I realized that the Cloud had suddenly appeared on that night. At first there was a gathering of them and suddenly in the report, it had coalesced into one. In the first place, how does a Cloud of Disharmony came to being?
“Was it really because I was the strongest or was it because of another reason?”
Katarinova who was walking beside my right was questioning me in a suspicious tone as I pondered. August had already left earlier before the sun rise. Vassil and Kiefy was preparing for their excursion outside of the border while Krolve stayed behind, overlooking the watchtower.
As of now, both of us were walking to the village.
“Yes, have I ever lied to you?”
Sure, several times but really, what I was trying to say was -‘Yes, have I ever lied to you that it could harm you?’- was what I meant. It’s just an incomplete and harmless statement, that’s all.
From the side, she was still glaring at me unsatisfyingly.
I learned long ago that woman’s intuition is scary to the point of bending the will of reality.
Along the way, she made it known that she was annoyed by her occasional grunting and stomping on the ground as we walk.
When we reached the town, she was pouting openly and her entire being was letting off an aura of irritation.
Everyone in the proximity had subconsciously shirked away from us. They could sense the prowling beast that had its mood gone afoul.
We arrived at the rest-house. Seeing some of the guards loitering around, Katarinova pout turned into a scowl and then-
“Gather every Captain here. We are entering in the state of emergency!!”
She shouted at the top of her lungs while looking truly irked. The shout literally had shaken the whole structure of the rest-house.
I found out days ago that Katarinova was the type who disliked being lied on and if she ever perceived that she was, she gets into a terrible mood and slowly but surely, everything she was holding in would explode if she had even the slightest provocation.
In other short, she dislikes lies and is very emotional.
But she is not unreasonable when she is like this and she would often lash out while keeping it to a minimum.
She huff and puff after shouting while watching the guards jolted and chaotically went around as they were assembling.
I can only watch with a nervous expression as her roar had unconsciously made me shaking.
At that time I had added another woman in the list of people that I don’t want to piss off.
--
After we had gathered all the captains and briefed them about the cloud, they had various expressions as they listened. Some were puzzled while others were grim.
The grim one probably knew or it was just something of a foresight. Anything from beyond the Border is never a good thing as far as they concern.
“…Keep watch and report anything unusual, anything whether it’s significant or not.”
After finishing her instruction ends, the Captains dispersed.
As I sat beside her, she inhaled and exhaled a deep breath.
“I need a fixer for this. Since Kiefy, Vassil and August are not here, I guess you’ll do.”
“Do what?”
As I asked her, I actually knew what she meant but I had hope that it was another thing.
“Do a sparring. I need to beat up something to vent my frustration.”
She viciously grinned at me.
It was my turn to breathe in and out deeply.
--
I never had spar with Katarinova before as Kiefy or Vassil would usually be her partner. Now I know the time I had with Vefal was a blissful leisure.
As I lie on the ground with bruises and every part of my bones cracked, I was also struggling to catch my breath. We were behind the resthouse practice space. Everyone in the regiment were organizing their units while both Katarinova and I decided (Mainly her) to pass the time by sparring.
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She had a unique fighting style of dual spear-wielding.
“That was pretty light, you know, I’m still not satisfied.”
“You do realize I still have anaemia.”
“Stop using that as an excuse, who knows you still have it or not. I do know you gotten yourself treated so it you might not have it anymore, come on and get up, I haven’t had my fill!”
While giving me a vicious grin, she stood across me waiting for me to get up. I decided to use the turtle manoeuvre that is by staying on the ground where we wouldn’t initiate the spar.
She frowned and just as she was about to walk towards me, two of my hopes had arrived.
Kiefy and Vassil looked as every bit as ready in their preparation with their anti-detection cloaks and Eomancy enhanced armours.
“Good, some fine sparring partners. I accidentally reduce Ruigne into an invalid, so would one of you would kindly replace his spot and be my punch- I mean a sparring partner.”
After she said that with a sadistic tone, both Kiefy and Vassil looked at each other. After a few second, they both decided it by Rock, Scissor and Paper.
Kiefy won by using Paper against Vassil’s Rock.
“… You have to win three times.”
