"Lieutenant Elara Lunnasyanka, logistics officer reporting for duty." A woman said as she approached one of the officers in Gaileo's army.
She was a pretty woman with long black hair that was braided down both sides, she wore a white military uniform with a skirt. She had served in some smaller frontier military units but this was her first time being assigned to an army under the direct command of one of the 7 Great Generals.
"Wow, that was fast. We just got news that we were getting new soldiers added to our army less than an hour ago, and you're already here. I guess things get done quickly when it's an order from the Emperor." One of Gaileo's officers said.
"Yeah I guess, is Prince Gaileo here? I was supposed to coordinate our provisions requisitions with him." She asked.
"Um, he just got back from the palace, and he's…. indisposed currently." He didn't want to tell a new member that he had just got knocked out my one of his superiors again and was getting himself cleaned back up. "He might be a little while. You can make yourself at home in the meantime. I can show you around the barracks if you want."
"That sounds good, but I had a long march into the capital this morning. I could use a bath.You guys wouldn't happen to have a women's bath would you?" She asked because it was rare for women to serve in the Imperial Army. It's not because there were any particular restrictions on women serving, it was just uncommon for women to choose to join. Therefore, most military barracks didn't have baths specifically designated for women.
"Well, we do have a private bath that the regular soldiers aren't allowed to use, but…."
"Oh good, I'll use that then." She said as she left to find the bath.
"Wait, I don't think you understand…" He tried to say but she was already gone. "Eh, she'll figure it out soon enough."
"Ah! Nothing beats a nice bath after a long trip." She said as she made her way towards the bath wearing a towel.
As she got closer to the bath she heard movement in the water. "Huh? I didn't know that anyone was in here." She thought. When she got to where she could see the edge of the water she noticed a person in the bath.
"Who are you? And why are you here?" The person asked.
The voice was clearly a man's voice, and now she could see that it was a man that was sitting in the water with his back towards her and a towel covering his face.
"That's what I should be asking you! What are you doing in the women's bath you pervert?" She asked.
"Women's bath? What are you talking about? We don't have a women's bath. We don't even have any women in our army. Why would we have a women's bath?" The man asked, though he never turned around to look at who was talking to him.
The thought hadn't crossed Elara's mind. She had just assumed that this was just something fancy armies from the capital all had. "So if this isn't a women's bath why aren't the men allowed to come in here?"
"Because this is MY personal private bath. Nobody is allowed in here except for me."
"You have your own personal bath? But the only person in this army who has the pull to get a private bath would be… Oh no." Elara said with impending embarrassment.
"That's correct, I'm Deputy General Gaileo Shukure. Now I'll ask one more time, who are YOU? Answer or I'll have you flogged to death."
"I'm Lieutenant Elara Lunnasyanka Logistics officer, reporting for duty sir!" She shrieked as she panicked.
"Reporting for duty? Surely you could have waited ten minutes for me to be done with my bath before you reported in?"
"Er no, well yes, but-" She tried to nervously stammer out before Gaileo cut her off.
"Save it, I can assume that this was some sort of idiotic mistake on your part so you can spare me the explanation." He said waving her off.
Elara was thoroughly embarrassed after her unfortunate misunderstanding, but she still had to face Gaileo afterwards to discuss the army's supplies. "Ah! I made a fool of myself on my first day! How embarrassing! And I didn't even get a chance to take a bath!" She thought.
She went through her meeting with Gaileo without him making any mention of their incident earlier.
"These are more provisions than I expected, are we being deployed again so soon?" Gaileo thought as he looked over the requisition orders.
"Um, General? About earlier…" Elara started to say.
"Don't mention it, it was just a simple misunderstanding. It's better to just not bring it up again." Gaileo said.
"Thank you sir."
"Furthermore, I'll permit you to use my private bath. After all, it would be inappropriate to force you to use the men's bath. Of course, I expect to be more careful about when you go in there. If I bump into you in there again I'll make you bathe in the creek." He warned her.
"Yes sir! Thank you very much sir!" She said enthusiastically.
"It was a pretty rough start, but now I get to have this big nice bath to myself. I think things are turning around for me." Elara thought to herself as she got ready to finally get in the bath.
"Oh, I probably should have mentioned that Shion uses that bath too. Eh, she'll figure it out." Gaileo thought.
"Ah! Not again!" Elara shouted as she entered the bath.