Minka the next day came to the recruitment center to check for posted information. Suddenly she hears the voice that makes her skin crawl: “Hey hey! Isn’t this the Terra girl from yesterday?~” Viola points her hand on Minka’s arm: “Well isn’t it a surprise, i found out where we will be assigned to~”
“We?” Minka realized something: “No…no way.” Minka took over the information list under her name, she and viola will be assigned to the same barracks, the same room and of course right next to each other’s bed: “You did this?!”
Viola shrugs: “ No, but I guess that’s just fate~ we are meant to be with each other.”
Minka stomps her feet and walks towards the commanding office to demand for a reassignment. The man looks over: “Young miss. This is not up to you to decide where you will be.”
Minka pouts, she has the option to ask her mom to reassign her to somewhere else, but she can’t. Because her pride doesn’t allow her to do so. Minka walked out having a blushed face due to frustration: “Fuck!” she silently shouts.
She then took her bag to her bed room, well of course Viola is following her like Minka’s shadow: “I’ll take the upper bunk.” Before Minka even said anything she had already jumped on the bed while looking at Minka in a taunting way. Minka however just completely ignores Viola and starts making her bed.
“Hey, maybe we should be friends, you know? There’s only us in this room, otherwise this place will only be a bloodbath for you~” Viola has a smirk on her face.
“What does that supposed to mean?” Minka frowns: :” Do you want to fight me?!”
“Baby girl, you can’t even lift your weapon properly, what chances you’ve got fighting me?~” Viola puts her hands under her chin while looking at Minka: “Say… how about you step down your high horse and be friends with a peasant like me?”
“I was never high born.” Minka then let out a sigh: “But I supposed that we could be friends…” Minka extended her hand out.
“Interesting…” Viola shakes Minka’s hand without doing anything funny: “Well, nice to officially meet you too~”
Minka did this just for the sake of having less problems in life, soon they are called to be at the briefing. Minka and Viola stood side by side with each other. This is the first time that Minka sees Viola didn’t have some weird expression on her face. She just looked… calm and serious: “Minka Terra!” The briefing officer called her.
“Yes sir!” Minka stepped a step forward.
The officer threw a cigarette butt on her: “Did you smoke this?”
Minka frowns and looks over at Viola, she curses this girl a thousand times in her mind: “No sir… it wasn’t me.”
“Then why did your roommate report it to us?” The officer’s expression is terrifying.
“Sir… I can assure you that this wasn’t mine.” Minka still replied calmly.
“Lie!” Just when the officer raised his hand, a voice stopped him.
“Enough of this nonsense. We are not here to investigate a single cigarette butt.” A man with white hair and piercing red eyes stopped him. Minka knows this person, Kevin Terra. Her cousin: “Fall back Ms.Terra. We have a more important announcement.”
Minka fell back into the line while having a really pissed expression on her face. Her mind is chaotic to an extent that she didn’t even hear what the briefing was about. When the meeting was over, Minka pushed Viola in the hallway with a look of distrust: “Why? What did I ever do to deserve your treatment of me?!”
“You seriously think I would do that?” Viola’s expression did not change: “Look, I just think you’re a fun person to tease at, nothing else. But I would not try to frame you for breaking a rule.”
“You…Then who would do that?” Minka asks.
Viola shakes her head: “I do not know. But we should be careful in this place. Others might not take light on a descendant of the Terra family.”
“What did the Terra name have to do with anything?!” Minka is still dead confused.
“Look around! The Terra family is literally the family that controls the planet! Sure, your branch of the family probably did not participate but others did.” Viola then points at Minka’s chest: “If you want to prove that you’re more than just a high born then prove to everyone.”
Minka looked on the ground and remained silent. Then she asked: “So… did you approach me because of the same reason?”
“Na, i’m just thinking that you might be a fun person to mess with~” Viola touches the tip of Minka’s nose with her finger.
Minka got startled and stood back a step: “Don’t touch me like this!”
Viola laughs: “Well this is why I love to mess with ya. But hey, i’ll keep an eye out for you~” Viola winks and is off to somewhere she needs to be.
Minka decides to spend her free time to find out the person that framed her. One day if she can’t find the person, one day she cannot be in the army in peace.
