35. Crimson Eagle Training Camp (6)
35. Crimson Eagle Training Camp (6)
Each small group lined up in front of the instructor
(I've been wondering this for a long time… do we have a different instructor or always the same?) the instructor always wore a black suit with black sunglasses
(is that their rule? All of their subordinate all have the same outfit, other than we trainees, only Venti Crimson not hiding her face)
While Lex was wondering about the useless thing, the instruction said "take this!" then his subordinate gave the promised basic items to each group,
Two days' worth of food and water, a blanket, a small knife and a map.
(a map?) Lex thought as he checked the map. It was a simple map, showing the forest where they will carry out the exam, the forest has donut like shape with a mountain right on the middle and there's many blue lines across the forest and mountain which are rivers.
(what it this? the northern side of forest much darker, a clear contrast of color then the other three side)
"some of you must have realize the difference in color on some place of the map, let me warn you avoid that kind of place, It's a dangerous area we can't help if you step on that place, remember that!" the instructor clearly warned
(dangerous area? But what kind of dangerous did they mean? Wild animal? Bad terrain? Or maybe…, nah, that's impossible)
"our place now is right outside of the western forest, the red point on the map"
(oh, that's right it's a bit small I missed that before, which mean… how big is this forest?)
"then lastly, a little message from Venti Crimson" the instructor continued before he took out a hologram video
"to help the trainees avoiding boredom on these seven days, we add some entertainment for your all, there are flags scattered around the forest, the group who have it in the end will have bonus merit for their group, so take your time and look for it!" the recorded video "then let the survival-, no let's call it flag hunt instead, Let the Flag Hunt begin!!!"
""""whoaaaa!!!!!"""" all the trainees shouted in excitement, this is their chance to get easy merit.
(but… the one who has the flag in the end, which mean it doesn't matter who have it first as long you have it at the last minute… haa~~ it's gonna be dangerous)
With Venti declaration, the exam officially began, the group were to aim for their starting point sent by black suited men, on the way Lex approached Max and softly whisper him "Shelter first… near river but not too close… ignore the flag for now " Max quickly looked back at Lex before nodding to him
***
After Lex's group reached the starting point the guide quickly go back leaving them.
"for now, let's find a shelter first" Max said, as he opened his map for the others to see
"we're now near the dangerous area, here…" he pointed "for shelter I want to search a place near river but not too close, what do you guys think?"
"that's for the best" Neo quickly agreed followed by Mashiro, Elena and Lex.
"there's two choices, an open area or closed area" Max said "there both have each advantages and disadvantages for the open area it's more easy to avoid sudden ambush but we can't easily hide ourselves, while closed area it's easy to hide but inconvenient to move around, which one do you guys want?"
"but. There's nothing too dangerous on this forest as long we avoid the northern side, no?" Mashiro replied in confusion "isn't the open area much better? We can easily spot wild animal approaching us too"
"I think what Max means to hide from other group not wild animal" Lex said
"huh? Why?" Elena asked me back
"You heard them, no? the one who hold the flag in the end will get the merit, which mean even if we got the flag now, we need to secure it from other groups too, looking around the forest isn't the only ways to obtain the flag, you can obtain it from other groups too" Lex explained, the others looked at him flabbergasted they don't think that ways at all "that's…. what Max told me before"
By Lex statement, the other attention quickly changed to Max "T-that's right!" Max said
(Oii, you stuttered!!)
"and that's why I want safety as our priority, I understand we all want the bonus merit, but if it affected our safety I wanted you all to abandon the flag can you accept it?" Max said
"but..." Elena said
"we want the bonus merit too" followed by Neo, both of them looks a bit disagree with Max
(now then, how do you solve this… will you grow or stuck on that place) Lex thought as he observed Max (this kind of situation always happens on one's group if you can't solve this kind of small problem, there no future for you as leader Max)
"Ele-" when Mashiro tried to say something Max opened his mouth "let's take it like this, our first priority here is to survive for seven days on this forest, if we forced ourselves and get injured on the middle, which can result in failing this survival Exam, you can say goodbye to your bonus merit then, cause if you fail you're dismissed, but even if we miss the Bonus here, we can still expect more in the future" first Max cut what their mercilessly
""…."" Both of them were silenced by Max
"and of course I don't mean we ignore all the flag, all I want is for us to avoid endangering ourselves, if we can take the flag safely why not?" Max follow up with an encouragement
(wow, you handled it perfectly nice one!) unseen by others Lex give max a thumb, which Max accepted with a bright smile
"thus, let's choose the open place" Max said leading the others to the place on the near northern side of eastern side forest, and a bit near the mountain on the middle too.
