“What’s the distance of the target?” Emilek asked while two the two teens looked at the small cat, a ribbon tried around its neck. A cat that most of the village’s Soldat’s had to catch at least once, to the point that Emilek didn’t know how old it was.

Ismay had thought the older Soldat’s that warned her about the cat had been joking when they called it a demon. It almost had the same sense of humour that Viktorija did, not that Ismay had seen the bitch that month. And to think she had scoffed at their words, and in the end, they were right. The cat truly was a demon, a demon that was almost worse than her midget of a teammate.

Viktorija was a demon, so what was she expecting from anything that had her sense of humour.

“Five meters,” Ismay told Emilek while getting ready to chase said demon cat down, both she and Etienne had chased the cat around the village at least ten times. Her clothing was also filthy, torn and she knew she’d never wear this set again. “I’m in position.”

Etienne grunted, glaring at the cat. It was easting his time; he could be training! Or finishing the paperwork from the last mission! And this cat was cutting into his time to do it.

“Target has been caught,” Viktorija told them, Ismay and Etienne looked where the cat was, but instead they spotted Viktorija sitting on the roof with the cat in her arms. Viktorija just looked at them with a bored expression. “How long does it take to catch a cat?”

“You would know if you were helping,” Ismay hissed at her, the cat hissing at her from Viktorija’s arms. Ismay spotted something brown on her neck, but dismissed it as dirt, it wasn’t like the dead last would have anything else on her.

After all, Ismay thought the brown-haired girl was wasting her time. Training was a waste of time for her, she was never going to improve. It wasn’t like she was leaving the village; Etienne would be put a stop to it if she was.

“I was forced to listen to you whine,” Viktorija told her.

“Is it Karlotta? A pink ribbon around the neck?” Emilek asked drawing his team’s attention back to the mission at hand.

Viktorija looked at the cat’s neck, a pink ribbon around the neck. Black fur was soft around neck, Karlotta was a short-haired cat.

“Viktorija?” Emilek asked as he looked at his youngest student, it was strange for him to see Viktorija handle anything so gently. Treating a living being with such kindness, instead of throwing something sharp at it and calling it a day.

“Pink silk ribbon around the neck,” Viktorija told him.

“Like you know what silk felt like,” Ismay hissed at her.

“You do if you steal it,” Viktorija told her, standing up and keeping the cat in her arms. “Or you know, but it. But it’s a waste of money.”

“Mama sells silk!” Ismay protested.

“And my point has been proven.”

“Mission is completed,” Emilek told them before Ismay could say anything about Viktorija’s remark and her comment about silk. Since Emilek agreed with Viktorija, in their line of work, silk was only to be protected or stolen.

Never used. There was too much blood, dirt and grime involved in their line of work; silk was only useful in overcover missions. And Emilek never went on those, so he never thought about buying the material.

“I’ll be at the Ombre cachée office,” Viktorija told them, before disappearing into a puff of smoke and Ismay just looked at where she had been sitting.

“That witch!” Ismay hissed, before she continued muttering under her breath as she made her way towards the Ombre cachée’s office. Etienne following her without another word, Emilek knew that they would never work as a team and he was glad they would only be forced be in each other’s presence for a year.

--

“Now Team Seven, for your next mission. Babysitting an elder’s daughter, picking up supplies from a neighbouring village or helping one of our farmers with the potato harvest,” Manville, the Ombre cachée, told them as he looked at the list in front of him for D-rank missions.

Duron kept an eye on Viktorija, since he and Manville knew that she would be leaving. All the missions that were left for the day, meant that the team would need to talk to someone in the village and all of them had requested that Viktorija not be in the team.

And she knew that. Viktorija knew that all too well, so she figured it would she would safe herself and Emilek time. Just not go, accept other missions that didn’t request she not be there. Viktorija nodded before lightly patting her hands on her skirt, pulling her hood over her head and turned towards the door.

Ismay stood in front of her, her arms crossed, and her foot was tapping against the wood. It was something her Mama did when she was ready to tell someone off. And Ismay had had enough of Viktorija leaving them with all the work.

“What is it? Move before I make you,” Viktorija told her.

Ismay only glared at her, she was sick and tried of that little witch, getting out of all the hard work and missions. While she and Etienne had to deal with clients while she wasted her days on a pointless goal.

“I’m sick of this, you’ll be joining us on this mission,” Ismay told her.

“No, I won’t,” Viktorija told her. “Client don’t want me there, so that means I can’t go.”

“You little bitch, stop leaving all the work to me and Etienne,” Ismay hissed at her, while Viktorija just looked at her.

Didn’t the moron hear a single word she said? Or did she just ignore her if she wasn’t telling her something she wanted to hear. Viktorija just didn’t feel like being screamed at, Ismay was book smart her ass, if she didn’t even know something as basic as clients being allowed to ask for someone not to be there.

And they always asked for her not to be there.

“For starters,” Viktorija told her, her eyes going darker in her anger until they were near black, and no one could see her pupil. “It’s Etienne and I. Secondly, the client doesn’t me there. Clients have a right to ask for someone not to be allowed to take said mission.”

“You’re lying!” Ismay spit at her.

“Did the little princess break a nail?” Viktorija snapped, her hands curling into fists as she glared at Ismay. “Crying over the fact that you must do something, with someone helping. Dear Mother of Mercy, the world must be coming to an end. Also, this.”

Ismay didn’t know what she was talking about, until her check started to sting, and she was looking at the wooden floor. Viktorija had slapped her, and she was standing over her as glared at her with hatred in her eyes.

“Viktorija, we don’t hit teammates,” Duron told her putting his paperwork down, he knew that Ismay’s words weren’t called for, but Viktorija didn’t need to raise a hand against her. It was senseless violence that they didn’t condone.

“I don’t have teammates,” Viktorija hissed as she turned on her heel, glaring at Duron. Of course, princess Martin was protected, and she was just a demon that needed to be treated as a rabid beast with no self-control.

Manville only looked at them, before sighing and looking over the missions as Emilek picked Viktorija up and placed her on his shoulders. “Team Seven, I’ll give you a C-rank mission.”

“Sir, are you sure?” Duron asked him.

“A basic escort mission to Geocguk,” Manville told him, the mission was only C-rank because they needed to leave the country. The only risk was bandits, so he was sure that Emilek would be able to deal with any threat.

“Of course, Ombre cachée,” Emilek told him before taking the mission from his hands. A member of the Garde member would send the client in, when he looked at how long the mission would go for and how much they needed to pack.

“I thought I hired Soldat’s, not toddlers,” a man in his forties said, a bottle of whiskey in his hands and he took a sip as he looked at them. He was tipsy and there was a slight slur in his speech that show it.

When he went to take another sip, he noticed that the bottle was gone from his hands and that the brat from the man’s shoulders were gone. She was looking at him from the other side of the room, his bottle in her hand as she looked at the label.

“Cheap,” she admitted as she caught his gaze. The brown-haired girl appeared next to him and handed his bottom back. “But nice enough, on a budget. How long should we pack for? I’d like to leave now.”

“Meet at the gate in two hours, pack for six months. Bring money if the mission goes longer than planned for,” Emilek told them, they were going to Geocguk and it depended on how the client decided to travel. “Pack everything you’ll need, better to have too much. Then not enough.”