“Rise and shine, maggots!” Pierre’s ear piercing voice shook us awake, “Come on, on your feet now! This war isn’t gonna win itself any time soon!”

Ugh, that surprised me. Looks like I dozed off as well while on the wagon ride to here. I was having a really good dream as well, but now I gotta get up. Speaking of, this pillow’s really comfy… Mnn…

“L-Lune?” Cecily said with a shaky voice.

“Five more minutes…” I muttered while squeezing the pillow some more.

“Lune, that isn’t a pillow…”

Wondering just what the heck she was on about, I opened my eyes a bit and took a peek, only to realize that all this time, I was fondling her breasts (and thoroughly enjoying it).

“W-Wah?!” I jumped from my seat, “S-Sorry! I was doing that subconsciously!”

“Subcon-?!” She struck me across the face, “You really are a boobophile, you know that? Pervert!”

Yeah, I deserved that. Well, I’m nothing if not an optimist, so I’ll only look at the bright side of this outcome. First of all, I got to cop a feel, and I only had to pay a slap to the face. Apart from that, Nelly got to witness a funny scene and that made her giggle, so that’s also a huge plus. Yep, weighing the pros and cons of this experience, I’d still call this a net positive!

But man… Just when did Cecily grow this much in the chest department? I mean, she still doesn’t compare to Marina’s, but this much is certainly a surprise when you take into account how she looked like before we separated. Wait, now that I think about it, I never really paid attention to the differences in her body before, but looking at her now…

“Oi.” She called out to me, “Stop ogling!”

“Was I-?! That wasn’t my intention!” I continued apologizing profusely.

Gah, and here I thought from the atmosphere of the last chapter that she and I were starting to get along once again, but I guess I was wrong. Dammit, it’s because Marina used to always snuggle up to me that I’ve grown accustomed to “feeling them out” in my sleep!

“Mom, what’s a ‘booba file’?” Nelly couldn’t contain her curiosity.

“Cecily! Stop teaching her inappropriate language!” I reprimanded her.

“It’s your fault for making me call you that!” She shot back.

We bickered like this for a while longer, before ultimately tiring ourselves out and having to call a temporary truce, finalized and realized only by a firm handshake. This is how adults settle disputes after all, so we can’t be showing such a childish side to our very own daughter. Well, then again, we are both adults now, have been since the age of 17, so technically this isn’t anything to make a big deal out of…

“Will you two ever SHUT UP!?” A loud and scary voice surprised the both of us. Alas, it was Pierre, “Do we have to deal with this like you two are children?! Alright then, as punishment, you two will be holding hands until further notice!”

“Hell no!” Cecily tried to refute, only to get cut off by Pierre.

“Hell no isn’t gonna work on me, maggot! You’re the rookies, and I’m the Sergeant! As long as you’re in my base, then what I say, goes! Now, hop to it!”

Groaning, she hid her face from me and lent me her hand. It was very soft, but you could tell from the barely noticeable grooves on her palm that she put a lot of time into practicing wielding her knives. Hell, her hands had so many cut marks I was sort of getting worried that it was all on purpose, but she quickly disproved my hypotheses.

“Ugh, my hands are sweaty…” She blushed, “This is the worst, and after we got into such a heated debate too…”

“Just deal with it for now.” I looked away as well, “I’ll make it up to you somehow later.”

“Really? So like, you’ll do any one thing I say?”

“What? Uh, well, sure.”

“Awesome!” She jumped for joy as we entered the base.

“Ich bin wieder da!” Pierre shouted as soon as he entered the base.

“Oh, hallo feldwebel!” One of the officers greeted him.

“Hey, what’re they saying?” I asked the girl I was holding by the hand, “I can’t speak Aurolian.”

“And I can?” She replied sarcastically, “Just shut up and wait for Pierre to give us our orders.”

Doing exactly as she said, we both stood in place behind Pierre as he and the officer had a blast talking about all sorts of things. Neither of us were fluent in Aurolian, the language of Sulfury, but we extracted quite a lot of info just from their tone. I didn’t know this before, but apparently the Aurolian language is pretty similar to Entropic in terms of vocabulary. So much so, that we could actually understand some key words and piece together the meaning of the sentence using their tone as a reference point.

It turned into a fun little guessing game of sorts, what with both of us trying to guess what the person that was currently speaking was saying, and that sort of helped us pass the time. In the end, it seems like we were both tied for points, all the while Nelly just quietly sat in her mother’s embrace without so much as saying a word.

“Alright guys, I officially handed in your papers and you’re both now official members of the army. Rejoice!” Pierre approached us after finishing up his little chat.

“Cool, but before that, can you settle something for us real quick?” I asked, “You two have been saying the word Mädchen a lot during your little conversation, and Cecily and I have been wondering what it means.”

“Oh, that?” He replied nonchalantly, “It simply means girl. I had to do a lot of convincing in order to let your wife pass as a soldier here, after all.”

“That’s Unofficial wife to you, serge.” She corrected him while covering Nelly’s ears, “I’m still not sure if I’m willing to forgive him just yet.”

“Whatever, I don’t really care, just as long as you understand.”

That being the case, as every one of the soldiers stared at the two new idiot recruits that were holding hands while talking in a foreign language, we began our little tour around the base with Pierre as our tour guide.

***

“This here is the dining hall, where you’ll all be seated around this big ol’ table here and eat your breakfast, lunch and dinner.” Pierre began, “The food intake is carefully calculated based on your personal body size, thus we’ll have to take your measurements after the tour. A little tip, for every one person that doesn’t finish their plate in time, the entire squadron has to run 5 laps around the base.”