Somewhere far away from the city, “You came.” Trazyn talked to the person that came from behind him while placing a flower on the gravestone in front of him. He then began to clean the dust off of it.
“My lord… I replied to your call the moment you-“
“I am not your lord anymore. So I am just asking you as a friend.” Trazyn stood up and pats off the dust on his jacket.
“I will do it… I will make her quit…”
“What’s wrong?” Trazyn felt something was off: “Is there something wrong? Sannet.”
“No… my lord… it’s just… why can’t you give the freedom you gave me to your own daughter?” Sannet asks.
“I am doing it for my dearest. Nothing else. I don’t want her to go through that pain again. You should understand right?” Trazyn looks at Sannet in her eyes.
“Yes my lor-. I mean I will help you Trazyn…” Sannet then turns around and leaps out of the graveyard and disappears in the city.
Minka is walking around in the camp, she just finished her daily training and thus finally got some freetime. She managed to get a glance at the enlisted list because she was helping with supervising the platoon. She checked out some people that had absolutely no connection with her.
Just when she was thinking, she suddenly bumped into someone a bit shorter than her. That girl has silky white hair and light blue eyes, if Sannet has to be honest she thought this person was a human sized doll. That girl glanced at Minka with a cold glare and then went off somewhere else.
Minka is trying to search for that person in the memory but couldn’t find that name. This immediately picked her interest because usually there’s no way she would not miss a single person on the list when there’s only ten people in this side camp. Out of suspicion Minka decided to keep an eye out for that new girl.
“Hey, Hey~” Viola appeared in front of Minka just when she did not want to see this person.
“What do you want….?” Minka already sounded very impatient towards Viola.
“How was your little investigation? Did you find the person that framed you?” Viola leans on the wall while talking to Minka.
Minka looks a bit down: “No… nothing yet… all the people i can see here had literally no connection with me whatsoever… except…” Minka narrows her eyes towards Viola.
“Aw~~~ you and I have a connection? That’s so cute~” Viola hugs Minka and jumps: “I also thought we have a connection~”
“No! I meant- Ne- never mind… I actually hate you.” Minka is a bit flustered.
“Say, did you see that new girl? The one that looks like a collectible figure.” Viola hints the girl just passed through.
“Yeah… she’s awfully pretty as well… But why didn’t I remember seeing her name on the list?” Minka asks.
“Because she’s one of the adventurers that joined the army on a special program. Honest if I can get into the guild… I can make some big money.” Viola shakes her head out of helplessness.
“What are the guilds?” Minka never heard of this place before.
Viola looks at Minka in disbelief: “You, Minka Terra, never heard of adventurers guild?” She then smacks her lips: “Well, you see. That is the place where all the low life like us go if we got some skills that could be useful for the guild. They will give us quests and we will do the quests.”
“So just like in video games?” Minka blinks a few times.
“Yea, and the fact that that girl was in that specific program means trouble for sure.” Viola looks as if she’s having a breakdown.
“Why is that?” Minka is trying her hardest to follow.
“Well you see, if a seasoned adventure is here. What are the chances that I will be selected for the special forces? How will I ever make big money if that hotshot exists… We need to do something.” Viola got some ideas already: “Maybe we can fill her locker with bees or something.”
“Or we can just go and talk to her like a sane person?” Minka is about to find that white haired girl but gets pulled away by Viola.
“Look, I know you think of me as some sketchy individual that clearly is constantly hitting on you. But trust me, we have to do something but become friends with that person. That white haired girl clearly is here for something… before we know what she is up to. Our safest bet is to observe and protect ourselves. Sounds good?” Viola looks at Minka with a serious look. Which is pretty rare for Viola
“Fine, we will do it your way. If we found out she is not what you think of her, i will try and probably talk to her to maybe collaborate. Is that a deal?” Minka stares back.
“Collaborate…. You mean being a suck up? That, I am not very good at.” Viola taunts but Minka just ignores these comments.
“So… what are your plans?” Minka asks.
Viola has a smirk on her face: “It’s simple, we corner her and beat her to submission.”
“That doesn’t seem very… civil.” Minka doubts.
“Well, what other plans you’ve got, princess?” Viola looked at Minka with a clearly annoyed expression: “Oh yes i know, you are sooo educated and smart. What is your plan to let her to know her place?”
“Like I said… maybe we should just talk?”
