Chapter 21

"Can I ask what happened to you?"

Opening the door to the dining room, Kurome was the last to join the group, and fastely noticed that there was some tension in the room. For while Esdeath had finished tying someone to a chair, Bols was busy passing a disinfectant over Stylish's nose, which seemed to have doubled in volume. Stylish cried out:

"Ouch! It hurts!"

"Stay still!" advised Bols, continuing his treatment.

Looking at Wendy, with a bruise on her right cheek, and Seryu, with a red mark on her left cheek, Wave wanted to know:

"Did you guys have a fight or something?"

"Humph!" simply did the two girls turning their heads in two different directions.

"They argued!" they understood the others, seeing them act like that.

Yet, despite her real resentment of Seryu, Wendy couldn't help but focus more on Tatsumi's unconscious body in front of her.

"What's he doing here? Has Esdeath managed to find out that he's part of the Night Raid?"

Waking up at that moment, Tatsumi opened his eyes to see the entire small group in front of him.

"What...?"

"I've been captured by the enemy?" he wondered.

"Who's he?" Wanted to know about Kurome.

"The real question is... why does he have the collar around his neck?" Wave retorted.

"Everyone, this is Tatsumi!" cried Esdeath, standing beside him. "From today he becomes a substitute member of the Jaegers, as well as my lover!"

If anyone was drinking, he would surely spit out what was in his mouth when he heard it. Whether it was the Jaegers, or Tatsumi himself, this was a shock to everyone.

"Your lover?"

"That still doesn't explain his necklace." replied Wave.

"Hm? Well, this last one shows how Tatsumi is a special person in my eyes!"

"So, you seem to define him more as a vulgar dog!"

"He's right!" said Run. "In my opinion, it would be better for Tatsumi to be made more comfortable! And to be treated... like a human!"

"Hmm... maybe that's true!" said Esdeath, finally removing Tatsumi's necklace. "That's it!"

Finally getting a bandage over his nose, Stylish asked:

"I knew you were looking for true love! But why did you choose him?"

"Tatsumi is a strong and able person!" said Esdeath. "Therefore, he will be an ideal lover to fight by my side!"

"Uh...!" the boy said, as if to attract attention. "I don't want to seem unreasonable or anything but... I never said 'yes', me!"

"Hm?"

"What I mean is... of course, I'm honored by your request but... I'm not interested in working in the army! And as for marriage...!"

Suddenly drawing her sword, Esdeath made a swift movement which paralyzed the boy. Yet, instead of feeling any pain, he found that his strings had been cut, freeing him.

"As I see it, I shall have to tame my lover properly if he is to be a good companion!"

Turning to her companions, she asked:

"By the way, are either of you in a relationship?"

Suddenly raising his hand, Bols drew all the attention to him, while everyone almost wanted to shout "seriously".

"Are you a couple?" Seryu wondered.

"Yes, for six years! With a woman so wonderful that I don't deserve her love! We even had a little girl!"

"Well, then, I'll need you to give me some love advice!"

"No, but you'll listen to me in the end?" Tatsumi said.

"Well, it's time to prepare a feast for our new recruit!"

"Yeah!" the Jaegers cried out.

"They' re doing as they please!" Tatsumi remarked, almost wanting to cry. "They're just like the other members of my group!"

"By the way, I'm Wave!" cried the boy suddenly, introducing himself to Tatsumi. "Happy to make your acquaintance! While we're at it, I also wanted to congratulate you on your performance at the tournament! Esdeath-sama is right, you are full of talent!"

"Uh ... thank you!" said Tatsumi, surprised by the boy's kindness.

"Indeed, there are few warriors with the same potential as you!" said Run. "My name is Run!"

"Eh... Nice to meet you!"

"If you're one of us now, I hope we can be good comrades!" Seryu shouted, placing herself in front of him, with Koro in her arms. "I'm Seryu and he's Koro! We're strong fighters of the justice!"

Seeing Tatsumi keep silent, Wendy understood that he hated Seryu because of her fight with Sheele. And apparently this meant the girl was still in a deep coma.

"Let's fight against evil together!" Seryu declared.

"Y... Yes!" Tatsumi said, preferring not to add anything else.

"I am Bols!" added the lad. "I may not look it, but you can trust me and come to me at the slightest problem! I'll be happy to help you!"

"Help me get out of here, for starters!" Tatsumi wanted to ask him.

But before he had a chance to say anything, Stylish stood up in front of Tatsumi and said:

"I see potential in you! Yes, with a simple glance, I am sure I can tell that you could become a splendid person!"

