NOVEL WEB B1 | Chapter 21
Aria
As soon as I arrive at Omega Fortress, I feel like something’s off. Very off.
“Welcome, First Lieutenant Crimson, we have been expecting your arrival,” the warrant officer standing at the gate says with a salute. “Please follow me and I’ll take you directly to your team’s barracks.”
Incredibly off.
“Very well,” I respond, feeling slightly awkward about being a higher rank than the man in front of me, who is clearly almost twice my age.
I follow the man through the base, ignoring the gazes sent my way by quite a few of the soldiers and officers. Something I’m rather used to by now. Especially when I move bases.
Red eyes and white hair aren’t exactly common appearances after all. In fact, my family, the Crimsons, were the only ones with these traits.
No one really ever understood why that is though.
And it’s even worse this time around. Because now I’m a first lieutenant instead of a warrant officer.
Which makes me even more of an anomaly since I’m only nineteen years old still. The age that most people join up with the forces, much less are already a mid-ranking officer.
Eventually we arrive at the barracks. And while I call it a barracks, and the warrant officer calls it a barracks, it’s more of a suite. One with multiple rooms, and very comfortable bedding and a common room in between the two bedrooms.
Getting even weirder. We may be officers, but we’re not part of the official staff of this fortress. So we shouldn’t be getting any more than a single bed in a barracks.
It’s not like in my last fortress where I was an officer stationed at the fortress, allowing me a room of my own.
“You’re dismissed,” I tell the warrant officer after noticing him just standing there saluting, waiting for me to dismiss him.
As he walks away, I look around the common room in contemplation. Then I go to the room on the left, only to hear a voice from the entrance to the ‘barracks,’ “That would be the men’s side. Your side is through the other door.”
I stop and turn around to find the major standing at the door with a slight smirk on his face.
And alarm bells immediately begin ringing in my head for some reason.
“We don’t have any missions just yet, so make yourself comfortable and try to get used to the fortress,” he says as I salute. “And don’t bother with military code when we’re not on a mission. It just makes things feel stuffy, ya know?”
Great. An overly friendly type of commanding officer.
Can I go back to Delta Fortress now?
It’s gonna be hard to avoid getting any attachments to them at this rate.
The door next to me opens, making me quickly back away from it by using soul energy to empower my legs’ reaction speed. Then two people walk out of it.
First Lieutenant Snow and Second Lieutenant Vargas. Both of whom look surprised to see me.
“Yo!” the first lieutenant says with a smile, surprising me with his shift in attitude from the first time he saw me. “Ya finally arrived! How’s the fortress so far?”
I blink, only to glance at the second lieutenant, who just smiles and says, “Hello newbie. We won’t bite.”
That phrase alone has me narrowing my eyes slightly and turning to the major as I salute again and state, “I’ll be checking out my quarters now.” Then I glance at the first and second lieutenants and tell them, “It’s a pleasure meeting you all and I look forward to our time together.”
And with that, I walk over to the other door and open it, feeling confident with my cold responses.
Only to almost walk into Captain Harvey, who seemed to have been rushing to the door for some reason.
“Ari! Can I call you that?” she immediately exclaims, trying to call me by one of the nicknames my family called me by. Which immediately makes me scowl at her. “No? Then what about-”
“Aria is fine,” I tell her, cutting her off. “That or First Lieutenant Crimson.”
Then I walk around her to look at the room, which… can’t be called a barracks.
Because who calls a room with multiple separate rooms and an area in between them a single room in a barracks? Not to mention the personal bathroom and shower each attached to the bedrooms. I just don’t understand this…
My thoughts come to a halt when I remember that it’s a team full of Category 5s.
Damn it, why didn’t I think of that before?!
I turn back around to find the others gathered right outside the door with Captain Harvey right inside of it.
“This team…” I begin, briefly forgetting my act. “What were we put together for?”
They all grow awkward at that.
A brief moment of silence passes before the major lets out a sigh and straightens up, making me almost instinctively do the same.
“First Lieutenant Aria Crimson, Category 5 Titled Ability Holder known as the Crimson Blade, welcome to the Predator Division of the First Army,” the major declares, his voice seemingly echoing in the ‘barracks.’ “The Predator Division is a division made strictly of Category 5 Ability Holders who can take on the special missions assigned to us involving the Great Divide and the invaders. We answer only to the First General herself and do not take orders from any other officers within the military.”
His eyes narrow slightly, albeit with a slightly amused tint to them, “Welcome to the spearhead team that will pierce the invasion forces. Be ready for a wild ride.”
Ugh.
Sometimes I hate it when I’m right.
