2.4

Shi Zixin sat on her horse in front of her new men, the pounding headache of a hangover drowned out by the sheer annoyance of the sight before her.

She had about 55 soldiers and all were severely untrained. Sure, they knew how to use the bow and arrow and a sword like any other soldier due to the joint rotation training, but U.C Lau taught nothing on how to do martial arts, his so-called 'specialty.' He just had them run around like a bunch of toddlers.

Tch, how pathetic.

Shi Zixin fought the urge to ask 008 if there was any possible way to get U.C Lau to just die off. It annoyed her greatly whenever she had to look at his smugly handsome face and know that he has reaped all the benefits while Shi Zixin was left with nothing.

"Why are we up so early?" A gruff voice asks as he rubs his beady eyes. Some food from last night was still stuck in his unruly black beard.

"We are heading west, as you all know," Shi Zixin responds as she already begins to feel the chill beneath her coat. "And I believed it'd be best if we set out earlier. That way, we can make it to the designated grounds in a week's end."

"I heard it's suicide out there!" A nasally voice chimes in, scratching at dandruff in his hair.

"It's only suicide if you don't follow orders," Shi Zixin shouts back. "If you cannot follow orders, I won't send you back to camp; I'll send you into the mountains alone. So, you better take everything seriously, because it's a matter of life or death."

Everyone gulps. Shi Zixin pauses for a moment before nodding. "Good, we all understand, then. We'll ride in normal formation until we make camp."

With that, she watched them all mount their horses. Shi Zixin turned around, an annoyed look on her face as she led them out of camp.

This was going to be a lonnnnggggg journey.

She heard them speak among themselves behind her for the first couple hours, but after that everyone was already exhausted from riding.

"Are we going to have a break soon?" a boy whines as Shi Zixin sighs.

Be tough, girl!

"We break when the first person pukes."

He didn't say anything after that.

The group traveled for six more days before arriving at the base of the mountains. The mountains weren't that big, but with all the snow, no one wanted to cross them.

Shi Zixin paused, taking a moment of silence to take the scenery in. Dry air twirled unpacked snow in loose whisps on the ground, darting over snowy meadows and valleys that dipped up and down. In the distance, a small town could be seen, small pockets of chimney smoke steadily rising from it and black shadows darting to and forth.

Caws sounded from above, and Shi Zixin glanced up briefly to see a fleet of crows head towards the village in the distance. A man from behind Shi Zixin loosed an arrow, quickly letting it fly into one of the birds.

A bird tore down from the sky, landing in front of Shi Zixin's horse. Its left wing twitched, the arrow still embedded in its feathers.

"You missed," Shi Zixin shouts out, dismounting her horse and picking up the bird with a hand. Disgruntled, she ripped out the arrow swiftly, looking the crow in its beady eyes.

It stared back at her, before letting out a low caw. Shi Zixin shortly exhales from her nose, holding back up the bird. It flew from her grasp, shakily rejoining the others in the sky, blood droplets jetting down to Earth with every flap of its wings.

It seems as if all wished to fly home.

She sighed to herself.

"We're going to train for the next week," Shi Zixin informed all of them as she hopped off her horse. The other men looked around in confusion.

"But, uh, sir, shouldn't we cross into the valley? Will resources even last us for a week?" a soldier asks. Shi Zixin nods. "We'll just have to ration. Besides, we have enough."

I don't believe these men would last in battle. Training them first is merely the best solution.

The men groaned until a sharp glare from Shi Zixin quickly stopped them. Everyone immediately scrambled to unpack, eager to rest, even if the situation wasn't ideal. Shi Zixin told them to be up at 6 for breakfast then she went to bed. She was up at four to train for a bit by herself.

At breakfast, everyone seemed to be gathered around the campfire, save for one head.

What kind of idiot would miss the first day of training?

"Who's missing?" Shi Zixin asks as the bearded-man swallows his soup with a large gulp.

"Fu Junjie hasn't left his tent since last night. Maybe it's him," he slyly snitches. Shi Zixin finds out from the man where Fu Junjie's tent is.

