Takuto looked down at the girl sucking his cock with an excited gaze.

‘Hehe, you won’t last long.’

After all, he’d poured aphrodisiac on his dick preemptively. It was a particularly expensive bottle of aphrodisiac, too, so no one should be able to resist it.

And, he knew he was right when he noticed the girl beginning the suck with more fervor than before.

“Y-Yes! Keep going!”

But then, she abruptly stopped. 

Since Takuto was so close to orgasm now, he put off breaking the girl’s mind to later and began to focus on his pleasure.

This continued for a few seconds. But instead of release—

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

—He felt a sharp pain down below.

Takuto immediately looked down, just in time to see Astrape spitting his severed dick from her mouth.

“Disgusting,” she grumbled.

Before he could do anything else, Astrape tackled him to the ground, stole his gun from its holster, and shot him dead on the spot.

The other men, of course hearing this, rushed over to see what was going on. However, they were all shot dead by her.

Astrape spat the blood in her mouth out as if it was something disgusting. It wasn’t the iron taste of blood that disgusted her, but the slightly salty taste of cum.

If she had a bowl of water right now, she would use every last drop to rinse her mouth.

Astrape took the guns from the men’s holster and gave them to the other girls. “End your life if you want,” she said. “But if you want to survive, follow my orders and hide under the men’s corpses.”

The men were big enough for the petite girls to do so.

Seeing that none of the girls was using the guns to kill themselve, Astrape nodded in satisfaction. Then, she inspected the magazine of the gun she was holding.

‘Two bullets left.’

She spent one shooting the cover of the big ventilation shaft, making it fall down to the ground with a loud crash.

With the preparations now done, she laid down on the ground next to Takuto’s corpse and waited.

She didn’t need to wait long. Soon, loud banging could be heard on the door.

-”H-Hey, Sergeant! I heard gunshots! Are you okay? Did that bitch bite you?!”

After a few seconds, the door was swung open, revealing Ken and two more soldiers. They walked into the room, confused and horrified at their Sergeant’s corpse.

“W-What happened?”

As if on cue, Astrape coughed loudly and squirmed on the ground.

Ken, seeing this, grabbed her by the collar and lifted her up.

“What happened here?!” He shouted.

Astrape trembled. Her face displayed obvious fear, yet her eyes were emotionless as ever.

“I-I-I…”

“Dammit! Answer me, bitch!”

“I-I don’t know! S-Some men in cloaks c-came in here through the vents and s-shot him! T-They took the other girls with them.”

“Where did they go?!”

“B-Back inside the vent!”

Ken grumbled a curse and threw Astrape to the ground. Then, he commanded his men to look into the vents with him.

Astrape took the chance and took out the gun from under her clothes and shot Ken right in his back, making him fall to the ground in pain. She tried to shoot the other two soldiers, but soon remembered that she was out of bullets.

With quick reflexes and wits, she dove right to Takuto’s corpse and used it to shield her from the men’s line of sight.

“Shoot if you dare!” She shouted. “Your Sergeant is still alive!”

The men gulped. If they were to pull the trigger right now, they would surely be execute later for killing a superior. As they were wondering on what to do, Ken shouted,

“Just shoot! No one will know who killed the Sergeant!”

As if woken up from their trance, the two men aimed at Astrape and prepared to shoot.

However, the girls from before got out of their hiding places and gunned the men down before they could do anything.

Astrape heaved a sigh of relief and threw Takuto away like the trash that it was. Standing over Ken, who was still struggling to come to terms with reality, she let out a wicked laughter.

Then, she raised her foot up and stomped on his throat. Ignoring the cries of pain coming from Ken and the gasps coming from the girls, she continued until his throat was completely crushed.

Turning back at her comrades, Astrape smiled.

“Let’s take over the base.”

.

.

.

.

Petra felt foolish. She was given a chance to back out of the suicidal mission, yet she was determined to stay.

More than her capture, her only regret was not being able to protect Astrape…

She looked around her. In the dark cell were about ten soldiers from the Empire; two of them being her acquaintance—Rin and Scott.

Actually, there was another acquaintance of hers here—Ray; or, what was left of him, anyways.

Right outside the cell was several stakes with decapitated heads atop them. Petra knew what they was for. Someone wanted for the morale of the soldiers to go down to the negatives.

The only thing keeping her from despair was the rage she felt when she saw Ray’s head on top of one of the stakes.

Seven days had passed since her capture. Even Petra herself was starting to lose hope. No food, no water, not even the slightest bit of lig—

Petra’s vision was suddenly blinded with the brightest light she’d seen in days. It was almost as if…

“G-Goddess Lumaria?”

Nay, it was a raven-haired Goddess with dull gray eyes and white military clothes. Her face was splashed with blood, but she didn’t care. Even step she took made a squelching noise since her boots were soaked with blood.

