Chapter 84: New Routine
It had been ten days since Shiao Yi was officially hired as Dominic’s assistant.
The mountain of paperwork that had built up over time was finally gone and the desk looked refreshingly clean.
Sitting at the assistant’s desk next to the window, Shiao Yi was now busy compiling the past months’ accumulated expenses.
Until now, Dominic had pushed all the office work onto Louis and Louis had been submitting everything with sloppy, rough estimates.
Shiao Yi couldn’t believe how they had managed to function like that.
It was honestly surprising.
Recently, Shiao Yi also found out that Louis wasn’t even supposed to be doing that kind of work—he wasn’t an assistant, but the vice captain.
There just hadn’t been anyone else around to handle the paperwork.
Shiao Yi couldn’t say he liked doing office work, but he didn’t mind calculations and it was much better than making bombs.
Back in B.O.W., where he had belonged before, he had worked as a single number member and handled the personnel records of a constantly changing team of about a hundred people.
Compared to that, the paperwork for the second division wasn’t so bad.
Once he got used to the way things were structured here, the work became manageable.
Today, Dominic was going out to train the members of the second division with Louis.
However, it wasn’t just the second division this time. They were training together with the members from the fifth division too.
Now that Shiao Yi had taken over the administrative duties, Louis had been going to the training grounds every day with visible excitement.
And It made sense.
For someone clearly made for physical work, sitting at a desk must’ve been tough for him.
He looked like he was finally letting out all that stress that had been building up.
Lately, Shiao Yi had been getting some bitter stares from the other members from th second division.
They probably weren’t happy about how intense Louis’s training had become.
However, Shiao Yi decided to ignore that.
Once Dominic had cleared through most of the paperwork, he started getting restless.
It happened on the fifth day after Shiao Yi had started assisting him.
"Why don’t you go check on Louis’s training? Once in a while, the captain should show up and keep the pressure on the troops, right?" Shiao Yi suggested.
As soon as he said that, Dominic lit up with a big smile.
He was good-looking no matter what expression he made, but when he smiled like that—it was actually kind of adorable.
Shiao Yi couldn’t believe he was thinking that way, but lately, he’d found Dominic to be cute more and more often.
"You sure it’s okay?" Dominic asked.
"It’s your job as captain, right? I’ll be here working, so don’t worry about me. Go on, get moving and stretch those legs."
Shiao Yi had kept him stuck behind the desk for days now.
Dominic must’ve been getting seriously stressed.
And yes, maybe he had taken out some of that energy on Shiao Yi at night—but that was a different matter.
Dominic was clearly not the type who could sit still at a desk all day.
"You’re right. Okay, I’m heading out."
Dominic stood up quickly, walked around the desk to Shiao Yi and without warning, he stole a kiss from him as a way of saying "I’m off." Then he cheerfully left the office.
Lately, that little goodbye kiss had become a routine whenever Dominic left the office.
And when he returned, it was always a "welcome home" kiss.
He asked for it casually—even if there were other people in the room.
Shiao Yi had already given up trying to fight it.
Most of the people in the second division had been stationed with them back at the Dashtadem Fortress anyway, so it wasn’t like they didn’t already know how things were.
Just the other day, Shiao Yi had gone to check out the training grounds for a bit.
There, he saw Dominic holding a wooden training sword and happily sparring with several opponents.
The knights were using dulled blades or blunted spears, but Dominic was blocking them all easily with just a wooden sword.
Even when facing multiple people, he looked completely relaxed.
Shiao Yi couldn’t deny it—Dominic was incredibly strong.
Watching the man he loved move so powerfully filled him with pride and though he found himself grinning while staring in admiration, he decided to keep that part to himself.
When Dominic struck with his wooden training sword, the knights would drop to the ground in an instant.
Off in the distance, Louis was barking loudly, yelling at others while pushing them hard in training.
As Shiao Yi watched them both, thinking how energetic they were, someone stepped up beside him.
"I wish he’d go easier on them. Because of this, we’ve got new injuries every single day," said a calm voice.
"Sayu, it’s been a while," Shiao Yi replied politely.
"You look well, Shiao Yi. Since then, have you had any problems with your body?"
"No, everything’s fine."
"With you now acting as assistant, both Louis and the captain seem pretty happy. They’re finally getting to train the way they want. The truth is, Captain Dominic doesn’t have to join the training himself, though."
"Hmm... I suppose not..."
"With all those meetings about Dalmasca dragging on every day, I imagine he’s built up a lot of stress. I do feel sorry for the knights he’s taking it out on."
Recently, Dalmasca had made its hostility clear.
Many in the military were calling for immediate action, even saying that going to war was unavoidable.
On the other hand, the ministers were urging with caution, saying they should wait and see.
They believed pointless conflict would only drain the people and the nation.
Because both sides were so evenly matched in power, the king had postponed making a final decision.
As a result, the meetings had gone on and on without progress.
Dominic, saying it was "just in case something happened," had started calling in even the other knights and was training them personally.