Some time later, on the top floor of the gatehouse…267Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvGGeh9RLg9
Water boiled over a small table flame, swaying from the draught that was being fed into the room. In a much smaller pot was tea steeping, but unlike what you would find in most Entente countries, there was no sugar nor milk. Within the gatehouse was a chamber on the second floor where the captain of the outer wall would have rested, where natural light was bleak and in their stead did flames of torches burn. Beside an arrowslit that provided a narrow view over the fields beyond the wall were two chairs with the width of couches, cushioned and blanketed. On either side of the spruce table, the lieutenant and the third general sat and talked, but the latter was surprisingly friendlier than the other.
He smiled and laughed, treating the boy as if he were his younger brother, who did not much enjoy their conversation. Arminius kept a wary eye on the Rus at all times, and he could not even bring his focus away for a second, even if his comrades were standing guard in the same room. Siegfried and Arnau quietly abided by their orders, keeping careful watch by the stairway and behind the general while their archer friend kept an eye outside on the army from the battlements in the misty rain. They had their suspicions that the Rus had more reasons than to seek hospitality, and Aurelius had noticed their stress. But he made no comments about it yet.
Sipping tea, his posture was easy, slouching along the entire length of the chair with his legs kicked up. He did not have his usual trident spear, nor was he visibly armed, but it only made Arminius more unsettled, being unable to decipher his intent.
Resting his cup on his bottom lip, Aurelius pointed at the lieutenant with his fifth finger. “You haven’t told me your name.” He mentioned having gone a third of an hour without his host ever introducing himself to the general.
“Arminius Reichner, Lieutenant… of Dannen… aide-de-camp to Lady Ingrid Rantzau.” The boy answered, unsure of how he should state his muddling allegiances.
“Ah, then we must have fought at that bridge.” Aurelius set his cup on the table and lowered his leg, intrigued. “Rex has been babbling on about you for a while now.” Making circles with his hand, he gave a slight chuckle.
Unsure of who he was referring to, the lieutenant paused. “Rex?” Arminius repeated.
“Regulus von Eos.” The general corrected himself, realising he had been calling his comrade by his childhood name. “I believe you’re acquainted.”
Arminius assumed that he was referring to the time when he fought Rzhev on the field of Serrmolos and that he must have heard about it from Eos directly, but their mutual acquaintance did not change his stance. He remained alert.
As Aurelius sipped his tea, he noticed that Arminius had not touched his cup and gestured for him to drink before it went cold. However, the lieutenant still refused to move his hand.
Realising what it was he feared, Aurelius lowered his cup and lifted his sweatshirt so he could see that he had not hidden any weapons on the front of his body. “Don’t worry, I’m not armed.” He covered himself again and rolled his sleeves up as he leaned back. “I won’t bear to be that stupid.” Claimed the general.
Trusting him, Arminius looked down and awkwardly apologised, knowing that he had been acting too paranoid lately. “Sorry…” Finally, he lifted his cup from the table.
His act nearly forced a laugh out of the general, but he managed to withhold his instincts for once and continued. “Then, tell me, Lieutenant Reichner, what are you doing here?” Aurelius glared at him with an inquisitive expression. “You look neither Danner nor exactly Europer.” Surveying his appearance, he moved his hand, up and down, over his own face.
Arminius held onto his cup that warmed him and peered down into his dark reflection. “I was forced to retreat here, if you remember.” He did not hesitate to take a jab at him. “As for the other thing, my father’s Zhermanner and my mother’s Seriker.” For once in years, he had to explain his background to him. However, he did not seem proud of it.
Curious as to how that might have worked, Aurelius crossed his legs and rested his arms along the back of his seat. “I’ve never met anyone of that… mixture.” The Rus gazed at him with interest. “Have they ever told you how they met?” The boyish general appeared eager to hear his tale.
Convinced that he had never heard his parents talk about it, the half-blood boy shook his head. “No, but I’d heard that their marriage was arranged.” Arminius cut his story short.
His words piqued Aurelius’s interest. “Their families wanted a marriage of Eifers, didn’t they?” He gave a light smile, having known the truth, his eyes pinned on his cup. “Believe me, I know too well.” His mind was elsewhere, not present, but he felt as though the lieutenant did not wish to speak anymore about his family.