“Talk? We are way past the talking point.”
“We haven’t even talked to her yet, how will you know what her intentions are if you don’t even interact?”
Viola suddenly slaps Minka on her face: “Did you see that coming?”
“YOU SLAPPED ME?!” Minka is about to hit VIola for revenge.
“You see? If we do it nicely, she will do this to us! But with a knife!” Viola seems to have a pessimistic view of human interaction
For a moment Minka has no comebacks for this, she pauses and tries her best to calm down: “So… we should just lure her in the toilet and beat the crap out of her?” Minka cannot believe she is thinking of doing this.
“That’s right, Minky. We strike first, she will know her place!” Viola has the confident smugness on her face: “So… you in?”
“Just a question, what happens if she beats the crap out of us? You said it, she’s from the adventures guild where people are quite experienced with fighting.” Minka is still in shock that she had agreed to this insane plan.
“How good are you at fighting?”
“I know a bit about self defense. This is why I am joining the army to sharpen my skills. How good are yours?”
“Did you see my slap coming?”
“No.”
“Exactly, this is how we will deal with her. When I knock her out, you grab her legs and make sure that she can’t move so I can beat the crap out of her.” Viola smiles: “Sounds good?”
“I…” Minka at this point has no idea what to do, compared to Viola, Minka is very inexperienced with how the society works and of course easily manipulated: “But, why don’t we talk first? If that doesn’t work… we can do your plan.”
“Okay, mother Terra. We will do your little nice girl plan. But I will do mine immediately if yours doesn’t work.”
“Deal.” Minka let out a sigh, she can feel something bad is about to happen, but again Minka herself is kinda a girl still in her rebellious phase. So she did not really fight too hard against this ‘bully’ plan.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
During the second break, they both entered the girl’s toilet when they saw that white haired girl enter: “Oi, you. We need to talk.” Viola pushes that white hair girl on a stall wall and stares at her real close.
“We just want to ask some questions. First wh-“ Minka only saw a flash of light before she found herself face the bathroom floor then the pain flowed into her mind. She starts grunting and trying to get up: “Viola?” Minka asks while crawling to find something to help her to get up. She then sees Viola completely knocked out on the floor.
Ten minutes later, MInka finally managed to regain her full consciousness then she woke Viola up.
“Wha- what the hell just happened?! Did that bitch strike us?”
“We kinda struck her first but…she’s too fast for me to even see her moves…” Minka rubs her forehead with her hand… that strike hit too hard which still makes Minka want to throw up.
Suddenly a loud thump dropped on the seat near them. That white haired girl brought two glasses of water to them. She didn’t say anything, she just slid them across the table and then read her book.
“Did she drug us?” Viola asks quietly: “Is she someone you know?”
“Maybe she’s just being nice?…” Minka is dead confused at this point, she took the water and had a sip: “So… we are sorry that we tried to strike you…”
Viola whispers: “Minka? What are you doing?”
Minka ignored Viola and continued: “Look… we just want to know more about you, that's all.”
“Sannet.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Sannet is my name.” She glanced at Minka with her crystal blue eyes. But then returned to reading her book.
Just when Minka wants to ask more they are called for further training already.
At night, Minka is lying on her bed thinking about what happened today. Viola however is already snoring like a wrecked car engine. Sannet… why is that name familiar to her? Yet she knows nothing about that girl. The thing that confuses her the most was the fact that Sannet took care of them after the ‘fight’ or more like a one sided slaughter.
"Minka… squeeze me face with your thighs…” Viola suddenly spoke. Then fell back to her dream.
Minka’s eyes widened in shock: “This sick woman…” But at the end of the day, she is still glad that she did this little scene with Viola. Doing this is better than the boring around the clock life that her parents are doing. She lightly chuckles and closes her eyes… in her dream she sees that ‘moon’ again. But this time it is seemingly crossing a star sector.
The next morning Minka was just about to clean her face in the bathroom, she was suddenly greeted by Sannet who seemed to be waiting for her for a while now: “hi… Good morning?” Minka doesn’t know what this person is doing here.
Sannet just glanced at MInka then gave her a ticket, apparently she had already paid for the morning meal.
“Eh…Thanks? But breakfast isn’t going to start for another 20 minutes.. and Viola is still sleeping… Can I ask why you’re here this early?” Minka is trying to be civil and polite with Sannet. Well simply because she doesn’t think that she can even remotely take on Sannet.