Shi Zixin leaves, quickly walking to the tent. It was poorly done compared to the others, as if the one who put it up wanted to get it up as soon as they could.

Shi Zixin's temper flared for a moment at the sound of snores. Quickly, she snatches the tent flap and rips it up.

"Boy, why are you not up?" Shi Zixin shouts. The youth quickly wakes up, jolting up in bed as their blanket falling down to reveal their thin white shirt.

And something was under this shirt that men don't tend to have.

Quickly, the soldier pulls up the blanket over their chest, but it was too late.

"P-Please-" she stutters. "I-I-"

Shi Zixin lowly exhales.

"You were late for breakfast, Fu Junjie. Please don't be late again."

Shi Zixin turns to leave.

"W-Wait!"

Shi Zixin looks over their shoulder to see a confused expression on the young girl's face.

"A-Aren't you going to yell at me? To tell me I don't belong here?" she asks. Shi Zixin arches a brow. "Why would I do that? You're a soldier before you're a woman. As long as you keep things under wraps and do your job well, I am to mind my own business."

Shi Zixin watches as relief comes across her face.

"That being said, just because I know what you are, doesn't mean I'll let you slack off," Shi Zixin adds. "I expect you to work just as hard as any other person in this camp. If you're late again, I'll have reason to believe you don't care about doing your job."

"I-I won't, sir!" she bows deeply with a hand still clutching at the blanket.

Shi Zixin's lip twitches in annoyance. She had watched Mulan when she was a child and her vision intact. When older, she had listened to the audiobook for the Ballad of Mulan. Never had she thought that she'd be a person experiencing the Mulan phenomenon, but also meeting a girl in the same state as her.

Regardless, this isn't done completely out of the good of her heart for another girl in her situation. If it's found out that Fu Junjie is a girl, Lau will be breathing down Shi's neck for the rest of the war. He'll bring up this fluke as a moment of incompetentness on Shi's part, and will make it harder for her to request resources or anything of that sort, especially in the first few months of the war.

Then, I can't let Fu Junjie be found out!

When Fu Junjie lifts up her head, her commander had already left. Fu Junjie felt her heart beat a million miles a minute. If she had been with any other general, they surely would've sent her to be exiled! She could definitely say that Shi Zixin was the kindest man she's ever met, but she wonders if he is just as good of a general? A headache quickly ended this stream of thought, and Fu Junjie scrambled to get ready.

=

Fu Junjie narrowly joined the group when Shi Zixin began to lead them in a morning run. Everyone stomped and slid through the slick snow and toppled like dominoes. Shi Zixin sighed before looking back.

"Center your feet shoulder-width apart, men! Wider stances will prevent you from falling like the idiots you are!

The men mimicked their general's actions, feeling their thighs begin to cramp up. All seemed to think that 'this sucked!'

Next, the soldiers were told to spar one another. It seemed as if this group was better than most at fighting hand-to-hand, but that's due to the minimal effort on U.C Lau's part. Shi Zixin quickly schooled everyone on how to properly use a saber-sword. Before dinner, the soldiers went on another run which was followed by an hour-long meditation outside. At the end of the session, everyone's lips were blue, save for Shi Zixin.

"What a cocky bastard," the bearded man growled to his cronies at breakfast the next morning. "No one ever trains this hard, especially so close to a raid. I should beat him up-"

"Oh, you wish to spar?" Shi Zixin asks, her acute ears have picked up the insult. The bearded man flushes from embarrassment for a second before he bared his teeth.

"Of course I do! Your training sucks!"

The campground goes quiet, and even the women had stopped serving porridge. Shi Zixin shrugs.

"Fine, we'll spar. We'll use sabers-"

"No, real men fight with their fists," the man grunts as he pounds his fists together.

Shi Zixin arches a brow. "What do you get if you win?"

The man pauses before an eerie grin spreads across his face. "You have to cut off all your hair. And by that I mean you'll go bald!"

The crowd looks shocked at this request. The longer your hair the more knowledgeable you were, so for him to ask their commander to cut off his long hair was disrespectful!

But everyone wants to see their commander fall from grace.

