“Oh, it just ended up like that. I mean, we are the chief and deputy chief. That’s just how it is based on how we sit.” Reina responded with a calm expression, but I could see that her ears were flushed red. That meant I had won. She had always been easy to embarrass, if not a little stubborn.
I spoke to her in a quiet voice. “Reina, maybe you could try to be less stubborn and more honest with yourself in the future?”
“Hmmm, if we’re talking about stubbornness, I believe you would win in that category, no?” We both shook our heads at each other.
“I mean, you’re using having your drink poured for you as a way of getting attention. Don’t you think that’s a very roundabout way of doing it? Have you tried just being direct with him? He’s not very good at picking up on those kinds of hints,” I responded.
“Ever since you went to the capital, you’ve been so resolute and you’ve withstood everything. You could have just given up and cried about it,” Reina responded.
“Well, no, it wasn’t that simple.”
“It’s not that simple for me either,” Reina snapped back.
“No, no, my situation was a lot different from yours, Reina.”
“Even if it’s different, that doesn’t change the fact it’s not that simple for me either.”
As we stood face to face arguing over this and that, Ash arrived. He was to participate in the departure ceremony as well as accompany me to Fort Fenix, so he was dressed in formal attire. It really suits him. He looks so handsome. Eh heh heh. As I shot him a few glances, Ash returned a soft smile, and he started talking with Hermes.
“What are those two arguing about?” asked Ash.
“Do you really think I can give you an answer when they’ve yet to even reach a conclusion themselves?”
“Sir Hermes, you should pay more attention to their conversation. Waiting until they’ve reached a conclusion before you care about it isn’t fair to the two of them. Although I am aware that in your position, conclusions are more important.”
“Don’t be stupid. The process is more important in engineering and research. Without properly verifying the method, it’s impossible to judge how to prevent accidents or whether a conclusion is accurate.”
That’s very much like Hermes, I thought to myself as I overheard him talk about his method of allocating priority. I looked at Reina, and I realized she was severely dissatisfied with it. I placed my hand on her shoulder as a show of support.
“Yes, that is important. Even if it leads to a success, it is important to make sure that the plan was not in vain and that there were no problems executing it. It is vital to be sure of that,” Ash replied.
“That’s right. If we were like the old blacksmiths who used to get their ideas from looking at something and learning by rote repetition, we would never be able to keep up with our current amount of work. We have to first think about the most effective method.”
“Yes, yes. Since you put so much emphasis on that, I can see why you feel the need to reach a conclusion fast when it comes to personal relationships,” replied Ash. “Priority is important.”
Hermes was being so Hermes, and Ash was being so Ash. I want you to talk a bit more sense into Hermes. But I knew that since they were close, he couldn’t say much more than that. Looking defeated, Reina patted me on the back to cheer me up. Thank you.
While we were silently consoling each other, Ash spoke up. “Ah, are you both finished talking?”
“Yep. Thanks to you, we’re done.” Ash wouldn’t pick up on the implication there. He had once said that opinions that aren’t spoken simply don’t exist.
“Well, we should get going,” he said with a smile. “As I said before, I’ll be taking anyone who wants to help escort Alicia. For now, we’ll just be going as far as Fort Fenix. I’ll be taking the lead with Amin and the others. We’ll continue on to the Yanga territory and secure a headquarters. Once we’ve confirmed that, we’ll send the people who are currently stationed at Fort Fenix. We’ll keep them until we next meet.”
“Yes.” I nodded. We’d discussed these plans earlier. My voice shook a little when I responded. Even though Reina had just complimented me earlier for being so resilient, I felt like my voice just now betrayed that. I was so used to being with Ash that it seemed I had forgotten how to be strong. If I act all cute and sweet, then Ash will be nice to me.
“I guess I should drop by more?” he said. “There’ll be a variety of jobs needing to be done like interim reports and whatnot, so it’d be easier if I’m the messenger.” He makes me all wobbly when he says stuff like that—I’m supposed to have a reputation for being resilient.
Please do, I thought. I almost said it out loud, but I just smiled instead. “If you were to do that, I wouldn’t be able to stop asking you to come by, so let’s not.” If he helped me with one thing, I would keep thinking of things to ask him for in order to see him or have him stay over. I can be quite selfish. I used to be a princess, after all. I’m used to a certain quality of life.
“You really are resilient...”
“I’ve started to think that I’m not actually that tough...” Especially when it comes to Ash. Even now, with him stroking my head, I just wanted him to do it forever. My once strong will to depart for Yanga had turned soft and squishy, like melted sugar.