More soldiers started coming to the palace as the threat of war grew—they couldn’t quite ignore it, and a few servants even had difficulty coming in and out of the palace thanks to a few people who had ill intentions. They kept a close eye on most new recruits—although any servants or soldiers that had been working there seemed to be above suspicion.

Guards and soldiers ate together—after the servants but before the royal family, sometime in the early hours of daylight—so Seiko had yet another chance to try to speak with others. The most women there were guards of princesses or the royal wives, with any others being a few years older than Mikka, typically unmarried and childless from what Seiko knew. The men were a bit more varied, although there were still only a few around Seiko’s age.

Seiko seemed to attract the dozen or so people that only had a year or two’s difference from her, meaning that all the young adults stayed near the same area. Only two were brave enough to speak to her on their first day of being there, however.

She was in the dining hall with a majority of the other guards and soldiers, speaking quietly to her voices thanks to the noise of everyone around her. Her voices dulled when someone behind her spoke—strange in that she didn’t recognize the people when she looked at them. There were two men roughly her age—one looked to have some Sólstaðuric blood in him, while the other was smiling a bit in a likely attempt to be friendly. The latter spoke.

“Mind if we sit around here, ma’am?”

“No, I don’t. Take a seat.”

Both nodded some thanks, and each took a seat on either side of her. “Masaaki Sonoru, by the way,” said the one who had spoken earlier.

“Kinjo Asahi.”

“Tsujihara Seiko.”

Masaaki and Kinjo took some food, and the former mostly entertained innocent conversation in between bites.

“Where are you two currently working at?” Masaaki asked curiously. “I’m going to be heading over to watch Prince Kyuru.”

“We might be close, then,” Seiko mused. “I’m one of Princess Maenomi’s guards.”

“Lord Ozuru’s children, right?” Kinjo asked. Seiko nodded, and he continued on, “I’ll just be heading out and fighting wherever they need me. It can be hard to guard someone else.” He looked at Seiko, and asked, “Have you been here long, Tsujihara?”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“About two months now,” Seiko replied, “Although I was an assistant first.”

“How’d you go from assistant to guard?” Masaaki asked curiously.

Seiko answered with a simple answer—Lord Ozuru decided was a better guard than assistant—and the conversation lasted until they were called out to start their work. Her voices helped her make note of the important things—both of them were noblemen’s sons, living east of the capital. Given how they were all soldiers for the moment, neither seemed to care that her family wasn’t as lofty; she didn’t mention her parents specifically, however, to avoid speaking of her father. She wanted to avoid possible pity—or possible hatred—by admitting to be a bastard child.

While she had a clearer mind without the voices hounding her, it made her realize how strange it was that she was even here to begin with—a girl with her praised beauty usually became a miko or a servant girl, not a soldier. As soon as she had that thought of her own, however, the voices who wanted to speak all did so at once. Don’t question it, girl. You can question it all when it’s over.

Seiko showed Masaaki to Prince Kyuru’s room, and the boy’s other guard entertained a few introductions. The voices were still quieter than usual—although during her earlier conversations they were mere whispers, which surprised her a bit. It took her an hour before she adjusted back to the noise.

Another month passed before anything happened. Seiko, Kinjo, and Masaaki often sat together and spoke over meals—she almost considered them to be friends, albeit her standards were low. She learned much about them, as well as telling them about herself; she shared that her mother used to live in the capital as a miko, and how Ujuro was a soldier (neither of them questioned—at least not openly—why she referred to him initially as ‘her mother’s husband’).

She learned that Kinjo Asahi was the second son of his family and third down the line overall, with parental prompting to join whichever side of the war he wanted (the family itself, it sounded like, was divided fairly evenly between the two sides). He decided to fight for the royal family instead of against it for the practical reasons—eventually being charged with treason or being stricken down by the gods were his cited worries. He and Masaaki were familiar with each other due to their families having close lands, but this only showed when Masaaki seemed to annoy Kinjo.

Masaaki Sonoru, on the other hand, was far enough east to be considered one of the ‘pacifist nobles’—the east of Gin was protected by tall, deadly mountains, a large lake, and rocky shores that were hard to navigate, so its people did not often engage in any battles whatsoever. Masaaki prided himself on being one of the exceptions, although it also sounded like the promised compensation was a benefit for him—he brought up his family even less than Seiko, and when he did it often had to do with the family’s failing financial situation.

Seiko had been in the capital for three months, now. Your first battle isn’t too far off, her voices assured her. And my, will it be grand.