Arc#4 Chapter 53: Mission (Patreon)

A bit of chaos was loosed when Mira pulled out wine bottles — mostly caused by her and Aldimir — but the following drinking session wasn't as bad as Reivan thought it would be.

Mira poured everyone a glass before downing her own in one go. She then graced them with an impromptu concert that was, honestly, the best thing Reivan had ever heard in both lifetimes. As she sang in the middle of the common room with a wine bottle in hand, Reivan started to understand why singers and music artists were so popular in his past life.

After she sang enough, they sat down in a circle, having their drinking party on the floor for lack of tables.

Honestly, he preferred whiskey, but their captain's wine tasted incredible. Unfortunately, it was also quite strong, so everyone was rather tipsy after a few glasses, and some got wasted because the deceptively strong wine pulled the rug from under them.

Kantor was swaying back and forth, his eyes a hair away from closing. He occasionally woke up just before toppling over completely, but most of the time, he only woke up after hitting the floor. Then he would apologize, lose against his drowsiness, and repeat the process.

On the other hand, they were all surprised to discover that the normally timid Alini was a completely different person when she was drunk, turning into a bubbly extrovert who comfortably talked with Reivan all night. She didn't slur nor did she seem unsteady in any way, so those who didn't know her wouldn't even notice that she was drunk, but she most definitely was.

Aldimir, Mira, and Inaria drank like fishes though.

Reivan only kept up with them because he'd been holding the same cup with the same wine in it for dozens of minutes now, occasionally pretending to drink it before praising how great it tasted. Luckily, his conversation partner lacked the alertness to notice it.

"I know, right?" Alini nodded with a big smile, unnecessarily close to Reivan in her enthusiasm. "It's really tough being a repeat taker. Everyone's going to discourage you all the time, saying that you should just give up and get married or something."

"Yeah..." Reivan took a pretend sip from his glass and tried to channel his inner Clover. "In my case, it was the whispering behind my back. Because of how well I did in the academy, it was still fine after I failed once. But after failing twice, everyone just kind of made fun of me for still trying."

Alini stayed silent for a little while before suddenly resting her hand on his knee. "That must have been rough. I only failed once and I almost gave up. I can’t even imagine how hard it was for you… You’re so courageous, Clover.”

“Th-thanks… Also, I think you should ease up on the wine.” Reivan smoothly took the glass she’d momentarily rested on the floor, downing it in one gulp so she couldn’t drink it.

“Uh oh!” Alini very obviously pretended to lose her balance, wrapping her arms around Reivan’s neck as she leaned into him. “I’m a little drunk!”

‘Like hell you are!’

Aldimir, who had been slowly balancing objects on top of the barely awake Kantor, noticed them and whistled. “Brother Clover sure works fast! I should ask you for advice.”

Reivan tried to softly push the drunk Alini away, but she wouldn’t budge. “Shut up and help me, Aldim.”

“I think the greatest help I can give you would be to let things play out, no?”

Alini hugged him even tighter and leaned even more of her weight on him until they eventually toppled over, muttering in a drunken stupor. “It’s so comforting to know someone understands me like you do…”

“Help…” Reivan mouthed toward the two other girls in the room who had been quietly catching up with each other over whispers — though it was mainly Mira interrogating Inaria about her love life, which was with one of Reivan’s false identities.

With an amused giggle, Mira clapped her hands loudly, enough to snap Kantor awake and send all the stuff on him everywhere. “Now that we’ve finished off the wine I brought, it’s finally time to talk about official squad stuff.”

“We should have talked about this before the wine, Mira.” Inaria said exactly what Reivan was thinking, sighing as she massaged the bridge of her nose. “Look at them. One’s about to fall asleep and two are about to start fucking.”

“We were not about to do that.” Reivan defended, though as Alini’s incredible and soft body pressed down on him, he admitted the lack of convincing evidence to prove his case.

As if in denial of his statement, Alini buried her face in his neck and started planting kisses on it.

‘Oh, god. What is wrong with her!?’

He had to admit that he wasn’t that against it as a man, but he wasn’t an exhibitionist who wanted to do it in public. And in the first place, relations with squad members like this was something he wanted to avoid.

