Chapter 13 - "Eva struggle"

It's been one week since my mother died in front of my eyes and I accepted to work for the bastard king, right now I'm in front of what one would call... A boot camp... This place was a project of the new king, that one of the champion who work for him proposed, it was a training camp for young talented orphans to make a special unit... Simply said, it was a training camp for making kids into assassins...

As guards escorted me in front of the gate, a man who looked like the very image of a sergeant instructor, wearing a combat fatigue and a sleeveless black shirt, was waiting for me there, I sure hope he won't force me to wear this...

"So your the new recruit uh? I see the king did put a good collar on you!" (Hartman?)

Yes, I was literally wearing a collar, that damn king wasn't as much of a fool as I hoped, after I accepted to work for him he forced me to wore this collar with an embedded red gemstone. The collar itself served as a communication device and helped the mage who have my charge to monitor my every move. As for the red gemstone it was a mana stone imbued with an absurd quantity of fire magic... If I were to betray the king or try to runaway the gemstone would be activated by the mage who supervise me and burn me to ash...

"Let me present myself first! I'm the champion of the god of order, and strongest man in the kingdom, Jim Lodok! From this day on I'm going to be your instructor! Do your best to graduate from a brat who smell of piss into a true warrior!" (Jim)

Uwaaa, seriously he tried so hard to play the role that it's was just ridiculous... As I was looking at him in an annoyed expression he suddenly punched me to my face with a lot of strength...

"What with those eyes?! I'm going to mold you into something that look human you little shit!" (Jim)

Goddamn him, it hurt...

"What your response?!" (Jim)

Is voice sounded a little strange right now... And I suddenly felt like he was an authority figure I shouldn't go against... Don't tell me it's is unique quirk? It's quite an annoying one if that the case...

"...Yes...Sir..." (Eva)

"Good! We can still do something of you!" Or so he said will patting my head. Really?! The carrot and stick approach?! How predictable that guy can be? That won't work with me dipshit... But my cheek do hurt, the bastard punched too hard...

Big brother... I want to see you...

"Now follow me newbie!" (Jim)

Jim Hartman turned around and advanced to one of the three log cabins that are the only buildings in a big open space hidden in a forest... As we entered inside, seven little girls all wearing the same clothes as Jim, who when heard the door opening started to run around to make a line, and then put their hands behind their back now straight, in a military pose.

"This is the girls cabin, from now on it's your home and those girls is your new family!" (Jim)

After that he pointed to storage box a bed and a girl in this order while saying.

"This is your clothes box their is already a set prepared for you that you need to change into latter, beside it is your bed, and this girl is your partner from now on, you will do every chores assigned to you with her!" (Jim)

This is bad, that partner thing is bad business, and any person who had read a little fiction in his life who involved special training already know where it's going to end... Those bastards don't tell me they do something this cruel in reality?! No matter what, I need to not become attached to her...

"That's it for now! Get ready for combat training in 30 minutes!" (Jim)

Feeling I couldn't disobey him I started to change immediately, and as I was doing so the girl that is to become my partner came talking to me...

"Hello! Nice to meet you! My name is Selena I hope we can be good friend!" (Selena)

That strange, when Selena came to talk to me, everyone in the room looked nervous, like they were fearing something... Let's play along for now I'm good at acting like the good girl.

"My name is Eva, I would be really pleased to become good friend with you Selena!" Or so I said with a bright smile.

"Good! I'm sure we going to become really good friend!" (Selena)

Knew it... That tone, she's a bitch who like to be above the others and must also be the strongest here as everyone fear her...

"Yes!" Let's play the girl that is easily manipulated for now...

After changing and talk a little with Selena who clearly told me between the line that I shouldn't disobey her, we exited the building and walked to the direction of the training ground, there was also 8 boys coming along, when we arrived to the instructor, there was wood knifes planted in the soil around him.

