“I see.” Jorgen sipped his tea with a rather disgruntled expression, “So he bit the dust, the idiot.”

“Betrayed by the enemy’s daughter, was he?” Max donned a troubled expression, “Why in the world would he trust someone like her? Same goes for all of you, this wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“Grim was, well, no.” I shook my head, “It was my fault first and foremost. Even when I had first met Vivia, she was rummaging around our house back in Stringwood. I was too naïve by her harmless appearance and even more selfless beliefs. I’m the reason Grim is dead.”

“No, don’t be like that.” Meil bit his lip, “I knew something was off about her from the start, but I still said nothing. Had I spoken up, not only Lune, but countless other soldiers from our ranks would be saved. The mishap was caused by my negligence.”

“You guys say that, but I was the one who befriended her!” Cecily tried remaining calm, however to no avail, “That bitch, she helped keep me calm while I was pregnant, helped me around the base during my last few weeks, and she did all that whilst continuously smiling from ear to ear! To think it was all a lie, I shouldn’t have trusted her so blindly just because I was in a gravid state. Dammit, I was raised by the streets, just when did I grow to accept the help of strangers so blindly…”

“That’s what I wanna know.” Jorgen made sure not to sugarcoat his thoughts, “For Meil, I know nothing. I expected all this and more from Ed, but you of all people have disappointed me here the most.”

Oi, what the hell do you mean you expected all this and more from me? Am I really that naïve? Or wait, maybe that’s what you thought of me while I was still a kid, but it’s been a decade since then! But never mind that, what the hell is he thinking, sipping his tea all cooly whilst dissing on a poor widow? This asshole…!

“Hey now, that’s enough out of you.” Max quickly calmed him down, “Hehe, you guys know how he gets when the tea isn’t up to standard…”

“This isn’t about the quality of the tea, Max.” Jorgen shot him a nasty side-eye, “The fact of the matter is that another Founding General of ARA has fallen, and for such a stupid reason as betrayal, I just can’t believe that a boy with so much potential let himself die without even properly starting the battle.”

“Without starting a battle, eh…” Aaron got a bit nostalgic, “Just like Jean…”

“…Once again, Aaron, we don’t know who killed Jean.” Max consoled him, “But rest assured, the search for that person in Great Hiana still hasn’t let up, and neither will we.”

“Jean…” Cecily took a deep breath before softly putting Cene down into his cradle, “It was me.”

As the room went silent, everyone’s faces morphed into complete horror as they slowly tilted their heads to look at her. She didn’t make any kind of scared face, nor was it one of regret. It was calm, serene, as if she had just let go of a burden on her heart that weighed down on her for years. Though, the calmness of the room wouldn’t last for nearly as long as she had hoped for.

With a loud ceramic shattering sound reverberating throughout the room, Cene’s ears had picked up on the impending rage and started crying urgently. As was expected, the cup that was dropped was Aaron’s, the man most closest to this Jean character. Immediately, my first thought was to step in front of Cecily and protect her, but it seems even that was the wrong choice, as I soon found my shoulder getting sliced by his rapier.

“Shit! Hold him down!” Max ordered Meil to help him, “Now look what you did, idiot! What did I tell you about letting your emotions take control!?”

“Ed! Are you okay?!” Cecily went to check my wound, “Thank God, it’s not too deep of a wound. It’ll heal-!”

“Apologies, Ed. That was meant for her.” Aaron pointed the sword right to her neck, “You, you damned fiend! You hate on the girl that killed your man, without even feeling a hint of remorse as you tell me you killed Jean! Fucking bitch, you’re no different than her!”

“Stop it!” Max threw the sword aside as he firmly grabbed Aaron by the shoulders, “Aaron, listen to me. You almost just killed Ed. Do you understand that?”

“That wasn’t my intention.” He looked away, “Besides, he’s fine, right?”