Then, reaching out his hand to his face, he said:

"Yes, with my skill and your strength, we can...!"

Suddenly grabbing his hand, Wendy ended up sweeping it away from Tatsumi's face, to the great frustration of the doctor. Nevertheless, preferring not to take any more care of him, Wendy introduced herself:

"My name is Wendy! Nice to meet you, Tatsumi!"

"So, did I!" assured the boy, while sensing some tension between Wendy and Stylish.

"Their group had just formed and now the trouble began! If Wendy wasn't involved, it might make me happier!"

"Esdeath-sama!" cried a guard suddenly as he entered the room. "As agreed, I have completed the report concerning the area around lake Gyogan!"

"Very well! The timing is perfect!" said Esdeath, with a look betraying a form of sadism. "Jaegers... your first real job has just presented itself!"

Then she walked to the table in the room and placed a card on the table, saying:

"We have recently been informed of a fortress inhabited by bandits near lake Gyogan!"

"Hm?" said Seryu, staring at the map. "Isn't that where we suspect many bandits have gone to find a refuge outside the capital?"

"I've heard about that, too!" said Stylish. "This place would contain more than a hundred bandits! Nevertheless, I think it should be left to the imperial army! We are a secret police force only aiming to attack Night Raid!"

"A little training from time to time won't hurt anyone!" replied Esdeath. "And this will be the perfect time for me to see your abilities in action!"

"And what is the plan?" Wave asked her.

"Let's go and kill everyone!" Esdeath simply assured.

"What if the enemy surrenders?" asked Bols.

"Abandonment is a sign of weakness and it is the law of nature to exterminate the weakest! To put it plainly, I want no prisoners!"

Looking at her seven comrades and Tatsumi, Esdeath cried out:

"This kind of mission will be a drill for our real fight against Night Raid! From now on, you'll have to be ready to kill all your enemies in due time! Are you ready for that?"

"For justice, I'll slaughter anyone!" Seryu assured, with a smile of joy on her face, while Koro jumped at her feet.

"I'm a soldier! So, I'll follow orders!" Bols added, with a serious voice. "Even if I have to kill my enemies for that!"

"I too am used to following orders!" cried Kurome, seizing the sheath of her teigu. "And I'm also used to killing all my enemies!"

"Before I joined the army, I was sponsored by a great man working in the navy!" Wave learned. "And to repay my debt to him, I promised to protect this country no matter what!"

"To make my wishes come true, I wish to rise higher and higher!" ended Run. "Even if it means I won't do the purest deeds!"

Listening to them, Esdeath finally turned to Stylish and Wendy:

"And you two?"

"Since I have seen you, I have always wanted one thing!" said Stylish, with a true talent for oratory. "Continue examining you, while following in your footsteps! And for that I shall be ready for all! Even to kill strangers!"

Smiling in turn, Wendy stared at Esdeath, for a few seconds, before finally confessing:

"When it comes to me, as you must suspect, ... I won't kill anyone!"

As in their last discussion, there was a new silence as Esdeath and Wendy faced each other. Finally, simply lowering her gaze on her, Esdeath questioned her:

"Take me out of doubt, do you understand these guys are bandits?"

"Indeed!"

"And you don't want to do anything against them?"

"I never said that!" said Wendy. "If you say, right now, that you are going to see them to capture them and put them in prison, I would immediately agree to help you! However, killing them is something else! Even if they are bad people, I know that many of them could change, if we show them the way! As a special police force of the empire, I am convinced that we will be able to improve the state of the capital, thinking like that, rather than purging evil in your way!"

"Are you questioning my leadership?"

"No! I question the judgment of this empire! I even have the wrong impression that we're fighting the wrong enemy!"

"And who do you think the real enemy is?"

"The empire itself!" Wendy assured, without batting an eyelid.

This time, different expressions appeared on the faces of the other residents in the room. Kurome was standing there, just eating a cake; Wave had his eyes and mouth wide open; Run was listening to Wendy's words, but seemed pensive; Bols was trying in vain to find something to say to change the discussion; Seryu stared at Wendy with a simple black look; Stylish put his hand in front of his mouth to hide his smile, feasting in advance on the correction the child would receive, and Tatsumi wondered if Wendy would break her cover by confronting Esdeath.

Esdeath continued to look at Wendy and eventually raised her hand to her. Immediately, a spear of ice appeared and went straight to Wendy's face. Wendy stood still and let the spear graze her face, cutting her cheek slightly, before piercing the wall behind her.

She didn't blink for a moment. Still, Wendy was dying of fear. In case of a fight, she was convinced that Esdeath could defeat her. Nevertheless, there was no way Wendy would show her. Now that she had openly defied her general, there was no question of turning back and running away with her tail between her legs.

