Chapter 109: Familiar Menace

BAM!

"Meine Dame~ I truly have missed you~..." A feminine voice with a German accent echoed in her ears, carrying a trace of playful warmth.

This voice was extremely familiar to her.

Glancing away from the gloved hand beside her head, which was gloved, she stared at the person in front of her and widened her eyes — the person in front of her was a woman.

The woman had a pretty face and was of similar height. She had long brown hair and a pair of mischievous red eyes. She wore a pair of black latex gloves, a black military cap, and the academy uniform. But the difference compared to her uniform and hers was that... the woman was wearing pants instead of a skirt!

This woman was none other than the infamous Devil’s Child, Hilda Hertel!

Ignoring the fact that Hilda was wearing pants, Nadia intensely stared at the woman’s face, which was dangerously close — at least a few inches away from hers.

At first, she became flustered by the sudden and strange closeness, feeling caged, but quickly rid herself of that sensation.

Her face twitched rapidly as she remembered the shove. "Is this necessary? Can’t you see that I’m still injured, Hilda?" She said coldly, causing Hilda to blink.

The woman glanced down at her cast, then smiled apologetically.

"It’s quite difficult to tell if you were still injured from behind, but I do apologise for that. I didn’t really intend to hurt you."

Nadia then heard her say:

"As for whether this was necessary... Kind of." Hilda vaguely answered before snickering. "But you should’ve paid attention to who you were backing into~"

Hearing that last part, Nadia’s face twitched again. "Tch!"

She harshly shoved Hilda away from her and caused the woman to stumble a few steps back.

Hilda smiled amusedly. "Oh my~..."

The people around them stepped away from the two, unwilling to get in the middle of them.

They keenly watched as the two exchanged words, and when they did...

"Hey, did she say Hilda?"

"Yeah, I think she did..."

"Hilda as in, the Hilda in first place?!"

"She looks really good in that uniform..."

The people who didn’t recognise Hilda whispered fervently about her, not only about her identity, but also about her attractive beauty.

On the other hand...

"It’s her!"

The people who did recognise her did so in a split second. Their eyes were filled with awe and reverence, especially after seeing their points, but also slight fear of what she was capable of.

Hearing that she had scored first, Hilda glanced up at the scoreboard and found her name. ’264... that doesn’t seem right.’

From what she heard, a Soldier’s eye was counted as 50 points. Having been told that both Soldiers would be counted towards her score, she should have at least over 400 total points after she distributed.

She sighed. ’They must’ve only given half of what the Soldier I fought was worth, because I destroyed its corpse. Whatever, no matter. 264 should be enough for a lot of things.’

As she was thinking this, her ears twitched at a familiar walking pattern.

"Could you two not be rough with the scoreboard? It doesn’t look like it, but it can be quite fragile." A middle-aged man with slicked-back brown hair approached the crowd.

Everyone turned in his direction, including Hilda.

She instantly beamed. "Ah, Mr Ritchel, it’s good to see you’re well! Any updates on the request I asked you to do?"

"I’ve sent it on the day we came back. So, it’s only a matter of time until they get it." Herman walked through the crowd and stood in front of Hilda. "How are your injuries?"

"Injuries?" Hilda quirked an eyebrow with a smirk. "Barely had any, unless you’re talking about my arms. If so, then I was told to take it easy for the next 2 weeks. But with my body, I doubt it’ll be that long."

"I see, that’s not too bad then."

After that, Herman pulled two red stripes from his breast pocket and handed them over. "Here are your Stripes, Hilda. Well done on your achievement. Both the LRM and Orrey Cross Academy look forward to what you have in store in the future."

The students around them were stunned.

"Two Stripes!?"

"And they’re red, as well!"

"I don’t recognise her; could it be she was in the other group?"

"What happened in their exam for her to get those badges!?"

Hilda immediately pinned them on her blazer’s left chest with a toothy grin. "Thank you for delivering them to me~... do you perhaps have anything else to deliver?"

Herman quirked an eyebrow before widening his eyes in realisation. He tucked his hand inside the pocket of his blazer and pulled out a flat, rectangular wooden box.

"Also, as requested, here’s—"

Hilda placed a finger over her lips, which immediately caught the man’s attention. Deducing that the girl didn’t want to share anything more about the box, he kept quiet.

He then watched as Hilda pushed it into the air and caused it to vanish. This caused him to recall a scene that happened when they returned from Calais, when it was time for everyone to hand over the eyes.

Most of the operatives at the scene were stunned when they watched Hilda pull out a considerable number of eyes from thin air.

When asked, she said it was an ability of a Relic she had come across randomly, called Servare in Spatium, allowing her to store non-living objects under a specific size. In modern English, the name was Store in Space.

With the recent appearance of the Eastern Duke of Europe near Calais, no one doubted her words, especially after she revealed what it looked like.

After checking to see that everyone had finished checking their score, Herman took it upon himself to lead everyone to the assembly building for the welcoming speech.

...

Along the way, Hilda checked on a few people and eventually moved on to a girl with orange hair. After she neared her from behind, she tapped her shoulder, unintentionally spooking the girl.

"U-uah!" Seraphine instantly flinched. Once she found out it was just Hilda behind her, she asked, "M-miss Hilda, did you... need something?"

"Miss?" Hilda tilted her head, then smiled warmly as she walked alongside the girl. "Why so polite? I recalled you didn’t use to call me Miss before."

Seraphine scratched her cheek and averted her gaze shyly. "Ehehe..."

Truth be told, Seraphine didn’t exactly know how to go about interacting with Hilda; it was clear the woman was different to how she was portrayed in the story. And she didn’t want to risk offending her, because she assumed Hilda wasn’t going to care much about how she was referred to, especially when she was now in a safer period of the story.

’And to be honest, I think I’m even more scared of her...’ Seraphine smiled wryly inside.

Sensing that Seraphine was unwilling to answer her inquiry, Hilda patted the girl’s shoulder. "Be casual with me. Contrary to what some may believe, I don’t wish for people I’m fond of to be tense or afraid of me."

"You’re... fond of... me?" Seraphine muttered in surprise.

Hilda gave a toothy grin. "You’re an asset."

"Ah." Seraphine widened her eyes and nodded vigorously. "I’m glad you think so!"

Hilda chuckled slightly. "So, what did you think about your score? It’s not much, but I did want to show that I acknowledge your effort in that battle."

"S-seriously?" Seraphine began rubbing the back of her neck shyly. "I-it was really everyone else; I only just stood in the back, while everyone got hurt... but I really appreciate the 6 points you gave me!"

"Pfft." Hilda laughed. "Haha, how modest! Don’t downplay yourself, from what I’ve heard, you did a phenomenal job supporting everyone."

Seraphine watched as Hilda pointed back with her thumb and found everyone in their group smiling at her, especially Callum, who grinned warmly at her.

She blushed intensely.

Once Hilda was done talking with Seraphine, she moved on to the last person on her list.

"What do you want?" Nadia asked, giving Hilda the stink-eye.

Walking alongside the Heroine, Hilda chuckled playfully. "I missed you too."