Chapter 36 - 3rd Platoon Training Session Begins

Right after everyone was dismissed at the assembly hall, Claire found Ross waiting for her outside. "Claire! Hey, it's been a while." He greeted.

Claire smiled seeing Ross, she was a little happy to see him doing well. "Yeah, I see that you finally made it! Congratulations." She pats him on the back.

The young man felt a little proud of himself by that simple praise. "Heh, thanks. But I couldn't have done it without you."

"Without me?"

Smiling proudly, Ross stated. "Because you're my rival!"

"Is that so?" She smirks.

"Yeah, and I've made you as my goal as well. Just you wait Claire Duvent, soon I'll out rank you!" Claire finds it amusing that his competitiveness is still the same as ever.

"Oh? Good luck with that."

"...what's your rank by the way?" He asked out of curiosity.

"98."

"Ha! I bet I can catch—wait, what?"

"I said my current rank is 98." She humbly repeated. For Claire, her current rank is nothing to be proud of compared to what she aims for.

"98!?" It shocked Ross to learn that his 'rival' have already made it to a double digit rank in a few months. "You're kidding!" He refused to believe it, and remained in denial after seeing Claire's pin indicating her current rank.

"98 for real!? Dude, how!?—" Ross even touched her pin to inspect it closely. His cool and competitive demeanor that he's been trying to show Claire to impress her is now completely ruined. "—just how do you manage to always do something incredible?"

"Who knows, maybe I'm always meant to be incredible." She said as she brushed him off of her. "Anyways, good luck out ranking me. That is, if you can. See you around, my dear 'rival'."

Ross was at a loss for words when Claire walked away. He began to question his abilities whether he can actually compete with someone like her. "Haa... maybe I set the bar too high." He said to himself.

Scratching on his head at a corner of the hall he's been standing on, Ross then sees a figure of higher standing than him approaching. "O-Oh!—" he stands aside and salutes to Raphael Novick that he thought will just pass him by.

When their eyes met, Ross got terrified by his piercing glare at him. "You're one of those soldiers that just completed their training, aren't you?"

"S-sir—y-yes, sir!' He nervously answered.

"...what's your name?"

"R-Ross Dietrich, sir."

"Ross—" he was suddenly pulled by the collar. "—if I ever see you messing with Claire Duvent again, I swear you'll regret it." As Raphael was done threatening the young man, he left Ross distressed and confused. What does Claire have to do with the top strongest fighter, Raphael Novick? And why is he being threatened for something that isn't even a crime?

Ross have no idea what he just got himself into.

And those who happened to witness that situation from afar were utterly shocked. "What did I saw just now?" Bernadette asks.

"I saw nothing." Gunther said and left to a different direction.

"Dev?" She glances at Devian who just shrugged. "Oof, so Raphael really does lives up to the rumors about him. What a scary guy." She refers to the exaggerated rumors about Raphael being a dangerous savage that must be left alone.

Although Devian had a little gist of the situation why Raphael acted that way. He knows that it was because of that blonde girl named Claire who happened to interact with the poor young man that Raphael just threatened.

Suddenly, Bernadette mentioned something that piqued his interest. "Speaking of Raphael, that guy did something out of character when we we're sent to take our shift on the battle field at the North Western region."

"Really?! What did he do?"

"Well, there was this new female soldier he wanted to take with him when you guys were about to retreat. But the girl refused and stayed with us to fight, ahaha!"

"For real!?"

"Yeah!! You should've seen his face when she rejected to go back with him. He was kinda stubborn about it, so I had to knock him out that time."

"Do you know the girl's name?" Devian asked.

"Oh, the girl?... hmm, I can't recall her name but I know that I took her in my platoon. From what I can remember, that woman have this flaxen blonde hair and pale skin, she's kinda cute and skinny but lacks 'personality', not really my type of woman."

"I just wanted to know her name, I didn't ask for all that." He said bluntly, but her description of that girl just confirmed his hunch. "It's... Claire!" He blurted, recalling the time when Raphael returned to the battlefield after he mentioned a woman's name.

"Claire?... right! Her name's Claire! How did you know? Do you know that girl? Wait—tell me, is that girl his girlfriend or something!?"

"I'm not sure, but I met her once before." Devian also recalled the time when Captain Wright invited him along with Raphael and Julia to witness his battle with the woman that matches Bernadette's description. But what he remembered most at the time was how Raphael bothered to save that woman when she jumped too high and almost fell from that height.

Maybe that was her, he thought.

"I guess I'll look into that later during our platoon training session." Bernadette said, grinning.

"You're gonna ask the girl directly?"

"Yeah 'cause why not? This is some juicy gossip, you know!" She then takes her leave. Devian felt silly being influenced by Bernadette's love for gossips and decided to mind his business from now on.

Soon after, Bernadette have called in her troop to the combat training grounds for a training session. This was to improve her subordinates strengths and skills for upcoming battles, but most importantly, to increase chance of survivability on the battlefield.

"As for today, we'll be doing a combat training session!..." while Bernadette was instructing her platoon, her eyes searched for Claire. It didn't take long for her to find the girl, and the corner of her lips slightly curved up as they meet eye to eye.

Claire noticed this and felt a bit uncomfortable with her superior's gaze. What is Bernadette exactly scheming to do right now?