The elimination assignments Wild Tempest took on with Leon at the head had nearly wrapped up. They’d traveled across the vast expanse of the empire to complete them, but thanks to the Black Odile, they were right on schedule. The assignments were easier now that the team had leveled up—even a beast of depth-8 was no cause for concern.
Leon was on the airship radio with Noel, updating the clan master on their agenda. Given the speed of their work and their means of travel, he expected them to be back in Etrai sooner than expected. He couldn’t hide his joy.
“I think we’ll even make it back before the Seven Star Cup preliminaries,” Leon said.
He originally expected them to get back sometime during the preliminaries, which wasn’t really an issue considering Wild Tempest would only be competing in the finals. Nonetheless, it was nice to know they’d be getting home early.
“We owe a lot to the airship. It’s way too fast! It was downright shocking at first.” Leon laughed, and he heard Noel chuckling too.
“Was anyone airsick?”
“Hugo vomited.”
“Hugo? Color me surprised,” Noel said. “I would’ve put my money on Koga.”
“It caught me off guard as well, but it seems he’s not comfortable on airships.”
“He should have said something beforehand. I had no idea.”
“Well, he thought he’d be able to manage, since he’s fine on his puppet-valkyries, but it looks like he gets sick when someone else is in control. He was white as a sheet and stuck in the bathroom for a while.”
“Quite the feat, managing that and beast assignments at the same time.”
“I gave him some of my motion sickness medication. It seemed to do the trick.”
“Always prepared, aren’t you?”
“Well, thanks to you, medication is just another part of my everyday life now. It’s more than just motion sickness tablets, you know.”
Noel snickered at Leon’s wry attempt at humor. He was going to retort with something along the lines of “It’s no laughing matter,” but he knew it was pointless.
“Koga’s training is going well,” Leon went on. “I’m not sure whether he’ll rank up in time for his match, but we know two things for sure: he’s motivated, and he’s way stronger than he was before we left.”
“There’s no turning back for him now, not after the way he shot his mouth off.”
“There you go again,” Leon said. “You’re the one who ordered him to do this, Noel. Shouldn’t you give him a little credit?”
“I’ll give him credit when he shows results. I don’t care for talk.”
“So if Koga does show results, you’ll praise him for a job well done?”
Noel said nothing. There were no issues with the radio, which meant Noel simply didn’t want to answer the question. He was stubborn about the strangest things, but it was part and parcel of his youth. Leon suppressed a chuckle.
“Anyway, is it true you’ve entered into marriage talks with a young lady?”
“Yep. I’ve been on a few dates with Ralph Golding’s daughter. You heard from the newspapers?”
“I did. We’ve got connections to a branch of the empire’s papers, so I knew about their morning article by noon. Everyone’s shocked, you know. I mean, haven’t you always detested that kind of thing?”
“I have my reasons,” Noel said, his voice laced with exhaustion. “I’ll give you the rundown when we next meet for drinks.”
Leon laughed good-naturedly. “Can’t wait. But you’d best be on guard. Depending on the contents of that rundown, Alma might have a knife with your name written on it. She’s been fuming since she found out.”
“Really now?”
“As soon as she heard, she caused a ruckus. Said she was going to go back alone to confront you about it herself. We managed to calm her down a little, but outside of work, she’s been cooped up in her room mumbling your name like some kind of mantra. It’s straight out of a horror show.”
“Don’t care. It wouldn’t be the first time she’s gone off the rails.”
“Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you, yeah? I’m not getting in the middle if anything happens.”
Leon wasn’t going to get in the way of a rampaging Alma ever again. Fortunately, she hadn’t unsheathed her knives, but all the same, he and Hugo and Koga had all taken one heck of a beating just to calm her down. Those wounds had since been healed, but they still stung beneath the surface. Koga had gotten the worst of it, due to their already-poor relationship. Alma had crushed his jaw and broken his ribs. Compared to Alma, a raging tiger was like a harmless kitten.
“Whatever,” said Noel, uninterested. “Anything else to report?”
Leon shook his head even though they couldn’t see each other. “Nope. That’s about it.”
“If anything comes up, get in touch. Travel safe.”
After that, Leon turned off the radio. He decided to take a shower and hit the hay. It was already midnight, and they had another assignment tomorrow, so Leon didn’t want to stay up too late. He was walking down the airship corridor, yawning, when he bumped into Hugo. The Puppet Master was in his pajamas, staring out the window.
“Hi, Hugo. Something up?”
Hugo motioned out the window with his chin. Leon looked out at the grassy plain to which the airship was anchored and saw Koga. The Longswordsman was completely focused on swinging his weapon over and over.
“Didn’t you say that training was over for the day?” asked Leon.
“It is. Koga wanted to keep going.”
“Won’t that do more harm than good?”
“Not necessarily. You can’t rank up unless you surpass your limits. It is possible to get closer to ranking up by putting your body through such intense suffering that you enter a trancelike state.”
Leon nodded and took a step back from the window. “Do you think Koga can rank up in time?”
“He is in good shape. He can take out a hundred automated puppet soldiers on his own now. That is a dramatic improvement over how things were when he started. It’s just…” Hugo’s words trailed off.
“The ‘it’ factor is still missing,” Leon finished for him.
Koga’s training was on track, there was no doubt about that. His rate of improvement had also been boosted thanks to Leon acting as another training partner while they were on this expedition. Leon had felt Koga’s growth firsthand. At the same time, Leon knew that Koga wouldn’t rank up if they kept going on the same track.
“You are of the same mind, I see,” Hugo said.
“His abilities are amazing, but he needs to realize them for himself. If we tell him how it felt for us to get to A-Rank, we run the risk of confusing him. But his pursuit of strength and power is too haphazard—he has to align himself with his goals.”
“Hardly something easy to put into words. That ideal and essential strength is different for all of us.”
“Koga has to have realized that he’s missing something. That’s why he’s still out there, swinging his sword. He’s looking within himself, confronting who he is. All that’s left now is a battle against the clock. There is little more we can do.”
Hugo nodded to himself, then moved away from the window.
“Going to sleep?” asked Leon.
“No, I’m going to cook up something for Koga. He will need to refuel eventually.”
Leon’s eyes went wide with surprise. “Like a midnight snack, you mean? You’re really devoted, aren’t you?”
Hugo turned back to Leon with a secretive grin. “Koga getting stronger is good for all of us,” he said, his grin growing wider. “Best of all, if Koga wins the Seven Star Cup, Noel gets a hot, steaming cup of comeuppance.”
“My goodness,” Leon replied with a chuckle. “That’s why you’re doing this?”
Hugo tilted his head. “Are you saying you would rather not see it?”
“What? I mean, who are you kidding? Of course I do.”
“Right?”
Everyone respected Noel, but there was mischief interwoven with that admiration. They wanted to see him taken down a notch.
“Well, let me help you out. I know my way around a kitchen.”
“Great. Let us whip up something tasty.”
The two men nodded in agreement and headed for the airship kitchen.
“By the way,” Leon ventured, wishing to ask about something that was niggling at him. “Just how long are you going to carry that pillow under your arm?”
“Hmph!”
Hugo’s face went red. He chucked his pillow away and took off down the corridor like he was running away. Leon laughed and followed after him. The night was still young for the three men in Wild Tempest.