AH-CHOO! I sniffled and rolled over. This chill in my bones won't go away... How can Ice be so ridiculously strong in magic and swordsmanship? Even though I'm the Storm Knight, it's not like I know any wind magic!

This bright light is so annoying... I rolled back over. Ah...? Light? I shot a glance at my clock. It's almost noon! I leaped out from under my wonderfully fluffy covers, grabbed my toothbrush and comb, and nearly missed the person sitting at my desk as I headed for the door.

I blearily squinted at the person for several moments. God of Light, I beg you. Don't let this be another admirer who snuck into my room again. Although half of those women were actually "admirers" of Earth, and walked into the wrong room instead... The person turned their head in my direction. Oh good. Now that she's seen that this is the Storm Knight's room, she should leave for Earth's room next door.

"Oh! I'm sorry. I was trying not to wake you up. Did you sleep well?"

This voice was... was... Leaf! Did he come here to watch me sleep?

"How long have you been here?" I looked towards the window, where it was already bright outside. "You should be patrolling with your platoon right now."

"I heard you sneezing in the hallway yesterday, and your eye bags were darker than usual, even though there isn't anything going on that would generate extra paperwork. I was worried that your cold would grow even worse if you didn't sleep properly, so I've been here since five to make sure you wouldn't try to wake up too early." Leaf laughed. "You still don't lock your door, even after all you turned all those girls into statues when they saw the Storm Knight diligently doing paperwork."

Of course I wouldn't lock the door! What if someone needed to drop off a stack of completed paperwork or had new forms to turn in? It's not like they can just leave the papers in the hallway! I could already make out the shape of another new stack of documents waiting for editing by the doorway.

As I turned around to head to the bathroom so I could brush my teeth, Leaf called out, "I'm going to go check on my platoon and make sure everything is O.K. Remember! Lunch will be in thirty minutes. I'll come back to make sure you go and eat! It's not healthy to stay cooped up in a stuffy room all day. And don't eat anything too heavy, since you're still ill!" I looked back and nodded to show I heard, otherwise Leaf would probably have fretted even more.

After returning from the bathroom, I figured there wasn't enough time before lunch to correct more than a few documents. Since I was running low on ink anyway, I pulled out a small pot and portable stove. Then I filled the pot with water and added several handfuls of walnut hulls and husks from a bag I keep in the cabinet. I was in the middle of amending some of the shorter documents when Leaf considerately came back to ensure I wouldn't starve myself to death.

"Storm, you should go now, before everyone else takes the food you want."

I nodded and finished off the paragraph I was working on. "I was about to leave anyway," I lied. I didn't feel like I could eat more than a few mouthfuls of food at the moment, so I was planning on skipping lunch to correct papers. But if Leaf had noticed I wasn't at lunch, the consequences would be dire if I refused to go with him. When I had nearly reached the door, Leaf suddenly tutted.

"Don't leave a stove on if you're not in the room. Even if your tea gets cold while you're away, you can just heat it up again when you're back. You wouldn't want to start a fire accidentally." He let out a soft scream when he saw the contents of the pot. "Storm! Don't drink this kind of stuff when you're sick! You'll be dehydrated and recover slower!" He made a face at the dark liquid. "Is this even drinkable...?" Leaf opened the window with the clear intent of throwing my precious ink out.

I let out an agonized shriek. "NO! DON'T!"

Leaf jumped; some of the "tea" sloshed out of the pot on to his white gloves. Although my week's supply of ink was saved, I pitied his gloves. The brown stain would be nearly impossible to remove.

"Ah... Sorry. I wasn't planning on drinking that. It's walnut juice ink."

"Oh!" Leaf looked very relieved, then slightly suspicious. "So Ice was mad at you the other day because you smashed his walnuts for ink?"

I quickly defended myself. "No! That was just the fastest way to shell his walnuts! I was going to wash them afterward. I got these hulls and husks from my parents."

Leaf tilted his head and asked curiously. "From your parents?"

"Ah... Yeah." I rubbed the back of my head. "They grow walnuts to sell just outside Leaf Bud City. After shelling the walnuts, they don't have any use for the shells anymore, so I asked them to send me some to make ink. It's one less expense I have to file with the Pope."

Leaf smiled. "It's great that you're on such good terms with your family." The smile turned sad. "I've heard many of the cold-hearted faction's parents were against having them join the selections."

I patted Leaf's shoulder. "Even Judgment's aunt and uncle forgave him in the end. Now we've all grown up into fine adults. I don't think any one of them would be ashamed of us." I paused and smirked. "Although, temple gossip says that Earth receives letters from his parents asking when he'll bring a girlfriend back home."

That elicited a small laugh.

Leaf stayed the whole day, helping me correct the documents that had piled up in the morning while I was asleep. He had managed to convince several of the other knight-captains into allowing the Leaf Knight Platoon to train with them for the day, so his platoon wouldn't be idle. Every now and then, Leaf excused himself and ran out to check their progress and to make sure they were alright. They were lucky, having a captain who looked after them. My vice captain was forced to plan out most of the Storm Knight Platoon's schedule, since I usually had so much to do I wouldn't be able to supervise them directly.

As usual, around nightfall, there was a knock on the door. Leaf wasn't startled by the random knocks now, since several knights had already come throughout the day to drop off finished papers or to pick up new ones.

I called out, "Come in. The door's unlocked," despite the other person being well aware that my door was never locked.

Hell walked in through the door and stopped there for a moment, apparently puzzled by the head of green hair and lack of papers at my desk, until he noticed I was correcting papers while sitting on the bed instead. Leaf told me to take it easy, and because of the lack of another chair in the room and small size of my desk, the only other place to sit and work on documents was my bed. Normally, working like this would be impossible since I would immediately fall asleep among the fluffy blankets. But after sleeping until noon, any fatigue I felt was more likely to be a result from my cold.

Hell picked up a large stack of unamended documents from a corner of the room I'd designated specially for his pile. He nodded once to us and swiftly left my room.

Leaf was surprised. "I didn't think the Hell Knight would have so much paperwork to do. Even the sheaf of trial records Judgment turned in was smaller than that."

I shook my head. "Most of that isn't actually Hell's work. Many people found it unusual that he would be up at four in the morning practicing swordplay. To prevent them from realizing he doesn't need to sleep, he has to stay shut up in his room for the entire night. He's been helping me out for a while now, since he has nothing better to do while he waits for the rest of the Temple to wake up." I sighed while crossing out some redundant lines in paragraph four. "As a result, there's a rumor circulating that the Hell Knight needs a nightlight to sleep. The Hell Knight Platoon caught wind of it and has bought him so many candles that the rumor recently changed to the Hell Knight has an odd fascination with candles." Blaze probably kicked down Hell's door and misinterpreted the scene again...

Leaf actually beamed when he heard this. "Remember how set Vice-Captain Tyler and the platoon were against Hell before? Isn't it great that they now care about him so much? It's not even just a grudging respect anymore!"

On the other hand, I smiled wanly. If Hell hadn't gained the acceptance of his platoon, even with Adair agreeing to back Tyler's decision no matter what, Sun might have gone berserk. And I would have been flooded with the resignation forms for the entire Hell Knight Platoon. After dealing with those, I would have been swarmed with the sign-up sheets for Hell Knight Platoon hopefuls. Thinking about it like this, I'm actually quite grateful it all worked out. My face relaxed into a more natural smile.

"Yeah. It's great seeing everyone help each other out." I accepted another stack of forms from Leaf.