Olleufa Bellenoia sat at the edge of a cliff. Behind her was a teleportation gate and beneath her was the plain white surface of Viablentis… along with thirty four cadets, all huddled up… and sharing their remaining rations… tired… and exhausted.
Six days had passed.
10,000 cadets. 100 gates. 100 students in each… and in her batch… those that survived, a measly thirty four.
'Well the numbers aren't terrible. They exceeded my expectations.'
She checked her chronometer. Six days had passed but there was still some time remaining until the end of the assessment.
Hours passed.
Minutes ticked.
And when a final twelve seconds remained, Olleufa's eyebrows raised.
Three more cadets entered the zone.
'Wow now that was not expected.'
A slight smile formed onto her face as she stared down at the newcomers.
Jimeneus of House Impala. A Noble House of Counts under the Hermis Palend Dukedom. Danisque Palend. A bastard of the said duchy and… the most surprising one, Vesper… the Public Enemy.
"Heh…" Ollefua couldn't help but laugh to herself. The chronometer pointed to a zero, the time was up and the three cadets had been saved by the bell.
It was now time for the final assessment. She observed the scene a little more, Jimeneus looked ragged and a little out of breath as compared to his noble demeanor before he lead the cohort of twenty of his own.
What had changed the most were his eyes… they were clear but looked unnervingly empty. His expression was downcast and he genuinely looked a little lost.
'I like that look in his eye. That's a good soldier.'
Olleufa was happy at the development. She glanced at the other boy, the bastard. His hands were in his pockets and his face was expressionless… though there remained a slight smirk on his face on having successfully reached the vantage point.
'That's improvement. His laziness was always his downfall. Feeling proud in achieving something is good. He may outgrow his status eventually.'
Then finally she looked at the final cadet in the trio.
Vesper… ex… Bloodvaine.
She put a finger to her chin and slightly rested her face on her palm.
Now this one was surprising. Vesper was the only cadet that none of the cohorts had previously picked.
She had been slightly impressed that he still chose to travel alone and not beg any of them to take him with them.
Still that was it, Olleufa had never thought he could survive even if he was the flesh of Bloodvaine.
She was pleasantly surprised, it challenged her belief subtly.
'Exocummicated or not… he's a Bloodvaine.'
Afterall wasn't his elder brother… Areis Bloodvaine already ruling in the top 10 rankings of his year and the entirety of Troy? Along with his twin sister Ereis who was lagging behind but not by much?
And wasn't his eldest brother, the heir to the Bloodvaine Ducal House whose marriage with the princess was annulled… Eirian Bloodvaine… already a four star hero?
…and wasn't his eldest sister, Eirdis who was denied the opportunity of becoming the heir to the Bloodvaine after her brother's birth… already a four star hero too?
Olleufa was slightly stunned the more she thought about it. The amount of talent these siblings held… was a little too scary.
'What kind of babies were their mother pumping out?'
Ofcourse Vesper was the last since she died giving birth to him… another tragedy upon the child who was either innocent or part of the noble's scheme.
Olleufa also couldn't fathom what was going on in the head of the House of Bloodvaine, Duke Vantaleth… the indomitable and strange Five Star Hero.
She possessed a life debt toward him for saving her in a campaign once as the commanding officer when she had been a fresh graduate of top ten from her batch of three hundred. A Three Star Hero back then.
'What a bunch of monsters.'
Though it did not seem like any of them could surpass her and become the youngest to ever achieve the rank of a five star hero.
'Maybe Areis.'
That boy was an anomaly. One that the universe had never witnessed before.
'There's never been one like him ever born before. Maybe… only the emperor or the old Xi Kings.'
Shaking her head slightly, Olleufa observed the young silver haired boy, he sat on a rock staring at the distant horizon.
His face looked clean and as Danisque approached him with an energon pill, the boy smiled and pale light fell upon his aristocratic features from the black skies.
Olleufa's eyes slightly twitched while observing the boy. For some reason a rush flowed all across her body.
It was strangely cinematic.
…and the more she stared, the more did his aristocratic features highlight himself under the pale light of the nebula clouds shining upon solely him and no one else.
Olleufa looked away. For some reason, the universe was favouring him. She could sense that. It was giving him a cinematic prescence that excluded a different kind of aura…
This did not come from skill or power but his entire self that distorted reality.
'What an unnatural aura.'
It had been a while… no this had never happened before in her life… at least not at first glance but Olleufa genuinely could feel her panties dampen slightly.
'His eyes though… they were different. Mysterious. Strong. Dark. Mature. And charming…'
Olleufa shook her head. She was fantasizing.
'I need to stop reading those stupid smut novels. I'm a goddamn war goddess.'
A Five Star Hero… the youngest to ever achieve that rank in the entire universe. A graduate of Troy… at rank one. A former majorée of the 14th Battalion under the Royal Regiment.
Having served the crown for over one hundred and twenty years. Having razed the very battlefield the cadets rested on to the dust that it was now.
A bane of Vampyres, feared by them, resented by them. A commoner that had climbed the ranks at an astonishing pace to the point that she was seen as a monster more than a human.
Lady of Silent Silver Mercy.
Lady of Merciful Moonlight.
That was Olleufa Bellenoia.
'It's time for the final assessment.'
Her snowy hair caught the pale light… the same white as Viablentis, her ancestral homeland.
Glancing downward, she chuckled lightly as her rapier materialised by her waist.
Then she leaped from the high point, landing smoothly upon the surface as if she were simply hopping.
"My dear cadets. Gather up."