“Yawn! Mnn, g’morning.”

“Oh, morning!” Cecily replied, staring directly into my soul. Wait, wha-?!

“Oof!” I hit the ground with a thud, “Why are you-? H-How long have you been staring at me for?!”

Geez! That scared me! I do like that the first thing I saw as soon as I woke up was Cecily, but I wasn’t expecting her eyes to be wide open like that, staring a hole through my noggin! Where are her manners, damn!

“Staring?” She furrowed her brows in puzzlement, “Oh, sorry, I always sleep with my eyes open.”

“Quit making excuses! You just made that up to avoid having to explain why you did that!”

“Did I~?” She stuck her tongue out as she got out of bed, “But if you really wanna believe that I was staring at you, then I guess I’ll allow it. For your little fantasy’s sake.”

Grr! She’s getting back at me for all the times I’ve teased her in the past! And damn, she’s good at it too! Cecily’s always had this naughty, alluring side to her, but seeing her like this, wearing nothing but the army issued boots, camo pants and tank top is really just too much for me to handle! Prylos help me, don’t make me act up in front of all these men and Nelly! Protect me from myself, dammit, you’re the God of Meditation!

Just then, I had noticed the bruise on her cheek that I had caused last night. It wasn’t anything too bad, there was no open wounds or blood, just a bit of blueberry blue on the skin to signify there was indeed some sort of impact with the aforementioned area not long ago. Putting my hand on her cheek, making sure not to touch the area that might hurt, I once again felt the guilt rise up in me.

“H-Hey, Lune!” She giggled, “Stop, that tickles!”

“I’m sorry.” I muttered, “I’m sorry for causing this.”

“Eh?” She let out a strange sound, “Didn’t I say it was alright? Come on now, we got up before that Serge showed up to wake us all up himself, but that doesn’t mean we can dally for too long. Let’s get dressed already and go get something to eat.”

I don’t like how little she cares about me seemingly freaking out at her and slapping her multiple times across the face. I don’t care how many fights and scuffles she’s gotten herself into, you just can’t accept this sort of thing! It’s not normal to accept it, that is to say, you’d have to be crazy to do so!

“Mowbingh…” A sleepy Nelly revealed herself from under the sheets, all the while rubbing her eyes, “Yaaawn! Awe mom and dad not angwy anymowe?”

“Nope, we settled everything.” Cecily replied to Nelly before turning to me, “It’s all in the past now.”

Oh Great Gods above! Stop blessing me with such kind people that refuse to stay angry at me! I can’t take it anymore, this level of acceptance isn’t even seen in those cheesy fiction novels I used to be a big fan of as a child. In said novels, the protagonist and his crew would always be on good terms, because they had to win against the main antagonist using the Power of Friendship or something like that, but I always felt that that was unrealistic. Come on, now! Is it really that hard to detest me? I’d say I’m a pretty scummy person, overall! Well, it’s not like Cecily likes me or anything, she just specifically pointed out that she’s not mad at me, but that’s it.

***

Heading out to the cafeteria to get ourselves some grub, we were greeted by none other than Pierre himself, and oh boy, just look at the frown he has on while glaring at us. He must’ve heard what had happened last night from the other soldiers, which can only mean one thing – he’s glaring at us with the goal of chewing us out soon.

“I leave you two for one night and you beat the shit out of each other?!”

“Well, it was more of a one-sided beating by him.” Cecily pointed her thumb at me with a pretty satisfied tone.

Turning to me with a face that said You didn’t…! I could only assume just what kind of punishment Pierre will make me go through. Will he put me on cleaning duty for a month? Make me go to the frontlines early? Double my training regimen?

“Sadly, since no one ever expected a woman to enter the army, there aren’t actually any rules set in place for punishing a domestic dispute within army grounds.” He sighed, “That being the case, I’m sorry, Miss, but the best I can do is treat you as a male, legally speaking, but even then a scuffle between two men doesn’t mean jack in the army.”

“Oh, no worries, it’s not like I hated it.” She chuckled while waving her hand at him.

“What?” Pierre asked.

“What?” Cecily parroted.

Both turning to me as if searching for some kind of answer, I just pointed Nelly to a free table and told her to reserve it for us while I replied, “I don’t like where this is going…”

“Rookie, don’t do that again, otherwise you’re out.” Pierre reprimanded me, “I’ll make sure you face capital punishment and I’ll be separating you from your wife and daughter. For their own safety, of course.”

“I-I’d rather you don’t do any of that.” I chuckled nervously, “But thanks for the heads up, I don’t plan on laying a finger on her ever again.”

At this, Cecily looked a bit dejected, but soon switched gears when Pierre corrected me, “You can still touch her, just don’t touch her with malicious intent. Hehe, you two are still young, so I doubt you could even endure not touching her at least a bit for an extended period of time…”

Lightly blushing, I accepted his words wholeheartedly as I once again bowed to Cecily as a sign of apology. She stood there, confused at what I was doing, so I soon stopped after realizing I was yet again drawing a crowd with my weird actions. That being the case, we got our servings and sat down with Nelly to eat.

“So Lune,” Cecily said as she fed Nelly the grub, “About the plan, I think the best idea would be to escape overnight.”

“Eh?” I dropped my spoon, “During the night? Won’t that be, y’know, pretty bad?”

“What makes you say that?”

“First of all, Nelly’s afraid of the dark, so I really wouldn’t want her to get freaked out while we make our way outside the gates. Secondly, your suggestion is the obvious one, as a lot of soldiers would also think the same, only to then get caught by the night shift’s officers. Don’t you think the guards would predict this line of thought and double their security during the night?”

“B-But… Nighttime is for sleeping, why would anyone be awake then?” Cecily asked earnestly.

