1. Phew! Guess that's good enough for today.
  2. Leonie. I should have known it was you making all [cdb]this racket so deep into the night.
  3. Oh, hey Lorenz. Yeah, I usually get an extra session [cdb]or two in by myself after everyone else finishes [cdb]their drills.
  4. A good mercenary is always ready for battle, [cdb]you know. There's no telling when one might [cdb]break out.
  5. Hm. So even your mind is as sharp as a blade.
  6. Come to think of it, I was relieved to hear you had [cdb]become a mercenary. And yet, pangs of guilt clawed [cdb]at my heart.
  7. Huh? Why? What's that got to do with you?
  8. Quite a bit, if I may be frank.
  9. Your home, Sauin, sits nestled firmly within House Gloucester territory.
  10. Embarrassing as it may be to admit, I hadn't entirely [cdb]realized that fact when we began at the Officers Academy.
  11. But once the school shut down, I began to wonder [cdb]what became of the students who hailed from our [cdb]lands. I couldn't help but investigate further.
  12. Uh-huh. And that's when you found out where I was [cdb]from. What I'd been through.
  13. Yes. As the heir to House Gloucester, it is my natural [cdb]born duty to concern myself with the well-being of my [cdb]citizens.
  14. It must have been difficult indeed scrounging up the [cdb]funds required to attend Garreg Mach.
  15. I would hate for someone who has already been [cdb]through so much to suffer any further hardship.
  16. Well, some of the money we paid the church got back [cdb]to us when the academy closed, at least.
  17. But that's pretty much it. Not an ounce of help [cdb]finding a job, and definitely nothing from the count.
  18. So I started training, sharpening my skills as a [cdb]mercenary. The rest was luck.
  19. I am truly sorry, Leonie.
  20. Allow me to apologize personally, both as your [cdb]former classmate, and as a noble, in my father's stead.
  21. Stop that. It's not your fault.
  22. I chose to leave my village. I'm the one who decided [cdb]to try and make it on my own.
  23. And I would've been protected by the nobility if I'd [cdb]stayed in the village, right? But that's not the path I [cdb]picked.
  24. Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if more commoners [cdb]start making decisions for themselves someday.
  25. You mean to say the nobility will become obsolete?
  26. That's not what I said. There are plenty of people out [cdb]there who still depend on you for protection. That's [cdb]not gonna change.
  27. At the same time, I don't think you could keep every [cdb]commoner safe even if you wanted to. The time [cdb]we're living through is proof enough of that.
  28. So I'm sure you'll get plenty more people who make [cdb]the exact same choice I did. Probably not for a while [cdb]though!
  29. An era of change at the heart of the nobility... Commoners that are no longer content with just [cdb]being commoners...
  30. ...