After our exhilarating soccer match that sadly ended in a super anticlimactic draw, we had to endure a pretty hellish day filled with all sorts of drills. It got so bad that a ton of the rookies actually puked and some even couldn't handle the training course and passed out. Still, what's gain without at least a little bit of pain? Not! I was one of the poor souls that puked and passed out! Hell, I didn't even last a full hour after we started because of all the stamina I consumed during the soccer match.

"No worries though, I'm still fine." I joked as I woke up in my bed the next day.

"Seriously, you were way too steadfast for your own good." Cecily remarked, "Obviously you weren't gonna endure Jorgen's training regiment."

"I didn't know he was gonna be leading yesterday..."

Sighing with a "What am I gonna do with you?" sort of tone, she chuckled as she handed me my share of today's breakfast.

"I tried convincing the others to have you rest for today, but Jorgen wasn't having any of it." She stated, "Sorry, you think you can recover before they start morning drills?"

Well, if it was up to me, I'd definitely prefer the former of the two options, but I'm obviously not gonna admit to being weak. Plus, acting all insecure and unreliable isn't at all a good idea around the scared and worried Cecily. She just gave birth to Cene around what, just a bit over a month ago? Right now, she must surely feel frail.

"Right, so if there's nothing else I need to do here, I'll be at the training grounds." She slowly got up.

"W-Wait what?!" I jumped up from my bed, "Hold the fuck up... What exactly are you intending to do there, Missy?"

"Uhh, train?" She gave me a quizzical expression, "What else?"

What else? Woman you... Sigh, and here I was wondering if she should even be walking around at all at this point in time, then she suddenly just throws this curveball at me? Geez, this has to be some kind of... prank! Right, of course! The Generals would never let her be this reckless with her body right now! Haha, she's just joking to motivate me to get out of bed, of course!

"Alright, alright, you got me." I patted her gently on the shoulder.

As if completely drawing a blank as to what exactly my reaction meant, she tilted her head with furrowed brows before asking, "Ed, are you sure you're doing alright?"

"Of course I am, geez~!" I chuckled, "But that joke, hehe, you really got me with that one!"

"...I'm not joking, Ed. Although I will only be doing some light exercises for now, I don't intend to just remain deadweight here." She looked serious, "I made a promise to kill that skank, and I'm not one to break a promise."

"Cecily, stop it." I immediately went to stop her in her tracks, "This whole war and the assassination of the Royal Family, leave that to us. I know how you feel about Vivia killing Grim, but right now your job is to take care of Cene until I safely get you to Lichtenstelle..."

"Get your hands off me!" She yelled, "What do you know about me?! You don't know how I feel at all, because you still have Anna!"

"Cecily..."

"...I'm sorry." She quickly turned around to leave the room, "But I have no intentions of sitting around idly, at least until I know for a fact that that woman is no longer of this world."

"..."

"Make sure not to stay inside too long." She said as she closed the door, "Eat up and head outside, otherwise Jorgen will give you a nasty punishment regiment."

As if too ashamed to even look me in the Eyes, she didn't even bother once turning around to see my face as she addressed me, instead opting to just quietly close the door behind her. Now alone in the room, I just sat back down on my bed before eating the food she gave me. It was delicious, even for army rations' standards, but I just couldn't for the life of me enjoy eating it. Something about Cecily's behavior just didn't sit right with me, and I'm not at all saying that her outburst just now wasn't justified, but I still think that I'm the one in the right. Dammit Grim, how did you ever get things done with this difficult woman?

"I have my goals, and you have yours..." I muttered, "It just so happens that our goals clash completely, so we won't ever be able to accomplish both."

Mine is to safely deliver her to Lichtenstelle, where Anna, Arthur and the others will help her take care of Cene. After I know she's around people I can trust, I can breathe a sigh of relief and fully focus on helping out the war effort with taking down the Carmen forces. Of course, I fully intend on killing the King and Princess, as I too have a bone to pick with them for killing Grim, so it's not like her wish won't be fulfilled partially anyways.

Right, it's just like that dream I had recently. Out of the four of us, only Cecily and I remain. If she were to die due to my own negligence and trusting her to be alright in the middle of a war, I couldn't ever face Carter and Grim in the afterlife. But more importantly...

"I'd be the only one left..." I thought to myself, "Who would take care of Cene? And now that I think about it, Nelly too. Obviously, Anna and I would adopt the both of them in that case, but just thinking about it..."

Gently wiping away the tears that fell down my cheeks, I couldn't help but curse myself for being this weak. A man to cry over just his imaginary scenario, what a fool I am. Grim, if he was still here, he'd definitely hit me before laughing at how much of a crybaby I am. Sob, dammit...

***

Finally wiping away all the tears, I got up from my bed and got dressed to leave the room. Walking outside to where everyone else was, I noticed Cecily and Meil were off to the side, with her doing some lighter warmup as he did his best to try and comfortably hold Cene in his arms. It was kind of funny, seeing the ever prepared genius Meil Deram suffer with such a trivial task as taking care of a baby, but before I could approach them to go see what they were up to, I got stopped by Aaron and Max.

