Chapter 18: Out in the field

"Hello again, Maria." David said flatly, he no longer was hoping to keep angry at her, it was just impossible, but he still didn't have to greet her warmly. He sat down and for once did not just plop his arm on the table. Instead he just sat there in silence staring at Maria the whole time. An idea began to form in his head, something that might give him a small bit of sadistic pleasure. A small evil grin formed on his face. 

"I don't know if you've heard, but I hired the maid Lily to work for me after your father had thrown her out, I'm sure he wouldn't mind me picking up someone so talented that he discarded." Maria was silent for a few moments. David was sure that this very clear and direct insult to her family would get her fuming, but her reaction shocked him.

"Oh my!" Maria said with an enthusiastic smile. "Is that so? I'm so glad! That poor girl was kicked out by my father before I knew about it. I was worried sick as to what happened to her, but if she's in your care then I'm sure she will flourish!" All of this was clearly spoken by Maria from the heart. There was no room to doubt, despite David's dubious intentions, it had fallen flat on her and instead she took it with enthusiasm. David could only sigh, truth be told he had hoped she wouldn't defend her father's decision, in his heart he knew that she wouldn't, but it would have been easier if she had. As it stood, he could not remain angry with her, his emotions would not allow it. If he had another excuse it may be easier, but much like he thought she wasn't the kind of person to react like that.

"I also heard that you have been personally training your own men! That's so exciting! I am so curious to hear about how you have been managing them!" Maria said enthusiastically. For Maria this was almost too good to be true, just earlier this month she had been so broken up about him that she even went to Alice for advice. But here he was being the one to initiate the conversation. David gently places his arm on the table.

"With all due respect, I'm rather busy, so I would appreciate it if we would get on with this." And with that one sentence all her hopes were immediately dashed. Well perhaps, not completely. Not only had he initiated conversation with her on his own, but even his body language was more relaxed. Even the spite in his eyes was completely gone, of course whenever he looked at the soldiers behind her it would spark back up, but he had not glanced at them once since he sat down. Still she couldn't help but sigh to herself, she was so close, so very close to making a significant breakthrough. But progress is still progress. No matter how long it took, she would keep chipping away at him like Alice said!

David was already done with being here, the intense feeling he got around Maria was back again full force, unlike last time where it was more subdued. It was hard to keep his head clear when he was in this situation. So, the best thing for him to do was to retreat as quickly as possible. Maria gingerly picked up his arm and began to drink. The whole event lasted about a minute before she was done. After she set his arm down, she looked like she had something to say but decided against it. The surprising part to both of them was that David actually waited a moment before he got up to see what she would have to say. Still though after it was clear she didn't have anything to say he quietly got up and left. It was hard to see him walk out like that, especially when she had been so close to having a conversation, but she was convinced that next time they could talk more. If only just a little bit, she would win him over one step at a time. 

When David left the room, much like normal his heart felt heavy, but his mind was now clear. However, the heaviness in his heart was fainter than normal, he had less of a hard time calming himself down, and he could not begin to fathom why. Regardless he quickly headed for home and turned in shortly after dinner.

The next day he was outside training his men like normal when a maid from the Palace came out to inform him that he was to report to the princess. He left the squad leaders in charge while he headed for her office. When he arrived, he felt relieved to see Alice again. She wasn't doing anything special, just looking through documents like normal, but somehow it made him feel at ease, especially the way she scrunched her nose while she was deep in thought, it was very cute. It must have shown on his face though because Alice noticed. 

"Are you alright? You are making a weird face?" She said with a teasing smile. Even her smile right now felt good to see, the little dimple on the left side of her face was so adorable. 

"But wait, why am I making all these observations?" Upon thinking this he bid himself to stop so he could focus on the task at hand. 

"You called for me?" David said, ignoring her previous question. Her smile suddenly fades, and she takes a serious tone. 

"Yes, I'm going to be frank. How long until your men are ready to move out?" David thought it over for a few minutes before responding. 

"I would like at least another 2 months just to be safe." 

"Unfortunately, we don't have that kind of time." She looks up at him. "They have made their move." She said with a tense pause. "The corrupt nobles behind the black-market trafficking." 

This was bad, his men weren't really ready to begin full operations yet, there were exceptions in his squads of course, like Jason, who were exceptional enough to be let loose now, but for the bulk he was unsure how they would fare in a real situation. 

"Can we no longer wait?" He asked tentatively. 

"No, we cannot." Alice said, completely serious. Of course, David had expected some kind of last-minute change to the time he had so even from the beginning he had doubled his men's training. If the regular army worked for 5 hours, his trained for 10. If the regular army had them run 20 laps, his would run 40. If the regular army went home at sundown, his worked late into the night. It was not as if they had been slacking all this time, but there was still a very big disparity between his best soldiers and the ones lagging behind. Still though, if Alice said there is no more time than he knew they were out of time. 