Their eyes bore onto Shi Zixin, waiting for any reaction from him. Yet, Shi Zixin remained calm, staring back at beardie without any reaction.

"Alright, then you have to never grow a beard in the military again if I win. I was originally fine with the violation of uniform, since it is as unruly as a bird's nest, but you seem a bit too cocky," Shi Zixin responds as everyone's eyes land on the man's beard. It was true, most men with beards in the military had it neater and trimmer, but this man looked as if he hadn't washed it in five years. He instinctively touches it.

"Fine. It's a deal," he grumbles. Whispers immediately break out.

"Who will win?"

"I'm betting on Commander Shi!"

"No way, Commander Shi is a total baby! Gang Xiabo will totally win."

"I hope that Gang Xiabo becomes the next commander if he wins!"

"Well, duh! Shi wouldn't be able to show his face after he loses!"

After breakfast, everyone immediately circled the two to watch their fight. Shi had stripped off her winter cloak to reveal a black tunic and leather pants while Gang Xiabo kept his heavy cloak on.

"You're going to freeze before you even step towards me!" Gang Xiabo shouts as General Shi smiles softly. "Mhm, thank you mother, but I will be fine."

People softly chuckle at this as Gang Xiabo's face darkens. He quickly rushes forward and sends a flurry of kicks and punches at General Shi. Shi Zixin quickly dodges and blocks each punch before pushing back Gang Xiabo with a knock to the chest.

Gang Xiabo breathed heavily and saw that Shi Zixin had hardly broken a sweat nor moved more than half a foot from his original spot.

"Bastard!" Gang Xiabo coughs. "Does the cold give you powers?!"

"No, it merely allows me to not overheat," Shi Zixin says as a coy smile spreads across her face. "That gives me a great idea. If you lose this match, everyone here will be running without their cloaks from now on."

Everyone held their breath in shock. Instead of just wanting Gang Xiabo to win, they now needed him to win. There'll be no way they can run in the cold like this!

Gang Xiabo grits his teeth. "That wasn't a part of the deal!"

"So?" Shi Zixin pauses to shrug her shoulders. "I'm the commander. I can do what I want."

Gang Xiabo purses his lips tightly together before pulling off his cloak and throwing it to the side, allowing it to crumble in the snow. He rushes forward once more like a charging bull, but Shi Zixin steps aside and grabs the back of his neck, squeezing lightly.

He immediately crumbles in Shi Zixin's grasp. Everyone gasps, watching with mixed emotions at the sight before them. Shock, confusion, and most importantly: fear.

Shi Zixin was equally as surprised as the others were at this turn of events

Damn, did these pills make me super strong?!

She decides to keep holding on to him and lifts him up to test her strength. Her arms didn't even tremble at his hulking weight. Shi Zixin turns him to make eye contact with her. He looks into her eerie eyes and shudders from their coolness and lack of emotion.

Before he has the chance to do anything, Shi Zixin drops him into the snow a few feet from her like she had bowled a bowling ball. With trembling arms, he struggles to push himself off, only to barf into the snow. Everyone looked in disgust at Gang Xiabo, but their gaze soon turned to fear as Shi Zixin walked closer to him in a slow, eerie manner.

"Is he going to finish Gang Xiabo off?"

"Move aside! I can't see!"

"Are we going to end up like Gang Xiabo?"

Shi Zixin squatted down beside Gang Xiabo and put her hand on his forehead and felt that he was extremely hot. She picked up the cloak from beside him and draped it over her forearms.

"You're sick. Go to a nurse's tent and treat yourself. You were in no state to fight me, thus the sparring is invalid," she states loudly. Everyone's eyes widened.

"Does this mean that Gang Xiabo doesn't have to shave?"

"Does this mean we don't have to run cloakless?"

Shi Zixin grabbed her own cloak before walking out of the tight circle with her head high, an immediate path forming to allow her to pass through. Everyone immediately rushed to help Gang Xiabo the moment Shi Zixin exited the ring; yet, one person's eyes were still watching Shi Zixin with shining admiration.

=============================================================================

Hello everyone! Welcome back to another round of Q/A. For this, we are bringing back many characters from the dead. However, this raises some questions--how will they see and talk to each other properly?

