Cannon fodder in the Interstellar

Ruo Manni could sense the changes in Sheila’s feelings toward her.

Before the training, Sheila’s emotions were quite volatile, alternating between closeness and indifference toward Ruo Manni, and her words seemed to target wherever it hurt the most.

Ruo Manni felt that deep down, Sheila harbored a sense of superiority and disdain for commoners. However, Sheila also seemed to be envious of Ruo Manni’s exceptional talents, and possibly had underlying issues related to her family, leading to latent obsessive-compulsive tendencies.

In summary, from Ruo Manni’s perspective, Sheila could be described as an atypical “mental case.” When she had outbursts, she often vented her frustrations by indiscriminately attacking others, which might also explain why she could be so harsh toward Mina-Olli at times.

However, since their Adam team encountered the mutated wood crisis yesterday, Sheila seemed to have calmed down. It was as if the restlessness and irritability that once drove her to lash out had vanished.

Although Sheila still talked about Ruo Manni in various ways, the tone of her remarks was entirely different from before, now only expressing insincerity.

Whenever Ruo Manni mentioned wanting something to eat, this aristocratic young lady would personally busy herself preparing it for her. Seeing Sheila busily attending to her, Ruo Manni felt that she had moved beyond the role of the typical second female antagonist in novels. Instead of showing signs of becoming a villain, Sheila seemed to be improving.

Ruo Manni had spent quite a bit of time with her companions and eating together was common. Although she felt a bit embarrassed about eating alone, she didn’t make a fuss and began eating slowly since the others had already finished.

Tamaki Kazia’s cooking wasn’t bad; the exotic beast meat stew included some wild vegetables and tasted quite good. The reason it didn’t taste as fragrant as her own cooking was simply because it lacked her special seasoning.

“Team Hua reached the second place; they arrived at 5:26 PM. Team Asimu arrived in third place at 5:57 PM… Seventy percent of the military academy students reached the finish line within the designated time, but the instructors are very angry, saying we are the worst batch of students they have ever taught,” Sheila said excitedly, gossiping to Ruo Manni while they ate.

Ruo Manni felt like rolling her eyes upon hearing this. Even in the interstellar era, teachers still used this tactic to criticize students. Could it really be a universal method for handling students?

Su Forty-Three looked at Ruo Manni’s arm with concern and said, “The instructors are very angry, so they decided to change the original plan and have us swim back to the starting point ourselves tomorrow. Manni, you can’t swim for that long with your arm, but the captain asked about it, and if you don’t swim with the team, we’ll lose credits.”

“The instructors always want to deduct credits,” Ruo Manni said unhappily.

The team already fully understood how deeply Ruo Manni cared about credits, so her dissatisfaction was expected.

“Tomorrow, I’ll take you swimming. It won’t take much effort, especially since we won’t be counting placements,” Hebrew Adam said casually.

If the big shot was going to help her, Ruo Manni had no psychological burden as long as her credits weren’t deducted. She had already been helped halfway across the sea by Hebrew Adam on the way here, and after reaching the island, she had been a bit of a decoration a few times. Now that she was honorably injured, she felt even less burdened—no one would think she was useless because of this.

Even Sheila, who was known for being picky and envious, agreed that it was fine. Ruo Manni had gotten injured for her, and Sheila wasn’t ungrateful.

“I can switch with the captain and take over as the deputy captain,” Su Forty-Three also assured.

If Hebrew Adam hadn’t planned to help Ruo Manni, Su Forty-Three intended to take her across the sea himself. As the second strongest in the team, he was capable of doing this as long as speed wasn’t a priority.

Today, while descending the mountain, Ruo Manni got injured while saving the endangered Sheila. Hebrew Adam had to lead the way, leaving no room to attend to other matters, so Ruo Manni was escorted down the mountain by Su Forty-Three.

Previously, in the mutated wood forest, Su Forty-Three had been careless. After an explosion from a fragmentation grenade, he pushed Ruo Manni to the ground with too much force, causing her forehead to be injured.

Although Ruo Manni’s unconscious state meant that nobody noticed his mistake, Su Forty-Three still felt a bit guilty. Today, he had protected Ruo Manni well, ensuring she was not harmed further, which alleviated his guilt.

Since they would have to swim back tomorrow, and despite everyone resting in the afternoon and chatting briefly, once the outside quieted down, they planned to rest individually.

“Wait a minute, we need to arrange for someone to keep watch. I have a feeling Instructor Dudley won’t let us off easily,” Ruo Manni suddenly remembered.

“Yes, I almost forgot about Instructor Dudley’s scheming. It’s good that you thought of this, Ruo Manni,” Sheila said appreciatively.

The other members of Adam’s team had slightly twitching mouths; it was indeed rare for Sheila to praise someone.

However, hearing Ruo Manni’s words, the teammates all agreed that she made a valid point.

“It’s necessary to keep watch, but there’s no need to guard outside. We just need to stay alert and prevent anyone from sneaking in and attacking,” Hebrew Adam quickly decided.

After some discussion, the four boys unanimously decided to sleep in the living room and take turns keeping watch. As for the two girls, since Ruo Manni was still injured, they decided to let them sleep in the small room without worrying about the night watch.

In the middle of the night, around three a.m., the entire camp was immersed in sleep and silence.

Ruo Manni, deep in sleep, suddenly woke up. It felt like she sensed something and quickly rushed out of the small room. Silently, she made her way to the door of the capsule apartment and happened to run into a figure in black sneaking in.

Ruo Manni’s longsword immediately lunged at the figure in black without hesitation. Three leaf-shaped flying daggers silently flew from behind the black-clad figure. Tamaki Kazia, who was on night watch in the living room, noticed her as soon as she appeared, but he didn’t know what she was up to. It wasn’t until the intruder had entered that he realized what was happening and rushed over.

The short sword in the black-clad figure’s hand easily blocked Ruo Manni’s longsword. With a forceful downward push, Ruo Manni’s longsword nearly dropped to the ground. At that moment, the black-clad figure turned and, with a sweep of his left hand, caught the three leaf-shaped daggers.

“Instructor Dudley, you always do this,” Tamaki Kazia said, recognizing the intruder’s face but holding back from intervening.

“Good, maintaining vigilance even in such situations is commendable. I’ll credit you ten academic points. How is your arm, Ruo Manni?” Instructor Dudley said as he returned the daggers to Ruo Manni.

“It’s not a problem; I was injured in my left arm,” she replied. “I used my right arm for the sword. Besides, I recognized the intruder as Instructor Dudley upon encountering him. Even though I did take action, I didn’t use full force.”

Ruo Manni took back her leaf-shaped daggers and glanced at Instructor Dudley’s hand. “Instructor, your hand is bleeding.”

Instructor Dudley had caught the daggers with his bare hand, resulting in cuts on his palm.