Everwhite's training monitoring room.
In a vast room structured like a movie theater, tens of instructors sat back against cushioned seats. All were watching the same massive screen, which was divided into smaller screens that projected everyone's moves the students made.
From hidden cameras to drones flying in high skies, they all pried into everyone's little movements.
The instructors behind the giant screen stared into the smaller screens that showed the squad they were assigned to train. Everyone was paying close attention as they scribbled some notes in their notebooks.
But James, in particular, was simply staring with a smile catching the eyes of his fellow colleague.
"What are you smiling about?" A female instructor beside James's right shoulder asked with a raised eyebrow. She diffidently wasn't used to seeing the serious all, giddy.
"Nothing much," James said as the sides of his lips curled up, which further concerned his female colleague. "It's just that this year I think I'll have some decent students to train."
"Oh, yea?" The female instructor laughed, then gave James a mocking smile. "I didn't think you would be this happy after being placed in such low-ranking students."
James rolled his eyes as he gave her his wild finger. "Well, then did you come here just to mock me, Layla?"
The female instructor, in fact, wasn't an instructor. Instead, it was Layla who only dressed in the instructor's uniform.
"Yeah -pfft, I am. I wanted to see how well you were holding up." Layla snickered, trying her best not to burst out laughing. "To think you, the most infamous instructor that had trained our top special operators is now stuck training a bunch of brats! HAHA!"
James, hearing Layla's hysteric laugh, stayed silent before laughing himself.
"I also heard you were made a laughingstock back at INDA," James spoke, coving his little smirk with his hand.
Hearing this seriousness took Layla's face. "We don't talk about that," Layla said as she crossed her arms.
"And we don't talk about this," James added to Lay's sentence causing a stare from Layla, who eventually shrugged in acceptance.
"And I would say that I found someone who can put your little guy to shame," James said with a smile.
"You mean Kai?" Layla asked in disbelief.
"Who else? That guy has grit and enormous talent, but he pales in comparison to Ellia." James spoke as he watched the screen.
"Sounds a bit biased." Layla expressed as she looked towards James's gaze. "Who exactly am I looking at?"
"The girl with brunette hair and pretty eyes."
Examining her, Layla scoffed. "Her? She looks like your typical arrogant noble lady..."
During that moment another instructor walked up to the two. "Instructor James? Here are the documents you asked for." Then handing over several orange files the instructor left.
It was the documents on the students he was going to be training, but he didn't waste his time on the other files instead he directly looked for a certain orange file.
Locating the one he opened it revealing a picture of Ellia in the top left corner and a list of complicated data underneath.
"Well, this is interesting..." James mumbled while skimming over the data.
"Let me see." Layla snapped while snatching the document away from James, then also started to skim over the data with sharp eyes.
"Arrogant? Yes, she definitely has the right to be." James nodded as he recalled today's morning incident and putting together the information on the documents of data made even more sense.
"But compared to Kai, who puts righteousness above everything else, Ellia is much suited to be a soldier."
"... Don't remind me of Kai and his stupid beliefs about righteousness" Layla rolled her eyes with a sigh. "He has some great skill, but if it's his sense of justice that's holding him down."
"But what makes this girl so special, huh?" Layla asked. For all, she knew Ellia was just some crazy high-ranked noble.
Hearing her question, James smiled and pointed back at the screen.
Looking back at the screen, Layla gave a wavering smile with a weak chuckle. "Are you sure that this is being filmed from a drone?"
"Yea, it's also 700 feet in the air," James confirmed.
"But… why does it look like she's looking straight as us?"
"An instinct of a beast," James spoke. "She will become a huge asset to us in the future."
…
Meanwhile…
"Hmmm? Is that a drone?" Ellia asked herself while looking straight into the sky. "So that's where the weird feeling of being watched was coming from…."
Then determining that it wasn't a threat, she shrugged it off.
They didn't take long to reach their distended location in the middle of the forest, about thirty minutes. During their short walk, Levi was tasked to hunt small animals for their meat and fur. By the time they arrived at their location, Levi had already hunted nine rabbits with clean shots to their heads.
Arriving, Ellia noticed how much of a bad situation they were in. The area they were assigned to take shelter in for a week was wholly stripped naked of any trees, leaving only the vast amount of untouched snow.