“Ngh! Fine my ass!” I yelled out in pain, “This hurts like hell, dammit! Apologize this instant!”

“Eh?” He sort of got back to his senses, “S-Sorry, man…”

“No! Not to me, to her!” I corrected him, “Had I not stepped in at the last moment, it’d be her head that got sliced up! Cene would’ve been left an orphan because of you!”

Geez, what the hell is going on? Everything’s falling apart. Grim, come back, dammit. Please, I know it’s improbable, but please just knock on that door over there before busting in like you always do. I know, I know I witnessed your last breath personally, but please prove to me that miracles can occur. You’ve defied countless odds, so just show me that you found a way to cheat death using a hidden Iro ability or something. Please, please! I can’t take this anymore…!

“Alright.” Jorgen finally finished his tea before calmly getting up, hitting Aaron in the nape at just the right angle to send him flying to the ground unconscious, “I think you guys have had your fun now.”

“H…” I stuttered to ask, “How did you do that?”

“Hm? A simple chop to the nape is enough to take down any foe.” He brushed his hands, “It’s especially effective for people who are more emotional than logical. I did it to Max countless times, so I can assure you he’ll be fine, only that he’ll wake up without the memory of how he fell unconscious.”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Wait, what?!” Max turned to him, “You mean all those times I would wake up in the infirmary only for you to tell me I fell unconscious, those were all your doing?!”

“Duh, no one falls unconscious for absolutely no reason as often as you did.” Jorgen shrugged, “Honestly, at times I would do it just because I would get bored.”

Looking on at their little comedy act, Meil couldn’t believe his Eyes, muttering something along the lines of “So this is a General of ARA…”, Cecily bandaged my shoulder up before going to check on Cene, and I simply sighed. Grim, now would be the perfect time to show up, y’know…

***

“Uuu…” Aaron’s Eyes slowly opened again, “Where am I?”

“Your room.” I responded, “You got knocked out by Jorgen after you sliced my shoulder up.”

“Huh? Ohhh, now I remember!” He tried getting up only for me to pin him back down, “Ed, what are you doing?! Where’s that whore?! This time just stay back, and I promise I won’t miss!”

“That’s exactly why I’m holding you down in this room until you decide to calm down.” I explained, “Cecily and the others are currently doing a headcount of all the soldiers and testing them to see if they’re not spies. Until they finish that, they had me stay back here with you and try to get you to stop throwing a fit.”

“Throwing a fit, huh? Is that how you see it?” He chuckled weakly as he threw his head back in his pillow, “Ed, you of all people should know how I feel about Jean. Y’know, mine and his relationship wasn’t quite of the platonic kind.”

“Yeah, so you’ve told me.”

“So why then? Why is it that she gets to have her revenge on that princess who killed Lune, but I don’t?” He started tearing up, “How is she any different than me?”

“Didn’t you just call her a damned murderer a couple hours back? Suddenly saying that you and she are the same, it kind of comes off as you giving unclear testimonies.”

“Oh come on, Ed, don’t treat me like a fool.” He shook his head, “Listen, if you’re still mad about me accidentally getting you with my rapier, you’re free to call me any names you want. I don’t care, just let me avenge the person that that woman took away from me so heartlessly.”

“Hmm, no.” I reclined in my chair before reminiscing of a happier time, “Hey, remember back when you were just about to set out back to Great Hiana all those years ago?”

“Yeah?” He tilted his head, “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Just thinking is all. I recall you mentioned something about wanting to confess to Maxwell.”

“H-Hey! Shh!” He started panicking, “Don’t just blurt that out! I still haven’t told him, okay?!”

“Dude, what? It’s been years since then, the fuck?”

“I-I know, but…” He looked troubled before revealing, “It’s Max, y’know? He’s a good guy, but anyone can tell he’s not like that. Honestly, just being friends is enough for me, he doesn’t need to know I like him like that.”

