Ch. 68| Revolt 9

I could feel the hairs prickling at the back of my neck. Something about our captain reminded me a lot of Maevis. They both had a way of sending a chill straight down my spine without even speaking to me directly. I guess you could call that aura or something. I did hear from my dearest teacher that she respected Captain Uden a lot, so I guess that much was to be expected, but still something about her seriously unnerved me. I could sense danger from her, but the sensation was not like the one coming from Maevis, it was a different kind- the type that had all my senses on alert, as if I was standing in front of some great being that could end me at any time.

“Well, what are you waiting for? I don’t have all day. Thanks to someone, I still have a mountain of paperwork to finish .” Uden said it with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

Alysa’s face immediately soured.

“I said I was gonna do it.”

Looking right at Alysa, the captain reached for the stack of papers on her desk.

“You indeed did, and yet nothing was done.“

Alysa giggled awkwardly and said, “Sorry, ma'am.“ As she rubbed the back of her neck.

Uden collapsed into her chair, looking about done with her life, and with a wave of her hand proclaimed, "Begone, you pest, if you are not going to help, at least stay out of my way.“

Alysa scurried off without the slightest hint of embarrassment. I had to admit, the girl had some seriously thick skin.

A moment later, she was back at my side, leaning in close.

“Did you see that? I won.“ She whispered to me proudly.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, confused, as I legitimately had no idea as to what she was getting at.

“The debate," she said. “I got the last word in, she had no counterarguments, therefore, it's my victory." She said, looking as smug as someone who had just made a great accomplishment.

"Congrats on your great victory," I said deadpan as I put my hand on her shoulder. “May the goddess of victory keep shining on you for battles to come."

She nodded. "Damn, right, it better keep shining, or I’ll pluck that bitch from heaven and make her into my lamp. Oh, I just remembered I was meaning to get a new—"

“Shut up, you two !“ Uden's voice rang out loudly across the room.

I lowered my head and whispered, “Sorry, ma'am.“ and took a step to the side from Alysa. I don’t know if gods are real- probably not- but just in case, I needed to make it very clear I had nothing to do with the blasphemy and making lamps out of gods.

I shot Alysa another look and saw the first few hands already going up.

It was kind of remarkable that Uden was still casually working through her paperwork while her squad was on the verge of a full-blown revolt right in front of her. She didn’t even look particularly concerned. If anything, she carried herself like the outcome barely mattered. Then again, I still hadn’t forgotten that feeling I’d gotten from her earlier. If Uden was even half as scary as Maevis when she wanted to be, my squadmates might be in for one hell of a rough time.

Well, shit was already going down. At least I could reassure myself that I was standing on the same side as the scary woman behind the desk.

That should have made me feel better. Well, it sure as hell fucking didn’t.

I still had that irritating feeling in the back of my head that this was somehow going to get worse before it got better. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much I could do about it except keep my mouth shut and try not to cause another disaster of my own. I’d already screwed up enough since getting here, and I had no idea how many more chances I had before someone finally decided I wasn’t worth the trouble and gave me the boot.

God, how would I even face Maevis after that?

Actually, no. I probably wouldn’t. I’d be far too embarrassed. I’d pack whatever little shit I owned and disappear somewhere before she ever had the chance to find me.

Wouldn’t that be something?

Yurui the Runaway. The Wandering Fuckup. The Hopeless hero.

Yeah. That sounded about right.

“Psst“

I looked at Alysa and saw her face covered with a shit-eating grin.

“Look, loook, Maya’s rebelling.” She said while half discreetly pointing at Maya. “And they say that I’m the unruly one.“ She said while shaking her head. “Some people…“

Alysa’s rambling had faded into the background by then. The rebellion unfolding in front of me had my full attention, and whatever happened next felt way too important to miss. Alysa didn’t seem to really care, but I wasn’t Alysa, I knew that my own hide could very well be on the line if this were to go south, and I had to be ready to react at a moment's notice.

Maya had anxiously raised her hand, so did Narun, Bereth, and Tomas. Janis had raised her hand eagerly. Johan had looked over the group before reluctantly raising his own hand.

“I’m not raising no damn hands." Alysa proclaimed smugly with her arms crossed.

“I’m with her," I muttered quietly.

