“Whoa. You smell like booze,” Spinoza observed.
The top of his table was crowded with empty mugs, giving us an indication of the rough state he’d been in after getting forced out of the Guard Corps.
“Well aren’t you the lucky one, gettin’ piss drunk in the middle of the day.”
“Sarcasm, eh?”
“No, for real, I’m crazy jealous right now.”
“Well, I’ve already been kicked out of the guards,” Bolton grunted derisively at himself. “I’ve had to work my ass off for so long with barely any time to relax, so I figured I’d let loose for a change. Turns out that as soon as you’re not workin’, suddenly you’ve got way too much free time on your hands. I’ve got no family, no hobbies. It’s a pretty sad life to be a middle-aged bachelor, if ya think about it.”
“But you haven’t given up yet, have you?” I asked. “You still have calluses on your hands. They’d be gone by now if you hadn’t been swinging your sword every day. That proves to me you’re still keeping up with your training.”
“Eh... I’ve just been doin’ it to pass the time. Doesn’t feel right to stop cold turkey when you’ve been doin’ it for so long,” Bolton muttered awkwardly. “Besides, givin’ up’s got nothin’ to do with anything. You guys heard everything—Leobolt forced me out. It’d be impossible to get me back in the Guard Corps now.”
“No, that’s not what I meant,” I told him. “Your goal is to protect the Orb of Light here in the capital, so you can protect the happiness of your wife and daughter. You can still do that without being part of the Guard Corps.”
“Huh?”
“Being a part of an organization like the Guard Corps is only one way to accomplish your goal. That means all you have to do is find some other way.”
“What, you sayin’ I should join some kind of volunteer militia?”
“That’s one possibility, yes.”
Hearing me say that, Bolton smiled. “Heh. You’re a funny guy, Sieg. Yeah, you’re right about that. I could probably manage that if I found some other job to live off of.”
Then, as if to bridge the gap between subjects, he tilted back the mug in his hand, gulping down the entirety of its contents in one go. His face tinged red, he let out a breath and began quietly speaking at the same time.
“Anyway, I heard about what Leobolt did. He’s really crackin’ down on you guys, huh. They told me he’s makin’ everyone keep an eye on each other?”
“That’s right.”
“I also heard he’s makin’ everyone train outside of work hours, and banned gambling and alcohol. Somethin’ about ‘proper behavior,’ they said.”
“I’m amazed you know about all that.”
“One of the guys who got reprimanded came whinin’ about it to me,” Bolton said with a slight grin. “When it comes down to it, the guards are just a buncha hopeless lugs with nothin’ but their muscles goin’ for ’em—just like me. Expectin’ ’em to be all prim and proper is just gonna suffocate ’em.”
“You can say that again,” Spinoza agreed.
“Leobolt really is a brilliant guy. Problem is, that makes him think that since he can do somethin’, he can expect that same standard from everyone else,” Bolton said. “There aren’t that many brilliant guys like him out there. Most people can’t handle what he can. And the people who can handle that kinda stuff don’t know how to put themselves in the shoes of someone who can’t. They don’t know what it’s like to fail at something. People who’ve never been hurt before don’t know how to be kind to others.”
Seira nodded. “We certainly had a lot more freedom when you were our commander, sir.”
I seconded her notion. “As long as we at least did what we had to do, you left everyone to their own devices afterward. And there were no bans on drinking or gambling.”
“As a rule, I think most people are pretty much hopeless. If you wanna be able to control ’em, you gotta know when to give ’em the carrot and when to give ’em the stick,” Bolton responded.
“Lookin’ back, I liked it way better when you were in charge,” Spinoza grumbled. “C’mon, man, can’t ya just take back your position?”
“What, you want me to stage a coup d’état now? You’ve gotta be kidding. This ain’t the time to be at each other’s throats—we’ve got monsters to worry about.” He gave a pained smile. “There might be some guys who can’t keep up and come cryin’ to me about it, but a lot of the guards actually approve of Leobolt. It’s not my place to butt in.”
“I wonder if Leobolt plans on enacting any more reforms for us...” Seira said, furrowing her brow.
“I would assume so,” Fam responded. “He seems to have an image in his head of the ideal Guard Corps. He’ll probably try to bring the entire organization closer to that.”
“Then he’s just gonna squeeze us tighter and tighter...” Spinoza looked fed up. “Maybe I’ll just quit the guards and end up like you, boss. Then I’d be able to openly gamble and drink in the middle of the day.”
“How will you earn the money for room and board?” I asked.
“Well, I’d gamble, y’know?”
“Considering the massive amount you owe in debt and bar tabs, I’m amazed you can just throw together a budget like that. You could almost call it some kind of gift.”
“Heh. Ya don’t gotta compliment me.”
Spinoza was completely oblivious to my sarcasm.
If we stayed in the pub too long, Leobolt would rake us over the coals. Having come to a good stopping point, we turned around and started to leave the pub.
“Nothing out there can live in water that’s too clean, y’know.”
The words Bolton said as we were leaving stuck with me for a long time.