It's Good To See You

Four days later, Rukelion was in the middle of sparring against a Black Dragon soldier named Kirk when he heard the most beautiful sound in the world. The nickname he had chosen for himself out of necessity but had come to love because of the way a certain someone said it.

"Leo!"

He looked up stunned and that gave Kirk an opening to attack. Completely out of reflex, he managed to flip his opponent onto the ground. It seemed his desire not to embarrass himself in front of Daisy had somehow overpowered his shock in a split second.

Everyone laughed and began catcalling both Kirk (for being beaten by a distracted opponent) and Rukelion (for winning using the power of love) but he blocked them out as he dropped his sword and rushed forward to seize the woman he loved in a hug and spin her around. She giggled breathlessly as she held onto his neck.

"It's good to see you too but you're making me dizzy!"

Reluctantly, he set her down but drank in the sight of her. Her curly hair was in two braids underneath a beanie she had obviously made herself and she had on a matching scarf and gloves. Her nose and cheeks were pink from the cold and her brightest smile lit her face.

Rukelion was honestly overwhelmed seeing her again. All of his feelings had come surging to the surface after such a long absence and if not for the fact that she would likely scold him for it, he would kiss here right here and now.

He settled for a compromise and placed both his hands on her cheeks to warm them before leaning down and resting his forehead on hers. "I missed you so much," he said fervently.

Daisy reached up to ruffle his hair. "I missed you too. Care to introduce me to your friends?"

He had forgotten they had an audience. He wouldn't call anyone here his friend, though Conrad was friendlier with him than most of the Silver Wolf Squadron. All of these people were nothing but a means to an end but they would expect to be introduced to his much-talked-about fiancée.

He let go of her face but wrapped an arm around her shoulders. He wouldn't be able to get away with doing something like this if not for the fact that they needed to look like a real couple that had been parted for more than half a year.

"Everyone, this is my fiancée Veronica May. Veronica, the people here are a mixture of the Silver Wolf and Black Dragon Squadrons," Rukelion said.

"I'm Ermes from Silver Wolf and the guy who ate the dirt for trying to take advantage of May's distraction was Kirk from Black Dragon," Ermes snickered, earning him a smack upside the head from a red-faced Kirk that made nearly everyone laugh.

People practically tripped over themselves to be properly introduced to Daisy. It seemed that as his somewhat fearsome reputation spread throughout headquarters, speculation spread like wildfire about what sort of woman had tamed the Lone Wolf. Which was ridiculous, really.

Rukelion hadn't given anyone many details about her because he felt like she was something precious that needed to be protected from these idiots who would only give him a hard time the way they teased all of the soldiers with sweethearts. That would be difficult to avoid now that he was here. He sensed he was in for all sorts of questions.

Cecil squinted at Daisy in disbelief. "What's a beauty like you doing with a beast like this one? Don't you know he can destroy anybody? He's stronger than some of the officers!"

"Probably more than some but that theory hasn't been tested because most officers don't like fighting with regular soldiers," Dudley added.

Daisy simply laughed and looked up at Leo with sparkling eyes. "That sure sounds like you. Be honest…has anyone beaten you since you've been here? You certainly practiced a lot at home."

"No," Rukelion said proudly.

"Yeah, he's bound to be made a captain of a new squad once he's been here a year. I have no doubt he'll be promoted to lieutenant any time now to prepare for the role," Harland told her with an admiring shake of his head.

"Seriously? That's awesome, Leo! Why didn't you say anything?!"

He shrugged. "Because it's still all speculation. I would have said something the moment it happened."

"Alright, alright, enough distractions," Captain Bridger said seriously. "We let her in so she could let May know she was here not so all of you could slack off. Miss May, could you please take a seat off to the side while we finish our training session? I'll allow your fiancé to escort you to wherever you are staying after that as long as he returns for the nightly roll call."

"Why does May get extra free time?!" a third-rank soldier named Amos protested.

"Do you honestly think he needs more training?"

Everyone went silent after that and Rukelion puffed up his chest a bit when he caught sight of Daisy's awed expression. She was impressed; he could tell.

She waved at him and wished him luck before heading over to a bench on the side of the training grounds and sitting down to watch everything curiously. To impress her further, he fought extra hard and ended up beating all of his opponents much faster than usual.

After that, Captain Bridger rolled his eyes and dismissed him. He shot him a grateful salute before jogging over to where Daisy was waiting with a raised eyebrow. "Did you do that specifically so they'd let you go sooner?"

"Yes," Rukelion said though it was only half the reason.

He held his hand out hoping she would take it since people he knew were still watching. Thankfully she did and he left the training grounds more blissfully than he ever had before.

"So I think you downplayed the fact that you're kind of a big shot around here in your letters," she pointed out. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Rukelion shrugged as nonchalantly as he could. This was treading close to dangerous territory. "I didn't see the point. I'm still nowhere close to where I need to be in order to accomplish my goals so why brag unnecessarily early?"

"And where is that exactly?"

He couldn't tell her that he needed to have a high enough rank to get inside the palace and learn all of its secrets so he could attack. Or that he needed to breed enough loyalty in his followers that they would do anything he asked without question to help fend off annoyances so he could focus on the big fish.

"I'll tell you once we're out of headquarters," he said in a low voice. He couldn't risk anyone overhearing that he had any sort of ambitions here.

Rukelion had played it very safe. He had been a perfect, obedient soldier who acted much like the rest. Like he was only here to earn a better life for himself and his fiancée by taking advantage of the high pay and stable job since there were no wars going on.

He didn't want anyone to know he had ambitions to be an officer at all, let alone such a high-ranking one. They might see through to his true intentions and then his plan would be doomed.

Daisy frowned but didn't say anything until they had collected her trunk from where it was being kept behind the front desk and were nearly to the boarding house where she would be staying. "So?"

He sighed. Time to make something up. "I need to be a colonel. They're nearly as high as you can go. The only people above them are generals and the king. Once you get that high on the food chain, you're set for life. You have a cushy job involving war meetings in the castle without ever seeing battle…or so I've heard."

"…why couldn't you say anything about this back at headquarters?"

"They'll never promote me if they think my heart isn't in it. I have to prove myself worthy of being there."

He was honestly more concerned they would think he was up to something since most of the soldiers his age planned to get in and get out as quickly as possible. No one young and talented had appeared and progressed past being a captain in a long time.

Rukelion needed to become the youngest colonel in Mirean history if he wanted to accomplish his goal within the next ten years. At this point, he honestly didn't know how he was going to pull that off.

Would he truly be stuck training against people weaker than him and then leading a squadron of rookie idiots without ever advancing enough to do the one thing he had bothered joining the military for? That couldn't happen!

Daisy frowned as she mulled this over. "I think everyone there can agree you're worthy of being there. You kicked all of their butts really fast."

He cracked a smile at her word choice. Sometimes she said the strangest things but he had long gotten used to it. "Still, it's best not to do anything to upset the higher-ups if you want to do well in the army. Captain Bridger goes easy on me since he knows I can beat him."

"How many of the officers have you beaten, anyway? That's crazy! You've improved since I last saw you."

"I've beaten all of the captains and lieutenants at various points in time. When you're as strong as I am, people challenge you to fights constantly. It's rather annoying, actually. I've never had the chance to fight any majors or higher."

"How do the ranks work exactly?" Daisy asked.

"I already told you about soldiers' rankings. For officers it's lieutenant, captain, major, lieutenant colonel, colonel, and general. I may be at the top of the soldiers' rankings but I have a very long way to go," Rukelion said ruefully.