Chapter 42. Outflanked by Two Girlfriends and a Legally Binding Schedule

Chapter 42: 42. Outflanked by Two Girlfriends and a Legally Binding Schedule

That sounded about right...

I took the letter and broke the seal, and the messenger stayed exactly where he was, looking at the ceiling the way people do when they’re pretending not to read over your shoulder.

Hallis had a neat, slanted hand... like wow... the handwriting of a man who’d spent a lot of years filling out reports. The letter wasn’t long, and I love it because I don’t want to read like... long letters.

’Ravenshield,

I’m writing this myself because I don’t trust anyone else to say it plainly. The crystal shipment your order detected has not gone unnoticed. A garrison scout team that I trust personally has been following it at a distance since last night. They have strict orders to watch and report, not to intercept. If anyone tries to stop that wagon before we know who is waiting at the other end, we lose the one lead that might actually take us to the top.

A formal request for authorization to investigate Site Nine has gone to the Council through Lady Sanford, who has agreed to sponsor it. I expect an answer within one or two days. Until it arrives, nobody goes near that facility.

As for you, I have read Mistress Orla’s report, and I’m giving you an order, not a suggestion. You will rest. You may take light exercise if the healer allows it, and you may take light training under Lady Sanford, but only light. You are no use to this kingdom as a corpse, and I have a feeling you would try very hard to become one if left alone.

I know how that sounds. I also know why you’d want to go anyway, because I was once twenty-two and stupid. Be patient. The people we’re after are good at making impatient men do reckless things.

-Hallis’

I read it twice, and the second time... I noticed that the last paragraph was written a little less steadily than the rest, like he’d put down the pen for a minute before finishing.

And yes... I notice that little insult from ’I was once twenty-two and stupid,’ but eh... it’s fair.

"Tell the commander I understand," I said.

"Is that all, sir?"

"Oh! Forgot... And also tell him that I say thank you, but you’ll have to do that while lowering your head as if I were the one that does it, alright?" I chuckled.

The messenger saluted, a little too sharply, and practically ran down the corridor.

’Kindred spirit indeed.’

I stood in the doorway for a while with the letter in my hand, and a strange thing happened... I don’t know why, but... I felt a flash of frustration, the kind that makes you want to kick a wall, and then it simply went away.

It didn’t leave because I’d argued myself out of it... It left because the argument was already over, and I’d lost it before I even started.

Hallis was right... Every single word of it was right.

A royal-level clearance meant somebody with enormous power was behind that shipment, and a man who barges into a fortress like that with half his ribs held together by linen isn’t brave; he’s an idiot who hasn’t figured out he’s dead yet.

I’d promised Laura. I would ask for help before I did something stupid... and the help I’d been given said wait.

’Wait for orders,’ I thought. In two lives, I’ve never once heard that and thought it sounded like good advice.’

It was a weird feeling, honestly.

I’d spent most of my first life being told what to do by people who didn’t care, and most of my second one being told I couldn’t do anything at all.

Having a commander tell me to hold back because he didn’t want me to die was something else entirely... meaning a lot for my journey as a knight, and it felt a little like being looked after, and I wasn’t sure what to do with that.

All of this is just new... and I’m glad that I finally deserved all of this.

I was still standing there when I heard two sets of footsteps coming down the hall and a very familiar argument coming along with them.

"I said I’d go first," Alicia was saying.

"You said you would go first yesterday and the day before that," Laura answered. "It’s my turn now."

"There’s no turn! There isn’t even a schedule for this."

"There’s a schedule in your hand... I can see it."

"That’s a different kind of schedule!"

They rounded the corner into view, and I leaned on the door frame and tried not to smile. Alicia was in her Royal Knight uniform, with her golden braid over one shoulder and a sheet of paper held up in front of her like a battle standard.

Laura was in hers too, short blue hair damp from a morning wash, balancing a tray with a teapot, three cups, and a roll of fresh bandages. She had the look of a woman who’d been up since dawn organizing her own good intentions.

Do you know how lucky I am to get to have them as my girlfriends? SO FUCKING LUCKY THAT I DARED TO EVEN BEAT THE STRONGEST IN THIS WORLD!

They saw me and stopped... and both of them started talking at once.

"You’re awake."

"Good, you’re up."

"I brought tea."

"I brought a list."

"Why are you standing?"

