“Milk, aren’t you going to sleep at all?” Rong asked after he got sick of staring into the distant forest for a while. The rest continued sleeping soundly since part of their training included forcing themselves to sleep.
The Demon Exorcists under Grandma Yuan had to go through rigorous training, with multiple lessons where they had to learn to sleep despite any noise and sense of danger, entrusting their lives to the people that were guarding the place.
In one such scenario, they were placed in the middle of a military training exercise where live artillery shells were fired at a constant pace, and the demon exorcists had to take turns to maintain the shield as the others rested.
Some people might think it was absurd. If it was dangerous, why stay in that area instead of looking for a more safe place to rest. But Grandma Yuan who had taken part in the World War before begged to differ.
Sometimes there were no safe places…
“If fear can grab your heart despite your words claiming you’ll entrust your life to your allies, then you have absolutely no trust in them. On the other hand, for the person who is guarding, you have the responsibility to guard them with your life and make the appropriate decision on whether you all should retreat, fight or continue to rest. If a guard wakes everyone up at the first sign of danger, that is no guard. That is an incompetent person.” Grandma Yuan’s words were sharp, and her words echoed with experience.
“Unlike you guys, I prefer to sleep in a nice comfy bed, not some forested floor or tent with no air con. Still, I’m fine.” Milk answered as if she was some high maintenance lady, but the truth was that she probably ate more salt than rice compared to the whole group of trainees.
She had lived most of her life with the opinion that she had no one to truly trust. Even her former master had turned against the country, forcing Milk to fight against her. She had been compelled to travel alone and believing in herself had not been an option because of the dangers she had suffered on a regular basis. It was to the point that she treated god and religion not as some sort of guiding post in her life but instead as a stepping stone to ensure her own survival.
Her priesthood had just been a passing phase in her life which she had accepted because it had seemed promising at the time. Even though she had been scouted and to a certain point, been regarded as one of the formerly most famous priest’s disciples before being branded a heretic. This just heightened her awareness and ensured that she never truly felt at ease.
Milk believed that there was always something or someone out there threatening to kill her. Yet, despite all of this internal conflict, she continued to act for the sake of other people, for the masses selflessly. All of this work had been performed to validate her own actions.
Thus, when she had been recruited by the System, all she asked for in return was that it would help her find someone she could trust wholly again.
Unfortunately, it was a wish that became twisted.
In a way, the System did grant her request. Her trust in the User would never be broken, no matter what he or she might do. Milk would follow them to hell and back if there was a need to.
For someone who had never accepted anyone in her heart, the current Milk felt that it was somewhat liberating to be able to give her ideal of trust this freely to someone she didn’t necessarily know. But to the System back then, it did not think that way. All the System did was to pass its new User a faithfully blind bellator.
With trust waning after the events of Ming, the System rather not risked using a Bellator that could potentially revolt. So, having Milk to faithfully follow Jin was basically a safety net for the System to test the new dungeon supplier.
As to why sometimes Milk acted provocatively when Jin was around, it all stemmed from her wish. She craved to be ‘one’ with him, especially when the fake priestess yearned his acceptance and hoped that eventually, this trust issue would become a two-way street rather than remain one-sided.
——–
“So, how long have you been employed under Jin? Or do you happen to be partners with him in this dungeon supplying store?” Rong tried to kick up some conversation to break the monotonous guarding since Milk had decided to stay awake for so long.
But instead of replying, Milk remained dead quiet, making Rong worry that he might have asked a taboo question… Until he sensed that something was wrong.
Only an hour had passed, and the sun had yet to set, but the atmosphere was different from usual. “Ready your weapons and wake the others.” Milk said as she brought out her giant book.
“No way. We are trained to assess the threat and determine if it’s necessary to wake them up. Grandma Yuan’s training was ver-” The demon exorcist’s trap formation lit up for a moment, and suddenly everything shattered. There was no time for the trap formation to even activate its alarm.
The instant it came down, Milk instantly pushed Rong away from where he was standing as a white bony fist emerged from the depths underground. The Priestess Bellator managed to block it with her giant book but was blown away from the impact, up into the sky.
“Milk!” Rong shouted and then he sensed there was movement behind him, causing him to react instinctively by guarding himself with his hammer.
That was not enough.
A bone spirit infused monkey demon emerged from the trees and grabbed on to his hammer with a power swipe, causing Rong to be stunned about the abrupt theft. Fortunately, Milk managed to throw out a spell in time, blocking the monkey demon’s path of escape with a cage of holy swords.
“WAKE THEM UP NOW!” Milk shouted, and Rong knew that this was definitely not something he could cope on his own. While punching the Bone Spirit Monkey Demon, he focused his chi into his throat and roared out to his friends, forcefully pulling them out of their deep slumber.
“Enemy Horde! Battle Mode NOW!!!”
Rong tried to wrestle his hammer away from the Bone Spirit Monkey Demon. It took him a moment to remember he could recall his hammer into his storage ring and summon it back to whack the monkey demon.
To his surprise, the monkey demon was resilient enough, or maybe even intelligent enough to use the bone spirit’s outer bones to partially deflect the surprise hit. The bone armour just cracked, indicating that its toughness was not ordinary.
Still, presented with a challenge, the monkey sent out a loud, resounding crackle that pierced the silence of the forest, as if it was calling out for more reinforcements.
True enough, in a matter of moments, more monkey demons appeared and they started to approach towards the tent Lein, and the others had been sleeping in. At that point, the giant bone hand continued to harass Milk, unable to allow her to aid ‘normally’.
Rong only hoped that the defensive inscription charms placed on the tents could last long enough for the other demon exorcists to get ready in time.