"Give me 3 days. I can have them ready in 3 days." 

Alice looked up at him surprised, she knew he'd be resistant to sending out his men so fast with only about a month's worth of training, but she had not expected him to give a counteroffer like this. Over all 3 days would not be too great of a loss. As it stood there were signs of activity from all the nobles, they were monitoring but they had no information as to what they were planning, the sooner they dealt with it the better. Still though if 3 days was all he needed to get his men ready to go into action then she would grant him the time. 

"3 days huh?" She said with a smile. "Make 'em count!" 

After his meeting with Alice he had spent a bit of time preparing one last exercise for his men before they would be sent out to do the real jobs. It took him about an hour to make all the necessary preparations but when he was done, he headed back outside to the training field. When he got there his men were still diligently sparring as they were when he left, it made him proud to know that everyone took their training seriously enough to continue even when he was not around to watch them. 

"Everyone gather up!" David yells to all the members. They slowly make their way over to him and line up in their squads with the squad leaders in the front, just like he trained them. "I have good news for you all, from today until 3 days from now you all are free from training." Nearly everyone looked excited, a few even stifled cheers from their mouths as they began to look forward to their days off. 

"Now, now. Don't get too excited, instead of training you will be given a live exercise with hand selected volunteers. He began to hand out a few papers to each of the squad leaders. On each of those papers I have just handed you is a name, a description, and what we decided to give you about their daily routines. You will find that there is a disparity between some of your information, this is all to reflect a real-world scenario. You will not always have the best intel before going into a mission. It will be up to you to make the most of it." David pauses for a moment to take a breath. 

"In the next three days your job will be to capture these targets without causing them any serious harm and bring them directly to the Palace prison. How you capture them, where you capture them, and any other details will be left up to the squad leaders. You are also allowed to communicate with each other and aid each other's missions if you feel you have the capacity to. This situation is going to be as realistic as it gets, your targets might flee, they might fight, they may even take a hostage, but your goal is to bring them back without major injuries and no civilian casualties so keep that in mind when you make your move." David pauses for a moment before thinking of more to say. 

"Also keep in mind how you bring them in is up to you, ultimately you will not be penalized if you do it in broad daylight, but consider this a suggestion, you should try to stick to the shadows when you transport your captive. After that send me a message via carrier pigeon like we practiced and what you do with the remaining time after you have succeeded is up to you!" David turns ready to dismiss them and then remembers to add something important. 

"Oh, and one more thing!" David said, evil glinting in his eyes. "If a squad fails to capture their target after 3 days then don't even consider going home for the next month, you will be carrying logs until your legs break!" This was a lie of course, David didn't have another month to retrain them if they failed, but the insinuation that he would was all his soldiers needed to motivate them to get the job done well. 

"That is all dismissed."

 With that, all the squads begin to huddle up and begin to look over their respective targets and begin to plan strategies. As David was leaving Jason ran up to him and grabbed him before he left. 

"Sir!" He said with a salute. 

"At ease. What do you need?" 

"I just wanted to know what kind of support we can expect from you on this assignment." It was a fair question; how much would he help them to complete this? 

"Consider yourself surrounded by enemy territory with only minimal means of communication with me. I will be there to offer my advice, but I cannot help you make your plans, you will be on your own." Jason salutes once again and David walks off. All he could do now was wait.

The next three days were rather pleasant for David, with his whole platoon out doing this mission he had nothing but free time, so instead of just sitting around he instead spent the time with Alice in her office. It was near bliss; it had been so long since he could just sit and have a day with Alice. He genuinely missed it. Alice was also very happy to see her friend again, she didn't know why he had planned this last mission for his team before they were sent to do the real work. He had asked her for help in preparing all this, but she was sure that he must have a good reason for it. So, during this time they chatted like normal, Alice teased him over anything and everything, and they generally just had a good time.

On the first day no one had captured their targets. On the second day all but 2 managed to capture theirs, and then, as the last day was coming to a close, he received word that the last squad had managed to capture their target. He was very relieved to hear that all 5 squads had succeeded in the mission. From here it would only get harder for them, but at least they proved they knew what they were doing. He was set to leave for the day when before he did, he turned to Alice and asked her a question. 

"Alice, I've been wondering." 

"Hm?" She said as she looked up from her work. 

"How does... how does blood taste?" David asked a little sheepishly. 

This came completely out of left field for her. Not only did this question come from seemingly nowhere, but it was also coming from the guy who had a bad history of having his blood drank. 

