"Lillen" Jeanne said as she walked up to her subordinate.
Lillen was wearing the military uniform, which, to the three unwanteds she was looking over, looked very much like the typical uniform anyone envisioned except for the cap that was looked like a cylinder with a slight extension at the front.
No one ever wore the cap however.
Meanwhile, as per usual, Jeanne was wearing her full set of armor, the helm held under her arm.
"First general" she responded as she stood as straight as an I.
"You do realise that the otherworlders aren't children right?" she directly cut to the chase with a neutral expression.
"Of course"
"Then why do you cater to them like a grandma who didn't see her grandkids for a month?" she said.
"They aren't young at all, you are barely older than them, why do you fucking pinch their cheeks?"
"Why do they let you anyways? Are you up to something with them? You are supposed to survey them and make sure they stay in line, not spoil them with love and affection"
Lillen looked at her feet while trying to think of what to say.
"Lillen"
"Look at me" spoke Jeanne, snapping her ganted fingers, making a horrible noise.
"You are not incompetent, you did well during the war, do well again and stop being so nice to them, you can be nice but drop the pinching for the gods sake" she added afterward.
"By the way, while you are here, the king will hold a ceremony for the veterans of the war, make sure to be present" spoke Jeanne, slapping her subordinates shoulder before going.
Lillen sighed in sadness, what would she do if she couldn't treat them like kids?
______________________
"I got an invitation for a ceremony from the crown, want to come?" asked Theli to Ortenmia.
They were both laying on a large bed, Theli on his back while she embraced him with her arms and stuck close to him, skin against skin.
In her current, clotheless state, the burn marks on Ortenmia's body were easily noticable, extending down to the left side of her chest and down her left arm to the elbow.
"I don't like gatherings, try asking Malina" she responded, sounding a bit tired as she closed her eye while the other had to stay open.
"She said that she didn't want to leave the house" responded Theli, one of his hands carressing the bare back of Ortenmia.
She didn't respond as she had fallen asleep on his chest.
He didn't have many people he could offer to accompany him.
He went through each of them in his head while still patting Ortenmia's back, the sensation must have been similar to a tickle as she seemed to softly laugh inher sleep.
'She'll probably want to come...' he thought before closing his own eyes.
__________________________
A young looking man, skimmed through some papers late during the night, his only source of light being from a few candles.
The lights were fairly dim but the man wasn't deterred by that and read through the papers without difficulty.
As if something had taken his attention he got up from his chair in a second, grasping the blade that had been lying on his legs as he moved toward the door of his room, opening it immediately and looking across the halls and even on the ceiling.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, the halls were dark and empty as they should be at this hour, the windows were all perfectly closer and no breeze suggested that something had moved recently.
The man squinted his eyes, such an action actually made him move his face which had been perfectly still until now, revealing the few wrinkles on his face.
The man stayed in the long hallway for a while longer, making sure to observe everything carefully but no matter how much he searched, he found no trace of anything suspicious.
The windows were just as they had first appeared, they could only be locked from the inside and no trails suggested that anyone went through here.
The ground bore no marks of anything, nor the ceiling, no presence other than that of the people that should be here, the room that should be empty were just as they should, nothing seemed wrong the people that were indeed here.
The man, despite all of this facts that he had acknowledged multiple times now, over multiple nights, he still didn't believe that it was his imagination, he could swear that something or someone observed him from behind his door.
They somehow always managed to vanish without a trace before he got to them.
At first it had only been late at night when he worked but it had started to happen when he slept too, from behind his door, he could feel that a presence was watching him, sizing him up and observing his every movements.
He had first thought that it was a spy, that the surroundings nations had decided to stop not paying attention to Laparadi but it didn't make sense for a spy to act like that, a spy wouldn't get so close to him for no reason so many times and a spy wouldn't come back when it was clear that he wasn't none the wiser about their presence.
This behavior simply wasn't something anyone, whatever their intention might be, would do.
It was nonsensical, only someone with a very specific goal or someone that was crazy would act like that.
The man's bright yellow eyes gazed down each side of the hallway one last time before going back into his room, he rubbed his forehead, pushing back his somewhat long blonde hair in the process.
He tried to think while still standing only a meter away from the door when the presence immediately reappeared.
Without losing a second, he spun around and pulled the door open only to be met with the regular sight.
'I'll have to report about that, doesn't matter if they think I am mad' he thought as he closed the door again, the presence quickly came back, it seemed like it was particularily stubborn today.
Unable to do anything about it for the moment, the man ignored the uncomfortable filling that crept along his spine when he felt the gaze of the mysterious being.