The armored train in which Atria and Juna were traveling entered Elucilde in the middle of the night.

The trains had dining rooms and bathrooms, so Atria and Juna did not need to get off the train when it stopped. According to the itinerary, the train would only leave two freight wagons in Elucilde and then resume its journey to Galdena.

For Juna, even if the train had to stay for a whole day in Elucilde, she would not get off the train for a single moment. Elucilde was an unpleasant city for Juna.

Elucilde was the seat of one of the three great powers that ruled over humanity, the seat of the clergy.

Since the clergy repudiated relations between people of the same gender, Juna preferred not to approach this city full of hypocrites who publicly repudiated any supposed sin, while behind the scenes they enjoyed the company of courtesans and courtiers alike.

The train resumed its march and Atria fell asleep once more, resting her head on the lap of a completely fascinated Juna.

The journey to Galdena took two days, but this was only because the train had no other priority than to take several wagons full of food to Galdena.

Atria and Juna got off the train and then crossed the platform and left the station.

Being what could be considered a border city, Galdena was no bigger than Breda, and what was produced in this city was wood.

Galdena was practically a big sawmill, and one of the few cities where its work took its inhabitants outside the safety of its walls.

Juna took Atria in her arms and headed towards the north wall.

During the journey through the streets of Galdena, Atria could see how the eyes of men and women alike were drawn to Juna.

Juna was a beautiful woman with an attractive figure, it was natural for men to look at her, what was surprising is that she also attracted the interest-filled looks of women.

With Atria in her arms, Juna entered the grounds of a fort on which a flag waved that showed only a few numbers, XIII-9, it was the barracks of the ninth battalion of the thirteenth legion.

"Captain Juna" —a man about eighteen made a military salute upon seeing Juna enter. The young man's eyes sparkled with devotion as he watched Juna.

Standing next to that young man was a woman of the same age and who had facial features similar to that of that young man, it was easy to understand that these two were twins. They were both wearing gray uniforms similar to Juna's, but while the young man seemed full of admiration to Juna, the young woman seemed indifferent even though she was also performing the military salute.

"Nell, Nellya, I'm back"

"Welcome back Captain Juna" —one with devotion and one with indifference, both brothers responded to Juna's greeting— "Captain, who is this girl?" —his devotion to Juna did not allow Nell to notice the girl in her arms until now.

"Her name is Atria-chan, she is my daughter"

"Ah?!"

Nell was startled to hear that while Nellya continued to show disinterest.

"C-Captain, you... how...?" —Nell was losing his composure.

"Don't be an idiot Nell-nii, the Captain is barely twenty years old, and this girl seems about six, do you think the Captain could give birth before she came of age?" —the indifferent Nellya was forced to point out the obvious to her silly older brother.

"That's how it is?!"

Juna could only smile bitterly when seeing that her previous joke had caused no kind of reaction in Nellya. Since her arrival in Galdena, Juna had set her eyes on Nellya. However, none of her already practiced movements affected that girl.

"Captain Juna, abstain from your humorless jokes and explain yourself, you were absent for several days relegating all your work on us"

"Nellya-chan, you're not being very honest" —Juna showed a smile when she saw that Nellya was interested.

"I don't know what that your succubus mind is imagining, I'm just trying to find out if I must make preparations for this girl" —Nellya's face was cold.

Juna's smile turned a little stiff, Nellya was very good at hiding her emotions or she wasn't the least bit interested in her.

"Her name is Atria Levi, I have taken her as my apprentice and she will remain with our ninth battalion at least until she is old enough to go to an academy"

This time Nellya was surprised to hear that. It was not uncommon for an orphaned child to end up joining a legion from a very young age, these twins had joined at twelve years after their father had been killed by demons, the strange thing, in this case, was that Juna will declare that Atria would be her apprentice.

"Captain Juna, does this girl have prana?" —this was the only thing Nellya could think of regarding the strange way Juna had presented Atria.

"That's right, my cute Atria possesses ice prana" —Juna rubbed her face over Atria's cheeks and Nellya's gaze turned deeply cold.

"I'll prepare a room for her"

"That is unnecessary, Atria-chan can stay in my room"

Nellya's gaze was as icy cold now as the harshest winter.

"Could not I let this girl sleep next to a dangerous succubus like you"

"N-Nellya-chan... leaving aside your way of looking at me... do you think I could do something to this little angel?"

"Of course I do, I wouldn't trust you my back even I surrounded by demons"

Nellya declared that with pride, and Juna felt something pierce her chest.