"Well... how do I put this?" Alice begins, clearing her throat and thinking of how best to phrase it. She paused for several moments as she thought of how best to answer him. 

"Does it taste like wine, because I have heard a lot of comparisons to wine in the past." He said, guessing. 

"No, that's not right. It may feel like wine on the way down and share some of its smoothness, but it doesn't taste like that." She said as he thought for a moment longer before she came up with a way to describe it. 

"Have you ever drank honey before?" She said trying her best to come up with an analogy. 

"No, I can't say that I have." David had certainly had honey in the past, but straight up drank it? Not once. 

"Honey is quite viscous but has an incredibly sweet flavor, blood is like honey that has the smoothness of wine, but usually blood tastes even better." Alice said feeling triumphant at her ability to describe it to him. 

"Of course, there are also the feelings that come with it..." She stops herself, if she went any further, she might embarrass either herself or David, and neither situation was ideal right now.

David pauses for a moment thinking to himself before continuing. 

"Does that mean my blood tastes sweeter than honey?" Alice was shocked, what should she say to him? Should she tell him the truth that his blood was better than anything she had ever had? Should she lie and say no? What kind of answer would best get her out of this situation? She just didn't want to hurt his feelings. 

"Ah well... I guess you could say... It might be?" Alice stammers out with an indecisive answer while turning her head to hide her blush, she could only think back to the knighting ceremony and no matter how hard she tried, her cheeks just kept getting redder. 

"Does that mean... you want to drink my blood now?" David said, turning his head slightly and touching his neck with two fingers. Alice was shocked by this, but David was even more shocked that he said this at all. Why did he ask that? Did he just get swept up in the moment and get carried away? Did he get enthralled by the idea of the taste and was now imagining what it must taste like for Alice to drink his blood? Did he... want her to drink his blood? He was so confused at his own question that he couldn't see Alice going through her own emotional turmoil as well.

"Is he asking me to drink his blood?" Alice thought to herself. "That can't be, most humans don't like having their blood drank and the last time he allowed it to happen only because it was the knighting ceremony. But he is offering it himself, right? Then is there any reason to refuse? But what if he is just asking a rhetorical question and he hates me for going in when he doesn't want it? But his blood is so tasty, and it is right there in front of me." She had so many questions and no answers to go along with it. However, as she stood there absorbed in her own internal struggle, she saw that David had not moved, his head still turned slightly leaving his neck wide open, as if he was inviting her in.

For David he still had no idea what he was doing, he could feel his heart beating loudly in his chest, so loudly in fact that he was worried Alice would hear it. His face felt hot, and his breathing was heavy. Was he afraid? But if he was afraid then wouldn't he just turn his head back and be done with it? Why was he feeling this way, what was possessing him right now?

Alice took a few tentative steps forward, expecting David to spin back around and laugh at her for falling for his trick. But he does not, instead he just continues to sit there, his head turned, his neck exposed to her. A few more steps closer, then a few more, and a few more. She was now standing in front of David, less than a foot away from him. But still he did not move. She could hear his heartbeat rapidly beating inside his chest, she could hear his heavy breath coming out of his mouth. She slowly knelt down, putting her head near his neck. She could smell him now, the distinctive smell of her friend as he sat there swaying only very slightly as she watched. He still had not objected, he had not said a word of protest, he hadn't even uttered a sound the entire time. She now became acutely aware of her own heartbeat quickening in her chest. It also began to feel tight. But again, he still did not turn, he still did not move, he stayed there, his neck exposed to her.

He could smell the breath coming out of her mouth, he could see the redness of her cheeks out of the corner of his eye. His heart rate had not slowed and instead had seemed to only quicken. The roof of his mouth seemed more sensitive, and his chest hurt slightly, but most of all he was tense. No, he was anxious? He still did not understand why he was letting this happen, as much as he wanted to turn around and put a stop to this it seemed like his body wasn't listening to him. His right hand twitched slightly. No, his body still listened to him, it was his heart that was not listening. The only explanation he could come up with as to why he hadn't moved away was because he didn't want to. 

So, they both remained in this position for a few moments, breathless. Alice then slowly, and gently bit into his neck. The pain was minimal, perhaps it was because Alice had done it slowly, or perhaps because he had felt so tense, but whatever the reason he felt the sudden wave of euphoric feelings, along with the sense of serenity he had experienced last time. However, his heart was not at ease, he still felt a tightness in his chest, he could feel Alice's lips on his neck and her breath escaping her nose. His whole body felt like it was frozen, he was unable to move, the feelings of euphoria continued to wash over him as she continued to drink.