Yet, smiling then, Esdeath finally burst out laughing.

"Hahaha! Definitely Wendy...!"

Crouching down in front of her, she found herself in front of the child, and stared at her straight in the eyes, while revealing a look filled at the same time with an incomparable joy and pure cruelty:

"You aren't a recruit like the others! No, you are far above that! To tell you the truth, from the first time I read your file, I immediately realized that you could never be of any use to me, concerning the assassination! Therefore, I immediately thought that you were nothing more than a coward who could be manipulated with care to do what I would order her to do! And yet... yet...!"

Putting her hand on Wendy's head, she began to exert pressure on her fingers, which began to crush the child's skull. Grimacing because of this, the girl did her best to hide her pain, while remaining motionless. Seeing her still trying to hold her gaze, Esdeath said:

"I'm sure you'll become a valuable asset to the empire! No, that you will become one of the people who can give me a splendid fight! With that guy who attacked the palace the other day, you may be one of the people I've been waiting for so long, Wendy!"

Finally pushing her away, she walked to the exit door of the hall, saying:

"Fine, then you'll stay with me! But know one thing! Whatever happens, I will break your stubbornness, Wendy! And when that's done, your path to becoming a powerful soldier will only begin! All right, Jaegers, let's go! And follow us too, Tatsumi!"

"Huh? Me too?" the boy wondered, before the general grabbed him and wrapped her arm around his waist to take him out of the room.

Looking at the scene, Wendy tried to keep a stoic look on her face. However, in a few moments, her face had turned all white, while she felt like throwing up. At first, she was horrified to see Koro shredding Seryu's arm, thus bringing her one of the improvements her precious "doctor" had given her.

Seryu didn't care how much pain the procedure brought, she just smiled while charging the enemy's ranks without hesitation. Right now, she looked like an obese child in a candy store.

"Seryu... What the hell did you do to your body? Is this really "justice" to you? Destroying your own body, so you can only follow the path to chaos?"

Then came Kurome, who also didn't hesitate to knock the heads off the bandits' heads, using her teigu so quickly that no bandit had the slightest chance of exchanging a single blow with her. In an instant, Kurome had become a real shinigami.

"I can't believe it's the same girl who spends her time eating cookies and staying in her corner!"

To continue, Bols, usually of such a gentle character, had finally activated himself and brought out Rubicante. Lighting it, he made flames spring out of it, just as Natsu could do. However, while Natsu used to burn his opponents to blacken them to unconsciousness, Bols had used his weapon to reduce them to ashes, leaving no survivors in his wake.

And finally, seeing some bandits pretending to flee towards the forest, Wendy couldn't utter a cry of astonishment when she saw Run's attacks pierce their skulls, killing them instantly.

"What...? What the...? Have none of them any mercy?"

"Unbelievable!" cried Tatsumi in turn, having observed the whole scene.

"This is what you will become later!" said Esdeath, looking at the scene with amusement. "When an enemy rises up against the empire, only death will await him!"

Clenching her fist, on hearing this, Wendy bit her tongue, to say nothing. Yet, if she could, a good list of insults would have come out of her mouth, before she attacked Esdeath head-on.

"Wendy, you are already a fabulous soldier, despite your young age!" confessed Esdeath. "Before you and Seryu were Jaegers, I heard about the exploits of the duo you formed! Before, Seryu was already known, but just as feared! But since you've been here, the fact that she stopped her public executions has finally been able to erase some of the fear of the inhabitants against her! If she's the brute force of your duo, you're the spirit!"

"What fear? Almost the whole town seemed to regard her as a hero!"

"Wendy, you're smart! So, you need to understand what I'm saying! There are people who really appreciate Seryu's work and many others, who just pretend to like her so they don't get killed! Don't you agree, Tatsumi?"

Jumping at this moment, the boy only asked:

"What do you mean?"

"I soon noticed how much you seemed to hate Seryu! Did she do something to make you angry?"

"She attacked one of my friends!" Tatsumi replied, not finding it necessary to lie to her on that point.

"Oh, I see!" said Esdeath, leaving her seat. "Are you afraid she will do the same to you?"

Before Tatsumi could answer her, he was surprised to feel her arms clasping him as she said:

"Don't worry, I'll be there to protect you! With me, no one will be able to touch you? You belong to me, after all!"

" What ... ? " Tatsumi wondered, uncomfortable.

Unable to stop herself from blushing, Wendy stared at Esdeath with a huge surprise, seeing, for the first time, a completely sweet face from her.

