Raymond Mark: Season 2

Chapter 54: Strength

PART 1: OFFICIAL CERTIFICATE

Eve was tired of looking after Katie like a child, and so was Raymond. After the event was over, they let her roam free. They were just glad that Katie behaved normally until the President gave Army 11 an official certificate so that they would be able to serve requests forever.

Katie acted like a professional at that time, but now, she was roaming free, jumping here and there in that huge party hall looking for more and more cake. It was time for dinner, and while everybody started with soup at the buffet, she was looking for cakes.

Raymond saw that not all the Army's Captains were present, only the Captains of Army 1, 4, 5, 6, and 8 were present at the time of the official event. After the certificate was given, Mr. President and Army 1's Captain, Captain Klabbon, went somewhere together.

Captain Klabbon seemed like a wise old man. Raymond had not met Master Ellendun — Aarav and Annie's Master, but he presumed he would be as wise and old, if not, wiser and older than Captain Klabbon. Master Ellendun was a 300-year-old wizard for all Raymond knew.

Captain Foster and Captain Raye were as friendly as they had been after the incidents at the Dark Forest and Battlelyte last year. They seemed young and strong. They even congratulated Raymond, Katie, and Eve for Army 11's hard work. Captain Foster helped with earlier missions and to this date, he gave so many of those missions to Army 11.

Then there were Captains of Army 6 & 8. Captain Ellie and Captain Rox. They almost seemed to be of Master Owens's age. They stood away and talked only to each other. Captain Ellie was a tall full-figured woman with caramel hair and Captain Rox was a huge guy with small red hair and gray eyes.

Eve had told Raymond and Katie about Army 6 and Army 8's discrimination against human beings. On top of all, Army 6 was women-only. There was no man allowed to join. Eve considered it to be discrimination. Raymond did not think like that, but it did cross his mind when a logical definition of discrimination was to be used. Raymond remembered Eve's exact words from earlier that evening,

"Equality means to hire people by merit and not what they were born with. Helping some sections of society works if there is inequality in some specific field, but I have seen the employment records of all Armies. They give almost a 50-50 between men and women, but when Army 6 is included in the calculation it just disrupts that equality with their women-only policy. And women have not been discriminated against in the Elemental World for centuries so the existence of Army 6 isn't needed in this century."

Raymond liked the complex way Eve's mind worked. He did not even have to agree with her, she was just happy when someone listened to her. Raymond did not believe in love, so he classified his happiness just as a crush and moved on to act as a friend. As smart as Eve was, she thought the same and did the same too.

PART 2: BRAWL

Captain Rox and Captain Ellie said cheers and gulped down their drinks. Masters were prohibited from drinking, but Captains had no such rule.

"Do you want to see what the kids are made of," said Captain Ellie to Captain Rox.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "Eve Largman is with them and we should not be on Mr. President's bad side."

"He's not here," said Captain Ellie, "small mischief would cause no trouble. I just want those humans to know their place."

"Okay," said Captain Rox. "I guess some mischief would be fine."

On the other side of the room, Eve and Raymond were standing and talking after they were done eating.

"Should we extend a hand of friendship?" asked Raymond.