It was the next morning after the bandits attacked Grisea Village.
The current time was five in the morning. A bright light slowly began to appear at the starry sky above Isteria, the sun might show its face in just another 30 minutes.
At the Nelson’s Mansion in Isteria it was still in the early morning where the sun hadn’t appeared yet and except for the soldiers who patrolling the premise, no other people could be seen.
However, in a certain room at Nelson’s Residence, even this early in the morning, the owner of the room began to stir and crawl out from the magnificent canopy bed.
The owner of that room was Lieze, who carefully fixed her disorderly long glossy dark brown bed-head hair. She tried to get out of her bed and sat on the edge while her eyes were still half-asleep.
She continued to sit dazedly for about a minute before she stretched her body and let out a big yawn.
Then she picked up the prepared water jug placed atop of a small table beside the bed, poured the water into a bronze cup, and drank it.
She gurgled the water inside her mouth, before spit it out into the copper bowl that was placed on the same small table.
After repeating this several times, she moved to the front of a large bronze mirror attached to a dresser. Then she put on a wooden headband to tidy her hair up. Then she washed her face using a silver wash basin.
After washing her face, she wiped her wet face down using a towel made of soft cloth while unfastening her headband.
Thereafter, she collected her hair into one hand and tied it using a cloth string that was colored dark brown like her own hair. It was a ponytail hairstyle.
She turned her head aside to check the condition of her hair and moved to the middle of the room. Suddenly she did a complete 180 degree leg split and started doing stretching exercise.
「One, two, three, four」(Lieze)
With both of her hand grasping the tip of her right leg, while counting, she pressed her forehead against the shin of her right leg.
After this finished she performed the same routine with her left leg’s shin, and repeated this exercise for several times.
When the stretching on both legs finished, while still in leg split position, she brought her body forward to touch the floor. After ten seconds, she slowly raised her body.
After that, she performed multiple body stretching exercises for about twenty minutes.
When the stretching exercises over, she dressed up with the knee length tunic that had been prepared beside her dresser, and tightly fastened it with the leather belt.
Then, she took a small cloth bag from the dresser’s top. After confirming the content of the bag, she fastened the leather strap on the bag’s mouth and put it into her pocket.
「The spear, the spear…」(Lieze)
Putting the leather boots, she took the short spear that was stood beside the bed. Finally, Lieze unlocked the door, opened it and headed outside.
「Good morning, Lieze-sama.」(Guard)
「Morning, Sellete. I will go to the courtyard today.」(Lieze)
「I understand. Please take care.」(Guard)
As soon as Lieze exited the room, she exchanged greetings with the young female soldier that stood guard in front of her room, and headed to the courtyard.
Every time she met with a soldier en route, she would called out their name without fail, then exchanged a few words with some of them.
The soldiers who were guarding the mansion from midnight to early morning almost had the same members composition.
So, no one questioned her, since they know that Lieze always heads to the courtyard in the early morning.
At the time Lieze reached the courtyard, the surroundings had already been brightened up. The morning dew that wet the plants in the courtyard was glistening under the morning sun.
While the morning dew on the grass drenched Lieze’s boots, she moved to an open place in the courtyard.
There, she took a small breath and brandished her short spear before beginning to swing her short spear with smooth movements.
✦✧✦
While Lieze was practicing her short spear in the courtyard, Kazura was deeply asleep with his left cheek touching the desk in Nelson’s office room.
Last night, after Kazura had his dinner for the second time with Nelson’s family, including Lieze, he left early and returned back to Nelson’s office, and ate several canned food he brought from Japan.
After Nelson and Havel returned to the room, with Isaac and Zirconia who came later, he continued summarizing the construction documents without interruption nor any break time.
During the explanation, others entered and exited the room numerous times to perform their assigned duties. When, by some chance, Kazura was left alone in the room, his concentration suddenly stopped and he collapsed. Thus, he fell asleep with his cheek flat on the desk bringing about the current situation.