Fufu, this was a chance for me to distinguish myself.

“I’ll g—”

“I’ll go.”

A man’s voice cut me off. Without even looking, I could tell that it was Scott who so rudely tried to steal my job.

…And I wasn’t going to just let that happen.

“I’m better than him!” I jumped up and exclaimed.

Scott simply shook his head and sighed. “You literally just joined yesterday. How in Lumaria’s name can you be better than me?”

“I’m smaller and nimbler, so I can scout better than you!”

“That means nothing if you can’t even survive to bring back information.”

As the argument was about to get more heated, Ray intervened.

“Enough. Scott will go, and it’s final.”

Scott left the truck, but not before giving me an annoying grin. I just wanted to punch him in the face at that moment, but I restrained myself.

Then, Rin and Petra came to soothe me as if I was a kid who didn’t know better.

“Aw, it’s okay. I’m sure you’ll get your chance later.”

“Rin’s right. Maybe the chance of finding a lone Monster is greater than you might’ve thought…”

After that, I spent two hours inside the truck doing a whole lot of nothing. As I was about to complain to Ray, Scott came back and poked his head into the back of the truck.

“I’m back.”

Petra stood up and rushed over to him. She poked her head out of the vehicle a bit, presumably to see his body, and gasped. She then jumped out of the truck.

I also stood up, wanting to see what caused Petra to do so. However, I was held back by Rin. 

“Come on, it’s cold outside.”

“But I—”

“I’m cold. Can you do me a favor and warm me up?”

At her request, I pursed my lips and nodded. Then, I sat on her lap, allowing her to wrap her blanket over both of us.

Before long, Petra returned.

“Okay, I talked with Scott. He found no Monster.”

“Great,” I said as I adjusted my body a bit. “Then, the truck’s moving soon, right?”

“Not yet.” Petra smiled apologetically. “Scott and Captain still have to do their…men business. Anyways, are you hungry?”

‘Now that I think about it…’

I hadn’t eaten anything for the past two days. Feeling my stomach rumble, I nodded. 

Petra reached out to pat my head before taking out a chocolate bar from her pocket.

“For you.”

I widened my eyes in surprise and received the chocolate with trembling hands. T-This… No matter what the brand, chocolate was always the best.

“Thank you.”

After a brief thank you, I devoured the chocolate bar hungrily. I didn’t care if it was in Petra’s pocket this whole time—it looked clean enough.

As I finished the chocolate, I began to yawn loudly. 

“Why am I—” I yawned cutely, interrupting my own sentence. “—feeling tired?”

“I’m sure it’s just the exhaustion catching up to you,” Petra replied.

Being in a warm blanket with Rin didn’t help.

“Hey, the truck’s not going to move any time soon, so you should get some rest.”

Hearing Rin’s words, I could only nod. Partly because it made sense—the other part being I was too tired to say anything.

So, I fell asleep right there in the warm blanket.

.

.

.

.

Astrape fell asleep with a yawn and woke up with a yawn. ‘Dammit, it’s always yawns.’

She found herself completely alone in the back of the truck. Neatly folding the blanket she was in, Astrape exited the truck, only to find Petra kneeling beside Rin and bandaging her arms.

“Hey—what happened?”

Rin jolted up in surprise upon hearing Astrape’s voice. She began sweating profusely, not knowing what to answer.

Thankfully, Petra came to the rescue.

“Oh, you know—she just cut herself with a knife. Typical clumsy Rin.”

“T-That’s right.” Rin nervously laughed. “I-I’m not that good at cooking. Y-You know, I’m a Mage and all…”

Astrape nodded. It made sense to her. “Okay, but was it so serious that you have to bandage her?”

Petra shrugged with a chuckle. “We have a surplus of supply, and it’s better to be safe than sorry, don’t you think?”
“Hmmm…” Astrape, though not entirely convinced, still accepted the answer. “But what about those guys?” She pointed to Ray and Scott, who very obviously had small cuts on their faces and bloodied bandages wrapping around their bodies.

