[HORSE]

[bloodyashes]

[There is no text in this message. All there are are some drawings of rather strange creatures. After some time, a drawing of a completely different creature is scribbled into one corner.

However, anyone in or passing near Dorm 25 will be able to hear a soft argument between Asch and Murtagh (oneformisery) along the lines of "That's not a horse, it's some kind of monster." "Of course it's a horse! Do you think I'm making this up?"]

Comments

[byhiswill]

Gambling?

I am not sure what purpose it would serve if not medicinal. Or a clever ploy to part the unlucky and fooling from their coin.

[bloodyashes]

[He is rubbing at his temples at this point. And probably grumbling under his breath to Murtagh and the dragons, honestly.]

Do you have any concept of a vacation?

[Okay that may have been rude and a little blunt.]

[byhiswill]

I am a soldier.

[bloodyashes]

As am I. Question stands.

[Just because he hasn't even taken a vacation...]

[byhiswill]

Some of the upper nobility have estates outside of the city to which they retreat when the city life becomes too stagnate for them. But such leaves are not afforded to normal soldiers, even one with as much rank as I myself have.

[bloodyashes]

Keterburg's resort is largely exclusive to Malkuth's nobility and higher military ranks, but soldiers in any country still have the right to vacation, regardless of rank. Most use it to return and visit their families.

[He's not asking what the hell kind of country you're from that doesn't give soldiers vacations, but he's thinking it. To think that the Oracle Knights would ever come out as the less fucked up military, in any comparison.]

[byhiswill]

I have no family. [Had, have? She found Cid again but he had been considered dead for so many years.] Nor do most of the military.

[bloodyashes]

Family isn't just defined by blood.

[If he didn't say that, he wouldn't be able to look Natalia in the eye.]

And that isn't the point anyway. You deserve the option of a vacation whether you have family or not.

[byhiswill]

No. I know that. I was adopted into the household I was raised in. But the Legatus who raised me wished me at his side, and there I remained.

It seems pointless to offer a leave without some medical need.

[bloodyashes]

[Unfortunately, Auldrant's awareness of mental health isn't advanced enough that vacation is considered a medical need, and even if it was, it was an idea that Asch was probably not exposed to. So he's just being rubbed the wrong way by the idea without any way to articulate why, except...]

And the same could be said about the man who raised me, but that doesn't mean that at his side was the best place for me.

[humble_scholar]

Not allowing someone out of your sight makes it far easier to maintain control over them and to respond quickly should they get any funny ideas you would not want them having, or asking questions someone else might give an honest answer to.

[He's being good and not directly pointing to Gaius's doctored version of what had happened to Cid on the journal where everyone can see it.]

[byhiswill]

He saved. I owed him my loyalty for that at least.

[humble_scholar]

He did a great deal via arranging things so that those he would have something to hold over the heads of those he thought useful. You are honestly fortunate for the way this place toyed with time, and that I was able to keep you and Lord van Darnus with me on my return, since had it not, you would have been left outside defenses on a suicide mission to stall for time.

[byhiswill]

He still saved me. I would not have had a life to lose, had it not been for his interference.

Garlemald has little use for orphan girl children.

[humble_scholar]

And he was perfectly content with throwing that away later as soon as was convenient, while Nero hid behind the walls within security and then fled. I think any debt you owed to the Legatus is well paid in full, even were he still alive.

I know Lord van Darnus had some laments about not having managed to lay claim to you himself back then; something about "squandered potential", particularly on hearing about Castrum Meridianum.