“Starting today, you’ll be running three laps everyday before training.” The vice captain walked past the row of recruits dressed in white shirts as she gave them the news.

“But that’s fifteen kilometers, vice captain,” Seren dared to argue. “This is Hyrin’s first day back from the hospital.”

Vice Captain Leyleina stopped in front of him with the same deadpan expression she always wore. “Are you her official spokesperson now or something?” She asked. “Four laps,” she added.

“But-” Seren started again, but Hyrin made him shut up by elbowing him in the arm. He threw her a defensive glance but kept his mouth closed anyway.

“Three laps,” the vice captain told Hyrin, but her expression softened slightly as she walked past her. “Just do what you can. I wasn’t expecting you to keep up with the rest anyway.”

Hyrin repressed a grin. Gee, thanks, she wanted to tell her, but instead she obediently saluted. “Yessir.”

The vice captain raised a perfectly shaped, surprisingly dark eyebrow. None of the recruits had used that salute before and teaching them clearly hadn’t been very high on her list.

Hyrin glanced at Seren while they quickly stretched before starting their run. She had never really noticed before, but his eyebrows and eyelashes were just as dark as Vice Captain Leyleina’s, despite their bright white hair.

“What?” He asked her with a slightly pink blush after he noticed her staring and she quickly shook her head.

“Nothing, I was just thinking you should probably hurry up and start running, since you’ll be doing four laps,” she said with a mean grin.

He clicked his tongue, but still did as she said and ran ahead. After that first week of training, he had learned to leave her be during these morning runs.

“I’ll run with you today, Rin.” Lily jumped her from behind, hanging one arm over Hyrin’s left shoulder and resting her chin on her right.

“You don’t have to do that,” Hyrin told her, pushing her off.

“I know,” Lily shrugged, trying not to look hurt that Hyrin had immediately created some distance between them again, “but I’m having kind of an off day, and it’s hot, and I’m tired, and it’s cold, and early, and I’m having my period, so I don’t really feel like running fast anyway.”

“Geez, busy morning for you,” Row told her as he joined them and Hyrin quickly suppressed a chuckle.

“Well, if you’re not feeling okay, you can run slowly with me,” she gave in to Lily’s lies, knowing full well her friend just wanted to make sure she’d be okay.

“Oh man, Seren is so going to hate us when he finds out we’re both running with you,” Row grinned, making it clear he wouldn’t be going anywhere either.

Hyrin rolled her eyes and stepped onto the forest path, running at a slow pace, quickly followed by the other two. It took her about ten minutes to realize she wasn’t getting tired. Her legs didn’t feel like concrete blocks, no sweat dripped down her forehead and back. She was pretty sure her face hadn’t even turned a very deep scarlet.

“You’re spry today,” Row noticed with a tilted head and she looked up at him. She felt like she would actually be able to have a normal conversation with him without having to slow her pace.

As a matter of fact, she felt like she could go much faster than this. She wanted to go faster, she needed an outlet for all this energy she suddenly felt welling up inside her.

“Woah.” Lily sped up to match Hyrin’s new pace.

“Woah indeed,” Row chuckled. “You been training in secret or something? What did they feed you in the infirmary?”

“And why don’t we get the same stuff?” Lily added.

Hyrin chuckled, actually enjoying the feel of the breeze against her skin. “I don’t know, maybe I’m just super well rested now after all that sleeping and lazing around.”

“Sure,” Row narrowed his eyes, “that’s one possibility.” He gave her a crooked grin. “Or maybe running ten kilometers everyday and then training your body the rest of the day has had a positive effect?”

She scoffed. “Whatever. There’s no way I’m ever going to admit that running is good for me.”

She ran slightly ahead of them, just to see if she could, and finished the fifteen kilometers without gasping for air or feeling like she had to throw up even once. Even the rest of that first day back, filled with training their body, training their aim, training their skills, and even normal lessons about this new world seemed to fly by.

At the end of the day, Hyrin joined Lily in the communal showers and then put on a fresh set of her beloved black sweats with plain white shirt, her stomach rumbling, ready to eat her fill.

“Hyrin.”

She stopped and looked up at Seren, who awkwardly stood waiting for her right outside the showers.

“Ooh, here it comes,” Lily whispered in her ear. “This is so gonna be a confession. What're you gonna say?”

Hyrin pushed Lily against her side. “Shut up, go away,” she whispered back, although she felt her empty stomach turning as she walked up to Seren.

“You’ve got a guest,” he told her the moment she came within normal earshot and he turned around, clearly happy he no longer looked like a creeper having to wait for her at that place.

“Follow me.”

He took her to one of three living rooms, where off-duty soldiers were allowed to relax. Although, aside from one tv, it was mostly filled with books on training and drakes and adjusting to this new world. Not that she didn’t already know that this place was about anything but relaxing and taking it easy, even in your down time.

In one of the two couches in that room sat a woman somewhere in her late thirties, holding a little girl that couldn’t be older than ten.

The moment that little girl saw Hyrin, she jumped up and stretched out her arms as far as she could, holding a piece of paper.

Hyrin walked into the room, accepted the paper and looked at it. A surprisingly well done drawing of her covered most of it. She held two huge swords, both of them similar to the one Captain Harumi used and rather than her training outfit, she wore a soldier’s uniform, most of it covered by small drake scales. More than even the captain’s uniform had, she noticed with a little grin. From what she had heard, they weren’t only very difficult to come by, but also difficult to attach and get used to moving in.

