Contract of Submission with the Enemy - Chapter 17
Eventually, the countdown ended and the training concluded. Rité, breathing heavily, wiped the sweat from her forehead and neck with the back of her gloved hand.
Turning her head, she saw a crowd of people standing beyond the glass. However, the atmosphere inside was unnervingly silent, as if time had stopped. The expressions of everyone watching her were peculiar.
It was no wonder; she looked like she was standing alone in the midst of a slaughtered battlefield.
Breaking the silence, Aster spoke up.
“What were you thinking?”
Rité took a deep breath, looking up at the ceiling for a moment before tilting her head and looking at him sideways.
“What do you mean, what was I thinking? Assassins aren’t supposed to leave any traces at the scene. That’s why I did it.”
“…Is there an assassin who makes such a racket?”
“Well, to escape from the scene of an assassination, you have to use any means necessary. If you can’t escape, you die. Isn’t that right?”
Rité asked nonchalantly, pointedly referencing the water torture-like training Aster had conducted previously. Aster closed his mouth.
Rité threw the gun on the floor and said, “Why are you looking at me like I’m crazy? When have you ever considered civilians while waging war? Killing every innocent civilian to erase all evidence is what you do.”
She smiled at Aster as she spoke, but her blue eyes glinted with the dark light of a wounded animal. She could never forget the day they raided her village, kidnapped her brother, and left her for dead.
Aster spoke calmly, “I understand your intention. But considering what you said, you didn’t completely kill them, did you?”
Not understanding what he meant, his subordinates looked at him, but Rité felt a pang of recognition. Aster glanced at the shot-up targets.
“You’re not as ruthless as you pretend to be. Did you want to give them a chance to live? Did you want to disguise it as a death by shooting non-lethal areas?”
Rité didn’t answer, averting her gaze. The others began to inspect the targets more closely and noticed something.
While all the soldier dummies had been hit in vital spots, the civilian dummies only had holes in non-lethal areas like the limbs.
“Looks like I hit the mark. Well, I guess you intended to heal their wounds later after pretending they were dead, huh?”
“…”
“Impressive skill, but such disguises are easily uncovered. Your misplaced compassion will hinder you at critical moments. In war, today’s ally can be tomorrow’s enemy, and a civilian like you, harboring a grudge, can become an enemy.”
Rité glared at him silently. Aster continued without concern.
“Also, your effective range is only half as long when targets are moving compared to when they’re stationary. Your focus and attention are fixed on one moving target, making it easy to be attacked from behind.”
Rité felt another pang of recognition. During the fight in the dining hall, she had been counterattacked from behind as well.
“If you don’t want to waste bullets, keep practicing. Only then can you avoid running out of bullets at crucial moments and maybe, someday, put a bullet in my head too.”
Aster ended his speech by pointing his finger to his own temple like a gun and giving a sly smile. In that brief time, he had completely grasped Rité’s attack style and weaknesses just by watching her training.
The surrounding assassins were speechless, stunned by the strange conversation between the two.
Aster continued nonchalantly, “If you use your superior abilities as a weapon, the shortcomings I mentioned will significantly decrease. But first, you need to drill into your head the distinction between enemies and allies until it becomes second nature. Keep repeating the shooting practice until you hit 100 points on the scoreboard.”
He looked at Benyak and gave the order, “Repeat the training until she scores 100 points on the scoreboard.”
“Yes, Major.”
Though he answered affirmatively, Benyak was slightly surprised. It was rare to impose such strenuous training on a new recruit who had been there for less than a day.
Finishing his speech, Aster walked out of the shooting range without looking back. Rité glared at his retreating figure.
In the end, Rité managed to avoid hitting any civilian targets, completing the training. Since she already had the skill to distinguish and hit different spots on soldiers and civilians, it wasn’t an impossible task. However, avoiding civilian targets entirely required much more careful movement, doubling the concentration and effort.
Benyak, observing Rité’s skills, was increasingly impressed. Frankly, when he received the order, he thought the training would need to be repeated for several days. But before the day was over, Rité had perfectly executed the order. Aster had already recognized her exceptional abilities before Benyak had.
When the training ended, Rité, drenched in sweat, collapsed on the floor. As she caught her breath, Benyak entered to retrieve her, having confirmed the 100 points on the scoreboard.
Suddenly, Rité sprang up and stood a fallen soldier dummy upright. She wrote “Aster” on the target’s head with a marker, drew a star, and emptied the remaining bullets into the head.
The head, marked with a star, was riddled with holes. When the gun clicked empty, Rité tossed it aside without regret and stood back, admiring her work with satisfaction.
She then picked up the target and headed somewhere, dragging it along. Benyak, standing at the door with a stunned expression, watched her.
Rité raised an eyebrow at him and dragged the target with the bullet-riddled head somewhere.
She arrived at Aster’s room. Tying the target’s limbs with a rope, she threw it onto his bed and returned to her quarters with a light heart. Later, when Aster returned to his room and found it, he chuckled, stroking his chin.
For a while, among the assassins, Rité was nicknamed “Psycho.”