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