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It was a well-known fact that Alba had a notoriously innate tendency to strike fear and awe into the hearts of their adversaries. If the San Magnolian textbooks were to be believed, this was why the Alba inevitably emerged as the esteemed nobility and leaders of the known world – a natural talent for giving effective orders and coercing dissidents into obedience were valuable resources a despot could not idly waste. Even the despicable, bloodthirsty, despotic, warmongering Giad Empire had recognized the Alba as prospective equals, not inferiors.
The absurd levels of revisionist propaganda the former Republic of San Magnolia had embellished their history books with aside, Shin was willing to concede that a concerningly high number of acquaintances of Alba descent could play the intimidator role quite naturally.
Anju was a straightforward example. Dustin learned this quickly when she had slammed him through a table on a dime. Before Daiya had met his tragic end, the cheerful Sapphira used to joke with Theo that the Legion couldn’t send him to the afterlife because Anju had already sent him there. For similar reasons, while joking about Daiya’s interest in Anju had been fair game amongst the Spearhead Squadron, no one dared joke about Anju’s crush on Daiya without being safely in their juggernaut on the opposite side of the battlefield.
Likewise, as much as it displeased him to acknowledge it, Shiden had a knack for knocking common sense into people, quite literally if need be.
As for Rita, it went without saying that a person who could transform making tea into a summoning ritual of evil from the darkest, most fiery pits of hell merited sleeping with one eye open whenever she offered to “help” in the kitchen.
And yet…
“I was thinking back to the fight in Charité, and I take back my surprise at her ‘new’ personality. Remember how she borrowed my left eye and saved us with the Interception Cannons? Compared to that , the rocket boosters were child’s play. I mean, come on, how in the hell does a ‘princess’ twist some fat white pig’s arm hard enough that she can use the artillery and still be eligible to represent the Republic’s army abroad as a colonel ?”
despite this…
“She did what ?!”
“I-I-I don’t want to repeat myself,” she replied, lowering her head and averting his gaze to suppress the vivid memories rapidly resurfacing. “I’m just telling you, she’ll credit me to the end for helping her, but Lena was the one who truly saved you. But that night, when she knocked on my door, it wasn’t her, it was…” Rita shivered violently. “I don’t want to see that face ever again.”
“It’s true that the instructors in the academy are pushovers, but –” Dustin adjusted his glasses with a smirk, “there’s a difference between easily influenced and sweating bullets the moment the higher ups explain that Vladilena Milizé will be guest lecturing during your next session. Best part is, the MP tried increasing the number of officers on post whenever she visited, and yet I don’t think the MPs ever lifted a finger against her. Well, at least publicly…but that says a lot about her gravitas despite all the pushback she likely received for choosing serving justice as her hill to die on.”
He refused to entertain the possibility that Colonel Milizé could have a single bad bone in her body. It was true that she could be fierce in her devotion to duty and justice to the point she’d make most knights blush, but that was truly inspirational, not terrifying.
If there was truly anything frightening about Vladilena Milizé, it was the fact she was capable of chatting with a mostly-straight face on the Para-RAID while bathing (granted, he had done the same in the past, so he supposed that made them even) and had the alcohol tolerance of a wet noodle.
He was still desperately trying to forget the time she had entered an intoxicated stupor from a single sip of hard liquor, pinned him to his bed, and threatened to punish him for doing his damnedest to tune her out. Thankfully, she had no recollection of the incident, and Shiden had shown him mercy and freed him from his compromising position by princess carrying Lena back to her room.
Unlike Raiden, who had chosen that moment to make a convenient “exit” to elsewhere.
Speaking of Raiden…
“Are you going to take your turn or what?”
Raiden glared at the Undertaker as if he had been asked if water was wet. “It’s not mine, idiot, I played a reverse card so now it’s Lena’s turn. Has your head been in the clouds for the past ten minutes?”
To kill time, several members of the Eighty-Sixth Strike Package’s 1st Armored Group had gathered in the base’s headquarters to play a game of cards. Despite the highly-variable rules and occasionally intense arguments over whether a certain move was valid, the game’s goal was incredibly simple: clear your hand of cards, and screw over other players by forcing them to draw extra cards.
Unfortunately, the time between turns was long enough for Shin’s mind to still wander.
“I was just thinking –”
A highly annoyed sigh escaped Raiden’s lips. “You’ve been thinking a lot lately. It’s not about those pigs, is it? Colonel Wenzel and the higher ups already told you that they’ll be thoroughly investigating the security breach, and besides, I think Lena is beginning to fully digest what we told her. She hasn’t been punishing herself for being a ‘white pig’ the past few days now, has she?”