Her name was—

“Ast?” Petra muttered in disbelief as her eyes finally adjusted to the light.

Astrape, with a face noticeably less crazy than before, placed her hands on the bars and answered,

“It’s me. Now, let’s get you out of here.”

But before Astrape could unlock the cell, Petra spoke with a grim voice.

“R-Ray, he’s—”

“I know.” Astrape stopped in her tracks and looked at the stakes. With a shake of her head and a tightening of her fists, she continued to the cell door and unlocked it.

She slowly walked into the cell, basking in the attention that every soldier inside was giving her. With a grin, she threw the backpack she was wearing to the ground. Since it was already unzipped, anyone could see that it was full of guns.

“Take them,” she said. “We’ll take the base from the inside.”

Hesitation. No one wanted to be the first to pick up a weapon—not after three days of being in this dark room with nothing but themselves and the decapitated heads of their comrades.

However, this stuffy atmosphere broke when Scott stepped up. He stared straight into Astrape’s dull gray eyes unflichingly and glowered.

“Tell me, is the bastard that killed Ray here?”

Astrape simply replied,

“I don’t know. But—wouldn’t you eventually meet them if you crush the Kingdom’s army?”

With a nod, Scott picked up a gun and stood behind Astrape.

One by one, the soldiers all took up arms. Even Rin, a Mage, took it upon herself to pick up a gun.

The only person without a weapon now was Petra.

“What are you waiting for, Petra?” Astrape asked.

“Ast, no, this isn’t right. Stay back and—”

Suddenly, Astrape broke into a crazed laughter. She then abruptly stopped and glared at Petra.

“Stop? Are you fucking serious?! From the start, you guys have been treating me like a child!”

“Because you are a child!” Petra shouted back.

“Maybe I am. But this child killed people. This child ripped out the genital of the man who dared to defile her with her own teeth. Even if I want to be a child, even if I want to act my age now, it’s already too late.”

Then, Astrape knelt down to Petra and grasped her hand.

“Please, don’t treat me like that anymore. Take up the gun and follow me. We will make them pay for killing Ray.”

Petra alternated her gaze between Astrape and Ray’s decapitated head before slapping herself on the cheek. Taking the gun from Astrape’s hand, she stood up—more determined than ever.

“I’m only doing this to protect you.”

Although clearly dissatisfied, Astrape’s face still softened.

“That’s all I ask for.”

.

.

.

.

Since she was by Astrape’s side, Petra could see that the child had really changed.

Whenever they were about to encounter enemy’s troops, she would command the others to stay behind before meeting the enemies herself and appeal to their sympathy.

Of course, there were psychopaths who would shoot a child on sight, but Astrape simply tore them apart and dug their insides out with her own hands to instill fear into them…and, maybe unintentionally, her own forces.

‘Deceit, cunning, and madness. Dear Goddess, she became the exact opposite of what Ray wanted her to be.’

She knew that the battlefield changed people, but this was just absurd.

Despite that, she still held hope. That little girl who would get overexcited at Ray’s praises was still there. Just—buried under masks of deceit and lies.

And it wasn’t just lie to others. Petra could tell that Astrape was lying to herself. She somehow tricked herself into not feeling any ounce of guilt killing this amount of people.

Petra felt powerless. So, the only thing she could do was to make a promise with herself—the same promise that she made with Ray.

‘After all of this is over, I’ll look after her for you, Ray.’

.

.

.

.

After just a day, the base was captured by Astrape and the soldiers.

The main force of the Empire’s army came a day later. Leading it was Evanos Ecertold, a Grand Duke of the Empire, and also the Supreme Commander of the Royal Knights.

Although he was an S-ranked individual, he disguised as a Powerless General to lead the battle. International Conventions be dammed. No country follow them seriously, anyways. They only pretended to follow “rules” and “treaties” to appease the public.

As Evanos was about to begin the assault, his scouts spotted something—a messenger on a horse, carrying a white flag.

It took a while, but the messenger finally reached Evanos.

Evanos was wary, but he was more confused than anything when he saw that the messenger was wearing the Empire’s military uniform.

“What’s all this about?” He asked one of the scouts.

“General, this man claims that he’s a soldier from our side.”

“Then, why is he coming from the enemy’s base?”

At this question, the scout gulped.

“H-He says that the bases have been captured from the inside.”

“What?” Evanos widened his eyes in surprise. “By whom?”

“Presumably the Bait Platoon from a week ago, sir. A-And leading them, he says, is a little girl…”

.

.

.

.

Evanos stomped into the largest base. If what the messenger said was true, then he had to see the girl for himself!

On the way, he was met with some resistances, but they died down quickly once everyone realized that Evanos was a General from the Empire.