****
"here we are! This will be our base for this one week" Max declared as they approach an open land in the middle of the forest, it is about 8x8 m wide open land,
On the way there Lex give him another advice "avoid using the food ration as much as possible, we don't know what will happen on this one week"
"I know we're not professional but let's do what we can" Max said "Neo, you said you had a bit experience on the forest, no?"
Neo nodded with Max question "I want you to check our surrounding for any animal trace, it's ok if you missed something but check as much as you can"
"ok" Neo agreed and went on his way
"then Mashiro and Elena, please look for any kind of food you recognize and firewood"
"okkie dokkie!" Mashiro put her hand up replied
"as for Lex…"
"I'm going to safeguard and check this place" Lex said before Max "and you can help those two, firewood isn't light and the more the better" Lex then gave Max a wink
(this is your chance!!)
('but Elena will be there too') Max complained with his eye to Lex
(it's ok, you can even get both of them!! Flowers on both hands isn't that great!!) Lex send back another eye contact
('like hell it's great!??') Max send back another complained but Lex already ignored him (kugh! Just you wait!?)
"haha" Lex let out a huff of laughter seeing those three went together "well then, let's finish my work" then Lex checked the open land for any kind of dangerous plant or insect that he knows, after he finished because all of their belongings here he can't move far from there. He decided to look for big things like stone and twig to flatten the uneven ground as much as possible.
***
Meanwhile, Max Mashiro and Elena went their way to get firewood and any edible plants
"we have our food rations for two days, why do we look for food now?" on the middle of their activity on gathering the firewood Mashiro suddenly asked Max
"ahh~~, that's what I think too" Elena said "why? Why?"
"it's for emergency food because we don't know what will happen in the future" Max replied
"what do you mean?" Mashiro tilted her head cutely, she still can't connect the line
('Cute!!! … phew~ I almost got a heart attack just now')
"if three or four days from now we suddenly get a bad weather raining the whole day, at that time we can avoid searching on the forest under the rain with the emergency food" Max explained
"ufufu~" Elena happily laughed "Max you even thought that far ahead! Impressive isn't it Mashiro?"
"yea, we glad to have you as our leader" Mashiro stared at Max in dazed, if you see it carefully you can realize her face a bit red, sadly Max missed that
('ughh!!, somehow I feel guilty') the cause is the guilt on his heart
('mostly advices from Lex from Lex, something bothering me since before should I asked them…')
"Max! Max!" Elena called "can we use this?" She asked as he shown Max a twig she found
"a bit damp, but we can still use it" Max answered ('ahh~~ it's bothering me so much!! Let's just ask and end it there!')
"Mashiro, has Elena always been this kind of person?" Max asked
('she looks no different from you, a girl with an overflowing energy')
"un" she nodded "she always been like this"
"but she looks so meek just now" Max argued
"now that you said it, I'm curious too what happened?" Mashiro said both of them turned to their topic of conversation Elena, because they didn't bother to hide their conversation, Elena heard all what are their talking about
"ah~~, mm…" Elena scratched her cheek she looks a bit uncomfortable
Looking at her reaction "you don't have to answer if you don't like it" Max quickly followed up
"nah, it's ok, actually…" she stole a glance to Max twice and thrice before she continues
('what's this? Did I do something to her?')
"it's Lex" Elena confessed "he looks a bit dislike me, sometime I felt like he stared at me in contempt"
('so it's your fault...!?')
"ah~~, I know the reason" Max softly said "it's ok he did not hate you in personality or person" Max explained in a roundabout way
('how do I explain this, it's hard to explain… but if I don't explain it now, there's gonna be a communication problem between them)
"it's just… you see…, I hope you can hide this secret"
*gulp
the both girls swallowed their saliva in tension
('just what kind of secret Lex have?')
('what will Max tell us?')
"actually… Lex like long hair"
""huh?"" they both taken back, they don't expect this kind of simple reason
"you see, he thinks no one know he like long hair, but it's pretty obvious to me as his roommate"
"ehhh? but he never stared at me like that" Mashiro said
"aaa~, un" Max nodded "looks like he like short hair too, he only hated the boy-like hairstyle, like Elena now, it's just my speculation, but he accepts it as long as the hair reached the neck like Mashiro now " Max explained
"so it's ok Elena, it's not your fault, all is Lex's fault alone" Max said
"Pfft…!? That's too funny!!" Elena laughed, she quickly cheered up
"hahaha, that's quite wide of range he got there" Mashiro followed while laughing
('sorry, my friend at least I avoided inner conflict with this and….)
('serves your right!! Ahahaha')
****
On the other side Lex who's working on flattening the ground
*achooo
He suddenly sneezed, he wasp his nose "did I catch a cold?"