‘Ah, well… Maybe it wouldn't be too bad…? More allies and all that good stuff.’

Alini’s surprising proficiency in kissing his neck made him waver slightly, but he finally mustered up the strength to push her aside without hurting her. She got up with a bit of a pout and seemed about ready to jump on him again, but Inaria, fortunately, saw fit to interrupt, hooking her arms around Alini’s and dragging her away from him.

“No! Let go!” Alini kicked and struggled. “I haven’t done it in months!”

“Agh, she’s strong!” Inaria complained. Eventually, she finally couldn’t take it anymore and threw Alini to the side before drawing her wand. “You need to sober up!”

Tendrils of light shot out of Inaria’s wand and flew toward the drunken woman, wrapping around her body and turning her into a human-sized glowing caterpillar.

Mira was laughing at all of this from the side. “You have to give her points for honesty. Girl knows what she wants.”

“You could’ve helped,” Inaria snapped, smoothing out her robes.

“I could’ve. But you seemed to be handling things well enough on your own.”

“...You’re a horrible captain, Mira.”

“Harsh!” Their captain simply laughed it off and gestured toward Reivan, who was still on the ground. “I’m going to be counting on our very capable vice-captain, over there. I’m gonna make him do most of the work.”

Reivan sat up with a grimace. “Is that something you say with the person present?”

“No, but I think we should be honest with each other!” Mira scratched her head with a sheepish smile. “To tell you the truth, I don’t know why I’ve been placed in the second-year leadership course. I wasn’t my first-year squad’s vice-captain so it doesn’t make sense to me.”

“That sounds about right, considering it's you,” Inaria muttered to herself. “Couldn’t you refuse?”

“I’m going to ignore the jab you just took at me, but yes, I did try. It wasn’t really something I could refuse though. Apparently, they have plans for developing my potential or something. So here I am, just doing my best.”

Reivan frowned at that. “You overslept on the first day. Then you started an impromptu drinking party in the common room. And then you just watched as one of your vice-captain got raped. Was that your best?”

Mira inclined her head at his question. “Was it rape if you weren’t against it? I mean, you could’ve pushed her off at any point — and you did. Eventually, that is. Now, if she tried to cast a spell on you, I would’ve intervened. But it didn’t look like you were against it in my eyes.”

“... Whatever.” Reivan decided to stop arguing since he was, indeed, not all that against it despite how embarrassing it was. With a sigh, he glanced at Alini to discover that she’d fallen asleep before turning his attention back to their terribly inept captain. “So? You were about to start talking about official squad matters? Can we get on with that?”

“Good idea.” Mira nodded, clearing her throat. “First off, I got you all drunk so you’d take the news a little better if you had any issues against it. We’ve actually been assigned a mission! And it’s in Lageton!”

‘Oh?’

“Lageton…?” Kantor echoed as he rubbed his eyes, barely managing to stay awake. “Isn’t that the city nearest to the Aizen Kingdom?”

“Yep. I heard it’s crawling with Aizenians.” Aldimir rubbed his hands together. “And I also heard that all the women from Aizen are amazing! All the guys who’ve been to Aizen say it’s true.”

“They’re also more accustomed to handsome and taller men,” Mira raised a finger as she sat on one of the nearby armchairs. “So you’ll really have to step up. You’re probably average over there. And shorter than average there, too.”

“Short…” Kantor muttered to himself, looking as if he’d aged a few decades.

Mira unexpectedly seemed sympathetic. “Ah, well… It’s just the kind of people they are, Kantor. Even their women get pretty tall there. You shouldn’t feel bad. I-I think Arkhanian women actually prefer men that aren’t too tall?”

{ [Lie Detection] has activated }

Kantor looked up at her with anxiety. “...Really, captain?”

“O-of course!” Mira subtly looked away. “A lot of people prefer home-grown stuff. You know, people like what they’re used to. It’s just that, but with men, y’know?”

Aldimir suddenly raised his hand with a grin. “Queen Mira! I have a question.”

“What is it now, soldier…?”

“Does that mean you prefer Arkhanians to Aizenians?”

