Forbidden Heat

Reiner – Personal and Professional

My place is around here but…

“It’s ok. There’s no need for you to do that. I can get back by myself. We don’t have the same

destination anymore so there’s no need for you to go out of your way to drive me back. Thanks for the

offer, though…” I declined politely before my eyes shifted to his large hand that was still holding the

door close. ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

Do I have to enter into a wrestling match with him before I can open that door?

“You’re right…” Reiner said softly.

To my surprise, he removed his hand from the door and gave me some space. Well, it wasn’t like I

could win against him in a wrestling match.

“Please send Queen my regards…and I’m sorry for being in your way all this time,” I said before I

smiled a tight smile at him.

Before he could say anything, I opened the door and walked out of his office.

That night, I didn’t sleep well at all. I wondered what Reiner wanted from me and why he was suddenly

acting kind towards me again. Thinking about it wasn’t going to give me any answers. I shut my eyes

tightly as I lay on my bed and willed myself to go to sleep. For the hundredth time that evening, I tried

to convince myself that I had made the right choice moving out here to live alone.

…

The next day, I decided to talk to Reiner about what I had learnt from talking to Charles. What we were

doing by interviewing the agents wasn’t wrong and it should give us some insights. However, while

we’re doing that, we can also look into the training history of the teams that lost a member. If it turns out

that those teams did not get adequate training as a team before starting their mission, then it would be

quite clear that more team-based training was needed.

After all, strong individual players put together doesn’t necessarily create the strongest team. Not

everyone had synergies with each other. I reached for the doorknob to Reiner’s office before turning it

and opening the door. I thought that I arrived quite early to work today; however, Reiner was already

there right in front of my desk as if had been waiting for my arrival.

How long had he been waiting, I wondered.

“Good morning, Knight,” I greeted him politely before putting my bag down onto my desk.

“Good morning, Natalia,” he replied smoothly.

“Umm…I have a new idea about the project. Mind hearing me out?” I asked hopefully.

“Sure. Come into my office,” Reiner said with a nod.

He walked towards his personal office, and I followed after him after quickly grabbing my notepad and

a pen from my desk. No matter what happens, I was determined to make progress on my work no

matter what. If all else in my life fails, at least, I could say that I succeeded at my job.

“So, what was the idea that you came up with?” Reiner asked as he sat behind his desk and looked

straight at me.

I quickly made my way to the chair opposite him and sat down on it. Facing him directly, I began telling

him all the thing that I had learnt from Charles before adding in my own thoughts, opinions, and some

next steps on what he could do from now on.

Reiner looked thoughtful after he had heard me out. Personally, I felt extremely happy that he was

willing to hear me out until the very end of my lengthy explanation.

“I see. That is indeed interesting. It is also highly probably that that could be one of the main causes…”

Reiner said as he seemed deep in thought.

“I know, right? It also isn’t that difficult for us to check and see if those teams that lost an agent had

enough team-based trainings or not,” I quickly agreed.

“True. To be honest, I thought about this before and pulled some data regarding the training schedules

and records for some teams,” Reiner said.

“You should have told me before…” I replied.

“Well, it was before you joined the company,” Reiner explained vaguely.

“Was that what you were working so hard on?” I inquired with interest.

“Partly…” he replied flatly.

“I see. Well, what was the results then?” I asked, curiously.

“Some teams really did lack team-based training while some didn’t train as a team at all before starting

their mission,” Reiner stated.

“Really? Going on a mission without training? Why?” I asked, shocked at what I had just heard.

“Some individual agents don’t like training in teams…” Reiner replied sternly.

“Doesn’t that also mean that they also hate working as a team?” I asked, still in shock.

“Possible. Some people have worked alone for so long that they can’t even imagine what it’s like to

work as part of a team,” Reiner said regrettably.

I wondered what Reiner was like and what experiences he had on the field. However, I wasn’t sure if I

wanted to know that side of him or not. It might be interesting, but it might scare me.

“What about you? Do you like working in a team?” I asked.

“Not at all. I only take solo missions unless King asks me to do otherwise,” Reiner replied honestly.

“Oh…I see…” I mumbled as I nodded my head.

It was the first time the Reiner ever talked to me about his missions apart from that one time when he

told me about the mission that took my mother’s life. Reiner didn’t seem like he wanted to offer any

more information on that topic, so I decided to shift my focus back to the work on hand.

“What do you think we should do next? Is there something that I can help look into?” I offered with a

smile.

“I still think that talking to the relevant agents just like you suggested is the right move. We need to

understand more about what they’re thinking. Even if we put trainings in place, it would be useless if

they don’t cooperate,” Reiner replied thoughtfully.

“I see. I guess you’re right. Also, do we know or have the best team trainings?” I inquired since I didn’t

know what trainings were available right now or how effective they were.

--To be continued…