Laurentius lay half-asleep in his bed undisturbed for a good few minutes. He felt a tickle at his nose and exhaled sharply in his daze to drive the disturbance away. His eyes were still closed, and his blanket felt heavy, heavier than usual. He felt as though today was a bad day to wake up early and wanted to sleep in.

He felt the tickle at his nose again. He tried to brush it away with his hand but it wouldn't move as though it was being held in place. He tilted his head to the side and felt the tickle move to his cheek. A pressure began to build at his chest though it wasn't unbearable. No matter where he moved his head the tickle wouldn't go away and then he heard a familiar voice.

"Oi, how long are you going to pretend to be asleep?"

He cracked an eye open to see if it was who he thought it was but was met with a red head of hair being dangled over his head. He stared for a good few moments before letting out his reply.

"You're not Mia."

The redhead then dropped like a stone onto his face waking them both with a light thud. They both rolled to opposite sides of the bed clutching their heads in dissatisfaction. The redhead looked around and towards Mia before saying.

"What was that for?"

"No one told you to fall asleep on my back, My neck's covered in drool because of you."

Laurentius looked over at the two.

"Well, Mia while It's good to see you haven't changed, you mind telling me what you're doing in my room so early in the morning?"

Mia began poking the exposed parts of the red head's exposed skin as she squirmed and moved away before giving her reply still messing with the writhing girl on his bed.

"Lagina sent me to make sure you don't attack the scout who's coming your way. No doubt to see what's taking the supply cart so long."

As he rubbed his head he looked at the barely dressed girl she was tormenting and had to ask.

"Did Lagina send her to keep me from attacking the scout too?"

"Nah seems to me like she just wanted to get rid of her... Mind if I use your room? It's about time I go to sleep anyway."

"So she is going to keep me from attacking him?"

"By my best estimate, the scout won't be here for at least another few days I have time."

Laurentius sighed, slowly releasing the hold on his still aching head. There was a slight red mark on the centre of his forehead. Mia began gently pushing him off the bed and onto the floor before getting herself comfortable and grabbing the other girl like an unwilling plushie.

She struggled uselessly in her arms. Before Laurentius could protest, Mia had already buried her face in the red head's rather unimpressive bust and fallen asleep. He stood by his bed in his boxer shorts looking down at the girl pleading with her eyes for help and just whispered under his breath.

"Me too taxidermy bear replacement... Me too..."

He turned away and left her to struggle in Mia's unwavering grip as he dressed himself for the day. From his wardrobe he chose his clothes carefully- He was definitely the most well-dressed of the men in the base.

He left his room about a half hour past sunrise and got breakfast after locking his bedroom door ensuring there was a space key on the hook to the left of the door. Latif was waiting for him outside.

"So how did the report go?"

"Oh, you let her in."

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"Don't be like that, she would have let herself in if I hadn't been there when she arrived. You know how persuasive she can be"

"You know there's a difference between being persuasive and exploitative."

Latif just laughed, he turned from Laurentius' door to return to his post.

"If you need me you know where to find me."

Latif shut himself in the med bay and returned to overlooking the progress of his students. Laurentius straightened his back shook the sleep from his face and started walking to the mess hall.

After breakfast, he shut himself up in the war room and began listening to the complaints of the new recruits. Most of them were angry at Lahahana as he was out in charge of the watch tower as well as a trusted group of old men who constantly watched over their own camp. and he just repeated himself to every single person.

"I'm sorry you got caught trying to sneak into the women's camp again."

"I'm sorry you were too stupid not to follow orders."

"I'm sorry you guys suck at being stealthy."

"I'm sorry you got your ass handed to you by a bunch of women and had to drag yourself back in tatters."

"I'm sorry you don't understand how hierarchies work."

Like an answering machine, he droned on responding to their complaints while reviewing maps and charters. And he ended them all the same way.

"We're going to go into lockdown in a couple of days because a scout is coming over to check what happened to their supplies and unless you all want to be slaves again you're going to have to comply."

They weren't too happy with his leadership but they knew from their training at the hands of Lahahana and Laurentius they could neither take him in a fight nor catch him off guard at a distance, so they would just have to accept his non-apologies and move on.

After about 8 hours of nonstop work, Mia entered the war room and sat down quietly across from him.

"Yeah, I have a complaint."

"I'm sorry you... "

He looked up from his papers

"Oh, Mia. what were you going to say?"

"One of the boys smelled woman coming from your room and broke down the door, we're going to need a janitor in there cause the smell of blood is hard to sleep by."

He blinked loudly.

"What?"

"You didn't train these guys hard enough, I slapped him and he splattered all over the wall like a melon from a roof. Also, I lost the girl I brought you might want to find her before the guys find out and do something I'll have to increase my kill counter to fix."

"You killed a guy?"

"Maybe you should scrape him off the wall and leave him by the carriages, I'm sure he'll rot by the time the scout arrives. I'll probably have a fine amount of corpses to make it seem more convincing the caravan died to animals."

"Stop it I'll handle it."

"Alright, I'm looking forward to your results."

Mia sat leaning back in the chair at the war room table, she idly slapped a bowl of fruit with her heel in the centre and caught an apple in her mouth as Laurentius got up and walked out. The sound of her biting through the apple loudly was the last thing he heard from her as he closed the door behind him.

He then began marching through all of the few rooms they'd built-in search of the girl Mia'd brought with her because Lagina didn't want to deal with her. When he first stepped out he talked to the guards at the archery rooms nearest the war room asking if they'd seen her pass by recently.

They informed him they saw Mia pass by just now but only saw the other girl on her way in, so he eliminated the possibility of her being on the first floor. He then opened the pitfall door to the storage area but he couldn't see anyone in the room from his current position and straining his ears to hear did him no favours in finding out if she was here or not.

He considered jumping down onto the nearest stack of boxes but it was still a ten-foot drop with no guarantee he'd stick the landing and he didn't want to die lest Mia go on a rampage killing indiscriminately until she was found.

Closing the door he turned on heel and ran down the stairs. Immediately lamenting the smell of blood coming from his once hidden door. He first checked in his room, he looked around every wardrobe, under the bed, in every container and didn't find her.

He went back out and checked behind the bar and in other places in the general lounge area to see if she was hidden in plain sight but turned up empty every time. When he made it to the storage room he saw hidden in a small group of boxes that had been arranged carefully to hide what lie beneath from the view above a single girl tied up bereft of clothes with a man sitting six feet apart from her with a pen and paper in hand.

He began to reach for his sword. The man began frantically waving the pad of papers and his writing implement in hand shouting.

"No, no, no, wait! I can explain!... It's exactly what it looks like."