Villainess

2.4

Shi Zixin sat on her horse in front of her new men, the pounding headache of a hangover drowned out by the sheer annoyance of the sight before her.

She had about 55 soldiers and all were severely untrained. Sure, they knew how to use the bow and arrow and a sword like any other soldier due to the joint rotation training, but U.C Lau taught nothing on how to do martial arts, his so-called 'specialty.' He just had them run around like a bunch of toddlers.

Tch, how pathetic.

Shi Zixin fought the urge to ask 008 if there was any possible way to get U.C Lau to just die off. It annoyed her greatly whenever she had to look at his smugly handsome face and know that he has reaped all the benefits while Shi Zixin was left with nothing.

"Why are we up so early?" A gruff voice asks as he rubs his beady eyes. Some food from last night was still stuck in his unruly black beard.

"We are heading west, as you all know," Shi Zixin responds as she already begins to feel the chill beneath her coat. "And I believed it'd be best if we set out earlier. That way, we can make it to the designated grounds in a week's end."

"I heard it's suicide out there!" A nasally voice chimes in, scratching at dandruff in his hair.

"It's only suicide if you don't follow orders," Shi Zixin shouts back. "If you cannot follow orders, I won't send you back to camp; I'll send you into the mountains alone. So, you better take everything seriously, because it's a matter of life or death."

Everyone gulps. Shi Zixin pauses for a moment before nodding. "Good, we all understand, then. We'll ride in normal formation until we make camp."

With that, she watched them all mount their horses. Shi Zixin turned around, an annoyed look on her face as she led them out of camp.

This was going to be a lonnnnggggg journey.

She heard them speak among themselves behind her for the first couple hours, but after that everyone was already exhausted from riding.

"Are we going to have a break soon?" a boy whines as Shi Zixin sighs.

Be tough, girl!

"We break when the first person pukes."

He didn't say anything after that.

The group traveled for six more days before arriving at the base of the mountains. The mountains weren't that big, but with all the snow, no one wanted to cross them.

Shi Zixin paused, taking a moment of silence to take the scenery in. Dry air twirled unpacked snow in loose whisps on the ground, darting over snowy meadows and valleys that dipped up and down. In the distance, a small town could be seen, small pockets of chimney smoke steadily rising from it and black shadows darting to and forth.

Caws sounded from above, and Shi Zixin glanced up briefly to see a fleet of crows head towards the village in the distance. A man from behind Shi Zixin loosed an arrow, quickly letting it fly into one of the birds.

A bird tore down from the sky, landing in front of Shi Zixin's horse. Its left wing twitched, the arrow still embedded in its feathers.

"You missed," Shi Zixin shouts out, dismounting her horse and picking up the bird with a hand. Disgruntled, she ripped out the arrow swiftly, looking the crow in its beady eyes.

It stared back at her, before letting out a low caw. Shi Zixin shortly exhales from her nose, holding back up the bird. It flew from her grasp, shakily rejoining the others in the sky, blood droplets jetting down to Earth with every flap of its wings.