Despite Juna's protests, Nellya prepared a small room for Atria.

With Juna's return, the members of the ninth battalion were gathered in the small square outside the barracks.

Normally a legion comprised four thousand soldiers, and these were divided into ten battalions, each battalion made up of four hundred soldiers, however, the infamous thirteenth legion suffered constant losses, so its number of members was never at its maximum.

As for the ninth battalion of which Juna was leader, this comprised just two hundred soldiers, who lined up in front of Juna and her two officers, Nell and Nellya.

Nell started with the roll call of all the members of the ninth battalion. The following was a brief activity report in which only two days of inactivity was noted.

Since the ninth battalion had only half the soldiers required to be considered as a battalion, their tasks consisted largely of serving as support to the other battalions of the thirteenth legion.

There was not much more to point out, so the ninth battalion broke ranks and its members returned to their daily activities, which consisted mainly of training and patrolling the streets of the city.

Unlike Breda, which had a garrison entirely dedicated to protecting the city, Galdena's protection was entirely assumed by the thirteenth legion.

Having done her duty, Juna took Atria to the training ground.

"Atria, there are a wide variety of weapons that a Knight can use, but given the limitations of your body, the only weapon you could use is this"

What Juna showed Atria was a sword whose blade was thin and curved, a Katana.

"This is a weapon in disuse and I only can teach you the bases of its use, you be built the rest using merely your instinct”

Juna had seen several Katanas gathering dust in the armory upon arrival at the ninth battalion, when she saw the condition of Atria, asthma, Juna thought this kind of light sword and that was more geared towards making decisive attacks than to long combat, it was the perfect weapon for Atria.

The problem in this was that Juna only knew the bases of the use of the Katana because a certain lover of the swords of her family used to practice with one, although that eccentric person only did it more than entertainment since his weapon of common use was a heavy sword.

Juna put aside the katana and instead handed Atria a boken. Naturally, if there were Katanas in the armory, of course, there would be bokens for their practice.

"Atria, do you want to become strong?"

"Yes, Juna-sensei!" —the answer was more than clear to Atria, no matter the cost, she had to become strong to carry out her revenge.

Juna nodded, unlike in other issues on these Atria's eyes were filled with conviction.

"In that case, I will make it clear, I will not be polite to you during training, if your asthma occurs, I will use my prana to relieve you, after which we will return to training, understand?"

"Yes, Juna-sensei!"

Juna nodded again, then closed her eyes for a second. When she opened them again, Atria shivered slightly. There was no trace of warmth in Juna's eyes anymore. At this moment Atria felt Juna looking at her as if she were some insignificant and annoying creature that she would have to deal with.

Juna picked up a boken and showed Atria the basic practice moves, after which she ordered Atria to imitate them.

On her first attempt, Atria failed in her stance, and in response to this, Juna struck Atria's back with a boken.

"For every failure, there will come a blow" —Juna declared this with complete coldness while Atria now on the ground tried to stand up.

Enduring the pain and forcing back the tears that tried to take shape over the edge of her eyes, Atria silently nodded at Juna's words.

"Do it again"

Atria repeated the movement three times and her stance failed again on the fourth movement. Another strong blow to her back caused Atria to fall to the ground.

"Do it again"

Juna's cold voice made Atria quickly stand up and then she repeats that movement.

After receiving the fifth blow to her back, Atria already could not stand up. The asthma was finally showing itself to steal her breath and wear her out.

With a coldness unbecoming her, Juna approached Atria and placed her hand on the girl's back. Just as she had said before, she sent her prana into Atria's body to calm her asthma and speed her recovery.

Once I considered it prudent, Juna turned away from Atria.

"Get up and do it again"

Even if asthma had completely disappeared, Atria was still a little tired, so she got up somewhat awkwardly.

Since he was not born possessing prana, her body does not possess the innate improvements that correspond to water prana. If I constantly pushed her to the limit, her prana should be forced to create those enhancements —Juna said this to herself, then struck her boken again on Atria's back once she failed again.

This was repeated several more times until Atria could not get up again. It was then that Juna took Atria in her arms and ran into the barracks to take her to her room.

"I'm so sorry Atria-chan, don't hate me, don't hate me!" —Juna repeated this over and over as she held Atria's hand and gave her prana.

After lying on the bed, Atria did something she had stopped doing since her mother's death. She showed a faint smile. Atria understood this very well. Given her limitations, Juna had become a cruel and heartless sensei to force her to become strong.