Soon, he arrived before a conference room. 

“Is your Leader in here?” He asked a man guarding the door.

The man simply nodded and made way for the General.

Evanos pushed the door open and peered inside. He saw little girl. Raven hair, dull gray eyes—just like they said. She was sitting on a chair with her legs on the table. Her left hand holding a half-filled red wine glass, her right one fiddling with a sabre.

She soon noticed Evanos and casually drank the wine until the glass was empty. Smashing it into the ground, she stood up—a little drunkedly, and asked,

“Who are you?”

Seeing the reverence the people inside the base were giving her, Evanos knew that the girl was no fake. Perhaps she really took over the bases from the inside.

Pretende be dammed. Evanos removed the Illusion artifact from his body and revealed his true self to the girl.

Silver hair, purple eyes with vertical pupils, and a blue scaly tail. He was a pure-blooded Dragon.

Ignoring the girl’s gradual look of realization and shock, he quickly made his way toward her and gave her an offer no one could refuse.

“Be a platoon leader and lead the Empire to victory. The Royal Knights will welcome you with open arms once the war is over.”

.

.

.

.

Three years had passed since Karin’s and her daughter’s disappearance. Despite pouring a hefty amount of resources into finding Astrape, Irene still couldn’t catch a trace of where she was.

That was, until a particular rumor entered her ears.

“The Mad Hound of the Northwestern battlefield…”

A Coporal that was strangely given command over an entire fifty-men big platoon.

On every Monarchdays, she would lead her platoon to victory. 

However, her reputation as a good leader was preceded by her brutality in battle. Some said that she would tear her enemies’ corpse apart in front of her own allies, others claimed more disturbing things, saying that she was a Vampire with an insatiable thirst for blood and gore.

And there was also some stranger rumors surrounding her. Something about her being a little girl with black hair and dull gray eyes.

It was this exact rumor that garnered Viscount Irene Nightshade’s interest. After all, the combination of black hair and gray eyes wasn’t exactly a common one…

So, she dug into the profile of this Corporal and found—

“Astrape Gray… so it was really you!”

Irene had an excuse for not finding Astrape sooner, and it was the fact that the Empire was too big. With many places being prosperous, it was absurd to think that any child would want to go to the Northwestern frontlines of all places.

But lo and behold, that was exactly what happened.

So, without any hesitation, she cancelled all her schedules for the week and travelled to the frontlines.

.

.

.

.

Being a Viscount and a renowned Hunter, Irene was easily given access to the barracks that Astrape’s platoon was staying at.

“Excuse me,” she tapped a soldier’s shoulder. “Do you know where your Leader is?”

“What is your relationship with her?”

“...A relative.” She smiled stiffly.

The soldier eyed Irene for a few seconds before pointing toward a completely normal and unsassming barrack.

“Thank you.”

But as Irene came closer to the barrack, she had to admit that it was anything but normal. Not only was the material much finer than the others, it was much bigger up close, too.

But upon entering it, she knew why the material had to be so good.

‘This smell…alcohol?’

As she got deeper into the barrack, the smell intensified until eventually, she reached Astrape.

There she was, lying against a bed with empty bottles of red wine all around her. She looked just like Karin when she was young, just—more broken.

Irene slowly approached her like she would a rabid dog. She knew that she shouldn’t be acting like this, but something about Astrape just felt…wrong.

As Irene came into ten steps of Astrape, the little girl suddenly snapped her head up and asked,

“Who are you?”

‘Come on, don’t be nervous. I’ve practiced this many times.’

“I’m Viscount Nightshade, your mother’s friend.”

“So you’re the Viscount.” Astrape let out a hollow chuckle. “A bit too late, don’t you think?”

“...You ran away from me.” Irene frowned.

“I know. Still, you were too late to save me from myself.” She laughed. “I should’ve never enlisted myself.”

Seeing the girl crying like that, Irene inched closer to her and extended her arms out as if wanting to give her a hug.

“Come on, I’m here to get you out. You don’t need to stay here anymore.”

Abruptly, Astrape took a nearby bottle and threw it at Irene.

Irene, being [B+]-ranked, didn’t even have a scratch on her face. Regardless, she was a little annoyed.

“What are you d—”

“Get out.”

“Wha—”

“I said, GET OUT!” Astrape screamed. “I’ve already spent enough time here. I’ll see it to the end!”

“...It seems that you’re not in your right state of mind right now,” Irene said as she glanced at the bottles of wine. “I’ll come back tomorrow. Hopefully, you’ll make the right decision.”

After Irene left the barrack, Astrape groaned and pulled herself on top of her bed. She reached her hand out to the ceiling and tightened it into a fist.

“Just a few more battles and the Martial manual will be mine. No Viscount is going to stand in my way to power.”