Another voice called out to us then. “Oh, it’s you two. Should folks as important as you be standing around here wasting time like this?”
“Huh? Um, you’re…”
“Good afternoon, Marthe. It’s been a while.” Claire bailed me out right when I was struggling to remember this person’s name. The well-rounded middle-aged woman in an apron before me was Marthe, the cafeteria lady at the Imperial Academy. She had done the commentary for our cook-off together with Lana.
“We were just about finished with our patrol. What brings you here to Zurück, Marthe?” I asked.
“I’m working mess for the battle. Not much fighting to be done on an empty stomach. Ain’t that right, Marco?”
“Uh-huh,” said the man I assumed was Marco. I didn’t recognize him.
“Uhh…” I blanked.
“And who might you be?” Claire asked, seeming to not recognize the man either this time.
“Ya gots to be kiddin’ me! It’s me! Me! Y’know, the head chef! Remember?”
“Whaaat?!” I exclaimed.
“You’ve, um…filled out some…?” Claire ventured. The last time we’d seen him was at the cook-off, and I could have sworn he was pretty lean then. Now he was all chubby.
“Yeah, well, think about it,” he said. “You can eat all kinds a’ crazy good foodstuffs in the empire now! Who wouldn’t gain weight?!”
“Learn some self-control, greenhorn!” Marthe thundered, making Marco hang his head dejectedly. “Anyway, just know you two ain’t gonna hafta worry about food on the battlefield with us behind ya. So feel free to give your part your all.”
“Thank you very much,” Claire said.
“Thank you both,” I said.
Our soldiers’ morale would improve if these two were providing the provisions. As Marthe noted, battles weren’t won on empty stomachs.
We parted ways with them and walked some more before running into yet another familiar face.
“Huh? Sandrine?!” I exclaimed.
“Your Holiness?”
The woman in nun’s attire was Sandrine. She had taken care of me back when I was swapped with the pope. She was both the pope’s personal attendant and her poison tester. She was also the first person with whom I’d experienced asphyxiation play.
“Who is this?” Claire asked.
“Uhhh…” I had inadvertently called out to Sandrine, but we had only met while I was acting as the pope. As far as she knew, we were total strangers.
“You’re not Her Holiness, are you?” she said. “Might you be Rae Taylor then?”
“Do you know Rae?” Claire asked.
“I do. She put herself in harm’s way to act as Her Holiness’s body double. I cannot thank you enough for your efforts, Miss Rae.” Sandrine bowed deeply. It seemed someone had explained everything to her.
“It was nothing. If anything, I should be apologizing for deceiving you.” I bowed my head as well.
“Leave it at that, you two, or we’ll be here all day,” Claire said. “What brings you to Zurück, Sandrine?”
“Well, I wanted to assist Her Holiness, but it was determined that I’d only be baggage, so I’m to wait in this town for her return instead.” Sandrine looked very saddened by this fact. Her eyebrows were scrunched together, forming a mountain peak. “I suppose it can’t be helped, as I have no fighting prowess to speak of. You both will be joining the battle, right? Could you please make sure Her Holiness stays safe for me?” She grabbed our hands with tears in her eyes.
I was a bit taken aback, but Claire replied, “Of course, leave her to us. We’ll make sure Her Holiness returns safely to your side. So please, be at ease.”
Claire flashed a smile full of benevolence, the kind she rarely ever showed me. We parted with a greatly moved Sandrine and continued to walk the streets of Zurück.
“Hey, you two!”
Hearing a feminine, high-pitched voice call out to us, Claire and I turned around. Standing there was a woman in a soldier’s uniform.
“Ugh,” I groaned.
“Don’t be rude, Rae,” Claire chided. “Good afternoon, Adelina.”
“Humph. Still as prim as ever, eh, Claire François?”
Adelina was Otto’s older sister, as well as someone who had once tried to gather young soldiers of the imperial army together for a coup d’état that eventually fell through. Oh, and we weren’t on the best of terms.
“Are you fighting in the battle, Adelina?” I asked.
“Are you mocking me? There’s no way a small fry like me would be granted the honor of fighting on the front line!”
How the heck was I supposed to know that? I thought. “Then what are you doing here in Zurück?”
“This is why civilians are just…” she muttered. “Listen up, all right? You can’t fight a battle by just tossing people at the front line, you need a long supply chain with multiple points of defense—” She continued to share her vast knowledge of military tactics for some time. “—and that’s everything. Got it?”
“Not one bit,” I replied.
“Goddamn it! Are you trying to make a fool out of me?!”
No, your speech was just too long and hard to follow, I sulked.
“I see,” Claire said. “So you have the important duty of protecting the supply lines needed to maintain the front line of the battle?”
“Humph. It seems Claire at least has some brains. Yeah, you got it. I’m disgusted by the idea of leaving this battle against the demons in the hands of you lot, but it’s what Her Imperial Majesty ordered. You better not betray her expectations, all right?!” Having said her fill, Adelina began to storm off. She stopped, however, to turn around and whisper, “Otto’s worried about you both, so you better not die.”
Afterward, she stormed off for real.
“What in the world was that?” I asked.
“I think I know. She’s being tsundere,” Claire replied.
Claire had recently grasped the concept of tsundere. Which begged the question, if a tsundere met another tsundere, would that make tsundere-squared?
What the heck was I even thinking?
We continued to make our rounds and were greeted by many others who gave us words of encouragement.
“It looks like we’ll be carrying the hopes of many into battle tomorrow,” I said.
“Indeed…”
Our battle with the Demon Queen was no longer just to bring an end to her violence but to restore peace to all who lived in this world.
“We can’t lose,” I said.
“No, we mustn’t.”
We had reached the end of our patrol. I took Claire’s outstretched hand in my own and walked back with her to the inn.