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THE following day, I decided to see how the female cavalry unit’s training was coming along. I figured I should check in on them as often as possible before I had to leave.
The Eisberk Cavalry Brigade was, at its core, a band of mercenaries. It recruited anyone willing whenever the need arose, offering them wages. The model worked because Eisberk’s community was tightly knit—everyone knew everyone.
Wolfe was a horse trainer by trade. As commander of the Cavalry Brigade, he trained people. He routinely organized drills that anyone could attend, though the only compensation for participating was a complimentary meal. Attendees were free to leave midsession or to just drop out of the program entirely. Some joked that they were only there for the food or to get some much-needed exercise.
Either was a perfectly valid reason, in my opinion. Even if they didn’t take the training seriously enough to enter the Cavalry Brigade, this was still a good opportunity for commoners to learn basic reading and writing and developing social skills. That kind of education wasn’t available to everyone, so this was Eisberk’s way of making it more available to our people.
I wanted women to have that same opportunity, which had spurred me to start the first female-only practices a year prior. Pretty waitresses working for trendy cafes, mothers with five-year-old children; the new drills attracted all sorts of people. While the relative difference in physical strength between sexes was a factor, by far the biggest reason the drills were segregated was that everyone struggled to stay focused in a coed setting. Embarrassment was not conducive to fruitful training.
One of House Eisberk’s servants had been running the women-only sessions in my absence. She had self-defense training and good instincts, so I had requested her specifically.
As I quietly observed the squadron gallop gracefully across the grassy fields, their mounts abruptly slowed unbidden. Confused, the riders began to search for the cause. A sharp-eyed girl finally noticed my presence, and before I knew it, I was surrounded.
“Bernstein!”
“How goes the training?” I asked.
“It’s been going well.”
I was relieved to hear that.
“Come join us!” She bowed. “I insist!”
Glad to see they’re enjoying themselves.
After I sparred with every woman there, we sat down outside the fence and had ourselves a little tea party. The warm drinks warded us against the chilly spring wind, and as we sipped, they told me everything that had occurred while I was gone, the good and the bad.
“How did yesterday’s date go, Bernstein?”
The question came out of nowhere, and I almost choked on my muffin. An employee from one of the shops Wolfe and I had visited happened to be present.
“D-D-Date?!” The word instantly piqued the attention of the gossip-loving girls.
“We were just walking around town. You know, like we always do?” I’d resided primarily in Neue Milchstrasse since enrolling in military prep school, so Wolfe and I would religiously pace around town whenever I was home.
Why are they bringing this up all of a sudden?
“You were dressed awfully cute for it to be just a walk about town,” she said, grinning.
I didn’t know how to respond.
“Your Lunar Ice Knight persona is cool, but it feels…distant. Seeing you in a dress reminds me of the Bernstein we all know and love.”
Her admission made me feel genuinely happy. “Thanks.”
“That being said,” she continued, pointing at the four-leaf clover brooch pinned to my chest, “where’d you get that, hmm?”
“The commander?!” someone guessed, gasping.
“The commander? You’re not dating, are you?!” another leaned forward, eyes sparkling.
“No, we’re not!” I exclaimed.
“Now I see why he never settled down.”
“Can you listen to me for one se—”
“You wouldn’t believe how happy they looked walking around together. Why, I’d never seen the commander wear such a warm smile!”
“The commander, ‘wearing a warm smile?’”
“He bought that brooch at our store, you know. Was real careful about it too, monitoring Bernstein’s every move. He even refused to have it wrapped, claiming it was for him!”
“For him, he says!”
“They split a fruit platter at my place too!” the waitress added, further stoking the fire.
“We always split it! And need I remind you that it’s meant to be split!” I retorted in protest.
“‘Always,’ huh. How dreamy”
“They stole strawberries off each other’s plates too!”
“The commander stealing strawberries? No way!”
All of the girls were dumbfounded—except for those who’d also known Wolfe from childhood, who just quietly smiled. To them this side of Wolfe was nothing new.
“Is this really how people think of him?” I asked them incredulously.
They giggled. “‘The brave commander of the Cavalry Brigade, adored by men and women alike!’”
“Huh.”
“What intrigues everyone is that he’s never had a girlfriend despite the fact.”
“I see. We’re not like that though. Wolfe’s like a guardian angel to me. Always has been,” I explained, only to get wide smirks in response. Gross, don’t look at me like that.
“Would you happen to have anyone else in mind then?”
Stern’s face flashed before my eyes. Why, why, why?! My face must have brightened in response, because more giggles filled the air.
“You do, don’t you?” one cackled. “Is it him? The gentleman at the aid station who—”
I pressed my finger against her lips. She closed her mouth, her face turning pink. She’d been stationed at the garrison. “Not one word more. I’m considered a man in the royal capital, lest you forget.”
When in Eisberk I often forgot that reality myself. Neue Milchstrasse me was a man. He had to be.
“The Lunar Ice Knight isn’t allowed to love anyone,” I declared.
The girls exchanged glances. “How awful…” one of them quietly muttered.