Alice was faring no better. Her mind was racing. She could feel his body trembling slightly beneath her, feel his heartbeat through his veins. His smell was still going into her nose, overpowering everything else. Her own heartbeat was working quickly too, she could feel its thumping in her chest which lay only inches away from David's. The taste of his blood was flowing through her mouth filling her instantly with a heavenly taste. The last time she drank his blood, it tasted more amazing than she ever thought blood could taste. However, if it was even possible, his blood tasted better this time. Though it might be because her heart felt tighter than when it did before she began to drink. She was unsure. However, she felt she wanted to be just a little closer to him, if only a little. She gently put her arms around him in a light embrace. However, a moment later she was startled to feel him do the same, his big arms wrapping around behind her. 

They stayed like that for many moments, to each of them it felt like it lasted a lifetime but in reality, the event lasted no longer than a minute. Alice pulled out, both of the hug and drinking his blood. David finally turned his head to look Alice in the eyes. There was still a light tightness in his chest, and it only grew worse as he looked her in the eyes. He steadied himself as he took a deep breath and grabbed a handkerchief from his pocket to stem the bleeding. Meanwhile Alice slowly stood up and took a few steps back. Both were red in the face; however the room was filled with silence for about 20 seconds before David finally spoke up. 

"I think I should be going." David said shakily, not from the loss of blood, but from his still rapidly beating heart. He stands up, without looking at Alice. 

"Yeah, it's getting late." Alice said, without turning around to watch him get up and walk out. There is nothing more said as David slowly leaves the room and then gently shuts the door. Immediately afterwards David went home and had dinner early, he went to bed right after.

The next day David goes out to meet his squad gathered at the training area. 

"You have all done well, I'm pleased to say that all squads passed this little "exam." He said while he gave them a small clap. "However, I want to apologize for the little misdirection I pulled on you. Those people you captured were in fact not volunteers, but instead remnants of the black-market human trafficking ring that was broken up about a month ago. In other words, the exercise you undertook these past three days was your first real mission!" At saying this nearly everyone seemed surprised to hear that, there were a few who remained stoic, most notably Jason, who may have either already known the man from when he was captured by them or had somehow figured it out during the mission. 

"Your efforts these past few days have helped the Empire bring to justice criminals who call themselves men! The information they have may lead to the further capture of their comrades. So I, and the entirety of the Empire thank you for your hard work and sacrifice and congratulate you on the success of your first mission."

David takes a moment's break to allow everyone to feel good about their accomplishments before continuing. 

"However don't rest on your laurels yet, this was a mission I had set up to ensure that all of you could do your job correctly and carry on the pride of the Empire. From here on the missions you take will be of the utmost importance to the Empire, and thus the work you do must remain secret at all costs. I'm sure everyone here understands what I mean." David sighs, he didn't want to have to say that, but they needed to hear it, spy work was dangerous no matter what era you live in, and if someone were to find out that the Empire had an intelligence agency like this, a lot of things could be turned against them. 

"So, you now have new orders coming directly from the princess, squad leaders come here to collect your information." 

When he had come into work, he had stopped by Alice's office to grab the documents pertaining to the corrupt nobles. The entire visit was short and awkward. Neither of them wanted to talk about what happened the previous night so very little was said between them. The exchange was not hostile or regretful but since neither one of them wanted to talk about it nothing was said on the matter. As quickly as David had arrived, he had left. 

He then began explaining to the platoon that there were 4 nobles who were suspected of being involved with the human traffickers and each squad oversaw investigating each one, with squads 4 and 5 sharing one noble. The deadline was a month to completely gather as much information on them as possible to either prove that they are indeed working with the black market to sell humans, or that they are involved in other schemes like embezzlement, illegal slavery, or anything else. David would remain in the city at the Palace if any of them needed any additional resources or needed special back-up he was available to help. He also explained to them about his "costume resource" Lily who was, on paper, his maid, and told them to reach out to her to get the clothing needed to complete whatever objective they wanted. 

"From this point forward you are no longer trainees, you are the eyes and ears of the Empire, you are its first responders, you are its dagger and poison, you are the spies of the Empire!" David said as he wrapped up the briefing. It was now out of his hands; it was up to his team to prove to him just what they could do.

David was now free for the rest of the day, he had to make himself available for the squads to get in contact with him if needed, but that still meant that for the next month he could work on his other, long term plans, and spend more time with Alice. Though, as he thought of Alice now he thought of how awkward the atmosphere is between them at the moment, so rather than visiting with her he decided to go visit Dan at the knight's training yard and brush up on his sword play for the rest of the morning.

After the morning was over and the rest of the knights went to go to theory class, he decided he had run away long enough and headed to Alice's office. It took a bit of time for the awkwardness of what had happened to go away, but eventually the jovial atmosphere that they usually had returned. However, both still refused to bring up the event that created the awkward atmosphere in the first place.