“No.”
“So why exactly have you been making faces as if you’re horribly constipated?”
The truth was, he had been dying to write a page-by-page demolition of the Bleachers’ common arguments to highlight to Lena that she wasn’t a “white pig,” but he always found an excuse to put it off. Part of it was out of laziness, part of it was having more productive uses of his time, and part of it was out of a desire to continue the upbeat tone and wild tales that were his sorry excuse of an “after-action report.” Lena always made the funniest faces reading his summaries, and he always felt a little more alive hearing her silvery peals of laughter and seeing her poorly-suppressed smiles.
“ Harumph. ”
Come to think of it, the expression Vladilena Milizé was making right now served as a textbook example of why the Eighty Six found their Alba superior so endearing.
Despite having enough cards she needed an extra pair of hands (Anju’s) to manage them, Lena was puffing up her cheeks and scowling at her options. After what seemed like hours, she reluctantly flicked a green card onto the table.
“That will have to do…” she rued.
“How is it possible that you have that many cards and yet be unable to play anything ?”
“Well, maybe if a certain trio, ” Lena cast withering stares at Anju, Rita, and Theo, “hadn’t thrust multiple ‘draw four’ cards on me, I wouldn’t be in this dilemma.”
Theo coughed unapologetically. “You won the last four games in record time, it was more than fair.”
Right, he had been outside listening to the latest Magnolian propaganda report as well as confirming the current positions of the Legion with Shiden, so he had missed the first few games.
“ Especially since you started that ‘draw two’ panic sequence,” Anju added all-too-innocently. “I was on my last card, too…”
That also explained why the three of them had made a concerted effort to leave Lena with the lion’s share of cards before emptying their hands, leading her to the present predicament.
Shin had to admit that the others had raised valid points. Lena hadn’t been promoted to colonel at age eighteen for nothing – she was a promising and capable strategist, after all. What cards were in a person’s dealt hand may be up to chance, but knowing who had what and would play it when required a lot of careful planning and accepting assuming an unfavorable position now in return for a favorable one later.
Nevertheless, Shin saw no outcome except one where Lena would finish in last place. The odds were simply not in her favor.
From smallest hand size to largest, the remaining players were Kurena, Raiden, himself, and then Lena by a country mile.
Slap.
“Thanks Lena!”
Everyone gave a click of annoyance as Lena had played the perfect card to allow Kurena to bow out of the game in fourth place. Thankfully, it had no repercussions for the next player in line, and so Shin remained a strong contender for beating Raiden for fifth place. The difference between them was a mere two cards, and he had the perfect solution to that problem.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t deploy it just yet, and so he disposed a different card.
“Joke’s on you, daydreamer.”
“....!”
A reverse card?!
Of all the possible things Raiden could have done, this one was arguably the worst outcome, and one he hadn’t predicted.
Shin’s plan pivoted around Lena having another turn, where he could trust that out of her vast arsenal she would have something for him to remove his deadweight card. This in turn would allow him to engage in a prolonged, unrestricted “draw two” dueling sequence as his parting gift to Raiden.
But that plan had crumbled to dust, and he was caught flat-footed.
“I’m sorry, Lena,” he mumbled as he unceremoniously plopped a ‘draw two’ card bearing the same color as Raiden’s ‘reverse sequence’ card atop the pile. Per the group’s consensus, players could answer a ‘draw’ card with a ‘draw two’ or ‘draw four, color change’ card of their own without having to draw the stated number of cards.
The catch was, if someone didn’t have a ‘draw two’ or ‘draw four’ of their own, they’d have to draw the complete sum of the prolonged sequence for their own hand.
Given the events that had befallen the table earlier, all of those ‘draw two’ or ‘draw four’ were likely resting at the bottom of the expended pile, meaning Lena would have to add another two cards to her behemoth of a pile.
The only comforting thing about the situation was that Lena was certainly about to bless the 86th Strike Package with her adorable noises of frustration.
“Are you sure you want to do that, Captain Nouzen ?”
Or not.
An ominous tingling sensation traveled down his arm. For some reason, even though Lena’s voice chimed its usual ring and her mouth formed its typical bright smile, Shin couldn’t suppress the inescapable feeling of impending doom escaping his throat.
“It’s just two cards,” he replied flatly, concealing the gulp he had just taken. “Do you not have ‘draw two’ cards of your own?”
Obviously she doesn’t, otherwise she wouldn’t be reacting like this.
The Celena responded with merely a raised brow and ever-growing grin.
