Second Life as a Soldier

Hearing my voice, both of them raised their guard and started looking around. Once Leif saw me, his guard eased up, whereas Lela narrowed her eyes at me.

“Edward, right?”

Ignoring her, Leif stepped forward and gave me a hug.

“How are you? Are you all healed up? Or do you still have some injuries?” I asked first.

The last time I had seen him, he was leaving for the capital after his affinity had increased to eighty-two percent from being attacked by a Tier-4 beast.

“Yeah, doctors in the capital are miracle workers, but I am not completely recovered yet. My mana channels can only support my full mana capacity for five minutes. There—”

“Uhm...” Lela cleared her throat to stop Leif mid-sentence. “You are sharing your weakness.”

At Lela’s statement, Leif looked at her in confusion, while I just shrugged. I honestly didn’t care about Leif’s fighting capabilities. As long as he was fine, that was enough.

And she was not completely wrong. We were standing in the market. Even if I didn’t have any bad intentions, someone else might.

So, changing the topic, I asked the other questions I had.

“What did you do for the last year and a half? And what are you two doing here?”

“As soon as I reached the capital, I was enrolled in Avalon Knight School. While I was getting treated, I started taking courses related to a military officer’s duties, and once I was able to use mana again, I started joining combat-related classes as well. As for what we are doing here...”

“We are here on a mission for House Petrae,” Lela said, completing Leif’s sentence.

“Ah, yes,” Leif nodded. “I also met Lela at Avalon Knight School, and since some of the scions of House Petrae were coming here, we were sent as part of their advance team.”

“So you did end up joining House Petrae,” I said.

There was a little judgment in my voice. Before he left, I had told him not to make any permanent commitment this early. He had a huge amount of potential. The easiest proof of that was that he currently had more mana than Lela, who had trained under House Petrae’s guidance for who knew how long.

I was sure that if he had stayed independent, he could have started his own house once he broke through to Tier-4.

“Yes, they helped me a lot, promised me a lot of independence in the future, and once I met Lela, I saw how well they treated her. So the decision was not that tough.”

This time, I smiled as I listened to Leif’s words, not because he had decided to join House Petrae, but because I could see he had a crush on Lela. Whenever he mentioned her name, his voice changed a little.

If they really got together, it would be interesting because both of them were complete opposites. While Lela used to visit the library just as frequently as I did during the first six months of training, I had never seen Leif read any book.

Sensing that the topic of him joining a noble house was making the three of us awkward, I decided to drop it. This was his choice, and hopefully, he was smart enough not to sign any mana contract without understanding it properly.

“Tell me about you. What are you doing here?” Leif asked.

“Well, I am on holiday, but I was asked to spend my time here in case we are required to support Fort Dunvale if an invasion happens.”

“And how is sergeant work treating you?” Leif asked, which got a raised eyebrow from Lela.

“You became a sergeant quite early. Leif mentioned it, but I did not believe him.”

“Well, yeah. I have been leading a death squad for almost eighteen months now. I have made them into my permanent squad, so it is going well.”

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Because of the air of superiority that Lela had, I also had an urge to show off, to prove that even without joining some noble house, I was not doing badly.

Maybe that was wrong, or maybe I was acting immature, but if it had been someone else, I would not have cared to prove anything. These two were people I considered my friends and equals, and for some reason, I felt competitive with them.

“Oh, that means you are on track to becoming a lieutenant. I would have been surprised if I could not sense the huge amount of mana in you. You have more mana than even Leif,” Lela said, for the first time sounding like the Lela I knew.

I also noticed Leif giving me a surprised and proud look.

“If you guys are busy, you can go ahead. Leif, we can meet sometime later,” I said, not wanting to become a third wheel.

Both Lela and Leif looked at each other for a few seconds. I could see a tinge of red on Leif’s face. Then he shook his head and said, “No, we just arrived in town and were exploring it. How about we go and grab lunch together?”

I just shrugged and joined them for lunch.