“Nope.” Mira instantly shook her head, even making an X with her arms.

“Eh…” Aldimir deflated, theatrically flopping to the floor. “Does that mean I have no chance?”

“Even if I preferred local men, I don’t like playboys like you. You'd cheat eventually!”

“You’re so harsh! I can change, Queen Mira!”

“No, thank you.” Mira giggled. “It’d cause me too much stress thinking about what you were up to when I couldn’t see you. Hence, you’re disqualified. Sorry~!”

“No way…”

“In the first place, I dislike local men because I know they fuck around so much!” Mira sighed. “The stuff you overhear in our restaurant… One time, this guy took three different families on the same day. And they all called him Dad!”

Inaria poured herself another glass and grinned. “I’ll drink to that…”

Reivan watched her from the side, knowing she had issues with her father’s secret affairs. Affairs that she had been too happy to divulge when he asked her for dirt on her father.

“Is there really no chance, Queen Mira!?” Aldimir asked with a dramatic tone that could have been interpreted as either sincere or joking.

“No way.” Mira shook her head, apparently treating his inquiries as a joke. “Besides! I already have my sights set on someone!”

“What!? Who!?”

“Hehe... It's Prince Reivan Aizenwald!”

Reivan almost spat out a bit of the wine he was pretending to sip. He had been content with letting their conversation play out until it actually turned into something important, but he never expected to hear his real name so suddenly.

“Oh, that guy?” Inaria inclined her head and also took a seat at one of the surrounding armchairs. “I saw him on the papers. Isn’t he at the newly built embassy in Arkhana? What, did you see a portrait of him and get a crush?”

“No way!” Mira giggled and shook her head. “I saw him in person. The day he arrived in this massive flying ship thingy.”

‘Was she there…?’

Reivan tried to recall, but the mob had been incredibly large back then, and he hadn’t taken the time to look at every single face. Also, his attention was on certain persons of interest, so he hadn’t bothered to pay attention to any of the other people.

“So…” Inaria crossed her arms and reclined. “You like him for his face?”

“Yes!” Mira agreed without a second thought, even pulling out a portrait of him. “See? He’s a thing of beauty, isn’t he? Let me tell you, the portraits they sell don't do him justice but they also aren't bad.

"Uh-huh..."

"I actually didn’t like men who were too handsome since they’d be a pain to keep, but this one is just… I mean, look at him, Aria. He's like... well, like a prince! Like the ones in the storybooks we used to read. But he's in real life.”

“I can't believe you're this shallow…”

“What do you mean, shallow…? So you’re telling me that you don’t think your little boyfriend’s handsome?”

“Of course not.” Inaria bristled, sitting up a little straighter, only for her to deflate in embarrassment. “H-He’s way more handsome than some prince… But I don’t like him just for that! I don’t care about his looks!”

Mira scoffed. “Sure. Keep telling yourself that."

"It's the truth... He's more than his face!"

"Anyway, I don’t like the prince just because of his looks either. I mean, he’s the prince, so wouldn’t he also take care of me for the rest of my life? I wouldn’t have to worry about a thing!”

Inaria gave up talking to her. "That's even worse. You like him for his face and his money? Seriously?"

‘Well… she wouldn’t be the first person to have that thought.’

Reivan mused how a number of his future concubines actually had similar thought processes. None of them were poor, but they wanted a way to maintain a luxurious life and get some prestige in the meantime, since Aizen’s royalty normally didn’t take concubines in too often.

A result of marrying women of powerful backgrounds and personalities, no doubt.

Of course, Reivan didn’t hate that sort of thinking either. He was simply giving them what they wanted, and in turn, they would give him what he wanted, which was a healthy child with desirable attributes.

It was a transaction, and as long as both sides ended up happy with the exchange, then there was no problem with that.

Money and status were also part of who he was, so women liking him for that wasn’t a bad thing in his opinion.

‘I’d prefer they like something else though, but hey, to each their own.’

He wasn't obligated to like people liking him for the wrong things though. They weren't wrong for liking what they liked, but he also wasn't wrong for liking what he liked.

