"Mary… Mary…" Jeremy whispered, wary of MC who was speaking in front of them as well as the tall woman beside him. He appeared to be covered in sweat as though he was trembling and in the midst of breaking into a run, which was made worse every time Viela lets out her playful giggle. "Switch places with me, Mary!"
He continued to enunciate his words to Mary, who in her pitiful state, sat beside a fat brown-skinned man that gave his full attention towards their speaker. She, who had half of her face looking desperate and taken aback by this news about her friend and the other half being bandaged and making her look like a blood-red mummy, looked back at him and raised her brow. Mary continued to gaze at him while he kept his head low as he moved his lips to make her read his words and as a response, with her back straightened and laid at her chair, she shook her head and urged him to look away.
"Save me… save me, you're my only friend here, Mary! Ma—"
"What the fuck are you doing, Jeremy?" MC interrupted him, causing others, who sat in the same meeting room, that now appeared to be more cramped than ever, to look at him.
"Yeah, what the fuck are you doing, Jeremy?" the women beside him added, adding a forced lighthearted chuckle right before she looked at Mary with her wide dark-green eyes as if she was one step away from ripping her to pieces.
"Well?" MC continued, furrowing her eyebrows as a smug smile crept on her face. "Did you want to say something, Jeremy, about Viela here perhaps?"
"Yeah, were you going to say something, Jeremy?" Viela followed with a high-pitched note, making Jeremy sink his head down to face the table as he squirmed.
"Pe…" He raised his hand in silence as the others waited for his response and after a moment, he brought it down and followed, "Petition to change my seat… ma'am, please."
"Okay," Mary replied with a smile before she dropped the file that she held on her hands and crossed her arms. "Does anyone want to take Jeremy's place?"
Jeremy gave Mary a hopeful look like a puppy begging for his milk not before a second could pass but instead of encouraging her, it made her lean back to her chair more and swallow her saliva as if she had seen a monster. This made him turn to the balding fat man who wore a loose white long-sleeved polo shirt sitting beside her who now kept his hands firmly placed on the table.
"Ha-ha! Well, I would very much like to help and sit beside a beautiful, beautiful lady like Miss Viela here herself…" He let out a loud and low pitched laugh that sounded as if it came from his nose but then, he switched back to his normal stern demeanor and whispered, "But I'd rather let you die first instead of me."
Then, with his eyes wet and his tears about to gush out, Jeremy gazed at Rick, the man wearing a pair of black shirt and pants, who stood farthest from the group and just looked away with an awkward smile even before their faces could meet. He stood up a moment after and looked at MC with his trembling lips and with his voice that sounded as shaken as he was, with a drop of sweat running across the side of his face, he asked them like a shady salesman, "Coffee anyone, I'll make you guys a good one for free of charge, this time and this time only!"
"Hmmm, sure," MC smiled back and tilted her head. "Just whip up something strong to wake my nerves up."
"Oh, how nice of you," Viela smiled at him sweetly that surprisingly made Rick shiver as he bit his lips to prevent himself from squirming. "Give us a pair of lattes, please. Make mine sweet and for Jeremy, make it a bit bitter, okay?"
"But… I want to have a flat—"
"Put some chili on Jeremy's too, I know he'll love it," Viela added, interrupting Jeremy without dropping endearing her tone. "I'll make sure that he'll drink it."
"Just… just anything mild… and smooth…" Mary added, looking down to avoid Viela's gaze.
"Barako, please," the fat man muttered with a wide grin.
"O-okay," Rick responded with a wide smile and a breath through his gritting teeth. "So that's… the usual for the Boss, two lattes with one sweet and for the other, e-extra spicy… something mild for Miss Mary, and Kapeng Barako for Sir Miggy… I-I'll be right back…"
He dashed out of the room right after voicing out the orders that made Jeremy groan. Hearing this, MC stepped forward to grab the file with a smile as she followed, "So, I guess that's a no then?"
"Oh, fuck me," Jeremy whispered.
"Sure," Viela continued as she placed both her hands on the table, making everyone else but MC look away. "Don't worry about it."
