At least, that was what she said to herself in her head to justify the punishment.
And she knew that it was deeply unfair, but she honestly didn’t care. If giving them a group punishment of running around the training grounds for hours on end would keep them away or finally stop them from thirstily looking at Adrian that often, then she would happily do it.
But luckily for her, the whole tense situation finally stopped when Adrian suddenly decided to stop his workout and head directly back to the mansion after reading the royal scroll that Serena had given him.
Claire instantly knew that something serious had happened based on his serious expression.
So she just walked over, bent down, and picked up the discarded scroll that Adrian had carelessly tossed into the dirt.
She quickly read through the contents and she let out a heavy sigh.
’I can easily guess that Lord Adrian sent a letter directly to the Emperor,’ she thought to herself, rubbing her temple. ’But it did not, in fact, go according to what he had probably expected at all. Considering everything, this is something to be expected though...’
But even with that, she had personally seen that he had been preparing for the upcoming war consistently over the past few days anyway. She didn’t really believe that this deployment was something that he did not expect to eventually happen.
’He has been training pretty hard for so long this week, so he probably expected this exact outcome as a backup plan,’ she thought, rolling the scroll back up. ’I guess I need to get the soldiers ready to march out too. I wonder how many he wishes to take with him to the war.’
And just as she finished her thoughts, the vivid image of Adrian just holding his sleek metal staff and jumping straight into the massive enemy army without wearing any shirt randomly popped directly into her mind.
She immediately shook her head rapidly to clear the image.
’There is no way he’s going to do something insanely dangerous and exposed like that,’ she thought, her cheeks flushing slightly. ’Please tell me he’s not.’
She just firmly made up her mind right then and there that if he does even try to fight a war while just wearing a simple pair of training pants, then no matter what happens, she was going to forcefully stop him and throw some armor on his ass.
She just turned to look at the massive mansion at the side and she muttered to herself softly.
"I’d love to actually spar with him properly like he wanted me to... but if I did... I honestly don’t know how much I’d be able to emotionally control myself. I don’t want to mess this up for me. If he just fires me because I say something random or stupid while I’m sparring with him, it is not going to be a good thing at all."
She just had this slightly sad, conflicted look on her face as she just slowly turned away from the mansion.
She sighed again and just thought to herself, gripping the scroll tight.
’I can flirt with him. I can make minor moves on him in private. I definitely know how to do all of this basic stuff. But why is it so incredibly hard to even think about just confessing my actual feelings directly? Is it because I’m afraid of rejection? Or is it because something else entirely?’
She let out another soft sigh and just shook her head quickly before turning back to looking at the exhausted female soldiers who were still running laps around the field.
She could easily tell that these girls were pretty hateful for what she’s been doing to them for the past few hours, but she just didn’t care.
As she looked at them, and as they jogged closer to her position, she finally raised her hand.
"Okay, you can stop now!"
All of the female soldiers instantly stopped jogging and quickly stood in their standard military formation, which was three rigid lines side by side.
Claire looked at them strictly while shey were all panting and sweating.
"So. What exactly did you learn from the past few days of punishment?"
Almost immediately, one of the girls in the middle of the formation raised her hand.
Claire didn’t even bother looking at her face to identify her.
"Yeah, the one who raised her hand. Tell us."
A tired, breathless voice came out.
"Do not get distracted on the field no matter what."
Claire nodded.
"Yes."
She started pacing slowly in front of the formation.
"You might occasionally see highly attractive soldiers on the opposite side of the battlefield. Or you might even see them right here on our side in the training camps. But that definitely does not mean that you can just sit down, lower your guard, and constantly stare at them like you’ve never seen a man before."
She stopped and glared at the girls.
"They might, in fact, just die brutally in that fight. Or war. Or worse, they might be the exact ones who might end up brutally killing you instead because you were too busy staring at their muscles."
She pointed a finger at the group.
"Prioritize your own safety. Prioritize your own constant alertness. You have been heavily here as highly paid soldiers of Oresfall. And you must do your damn job. And your job definitely isn’t to get distracted. Do you understand me?"
The girls all immediately snapped to attention and screamed loudly.
"YES, MA’AM!"
Claire nodded in satisfaction.
"Okay now. Pick up your wooden swords and shields and get back to properly sparring with each other. No holding back."
The soldiers quickly nodded and rushed to get back to work.
Claire turned around and walked over towards Burke, who was currently organizing the weapon racks nearby.
"Burke. Get the army completely ready for marching out."
Burke turned around, his bald head shining slightly in the sun.
[A/N: I’m thinking of setting up another priv tier. 10 extra Chapters. And along with that... I’m also thinking of setting up a discord server since a few people did ask me to make one. I just want to know all of your opinions before I do invest my time into making one though. So leave your thoughts in the comments for me please.]