Novel Bin Chapter 23: The past
Chapter 23: The past
Reia and Akira opened the door that was beside the couches and was surprised to see more rooms.
"I was expecting one big bath." Reia didn't have high hopes for more rooms, but it seemed living space was not going to be an issue.
Checking each of the rooms 5 out of the 6 were bedrooms with the last room at the end being a bath and a shower.
"Phew." Although Akira was willing to take the short end of the stick, he was hoping that there would be enough rooms and did not have to be forced to sleep with a psycho or Reia.
Reia seeing Akira's expression made her think about what she said earlier, making her shy again.
'Damn it Reia, why did you have to say something like that.' Reia cursed herself for saying such things and was not helping her case of not being his girlfriend.
"Well let's take these rooms, the further away from Klein the better." Akira tried to change the subject for Reia's case as it was clear on her face what she was thinking about.
"A-ah yes, I will take the first one on the left." Reia quickly turned and entered the bedroom leaving Akira in the hallway.
*sigh* 'To think this kind of stuff would be happening in an apocalypse of all things.' Akira shook his head, finding the situation to be unreal.
'Ahh don't worry about it, surely it's not like that.' Akira refused to believe Reia had such feelings and so he went into the room across from Reia to take his mind off things.
*
'Tch, I am meant to be this ice-cold queen of the battle and here I am getting embarrassed over a guy.' Reia had dropped her things beside the desk in the room and jumped onto the bed.
'If it wasn't for Lou and her constant teasing, I wouldn't even consider such things. That bitch is going to pay…. If that's even possible.' Reia had been under threat of Lou's teasing, continuously pairing Akira with her, even while at the academy.
'Grrrr, this is frustrating. I know this isn't a bad thing, but I don't know if I'm ready for such emotions.' Reia thought back to her early years in the military before Akira graduated from the academy and where she had become known to be the lonely queen.
'Maybe it's the reason why I am no longer such an emotionless husk.'
***
<6 years ago>
[Reia Nekane]
[19 years old]
'So these are the new recruits.' The commander was looking through a clipboard that had the profiles of a bunch of soldiers.
In a barracks, a line of soldiers stood side by side waiting for orders from the commander who was standing in front.
The commander looked up from the clipboard spotting Reia at the end of the line. Deciding to go up to her first, the commander went up to Reia and stood in front of her to try to intimidate her and set an example.
Reia looked up with her eyes staring directly back at the commander's smug face.
A few more moments passed, and Reia's cold gaze pierced through the commander, showing small lightning bolts flashing through her eyes as if it was a warning to not try anything.
So before the commander could do anything to test her, he felt goosebumps all over his body and was terrified.
Cold sweat ran down his face as the lightning in her eyes indicated she had specialised essence which was a rather new development.
Quickly moving away, he did not dare look back at Reia as the mere presence of a specialised soldier was terrifying.
However, the soldiers around other than Reia's future squad were confused about why the commander did nothing and went away in a cold sweat. Some felt cheated and thought there was something more going on. Without doing anything people were already building animosity towards Reia, creating her icy reputation early.
The commander then proceeded to test the wills of the soldier and asked a few questions, up until he got up to Lou.
"What's up, old man." Lou did not care at all for the little test they give new recruits to see who would stay or go back to the cannon fodder ranks.
"Lou is it? How about you behave properly before I send you back to the boot lickers of the military." The commander felt a vein pop upon hearing the old man and was not going to take anything from Lou.
"Oho~ now who says you won't be the one licking my boots." While Lou spoke, she clicked her fingers and a small essence fire appeared at the tip of her finger.
Kim who was standing next to Lou could not help but chuckle at her comment. The commander couldn't do anything now as Lou was a specialised essence soldier meaning he had no authority over them. However, he was about to move on to Kim and drill into her for laughing, but Lou spoke up again.
"Don't you dare touch her, unless you want this place to explode?" Lou had a smirk knowing full well if Kim were to show off her essence it would cause an explosion.
"I don't have control over it quite yet so please commander refrain from testing my patience." Kim smiled at the commander, although gentle it had a sinister meaning behind it.
The commander's heart was beating fast, finding it hard to believe that 3 people had formed a unique essence.
The commander continued to go down the line of soldiers as usual once again meeting a group of 3 odd people. Echo was playing with the given tablets, almost pulling them apart, with Jayde watching keenly. Aoi was flipping a knife in her hand, almost as if she was showing off, but it was rather the contrary and she was just bored.
The commander this time didn't even bother knowing that they were most likely just like the others.
The commander sighed and continued down the line finishing off the small test.
"Now, seeing as all of you want to stay committed it's time for you all to be sent on your first mission, this will be the final trial before you will officially get your ranks and be placed into your squads. Now as you may have seen during that test there are a few of you that have an essence specialty, after this trial you will head somewhere else to get allocated to your own special squad." The commander's words had sent excitement through many of the soldiers, but also some were a little shocked to hear about the essence specialty and started to get envious of them.
"Now go rest for 30 minutes and I will call you again before we dispatch." After he finished speaking, he left the room leaving the soldiers to their break.
**
"Eh~ what this you get special privileges just because you have a special kind of essence what is this shit." A half dog and a half ant currently had Reia up against a wall just outside the barracks.
Reia did not say a word and continued to stare blankly at the 2 half animals. nove(l)bi(n.)com
"No words, you must be too scared to say anything, then I guess that means we can also take care of you." The ant was getting cocky and went to grab Reia.
"Tch." Reia clicked her tongue before she grabbed the half ants' arm and hit his elbow, snapping it in half. The half ant screamed in pain as a part of his bone poked through the skin.
The half dog took a step back and then tried to move away but before he could take another step Reia swept his feet making him fall to the ground. Grabbing a hold of his arm, Reia stood on his shoulder while pulling his arm trying to rip it out of its socket.
The half dog screamed in pain hoping someone would hear him and stop Reia.
Reia stomped on the half dog's should breaking it and ripping the ligaments in his arm. Both the ant and dog were crying in pain on the ground having both their arms disabled.
"Now be a good little dog and bug and go fuck yourself." Reia then walked over to the ant's body causing him more pain and went back into the barracks.
The dog and ant rolled on the ground for a few minutes before finally, medical staff came to take them away.
*
"Damn Reia really gave them a lesson didn't you." Lou was waiting just inside the barracks after witnessing the show Reia just put on.
"They got what they deserved, they are just lowly pawns, so the military won't bother to punish us anyway." Reia knew that lower rank violence was never addressed, so many people were killed and the murders were able to get away with it.
"Maybe I should get a couple of victims to try." Lou, who loved to cause suffering, pondered if she should take a few new recruits to satisfy her urges.
"Don't bother, you have to have a reason other than pleasure, you damn she-wolf."
"Tsk, you are no fun, we could have been a torture duo."
"Do whatever you want, but I'm not getting your ass out of military jail." Reia rolled her eyes and walked off to go find a place to sit down for the time being.
*
"ALRIGHT! It is time for your first Mission now please follow me and we will get you into groups."