Viola woke up to the noise and did a lazy stretch: “Minky~ where is my mouth fed food?”
“You’re disgusting!” Minka looks like she’s almost done with her life: “Sannet bought us food for some reason?”
“Aw~how sweet of her, why don’t you ask if she can gladly piss off and never talk to us again?~” Viola’s voice is nice but the message is really mean.
After hearing this, Sannet just left while still having her cold emotionless face. She doesn’t seem to be concerned about whatever Viola said.
In the food hall, while Viola and Minka are eating together, Sannet suddenly sits on the other side while eating but isn’t looking at either of them.
“This one is probably insane because of the eye of terror… should we report her?” Viola whispers to Minka.
Minka isn’t the type that would harm people for the fun of it, but she is also not a fan of ‘friendship’ unprompted. Minka quickly finished her food and started preparing for the day. She wanted to test out something: “Viola, I think that Sannet person is up to something… can you do me a favor?”
“Aw the princess girl is asking for favor~ what is it?~” Viola smirks.
“Do not interact with me for a day so you can hide somewhere to see if Sannet is up to something.” Minka plots: “I feel like that Sannet girl might be up for no good…”
“Up for no good? Sure you’re cute but she’s cuter. If she wants to do anything to you, you should be happy about that~” Viola clearly isn’t serious about this.
“What just came out of your mouth was the most insane shit I’ve ever heard for the past week!” Minka stomps her feet in anger while staring at Viola: “Please… I need your help.”
“What is it in for me? I don’t give a crap about her, I hate her surely but I won't waste my time on that person.” Viola shrugs.
“I…” Minka suddenly blushes: “I… I…” She doesn’t have the shamelessness to say what is on her mind.
“I?”
“I will give you a thigh squeeze!” Minka said it out loud while her eyes closed and her face bright red.
Viola looks at Minka up and down in a confused way: “What?”
Minka’s face is still blushing: “I… I heard that you wanted that during your sleep talk.”
“Oh…i think i know what you’re up to, so it’s like a thigh pillow but having your legs wrapped around my neck, i think it’s called a thigh sandwich.” Viola paused and realized something: “Wait… I said that?”
“Never mind…” Minka began to walk off but suddenly Viola grabbed MInka by her shoulder.
“I will help you, and I don't need your thigh sandwich. But… I do have the right to call a favor upon you, for the time, place and what we are doing at my choosing~” Viola has a grin on her face.
“I…sure… but if this gets screwed up because of you, I will do it the same for you!” Minka’s face is still red from whatever she just said.
Just as planned during the next day, Minka and Viola were separated from the start and Minka approached Sannet and greeted her as if nothing happened: “Where’s that girl?” Sannet asks.
Minka pretends to be confused by the question: “What girl?”
“Your green haired accomplice.” Sannet clarifies: “Your friend who tries to scheme against me.”
“Whhhaaatttt?” Minka felt a bit nervous by this line of question: “I have no idea what you are talking about.”
Sannet looks at Minka and frowns a bit then she looks away to prepare for the following mission ahead. Today, they need to find a special artifact in a ruin of the past battlefield. This place should be safe for crows as there hasn’t been any dangerous sightings for over a decade. As planned Minka and Sannet got assigned into the same group while Viola is in another yet still within eyesight distance.
On the way to the ancient battlefield. Minka looks outside of the truck window and sees clear sky and green grass. In the imperium there are many different worlds and the pleasure world is more of a place for the rich or the influenced. From the story she read, some world’s air quality are so bad that they can literally chew on them,
“Do you like nature?” Sannet asks.
“Who doesn’t?” Minka adjusts her wind blew hair: “I always liked playing outside in the nature with my family,”
“Where are they now?”
“They are living their life as usual.” Minka hesitated a bit, she hasn’t visited her parents and sister for weeks already. Minka doesn’t really want to admit it but she kinda misses them.
“What do your parents do?” Sannet blinks a few times expressionless.
“My mom is an imperial captain and my dad… I honestly have no idea what he does… but he does make better dinner than my mom.” Minka slightly grins when she talks about her parents: “I also have a little sister who always loves to hug me every time she sees me at school.”
“That sounds nice.”