“That’s enough about my crush!” Mira chuckled, hiding away the prince’s portrait in the pocket of her robe. “We leave for Lageton in three days from now, so pack up for a long stay. Don’t worry about our transportation, my future husband’s country has provided us with free passes, so we’re riding on express trains for free!”

“Queen Mira!” Aldimir raised his hand as he remained lying on the floor. “What are we doing in Lageton?”

“Oh, right. I haven’t said that part yet, haven’t I? Well, there are some problems with rebels popping up there. Apparently, some xenophobic assholes are making trouble for our foreign guests, and some investigations have brought to light that it’s organized. Not just isolated incidents.”

‘Hm…? Is it those brothers or whatever that tried to attack me?’

Reivan hummed in thought. “So our job there is to stop them…?”

Mira shook her head with a kind smile. “You have an overinflated impression of what we can do as trainees, vice-captain. We’re just there to accompany senior battlemages and basically shadow them. Maybe do some grunt work for them. Whatever they deem safe enough to leave to us. That’s what our so-called missions are going to be like for the next year or two, apparently. Mainly observing real battlemages do real work.”

Kantor scratched his head. “But I thought even trainees were at risk sometimes?”

“It happens.” The captain nodded. “Not all the time though. Usually, we trail urban squads and stay relatively safe. We might have to fight off a few criminals if we’re unlucky, but that’s it. Sometimes though, you get unlucky and have to trail a squad that’s been sent on what was supposed to be an uneventful patrol along the borders of a monster-infested area.”

Reivan grunted in understanding. “But sometimes, events do happen.”

“That’s right, my dependable vice-captain.” Mira pointed at him with a willowy white finger. “I haven’t experienced anything like that though. But one squad in my batch lost a few people on a normal patrol mission in a forest up north.”

Inaria raised a brow. “Argonia?”

“No, no. It was just a forest. We’ve been at peace with the empire for a while now, barring the occasional border skirmish. They never take trainees anywhere near there, don’t worry. You’ll still get to come back and smooch around with your boyfriend.”

“Would you shut up about that!?”

Inaria got up and charged at Mira to shut her up, but the older girl was unexpectedly nimble, slipping past the aggressor despite the sheer amount of wine in her system.

“Well then! That’s all.” Mira giggled as she stopped right in front of the door to her room. “Are there any violent reactions to our mission to Lageton?”

Reivan scanned the others and found that nobody had anything to say, except Alini, who couldn’t say anything. He, on the other hand, loved the opportunity to leave the tower legitimately.

“Alright. Dismissed! I’m heading off to bed.”

Saying nothing more, their captain ducked into her room and shut the door, the click of a lock following shortly afterward.

‘Who’s going to clean this all up…’

Reivan sighed as his gaze fell upon the empty bottles, the half-finished plate of cheese, and the used wine glasses spread out on the floor.

“I’m gonna head in too.” Aldimir already had one leg in his room by the time he said this, so Reivan was unable to stop him.

‘Bastard. So that’s why he was so quiet…’

“I’ll help…” Kantor started picking up the stuff on the ground.

Inaria looked around and sighed. “I’ll help too. Sorry about her. She’s always been like that, just doing what she wants and saying what she wants. She’s a good person deep down but…”

“But you have to look really deep?” Reivan answered dryly, prompting a rare snicker from the redhead beauty.

“Perhaps. Her parents spoiled her, that’s for sure. Anyway, vice-captain, are you going to help or not?”

“I’d rather supervise.”

Inaria glared at him and Reivan raised both hands in surrender, walking over to help too.

════════════════════════════════

The next few days went by uneventfully.

Alini woke up sober the next day and apologized profusely for her actions. Apparently, she was the type of drunk who didn’t forget what they did while under the influence.

She did seem much more amiable to Reivan, even asking him if he had eaten already and whether he wanted to eat with her. According to her, it was because she felt closer to him as someone who also didn’t get into the tower on their first try.

As for their captain…

They all discovered that their captain tended to sleep in by default. Their first day’s disaster wasn’t just a fluke, even though she headed to bed early, she would wake up around lunchtime.

Which was strange, unless she wasn’t actually sleeping when she headed in her private quarters.