“Did you make this yourself?” She asked, staring at the ferocious look on her face. Was it normal for a kid this age to be able to express this level of emotion in drawings?

The kid nodded with red cheeks. “Because I think you’re even cooler than Captain Ryusuke,” she muttered softly in a voice Hyrin recognized, not that she hadn’t known who the girl was before.

Did all civilians refer to the captain by his first name? She wondered.

“Thank you so much for saving my Brenna!” Her mother suddenly burst out, bowing her head. “We got separated in the chaos and I-” she tried and failed to suppress a sob. “I thought I would never see…” she tightly shut her eyes and shook her head.

“I’m sorry this is all we can do to thank you,” she added softly. “We don’t have much, and after the attack…”

Hyrin felt a baseless guilt crush down on her shoulders. As if she would ever ask this girl or her mother anything for saving her, but at the same time, she understood the sentiment. This woman wasn’t trying to insult her. If anyone would save Lily or Seren or Row when they were about to be eaten, she would want to shower them with gifts too.

She put her hand on the woman’s shoulder and squeezed it with a warm smile. “I’m just glad she’s safe and back with you,” she told her softly, and the woman burst out into tears again.

“Thank you,” she whispered hoarsely, sitting back on the couch as if her legs were no longer able to hold her weight, “thank you.”

Hyrin watched her wipe her face with a relieved sigh and then knelt down in front of Brenna, so she could look her in the eye.

“This is really good, you’re very talented,” she told the girl. “Thank you.”

Brenna’s entire face lit up. “I want to be a painter when I grow up,” she let Hyrin know in a passionate voice, clenching her little fist. “Because of you,” she added, glancing at her mother over her shoulder, “I can still do that.”

Hyrin ignored the twinge in her chest and brushed her hand over the girl’s brown, bushy hair. “I’m happy you’re safe, Brenna. And if you’re already this good now, I can’t wait to see what you’ll be making in the future.” She glanced at the drawing with a crooked grin. “Maybe you can paint me again one day after I’ll have actually earned a sword and a scaled uniform.”

Brenna chuckled, a lot more calm and easygoing this entire time than her mother. “You’re so strong,” she said, her eyes full of admiration, “I know you can definitely do it soon!”

Hyrin snorted, lovingly tapping the girl against her forehead. “What does it say about me that you’re dreaming bigger for me than I have been for myself?”

Brenna wiped her forehead with a chuckle, but then tilted her head. “So, you don’t want to become a knight?” She asked, clearly trying not to show her disappointment.

“No,” Hyrin got up, straightening her shoulders, “I do. I’ll be the strongest knight you’ve ever seen. Just watch me.”

Brenna gasped softly, her eyes widening. She probably didn’t even understand what it was exactly that Hyrin had just promised her. Or maybe she could stare up at Hyrin like that because she understood better than Hyrin or Seren or any of the reincarnated ones. 

Either way, saying something like that out loud made Hyrin realize something. She wasn’t just saying it. She really wanted it. She had wanted it from the first time she had watched Captain Harumi defeat that house class. Even if it meant running a hundred kilometers every day, even if it meant being clawed and stabbed by these monsters they were trying to slay, she was going to become an S class knight just like him.

“You know you don’t actually have to aim for that just because you told one little girl,” Seren let her know after they had walked Brenna and her mother out of the base and waved them goodbye. He didn’t sound nearly as convincing as he wanted to, though.

“It’s not because I told her.” Hyrin gave him a sideways grin. “I know our lives are kind of… weird now. We only just got here, we don’t know who we were, and we barely have any attachments to this world yet. I know that, technically, we don’t really have a reason to want to fight for it.”

Her look darkened. “I’ve heard the others make fun of Lily’s attitude, saying she must’ve had a pretty shitty life before this if she’s that adamant about never talking or even thinking about it, but I think she’s the one who’s right.” She shrugged. “We’re here now. We died in our previous life and judging from the captain and everyone else still being here, we’re not going back. And I think any life you live has got to be worth fighting for.” 

She glanced up at Seren. “Right?”

He sighed. “Right,” he agreed reluctantly. “But wanting to fight for this life doesn’t necessarily mean becoming an S class knight and only ever facing the most dangerous drakes.” His eyes narrowed. “I heard captain Harumi even had to fight a humanoid class once and he nearly died.”

A shudder ran down Hyrin’s spine, despite her earlier bold words. Humanoid class drakes, in other words, drakes that looked like humans. They were apparently the strongest, most dangerous drakes of all. The idea of having to face one made her want to turn and run. The only solace she felt at that moment was that they were also extremely rare.

“Then I’ll just become stronger than him even,” she declared in a shaky voice. “Then it won’t matter what I face, you won’t have to worry about me nearly dying.”

“Hoh!”

They both stopped and swung around to see the captain standing behind them, resting a black training sword on his shoulder, sweat glistening on his face.

“Bold words for someone who couldn’t even reach my feet barely a week ago,” he told her with a wide grin. He lifted the sword off his shoulder and swung it towards her, stopping the point only about a centimeter from her face. She probably would have flinched or jumped back if she hadn’t been too shocked to move.

“I heard you’ve been stepping up your game today,” he said, his eyes piercing into hers. “How about you show me?”

“Show…” she repeated. “Now?”

“Does this look like I mean any other time?” He asked dryly.

Hyrin glanced at Seren before looking back at the captain. She really didn’t feel like getting sweaty again after she just showered, but fighting the captain was an opportunity not many of them got. And now that she got that opportunity for the second time, there was no way she could turn it down.

She clenched her fists. “Bring it on.”