“Is that so?” I stifled my laughter, “That’s kind of harsh, y’know? Because the way I see it, you’re free to ask Max out whenever you want, and we both know that he’d still remain friends with you even if he rejected your offer. On the other hand, what will happen if you kill Cecily?”

“Laughing at my sorrows now, are you, Ed?” He furrowed his brows, “You’ve grown into an arrogant pipsqueak, despite your stature. An overgrown child is what I’d call you. Although, when you put it like that, I guess I can see why just up and killing her would hinder our goals.”

“Right?” I chuckled, “Right now, our goal is to kill the King and Vivia, not because of anyone’s personal vendetta, but because they threaten our world as we know it. It just so happens that Cecily’s personal vendetta aligns with everyone’s objective goal.”

“Right, the same doesn’t apply for me.” He went to sit up from his bed, “In fact I’m the opposite. If I killed her, then we’d only have one less capable assassin around, and that’d make ending this war all the more difficult because of it. Had I killed her, I would have become an enemy myself.”

“Nah, I don’t think we’d treat you as such. Well, maybe I would, or Meil even, since he’s pretty fond of the Grimhearts, but the other Generals would probably look past your actions. Max especially, he’s too kindhearted to hold a grudge.”

Tilting his head once again, he seemed quite confused on why I was bringing up Maxwell so often. Certainly, I want to put a good word in, and if it means it’ll maybe even push Aaron to muster up some strength and confess already, then no matter how belated, I’ll be happy with the outcome. That being said, I have another, much more devious reason for going out of my way to speak of him as often as I am now.

“Geez, ever since I woke up, it’s been Max, Max, Max with you.” He chuckled innocently, “Alright, I see what you’re getting at. I’ll tell him once he gets here. Just gotta make sure no one else is around, otherwise it’d be super awkward.”

Chuckling deviously as I pointed behind him, the face of abject horror he had put on as he saw Maxwell standing behind him, fidgeting awkwardly as he waited for him to notice was absolute gold! Hehe, that’s right! I had Max wait under the bed under the false pretense that I would set him up to jump out and scare Aaron. Think of it like an innocent little prank, but I’m not so simple so as to just prank him, so I extended the prank even to Maxwell himself! I started getting up to leave, but my wrist quickly got grabbed by a very nervous Aaron.

“E-Ed! What is the meaning of this!? And where do you think you’re going?!”

“Hm? Didn’t you tell me to leave you two alone so you could tell him all this clearly?” I flashed him a smug grin, “Me oh my, I definitely wouldn’t want things to get awkward!”

“O-Oi! Ed, get back here and explain all this!” Maxwell pleaded for me to stay, “You can’t just leave us here! This wasn’t part of the prank!”

“Ohoho, yes it was!” I slowly closed the creaking door, “My prank, that is! Muahahahahahahahaha!”

Maniacally laughing the whole time I was walking through the corridors, I had finally stopped after getting to the living room, where I saw the other Generals walking through the front door. Pooped as they were, they still found some peace of mind in my smug expression. Thus, Cecily was the first to ask.

“Why are you out here and not guarding him? Is Max there?”

“Yeah.” I stifled my laughter, “Pfft! Just be sure to not interrupt those two. I made sure to lock the door as well.”

“Lock the door? Interrupt them?” Meil asked, “Are they fighting or something?”

Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore, so I burst out laughing. Hearing my joyous sounds, even Cene joined in and before long, the two of us filled the entire room with our laughter. Now thoroughly confused, Cecily and Meil just opted to go change in their respective rooms, which only left Jorgen and me to sit back and relax in the living room.

“Y’know…” He got up to brew some tea from the pantry, “In a war, what you did to those two just now could be considered psychologically scarring.”

“Hm?”

“Not that I care though.” He shrugged as he poured some tea for me as well, “Locking the door was a nice touch. Fucking hilarious.”

Laughing as we sipped our tea, I had accidentally burned myself on it a bit.