We found out that a number of students managed to hide away from the chaos outside by hiding inside a Training Ball. It was kind of surprising because once we got into The Training Ball we were surrounded with weapons right at our throat. But things went well when I told them about Sam.

“Ralph…What are you doing here?” Lucky, one of the Trinity interacted with me as we were sitting by one of their camp.

“We were sent by Sam to find and rescue the Cardinals.”

“Ah I see. Wait. Only the Cardinals? What about the Trinities?”

I played around with the campfire nearby with a stick and told him, “She said that it is better to only bring few people back to the main camp. Bringing everyone back will only slow us down and the enemy might notice us as we were moving back to camp.”

Lucky lost in his thought as he stares deep into the campfire’s flame. He later pops back to reality and embarrassingly replied, “I’m sorry about that. I was just thinking of something about Sam…but if she said so then I guess we have to obey her, I guess.”

“I have one more question, Lucky.”

“What is it?”

I put the stick into the campfire and clasped both of my hand and said to him, “All of the Cardinals are Watchers, am I correct?”

“Other than the problem that Magic Advancement has, yes. Sam, Ace and Lala are all Watchers.”

“Are those two…fine?”

“Yes. They are fine over here. I think most of us underestimated these Cardinals. To think that every Watcher would be the one to suddenly attack, we were afraid that the Cardinals would be one of them as well since their all are Watchers.”

I sat down on the floor near the campfire and said to him, “I guess that’s a good thing.”

“Indeed.” Lucky nodded as we continued to discuss on other unrelated things.

-

“You got the message, Lin?” I asked Lin as I hold both of her hand.

Lin pulls away her hands and said, “Yessir. And can you please stop harassing me. I might just file a complaint to Sam about this…”

“You can just do that. It’s not like I’m going to be here after this.”

Lin was annoyed and said, “Whatever.” She then got out of The Training Ball and made her way back to the main camp to send a message to Sam about the situation that was currently happening with the VIPs.

“That girl…is pretty weird…” Lala was behind me as I suddenly heard her said that.

I turned back to her and told her, “She’s your classmate, Miss Cardinal. You shouldn’t be calling your classmate a weirdo.”

Lala shakes her head and said, “It’s not like that.”

“Then why do you say that she’s weird?”

“I used to be like her…when I was still a kid. A…shinobi, right? I was roleplaying as one…with my friends.” Most of Lala’s speech were really slow but I fully understand what she was trying to say.

“So you’re saying that it’s like you are looking at a younger version of yourself?”

“Probably.” She smiled a little as she said that.

She was probably feeling nostalgic after seeing Lin. She’s a rather interesting character as far as I see from her.

-

After waiting for quite a while, Lin finally came back from the main camp with news. She handed me the letter and I gently open it and read it,

Orders from the Field Marshal, Sam Maximus

I have read the message from Captain Ralph concerning the situation with their mission. The Generals and I have discussed and agreed to a solution to this update. We have come to a conclusion that we will agree to the offer from the survivors in the Training Ball on joining the battle from a different location.

We have considered that by agreeing to this alliance, we will not do any misdeeds that might offend The Allied Force that we have made today. According to our agreement, The Allied Force consists of The Absolute Order, Team Ace, Unit MS44, and the 13 different groups from Magic Advancement. If and only if one of these force decided to overthrow or perform the acts of betrayal, The Allied Force Alliance will ultimately and spontaneously be broke off immediately.

Currently, The Absolute Order waits for the signal from the other Allied Force to engage in combat and eliminate the enemy, The Corrupted Watchers. We hope that this alliance will finally put an end to the chaos that is happening right now.

P.S. – “To my loyal subjects, I am okay.”

And that was what she wrote to us.