Well, I have a solution!

Being the all-powerful being I am, I have given myself a Thanos-like gauntlet. When I snap all the characters together, they will see each other as the person they know one another as. For example, Eman will be seen as Liliana to Aleric (since y'all still want some Aleric action), even if her name is written as Eman. On another note, some questions are related to the system, so anything that is canonically unknown to a character (like Aleric + V.I systems) will be essentially unheard to them.

Another bonus, since Arc 1 is over, some of the old spoiler questions from back then can be answered now!

Now, let's welcome everyone back!

Jara: Oo! This is new.

Eman: Not this again...

Aleric: Missed me?

Eman: Not really.

Lau: What am I doing here?!

Lucor: Well, who is this hot piece of man?

Aleric: I'm flattered, quite honestly, but I'm a married man.

Eman: Was a married man...

Lucor: No, not you...you.

Lau: Huh?

The first question goes out to Lau-

Lau: That's Unit Commander Lau to you.

(Haha, you're such a little bitc-) Alright, Unit Commander, why are you so motivated to defeat Shaolian?

Lau: That's simple, it's because-

Jara: Woah woah woah, isn't him revealing his motives a spoiler? Doesn't every good villain reveal his or her tragic at the climax?

Not really.

Lau: And I'm not a villain, you worthless piece of trash!

Lucor: Ooh! Call me trash next!

Eman: ...

...err...okay then. Lau, since that was your only question...I'm just going to send you out of the Void with a Thanos snap. I guess we'll just have to wait and see for that question to be revealed later.

Eman: I don't think anyone would care if it's revealed or not.

Aleric: Damn, that's cold. Wouldn't expect anything less from you, though...

Next question! This goes out to both Jara and Lucor. How long have you both been in the V.I. system?

Lucor: Too long.

Jara: Ha! That's a common joke everyone with a system tells. Truth be told, everyone kind of loses track after a while.

Lucor: I'd say that the top three bookshelves at my house in the Hub are filled up.

Jara: I have about two more filled shelves than Lucor.

Lucor: Of course you do, old hag!

Jara: Hey!

Eman: Hold up, hold up...the bookshelves? What are those? Wait, narrator, am I allowed to ask questions that haven't been revealed in-story yet?

Anything goes at this point. Just by doing this session, I've broken the fourth wall at least twice. Any lazy person who skips over the Q/A can get this information in the future when it's revealed since it's not a big twist.

Jara: The bookshelves hold the stories of the lives we become part of. When we delve into a new body, we tend to adopt some personality traits.

Lucor: It's common amongst actors to pick up character traits, whether positive or negative. It's like Heath Ledger and the 'Joker' character. We're still ourselves in those lives, regardless of how we act, and so the memories we make are ours.

Jara: The system automatically logs the diaries and puts them into a physical form. We can re-read our past in detail, unlike the basic script posted on our devices, so we can...move on.

Lucor: Or reminisce. It's very therapeutic.

Eman: Hm...then shouldn't there be two diaries on my shelf, one for my first transmigration and the other for my first life?

Next question! This question was from the Q/A a few months ago. Do you believe that Amelia's sister, Katherine, was a villainess?

Eman: Of course not.

Aleric: Oh? Why so?

Eman: She seemed to be just another young girl in love. Before I interfered, she lived a happy life with Reginald. Although he went berserk in the end, maybe it was I that pushed him to the edge. Maybe she wouldn't have had to die...

Aleric: You feel guilty, then?

Eman: Every day.

Then, did the Fourth Prince really love Liliana?

Reginald: Of course I did, and I always will!

Eman: $#%#*)%!!

Aleric: Uh...why is he in a straight jacket?

Not even I trust him...we have a spare muzzle in case he gets too wild. Now, Eman, do you miss technology?

Eman: Sometimes, I suppose. The first world was the hardest to adapt to. I was saddened I couldn't have pressure showers or listen to the radio. But this new world? It makes Terria look like a technological utopia. The only thing worse than this, technology-wise, would be to throw me back in caveman times. But, I probably feel this way because I live on the battlefield.