“So you’re committing to this?”
Obviously.
Sorry Lena.
Lena rested her chin atop her clasped arms and let out a terrifying adorable giggle, understanding the significance of his deafening silence.
“Suit yourself ~. Hope you won’t regret it.”
At the drop of a hat, faster than the Morpho’s muzzle velocity of 8,000 meters per second, Lena’s mischievous smile morphed into a sinister grin. She leaned forwards and slid a card his way.
Oh.
Ohh.
Oh no.
“Good luck, Captain Nouzen~.”
Raiden shook his head and willed his lips to repress his furtive grin. “You did this to yourself, idiot.”
Another ‘draw two.’
That was fine, he had plenty more where that came from. It had been his idea to start this sequence, after all.
Slap.
And yet…
Slap.
Why had she smiled so devilishly? If Lena knew she had plenty of those to go round, why did she act like he had forced her to eat one of Rita’s “edibles”?
Slap.
Was it possible they had exhausted the ‘draw’ deck and thus reformed it, meaning the ‘draw cards’ he had seen earlier were back into play?!
Slap.
No wonder there were so many of these damn 'draw' cards.
Slap.
He wanted to slap whoever 'shuffled' this deck with a shovel. Repeatedly.
Slap.
With every pass, Shin’s lone “deadweight” card stood out more and more as a liability, while neither opposing hand appeared to have such shortcomings.
Slap.
“Well, there’s my last card,” Raiden said nonchalantly as he flicked another ‘draw two’ card as his parting gift. “Good luck, you’ll need it.”
Now it was just the two of them.
He was three cards away from the finish line, compared to her seven.
Granted, one of those was a card he’d have to find a way to dispose of, since right now the end times were coming.
“I’m waiting,” Lena offered calmly.
Actually…was it ‘calmly’?
What did ‘calmly’ mean?
On a technicality, could ‘a peaceful voice causing everyone’s soul to quake in their mortal coils’ constitute calmness?
Slap.
Pleasenomorepleasenomorepleasenomore.
If gods existed, they must have heard his frantic, telepathic prayers. At his reaction, Lena seemed to pause, and glance up at him thoughtfully.
Slap.
Only for her to shatter his hopes utterly.
He now had only one more chance to end this ludicrous sequence of draws. He hoped that the brief return to her typical concerned expressions was an indication that she had no more ‘draw’ cards to spare.
This was his last – and final – chance to save himself from a disaster he had created.
SLAP!
“GREEN!”
Lena froze, and time seemed to stop. Her face contorted into a disappointed pout and she stared at him intently.
“Your last card doesn’t happen to not be a ‘draw’ card, does it?”
For an all-too-brief second, the young silver-haired woman looked ready to burst into tears.
But then it changed.
The first thing he noticed was her teeth, white as snow, yet sharp enough to cleave a Löwe in two.
Next were her eyes, normally bright and warm, now cold and furious like a winter blizzard.
Finally, her mouth shifted into a far-too-wide smile to accommodate her toothy grin, which reminded him of photographs of killer whales sizing up potential prey moments before devouring them whole.
Slap.
A ‘draw four, color change’ card identical to the one Shin had just set down.
“Yellow.”
That color, was in fact, not the color of his last card, which wasn’t a “draw” card either.
Which meant…
“ My oh my, Captain Nouzen …do you mean to tell me you don’t have anything to play~?” Lena tutted and pushed the entire pile of expended cards in his direction.
“ Here , let me… help you~ .”
That day, Shinei Nouzen discovered Vladilena Milizé had a spine-chilling “game face.” He knew exactly what Rita had seen the night Lena had persuaded her to be an accomplice to the Major’s crimes.
He never wanted to see that sort of expression on Lena’s face again.
And yet…were she to slip into that intimidating persona again, he couldn’t force himself to be opposed to the idea. He had been scared, yes, but he also felt a strange feeling in his very being that drew him towards it, like a moth to a blazing inferno.
“I can’t die right after you finally gave me your answer, can I?”
There was a brief pause on the Para-RAID, as if Lena was still processing his playful jest.
“Yes… Also, Shin?”
Then, he heard – no, he sensed – that sickeningly sweet prickliness wash over him. A feeling he hadn’t felt since that card game so long ago.
“I actually still have your coat, for when I have to wear the Cicada… You usually put on cologne, right? It smells like you. Sometimes…putting your coat on calms me down.”
Shin finally understood what Daiya meant.
The Legion would never have the honor of sending Báleygr to heaven.
He had already been killed by Vladilena Milizé.