“What about you? What is your story?” Minka sits beside Sannet.
“I was adopted by a man, he raised me, trained me and made me become who i am… But at the end of the day I found out that he was the person that was responsible for everything that has been bad in my life.” Talking about this, Sannet’s gaze suddenly became terrifying but then she became the usual resting expressionless face.
“That sounds… harsh… what happened to that man after?” Minka is curious.
“I forgive him but also left him.”
“You should find that man and beat the crap out of him!” Minka said while making a fist with her hand: “He had no right to manipulate you from the start! Who is he?”
“He’s nowhere to be found now… honestly it’s for the best.” Sannet slightly chuckles while seeing Minka react like this.
Minka is a bit dazed by how pretty Sannet is when she smiles and she felt like all the prejudices she had towards her might be mistaken. Just when Minka was about to contact Viola to abort the mission. They have arrived at the ancient battlefield.
For some strange reason Minka began to feel sick and had to lean on the truck for balance after she got off. Her vision is blurry and trying to not let herself collapse on the ground.
“You feeling alright?” Sannet saw the strange expression on Minka’s face, her face as pale as dead and her eyes half closed while having her back slightly hunched forward.
“I’m fine…” Minka answered but suddenly she started dry puking on the ground. Nothing came out but she looks seriously sick.
Sannet immediately reported to the officer in charge and granted her and Minka some time to rest. Minka is sitting near the garbage can waiting for the next wave of sickness coming to her. She looks like she’s dehydrated and is about to collapse any second.
“Did you have unprotected sex?”
“What the fuck?!” Minka stares at Sannet for a brief moment and again sunk her head into the can: “Why is this shit happening to me….” Minka sits on the ground and lays her head on the chair. Her legs feel weak and are also shaking. The pain in her head is almost killing her.
Sannet hands over a bottle of water to Minka and gently swipes away the cold sweat on Minka’s forehead. Minka couldn’t see but Sannet looks like she’s enjoying taking care of Minka,
Suddenly, the ground starts shaking and apparently because one of the team members dug out something out of the ground. Sannet narrows her eyes to see the surroundings and she suddenly sees something is coming out from underground and it looks like one of the beasts from the phyrexian war. It looks like a large dog but the half mechanical abdomen and the black glittering oil dripping on the floor makes a veteran instantly realize this is not something they can deal with at the moment.
Sannet takes out a dagger from her thigh strap and prepares for any attacks from the beasts, because from what Sannet can hear, some people are already screaming for their lives all over the place. Then is the mix of flesh being ripped off and gunshots from all over the place. The officer in charge had already called for backup but they are not coming not for a while.
The entire scene is brutal, and eventually a beast spotted these two and leapt towards Sannet. She agilely dodged the leap and used the dagger to sever the tendons of the beast. Then it fell on the ground struggling and was finished off by Sannet with a stab at the neck.
Minka saw this and immediately punked into the garbage can. She had never seen something so graphic shown in front of her. A few more beasts came and all of them were taken care of by Sannet. After, Sannet came over and tried to pick Minka up and relocated her to somewhere else. A boar looking mechanical beast jumped out from nowhere and is about to crash into Sannet.
Minka suddenly reached out her hand and felt a burst of energy blasted out from her hand and pushed away the boar. With this time frame, Sannet finished off the boar and relocated Minka to somewhere relatively safe. While waiting for Sannet to rescue some other people, Minka looked at her palm and could not believe what had just happened. Is she awakening some psyker power? She thought and had a spark in her eyes. Minka tried to concentrate her though to move a chair nearby but nothing happened.
Minka eventually heard engine roaring sound coming towards them and troupes of soldiers wearing the containment uniform jumped out from the gunship and started cleaning up the battlefield. Eventually Minka saw a black haired woman with dark blue eyes shoot a beast into the head with a rifle with amazing precision. Soon later the whole area where she can see is already all sorted out of the beasts.
Minka knows this person, she is Kira Vatrix. Well, she knows her because she and her mother sometimes work together but they never were really formally introduced for some reason. Minka ignores Kira and starts helping for the wounded soldiers. Not after long, the troops are done sweeping the area and Minka finally gets to rest a bit. Her headache for some reason is lifted and there’s no demonic whispering around her, so all and all, maybe she’s fine.