You going back to caveman times can be arranged...ha! Just kidding. Aleric, this isn't a question, but a fan wanted to let you know how much they love you.

Aleric: That is very much appreciated, dear. Just don't go Reginald on me, alright?

Eman: Too soon...

Aleric: I was obviously kidding. Reginald's entire life is a joke, so why not use the opportunity when presented?

Reginald: I'm also right here! You son of a-

Alright, time to put on Reginald's muzzle! Also! Aleric, another fan has proposed to you since you're a widow, now. What do you say?

Eman: (I'm right here...)

Aleric: I'm extremely flattered that you've proposed to me...for the second time. I'm sorry again, darling, but I cannot accept.

Eman: You're that hung up on me? How sweet.

Aleric: I can sense your sarcasm. Alas, my wife, I'm a bit... preoccupied at the moment, so I can't have another wedding ceremony.

Let's move on, then. Eman, what side quest did you receive?

Eman: I don't know...I just clicked the button.

Jara: You don't know? How can you do the sidequest, then!

Eman: I'll figure it out...?

008 can always remind you...but I think you know more than you let on...oh well! Another question for Eman: what's your goal, outside the system?

Eman: To escape this system and live a normal life once more. A life where I can decide what my goal will be.

Speaking of system, there is a general question about how the system is decided, whether it's H.I or V.I. Anyone can answer this one since it's not specific.

Lucor: Jara, want to take this one?

Jara: Why not? A person is chosen to be apart of the system through their actions while living their first life. They must meet certain criteria to become part of the system. After doing so, the Council will decide whether or not they'll be H.I, V.I, or Other.

Well done! Jara, you explained it well enough to prevent any spoilers, which is great! Now, Jordan_Roses, what arc was the most fun for you to write?

Jordan: Well-

Aleric: Wait a minute!

Eman: Who are you?

Jordan: Uh, the author?

Reginald: Mph, mmph mmmmmmmmph mmmmph!

Lucor: We thought you were the one interviewing us all along!

Jordan: Why would I be doing that? I've just been eating popcorn in the back for both Q/A sessions. No one has asked me questions before, so my name wasn't typed out.

Jara: Then who is interviewing us?!

Jordan: TGOAC, obviously.

Yep! That's me.

Eman: Who in the world is TGOAC!?

Jordan: As per my contract, I'm legally not allowed to reveal that until the future.

Aleric: You can't just drop a bomb on us like that and not reveal who it is!

Reginald: Mmph!

Aleric: Shut it, bastard.

Reginald: Mmph...

So...are you going to answer that question...?

Jordan: Oh! Right! Well, specifically speaking, I have loved both arcs I've posted so far. The first arc wins by a slight edge because it took me about 4 months to world build then tweak it so it would carry through into future arcs. In fact, I have about five unused chapters that I didn't post because I had to delete them! I still love the second arc and have put in a good amount of time into it, and I especially can't wait for the next few chapters to post. To add onto this subject of arcs, the tags on this story are related to both the first and second arc, so as time passes I will add more tags and remove irrelevant ones. Just because I have a certain tag on this story means that it applies to both arcs.

Back to the main question, does this mean that the first arc was your most favorite to write?

Jordan: Nope! My favorite arc is yet to come, but I definitely love the first arc.

Jara: Isn't saying that a spoiler?

Jordan: Not really! I can reveal this information without it being a spoiler. Regardless if Eman succeeds in her mission and gets the points, or fails without reaching her goal, she'll return to the Hub and life will move on.

Eman: So you're putting me through the wringer again? Why I oughtta-

Jordan: Oh...well, look at the time! My wristwatch says I have to attend a very important meeting in five minutes in Ilsium.

Aleric: You're not wearing a watch-

Jordan: Bye!

Well, she actually left at the most perfect time, since there are no more questions left-

Eman: Yeah there are! What's TGOAC?! Who are you?!

I'm going to say it again: there are no more questions left. Now, I will send you off to your respective worlds. Thank you for participating in this Q/A session!

Now, back to my dear audience. Thank you all for your love and support of Villainess! Please vote, comment and add to your library if you liked this chapter!