As we were walking to the tavern, Leif asked, “What were you doing here in the commercial district? Are you done purchasing?”

“Yeah, I am done. I was just buying some rune materials,” I replied.

“So your interest in books has shifted to runes. Not surprising,” Lela commented.

“Yeah, you left the training camp early, so you might not know, but Edward is a complete bookworm. He knows about runes, healing, siege weapons, and maybe a few other things. That’s why I was not surprised when you said he was on track to become a lieutenant. Even after taking the officer course, I might lag behind him in knowledge,” Leif said, patting my back forcefully.

The bastard had either gained muscle, or this was due to the effect of his earth element, but now his patting felt like someone was using a rock to hit my back.

Finally, we arrived at a slightly high-profile tavern that mostly served soldiers and officers. Taking a seat at a round table, with Leif sitting on my right and Lela on my left, I finally asked a delicate question.

“So, Leif, like Lela, are you serving one of the Count’s sons or daughters?”

Lela had mentioned that if she could awaken eighty percent affinity, she would serve directly under the third daughter of Count Petrae. I was curious if that was the case for Leif as well.

Because if it was, that could be highly beneficial for him. I had recently learned a few details about noble hierarchy, and if the Count’s grandson, Captain Tellus, as a representative of generation, could hold baron-level authority, then the Count’s son could have viscount-level authority.

“No. Lela was lucky because Lady Livia was looking for a wind element specialist in her ranks. As for me, I am still in the training period and most likely will not serve anyone until my army career is finished. After that, depending on my rank, I will be assigned my reporting person. If I am lucky enough, I could have the Count himself as my reporting person,” Leif said.

“So is Lady Livia also here?” I asked Lela.

She shook her head and said, “No, Lady Livia is coming to this town later. I was assigned this mission to gain experience as part of the guard unit assigned to Lady Livia’s granddaughter, Lady Flavia.”

I turned and looked at Leif, silently asking if he was also part of the same unit.

Under my questioning gaze, his expression darkened. He shook his head and said, “No, I am part of the personal unit guarding the little shi—”

Before he could continue, Lela slammed her foot into Leif’s shin.

“Uhm... I am guarding Young Master Julius.”

That got a raised eyebrow from me. From what Edmund had told me, Julius was a prick who looked down on commoners, and Leif was a commoner through and through.

“I have heard of him...” I said.

Taking my time to consider my next words, I finally asked, “Are you safe?”

“Yeah, for some reason, right now, he does not have any authority to order the guards around. So while I am part of the unit that protects him, I report to Royal Knight Tellus,” Leif said.

I let out a small sigh of relief. At least this Julius would not be able to get Leif punished for looking at him the wrong way.

Later, the conversation shifted to more mundane matters. I suggested a few places for them to eat and visit, and I told Leif how I had been assigned to a death squad, about my squad members, and the problems they had created for me in the beginning.

In return, they told me about their life in the capital and at the Academy.

After lunch, we parted ways, but Leif did mention that he would find some time to meet me later.

I was looking forward to that meeting because, due to Lela’s presence, I had not been able to tease him about his crush. More importantly, we had not been able to talk properly about nobles in front of her.

A little reminder:

It has been a long time since we last saw or heard about some of these characters, so I thought I would add a short description of them.

Lela: One of the trainees who arrived in Stonegate with Edward for training. Later, we learned that she had been sent there to train by House Petrae and would be leaving the training course after six months. She was also the one who initially helped Edward find books on skills and classes. We last saw her in Chapter 24.

Leif: One of the friends Edward made in Stonegate. He wanted to join the Vanguard, and later, he was able to do so. During the grand beast tide, he was attacked by a Tier-4 earth-affinity beast. Luckily, he survived the attack, and once he woke up, his affinity had increased to 82%.

Fun fact: If you remember, it was mentioned in the past that House Cicero tried to use the mana shock method to increase affinity. They were basically trying to recreate what happened to Leif.

Julius: He is the little shit from Chapter 39 who got Edward assigned to Fenward’s squad.