The soldiers were greeted with a hero’s welcome as they marched through the village. The retreats had shattered their morale, but a wave of reinforcements helped them make their stand, and the invaders were not only kept at bay, but pushed back as well. The celebratory cheers thundered through the night, as the villagers thanked the soldiers and threw flowers from above as they made their way back to their makeshift camp.

When they arrived at their camp, everyone found their way to their respective tents and the command unit was ordered to hold an emergency meeting. The commanding officer for the entire battalion, Brigadier General Ernst Schmidt, a man in his 60s awaited his fellow officers, sitting at the head of the table. After everyone declared their presence, the formalities were instantly dropped, and a roar of excitement echoed from the command tent.

“All of us?!” one of the officers said.

“Any girl we want?!” another added. General Schmidt happily nodded to all the officers, answering all their excited questions with the positive responses he had no doubt would only excite them even further. Soon enough, the officers paraded out, shoulder to shoulder singing victory chants and taking swipes from their flasks, preparing themselves for what would be no doubt an unforgettable night.

As the General eventually got up himself after setting aside his work propping himself up with his walking cane, he noticed from inside the tent a pair of figures standing outside. He made his way out, to see two of the newly appointed officers enjoying the view of the moonlit village.

“You boys not gonna treat yourselves tonight? When you’re around my age, you won’t really have the energy for it anymore, regardless if you want to or not.” he joked.

“With all due respect, sir, I’m afraid I’m quite exhausted and I’d hate to leave the lady unsatisfied.” the younger of the two said.

“Very well, Lieutenant Haas, I’m sure the other boys won’t mind having more girls free.” he turned around to the other officer, “And Lord Major Weiss? Staying loyal to his betrothed princess it seems. For what it’s worth, it’s quite admirable, Major. I know less men with your dedication than I have fingers on one hand. Well, I won’t interrupt you any further, we’ve all done well these past few weeks, you deserve to celebrate in whichever way you see fit. Gentlemen.”

“General.” the two officers saluted, and the General was off to one of the nearby houses that was allocated for the command unit to sleep in.

“Not smoking tonight either, are you Adrian?” the Haas asked jokingly, “Surely you’re aware your breath will be fresh and pleasant by the time you return to your princess back home.”

“It always baffles me how every night you find some other stupid reason to try and get me to smoke. I’m not risking my life out on the battlefield to come back alive and die of rotten lungs at home, Johann.” Adrian replied.

“I’ll get you smoking someday.” Johann sighed, “Seriously though, you really ought to treat yourself. I mean look at you. You’re staying ‘loyal’ to a woman you’ve never even met. Have you even begun to imagine what kind of debauchery is going on in the royal palace right now? If I could have my fun you better believe I’d have it all day, but there’s risks that come with that. You should go and have fun for the both of us.”

“Yeah, in case you haven’t realized, even if I actually cared about whichever one of his airheaded daughters the Emperor is giving me because of my father’s service, it’s mostly because I’d rather not spend a night with an obligated woman.”

“Oh come on!” Johann said, “Did you see the way they were looking at us when we rode by. Tell you what, you go there and you take the cutest girl you see and you save her from whichever balding fat officer was gonna take her. Hell, take her to her room and have a nice long chat with her if you want, but I bet you two’ll get along just fine once you’re alone.”

Johann began walking as he spoke, and with a sigh, Adrian trailed along, wondering why he’s even allowing himself to be talked into this. Johann continued his spiel in between smoking his cigarette, as they made their way to the brothel. When they arrived outside the door, Johann gave his friend a pat on the back and offered him a smile of assurance.

“Come on, go in and give one of those girls the night of her life. You haven’t even smoked so your breath will be nice and clean.”

“I’ll do my best.” Adrian laughed, and waved his friend goodbye as he entered the brothel. Immediately, he was greeted by a swarm of eager ladies dressed in an elegant yet provocative manner.

“We don’t get many boys your age around here.”

“I always wanted to sleep with an imperial officer!”

“You can be as rough as you want with me!” Adrian politely rejected their requests, opting to sit down and take a look before he makes up his mind. To some degree, the zealous approach didn’t appeal to him that much. There was already enough mindless zeal in military rallies and inspiring speeches, he was there to relax. He sat at a table, ordered a drink, and decided he’d make up his mind once his drink was finished.

