Chapter 63: Beatrice C. Johnson
"Hmph! Who does he think he is! Doesn’t he know who I am?" Beatrice huffed, continuing to lead her group with a pompous attitude.
She was Beatrice C. Johnson. Daughter of Neuman C. Johnson. One of the wealthiest people in all of Britain — owning the majority of factories in charge of producing weapons and military gear!
And the fact that she, of all people, was called a runt or... rut? And a child by some poverty-stricken rat was absolutely unacceptable!
If this had been before she was pulled into this exam, she would’ve definitely sent someone to knock some sense into him.
’If it wasn’t because of the fact that an LRM soldier caught me awakening my Heart, all those years ago, I wouldn’t have been forced to conscript into this horrific exam!’ She growled, kicking a random stone on the ground.
Money was power, and everyone wanted power. If anyone else but someone from the LRM had seen her at the time of her awakening, she was certain that either she or her father could’ve paid them off to look the other way.
"But nooo~ those LRM freaks just have to have some big stick up their ass."
She never quite liked how arrogant the people in the LRM acted towards people, nor did she like their coldness and indifference. However, that was mainly because they usually refused to accept bribes.
And whenever they did accept bribes, it was always so that they could hand them over to the Public Order Reinforcers (POR) as evidence of bribery.
It pissed her off thinking about them.
"And I bet that woman’s no different," Beatrice sneered, remembering the injuries Roxy came back with — shallow to semi-deep cuts, and the massive bruise on the side of her face.
Although she did dislike Elias, she was reasonable enough to know it was Roxy’s fault that she got the cuts and that Elias was only acting in self-defence.
As for the bruise...
"Ugh...! Did she have to be that violent!?" She shouted angrily. She was absolutely appalled when she saw Roxy return with that injury; even now she was still horrified by it.
’Even after a full night of rest, Roxy still hasn’t fully recovered from it.’
She then sighed and kept on going.
’We really need to find some Predicaments...’
She had lied earlier about having found some to Elias. For the past couple of hours, she had been out wandering; her group had not stumbled upon a single Predicament. It was like... they had all just vanished.
If she had to be honest, though, she didn’t even want to look for Predicaments at all. In fact, she wanted to stay as far away from them as possible.
’But Roxy’s counting on me...’
Beatrice sighed. She was conflicted.
Clap.
BOOM!
While they were still leisurely walking down the street, they caught the sound of a sudden explosion to their side, followed by the smell of smoke.
Not long after that, someone in their group shouted:
"EVERYONE, GET OUT OF THE WAY!"
Startlement immediately flashed through everyone’s eyes, followed by panic the moment they noticed a large shadow was cast over them, steadily growing by the second.
With no time to fully comprehend the situation, they followed their instincts and moved out of the way of the growing shadow, unintentionally splitting their group in two.
THUD!
Beatrice closed her eyes and raised her arms over her face, shielding it from the wave of what she could only assume to be dust or wind.
She let out frightened groans and meagre coughs, irked by the smell that had penetrated into her nose.
’What in god’s name is happening...?!’ She cried out internally.
Were they under attack? By who?! Was it a Predicament? Why was there a Predicament just suddenly in the area?!
After what felt like an eternity, Beatrice soon lowered her arms and opened her eyes.
What she was met with was a dense cloud of dust hovering around her, along with shattered debris of bricks and stone on the ground.
Beatrice ignored all of that and called out to everyone:
"Is everyone alright?!"
Her squeaky voice rang out and was instantly met with coughs and groaning confirmation. It sounded like everyone was fine...
Beatrice then strutted over towards the spot they ran from, while waving at the air to part, and found that the thing that had fallen from the sky was...
An entire building, whose remains filled the entire street, leading to a towering wall that appeared risky to climb over.
She widened her eyes and immediately took a step back in shock.
"W-what is the meaning of this...?" Beatrice whispered under her breath, visibly shaken.
If she hadn’t moved out of the way in time, she would’ve been crushed to death!
’Why did this random building just suddenly collapse?’ She asked herself
’No, wait... that wouldn’t make sense!’
If it was because of age and lack of maintenance, shouldn’t there be more buildings collapsing?
’And why did this one just happen to have collapsed while we were walking under it...?’
She sensed something was wrong. Dangerously wrong...
But she quickly tossed that to the back of her mind when—
"My dress!"
—She took a look down at her clothes.
From her collar to her shoes, she was covered in several patches of dust. She grimaced heavily and shuddered in disgust.
Beatrice then began to furiously pat herself down, waving off the dust and dirt that had stained her petite body.
When she was done with that, she took a look down at her hands, which had now become equally as dirty. Her eyes narrowed in anger.
"Shitty building!" She cursed loudly before turning to the people behind her.
After checking to see that they were capable of walking, she looked back at the wall that separated her from the other members of her group.
She eyed it for a few moments, noting how dirty it was, then looked down at her hands, which were still partially dirty.
Beatrice cringed.
’There’s absolutely no way I’m climbing this.’
Raising her head, she shouted at a volume that allowed the people on the other side to hear:
"The debris is too tall to climb! Let’s meet up on another street, you all!"
"B-but, Miss Johnson! We can definitely climb—"
"No buts! I don’t want your dusty, dirty body coming near me after you climb this. Just do as I say!"
Without waiting to hear objections to her plan, she turned on her heel and began walking away, flicking her hair, which she soon realised had also become dusty.
"Damnit!"
...
Hilda observed them from afar, her legs dangling over the ledge of a rooftop. She had a calculating look in her eyes as she watched them go down separate streets with her usual smile.
But changed slightly when she locked her eyes onto the back of Beatrice’s head.
’Beatrice... Johnson...’
Her smile widened slightly.
She really is the person I think she was.’