She also had a preference for lounging around in the common room, reading the books there. Apparently, all squad common rooms were configured the same way, so she was familiar with most of the books on the shelves. Mira wasted no time in suggesting a number of spellbooks that would be very useful and relatively easy to learn while citing complementary tomes that provided some better insights that could only be read in the archives.

It was her only captain-like behavior though.

She was utterly slovenly most of the time, sitting in ways that left her vulnerable and not even bothering to wear the formal robes that all battlemages were supposed to wear at most times. Of course, seeing as the common room was a relatively private place that not many people had access to, perhaps dressing more comfortably was the norm.

Unfortunately, she had a tendency to lie down on the sofa in strange ways while immersed in a book. And when a woman wore a loose blouse and a loose pair of shorts while she was doing that… Well, it was a sight her father wouldn’t want strangers to see.

In any case, it was perhaps a blessing for her that Aldimir rarely spent any time in the common room, but sadly, Reivan did.

And he got quite a few unexpected flashes from her.

The thick formal robes that battlemages usually wore over their clothes hid their bodies very well, which was part of the reason Aldimir and Reivan both never noticed that Alini had such a great one.

Mira, by strutting around without her robes on, revealed that she wasn’t so blessed in that regard.

But she wasn’t bad either. Not bad at all.

Hence, Reivan had to make an effort to keep his eyes away from her, helping her preserve the dignity she failed to protect. His recent actions and the influence of the people — really, it was just the one guy though — he kept around him proved otherwise, but he believed himself to be a gentleman.

And gentlemen looked away when faced with that sort of serendipity.

Even when he asked her to sit properly or to fix her robes, the effect would last only a few minutes until she would unconsciously revert back.

When he did it too much, she’d tease him, so he just stopped after a while.

Of course, he would have loved to read in his room. But the books were magically bound to the common room and would fly off his hands whenever he tried.

And according to an amused Mira, if one tried to hide the books in a spatial storage artifact, it would still fly out of the artifact and back onto its assigned shelf. The books in the archives had a similar function, and there was a whole story about it because Mira had to learn that through experience, not word of mouth.

In the end, Reivan didn’t have a very good opinion of their squad’s captain. And he also didn’t have a very good opinion of the Tower for putting her in a leadership position.

There was nothing he could do though.

‘Maybe it was because she has two spirit beasts?’

Mira herself had revealed this information, but they had only ever seen one of her bonds because the other one was a “difficult child” and didn’t want to come out unless it was to fight things.

The other one was, surprisingly, similar to Dippy.

Except it was white and didn’t have hair. Also, its mouth wasn’t filled with rows upon rows of serrated teeth.

Despite this, checking their status screens told him that they were the exact same race with the exact same skills, so Dippy [Innocence] and [Disarming Presence] weren't unique to it.

‘And hers has an attribute.’

That was also one of the main differences — Boop, her spirit bond, had the [Light] attribute.

Reivan managed to easily probe out more information since she was all too happy to tell anyone who asked about “the cutest girl in the world” that she’d been with since she was a child.

According to her, it used to be gray, gradually turning white as they both got older and even gaining the ability to light up. It also got softer, which she had Reivan confirm by pushing the white blob to him.

“He’s like a marshmallow!” she had said.

Reivan didn’t know how she knew about marshmallows since only Aizen had them and weren’t even that common over there, but he did manage to confirm that Boop wasn’t the reason Mira was given a leadership role.

It was weak, after all. Even Sen could beat it and Sen wasn’t even one year old.

Her voice, even when just talking normally, was so lovely he’d want to hire her to sing to him while he ate and he probably wouldn’t get tired of her yapping off for hours. But he didn’t think vocal quality was something that mattered to the Spirit Tower.

‘Maybe she’s unexpectedly skilled in tough situations?’

Reivan certainly knew a few knights like that — ones that looked lazy and undependable but were actually monsters in human skin, capable of doing work that normally took multiple knights to accomplish.

Thinking so, Reivan decided to recall his previous assessment of Mira. It was dangerous to let first impressions dictate his thoughts. Who knew, perhaps it was all a trap of some kind to lure people into underestimating her.

