The forest had a warm, humid environment that made one feel like they were breathing through a moist cloth covering their face. Li Mei was used to it but the young man following behind her was wheezing in exhaustion. His stats weren't as high as hers, and he was wearing a bunch of body armor that weighed him down. On top of that he tripped over every single plant, vine, and small root that got in his way!
Otto couldn't have been older than fifteen, his adorable face just barely starting to lose the baby fat of youth - a little bit of roundness lingered on his dimpled cheeks. With a crown of curly golden hair and bright blue eyes, he almost looked like a cherub from those old Italian Renaissance paintings. She wouldn't be surprised to see tiny little feathered wings on his shoulders!
Such an innocent appearance combined with his clumsiness really made her want to bully him. A natural ditzy type! How charming.
The cloying scent of blood that lingered on his teammates was conspicuously absent in the air around Otto. She noticed beforehand he lacked the Interface's eye-catching red
Initially she thought the Interface wanted her to keep him alive for interrogation, until a quick Scan confirmed he was innocent of any crimes. According to the displayed info he'd refused to fire on the civilians even under threat of punishment from his superior officer.
More interesting was the information about his race volunteered by Scan, which was the initial reason she brought him along instead of just letting him go.
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[Deva (Unawakened)]
Devas are beings of great power once awakened, born with an instinctive ability to control an elemental force such as wind, fire, or plants. Their instinctive grasp of their element far outshines the power typically displayed by a Core's innate Gift: where someone with a plant Gift could take a few moments to grow a flower from a seed, a plant-type Deva could grow an entire tree over ten meters tall.
However, before awakening they are nearly indistinguishable from humans and the specifics of their bloodline and inborn power will be unknown. The method to awaken the bloodline will only be known by the Deva in question when they approach the apex of Rank 4, and is related to their inner power. If they never reach the peak of Rank 4, they will die as a human.
Devas, Awakened or not, tend to bring good fortune to those who befriend them. Unawakened Devas can sense evil and killing intent from the hearts of those in their close proximity, and can fall ill from exposure to wicked energy. Awakened Devas have such attuned sensitivity to the presence of evil they can detect if an area has been influenced by malicious energy within the past hundred years.
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After seeing him stumble once over his own feet, Li Mei became concerned that if she didn't watch over him the boy wouldn't survive more than five minutes, much less to the apex of Rank 4! Since she was the one who killed his companions, even if they were absolute scum, she had to take responsibility for his life.
It had absolutely nothing to do with the promise of good fortune from befriending him.
Li Mei and Bao led Otto deep into a tree root network, smearing crushed repellent herbs on the tree as they passed. He watched with curiosity but seemed too afraid to ask what they were doing. Eventually the odd trio came to a stop in a natural root cave, and Li Mei dropped some scattered flower petals on the ground before gesturing for the young man to sit. Bao was tasked with keeping watch at the entrance, but the eye on the back of his head stayed fixated on Otto's every move.
"What's your name?" Li Mei asked, crossing her arms over her chest. Thanks to Scan she already had a lot of his information, she just asked out of curiosity to see how honest he'd be.
"Otto." The young man seemed nervous, inching back until he was as far away from her as he could manage in the confined space. Twigs and leaves stuck out of his hair at weird angles, and his face had superficial scratches from passing too close to a particularly affectionate shrubbery. "Just... Just Otto. No family name or nothing." He hesitated, then found a grain of courage. "What... What should I call you?"
"My name's Li Mei. Since you're gonna work for me, just call me Boss." Her eyes sparkled with mischief when Otto sat up straight and nodded, a serious expression on his face. What a good, earnest boy. "How'd you come to work for Oriole as a soldier? You obviously aren't strong."
Otto laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. He wasn't offended at all by her statement, indicating he was acutely aware of the difference in their abilities, and not recklessly prideful. Li Mei mentally added another point in his favor. "Well, uh. Actually, every so often I guess Oriole does this recruiting thing? They grab up kids aged ten to sixteen who don't have any families or clans or other backing. They offer us food, and shelter, and pay, and training to get stronger! I wasn't found to have any particular talents worth fostering, I'm not super smart or anything, so they threw me into one of the sector's private security teams. I only just finished my basic training regime."
Child soldiers! Li Mei snarled in her heart, but outwardly maintained a calm expression so she wouldn't scare the timid kid across from her with sudden bloodlust. "Why'd they bring a total rookie here?"
At her question, Otto's eyebrows drew together in a deep scowl. "They said it was gonna be a simple field mission, that'd it be easy. Like a camping exercise? Or something to do with teamwork. But then we got here, and there were a lot more combat units than I thought there'd be. Like, everybody in the sector! And we landed in what looked like a normal village, which I thought was weird cuz field training usually happened in the wilderness, right?
"Everyone just started firing on the people in the houses! Captain Don said there was a change in orders and that they were all bad people who wanted to hurt the organization but it just felt wrong all around, none of them had any weapons... Captain Don said they were bad guys, but it just felt like... We were the bad guys..."
Li Mei nodded, cupping her chin in her palm. "I killed your friends, don't you think I'm a bad guy too?"
Otto squinted at her, then quickly shook his head. "No! I mean, they weren't my friends, just my temporary squadmates. And they killed all those people then laughed about it afterwards. I felt like they were scarier than the forest! But Boss doesn't have that creepy feeling they had." He thought for a moment, then added with complete sincerity: "They weren't very nice to me anyway, I wasn't sad when they died."
Resisting the urge to laugh at his straightforward comment, Li Mei pulled out some medicine and started casually treating her wounds while watching the young man from the corner of her eye. "Then, you didn't know that this place belongs to Oriole too?"
"What!" Otto stood up, wincing when he hit his head on a tree root. "What do you mean, Boss?!"
"This whole fight is between two sectors. Your sector was jealous of how much funding this sector got, so they're attacking and stealing the research. The people killed were just civilian farmers. It's pretty common, Oriole sectors fight a lot among themselves."
Poor Otto collapsed, his knees shaking and color draining from his cherubic face. "Just civilians... So I was right, we were... the bad guys..."
Li Mei scooted over and roughly smeared medicinal paste on Otto's scratched face. His nose wrinkled in distaste from both the smell and the faint stinging sensation, but she didn't let him escape treatment. "The world is full of good people who do bad things, and bad people who do good things. There isn't just good people doing good stuff and bad guys being bad, life isn't that honest. It's best if you just figure out your own principles and morals."
Otto nodded, sinking into a glum silence.