"Okay, so, no one would interrupt me now, I presume?" MC followed and after meeting their silence, she let out a chuckle and cleared her throat. "Going back to what I've said to you earlier, we're fighting a knight and he's a resilient one. You can take a look at the guy's file if you wanted to be like Jeremy but since we're short in time because of Jeremy himself, thank you, by the way, let's follow Rei's report." She cleared her throat once more. "What we know is that this guy is white-knighting some bitch that Rei killed, and that bitch ended up being one of the higher guys on those rats' little pity party. They've fought and by that, he claimed that the guy could not be hurt by bladed weapons, bullets coming from pistols up to sub-machine guns, and even a grenade blast was not enough to dent its armor. The only thing that allowed them to escape him by the hair are the flashbangs that they carried and he's running out of it."
"Should've bought some shotguns…" Jeremy added.
"So to speak, ha-ha!" Miggy clicked his tongue. "You're making us fight an opponent that we're critically outmatched against, I'm afraid we can't win this without any losses."
Jeremy scoffed. "To be fair, Rick could beat him up with one shot…"
"Oh, shut the fuck up, Jeremy!" MC shouted.
Viela grabbed Jeremy's nape in silence and shoved his head under her arm. Then, as he struggled to free himself from her grasp, she let out a giggle and followed, "I'd have to agree with Mr. Miggy. It looks like both of us would not be able to kill it that easily, I suggest that we should…"
"Unfortunately," MC interrupted her and sighed. "the Dolphin fought a demon earlier along with Jeremy and Mary here, and all of them are tired, exhausted even. The fact that Jeremy himself is being choked right now without much of a fight shows it. I would like to make it a point that I hate the idea of sending my own people out to fight against an armored man that we could do nothing about… but I, myself am prepared to help."
"I-I can still help…" Mary said weakly and grimacing at the moment she tried to lift her left arm. "I've taken the time to study the report and… If the man is wearing some armor like his life depended on it… I believe that all I had to do is to touch him…"
MC scoffed and leaned forward to peer into the wavering flame in her eyes. "You've helped us plenty, but I cannot send in another fodder to battle when even my own subordinates, who I believe the most, tell me that they could do nothing against it."
"But…"
MC sighed and turned away from her. "Jeremy, would you still be strong enough to fire a sniper rifle accurately?"
"I mean…" Jeremy coughed, still caught up under Viela's arm. "I mean, I can try—"
"Not enough," MC commented with her throat stressing her words.
"I could just go there and touch him!" Mary continued, only to shrink back to her seat a moment later because of the pain that burned her from her sides. "I can help! I can still be of use, please let me help you save him!"
"You." MC clenched her teeth. "I don't want to hear your power-of-friendship bullshit."
"It doesn't matter if I break my legs, it doesn't even matter if I die!" Mary followed with her voice now cracking in desperation. "Just let me save him, I can do this!"
"Don't push your luck," MC added, placing her hand over the top of her head as she looked at Mary with her golden eyes that seemed to be blazing in fury. Then, while stressing every word, she continued, "You're useless, the only reason why you're here is that we haven't had the chance to dump you back to the headquarters just yet. You need to realize that at this moment, you cannot help us."
Mary swallowed her saliva but she did her best to not look away, let alone shut her eyes.
"You look like you would be smart enough to figure things out but let me say this," she continued, making her feel the gravity of her words made worse by the silence of MC's men as Mary saw them smile at the corner of her sights. "I will not endanger the lives of my men, even if it means just simply putting another fucking fodder for the enemy to hit. I will not take that chance because remember this... I would rather... force Jeremy to fight... to let Dolphin out even if it meant a fuckton of collateral and I would fucking rather let Rick do it, do you hear me? I'm okay with sending Rick out than to send another one who I don't trust to be anything more than a fucking meatshield. Do you understand me?"
Mary nodded and as soon as MC saw this, she nudged her head and glared at her once more. "I need to hear you speak."
"I… I understand," Mary replied as her lips trembled.
"Good," MC followed before she patted Mary's head as she stepped back to meet everyone's attentive gaze. "Now that that's done, let's hear your opinions so we could go and make a proper fucking plan."