"This woman? Don't tell me she's serious about her love for Tatsumi!"

Seeing only ruin and carnage around her, Seryu smiles eerily, while mumbling:

"Evil has been eradicated! Koro!"

Then she detached her missile launcher from her shoulder and dropped it in the mouth of her teigu, while the latter spat out her metal arm. Seryu started to stare at the arm, and finally, Seryu listened, hearing a suspicious noise.

Crawling in front of her, a young bandit wearing a bandana on his head was trying to flee, even though he seemed to be wounded in the leg. Only trying to leave the fortress, the poor man ended up feeling Seryu's presence as she put her foot in front of his face to cut him off.

Jumping with fear, the bandit tried to back away, before Seryu said, with a cold look:

"I see you've given yourself a reprieve! Nevertheless, so as not to make anyone jealous, I will kill you as I did with your comrades!"

"No, please!" begged the bandit, in a strange voice.

"Hmm?" Seryu wondered.

Reaching out her hand to her head, she took off her bandanna and was surprised to see a cascade of hair coming out, showing the true sex of the person in front of her.

"Ple… Please!" the young woman repeated, sobbing. "Don't kill me!"

"Whether you're a man or a woman doesn't matter!" Seryu replied, getting ready to signal Koro to take care of her. "You're evil!"

"No! I... I was only here to get food! I swear! I never killed anyone! I'm just poor!"

"And that gives you the right to hang out with bandits?"

"I only infiltrated their ranks, hiding my identity, so that I could find food for myself and my companions! I didn't want anything else! Then, please, don't...!"

Suddenly slapping her hand on her neck, Seryu had no trouble lifting her off the ground, while strangling her.

"You bore me! I don't care about excuses from evil! I'll eliminate you right now!"

"No, please!" begged the young woman again, seeing Seryu closing her second fist to throw it in her face.

"Go to hell!" Seryu roared.

"Are you stupid or what?" suddenly roars a voice in herhead.

Grinning in pain, Seryu let go of the young woman, to bring her hands to her head.

"What?" she wondered.

''Seeing you protect their little interests, the rich will continue to exploit the poor! And that's wrong! Isn't justice made to defend the poor from the rich? Isn't justice done so that everyone has something to eat and a real roof over his head? Isn't justice made to forgive people their sins?''

This was one of the speeches Wendy gave during their first altercation with thieves. And that day, Seryu had finally let the thieves escape, even though her conscience dictated that she should kill them all.

"You mustn't kill people, Seryu!"

"Don't listen to her!" Suddenly Ogre's voice roars in her head. "You must kill evil, Seryu! That's your mission! And you must fight for it!"

"Seryu, you're a good girl!" Wendy said! "Why do you behave like that, as a psychopath?"

Screaming in pain, hearing different voices, Seryu finally orders:

"SHUT UP !"

Then falling to her knees, she suddenly smashed her skull against the ground, opening her forehead under the astonished gaze of the other woman. Trembling with fear, the latter saw Seryu calm down while blood was running down her face. Not caring, however, the young soldier caught her breath, while the voices had left her mind. Now she worried about the woman in front of her, she cried out:

"Get out of my sight!"

"Huh?"

"Get out!" Roar Seryu. "Get out before I kill you!"

Seeing her threatening look, the bandit got up immediately and started to run away. Seeing her like this, Seryu finally calmed down and let herself fall on her back, while she let her forehead wound heal by herself.

"What was I thinking again?"

Approaching her, not knowing what to do, Koro suddenly began to growl, seeing a figure coming towards Seryu. Turning her eyes, Seryu seemed surprised to see the young bandit, standing next to her, even though she had just let her go.

"What? What do you want? Do you want to die or...?"

Falling to her knees, in front of her, the other woman held out her hand to her face. Having just picked up her bandanna, she used it to wipe the blood from Seryu's wound.

"What... what are you doing?"

Remaining silent, the criminal finally gets up, once the blood has been sponged off, before running away for good. Nevertheless, wanting to understand her gesture, Seryu stood up, before ordering her:

"Stay here!"

"Seryu!" suddenly called her Run.

Suddenly coming down from the sky, the boy seemed surprised to see her comrade sitting on the ground with a wound.

"Are you all right?"

"Yes, I'll be fine!" Seryu assured, seeing the other woman's figure disappearing in the distance.

Continuing to put pressure on her wound herself, Seryu finally removed the bandanna and began to fix it.

"Why did you do that? Did you feel sorry for me? Or out of gratitude?"

Clenching her fist, Seryu said:

"I can never tolerate being helped by a criminal! I don't know who you were, but I will find you!"