“Men business,” Petra immediately replied. But upon seeing Astrape’s skeptical face, she sighed. “Okay, fine, they had a scuffle.”

“Right in the middle of a mission?”

“Yes. That’s why men are dumb.”

‘I’m pretty sure I’m the only competent person in this squad. Well, along with Petra, of course.’

From the start, Petra had always acted like the mother of the group. She’s been looking after the clumsy Rin, the rude and hot-headed Ray, and the insensitive Ray.

“Okay, that’s enough,” Ray suddenly announced. “Now that our final member has finally woken up, let’s continue.

The truck started moving for nearly a mile before it stopped again.

Before Astrape could ask anything, Ray slid the plate separating the back and the front and said,

“Monsters ahead. Who—”

“Me!”

This time, no one tried to steal Astrape’s glory. 

“Alright, since no one else is volunteering, you’re good to go.”

“Yes!”

Astrape literally jumped up in excitement and grabbed her sabre and knife. Climbing out of the truck, she dashed ahead and found five rabbits with sharp black horns on their heads just hopping around aimlessly.

Although they looked cute with their fluffy body and ears—’And by Goddess Lumaria, they’re cute,’ Astrape still gulped in nervousness. They were Monsters—beings that realistically, an Unawakened like her shouldn’t be able to kill.

Feeling a presence approaching, she looked over her shoulder and saw Ray. 

He stood still and crossed his arms, observing what Astrape might do. To Astrape, it looked like he was assessing her.

And she wasn’t going to let him down.

Tightening her grip on her weapons, Astrape leaped forward with a loud shout. 

Three of the Horned rabbits ran away after a moment of shock. 

‘Good instinct on their part.’

The other two, however, immediately prepared for battle. They were small and agile; with horns as hard as tempered steel. Even an F-ranked individual would be severely injured if a Horned rabbit used all of its power to attack.

However, Astrape knew how to deal with them. After all, they were among one of the first creatures Marcela encountered after being transported to this novel world.

Pulling herself out of the memories, she stabbed her sabre at a rabbit. She missed, only piercing the white snow and disbalancing herself. 

The other Rabbit saw its opportunity and leaped at her abdomen, clearly aiming to kill.

Despite this, Astrape had a smile plastered on her face. ‘Yes! You fell for my trap!’ Since Horned rabbits only attacked with leaps whose direction couldn’t be changed, she threw her knife at the Rabbit’s eye—and it hit, just like she’d predicted.

Rushing over to it, Astrape kicked the knife deeper into its eyesocket, eventually breaking its skull and piercing its brain.

It was then that Astrape felt a cold shiver running down her spine. She quickly spun around and swung her sabre just in time to intercept the other Rabbit’s lunge. Sparks literally flied off the sabre and horn, and Astrape was knocked back due to the force behind the attack.

With her back against a tree, Astrape quickly ducked upon as soon as she realized that the Rabbit was already half-way into another attack. She barely made it.

The Rabbit, with its horn firmly lodged in the tree, was now immobilized. It tried to wiggle free, but to no avail. Even if it could eventually free itself, Astrape wasn’t going to let it live.

She held her sabre and slashed down. However, the sword bounced off its hide rather harmlessly.

‘Goddamn, I knew that Unawakened struggles against Monsters, but for it to be this bad?’

It was simply absurd.

Sighing, she was about to just stab it in the eye when she noticed a deep gash just under its belly. 

‘Eh? This wound was here the whole time?’

Astrape face-palmed herself. If she’d known, she would’ve aimed for it instead of foolishly trying to clash with the Rabbit’s attack. But it was no use regretting now. So, with a thrust into the wound, she killed the Rabbit.

But Astrape noticed something strange. ‘If this Rabbit had the wound, could the other one…!’ She immediately turned around and saw that the other Rabbit had the same wound on its abdomen—and it did.

Before Astrape could question the crazy coincidence, reality came crashing down on her.