Vassil added the condition after he was losing is sly but Kiefy doesn’t seem to mind.
As they duke it out, I turned towards the smiling Katarinova.
“You know, I know a guy who enjoys getting the shit beaten out of him and his in my group, in fact he goes by the name August. Are you interested?”
She looked at me with pitiful stare while showing a slight smile when I said that.
“I don’t enjoy beating a masochist. You know they actually get off from that. I’ll stick with beating you up.”
She replied coolly.
Well, that’s that. I should crawl my way out of this practice space lest I get into more injuries from the brawl of two titans.
After a lengthy match, Kiefy had lost against Vassil and I still was only half-way out.
Seeing me still crawling out as silently as possible, Katarinova walked towards me and lifted me off the ground. She’s even physically stronger than I am.
“Would you like it as gently as possible or should I throw you off like a man?”
“Obviously the form-”
Before I could finish, she mercilessly threw me outside of the practice space without care. I groaned as the existing pain inside my body had intensified. This woman is the devil’s incarnation!
“Kuh… Dang it, you’re a liar. You’re a sadist aren’t you!?”
“No, that was for pissing me off this morning. You deserve at least that much.”
She answered my accusation with smirk showing her satisfaction. At least she is appeased but does this mean I have to face this for every day in these three months?
The very thought made me shiver greatly inside but I can live through this!
Vassil came and sat beside me as we watched Kiefy sparring against Katarinova.
“Don’t mind about her violence outburst although I don’t know what you did or said to pissed her off.”
“She’s mad at me for not letting her go with you guys.”
“Aye, that’s Rino alright. I mean where’s there are dangers, you find her in the thick of it.”
Kiefy was defending himself perfectly against Katarinova relentless flurry of graceful and précised attacks. It was like dance choreography between the two of them but every exchange was made by the efforts of their years of training and combat experience.
Both of them gave or neither gain no ground with each other and the dance of sword and spears could look like it could go forever.
“Sir Kiefy is truly worthy of his title as ‘Immovable Knight’. I think the only other people that could stand toe to toe in melee combat with Rino are Vefal, Erganisu or that Therius guy right?”
I nodded without looking at him as I was fixated with the sparring in front me.
“Vefal, eh, is she avail-”
“Nope.”
I shot down his attempt while still staring at the spectacle. He made a small chuckle as he knew the implication behind that one word.
“Well, after both of us are gone, it’s only you, Krolve and Rino left here for days. Take care of her alright? She might seem strong-willed and unyielding but she’s still just a mortal who get hurts and need someone to lean on.”
“She can lean on Krolve.”
“Uh, Krolve have a child-like mentality. Not really reliable on the emotional part and furthermore, you’re someone that can be relied on as both of you can empathized on a human level.”
He insisted with his point but I do feel reluctant as doing that would make me to be too involved in terms of intimacy but it’s not to the point where she would fall towards me. She’s not some prepubescent girl that would easily sway just by a few tender words.
I reminded myself that humans in general are complex emotional creatures.
“Aye, I guess I can do that much.”
Vassil smiled with ease. After a few round of the sparring, Vassil once again turned towards me.
“Although, I don’t really understand why you wanted us to kidnap one of those things, I never seen one before but you said it was a something like a slug right?”
“Yup, don’t worry though, I already provided you guys a pathfinder and some maps that had been chartered by the scouts that patrol along the border. It’s not much but you guys can move smoothly with these.”
He looked baffled for some reason.
“That’s… I was wondering why we need the maps though. I mean it’s good for us going outside into the Border but what’s the other use for the maps for you guys?”
“Information. If you want to win a battle, you have to gather as much information as you can to increase your chance in winning. For me, a perfect win is when you reduced the unnecessary casualties and achieving all the objectives, although it won’t happen every time but having information is the first step in increasing the chance of having that win. So I utilized everything that is within my disposal and gathered all the information that can be collected. Those maps are vital in terms of strategic placement and predicting the enemy movements.”
“… You’re more terrifying than our wily Steel Shadow General, bless his soul.”
That was his response to my long-winded reason but every time I tell people about this, they would be dumbfounded or shocked. I mean what is so surprising about Intel gathering?