"That strategy meeting took forever."
Jonah spoke behind my ear as we were huddled together on the carpeted floor, under a thick wool blanket, right by the warmth of the fireplace in my bedroom.
It had barely been an hour since the raid team concluded our first planning session for the third Quintal Trial.
Midnight had passed, everyone was eager to return to their room to rest.
Jonah and I decided to spend this night together. Goddesses knew how busy our days to come would turn out to be.
"And we haven't really discussed any strategy. We were just studying the roads and gates of the city. Determining the best possible routes to get to one part of the city from another. Simply grasping the lay of the land."
I said as I rested my head on the shepherd's wide chest.
Jonah gently stroked my hair as I was leaning on him.
"We sort of did similar meetings while preparing for the tenth floor climb. But tonight's meeting was way complex. I didn't realize there's so much planning involved in battles."
"We're planning for war, Jonah. A grand war to save our world. You can't win a war without a plan."
I told him.
He nodded.
"Darius did really well pointing out all the watchtowers and guardhouses inside the city. Devisha also managed to identify blind spots where we could traverse unnoticed by the towers and patrols."
The man let out a sigh before continuing.
"Quite important to know, assuming we are going to fight Jherendal soldiers, though I'm not sure how that's supposed to help us save the world."
"Being a former knight, Darius was trained to defend a city. He would know where the soldiers would station themselves across Tsuchi. And Devisha did not try to keep secret that she used to work as an assassin. She would know how to be invisible in such a large and well-fortified city."
I stated to the shepherd. Deliberately ignoring his wondering right in the end, since I did not have an answer myself.
He was not surprised by my reveal of Devisha, however. Apparently he had suspected it at some point.
I went on.
"Zecht and Norn also came up with great suggestions about the routes we should take if we were to cross the city from one opposite side to the other. Being experienced mercenaries, they learned to discover the shortest way to reach their destination. And as a Kutub hunter, Arian also gave good advices regarding how we should trek through the steep hills of Tsuchi."
"You, yourself, did very well leading the meeting."
Jonah said to me.
He continued.
"Directing us toward the important topics. Keeping our focus on what mattered. Ensuring each of our discussion produced something useful. You guided us so well as if you were born to do it."
I chuckled at his words.
"You would get comfortable leading a strategy meeting if you had attended hundreds of such session before."
"You've been to many wars, Fina?"
I nodded slightly.
"You could say that. I was deployed to many monster subjugation quests before coming here. In a way, my life in Dunia was not that different to mine in this forged land."
"Going from one battlefield to another was your way of life?"
I nodded again.
"Other than studying in the magic academy, I lived a good many of my days in soldier camps. Spending countless nights in command tents, discussing strategies with knight captains and generals on how to eradicate armies of monsters which number overwhelmed ours."
Jonah suddenly wrapped his arms around me, his warm cheek pressed gently against mine.
"So that's why you are so great at leading us."
"I simply aim to ensure our survival, as well as our enemies' destruction."
I said.
My hand cupped the shepherd's head and pressed his cheek closer, embracing more of his warmth.
I went on.
"Doing what I can for the present, for that is what we have. And what I could do for now is to give my all. Everything that I could offer for our endeavor."
Jonah suddenly pulled his head away slightly.
His face was troubled.
"Fina, what happened earlier on the twelfth floor--"
"I would get rid of you from the raid team, Jonah."
I told him straight away, turning his head immediately and catching his widened eyes.
I went on.
"I truly would. If you couldn't bring yourself to kill those soldiers, I would not allow you to fight alongside me anymore."
Jonah's gaze turned more solemn.
The shepherd nodded to me, understanding my meaning.
"If I couldn't fight against the soldiers, I would only be putting myself to their mercies, which they had none of. I would only be risking myself and, most importantly, the entire party."
The grasp of his arms enveloping me turned slightly tighter.
He leaned his head against mine once more.
"How could I put us in that situation? Being expelled from the raid team? No longer allowed to fight alongside you? Never, Fina! I'd rather die than not being in the frontline with you!"
I raised my brows amusedly.
"You really need to be with me in battle? Why? You can't afford to see this noblewoman marching alone to war without her knight in shining armor?"
"Fina, you're an excellent mage and an exceptional fighter. We couldn't win the Quintal Trials if it weren't for you. But how could I live with myself when the woman that I love is giving her all, risking her life, to the climb effort while I'm doing nothing in the comfort and safety of the lobby?"