“Hm, that doesn’t sound like that bad of a punishment.” Cecily noted, “That being the case, no one here is really a picky eater, so I’m sure we won’t run into any issues.”

Speak for yourself, I’m as picky as it gets. You’re just thinking of the old Lune that stuffed his face full without a care in the world, but that Lune has long since departed from this world in favor of the Lune that stands before you currently.

“Ah, but you see,” Pierre explained, “The punishment isn’t running around the base, it’s the bullying you’ll endure after being responsible for everyone having to run said laps.”

Ah, I get it. Your incompetence slows down everyone else, leading to them hating you. I can already imagine what happens during the night at those times, when everyone’s in the same room and there are no officers or sergeants around…

“Let’s try and avoid that, then.” I noted.

“Yeah, I quite dislike getting ganged up on.” Cecily recalled our time in the Palace.

Looks like that part’s still weighing heavily on her mind. As she said what she said, she often stole glances at the scar over my eye, only making her feel guiltier about it. Even though it wasn’t her fault to begin with…

“Speaking of ganging up on someone,” Pierre tried his best to make a compelling segue, “These are the training grounds. Here is where most of your training will be done, as you’ll regularly find yourself sparring on these fields.”

“Can’t wait to kick your butt and be justified in doing so, Lune!” Cecily clumped her hand up in a fist in a threatening manner, “I could use some stress relief here and there!”

Ha-ha, your definition of stress relief is wildly different than mine… I’d prefer it be over a candle-lit dinner. Y’know, set the mood for what’s to come? Sniffle, Marina~, I miss you so much…!

“Whatever, what’s next?” I hurried us along.

“Whoa, where’s the rush?” Pierre joked, “Why don’t you have a seat right over at our library!”

“A library in a war base, huh?” Cecily snickered.

“But of course, rookie! I want my soldiers to be durable in body and flexible in mind, after all! I won’t tolerate illiterates, so I’ll make sure you get out of here with at least some basic knowledge of Aurolian!”

Actually, I wouldn’t mind studying in here a bit. I need to learn as many languages as I can if I’m to understand what the people here are saying and gather up their thoughts all in one place. Remember, I might’ve stopped temporarily with the “Lune’s Handbook” project, but that doesn’t mean I’ve completely scrapped it. I just had some things pop up that are sort of forcing it back a few years, that’s all.

“Actually,” I added, “Cecily, doesn’t this remind you of something?”

“Lune, please don’t.” She knew exactly what I was thinking of.

“Back in the gang’s very own library is where we spent the most time getting to know each other.”

“Lune, I swear to all Four Gods…”

After hearing enough tidbits about her parents’ time together before they were a couple, little Nelly’s curiosity once again peaked, and she decided to pop the question to end all questions.

“Dad, you and mom met at a libwawy?”

“Haha, well, we didn’t meet in a library, we just both liked to read, so we spent a lot of time in one.” I responded, “Oh, but there’s actually a funny story there! You see, back then your mommy was still into some pretty cutesy romantic stories, so in order to woo her, I actually reenacted a scene straight out of the book she was reading! That happened at the gym we were training in, though…”

“LUNE!” Cecily punched me with completely red face, but an opportunity to get back at her doesn’t just come up every day, so I had to endure.

“Ow, anyways!” I continued with a smug grin, “Your mom and I got so into the scenario that we actually started yelling the lines without any shame! It was a beautiful performance, and we even got a heavy applause from the other gang members!”

“Hahaha!” Nelly giggled, “Can you do it now? Please, I wanna see it!”

“I dunno, sweetie,” I turned to Cecily shit-eating grin, “Can we~?”

I got another punch mark on my arm that stung like a bee, but it was worth it! I got to see Cecily’s embarrassed face once again! God, after getting teased like hell while I was with Marina, this really feels like a breath of fresh air!

“Lune…!” Cecily approached me, “You’ve been teasing me a lot more since we reunited. I don’t like it.”

“Really now?” I shrugged, “I don’t know what you mean by that, honest.”

“Come on guys! You’re in a war for Prylos’ sake!” Pierre snapped his fingers to get our attention, “Follow me to the gym this instant!”

“Whoa,” I gasped, “This place is just like ARA!”

“I know right?” Cecily agreed, “The dining hall too, it’s like they pulled it straight from there…”

“ARA?” Pierre asked.

“Ah, that’s the gang that we govern in Great Hiana. Well, we’re away for now, but before we left, we were its Generals.”

Immediately, Pierre switched from his “Sergeant Persona” to his “Younger Brother Persona” as he yet again bombarded us with unsolicited info about his older brother, who he’s somehow both proud and ashamed of all at the same time.

“Great Hiana? What a coincidence! My brother’s a gang member there, too! Who knows, you two might’ve even butted heads once or twice if that’s the case!”

“Really now?” We lost all interest, “Then what’s his name?”

“Jorgen!”

Eh?! This guy’s brother is… Jorgen?! What the hell! Actually, taking a look at Pierre, I can sort of see the resemblance… But wait, Jorgen’s Aurolian? I guess that’s why he showed so much competency as a General. But wait, did he just call Jorgen a gang member? As in, not a General? Guess back when they last talked, Jorgen wasn’t the General of BilBros yet, but just how far back is that, then?!

“Ha-ha…” Cecily let out a nervous chuckle, “When you say Jorgen, c-could you perhaps be talking about Bilgam Brothers’ Jorgen?”

“Yeah, that’s exactly him!”

Hoo boy, now this was a twist I definitely wasn’t expecting… Pierre and Jorgen, huh? Ugh… How do we tell him?