"Why are you in the doorway?"

"Why aren’t you resting?"

Oh god... I didn’t know that there’s such a thing as two dialogs at the same time?! And I didn’t even know where to start at this point.

"Now hold on a second," I said, raising my good hand. "Before the two of you start arguing about which of you gets to supervise me..."

"Maybe I should tell you that I’ve just been officially ordered to do nothing by a woman named Orla, a man named Hallis, and my own body."

"So which means... I’m very well supervised already."

"That’s good," Alicia said, "because I’d like to add a few things."

"I was afraid of that."

She marched into the room as if she owned it, set the paper down on my desk, and planted both fists on her hips. Laura followed with the tray and put it carefully on the bed, then started untangling a bandage with the focus of someone defusing a bomb.

"Today," Alicia announced, "is Roland’s Mandatory Day Off!"

"It’s capitalized," Laura said, without looking up. "I can hear it."

"Because it’s important! I’ve spoken to Sharon, and I’ve spoken to Hallis, and I’ve gotten written permission from both." She tapped the paper.

"Nobody expects you at the garrison, nobody expects you at the training grounds until tomorrow morning, and the only job you have is to be seen walking around the city looking alive."

"That’s an... actual job?"

"It is for a Royal Knight, and it’s a very important one to greet the citizens." Alicia smiled. "The city needs to see you standing."

"Plus, the healer said light exercise was allowed," Laura added, finally getting the bandage straight. "So I suppose walking counts."

"Walking is not a hobby..."

"It is for me."

I looked from one of them to the other.

They were both watching me with the same level, determined expression, the look of two people who’d talked about this ahead of time and decided that I didn’t get a vote.

It was kind of terrifying, and it was also... if I’m being honest, the nicest thing that had happened to me all week.

"There are conditions," Laura said, and held up one finger. "No sword."

"Eh. Fine by me."

"No armor. No training. No fighting, and no jumping in front of things."

"I’ve been through this speech once already today, and please don’t repeat it again... it feels tempting now."

"And you obviously didn’t listen, so I’m giving it again." She ticked the last item off on her finger with great firmness. "And no being reckless."

"What counts as reckless?"

"Anything you were already thinking about doing."

"That covers everything."

"Good," said Laura. "Then we understand each other."

Alicia was grinning so hard that I thought her face might split. She leaned against the desk and crossed her arms.

"You know what this actually is, don’t you?"

"A hostage situation...?"

"A date."

I opened my mouth, and nothing came out.

Laura froze with the teapot halfway to a cup. "It is not a date!"

"It’s a day where Roland doesn’t fight anyone, and the two of us spend it with him," Alicia said. "I’m not sure what else you’d call it... or maybe ’double date’ since we’re his girlfriends."

"I would like to call it supervision." Laura looked at Alicia.

Alicia then improved. "Ah! Supervision with food!"

"That still counts as supervision!"

"And with hand-holding," Alicia added, in the sweetest voice I’ve ever heard from a human being. "For the supervision, isn’t that great?!"

Laura’s ears went red from the tips all the way down. She put the teapot very gently on the tray, like it had insulted her family, and turned to look at me with the tragic expression of a general who had just been outflanked.

"Is she... always like this?" she asked.

"Pretty much since we were five."

"I don’t remember you complaining."

"I’ve been complaining for fifteen years... Nobody listens."

"That’s because your complaints are boring," said Alicia.

"I’ll have you know that my complaints are very creative."

"You complained about a sandwich for two hours once."

"It was a bad sandwich!"

Laura let out a short laugh, covered her mouth, and gave up on her dignity completely. "Fine... It’s a date... a double date."

"But I’m not calling it that in public."

"Of course not," Alicia said. "We’ll call it a mandatory supervisory excursion!"

"You’re doing that on purpose now..."

"I’m doing everything on purpose! Tehe~!"

I sat down on the edge of the bed because my knees were starting to feel unreliable, and I watched the two of them settle into the room like they’d been planning this for a month.

Alicia poured the tea. Laura crouched in front of me and unwrapped my arm, peeling the old bandage away with careful fingers, and when she saw the stitched gash under it, she let out a long, quiet breath.

"It’s healing," she said, mostly to herself.

"I told you."

"You told me it was fine, and you’ve always told me that about everything."

"Is it working, though?"

"No."