Viola headed over with a medic kit: “Are you alright?!” She sounded really worried.
“Yeah I’m fine, where were you?” Minka actually felt a bit happy that Viola actually cared for her.
“I was taking a nap on the tree branch and when I woke up, everyone around me was dead!”
“Hold on, what about our deal?” Minka realized something.
“Na, I didn't feel like doing any watching work for you. So I thought I would get my thigh sandwich and move on.” Viola has a smirk on her face.
“Jerk!” Minka pouts, but she is also glad that Viola is unharmed by this incident: “Where’s Sannet?” She asked.
“Don’t know, but I saw you use the force attack~” Viola whispers to Minka.
Minka grabbed Viola by her collar: “You tell this to anyone.. I will…”
“What will you do?~” Viola’s grin is even larger now: “Come on~ tell me what you will do to me~”
“I… please? I beg you…” Minka doesn’t really want to say mean things to Viola because clearly this girl is teasing her.
“Sure~ this will be our little secret.”
“You mean three of us?” Sannet suddenly appeared from behind these two: “Look, I will not snitch on you because you saved me. It was not needed but thanks anyways.” She then leaves while carrying some of the supplies. While looking as expressionless as usual.
“Such a cocky person…” Viola mumbles.
“Yeah… but I think she’s kinda cool tho…” Minka has a slight grin on her face.
Viola suddenly remembered something: “By the way, we are having a short boot camp break next weekend, what do you want to do?”
“Is it already? Damn… how the time flies… I might visit my parents or something like that.” Speaking about her parents Minka again had that uneasy expression on her face.
“I thought you were on good terms with your parents.” Viola noticed the little change of expression on Minka.
“We are… it’s just i always felt a bit bad when i joined the army. The decision wasn’t quite… mutual.” Minka explains: “I don’t know… i might still be able to visit them but i felt like there’s a thin film between them and i….”
“Have you just thought about growing a pair instead of staying here doing nothing?” Viola changed her tone a bit: “This is all you're doing in your mind, your parents probably never thought about any of the things you described. Go meet them and talk it out.”
Minka remained silent for a few seconds then looked away: “You’re right… Maybe this was all my thinking…” Then Minka eased her expression for a bit: “I never knew that you’re so good at consulting people’s problems.”
“Girl, I might tease you a bit. But it does not mean that I am lacking in ideas and ways of dealing with things. The real problem lies with that white haired witch.” Viola is actually quite happy when Minka kinda complimented her.
“Why aren’t you more… open minded towards Sannet? She saved my life!”
“This is exactly it, what is it in for her? There’s dozens of people on the field today. Why you? Why are you so special? Have your little brain thought about any of this? That Sannet girl is shady and I can tell by my experience in the time when I was free roaming on the street.” Sannet explained while giving a frown: “We must find out what this Sannet person is up to.”
Minka nods: “It does seem strange… I felt like Sannet might know me or something… I don't know if it is something but she never made me feel… annoyed.”
“What does you feeling annoyed tell you about that Sannet person?” Viola asks.
“I usually feel annoyed about almost everyone I meet…”
“Even me?”
“All the time.” Minka smirks: “But Sannet never managed to get on my nerves… as if she knew what I was thinking or at least knew me for quite a while…”
“If everyone you know annoys the crap out of you, isn’t this more of your problem?” Viola raised one of her eyebrows.
Minka pouts while staring at Viola after hearing this: “So rude!”
Viola pokes Minka’s inflated cheek and laughs: “Alright, alright ! You’re da best!”
Minka also smiles a little as well: “So… just about our conversation earlier. Do you mind coming to my home for a bit?”
“Why do you need me to better the image of yours in front of your parents? Like meeting a girlfriend or something?” Viola is a bit puzzled with this little request from Minka..
Minka tips one foot on the ground while looking away: “I don’t want my parents to worry too much about me… It would be cool if I can bring someone with me.”
“Why don’t you bring that Sannet girl.” Viola’s smile is so large that it almost reached her ears.
“Because you’re right…. She is kinda shady… and i…think your straightforwardness will be at least pleasing towards my parents..” Minka is blushing.
“Alright, I will gladly do so if this prevents you from looking like a loser in front of your parents as someone who clearly doesn’t have a single friend in her life~” Viola is still having that annoying grin.