Arminius froze and looked up, shocked that he could read his mind, but it was exactly as the general said. He remembered the moment when he first heard abou it from his sister, who had been eavesdropping on an argument between their parents. Disgusted by the revelation, for days, he shied away from his family, yet now that everything had become ash in his memories, a fogged feeling lingered in him.
“Instead, I was born with a regressed version of my father’s. My brother, Tiberis, with my mother’s. And my little sister, Athena… well… without either.” The blood in Radilov’s hand began to glow with Eifer as he played around with the humidity in the air, which turned into mist from his power. “I would’ve had more siblings if not for a disease that ravaged our family.” Aurelius spoke to him with a tone that suggested he was glad to have less competition to worry about.
Not knowing how to respond, Arminius lowered his gaze. “I’m sorry to hear that…” The lieutenant said, feeling saddened that he believed someone else had to share in his pain.
As he set his cup down on the table, he flinched when he heard Aurelius giggle. The boy looked up and saw that Aurelius’s face showed no signs of despair, only childlike bliss.
“What is there to be sorry about? You weren’t Rex, were you?” Aurelius dismissed his sympathy, uncrossing his legs and sitting forward. “Besides, it was well-deserved.” He lifted his cup as if he were toasting to his horrendous past before taking a sip of his tea.
His lack of compassion frightened Arminius, who had never heard one be so cruel. The boy felt his voice close off with no opinion left to give and no want to speak, but before the general could continue their conversation, Arminius remembered that this talk of memories and families was not his purpose, nor did he believe that it was the general’s. He needed to uncover what the Rus wanted and refrained from any more directionless chatter.
His hands were put together, and his body stilled from any motion. “I’ve meant to ask,” Arminius began. “Wasn’t Lieutenant Colonel Serov supposed to be here instead?” He asked, but the general seemed uninterested in the change of topic.
“No, he’s been recalled to the frontlines, so I’m your company now.” Aurelius pushed his and Arminius’s cups towards the teapot. “At least, for now.” He added discontentedly that they could not spend more time together.
The general pinched the teapot by its snake-like handle and poured tea for Arminius and then for himself. Although the task would have usually been reserved for the lesser-ranked soldier, he always felt less inclined to follow the norm.
Steam rose before the lieutenant’s eyes, briefly shrouding his vision that remained focused on the Rus. Lifting the lid off the teapot, Aurelius examined the leaves inside it, and determining that their flavour had not yet been drained, he poured into it a new batch of boiling water to let them steep.
Mesmerised by his tea-making art, the half-blood boy closed his eyes as he clenched his hands on his knees. “General, forgive me for being blunt.” Arminius skipped ahead, having grown impatient with diplomacy. “What is it that you’ve actually come for?” He straightforwardly asked him.
Aurelius paused and glanced at Arminius before replacing the lid over the teapot. “This: tea and conversation.” As if it was obvious, he gave an even blanker answer.
“With twenty thousand troops in escort?” Having long been unconvinced by the general’s act, Arminius pushed back at him.
“Is it so wrong to want to act like a king?” The Rus shrugged it off and leaned back, slouching into the cushions again.
For how childish he seemed and how unbelievable his answers were, it made Arminius partially believe him.
Holding his cup under his nose to catch the fragrance of the tea which he had perfectly brewed, Aurelius sipped, taking care not to burn his tongue.
The longer the lieutenant stared at the general, the more he understood that it was just a lie, a farce that the Confederate had made up, and he only grew more desperate for an answer. “Will the war really be over so soon?” Arminius carefully crafted his words with the tone of an ally.
Once more, the general observed that the lieutenant had not touched his cup since pouring his tea, yet he refrained from gesturing for him to drink it. “We’ll reach the Renen by summer, Lutet by winter.” His voice grew colder as he predicted the future. “We needn’t bother with the rest, knowing they’d throw down their arms the minute Franken falls.” He spoke as if the worst was behind them and that their battles would only become easier.
“Then, shouldn’t your troops be on the frontlines?” Arminius feigned support.
From having a neutral smile to a grin, Aurelius set his cup down and turned to him with a distressing reply. “Are they not?” The general glared at Arminius intensely, who inched away from the table.267Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQVgwtqIfnY
and then Add to home screen.