The Barracks
A few hours later
“So, I don’t think that went all that well,” Adrian says with a firm nod of his head soon after Aria had left to tour the base, making Hannah roll her eyes.
“Of course it didn’t go over well, you dunce!” Hannah exclaims while throwing an eraser at the man. One he easily catches. “You two appeared out of nowhere and the first thing you thought to say was ‘yo’?!”
The first lieutenant scoffs and retorts, “And you think you did any better miss ‘Oh I’m gonna give you a nickname!’?”
Hannah opens her mouth to respond, only to close it again when she realizes he’s right.
“Now, now, children,” Jason says while waving his hands as if dealing with actual children, “must we fight?”
“You were worse than either of us!” “Why the hell did you think saying ‘we don’t bite’ would go over well?!” Both Hannah and Adrian shout at the same time at the very moment Frank walks into the barracks.
And without so much as stopping or letting them see him other than the major, Frank calmly steps back out of the barracks again, pretending like he didn’t see anything as he heads for the cafeteria.
The major sighs as he rubs his temples, deciding not to say anything about the captain’s mostly undiscovered entry and exit.
“I’ll be the first to admit that none of that went as planned,” the major says while raising his head to look at the other three. “But fighting like this isn’t gonna get us anywhere.”
All three of the officers turn to glare at each other before each deflating.
“Right,” Hannah mutters. “We need to approach this calmly.”
“Let’s have a truce until after we get her to open up,” Adrian suggests, making the other two nod their heads.
“Yep,” Jason says with a satisfied nod of his head at the same time as Hannah says, “Sure.”
“Now that that’s handled,” Leonardo begins before glancing at the door. “Does anyone know where the first lieutenant even went?”
“Well, she went to tour the base,” Adrian says, only to frown. “Why’re you asking?”
“Who is giving her a tour?” Leonardo asks, only to begin rubbing his temples again when he sees the blank faces appear on the three. “You let her go off on her own in a fortress that she has never been in before…”
The three awkwardly find places in the room to stare at as if nothing was happening.
The major sighs again and mutters, “And this is why they put a Category 5 in charge of Category 5s…”
Many people on the continent of Arran believe in the saying that power corrupts. But in reality, not all power corrupts. It’s the society that power grows up in that corrupts them.
However, all Category 5s, even in Albaria, end up being special. In their own ways.
“We need to find her to make sure she’s not lost in the fortress,” the major says, making all three of the others shout, “Yes, sir!”
Meanwhile within the Cafeteria
Frank gives a brief, polite nod to the cafeteria lady when he is handed his food, then he turns around and begins walking through the cafeteria to find a table. Only for him to end up spotting their latest team member sitting in the corner of the room drinking… alcohol?
The man blinks in surprise, briefly ponders over something, then walks back to the cafeteria lady and points at Aria, then back further into the cafeteria. Finally he tilts his head slightly, as if asking something.
It takes a second, but the cafeteria lady nods her head and says, “Sure, dear. Give me a second.” Then she vanishes into the kitchen for a short while before returning with a finely aged bottle of wine that she hands Frank under the envious gazes of the others.
Frank gives her another polite nod and walks over to Aria’s table, catching her attention when he gets within a few meters of it.
She opens her mouth with a frown to say something, only to pause slightly when she sees the bottle he’s holding in his left hand, ignoring the tray in his right. And after a brief hesitation, she just nods her head, and he sets the bottle down in front of her before sitting down opposite her at the table.
Then the two begin eating in silence.
Or rather, he eats, and she drinks.
A peaceful silence fills the table with only the sounds of quiet chatter from the other nearby tables filling the room. But after a few minutes, the radio on Frank’s side beeps. So he unhooks it from his belt under Aria’s curious gaze and brings it to his ear, turning it on.
“Captain, please be on the lookout for First Lieutenant Crimson. She may be lost within the fortress somewhere,” the major quickly says over the radio.
Frank moves the radio from his ear to look at it, then he looks at Aria, who couldn’t hear what was said on it, then back at the radio again.
Eventually he moves it back to his ear and briefly says, “No need.” And turns the radio back off, hooking it to his belt again as he continues eating.
In a random hallway within the fortress
Leonardo glances at the radio with a strange look on his face as he mutters, “What did he mean by no need?”
He stares at it for several seconds before shaking his head, deciding that he shouldn’t be wasting time like this when the new member of his team may be lost within the fortress. Not bothering to consider that the new member might just ask someone for directions since she’s been so cold to his team thus far.
“Have you seen a first lieutenant with red eyes and white hair?” he asks the first officer he sees walking down the hallway.