize the man who had the ability to ruin his career?

She absentmindedly chewed on her hair as she thought about this while ascending the slope. If she hadn't been so lost in thought she would have noticed that Jirou had been silent, uncharacteristically silent, the whole time. Before she knew it they were at the plateau near the cliff that overlooked the canyon below, timing the sunset just right, and the view kind of came at her all at once. 'Damn, it really is beautiful' she though before saying wistfully, “Weird to think that at some point we're going to miss this place…"

When no response came from Jirou, she frowned and looked over her shoulder. Only then did she notice that Jirou wasn't even looking at the scenery, having sat on a large rock, looking at his feet while twiddling his thumbs, obviously building up the courage to say something.

"*sigh* Nozomu, once our mandatory service time is over, I-" he began.

-'Oh no'

-"-I'm-"

-"*gulp*"

-"-I'm dropping out of the military and leaving."

-"..."

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"...What."

The mystery of the sass was solved.