Chapter 20: CHAPTER 20 PEACE, NOT WAR

What do I do? I’d die at this rate. Without using magic and even with her deceptively slim physique, Merleona can actually exert such monstrous force. My palms are grabbing her wrists. I can hardly move it with my weak physique. Merleona is not budging.

I feel a sense of deja vu. “Please, it hurts! Damn it!” I cuss at her, resulting in more pulling. I fancy myself a fool, but I am not dumb enough to purposefully cross this woman.

But since I have done it already, I might as well enjoy it, putting more fuel to the fire. If I am gonna die anyway, might as well leave with no regrets. “Hey, ba-ttlejunkie! Bigboobs! All fake!”

As such, I start name-calling the woman. Her grip on my hair becomes stronger. “Yowch, ouch, ouch!” I think she’s really going to tear my head off now. I imagine it impossible, but she might really do it.

Merleona is a bit taller than me so I have to look up. She is angry, but not to the point of making creasing demonic faces. If Merleona is really angry to the point of wanting to kill and torture, that would be too uncharacteristic of the Merleona I know in the anime.

If it were the middle-aged Yami, then that guy might really do it— kill on a whim. But Merleona? If she chooses to do something on a whim, that would be beating someone senseless just out of the blue.

Merleona pulls her hand to adjust my ‘height’. I feel my toes leaving the ground. Meeting her eyes, I feel sudden fear. Merleona’s piercing glare is too hostile.

“What are you?” At her question, I was speechless. Without even waiting for an answer, Merleona starts summoning flames to her arms. “I don’t know about tearing your head off, but I’ll definitely burn you to cinders.”

Fuck, she’s really going to kill me! The flames slither to her arms and then to my neck and forehead. The smell of my hair burning reaches my nose. The skin on my neck is becoming hotter.

I close my eyes. I want to fight back, but I fear that Merleona might just burst off and be done with me. This intimidation that is Merleona doing must have a purpose. What does she want?

“Uck!” I have to stall for time. “I h-ave something t-o sa-y…” I lift my arms.

Merleona just watches me, the confidence of her strength too apparent. I didn’t even raise my mana as that won’t achieve anything anyway.

With her in my reach, I start looping my arms around her. I was literally hugging her at that point. “Pe-ace, No-t war!” I exclaim in my struggle.

The hand pulling my hair lets go. But Merleona is still grabbing me by my throat. Her eyes have become tamer, but that doesn’t mean I am already out of the woods. Merleona with explosive strength then chokeslams me to the ground.

Cracks appear on the cold stone pavement. I feel multiple injuries inside me. That woman literally just choke-slammed me! “K-ufuu~” I cannot… “I cannot breathe,” I complain, but no one is hearing me.

All of the other applicants watch this with all kinds of expressions. Pity, confusion, surprise, and all sorts, but none of them had worries on their faces… well, except one. Morgen, the kind boy comes to my side, lifts me up, and helps me sit.

“Tsk,” Merleona scoffs at Morgen’s act. “You are doing it wrong. What if more injuries start appearing because of your careless action?”

At Merleona’s reprimand, Morgen angrily spat back. “Then, why did you do it!?”

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Merleona nastily smiles. “Because we have a healer. Hey, Owen, come here!”

Owen, the familiar doctor specializing in healing comes to me with an annoyed expression. “Why are you even here? Captain of Crimson Lion, don’t you think this is too much?” That’s the last sentence that reaches my ears, as finally, I succumb to sleep. Unconscious, I don’t know what is to become of me in the Magic Knights Entrance Exam.

~~~

Merleona didn’t deign to answer and just left. Leaving the applicants and Owen on their own, Merleona looks at the ‘invisible figure’ hovering beside the unconscious applicant.

At the tender age of 19, Merleona is already a Magic Knight Captain. A brilliant feat for her age, however, that doesn’t really mean anything to her with her carefree personality.

“Hey captain,” Casually calling to her is her subordinate, Vice-Captain Randall Luftair of the Crimson Lion smiles wryly at Merleona. “Do you really have to do that? Imagine my shock when I saw you below with the applicants. I thought you found out some hidden gem.”

Randall is a man with brown hair, a clean face, and a slim build. As someone who is four years older than her, yet her subordinate, it is his responsibility to reprimand Merleona. Merleona brushes off Randall and just continues walking to the lobby.

In the lodge, Merleona finds a chair for her to sit on. Among the squad captains, it was Merleona who has come the earliest, a very rare occurrence. “Randall, it is strange.”

“What is it, Captain?” Randall respectfully probes his captain. “Is it related to the applicant you brutally smashed?”

Merleona is silent verily aware of what she did must have been too much.

“Yes,” She briefly replies with a frown on her face.

Randall's captain is worrying him. Where is his captain's explosive emotion? Where is that warrior who will pick a fight at the drop of the hat? What is happening to the world?

For some reason, Merleona looks to be very subdued, even docile.

Randall had a funny thought. “Maybe this my chance,” His only chance perhaps. With a resolute and chidingly funny voice, Randall approaches his captain, his palms rubbing each other, like a shady merchant. “Cap’n, can I ask for a raise? You know life is hard lately. I can do with a 5% raise, you know?”

Merleona who was too quiet then explodes. "Raise!? Do you want a raise? What if I raise you instead, huh?” With one swift motion, Merleona throws an uppercut.

Instead of a raise in salary, Randall might be raised to heaven instead.

By the lobby’s entrance, a masked figure wearing the Purple Orca’s robe enters. She is Sabrina Crook, the captain of Purple Orca. “Hello, there.”