Angel Monarch

The Sun was high in the sky by the time Sera had finally woken up. She looked around the unfamiliar room for a few moments before remembering where she was.

She let her tired body fall back onto the bed, then spent the next ten minutes staring at the ceiling while organizing her thoughts.

Eventually she got out of bed and looked into her bag in search of something to wear. The clothes from yesterday still lay on the floor, they smelled really horrendous. It was a combination of monster blood, sweat and dirt.

Sadly all of her clothes seemed to be dirty, or covered in gore, which left her with little choice to wear. Around her specks of light appeared as her armor weaved itself into existence.

With a few quick moves she gathered all of her dirty clothes and placed them inside the bag. The first objective for today was getting something to eat and finding the laundry service.

Sera stepped out into the mild morning warmth and looked around. Many people were walking down the makeshift street, but all stopped in their tracks when they saw Sera in her armor.

The Sun glinted off of the golden plates, making it especially stunning. Without giving them any attention Sera began walking in a random direction in search of the mess hall, or some place where she could get some food.

While moving through the camp she quickly remembered how horrid the organization was. There was just simply no indication where anything could be found.

After walking around for nearly half an hour Sera gave up and she wrote a quick message to Kathy, asking where she can get some food. Kathy just sent her location.

Sera spent another ten minutes walking to the other side of the camp. Here she found a giant warehouse-like building, with a constant traffic. Without care Sera walked towards the entrance, the people basically jumped out of her way.

The inside was well illuminated and huge. There were seats for thousands of people, maybe even ten thousand. A whole wall was designated for the army cooks and servers, a large line of people waited for their turn to eat.

Sera's eyes narrowed a bit and she quickly realized the problem. There was no schedule to what order people could get their food, this caused a large backlog of soldiers waiting for their turn to eat.

This needed to be fixed and soon, but for now Sera's stomach was growling at her from hunger. She decided to eat first and solve things later.

One thing they at least got right was the separate area for the evolved and ascended.

Sera walked straight to there and she soon spotted Kathy speaking with one of the Ouroboros's members, his name was maybe Conrad, but she didn't quite remember... At another table sat David with Jill and Frank.

She spotted Percy as well, he was eating with the rest of the cohort and he seemed really interested in one woman in particular, but she purposefully ignored him.

Still in her armor Sera went to the private food station and grabbed a large tray, she then proceeded to build a mountain of everything that could be eaten. After that she headed for the table with David and sat in the empty seat.

David had previously spotted her and greeted her instantly. Jill just looked at her armor once, then gave Sera a bright smile... it looked really awkward on her usually neutral face, but Sera just smiled back.

Slowly she descended into her chair. To her right Frank's eyes snapped towards her. He smelt the air a few times mumbling 'mushrooms' under his breath, then out of nowhere he jumped up and looked at Sera's tray like it was the most vilest thing he had ever seen.

With an angry expression he pointed at the tray.

"Why are there mushrooms?! I should destroy them, kill all of them! Exterminate the devil's fruit!" He put one hand into his pocket, but before Sera could've seen what was in it, a girl ran to Frank.

She was about 14 years old, but Sera could instantly judge her to be an evolved. Her hair was long and colored green, her eyes were a similar color. She whispered a few things to Frank and slowly led him away.

David waved to the girl with a thankful expression, but her eyes were only on Sera who lost interest in the interaction and began devouring her mountain of food.

"Oh, when did Frank leave." Said a cheerful female voice from behind Sera. She didn't need to turn around to know who she was.

"Good morning Cassandra." Said Sera while chewing on some unknown meat and bread.

"Good morning Sera!" She said and sat into the empty chair next to Sera. Her eyes stared at the golden armor for a few moments, then they went to the tray full of food, widening from surprise.

"I never thought you to be a glutton, I always imagined you to be a healthy eater for some reason." Said Cassandra. To Sera's left David laughed and said, "Oh, you should see her in the wild! She turns into a whole different animal when it comes to hunting for food!"

Both David and Cassandra laughed at that and even Jill made a silent giggle. Sera just continued to eat unbothered.

"So what's the plan for today?" Asked Cassandra in a whisper, trying to hide the fact that she was asking for orders. Sera glanced at Jill for a moment, but she seemed perfectly fine with everything.

Looking at her Sera remembered the polygamous relationship she had with her team. She really wanted to ask about it, but it felt disrespectful and she wasn't even sure Jill could talk. She haven't heard her speak yet... or make a sound!

"You and me going to have a long lesson on camp organization and leader demeanor. Sera and Jill is going to inspect everything with the camp and take care of every problem, hopefully! The others are going to train with the evolved. Also at some point during today you will give a speech to the soldiers to increase moral... Any questions?" Said David.

Cassandra nodded and wrote everything down. She was truly dedicated and committed, in Sera's opinion, she will make a great leader after acquiring some experience!

"I do, but they can wait until the lesson." Answered Cassandra and soon she was walking away with David.

Sera just continued to eat, while Jill was typing on her watch. Whoever she was talking to, they made her giggle constantly. There was no sound coming out of her, but that giddy face couldn't be hidden.

Eventually Sera got too curious and she had to ask, "Why don't you ever speak?"

Jill looked her in the eye and tilted her head a bit.

"I can speak... It just hurts..." From her throat a croaking sound came out, like her throat was getting scratched by sandpaper. After speaking only six words she began coughing, and on her face a pained expression appeared.

After a minute and a large glass of water she seemed to settle back to her neutral expression.

"What happened?" Asked Sera. She had already guessed that something happened, which made her unable to speak, probably some damage to her vocal cords.

Jill seemed to think for a moment, then shrugged to herself and took down the neck protector of her armor. Below it her neck was pure scar tissue, not one point was left healthy.

While examining the damage Jill typed on her watch and the message soon arrived to Sera's watch.

Jill:

When I was evolving into an ascended, while unconscious I got attacked by some monster. It used its claws on my throat and I nearly died. Luckily my family found me in time and saved my life, but the scar never truly healed.

Sera nodded with understanding. While Jill was putting the neck protector back on, she spotted six necklace chains hidden below her shirt. They were probably some memento from each of her husbands and wives, or maybe the actual rings.

For a moment a bit of envy appeared in Sera's eyes without her knowledge. Jill haven't missed this small show of real emotion and she began typing again on her watch.

Jill:

Do you have any kind of family?

Sera quickly read the message, then with a roughish grin said, "Why? Are you asking me to join?"

She laughed soundlessly, which caused a small grimace of pain to appear, but in the next second she was already typing.

Jill:

Not going to lie, we did talk about getting you into our marriage. Helena really wanted you to join, but I shut them all off. I know my family is a bit unusual, but we do love each other... You haven't answered my question though. You don't have to, but I saw it in your eyes, that deep loneliness and sadness.

The idea of talking about her life to basically a stranger, sounded strangely comforting to Sera, and she stayed silent thinking for a long while. She really wanted to talk about it, but she was also too fearful to say it aloud. Noticing her hesitation Jill wrote another message.

Jill:

If you don't want to say it out loud, you can write it in a message like I do!

That would've solved her problems, but there was one huge problem...

"Can't. My watch is most likely pinged by Central Command. Whatever I write they would see it too."

Jill nodded with understanding, then just wrote a short message before standing up and walking away.

Jill:

Ask Frank for help!

With a curious expression Sera turned towards Jill, but she was already nearly out of the building.

She watched her going outside for a bit, then was about to go back to her cold food, when she noticed something interesting.

A few tables over Hector, Dwight and presumably his four team members were dining. Sera watched them for a good minute before deciding to use this opportunity.

She stood up and walked towards their table with a cunning smile.

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