MEMORY FRAGMENT

Wilderness, 31 years ago.

“Don’t let the small ones get through!” Captain Balasta yelled.

Three squads of legionaries spread out, rushing to stop the flow of cracklings. Even in their present numbers, the creatures were incapable of causing anyone present any real harm, but all it took was one to escape for it to cause a nuisance to the nearby settlements.

“Carter, take care of the chainling! Usec, stay as backup.”

“Sir,” Abelle confirmed.

She had gotten used to being left behind. For better or worse, it was just as she feared. Neither the excellence displayed in training, nor her superior skills, had made anyone trust her on the battlefield. They respected her. Rumors of her being a noble who had sealed her awakening powers to join had spread long before she had emerged from her cell. People were fearful and not at all sure they could fully rely on her.

“Sir, I’d recommend someone checking out the area they came from. If all of them came from the same layer, there might be more of them keeping low.”

“The Order’s probably on the way,” the captain ignored her. “They’ll deal with it.”

Or the next legion patrolling this area, Abelle added mentally.

“What do you think?”

Technically, Abelle was second in command. That meant that she could, in theory, order anyone other than her captain. In practice, even the sergeants had more authority than her, even after she’d saved their lives on several occasions.

“Looks solid enough,” she said, in her typical calm fashion. “Chainling’s small, so Carter shouldn’t have any troubles with it. A few dozen cracklings will slip through, but I doubt they'll be near any settlements. Maybe a village or two at most.”

“Why so pessimistic?”

“The soldiers are slow,” she said without excuses. “And you only order me into battle when there’s no other choice.”

“So eager to fight.”

The captain frowned. He was three times her age, achieving his rank through a series of battlefield promotions. According to the rumors, he had initially been a sergeant who’d saved the right people at the right time. Abelle had acknowledged his skills, just as she had acknowledged they’d never get better. The man was a mere level fifty awakened, who’d already reached the limit of his traits. His family was insignificant, which kept him from retiring in the capital. If Abelle were in his place, she’d have offered her services to one of the archdukes. Outside the capital, they were the best one could hope for, and were snobbish enough to take retired imperial captains in their employ.

“Think you can get them all?” He glanced at her sideways.

“Without a doubt.”

“Okay, prove me wrong.”

“Sir!” Abelle dashed before her captain had the chance to change his mind. Her speed was roughly four times greater than that of the others, making her appear like a blur on the battlefield.

The cracklings were in beast form, arranged like a pack. There were two ways for them to try and escape the encirclement: either rely on speed and superior numbers, or merge together and rely on strength and surprise. The second would have been preferable: at least then the soldiers would be able to stop all of them without issue.

Abelle’s target was the leader of the pack. As long as she killed him, the rest would fall in disarray, giving her time to kill them off. Maybe some of the newbies would be pissed at her for stealing their kill, but they’d get over it. Only the results were what mattered.

No rectangles appeared as the lieutenant slashed through the crackling. Since her spark wasn’t as strong as when she was awakened, the empire had given her a relic sword to compensate. The silvery alloy sliced through the black beast-like silhouette, transforming it into two puffs of smoke that quickly faded away.

At least they aren’t cutlings. Abelle kept on running forward, joining the tail of the pack.

Several of the creatures noticed her, leaping in her direction, dozens of fangs bared throughout their entire form.

Their effort was completely wasted, of course. If they were a person, Abelle would pity them. Her blade followed a single arc as she moved, slashing three cracklings in a single motion. Every instinct told her that the best solution would be to perform a line attack, but that was strongly discouraged in the real world. There were too many people with low reaction traits that could get hurt.

Sparktip, Abelle drew a dagger, covering the tip of the blade with a faint glow. She then threw it, hitting the pack leader in the side. The weapon was too weak to kill the creature, but it caused enough damage for the beast to lose speed.

You lost, the girl thought, boosting her speed even further.

An unfortunate legionary chose the worst time to show initiative, firing three dartbows at the pack. The bolts were easily avoided as both the creatures and Abelle shifted direction, letting them fly by.

Abelle hated such types of people most of all: too incompetent to succeed in a fight, but too arrogant to admit it to themselves. Most of the rookies started that way before they got a heavy dose of reality beaten into them. Once this was over, Abelle was going to see to it personally.

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“Just stay back,” she said beneath her breath as she sliced through the cutlings, reaching the leader.

The creature wasn’t larger than the rest, but it was a lot more adaptive. Noticing it had become a target, tendrils shot out of it in all directions. Some of them hit other cracklings nearby, forcing them to merge.

A new beast towered, clawed tentacles slashing in Abelle’s direction.

The lieutenant’s sword seemed to split in ten, slicing through the creature like a cat’s cradle. A blink of the eye later, she had passed through, and the crackling leader, even with all the additional creatures merged within, was reduced to smoke.

Still gripping her sword, Abelle turned around. She could easily kill off the rest of the pack and even help the other lieutenant in his fight against the chainling. Yet, there didn’t seem to be any point.

“Take care of the rest,” she ordered, sheathing her weapon. It wasn’t like the legion would waste time examining the area, anyway.

The fight was over in under twenty minutes. The chainling had proved slightly more challenging than expected, requiring that the captain step in. Abelle didn’t. Then again, she wasn’t asked to.

“A hundred and twelve of them altogether,” Lieutenant Carter Optih said. “Nothing much.”

“There haven’t been chainlings this close to the empire,” Abelle added. “There might be something else going on.”