"Well… we better start digging," Issac mumbled weakly.
"I'll help with that." Mike volunteered with a raised hand.
Both Issac and Mike moved to the middle of the huge patch of snow and started to dig with their bare hands. Frequently warming their hands with Alex's portable heater.
Owen, who had initially refused to do anything, was forced by Ellia to help Levi hunt.
On the other hand, Ellia was skillfully butchering the small rabbits for their meat and fur. Each slice was done with precision to ensure that Ellia didn't cut something she wasn't supposed to. Alex was also tasked to make other necessary survival tools like parching racks and was to one who started a little bone fire. It seemed that his ability to craft something was almost limitless.
Then there was Aerie, who started to aimlessly wander around, asking if someone needed help just to be met with a no. Of course, everyone but Ellia insisted Aerie help with butchering the rabbits, but it was Aerie who refused to stab a dagger into a poor little rabbit.
"It's already dead, you know," Ellia said with a sigh as she lunged her dagger into the rabbit's neck, causing blood to spurt out like a water fountain.
Seeing such a large quantity of blood, Aerie almost fainted on the spot. But keeping her eyes from rolling backward, she forced herself to watch. She at least wanted to be helpful in some way.
"Creating a puncture in the neck artery, you're able to drain its blood in about one minute completely," Ellia explained as she showed an example. "And you don't want to drink its blood; it's basically shit."
Aeire watched with quivering eyes, taking a step back ever so often.
"Then when you figure that the blood had drained entirely, then comes the skinning," Ellia spoke as she created a small cut in the back of the rabbit. Then digging her thumb into the hole, she cleanly pulled the fur off the rabbit, which exposed its naked muscles.
Seeing this, Aeire hiccuped with a flinch.
"Then comes the gutting." Ellia smiled as she cut open the rabbit. Then putting her hand inside, she started digging its guts out.
Aeire immediately screeched her face as she felt her own stomach crunch. Then, feeling her stomach push its contents up her throat, Aerie held onto her mouth and forced it all back down.
"S-second lieutenant... I can't do this..." Aeire murmured while collapsing to the ground.
"Huh?" Ellia raised her head then, noticing her on the ground, she sighed. 'This is slowly becoming a serious problem.'
"Second Lieutenant!" A shout came, causing Aerie and Ellia to look towards the sound. Then noticing Levi and Owen with several rabbits in their hands, Ellia smiled while Aerie paled.
"Good job!" Ellia commended with a laugh.
Handing over the rabbits to Ellia, she noticed a particular rabbit. "Hey... is this one alive?" Ellia asked, squinting her eyes.
"Oh, yea, it's alive," Levi said with a smile. "I got lucky and stumbled upon an injured one."
Grabbing the rabbit by the ears, Ellia gave it a look before finally deciding. Then turning her head towards Aerie, Ellia gave a terrifying smile.
Noticing the look on her face, Aerie's face contorted. "W-what...?!" Aerie screamed with a face full of terror.
"Kill it," Ellia spoke no more than those two words, but it was more than enough to strike even more fear into the depths of Aerie's soul.
"A-ah... I d-don't know w-what you're talking a-about." Aeire stuttered as she started to shake.
"No need to be scared," Ellia spoke, smiling as she rubbed her blood-stained hand on the snow. Then walking toward Aerie with the live rabbit in her hands.
Placing the rabbit onto Aerie's shivering hands, the different sensation rushed towards Aerie. The slight warmth that came from the small animal gave her a relaxed feeling. In contrast, the soft breaths of the animal calmed her shaking. But then the voice that whispered in her ear was of a devil.
"Kill it now. I thought you wanted to contribute to at least something in your life. This is your first step." The voice echoed inside her head, causing her slight dizziness.
"I-I can't. I just can't!" Aeire retorted, tears starting to form in her bloodshot eyes.
"I'll give you three seconds. Twist its neck."
Heartbeat... her own heartbeat started to play inside her head.
"Three..."
Her own breath suddenly dilated.
"Two..."
"I-I'm sorry, Mister rabbit..." Aeire cried as she fell unconscious. The last thing that entered her ears was the sound of bones breaking and the poor little yelp from Mister rabbit.