[Marion Linette]

-Oh shit... Easy Marion... You can still pull something out!-

Fidgetly said the blonde woman, former bandit, and maybe formerly alive considering the latest developments. She paced around the room, scrambling her head for ways to break the news to Alina.

You know the expression biting more than you can chew? Well, Marion definitely bit more than what she could chew. Between getting closer with Alina and a decent streak of successes in her personal projects, Marion grew complacent.

And a complacent yet overexcited Marion is a dangerous combination.

The idea of tracking the Beowolf packs had been in her mind recently. She wanted to have a big map monitoring each large concentration of Grimm surrounding the Kozak territory. Which would be neat. And maybe even give her a boost to the resources she was allowed for Grimm shenanigans.

And she had no doubt in her mind that things would be a breeze. Who cared that the recruits were still a little green? She was Marion, fucking, Linette. Awesome Osaul of the Revolutionary League. Soon rule over the pathetic excuse for a country that was current Mistral. Whatever came, she was sure she could either deal with it or avoid the consequences if a couple idiots got a bit hurt...

And as it was bound to happen... Something went wrong. And two people were dead. Two of her people... Two of Alina’s people. And it was Marion’s fault. As much as she put up excuse after excuse in her head, Marion knew deep down that she could have avoided the situation if she had been more careful.

They were pushing into unknown territory. So it was Marion's responsibility to scout ahead first before sending the whole gang... But everything was going so well lately! More captured Grimm, more of them released where they would do some damage, more projects, more weird inventions!

Until Marion had so many things in her hands that she couldn’t be bothered to spend the better part of an hour scouting ahead of her troops. But it was fine. She was 90% sure there wouldn't be any dangerous Grimm ahead when she advanced with her team in search of an elusive Beowolf...

Sadly, that remaining 10% of uncertainty came as a speeding Boarbatusk who took down two people and injured a third before Marion could react and kill it with her daggers.

So now, there she was, right timing to see the door opening and a tired-looking Alina Rybalka entering their shared room. And if the faunus woman had even a sliver of sharpness, she would instantly be able to notice that something was very off about Marion.

-Oh... Hi... Alina- She would begin, between awkward pauses. Aware of exactly how much she was afraid of the Hetman’s ire... But Alina was already there, and she couldn’t keep stalling forever. Especially if she had been already informed, which Marion doubted, but it was still a possibility.

-I... Have something I need to tell you. Something you will not like- She said, as a gallery of wild ideas ran through her mind.

Of course, she had considered covering everything up... But she discarded the idea almost immediately, too many witnesses to what happened. And if there was a chance Alina would kill her for what she did, there was a certainty that she would kill Marion if she tried to lie to her like that.

Straight up escaping was also out of the books. Marion didn’t want the Kozaks hunting them down on top of the Council dogs. And honestly, she was running out of places to... Huh... Escape. So her best way was to pray and appeal to Alina’s goodwill. And hope that they becoming lovers would somehow give her a privileged treatment.

Then again... Thus far, Alina’s rule regarding the matter had been very transparent with everyone else. Cause a death, and you die yourself.

Pulling a chair to sit down herself, she offered another to Alina. Although a part of her doubted she would use it anyway. -Well... Alright. Some people died in my last expedition, the one to the southwest-

Like pulling out a bandaid, Marion’s gaze was set on the table as fat drops of sweat ran down her temple. One second in, and she was already regretting it. She tried to make herself really small as she mentally counted how many steps would take her to reach for her daggers in the wall. Or how far away was the window.

Maybe Alina had come from a heavy session of training, and her aura was spent. While not ideal, that would give Marion a chance to try and freeze up the Hetman and jump out the window. Since even without her aura, Marion would prefer testing her luck with a fall than with her boss.

-Two men. It was almost instantaneous, so we couldn’t do anything about it... I already told the families... Well... Sent someone to do it that would be better than me- She would go on if Alina allowed her the chance. Not even bothering to hide a trembling set of fingers firmly poised on the table.

-Things... Things like that can happen... When you fight a war. When you need to take risks...- She would try to negotiate at first. But soon, she relinquished the idea, no use in doing that until she knew what Alina had in mind for her.

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903 / 903 Words.