“D-Did… Did I just…kill?”

She felt nauseated. She didn’t feel anything in the battle since it was a matter of life-and-death. But now, with the excitement of battle and her adrenaline receding, she could clearly tell that she did a horrible and disgusting thing.

They were just lazing around in the snow—did she really have to kill them?

Astrape felt her legs wobbling and soon, she got down on her knees and puked all over the ground. Despite having emptied the entirety of her stomach’s content—which was a chocolate bar—she still felt dizzy. That was when she noticed a firm hand on her shoulder.

It was Ray. He had a condescending look on his face, as if he’d known that this would happen all along.

“You’re weak—body and mind,” he said without an ounce of pity. “If you’re going to puke at every kill you make, you’re better off staying safe far from the battlefield.”

Someone about Ray’s words enraged Astrape. Her, weak? Her, pitiful? She, the one who knew all the secrets of this world, was better off staying away from her goals? Impudence!

Yet, she couldn’t refute his words. It was true that she felt bad for killing just a couple of Monsters, but that was what made one human, was it not?

But she knew that this kind of mentality was…wrong. She knew what the future held, so it was obvious to her that she would have to do a lot of killing in the future to simply survive, let alone find her Mom.

So, with determination burning in her eyes, she grabbed her sabre and stabbed her own hand with it.

“Mpppfhh!”

Hearing Astrape’s muffled scream, Ray quickly turned around. Before he could question the stupid girl about what she’d done to her own hand, Astrape removed her hand from her mouth, sighed, and let out a hollow chuckle.

“I’m stronger than I look. Me, puking? That’s simply because this is my first time killing. Everyone has their firsts—”

“And no one’s first kill shouldn’t be at the age of thirteen.”

“Stop interrupting me!” She shouted. “Point is, I’m determined. And no amount of scaring from you will make me want to go home. I. Will. Find. My. Mom!”

Ray stared blankly at Astrape, not knowing what to do. He glanced behind his shoulder, taking in Petra and Rin’s worried gaze and Scott’s amusement before sighing.

“You know, you didn’t need to stab your own fucking hand.”

Astrape’s face suddenly turned red with embarrassment.

“A-And I did anyways! Now are you going to patch me up or not?”

Ray simply turned around and walked off to hide the smile on his face.

“That’s Petra’s job.”

He walked past Petra, who was rushing over to Astrape, and got onto the truck. Since the driver seat was elevated from the ground, he could see over the small protrusion on the road that blocked Astrape’s view of anything beyond it.

Looking at the road filled with dozens upon dozens of dead Horned rabbits with cut, stab, and burn wounds on them, he lit a cigarrette and puffed it.

“Missions are going to be much harder now, aren’t they?”

.

.

.

.

A year had passed since then. To Astrape, nothing had really changed. Petra was still like a mother—or an overprotective older sister, Rin was still clumsy, and Ray and Scott were still assholes. 

Well, something did change, and it was the fact that she was now closer than ever to the Northwestern frontlines.

The mission she’d received in the past year was only comprised of Monsters subjugation and route clearing. It’d gotten to the point that she had to wonder if every squad had to spend most of their time fighting Monsters.

‘Still, leaving a Powerless squad to fight Monsters, isn’t it terribly inefficient?’

But she was in no position to question the higher-ups’ orders.

Still, she found something odd. Whenever Scott returned from his scouting, Petra would offer her food or water. And after that, she would fall asleep without exception.

'It might just be my body reacting to being full. It's probably nothing.'

Of course, things didn’t stay this way forever. On one night, when Astrape was playing cards with Petra and Rin in a tent, Ray poked his head in and announced with a deep frown on his face.

“We’re moving to the frontlines tomorrow. We received a special order to congregate with multiple other squads to form a platoon."

With a similarly distraught expression, Petra shakily asked,

“W-What do we need to do?”

Ray sighed loudly.

"Weaken an enemy's base before the main force arrives.”