TRL 27

Chapter 27

Rita was a Processing-Type Covenantor.

She had a talent specialized in transforming Ode into other properties. Even though her affinity for Ode was poor and the amount she had was small, her ability to process it surpassed anyone else’s.

She calmly approached the squad leader, pretending to nullify her existing covenant, and altered her remaining Ode to give it an explosive quality that generated thick smoke.

A tremendous explosion erupted with smoke billowing high. Both Gide and Sera were alarmed, but their reactions were swift. The healer’s protective magic shielded Ollie and the children, while Gide dashed through the smoke and decapitated the squad leader.

What followed was a chaotic melee.

The squad members, who had pushed the Pascals into battle while they loafed around, were easily overpowered despite their numbers. More than half of them were killed, and when defeat became inevitable, the rest fled.

At the now blood-soaked camp of “Fair,” only the children of Pascal survived—and they became its new owners.

As Sera treated Rita, who had practically performed a suicide attack, she cursed in frustration.

“What did you think I meant with that look, you reckless fox?!”

“Didn’t you mean that whatever I did, you’d be able to cover for me?”

“That wasn’t an invitation to blow yourself up! Just because I call you cherry candy, doesn’t mean your brain should turn into one! If your Ode control had slipped even a little, your head would’ve become sugar dust!”

Gide stared at her with a pale face before finally speaking.

“Rita, your judgment was right. You’re the only one who could create that kind of situation, and I was the one who could exploit it to strike. It was a rational, cool-headed decision—the optimal tactic. We won thanks to you.”

He spoke calmly, then covered his face with a hand. A trembling voice leaked through his fingers.

“But Rita… don’t ever do that again.”

“…Okay.”

“I mean it. Don’t ever pull something like that again, Rita Pascal.”

“Okay. I’m sorry.”

She apologized immediately, understanding the heart of her one and only peer.

“I know I made you worry.”

“No, you don’t.”

The boy gave a bitter smile.

Of the ten Pascal children in the Fair autonomous squad, eight remained. One had died in the skirmish, another had fled as a deserter.

Among them, the most composed and mature-seeming, Ys Pascal, infiltrated the city and bought the identity of an adult citizen from a black-market dealer to act as their guarantor.

At age sixteen, they raised their Beacon from the ruins of Fair and formally registered as an autonomous squad under the Final Defense Line command.

After discussion, Gide became squad leader and Rita the vice-leader. Together, they fought monsters, built camps, and shared everything they earned.

It wasn’t smooth sailing from the start.

The kids quickly realized how much work the adults who ran squads used to do.

Negotiating with the messy and unreasonable command headquarters, assessing the difficulty of assigned missions, preparing to avoid being short-changed for their contracts, negotiating for supply rations, avoiding being sent to die or used as meat shields—while still fulfilling their duties to defend the Final Line.

Even in a world overrun by monsters, humans were always the greater danger. The children learned that lesson with their whole bodies.

They went through many experiences as they learned. They made mistakes, suffered failures, faced crises due to poor judgment, and were deceived and suffered losses.

They lost comrades in battles defending the Line, and some left when reunited with family.

Some of those former comrades were later found to have been used and killed by the very families they returned to.

On the other hand, they also found new comrades.

“Gide, there’s something strange about that Pascal in the other squad.”

It was during a defense call at the Final Line that Rita spotted him.

A boy with golden-brown hair—Ethan Pascal.

“He’s skilled but reckless. He fights like he wants to die. He’s not in his right mind. Looks like he hasn’t eaten in days…”

“Yeah, something’s off.”

“And no one else in his squad fights properly but him.”

It was hard to interfere in another squad’s affairs.

But Gide didn’t ignore Rita’s words. Somehow, he secured audit rights from the command.

While they visited the squad under the pretense of inspection, Ys used a summoned beast to scout inside.

The findings were shocking.

“Rita, this squad… they’ve been performing poorly and haven’t received much food. But they didn’t look starving, so I checked the food storage and… I found human bones. The meat… likely came from unregistered orphans or vagrants.”

Though it was rumored that cannibalism occurred among the starving poor within the Final Line, this was the first time Rita had actually seen it. Until then, she had always lived outside the Line.

The command usually managed to send food to monster fighters, and if not, there was always the option of cooking and eating monster carcasses. Though the taste was foul and it was toxic to anyone not a covenantor, it was technically edible.

