Bonus Short Stories

The Iron Fist

In Alpha’s military, there was no squad as renowned as Lettie Kultunca’s. They were known for their high skills and for how rowdy they were.

Trouble accompanied them on a daily basis, and Lettie felt that keenly today’’ as she opened the door to their squad room.

“Whew,” she yelped in reflex at the stench. The heat and smell of sweat was so bad that she wrinkled her nose. Even though she was used to it, the sudden change always put Lettie in a bad mood.

Her skilled squad members were a varied bunch, and when not on missions they spent time training or assisting with defense missions. Because of that, the sweaty men filling the room made it very difficult for a young woman to step in. Around a dozen men with naked upper bodies were running around in here, after all.

Those who saw Lettie standing in the doorway with twitching cheeks immediately looked away. But it was all for nothing. With their only path of escape blocked it must have been very painful for them.

“Agh?!” “Urk!” the men shouted one after another.

Enraged, Lettie beat the men up as she worked her way to the back of the room.

“Wait a min—”

She grabbed one of the men trying to escape by his collar, a bulging vein in her temple. “... I’ve told you before, haven’t I? This is a place that women also use, not a place for you to throw your stinking shirts around like trash! I can’t believe you just leave your clothes lying around without even bothering to open a window or clean up after yourselves...”

The next moment, the man was blown away by Lettie’s iron fist, which broke anything in its path. After that she continued on, mercilessly and swiftly dealing with anyone she came across.

Her own crudeness aside, Lettie was the law in her squad. Moreover, all of its members had sworn loyalty to her. That said, insensitive men tended to make up a lot of the Magicmasters that stepped into the Outer World, so these kinds of troubles happened often. Either way, the shower room was next door, so they could have just washed off their sweat there first.

“Sajik, finish up already, or the captain’s going to tear you a new one.” Unaware of what was going on in the squad room, Mujir carelessly stepped in from the locker room.

In an instant, Lettie drew right up to him and looked him over.

“W-What can I do for you, Captain?”

“Hmm, I see you’re ready to go home.”

“Y-Yes, I was thinking of saying goodbye to my wife before heading to the Outer World...” The faint aromatic smell of soap came from his body. He was wearing a rather formal outfit that suited his build well, as expected from the only married man in the squad.

So Lettie had nothing in particular to say to him. However—her eyes shifted away from him and over to the room he’d come out of.

Meanwhile, Mujir tried to slip past her while letting sleeping dogs lie.

“Hold it...” Lettie’s cold tone made Mujir’s legs freeze. “I’ll wrap this up quick, so stay right there,” she said, making Mujir realize he would need to postpone his return to his loving home for a while longer.

Seeing her wordlessly step into the locker room, Mujir let out a large sigh. After she slammed the door shut behind her, he could hear Sajik’s pathetic scream from the other side. “Sound like she’s being more flashy than usual today,” he mumbled, as he checked the time on his wristwatch.

Just as he finished mumbling, the door was shattered as a large body twice Lettie’s size flew through it.

Lying there against the wall where he’d landed, the large man who was Mujir’s colleague looked up with a bruised face. Seeing Sajik like that, Mujir said, “I told you.”

After that, the men in the room were forced to sit on the ground and listen to Lettie’s scolding for a long time.

The Stuffed Animal’s Future

As the campus festival came to an end, Alus’s classmates were looking satisfied as they received their cuts of the profits from the shooting stall.

Alus was, of course, among them. After this, they had plans for him, Loki, Tesfia, Alice, and Ciel to hold a small party. With this many girls, however, he didn’t have much say in the preparations.

He glanced over to a corner of the empty classroom where the leftover prizes were piled up. The prizes that had been left unclaimed from the shooting stall almost all belonged to him.

Alice’s hand-knit muffler and Loki’s scrunchie were taken first. Seeing how even Tesfia’s ugly stuffed animal had been taken, perhaps Alus’s pricey items were rather boorish.

He was once again made aware of the gap in his sensibilities. In this kind of festival, handmade things had more value than ready-made luxury items.

At the same time, he felt a little envious of the students who could see the value of the diligence and effort required to make items by hand.

“Guess there’s a little bit of heavy labor left to do in the end,” Alus muttered as he looked down at the pile of prizes. Just as he was starting to feel a bit fed up with the expected work—

“Sir Alus, I will help too,” Loki spoke up, offering to assist, and Tesfia and Alice stepped up as well.

“We’re going to Al’s laboratory after this anyways, so I’ll help too,” Tesfia said. “They look pretty expensive so we wouldn’t want them to get stolen.”

“I don’t think there’s anyone who would steal things here. But who knows what kind of accident might happen if someone touched them... Besides, we can carry it all in one go if we all pitch in,” Alice said, flexing her arms, as if to say to leave it to her.

They looked a little unreliable, but Alus decided to take them up on their offer.

Tesfia, Alice, and Loki grabbed as much as they could carry and left the classroom, though they looked a little unsteady doing it. Alus picked up what was left and then called out to Ciel, who stood there with a smile on her face and her hands behind her back.

“You’re going too, right? This is all that’s left, so could you go get started on the preparations?”

“Of course! But before that...” With a sly look, she put something on top of the pile of prizes that Alus was carrying.

“Hmm...” It had a creepy, strangely familiar appearance. When Alus identified what it was, he spoke up in an exasperated tone. “That’s Fia’s stuffed animal. So you’re the one who got it?”

“Well, I’m not sure that’s the right way to put it...” Ciel evaded the question with a wry smile.

Alus immediately picked up on what she meant. “What, so it was left over after all...”

Even as he spoke, the ugly stuffed animal seemed to stare at him. Just like he remembered, there was nothing cute about it. If anything, it was irritating. That’s why nobody picked you, he wanted to say... however.

Right... so nobody wanted you, he thought, and felt a strange sorrow. The stuffed animal wasn’t at fault. He looked over at Ciel, and shrugged. “How kind you are.”

It was Ciel being considerate, after seeing how popular Loki’s and Alice’s prizes were. Even Alus thought it was sad that it was the only one left, so she’d done a good job. At the same time he was a little relieved that his taste hadn’t been wrong.

“So you take care of this guy, okay?” Ciel said, as if it was alive, pushing the stuffed animal off on Alus.

He recalled Tesfia saying he could use it to decorate his room if it was left behind. He also had secretly hoped the best for the Fiend-like stuffed animal that had found itself created in this world. For some reason, he couldn’t bring himself to say that he didn’t need it when looking at its surly face. But in reality, he didn’t need it.

Who knew what Tesfia would say if she found it in his room... but he’d ultimately already given in.