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Catherine took her training seriously. She didn’t believe in “rest days”. This was a mindset she had ever since she joined the Officer's Academy. She would often get scolded by her instructors for straining herself too much. It was only when Lady Rhea herself urged Catherine to take it easy that Catherine listened. Her birthday was no exception, especially during the Imperial Year 1180. Flayn had gone missing and everyone was stressed out. Catherine let out her frustrations by smacking practice dummies with a training sword. It wasn’t enough though. She ditched the sword and started pummeling one of the dummies with her fists. It was better, but still not enough. Catherine kept seeing the face of whoever kidnapped Flayn in the dummy. She didn’t know what they looked like, but they deserved the worst treatment she could give. Thunderbrand wasn’t worth it. Then Catherine got an idea. She grabbed a dummy, threw it at the wall of the training grounds, and started kicking its head against the wall. Now this was it! This was actually relieving some of the stress! This…CRACK! The dummy’s head split open and fractured into a hundred pieces.
“Did that dummy call Rhea an ugly hag?”
Catherine turned to the side to see Shamir standing next to her.
“Lady Rhea,” corrected Catherine. “How long have you been standing there?”
“A few minutes,” answered Shamir.
“You could have said something,” said Catherine as she awkwardly tried to pick up the piece of splintered wood.
“I did. Several times. After that, I decided to wait until you stopped pulverizing this thing.” said Shamir as she helped Catherine clean up the rest of the destroyed dummy.
“Your stealth ability is impeccable, but it lacks control,” joked Catherine.
Shamir rolled her eyes.
“Whatever you say. Listen, Rhea…Lady Rhea says he needs help with something. I came over here to get you.”
“You should have yelled at me earlier. This is important.”
“It’s too late for that,” Shamir declared. “It’s not too late to rush over there though. Let’s go.”
Catherine and Shamir ran over to Lady Rhea’s chamber.
“Lady Rhea! What do you…” Catherine started.
“SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CATHERINE!”
In the chamber stood Lady Rhea, Alois, Gilbert, Manuela, Hanneman, and Seteth. There was also a table full of food and drinks.
“Wow, I…this…thank you,” said Catherine. “I feel honored that you all took the time to set this up.”
“We do this every year, Catherine!” laughed Alois.
“True, but it’s still a really sweet thing to do,” said Catherine. “Especially during times like this.”
Seteth hunched forward and put his face in his palms.
“Seteth! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to cause you any distress!” cried Catherine.
“No Catherine, you didn’t say anything wrong,” replied Seteth. “I’ve been trying to focus on other things too. There’s only so much we can do, and thinking about it too much won’t help. Putting this together certainly helped though.”
“You’re a strong man, Seteth,” said Gilbert. “I have a lot of respect for you.”
“As do I,” said Lady Rhea. “Shall we begin the festivities?”
“Heck yeah!,” declared Catherine. “Dig in!”
The partygoers began eating, drinking, and talking. Manuela did a bit too much of the second part, much to Hanneman’s dismay.
“For the Goddess’s sake, Manuela! You’re in the presence of the Archbishop! And in her chamber no less! Would it kill you to stop drinking so much alcohol and have a wholesome glass of punch?”
“Now you listen here, buddy!” snapped back Manuela as she pointed a wobbly finger at Hanneman. “It’s Catherine’s party, and I’ll drink as much booze as she’ll me! Or how much booze Rhea will let me drink. Whichever comes first.”
Alois cracked a few jokes, none of which anyone except Manuela found funny. Regardless, Catherine laughed too. Although Alois’s sense of humor was pretty bad, she respected his enthusiasm and his ability to add some light-heartedness into the stressful lives of everyone. The food was loved by everyone, and Gilbert and Manuela received much praise for their cooking skills. Seteth made sure to clean up every crumb and drink spill, no matter how small they were. After a while, Shamir raised her hand.
“I’m glad to see everyone having a great time, but there’s one thing that still needs to be done. Birthday punches!”
“Hahaha! You’re the best, Shamir. I forgot about those!”
Catherine removed the top part of her armor as the others lined up. Catherine was 28, so each of the seven other partygoers got to punch her four times. Alois went first. His punches were forceful, but clearly not meant to cause noticeable physical damage. His pun about “hitting the spot” caused some form of damage to some of the others, but Catherine didn’t mind. Gilbert’s punches were similar to Alois’s punches but without the pun at the end. Manuela had difficulty connecting her punches, so Hanneman had to guide her. Hanneman was hurting himself more than Catherine, but he powered through the discomfort. Seteth had to remind himself not to release all his stress out on Catherine, which was difficult, but he managed to do so and not break any bones. Lady Rhea’s were the strongest yet, but Catherine would have taken a hundred more if Lady Rhea wanted her too. Finally, it was Shamir’s turn.
“I’ve been paying attention to where you’ve gotten hit the most,” said Shamir.
“Should I be thankful or cursing you?” asked Catherine.
“Both,” replied Shamir as she delivered her first two punches to the area that Catherine got hit the most and delivered the second two punches to areas where she hadn’t gotten hit at all.