You’re kidding me that she’s this innocent. What an odd thing to ask! Has she really never pulled an all-nighter? Come to think of it, she looked pretty tired last night… Wait, does she really think that no one in the world stays up during the night, be it because of work, staying up with friends, or other, well… nighttime activities? Seriously, this girl is just chock full of surprises.

“But alright then,” She replied, “What do you think is the best way to escape without getting noticed?”

“Should you really be talking so loudly about this in the middle of the cafeteria?” I asked, glancing around to make sure no one can hear our conversation.

“We’re the only people here that can properly speak Entropic. I mean, there are some people, like Pierre and that other guy, who can speak it a little, but we should be fine with the others.”

Right, Pierre is the only one we should really be looking out for, the others pose no threat. Well, calling Pierre a threat kind of makes him out to be the bad guy, but really it’s quite the opposite. He’s a kind fellow who gifted Nelly his very own childhood teddy. He made both Cecily and I feel safe, and is overall just a really pleasant guy to be around, plus he’s Jorgen’s brother. Frankly speaking, I really feel bad about screwing him over like this, but really he probably won’t care that he’ll be two people short. In fact, it might actually help him, now that he won’t have to babysit Nelly while we’re out training.

“I see. Oh, and to answer your question – I think during daytime practice would be the best.” I replied, “It’s the least obvious idea, plus all the officers will be busy looking at the other soldiers, so we’ll be home free the moment we enter the bushes in the periphery of the base.”

“That’s even dumber than my idea!” Cecily frowned as she ate her share of the breakfast, “It’s the least obvious idea for a reason – because no one can escape unnoticed in the middle of the day! Hellooo, everyone can see you! Not to mention, if everyone’s doing their training and sparring and whatever, doesn’t that mean that they’ll noticed that we’re missing during role call?”

Crap, the rollcall completely escaped my mind! I forgot about it entirely, so my entire plan fell apart. Ugh, so that means that our time window for a potentially successful escape has narrowed down significantly. Namely, our prime time would have to be during an actual training session.

“But then, how are we to divide ourselves from the group during training? What part of the day has those conditions?” I pondered a bit.

“Oh! I know!” Nelly raised her arm, “How about mowning wunning!”

That’s… actually a great idea! Although it’s called morning jog, not morning running, but it’s a good idea nonetheless! Nice one, sweetie, you’re surprisingly smart in the most incredible situations, our little genius! A headpat for you-!

“Dad,” Nelly stopped my hand from approaching her hair, “No mowe headpats. If I am to become a big giwl, I’ll have to, sniff, give them up…”

“Then why are you crying?” I chuckled whilst ruffling up her hair, “Come on, you may have some good ideas, and you’re expanding your vocabulary at an alarming rate, but I think that you’ll only be considered a grown up after you learn how to say the letter ‘R’ properly. Until then, I’m allowed to shower you with as many headpats as I want!”

“Nghooo…!” She drooled a bit, “Dooon’t~! But also, aaaaawh…!”

Heh, she likes headpats more than anything, yet she still wanted to give them up in order to become an adult as quickly as possible. She might not know this, but even some adults like getting headpatted. It’s just a nice feeling in general, not at all anchored to a specific age. That being the case, I don’t understand why she’d cut herself off from something she so obviously enjoys. What’s the point of living life if you refuse to get headpats?

“So it’s decided – morning practice, eh?” Cecily finished her plate, “Sounds good, all we need to do now is decide on where exactly in the course we’ll be branching off from the others.”

“From what I’ve seen in the brochure,” I added, “There’s a large steel bridge atop which sits the trainer who supervises the soldiers. Under that exact bridge is the best blind spot we can ask for, so I think that’s our best bet.”

“Wait, brochure?” Cecily turned around, “What brochure? I never got a brochure!”

“Yeah, Pierre gave me one. I thought he gave you the same one too.”

“Well obviously not!” She fumed, “Ugh, he must’ve thought because of our situation that we would just share it with one another.”

“Sorry about that. I still have it in my pant pocket, but said pants are still under my bed, where my sleeping wear is located. I’ll show it to you later.”

“Alright.” She looked away, “So let me get this straight – we’re leaving during today’s morning running to go run as fast as possible so the others don’t see us, we’ll run into the bushes and escape into the wilderness after reaching the huge steel bridge, but that still leaves us to somehow do all this and pick up Nelly.”

Oh. OOH! We completely ignored Nelly in this plan of ours! Everything else was perfect too, but I guess it’s back to the drawing board…

“Did you guys enjoy the meal?” Pierre suddenly snuck up behind me with a creepy smile.

“A-Ah, yeah…!” I answered back nervously.

“Mistew Sewgeant?” Nelly suddenly spoke up, “Can I come to today’s twaining with you as well?”

“Oh, you wanna go up the Steel Bridge with me?” He seemed delighted, “Sure thing, pumpkin! I was just wondering what I’ll do with you while your parents are running their butts off!”

“Oh, but I’m soooo scawed of heights~!” Nelly acted as best as she could, “Awe thewe any windows I could fall fwom in thewe?”

“A-Ah, to be honest… yeah, there are.” Pierre scratched his cheek, “But don’t worry, I won’t let you fall!”

“Yeah!” Nelly high fived him, “And even if I was to fall, mom and dad would catch me, wight?”

“Yeah!” Cecily joined in, “Of course we will!”

Finally, I too had realized what Nelly was trying to tell us through code. She was saying that she’ll jump from the steel bridge as soon as we approach it and Pierre isn’t looking, and we’ll catch her and then run into the bushes. It’s a foolproof plan! A crazy one, but foolproof nonetheless, just like her father’s plans! That being the case, we have no idea how tall the bridge is. It can be a few meters to a few hundred meters tall, so let’s just hope it’s not too big of a leap, otherwise I doubt we could catch her…