I heard a few people curse under their breath, which only made me wince harder. Then, almost at once, everyone turned toward Oba.

His face had gone pale.

His mouth opened and closed a few times, but whatever he was trying to say came out as little more than an incoherent mumble.

“Oba.“ Bereth whispered loudly.

Oba looked at him nervously, he appeared to be frozen in fear.

“Dude…“ Marcus muttered under his breath.

Oba took in a deep breath, and then, to everyone's shock, let out a chuckle, which then devolved into a full-blown fit of laughter. A few moments later, he had gathered himself, walked in front of the table, turned to face the room, and proudly proclaimed.

“I’m with Miss Uden.“

I swear to God, the room went so quiet you could hear people's hearts beating.

“Traitor.“ Tomas said as he spat to the side.

“And there you have it“ Uden said as she took the bundle of resignation papers into a neat stack and extended them towards the people in front of her.

“That doesn’t change anything, we still have the majority.“ Bereth protests

Uden nodded in agreement. “You do indeed, a majority of field agents. As you can see, there is only one officer on your side.“

Maya shifted uncomfortably.

Uden looked Bereth in the eyes with a cold look.

“A protest without the majority officers' support is considered a rebellion, and need I remind you as to what the punishment for rebelling against the company is ?“

Bereth swallowed hard, his shoulders stiffening. Around him, the others shifted uneasily and avoided Uden’s eyes, they were figuratively and literally completely fucked, and they knew it. That’s what you get for biting the hand that feeds you, I guess. I made a mental note to never plan a revolt against Miracle Inc.

“You can’t just ignore us.“ Bereth says almost pleadingly.

Uden taps her fingers against the desk. “You still don’t get it, do you? Think about how this looks from the side. You have a bunch of field agents trying to overthrow the leadership of their squad, and the only officer at your side just happens to be the first officer who’s to benefit the most from the removal of vice captain.’’

Maya visibly recoils

“That’s not what—

Uden looked at her like she was explaining something painfully obvious to a child.

“Nobody gives a shit what you intended. What matters is how this looks, and from the outside, it looks like the First Officer organized a mutiny to get rid of her superior and take her position.”

“That’s not what fucking happened, and you know it !“ Marcus shouts out in defense of Maya. “She would neve—

“Yes, she did,” Bereth said without hesitation. “We were just following orders.”

He gave Maya an almost apologetic nod before stepping back to rejoin the others.

“Oh, no you fucking don’t. You’re not pinning this shit on Maya just to save your own ass,” Marcus growled.

Bereth smirked.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. She was the highest-ranking officer involved. As far as I’m concerned, that makes her responsible for the whole thing.”

“Exactly,” Uden said. “How nice of you to finally discover some respect for the chain of command, Bereth.”

He gave her a courtesy nod and planted his eyes at the ground.

Maya, meanwhile, looked like she was about to faint.

Alysa leaned closer to me.

“Psst.”

I ignored her. Now really didn’t seem like the time for chatting, especially after we’d just been chewed out for doing exactly that. Besides, Uden already looked pissed enough without me trying to prod at whatever patience she had left.

“Psst.”

“Psst.”

“Pssssst.”

“What?” I hissed back on instinct, only to immediately regret it.

“Maya’s so fucking cooked, I bet they’ll fire her ass.“ She whispered, giggling, in my ear.

I had no idea what the hell Alysa found so funny about any of this. Maya was genuinely one of the nicest people I’d ever met and already one of my favorite people here. If things really went to shit, I’d even call Miss Maevis and ask if there was anything she could do. There was no way I was going to sit around and let those idiots dump their failed excuse for a rebellion on Maya when she hadn’t done anything wrong. As far as I could tell, all she’d done was show up to stand beside her friends, which seemed like a perfectly normal thing to do.

“Man, I’m suddenly craving fried chicken so bad,” Alysa whispered to me loudly. “I better tell Maya to go get me some before they get rid of her.“

Okay, I liked Alysa, I really did, but hearing her mouth off at Maya made it damn hard to keep myself from slapping her across the face.

And just like that, the great Ninth Squad revolt had collapsed into an incoherent ramble of shouts as everyone yelled at each other while poor Maya stood off to the side looking pale as a sheet of paper.