Idle Asides, No. 4, Cercis’ Perspective— Cercis’ Dream Romance

✦✦✦Idle Asides, No. 4, Cercis’ Perspective— Cercis’ Dream Romance✦✦✦

“Welcome home!”

Viola is there to greet me as soon as I return from work. Her gentle smile makes my stress and exhaustion melt away. That alone causes me to blush, but... I need more.

I reach out to her, longing for her touch, and pull her into a tender embrace.

“Cercis?” She looks up at me in a daze from where I have her trapped in my arms.

That’s cheating, looking at me with those eyes.

I let reason override my desire to simply scoop her up into my arms. I permit myself to merely bury my face in her hair, the fresh scent of soap teasing my nose. There’s no harsh or artificial smell to her at all.

Just her usual soap, sweet cakes or candy, and flowers.

She smells like sunlight.

I can tell how she spent her day by her scent. That, too, makes me sigh.

“....so what do I need to do to make her love me like this, Corydalis?”

“What do you think you are, a poet or something? You sound like a lovesick teenage girl. Freak. Don’t tell me you don’t let your own wife call you by your first name.”

“Just shut up.”

I was trying to have a serious conversation with Corydalis, but all he did was glare at me, and I could not for the life of me figure out why.

Anyway.

It was absurd that I was so far from the one I loved. But as soon as I could return home to Viola, I swore...

“...Ahem. For now, anyway, I fear I have reached my limit for how long I can remain away from you. Therefore, I am doing my utmost to end my part in this war as quickly and decisively as possible.”

“There we go, now you’re in gear! Hmm, well, the first half didn’t really grab me, but I approve of the second half.” Corydalis was still glaring at me, but at least now I had his approval.

“To that end, I will have to take the enemy by surprise.”

“Well no kidding, pal. Oh, that reminds me, we just got some intel in earlier that the enemy has begun to set up camp in secret,” Corydalis commented as he looked over the report written by our subordinates scouting in the field. The enemy had constructed their base at the foot of a sheer cliff—natural fortification. It seemed they thought that was an easy way to protect against a rear attack.

Or, so you would think.

Oh, how naive they were.

I dare say we predicted that they would build their base there based on our investigation. Not to mention, considering they were boxed in and that the planning stage for our operation was already completed—with our attack, travel, and escape routes all decided—all we would need to do when we arrived was arrange the troops.

I informed Father of this in secret. Although it was a report, what was written in it was still subject to censorship, so I let him know via an old tradition: a delivery.

It is written in our history books that a married woman sent a tightly tied hemp sack of fruit as a gift to her younger brother who was off at war in order to notify him that a commander said to be loyal to their side was a double agent, and that the brother’s troop was to be besieged by the enemy—trapped like a rat in a bag, as the saying goes...

And because the woman had married into the traitor’s family, she sent the fruit without a letter in order to avoid suspicion. ‘You’re just like this fruit,’ was the message. When I used fruit from the southern regions, my own message was clear, that it was the enemy nation in the sack.

Furthermore, the historical event I referenced was rather obscure, so I could be sure that only Father and Rohtas could interpret it correctly. That, and I tied the cords very, very tightly! I probably did not need to go that far, though. At any rate, by using this method, Father would have understood the situation on the front lines and would have been able to reassure Viola that everything was all right.

To return to my main point, however, we were going to raid the Aurantian stronghold.

“We’ll attack from the rear.”

“What?”

“We’d have the high ground from that position.”

Corydalis remained silent.

“The enemy will only be watching their front. Let’s look into routes leading into the rear.”

“Oh, by rear, you mean near that vertical cliff. You’re right, they won’t expect a rush from behind. You... you’re quite the fiend... So what was with all that mushy, girly talk a minute ago?!”