"Good! Your all here on time, I'm quite proud of you children! Now I want everyone to take a knife, and partner with one of the opposite sex to spar!" (Jim)

Obeying his order every child took a knife and faced one the opposite sex, as for myself I faced a shy boy who had a hard time looking at me in the eyes. It was an easy win, what did you expect, I was trained by my father and even my brother who gave me basic training saying thing like 'you should at least be able to defend yourself against pervert!', if that really was training against pervert they must have really hated them...

"Oh... Impressive little one, it seem you at least have some training in you... I guess your not Orios daughter and the sister of the 'blood seeker' for nothing..." (Jim)

"Blood seeker? Sir..."

"Ah, yes... It's the nickname the soldiers gave to your brother... But it's not time for chatting! Since you have finished sparring, go train against mannequins your technique!" (Jim)

I then followed order and trained the way my father and brother taught me. First a set of stabs then slash in every direction possible many time, then try to attack while moving around. It was pure basic training but with repetition it prove useful for more advanced training.

At the end of the morning Selena came to me with her followers.

"Eva, I hope you remember where your place is?" (Selena)

Yeah yeah I know I bellow you, you fucking hysterical queen...

"Yes of course Selena! We are friend aren't we?" (Eva)

Let's play it safe and continue to make her believe I'm a naive dumb girl...

Satisfied she answered 'of course!' and after that we started to do our chores for the meal that was to cut wood for the fire...

Now that our stomachs was filled, the instructor gave us half a hour of free time that I used to make better acquaintance of the other girls by talking to them.

After that he made us run in circle, and after that typical military exercise like climbing a rope or a obstacles course...

And then came the night...

After repeating a cycle of doing chores for the meal, eat and free time, it was time for us, to sleep... It was a pretty tiring day, but I didn't have the luxury to peacefully sleep... I need to train, as long as don't do anything suspicious and explain what I'm doing if they ask me it should be okay to train in the night my magic... But I was soon discovered by the instructor...

"What are you doing in the middle of the night when it's time for lights-out?!" (Jim)

"I'm sorry sir! I just wanted to train my magic!" (Eva)

Shit! It's going to end bad!

"I see!" (Jim)

But his reaction wasn't at all like expected... He looked really happy.

"That it! Secret training in the night is the real thing! Nobody can become powerful if he don't do any effort! I'm proud of you girl!" (Jim)

What the hell... So in the end he's just a training freak who love stereotype?! That explain a lot of thing...

"I do think it's a good thing to be motivated, but remember you also need to sleep for the training tomorrow! So now go to sleep!" (Jim)

"Yes sir!" (Eva)

Don't leaving me any choice in matter I returned to the logs house and crawled into my bed, I was so exhausted I quickly fell asleep...

This night I saw a dream... It was a gentle dream, I was walking in the forest while holding hand with my brother, behind us was mother who was carried in a princess carry by father, and behind them was the oldman who was trying to molest Allina... For a moment I believed it was reality, that everything that happened lately was just a nightmare and I was finally awake. Everyone was still alive and I was with my brother, at the end my brother carried me into my bed into a princess carry as I was slowly falling asleep and while gently patting my head, and soon, I fallen unconscious, or so I thought...

As I opened my eyes and seen I was in log house, sleeping along side other little girls, I couldn't help but cry a little... Seeing as I was sobbing one of the girls who looked really gentle approached me trying to comfort me as Selena said something along the line of...

"Crying as you waking up, how embarrassing!" (Selena)

Shut up you bitch! Everyone have their bad times! Now that I think about it I never seen my brother cry...

Get the hang of yourself Eva! You can't let yourself be depressed! I will survive and wait for my brother to come rescue me, and while waiting I get stronger to help him kill this bastard of a king!

After encouraging myself I exited the log house and washed my face by using a weak water spell who make a little sphere of water staying static in the air...

Okay! Let's do this!

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Next chapter... Shun encounter a pervert! Stay tuned!