‘I doubt it though.’

“Squad One-One! Are you guys ready!?” Mira asked energetically on the morning they departed for Lageton.

“What the hell is one-one…?” Reivan asked, lugging around a newly bought bag to put his clothes in. It was styled as a duffle bag, except it was made with the leather of some unfortunate monster and was quite durable.

Every other member of his squad apparently had personal spatial storage artifacts, so he was the only one carrying anything as the six of them stood just outside the Spirit Tower's grounds, waiting out in the cold for a stagecoach to take them to the station.

‘Fucking hell, it sucks to be poor…’

“Yep. This squad is year one’s squad one.” Mira explained, visibly deflating from her previous excitement. “That means the Tower treats our squad as the best one in the year.”

“Whoo!” Aldimir cheered, smoothly taking Reivan’s bag and putting it into his spatial ring. “It’s all thanks to our vice-captain over here. We can’t have you lugging anything around, so I’ll take it for you, vice-captain.”

“Thanks.” Reivan shrugged, accepting the help. “Also, stop calling me vice-captain and shit.”

“Vice-captain!” Mira suddenly called for him with a grin.

“...What is it, captain?”

She grimaced at the form of address but quickly reverted back to her usual demeanor and did a little spin on the spot. After a second and third spin, she faced him, her footing slightly unsteady, then raised a brow. “How do I look?”

Reivan inclined his head. “What? Was that a dance?”

“No! I mean my clothes! Tell me what you think!”

“Uh… Why ask me at all?”

“I need a man’s opinion. Aldimir would just try to flatter me so he could get into my skirt, and Kantor seems like the type who’d say something nice because I’m the captain.”

“So I’m the only option by default…?”

Mira giggled. “Yes. You’re the best I’ve got, so I gotta work with it. Well?”

They’d all agreed not to wear their robes on the way, so Mira was wearing a long-sleeved white top that clung elegantly to the contours of her lithe body and a long dark checkered skirt. It was normal fair as far as Arkhan was concerned, but she was pretty from the start so her simple attire actually complimented her beauty quite well.

“You look good,” Reivan admitted honestly.

Mira seemed annoyed by the lack of detail. “How good?”

“I don’t know what you want from me here…”

“Like, if Prince Reivan was on the same train with us, would I turn his head?”

Reivan, the person in question, was a bit stunned at the question and didn’t quite know how to answer.

“Why would that even matter?” Inaria, who was wearing a very well-made dark red overcoat over whatever she was wearing, spoke up. “Why would the prince be on a train from Vel Ayala to anywhere? Shouldn’t he be in Arkhana?”

Mira wagged a finger at her childhood friend. “You’re late on the news. His little adopted sister is the one at the embassy now. The one that’s apparently part cat? Anyway, while she’s getting swamped with marriage proposals from everyone and their brother, he’s traveling the country incognito! So there’s a chance he’s been in Vel Ayala all along and is on his way out!”

“That’s way too optimistic…”

“Luck is a mixture of preparation and opportunity!” Mira countered with an English quote that Inaria didn’t even understand but surprised Reivan because of how fluently she said it. “Anyway, vice-captain! I need to look like someone that’ll make the prince say ‘Yes, that’s the girl I’m taking home to the palace!’...!”

‘Wait, did I seem like the type of person to just pick people off the streets and take them home with me…?’

Hopefully not.

It seemed Inaria had similar thoughts as him. “Even if he thought you looked nice, would he just take you home like that?”

“Of course, he would.” Mira nodded as if it was a matter of fact. “Have you seen him? He probably sleeps around a lot.”

‘Hey! That’s just not… Wait… Shit. I don’t think I can refute that. Fuck.’

Reivan felt a headache coming on, frustrated that some girl he’d never met had such a clear impression of him.

In the end, he didn’t get to give Mira the answer she wanted because their stagecoach arrived. By the time they hopped on, Mira didn't seem to care anymore, instead opting to complain about how cold it was — which was an age-old tradition in Arkhan.

They reached the station shortly after that and caught the earliest express train to Lageton.

A city that he practically controlled from the shadows of Ouroboros.