Contract of Submission with the Enemy - Chapter 20
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Aster stood at the door, silently observing the blood-soaked man with bound arms. This man, the vigilante leader, had been difficult to capture alive.
Aster leisurely removed his outer coat and handed it to a guard, rolling up the sleeves of his white shirt to his elbows, revealing his well-defined muscles.
He walked casually to a metal chair that seemed prepared for an audience and sat down comfortably, crossing his legs arrogantly, just as he had when torturing Rité.
“Name,” he demanded.
The leader answered with his head bowed.
“Maud.”
“Surname.”
“I don’t have one.”
“Really?”
“I never knew who my father was. People like us don’t need surnames.”
Maud slowly lifted his head to look at Aster. The man before him, glowing white in the torture room’s light, seemed surreal.
Maud laughed, blood trickling from his mouth.
“You’re a young officer. The fog hid that.”
“Age doesn’t matter. We seem to understand each other. I’ll be direct. Join our army.”
Aster spoke without blinking, his words as cold as the color of his hair. Maud met his black eyes and replied,
“You like directness, so I’ll be direct too. I have no intention of joining your army, and I won’t betray my comrades. My life isn’t the only one at stake.”
Thinking of Rité, Aster chuckled.
“Your comrades’ lives depend on you?”
“Yes. If I talk, they’ll all die.”
“But if you join us, they could all live.”
Maud’s eyes widened, then he laughed heartily, blood spilling from his mouth.
“Listen, young officer. I’ve led a group for decades. Drop the absurd jokes. If you plan to spare everyone, why only offer the deal to me? Isn’t it because I’m an ‘Awakened’?”
Maud’s smile faded.
“You have no reason to spare the others. Are you planning to use me as a bomb detector?”
Aster smirked.
“You’re smarter than I thought. Threatening your comrades’ lives won’t work on you.”
Maud’s smile vanished as he said,
“Don’t expect to get anything from us. We knew this could happen. From the moment we were caught, we were already dead.”
“Already dead…”
Aster clasped his hands and silently observed Maud. Maud couldn’t fathom what he was thinking.
At that moment, a guard approached Aster with a troubled expression, bending down to whisper.
“Sir, that woman is causing a commotion outside.”
Maud’s eyes flickered, intuitively knowing who was outside.
Aster spoke coldly, “Send her away.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than the sound of someone banging on the iron door with their foot filled the air. Along with the banging came a hysterical voice, hard to make out from outside.
“Sigh…”
Aster ran a hand through his silver-gray hair, looking weary. “You sure have a remarkable subordinate.”
Maud gave a slight, bittersweet smile. Aster turned to the guards. “Go and stop her.”
“But we can’t leave you alone here, Major.”
“It’s fine. I need to speak with him alone.”
At Aster’s firm command, the guards hesitated only for a moment before saluting and exiting the room. Aster added to the last man leaving, “Remember, don’t harm her. She’s my partner.”
The guard responded tensely, “Yes, sir!”
Maud watched this exchange with a hint of surprise. Aster turned back to him, saying, “It seems Rité is desperate to save you. The camaraderie within your militia is quite touching.”
“What do you intend to do with Rité? Are you using her as a tool?” Maud asked, his expression hardening.
Aster smiled faintly. “Worry about yourself.”
Maud opened his mouth to retort, then closed it, looking confused. Aster continued, “Since we have time, why don’t we have a chat?”
“What do you mean?”
“I want to know about Rité’s past. Her life after joining your militia.”
Maud glared at him. “Are you trying to extract information about her from me now?”
Aster smiled. “Partly. But I’m genuinely curious. She never tells me anything about it.”
Maud snorted. “Of course not. Why would she share her past with someone like you?”
“If you don’t tell me, I can find out in other ways. From you or directly from her.”
The implicit threat in his words made Maud scowl. “I don’t know why you keep Rité around, but stop tormenting her. She’s already deeply wounded. It took her a long time to adapt when she joined us.”
Aster listened with a look of interest. “Go on. It might help in deciding her future treatment.”
After some hesitation, Maud decided to talk. He didn’t fully trust Aster, but hoped it might help Rité. His own fate was sealed, but he wanted Rité to survive, even within the military.
“That girl… she’s never lived for herself. She always seemed to live for others. That’s why I took her in. She looked like she’d die if left alone.”
Maud nearly mentioned her brother but stopped himself. Her brother was a painful memory and a weakness for Rité, one he didn’t want to expose.
Aster’s face showed deep thought as he listened. He recalled Rité’s past he had glimpsed before and could now piece together her struggles.
Maud spoke with veins bulging in his eyes. “Her empty heart was only filled with the flames of revenge. It was pitiful. But I couldn’t extinguish that flame because if it went out… she would die.”
He finished his story, recalling their first meeting. Rité had stood in the rain, eyes full of venom, in a desolate street. She was just twelve, yet her eyes bore the weight of something much older. Even starving, she offered him dry, crumbling biscuits she scavenged from the dead soldiers’ pockets.
Maud had brought her into the militia, feeding, clothing, and sheltering her. Yet she remained aloof, seeing them as no different from the soldiers who hunted her. But when Maud began sheltering displaced civilians, Rité slowly opened up, using her hidden healing abilities to help the wounded.
Her healing power, rare among Awakened, proved invaluable. She asked Maud to teach her shooting and combat skills, and though he initially hoped she could at least protect herself, Rité excelled and practiced relentlessly.
After years, the arrival of a six-year-old boy named Dave softened her further. The once prickly hedgehog-like girl became gentler, finding a new purpose beyond her brother’s revenge.
Maud’s eyes grew misty with memories. Aster, observing him, eventually shifted topics. “Commander Maud, when did your abilities manifest? I’d never heard the militia leader was an Awakened.”
Maud sneered. “Probing for more, are you?”
“Yes. I need to know.”
Maud chuckled and replied, “My abilities manifested when I heard she was captured by you. My own powerlessness and shame as a leader triggered it. I became an Awakened out of sheer desperation to protect her.”
The nature of one’s abilities often related closely to their awakening circumstances. For Rité, her guilt and desire to heal led to both offensive and healing abilities. For Khalid, the desperation to read minds triggered his memory scan ability. Maud’s desire to disappear and hide had likely shaped his own power.
Aster pondered this before speaking again. “To the one who claims to be dead.”
Maud looked up, and Aster, with a smile that seemed to suggest a deeper meaning, said, “Unfortunately, I’m someone who never wastes anything, even a corpse.”