“The Crippled?” Carter smirked. He was that type of guy who was brought up believing the emperor was almost as strong as the Moons, thus immune to the Star and all of its spawn. “Doubt it.”

“Either way,” the captain raised his voice. “It’s the Order’s problem now. Get everyone packed and ready. We start our march to the capital within the hour.”

“Sir!” Both stood to attention, then turned around to convey the orders to the rest of the troops.

“Abelle,” the captain said. “Stay for a moment.”

That was never good. In her experience, when someone asked her to stay, it was to point out all the mistakes she’d made. When there were no mistakes to be discussed, some were invented.

Waiting for Carter to move further away, Abelle reluctantly turned around.

“Yes, sir?” she asked, hoping against hope that the conversation would be pleasant.

“Good work with the cracklings.”

“Sir?” This was a surprise.

“Hopefully, the kids will keep what they say in mind next time they face Star spawn.” He added a slight chuckle. “All we can ask is that one or two of them improve thanks to this.”

“Yeah. Right, sir.” What are you going on about?

If any of the cracklings was to escape, or the chainling had killed any of the legionaries, there would be a reason for the captain to act like this. That’s not what had happened. With the exception of a few sightings, nothing remarkable had happened during the patrol. In all cases, the legion had killed off the monsters they’d encountered with no losses, and left the mopping up to someone else—which was the standard policy.

“I’ll be retiring after this one,” the captain continued.

“It’s about time,” Abelle couldn’t help herself. “Sir,” she quickly added.

“Always speaking your mind.” The man shook his head with a bitter smile. “Even when you don’t have to.”

“Congratulations, then,” she didn’t back down. “Where are you going, sir?”

“I’m leaving the legion altogether. That’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.” There was a long pause. “You know that Carter doesn’t have what it takes to become a captain yet.”

Abelle nodded.

“You do, but you’ll never be given it.”

The girl just stood there as she started to comprehend what he was saying. The reason he had asked her to stay wasn’t because of what would happen to him. Once again, she would be skipped for promotion. In the past, her age was cited as a reason. Having a teenage commander, who was no longer awakened at that, would have been demoralizing to everyone else. What would the reason be this time?

“I worked my way up the ranks,” she tried to protest.

“You want to know the real reason? It’s because you rejected your nobility. You should have never been allowed to join in the first place. The legion’s supposed to serve the emperor and the nobles of the capital.”

“I’m no longer a noble, sir.” Abelle clenched her fists.

“That’s it. What exactly are you? You’re not a noble, you’re not even an awakened anymore, and you’re definitely not a legionary. You’ve turned yourself into a curiosity.”

I could break your neck, the girl thought. She had the skills to win despite the captain’s awakened powers. With a little bit of effort, she could potentially take the entire legion, or at least flee before they could react. Of course, such an action would be stupid. If she did anything of the sort, the Academy would send mages after her.

“Everyone loves prodigies they could rationalize,” the captain added. “You, they can’t rationalize. You’re not supposed to be so strong. You’re not supposed to have survived your sealing.”

“The battle mage didn’t think so.”

“You’re not a mage. If you were, people would understand.”

So, that was it? Another made up reason to keep her from assuming command. The Imperial Academy had taught her the theory. She had spent years in the wilderness acquiring practical knowledge, and yet it was never going to be enough. Abelle would continue to serve on as an eternal lieutenant, eventually earning more respect than the captains she assisted, yet never being given the title of one herself. So much for proving her skills to the world.

“I won’t leave the legion,” she said with determination.

“That’s obvious. You don’t have anywhere to go.”

“Is there any specific advice you asked me to stay for, sir?”

“No. I don’t know you well enough to give advice. No one does. I just thought it was high time someone told you the truth.”

And you conveniently did so just before leaving the legion, Abelle thought.

“That will be all, Lieutenant.” The captain looked away. “Check on the troops before we head back.”

“Sir.”

Rumors of the captain’s retirement were quick to spread throughout the legion. Nearly everyone agreed that it was about time. There was also a healthy amount of envy since, in general, it was rare for a sergeant to achieve officer status. However, the main topic of conversation was Abelle. Everyone knew of her circumstances, so there was a lot of speculation whether she’d take over. It was nearly unanimous that Carter didn’t have the skills, but at least he was “normal.”

The whispers continued all the way to the capital. Most of the time they were conducted in the awakened realms of items, so that Abelle couldn’t hear. Every now and again, though, someone would slip and make a comment in the real world. When that happened, all the girl could do was grit her teeth and pretend she’d missed it.

Events took place exactly as the captain had said they would. A day after his retirement was announced, a new captain was appointed to the legion—one of the other bright stars of the Imperial Academy, but without Abelle’s baggage. Carter was to remain as second in command, while Abelle was—to her great surprise—summoned to the Imperial Palace.

Initially, she expected to be brought to the office of some imperial bureaucrat where she’d be handed her next assignment, along with a lot of subtle insults. Instead, one of the city’s overseers emerged a few steps away.

“Always a pleasure, your grace,” the woman said. Her appearance was that of a twenty-year-old, with short platinum blond hair, and the usual black overseer outfit.

“I’m not a noble anymore.” Abelle tried to remain calm.

“Titles are for life, regardless of anything else.” She took the lieutenant’s hand. “Don’t let go until we reach the gardens.”

“The gardens?” The lieutenant flinched.

“Yes. The emperor has personally asked to see you.”