"Captain, what’s going on? Why… Oh my goddess! Captain, you are injured!"
Just as Aurora was being carried inside the mansion, Claudia, who happened to be heading outside due to the loud noise, saw the injured Aurora walk limply, supported by Blair on her side, and rushed out to her with a naked concern in her eyes. Without even sparing the rest of the people there a glance, she urged Blair to move into the medical room faster while casting her healing spell for Aurora.
While Aurora was being treated by Claudia, Blair and the trio waited in the study according to Claudia’s instructions.
Blair’s complexion was still a little bit pale; he hadn’t watched such an intense battle since quitting as a mercenary a long time ago. Mia glanced at the door every five seconds, her finger fidgeting restlessly while Janette’s head kept facing the floor, biting her lips as her fist clenched tightly, a bead of tear on the corner of her eyes.
Only Raia seemed unbothered by the gloomy atmosphere in the room, stretched her hand to grab some assortment and munched them down while humming happily.
It took nearly half a day for the door to creak open, and they all looked towards the door almost at the same time. As the door fully opened, Aurora walked in wearing looser clothes; her complexion was slightly pale, and traces of bandages could be seen from the neckline.
"Lady Aurora... I'm sorry!" Janette bowed her head deeply and apologized sincerely.
Aurora glanced down slightly and caught a glimpse of her fingers clutching the hem of the clothes tightly, which had turned almost white.
She retracted her gaze and waved her hand, slowly treading behind the desk and pulling the chair to sit on. After adjusting her position, she turned her eyes to Raia, smiling warmly.
“Raia, you did a good job during the battle just now. You performed beautifully as a guardian knight. I’m very satisfied. Welcome to Glory.”
“So, I don’t get to fight you, huh? What a pity~” Raia replied, looking slightly disappointed.
“Cut me some slack, will you.” Aurora shook her head haplessly, just realizing what kind of person Raia was, and pointed at her wound. “It will be troublesome for me to even move for a while.”
“Well… we can still contest in another way, you know? Preferably at night~ If you know what I meant.” Raia cooed, throwing her a flirty wink.
The room fell into an awkward silence for a moment before a light cough from Aurora broke the atmosphere.
“Well… I’ll take it as a joke, Miss Raia. Please don’t randomly say anything that can easily be misunderstood in the future.”
“But I’m not joking…”
Raia muttered a complaint but was completely ignored by Aurora, as her attention had already shifted to the ball of anxiety beside her.
"And then Mia..."
"Y-y-yessh! Ouch!"
Mia's body tensed up as her name was called by Aurora, accidentally biting her tongue in the process. The corner of Aurora’s mouth twitched for a second before carrying on.
“Maybe I’ll let the other member test your ability later, but that being said, I believe in Blair’s vision. You’re welcome to join us. Looking forward to your performance on the mission in the future.”
Mia breathed a sigh of relief after hearing Aurora's words, "Please... please take care of me!"
“This is just me being curious, but… Are you really an assassin? I mean…” Aurora cast a glance at her hand; it was pretty much shaking right now.
“I… I was… I am… but I…” Mia opened her mouth to speak, but her words ended up coming in a stammer. She really wanted to explain but seemed to really hesitate to do so. In the end, she just shut her mouth and lowered her head; tears seemed about to burst out of her trembling eyes.
Aurora didn’t expect such a reaction from her, it seemed that she was a woman with a story. She must talk about it with Blair later on.
“It’s okay,” Aurora waved her hand to calm the distraught Mia and said in a gentle voice, “You don’t need to explain it right now if you don’t want to. I just hope that you’ll be able to trust us enough to share your story in the future.”
Mia nodded weakly but still kept her head down.
"Miss Janette."
"I'm here." Janette raised her head and looked straight at Aurora. At this moment, her original arrogance has disappeared without a trace. Before Aurora could say anything, she added in a sincere tone, “After what happened today, I realized that I still have a lot of shortcomings, and I won’t trouble Lady Aurora in the future."
"Um, what are you talking about?” Aurora arched her brow and curled her lips slightly upward.
“Ah?” Aurora's words perplexed Janette, “Am I wrong?”
Seeing how timid the once proud lady was, Aurora was certain that she had opened her eyes and seen reality as it was. Aurora was injured due to her action, which might have really shocked her to the core.
“To be honest, Miss Janette, your combat awareness is still not up to par for being qualified as our member, and you’re too flustered in the moment of crisis. Well, it’s understandable because you are still fresh from the academy and your battle experiences have only been tempered by friendly competition between students. But, as you’ve seen today, us mercenaries always fight with our lives on the line, so what you called “battle” until today is just like a child’s play for us. The slightest mistake could cost our lives or cause our companion’s demise. I believe someone as smart as Miss Janette has already realized it by this point.”
“I see…” Aurora’s harsh words were quite a blow to her pride, but Janette was still able to distinguish between right and wrong, and readily nodded in agreement.
"But it's not entirely bad things.” Aurora added, “At least Miss Janette’s potential is worthy of recognition, you just lack a little exercise."
“So, Lady Aurora, do you mean that I can join the mercenary group?" Janette's eyes suddenly brightened up.
“Yes. It’s just that Miss Janette’s combat awareness is still lacking, so if you want to join our group, I hope you can abide by what I say next.”
“Please say!”
"In the following battles, I hope that Miss Janette can obey my instructions unconditionally and do whatever I tell you to do without any question. I don't want to cause unnecessary casualties due to panic." Aurora stared straight into Janette’s eyes and said solemnly in a deep voice, "If you can't do that, I’m sorry, but I may give up on you at any time during the battle. After all, I don't want to put my life on uncertain factors."
Aurora didn’t mince her words at all, and after hearing such a blunt remark, Janette fell into silence. She truthfully said that if she were to become a burden to her group by not following her orders, she might be treated as cannon fodder and be abandoned at any time. This was almost completely unacceptable to her, who has lived under the respectful eyes of others since she was a child.
"Of course, I also know that what I said is indeed too much for a daughter of a marquis like yourself, but I don’t regret saying this in advance. I hope you can understand that no matter how noble your previous status was before joining the mercenary group, there is no so-called difference in my eyes. What is needed is a qualified subordinate and a companion who can fight side by side... that's all."
“…”
Janette lowered her head and clenched her hands subconsciously. Although she knew what Aurora said was reasonable, it was very contrary to the noble pride that was etched deeply in her bones.
"I’m understand that you might not be able to give me your answer right away, so how about this?” Getting no response from Janette, Aurora shrugged lightly. “There are still a lot of empty rooms in the mansion, you can choose one to rest in. The same goes for Mia and Raia, Claudia will arrange rooms for you.”
Under Aurora's arrangement, the three of them left the room immediately.
