Contract of Submission with the Enemy - Chapter 30
As everyone stood in line practicing their dagger thrusts, Benyak approached Rité.
“Try stabbing again.”
Rité glanced at him and thrust her dagger with a shout. Benyak swiftly disarmed her, twisting her arm and wrist until the dagger fell. Rité’s eyes widened.
Catching the falling dagger, Benyak commented, “How do you expect to hurt, let alone kill, your opponent with such a half-hearted stab?”
The surrounding men chuckled, sensing the underlying jab at her inability to seriously harm Aster. Rité scowled, recalling her first encounter with Aster when she barely scratched him.
“Pair up for sparring!” Benyak called.
Everyone paired off for sparring with wooden daggers. Benyak partnered with Rité, demonstrating each move earnestly.
“Disarm your opponent and make them lose their will to fight. That moment is your chance to strike,” he instructed.
Rité, thinking of Aster, matched Benyak’s intensity. They trained for two relentless hours under the scorching sun, leaving everyone exhausted. The training in the Carta army was far harsher than the military training she had experienced in the vigilante corps.
At the start line for the obstacle course, Benyak grinned. “First place gets a water bottle and a sweet rest. The rest of you keep running until someone wins. No slacking.”
He pointed to a table with refreshing water, and everyone’s eyes widened with anticipation.
“Ready? Go!”
They all bolted, driven by desperation for water. The competition was fierce, with each hoping others would drop out. Climbing a rope, Rité was shoved, causing her to slip and fall back to the ground.
“If you can’t keep up, get out of the way!” a man yelled, climbing past her.
Gasping for breath, Rité tried again but fell behind. She knew she wouldn’t finish first. Her throat burned, and her head spun, feeling as though her body wasn’t her own anymore. Struggling to keep running, she overheard a nearby man mutter, “It’s unbearably hot…”
He was the one who had earlier called her a traitor. He looked as if he had given up, knowing he wouldn’t win. Suddenly, she sensed a chill around him, indicating he had used his powers. The sensor near Benyak went off.
“Everyone, gather up!” Benyak ordered.
They assembled, annoyed and expecting extra drills. Benyak’s voice was cold. “Who used their powers?”
The man next to Rité bit his lip in frustration. Before he could speak, Rité raised her hand.
“It was me,” she said calmly.
Benyak looked surprised. “Rité, was it really you?”
“Yes. I twisted my ankle climbing the rope and instinctively used my healing ability.”
Everyone glared at her, but Benyak, noting the tension, hesitated. “Rité Rainhills, step forward.”
Rité did so, while the man next to her watched in shock. Benyak noticed but chose not to pursue it immediately.
He deliberated briefly. Normally, he would order group punishment, but given Rité’s poor standing and Aster’s explicit orders, he reconsidered. Knowing how Aster reacted to Major Reyna Melton’s harsh treatment of Rité, he didn’t want to escalate the situation.
“Fifty push-ups,” he finally said.
Without complaint, Rité began, but her arms trembled after ten. Sweat dripped onto the dirt as she pushed herself to continue. Despite the agony, she kept going, knowing push-ups wouldn’t kill her, a thought that both saddened and motivated her.
‘Prove you have abilities beyond their reach,’ Aster had said. Rité wanted to become stronger, to prove herself, and to be a sister her brother could be proud of. She needed to integrate with her brother’s comrades.
As Rité struggled through the push-ups, the soldiers’ expressions changed. Initially irritated, some began to feel sympathy, watching her fight through the pain with determination.
Watching Rité, who had just joined, endure a punishment that even the male soldiers found hard to bear wasn’t something they were comfortable with. One of the men, clenching his fists, finally raised his hand and shouted, “It was me!”
Everyone turned to look at him, his face twisted in pain. “It wasn’t Rité Rainhills who used her ability. It was me.”
Benyak, who seemed to have anticipated this, responded calmly, “Rité, get up.”
“…No,” Rité’s defiance drew everyone’s gaze back to her as she remained on the ground. “If someone has to take the punishment, it’s better I do it alone. It was my choice, so I should bear the consequences. Isn’t that Aster’s way of teaching?”
Benyak paused before answering, “Fine. Do as you wish.”
He believed that this might actually help improve Rité’s reputation. Rité continued her push-ups, her form deteriorating noticeably. The soldiers watched, feeling uneasy as her struggle continued.
Finally, after completing fifty push-ups, Rité collapsed onto the ground. Benyak looked down at her and asked, “Why did you cover for him?”
With her face pressed to the ground, Rité replied, “…I’m already a nuisance here. It’s better for everyone to hate me than to hate each other. They were probably hoping I’d come in last anyway.”
The soldiers were struck silent by her words because they rang true. Unlike Rité, they had only been thinking of themselves in their fight for survival, realizing the selfishness of their actions.
“Rité Rainhills, get up and drink some water,” Benyak said softly, offering her a water bottle. Struggling, Rité stood and took the bottle, opening it but only taking a single sip before putting it down.
“Why don’t you drink more?” Benyak asked.
“I’m not the first place. If I drink more, the winner won’t get any. A sip is enough for me,” she explained.
The soldiers were touched by her response. Benyak, pleased, said, “Winning isn’t more important than camaraderie. Pass it around.”
The water bottle was passed among the soldiers, each taking just a sip and handing it to the next. When the last soldier received the bottle, he didn’t drink but handed it back to Rité.
“I take back what I said earlier about you being a nuisance. I ended up being the one who disrupted things. I don’t deserve to drink, so you should have my share.”
Rité took the bottle and was surprised to see it was still almost full, save for the amount she had initially drunk. It was clear that the others had only moistened their lips before passing it along.
Confused, she stood holding the bottle as the man grinned. “If we sacrifice a rookie just to save ourselves, what does that say about us as seniors?”
Looking around, Rité saw the soldiers smiling at her with newfound respect. Those who had initially wanted nothing to do with her now regarded her as one of their own.
Realizing they now saw her as a fellow soldier, Rité allowed herself a small smile.
“Those who only look out for themselves are the first to die. Remember that,” Benyak, echoing a line Aster might have said, ended the training session with a stern expression. However, his face quickly softened as he rushed off to share this inspiring story with Aster.
He felt a swelling pride, almost as if he had been personally acknowledged, and he found that he quite liked Rité.