"And you think fighting in the trials alongside the raid team, alongside me, is the only way you can give your all for our climb effort?"
I asked him.
I went on.
"You could still contribute to the climb effort by being a combat instructor. There are now trainees on the second floor training ground. Since Trudy would keep focusing on the first floor trainees, it would be great if someone is there to guide them further before they join us on the raid team."
He turned my body so I could stare right to his eyes once more, holding me in a firm determined gaze.
"Fina, I really don't like to gloat, but I recognize my position and impact to the raid team. I've seen through and won my fair share of battles. I do believe my presence in the raid team will improve our chances of reaching the top of the tower. Don't you think so as well?"
His gaze turned pleading near the end.
The shepherd searched for the confirmation in my composed expressionless eyes.
In the end, I leaned closer to him and kissed the man thoroughly.
"I do think the same, my love. The raid team would suffer tremendous loss if you were removed from our ranks."
I leaned in again and gave him another long passionate kiss.
"I need you, Jonah. I need you by my side. I'll do whatever I can, even if I have to wrestle our own master, to keep you from being separated from me, my brave shepherd."
The man in my embrace smiled warmly, lovingly, and returned my words with another passionate kiss of his own.
We spent a good while enjoying each other's warmth and affection in silence.
The crackle of firewood was the only sound filling the bedroom.
Eventually I spoke up and broke the quietness.
"Go ahead and ask. I know you've been curious."
"Should I? If it makes you uncomfortable, I'd rather--"
"It won't. Ask me, Jonah."
I told him firmly.
The man then drew a deep breath and voiced his question to me.
"How many people have you killed before coming here?"
From how monotone his voice was, he had carefully prepared the wordings beforehand.
And I also already had an answer ready for him.
"Surprisingly, despite the many battles I've went to in Dunia, only one. I've only killed one person before."
I answered.
I chuckled at my own words and went on.
"The soldiers guarding me whenever I was deployed did great work fending off bandits and unnecessary threats. When the plan went really well, I sometimes did not even need to leave the command tent and expend any mana."
"Then I suppose it was not just a normal accident that you had to kill a person directly."
Jonah replied.
I nodded immediately.
"Oh it was not an accident. It was a confrontation. I actually sought the person I killed. 'Hunted' was the better term."
"Who was it? What happened?"
My face darkened as I dug the memories.
I replied him with a distant gaze in my eyes, staring the flame consuming the firewood on the hearth.
"She was a mage who had abandoned her humanity. Striving for the development of magic without any considerations of morals or taboos. I had never seen such twisted and deranged individual in my life before."
"What did the woman do, Fina?"
"She practiced dark magic and corrupted the mind of tens of thousands of people. Turning each of them into rabid creature who only sought to cause harm both to themselves and others. The degree of corruption was too high, causing the damage to be irreversible, and that only through death would the victims be free."
Jonah shivered upon the telling.
"That is horrible… I think I've heard such story before, brought by a travelling peddler. Something about a madness disease."
I nodded to him.
"The very one. It was one of the great tragedies that ever happened to the empire. The Tower of Circle lost many mages to this evil witch's plot and they almost lost fighting the disease."
To think the culprit was a Healer to the Temple of the Serpent's Order.
A mage who swore to the Eternal Serpent to strive for the healing of all wounds and eradication of all sickness throughout the Realm.
Eternal Surrender, one of the highest form of oath existed.
And the woman broke it.
"But then, like you've done repeatedly here, you saved everyone."
Jonah said with a hopeful smile.
I chuckled at his statement.
"My headmaster was the hero in this story. He created a spell that could counter the madness disease, discovered a way to read Compulsion spell residues, and tracked the witch responsible."
"But you were the one who killed the evil mage in the end."
"I simply managed to be in the right place and in the right moment, Jonah. The witch would've been handled by one of the Tower's High Mages if I did not stumble upon her path."
Jonah hugged me tighter, almost to the point of smothering me with his overwhelming presence.
"You still sound like a hero to me. You saved the day back then, Fina. You amazed me once again."
The shepherd began to shower me with kisses and affections.
I welcomed his gestures wholeheartedly.
For I wished to banish the horrible memories of that grim encounter from my mind.
Circle of Kali.
A name that still made me shiver up to this moment.