“Oh yeah.” Lin handed me another letter and I read it,

Special Orders To –

Ralph Clef, Lin August, Hariken Shiro, Typhon Blanc

Your squad’s duty is over but the following orders will be exclusively for each and one of you. You will be working separately from now on. Please read the orders below carefully and immediately proceed to the mission starting point:

Ralph Clef – Special Operation: Bedtime

Objective: Get to the top of the Signal Tower at the academy’s broadcast room and wait for the signal to broadcast The Bedtime Song across the academy campus.

Lin August – Special Operation: Aqua

Objective: Place an explosive card on all marked water tank across the academy and wait for the signal to activate it.

Hariken Shiro – Special Operation: Protect The Monster

Objective: Protect the Monster and make sure no further complication that would harm the alliance happen until the end of the war.

Typhon Blanc – N/A

Objective: No further orders. You may rest until the end of the battle.

Once again and for sure this time, that was all she wrote.

Lin then spoken to me, “I think we should rest for now. Tomorrow is going to be a long day for us.”

“You damn right it is. I can’t wait for tomorrow.”

I made my way back to one of the tent that was made for me until I suddenly heard a rant from Blanc. I hid behind one of the many tents and listened in to her ranting to Shiro.

“This is unbelievable! What kind of order was that? I thought I would get to go out and fight with the others. But what do I get? NOTHING!”

Shiro was sweating bullets as he tried to calm her down, “It’s alright, Blanc. You’ve done your job. You don’t need to do anything else. You can rest now.”

“Rest?! I’m barely even tired. I haven’t even killed anything throughout this mission!” One of her eyes suddenly glowed golden.

“Oh no…no…Blanc…relax…breath in and out…”

“Don’t touch me! I would have eaten you the first time I got the chance. But you’re too dead for me to eat!”

“Blanc…you’re not supposed to say something like that…” Shiro grew worried of her conditions.

“Do I look like I care?! You’re just a walking dead body! You should have gone to the afterlife along with your sister!”

“Blanc!” A loud smacking sound echoed across the area.

At the very least, no one was there except the three of us. It didn’t really cause a commotion but what happened was that Shiro just slapped Blanc out of anger. Blanc was too furious that she just went and forgets to be more considerate about others. She immediately went to Shiro and said one of the most offensive things she could have said to Shiro. Even though we haven’t have a guess on whether his little sister was long gone or not, Shiro’s reaction finally seals the deal proving that he had already lost his one and only family member.

Blanc’s golden eye stopped glowing as she seethes the pain from the slap. Tears started to drop from her eyes as she tries to hold it in. Shiro finally noticed that she was crying, felt sorry and tried to forgive her but before he was even allowed to do so, Blanc immediately pushed him away and ran away.

“Jeez…those two really have a hard time with their past, aren’t they?” I said so on my own.

“Indeed…” Then, out of the blue, she appeared next to me.

“What the?! How are you…I thought you were...”

That blonde hair…I will never mistake her for that. It was her. It was Yumiko. She suddenly appeared before me. I thought she was out with White on some assessment duty. Why was she doing here?

“Yumiko! What are you doing here?”

She laughed and said, “Now don’t go and telling people I’m here because I’m only visiting.” She showed me a portal that she made to come here. “I’m just here to take a look at what happened at the campus, here. Looks like things are becoming more interesting.”

“You know what’s going on right? Then you should call for help, Yumiko.”

“Don’t worry. You guys can handle this. I trust you guys for that. I’m betting a lot for your victory, you know.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh look.” Yumiko pointed at where Shiro was, “I think Blanc is leaving the ball. She might end this short alliance if something was to happen to her, don’t you think so?”

“Blanc…”

“Well then, I’m off!” Yumiko got back into her portal and left me.

“Hey, Yumiko! Darn it…” I gave up trying to follow her and looked back at Shiro and shouted to him, “What are you doing, Shiro?! Go and get her back! Isn’t that your mission?!”

Shiro heard that and nodded. He took some breathing for a moment and finally made his move to find Blanc. I just hope those two will make it out alright…

TO BE CONTINUED