“Those sick bastards—why not eat monsters instead?!”

“Well, I bet this happens more often in secret. Especially in underperforming squads.”

“You’ve seen this before?”

“I’ve been around longer than you. I’m usually the one who goes into the city. In the slums, this kind of thing is common.”

“…”

“To be honest, it’s only natural from a survival standpoint. Humans are easier targets than monsters—both to catch and to eat.”

“I get what you’re saying. It might look efficient at first. But in the end, it’s not.”

“In the end?”

“Human strength lies in social bonds and altruism. We haven’t lost to monsters yet because we form societies and risk our lives for others. If we throw that away, we lose. So no—this can’t be normal. It shouldn’t be.”

“…I see.”

“And it’s not like those poor slum folks—these guys had a choice. They knew it was wrong and picked the easy path anyway. We can’t just let this go. We have to stop them now.”

“Yeah… You’re the kind of person worth following.”

“What do you mean, ‘that kind of person’?”

Ys Pascal just smiled at her question.

They quickly came up with a plan.

While Gide confronted the squad leader, Ys rescued the still-living “food” victims.

And Rita snuck in to meet Ethan Pascal. He was chained up.

“What? Escape? Hell no—do you know what kind of covenant that Pascal bastard forced me to make?”

“‘Ode, I vow: to always obey my master’s orders. I swear it in the name of Ethan Pascal.’”

“Get it? Escape is impossible. My ‘master’ is that bastard squad leader. Want to know how he used me? Want to see the shit I had to do to survive?”

Ethan went wild, trying to kill her. But he was too weak from starvation, having refused grotesque meals, and suffered frequent punishment from his own disobedience to the covenant.

Rita subdued him easily, then held a gun to his forehead and commanded:

“I win, Ethan Pascal.”

“If I so much as move a finger, you’ll die. Right?”

“If you want to live, you’ll serve me as your new master.”

The boy’s eyes widened. Rita saw his pupils trembling under the gun barrel.

At that moment, he recognized Rita Pascal as his new master—and the old restrictions shattered.

She freed his chains and gave her first order.

“Do as you wish.”

Ethan Pascal killed his former squad leader. He slaughtered the ones who forced him to eat human flesh and made him commit terrible acts.

“That’s what happened, Gide.”

After hearing Rita’s explanation, Gide sighed and used a monster corpse to stage the scene.

The command didn’t care about the “total loss” of an autonomous squad with barely any accomplishments.

That’s how Ethan Pascal became a member of Beacon.

Many more things happened afterward.

At seventeen, Rita finally defeated the Mimic she had failed to kill at fourteen—with her comrades.

They also took down several infamous named monsters.

The Beacon autonomous squad grew in renown. More of the scattered Pascal children flocked to them. Rita and Gide accepted anyone with the Pascal name.

Beacon expanded. Too many Pascals gathered.

Enough to start irritating the Final Line command.

At nineteen, the command ordered them to subjugate the Kraken—a formidable named monster that ruled the sea.

There was a trap in the ship provided by the command. Some of the late-joining Pascals turned out to be spies.

The ship sank. The Beacon squad fought the monstrous, octopus-like Kraken aboard the sinking vessel.

Many children died at sea. Only six members survived after defeating the Kraken:

Rita, Gide, Ollie, Sera, Ys, and Ethan.

Rita, who had been devastated when she lost a friend at fourteen, and who wept when her first squadmate died after founding Beacon, did not cry this time.

With red eyes, she quietly held a proper funeral. She personally raised each tombstone for the children who had no family to claim them. Most didn’t even have bodies—only keepsakes were buried.

After the funeral, once his wounds healed, Gide spoke.

“Our squad shouldn’t grow any larger.”

“Because the command hates it?”

“Yeah.”

“I see.”

Rita understood what he meant.

The command didn’t want the Pascals forming a new force. They wanted them scattered, functioning only as weapons in separate squads.

She gritted her teeth. But she said nothing more.

The ruins were now filled with the graves of her squadmates. Most were empty, with only mementos buried.

It was winter. Snow began to fall from the sky.

Amid the ghostly gray tombstones and gently drifting snowflakes, Gide looked at her with his one remaining eye and asked,

“Rita.”

“Yeah?”

“Would you like to create a new command?”