Cannon Fodder To Villainess

🏮29. Silent Mission

Amber pulled the metal out of the lock and walked into the vault with the orange haired man, Nova, and Fortis. It had been nearly an hour since she'd collected Nova. During that time, she'd gone to the other cages and had released the other locked up women. The orange haired man kept on darting his eyes around fearfully and rubbing hands together while licking his lips. His posture was bent over like a hunchback as if he were trying to take up as little space as possible, so that he wouldn't be seen.

At this time, Nova was awake and quietly followed Amber with a thick blush on her cheeks and watery eyes. As soon as she'd woken up, she'd rushed over to Amber and jumped into her arms while crying. Amber patted her head awkwardly in an attempt to comfort her and allowed Nova to hug her. It was quite a few moments later that Nova realized what she was doing and started to feel self conscious. Soon after, a bright pink blush appeared on her cheeks and hadn't gone away since. She was holding Fortis's hand and quietly following behind Nova.

Fortis was happily chatting about how amazing and wonderful their new master was. She loudly bragged about the different things Amber had done before Nova had woken up. Nova just continued to shake her head in agreement of Amber's greatness. Amber refused to look back, so that the girls wouldn't see how much their praise was affecting her. She certainly wasn't used to such enthusiastic fans. The orange haired man would choke every once in a while. This was either due to the poison covered needle jammed in his throat or out of rage. No one could tell and frankly none of them actually cared enough to ask.

As they entered the room, the orange haired man hesitated fearfully at the doorway.

"You go in first," Amber said.

"I'm not allowed to go in there. There may be magic wards or some other dangerous thing," he said.

"Well aren't you in luck then? You'll likely die a slow painful death if I don't decide to heal the poison from your neck. It'll be unlikely that someone else will be able to cure you. At least with a magic ward, you'll likely die quickly," Amber said.

Amber looked over at Fortis with an amused and dangerous looking smirk on her lips. She turned her wrist and flipped her palm facing upward with her fingers facing Fortis.

Fortis giggled and let go of Nova's hand while stepping forward. A gleeful grin spread across her lips and a sly twinkle gleamed in her eyes. She pointed a finger at the orange haired man and lifted him up into the air. He started to scream, but a see through band of air condensed over his mouth; silencing him. That bit of air almost looked like water. Perhaps she had condensed the water that was in the air? To have that amount of control over the air at such a young age, this girl was frightening.

His eyes widened and he tried to wiggle free, but more of the air around him thickened until he looked like he was wrapped in a translucent cocoon. It was clear that he was trying to yell, but no sound came out. Tears fell from his eyes and his face went white.

Fortis floated him into the room. As soon as she dropped him, he collapsed onto the floor. His eyes remained open, staring at nothing, and he was motionless.

Fortis's mouth popped open and she dropped to her knees while banging her forehead onto the floor. "Sorry master! This is Fortis's fault! I have accidentally smothered him to death without your prior permission!" Fortis said.

Amber walked over and held out her hand to stop Fortis from banging her head anymore. Amber looked carefully at the little girl's forehead to make sure that she'd actually hurt herself and saw that she was bleeding. It would have been easy enough for her to thicken up the air and prevent herself from getting hurt, yet she didn't. Amber looked at her with concern apparent on her face, but her heart was full of suspicion. This type of person could be useful by her side or mean her death. She didn't know if she should raise this girl well or kill her quickly. For now, Amber would observe her closely. She would have to think of a way to give herself insurance of some sort, in case this girl decided to turn on her.

"For now, get this garbage out of the way," said Amber.

"Yes master!" Fortis said while standing up and bowing. She smiled and pointed at the man while flinging him against the opposite wall. The force of him crashing into that wall caused a loud bang and made a human shaped dent. He dropped to the floor in a crumpled up and splattered mess.

Amber quickly looked away and swallowed several times to not show any weakness. She couldn't afford to become sick from the sight of him. She'd seen many things while in medical school, but this was something else. The only thing Fortis seemed concerned about was if she had disappointed her 'master' or not. Amber felt somewhat sick knowing that the air she breathed in could easily be within that girl's control.

Amber was thrown into this frightening world without her consent. Where one wrong move or simple word from others could bring her to a horrible end. There was no turning back from what already was, so the only way to survive was to move forward, while watching her back. To do that, she needed strong allies.

"You'll need to practice control of your magic so that there aren't any more mistakes like this in the future. I wasn't done with this person yet. I still needed to question him. To correct your mistake, I'll need you to locate a certain individual for me, the manager of this building. Your first mission as my subordinate is to locate him and bring him to me. I will not tell you the man's name or where I will be. It will also be your job to locate the both of us. Future missions will require you to go to other locations and be able to keep in contact with me without me constantly telling you my location.

After you complete this mission to my satisfaction, I will allow you to properly become my subordinate. You will sign a mana pact contract with me and become one of my people. As a reward, I will grant you some training manuals that suit your magic perfectly and give you elixirs to strengthen your body and your magic. You will have a place you belong, a home, a purpose, and Nova will be your sister disciple. I will train you and Nova to be my direct subordinates, you just have to prove yourself first. I want to see your self control and tact. Show me your worth. Silently bring this man to me without being detected by others and without harming him in any way. If you can not, don't bother returning to my side."

Fortis's eyes glowed with determination and excitement. She bowed deeply. "Yes master! Fortis hears and obeys!" Fortis silently lifted up into the air and sped out of the room. Like a gust of wind, she was gone.