A knock at the door woke me up, having alerted me that the most current newspapers were being delivered. I rolled over and stretched a bit before I sat up and rubbed at my eyes. My vision having cleared, I looked up to see the dishes from yesterday were no longer there but Annaliese was, seemingly half asleep in the more comfortable desk chair.

Rather confused, I was about to wake her up before I thought better of it and instead went to get the newspapers from outside. Once I picked up the envelope, I went to my suitcase which was by my desk to grab my watch, as I had put it in there two days ago and forgot about it until now. 7:34 it read, giving me 26 minutes until breakfast and 56 until meetings start again. I sighed before I moved some hair from my face and decided to make the bed.

"Mhng, did I fall asleep? Sorry," Annaliese said as she woke up with a start just as I finished what I was doing.

"How can you be sorry for falling asleep? Why didn't you just go back to your room? Don't tell me there's another etiquette rule that I wasn't told about?" I asked her. Her face told me everything.

"I'm not allowed to leave unless you let me, and I'm also not allowed to sleep in front of you unless you let me," she said with a bittersweet smile.

"Why didn't you tell me that?" I asked as I took my jacket and put it on while checking for wrinkles.

"I tried, but you fell asleep really fast," she said sheepishly.

"It's a talent of mine. Your neck must hurt from sitting the whole time you slept," I said as I took a seat across from her after putting the envelope of newspapers on my desk behind me.

"I'm not allowed to sleep in from of you unless you let me, and you didn't say anything about it so I didn't get a kink in my neck," she said nervously.

"Because you barely slept?" I asked her with a raised eyebrow.

"Y-yeah. It's fine, though, once I do a few tasks I'm assigned I'll be left alone and can sleep then," she said as she avoided my eyes.

"Whoever's in charge can't get mad if I'm the one who says you need to stay here and sleep, yes?" I ask as I start to notice how tired she really looked.

"Th- that's correct, but I doubt that they'll believe me if I say that's what you requested. They'll assume I didn't tell you I'm not allowed to leave without your permission as to get out of doing chores, sir," she said as she played with the strings of the hairpin that was in her hair for the entire night. It looked quite heavy. Her head must have been hurting.

"I can write a note, right? I'll say I left you to sleep in here and that I don't want anyone else since you were so.... Would charming be a good word?" I asked as I went to my desk to grab a pen and paper.

"Sure.... Writing a note might work, yes, but I doubt that they'll believe you. They can't read English so I'll have to translate and they'll think I'm making it up," she said as she watched my pen move across the paper.

"I'll ask for you again personally if that's what it takes, alright? You said it yourself that unless I do so that.... Well, I'll leave it at that. Would this work?" I asked as I ripped the paper off the notepad and put it in front of her.

"Probably, sir. Thank you so much," she said, standing up with me and bowing.

"Don't think about it. Also, drop the sir, I'm hoping to be friends with you. My name's Hedrik," I said as I put my arm on her shoulder and guided her to the bed.

"O-okay... Hedrik. If I may ask.... Why are you doing this?" she asked as I pulled back the blanket. She tried to take off my coat which she was still wearing to give it to me, but I motioned for her to do otherwise.

"Pity to a certain extent. Although.... I'll admit that I'm not too liked among my colleagues. I'm the only Major General here; everyone else is a higher rank, and I'm treated as such. Only a few people bother to talk to me, so any sort of companionship is nice," I said as I tucked her in and removed the hair pin, which was honestly just as heavy as it looked, and left it on the bedside table next to the incense that burned out over the course of the night.

"I- I see. Thank you for your kindness, nonetheless," she said before pulling the covers higher up.

"Like I said before, think nothing of it. Now get some sleep and do whatever until later," I said with a smile as a farewell before I left the room after grabbing the notepad I've been taking notes on for the last few weeks, and heading down to the breakfast hall.