Swamped

In an instant, it strikes you. You were struggling to remember her name because you'd never seen her in uniform before. She must have joined while you were on leave or something.

"Juliet?" you ask. "Juliet Corser?"

"That's me," she says. "You're Tom, right? That nosy kid from next door back in Durton."

"I prefer the term 'curious'," you say, more than a little hurt.

"Sorry, sorry. Didn't mean it as a bad thing. So what's your Tom number?"

"Sixth." She seems a little surprised, so you continue on. "If that seems lower than you expected, well, I've been here a few years now. I was on leave and just got back today, so I had no idea you'd joined up."

"It's been good for my art," she says, showing you her sketchbook. Various decomposed corpses. Unsettling, but high quality in its own way. And to think, she's doing this while eating.

"Oh my. You've really done something, um, distinctive with that greatrat sketch."

"Yeah, I got a few quick lines in right after we killed one. Tom Eighth yelled at me, but eh, I got the most important stuff before I put it away. Enough to finish it later. Never gotten one this soon after death before."

"I'm impressed you were able to convey so much expression with its eyes in that state. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that the head's detached, I'd almost think it was still alive."

"I might've embellished a little, but that's basically what it looked like. It was trying to eat a rat when I dealt the killing blow. So you can see that its mouth is open and its claws are in a position to hold down its prey..."

You probably want to change the subject.

"So why are you eating so late?" you ask. "I don't see anyone else here."

"There's a few other knights who stopped in, but they took one look at me and left," she grumbles. "They'll probably come back when I'm done."

Ah. Of course. You can understand that.

"But what kept you busy?"