“Having a hard time deciding, eh?” Adrian turned around to see a woman pull up a chair and sit next to him. Judging by the way she was dressed, she must have been the madam of the brothel. “Don’t fret it, you just say the word whenever you’re ready.”

“Well I figured I’d decide which lady I’d take once I finished my whiskey, but it seems there’s a bit of a hold-up at the bar as it hasn’t arrived yet.” Adrian joked.

“Oh what the he-JULIA!” the madam yelled at a hurried waitress passing by. She turned to look at her, frightened. “Get this gentleman over here a cup of whiskey and put it on the house! Now!” The girl scurried away and the madam turned her attention back to her customer. “Do excuse us, the drink is on the house, I can’t believe we’ve left you waiting. I pride myself on taking good care of our patrons and the night we have officers, we’ve left the ripest one without a drink.”

“I appreciate your compliments, madam,” Adrian said, “It’s a busy night tonight, it’s inevitable that some mistakes happen. Don’t take it out on the girls.”

“It’s their jobs to make sure these kinds of mistakes don’t happen.” the madam said, getting up frustrated, “Who knows who else they’ve missed! Well, I’m gonna go pour some drinks myself, as it seems we need more hands on deck. Drink ‘responsibly’, Lord Major.”

The madam took off yelling, and soon enough, the frightened girl returned with his drink. Her eyes were darting around the room as she walked towards him, probably worried she had missed someone else as well. When she arrived, Adrian noticed that she was fixated on his epaulettes as she spoke.

“Your drink, L...Lord…” she began, but seemed to be at a loss recognizing the insignia on his shoulders and what rank they corresponded to.

“Lord Major.” Adrian said, helping her out, “No worries, I forgot the insignias all the time in the academy and I was training to be a soldier. Thank you...Julia, was it?” he finished, as he took his drink, the sole drink, from her tray.

“Yes sir.” she said, “Is there anything else you’d like?”

“You seem to be having a hard time out here, today is a day of celebration. Would you like to relax?”

“I…” she began, but the madam interrupted her, as she returned.

“Julia! You were assigned to bar duty, I won’t have you ruining another client’s night again. Stop flirting with the gentleman and get back to work!”

“Madam, please.” Adrian said, placing his hand on the now trembling girl. “I think Julia would be just fine, I don’t see anything wrong with her.”

“Sir, every customer she’s gone with had complaints, and we’re talking old men with no stamina. I shudder to think how she’d underperform to the desires of a young man like yourself.”

“I won’t ask much of her, madam, I assure you, this is the lady I wish to spend the night with.” He turned to face Julia, “If you would like to spend the night with me, of course.”

“O-of course sir! I’d be honored!” she replied quickly.

“I’ll handle it from here, madam, thank you.” He said, gently wrapping his arm around Julia’s waist as he got up and nodding to the madam to let her know that he wished for no further interference from her. The madam nodded in return, and crossing her fingers hoping she wouldn’t have to deal with yet another customer who couldn’t satisfy themselves with Julia. Julia took him to her room, and shut the door behind her. She turned to face him and nervously began to unbutton his jacket.

“You don’t have to.” Adrian said, gently removing her hand from his chest. “I’ll be fine.”

“Oh, I’ll just-” She began, moving over to the bed and getting on, hurriedly reaching for the back of her dress to undo the ribbons which held it up.

“You don’t have to do that either.” Adrian said, placing his hand on hers again. “You don’t need to do anything you don’t want to tonight.”

“But you…”

“I saw you were having a tough time out there so I decided to pull you out. I wasn’t really planning on sleeping with any of the girls tonight, so it’s okay.” Adrian sat on the bed next to her and kicked his boots off. “At most I’ll ask of you a seat on the bed, as there’s nowhere else for me to sit here, and I’d rather not sit on the floor.”

Julia seemed to be in complete disbelief at what was happening, the most she could bring herself up to doing was nodding to reassure him she was completely fine with him sitting next to her. She hadn’t heard of people doing this before ever, let alone experience it herself. Regardless, after the realization of what was happening had settled in, for the first time in far too long, Julia felt like she could genuinely relax.

The next thing she knew, she felt something slipping from her hand, and she jolted up. The sun was just starting to rise outside the window, and she found herself holding onto Adrian’s hand as he was getting up. He offered her a warm smile.