Vas walked through the snow besides Miiche. Miiche had always been smart and stronger than most people her age.

However, more than all of her other attributes, Miiche excelled in one thing: decisiveness.

She was the person with the fastest analysis and reaction time that Vas had ever met. When she had killed the two guards in front of the brig, she had already thought about it and analyzed other paths of action, deciding this was the one she wanted to take.

Miiche looked over at Vas, then glanced away quickly. She glanced over again, and Vas caught her gaze. She giggled and looked away.

“What is it?”

Miiche shook her head, “It’s good to see you.”

Miiche looked at Vas again, “You don’t have to feel bad about it, and I never got along with them anyhow. Rescuing you and slaying some lecherous bastards was just killing two birds with one stone.”

Vas smirked, “Rescuing me? I was almost out of there on my own.”

Miiche stopped walking and turned to Vas. She didn’t seem to mind her blood-streaked clothes in the least, even though it’d earned them a few funny looks since leaving the brig. She gave him a smug smile.

“You reaaally think I was just there by coinky dink? I just happened to be working that shift in that brig? I have been looking for you for years, so I naturally made friends with all the captains who go on border patrols. The fellow who delivered you to our illustrious Commander Salar told me some scouts were back.”

At this moment, Miiche stopped her overdramatic gestures. She tapped her head, “I can use this, too.”

Vas squinted at her.

She wasn’t lying, or else she wouldn’t know about the captain who’d brought him to Salar.

“Why’d you let that guard bring his spear downstairs, then?”

Miiche grinned at him and put her arm over his shoulder and around his neck.

“Vas! Vas! If you couldn’t beat that gorilla you would deserve to still be in the brig.”

Vas raised his eyebrows at Miiche, “What if he’d killed me?”

She winked at him, “Like I said, you’d deserve to stay there if you couldn’t beat him. Don’t worry, I would have killed him and fed him to your Risen form in revenge.”

“Risen don’t eat people.”

Miiche shrugged, “At least I’m nice enough to give your hypothetical Risen form the option. Then I would keep you as a pet. I’d spike you to a sled and drag you around with me everywhere I went.”

Vas just snorted and shook his head.

Most people didn’t realize it when encountering Miiche for the first time, but the girl was a total psychopath. She and Vas had been in the same group traveling north to the Wall many years ago.

Miiche had grown up in an orphanage and had been forced to kill everyone in it to protect her little sister from them when they turned into Risen.

Unfortunately, her little sister was mortally wounded in the process and Miiche had killed her, too.

When they’d both lived under the protection of the Wall, Miiche would often come and spend the night in Vas’s bed. It was only there that she’d be able to fall asleep, after some special tension releasing exercises that boys and girls often perform.

Sometimes Vas would wake her up with his thrashing, and sometimes she would wake him up with her nightmares.

Miiche hadn’t had a weapon to fight the Risen in her orphanage. She’d spent weeks there with her sister, constantly trapping them in a closet or setting up barriers to sleep and killing Risen when the chance came.

There was really only one way to decapitate a Risen without a weapon, and the method Miiche had been forced to use most often still haunted her.

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She’d been able to find alternative methods from time to time, but when the traps failed and she had to protect her sister, Miiche had done what she had to.

Because of the decapitating method, even though they’d engaged in intimate relations many times, Vas and Miiche never kissed.

She washed her mouth multiple times a day every day, but had never felt like it was clean.

Vas watched Miiche from the corner of his eye as he walked towards where he thought the Scout barracks would be.

He had a foreboding feeling that his friends might be in danger or dead, but hoped that Commander Salar wouldn’t be so bold to attack them.

Either way, he knew they had to get there before Salar was informed that he’d escaped from his cell.

After a few minutes of trudging through the snow, Vas could see the building in the distance. It was the same building they had stayed in before marching south.

Even though there had probably been closer Scout barracks, Vas and the others had decided on this one as their main regrouping spot.

Vas’s heart caught in his throat when he saw a large group of people in front of the barracks.

He didn’t see any unsheathed weapons, and hoped this group was there without violent intentions.

As they neared the group, Miiche grabbed Vas’s sleeve, “Vas, why are there so many people here?”

“Did you say Vas?”

A young man turned around with excited eyes, finding Vas. Miiche seemed about ready to decapitate this young man, but Vas shot her a “please don’t start killing everyone” look.

“That is my name.”

The young man’s eyes widened even further than they already had been. Vas absentmindedly hoped they would stay in their sockets.

Vas still had a bad feeling, but the situation didn’t seem violent yet.

Also, Salar didn’t know his name.

A young women turned to look at them with eager eyes, “Did you really kill a wolf by throwing your compass!?”

About thirty other faces turned around at this, everyone equally excited.

“Alex,” Vas growled.

“PRESENT!”

Alex’s voice came from inside the crowd, “Oh, Vas. We were just talking about you!”

All gazes now fell on Vas.

Miiche scratched her head, “You killed a wolf with a compass? What kind of monster are y—” “I didn’t kill it!”

Vas knew he needed to interject now, or he’d never get a word in.

“I only stunned it for a moment, then Joust beheaded it!”

Alex clicked her tongue loudly and pointed at a man next to her, “SEE I TOLD YOU! He wasn’t even fully conscious so he doesn’t remember the details perfectly, but Joust saw it too.”

The man next to Alex spat on the ground, “It’s still more believable than him killin’ a hundred Risen in one night.”

Vas gaped at Alex, “I didn’t kill all of them!”

The young woman next to Vas widened her eyes this time, “You actually did kill a hundred in one night?”

Vas shook his head, “No! It wasn’t just me.”

“It was mostly Vas! Maybe fifteen or so were split between the rest of us. Nothing was quite as awesome as the final showdown with Hades, though.”

Instantly, the air had a palpable level of enthusiasm. Miiche cocked her head sideways, “Hades?”

Alex’s smile seemed far scarier to Vas at this moment than any Risen had ever been.