"You damned bastard!" Aaron shook me around, "I'll make you regret pulling that prank on us yesterday!"

"Yeah, and-wait, were you crying?" Max noticed.

"Wah~! S-Stop s-shaking m-me a-around!" I yelped, "And I wasn't crying! Real men don't cry!"

"Oh? Is that so?" They smirked at each other before teasing me, "Then what, pray tell, is all that reddening around your Eyes?"

Damn, looks like karma was quick with this one... Eh, looking back I did kind of do something pretty bad to those two, so I don't mind getting my due diligence. Wait, speaking of, I wonder what ever happened that night? Yesterday, both of them acted like nothing had happened, and in fact didn't even come up to me, which I find kind of weird. That being said, a lot of Eyes were on me because of my crazy idea to play football with everyone, so they probably didn't want to talk about it so openly. But now that we're kind of away from everyone, I guess they don't mind?

"You bastard...!" Aaron clenched his fist, "Thanks to your little prank, things have gotten so awkward between Max and I that we can barely speak to each other anymore!"

"Hey now, it's not really that bad." Max calmed him down, "But I do agree that what you did was pretty rude. I don't really care, since I know you meant no harm when you did it, but the least you could do is apologize and somehow make it up to Aaron."

"Right, so I take it you got rejected?" I turned to Aaron, who in turn punched me in the face extra hard.

"What's going on over there?" Jorgen could be heard yelling at us from a distance.

"Just knocking some sense into this asshole!" Aaron shot back.

Shrugging without a care in the world, Jorgen continued instructing the rookies as he muttered a simple "Nice, he needs someone to whip him into shape anyways." These asshats...! They're conspiring against me!

"Ptu!" I spat out the blood in my mouth, "Alright, alright, I get it. Look, sorry man."

"Sorry? You're sorry?!" He lifted me up from the ground by the collar, "How 'bout I fuck your girl and solve the entire dispute with a fuckin' sorry?! Huh, how's that?!"

"Don't you dare bring Anna into this!" I returned with a jab to his gut, "Urk... Listen, you're being unreasonable here. Besides, we're getting off-topic - our goal right now is to kill the Royal Family and end this war. We'll settle this afterwards."

"Ed, what's gotten into you?" Max calmly inquired, "You of all people should know that no man is an island unto himself."

"Eh? In other words, you're saying we won't accomplish anything until we learn to trust each other, did I get that right?" I glared back at him.

"Always quick on the uptake." He praised me with a gentle smile, "Now come on, you two, shake hands. Look, I'm not mad, so why should you two be?"

Rolling his Eyes, Aaron extended his hand towards me. Honestly, I ruined a good thing they had going on, but to think both of them are willing to look past my bad joke? Man, I really feel insignificant in comparison to these two titans. Geez, what the hell is wrong with me? And to think I even had an attitude after they confronted me, what a loser I am... Fine, while I know it's not anything right now, I'll try to make it up to these two for the damage that I've caused. Until then, though, a simple handshake will have to suffi-hm?

"Eh?" I tried letting go after the handshake was supposed to be done, only to feel my palm glued to Aaron's, "What the...?"

"Wooow~!" Max chuckled, dangling the glue he had hidden away until now in front of my Eyes, "Just look at the two of you, being such good friends! Ohhh, I bet that you won't let go for an entire day, at least~!"

"Max! What is the meaning of this?!" Aaron tried tugging his hand free of mine, only for me to let out a strong yelp after almost getting my skin yanked off, "Shit, get off of me!"

"Max, what the hell!?" I grabbed him by the wrist, accidentally spilling the glue he held in his hands on it, "Ah."

"Ah." Max realized.

"You gotta be kidding me..." Aaron used his free left hand to pinch the bridge between his Eyes.

Oh my God, just what the hell is this situation even? We're all glued together, holding hands like paper cut-outs! I swear, you can't make this shit up, and to think I wanted to spend this day trying to find out more about Cecily's feelings... Wait, did Max say the glue would only wash off after an entire day?!

"You three, what the hell are you doing?" Jorgen finally approached us after seeing how long we were slacking for.

"Brother, let them be." Pierre showed us a suspicious amount of support, "For not only publicly coming out, but to also announce to the world that you three are open to a polyamorous relationship, I completely applaud and support you."

"That's not what this is about, you idiot!" I shouted, "Max! Throw some glue at him right now!"

After a bit more twisting and turning, the bout had ended with all five of us somehow glue together, all holding onto each other in just the right way for it to seem wrong. Watching all this unfurl, Cecily and Meil couldn't help but make fun of us. Although, since almost all of the Generals were out of commission, it seems today's training will once again have to be postponed.

"Postpone the training?" Jorgen furrowed his brows before ripping away the part of his uniform that Pierre's hand was stuck to, "Over my dead body. Everyone get back in line!"

Yikes, I forgot just how scary he can be at times... After witnessing this, the four of us looked at each other before silently agreeing that this was for the best, as we got ourselves another free day without having to suffer through Jorgen's deadly drills.