With the new loot being taken care of, Ajax proceeded to enjoy his meal. There was quite a bit he wanted to talk about with Tom and Kate but all of that would need to wait until they were in private. Despite the rarity of the shadowcat its presence was little more than a short interest to the rest of the unit after the presence of Fluffy. The other hunters were taking it a bit harder since they missed out on the loot by not going to check the area on their first day off thinking they would get to it tomorrow with the rest of the squad.

As they got back to the tent Ajax was starting to feel the fatigue from the battle and the long day of searching started to crawl up on him. Despite wanting to talk about what he found with Tom and Kate it would be best if he was rested. As he walked inside the tent he noticed a rather large book that had been left open on the table.

“That wasn’t there before” he mentioned while pointing to the book.

“The commander gave it to Tom, it should help him understand what is going to happen with his new bond.” Kate said in a kind voice before turning to Tom to frown. “That is if he would read it.”

“You already started, you can just give me the highlights.” Tom said while giving her a hug and brushing her hair and cat ears.

Ajax just nodded and asked them to wake him up if he slept in again. He also mentioned that he would like to talk to them early in the morning. With that he crawled onto his lumpy mattress, but he couldn’t care about it and just passed out.

Surprisingly he didn’t need anyone to wake him and was feeling quite refreshed the next morning. Both Tom and Kate were already up, Tom was already in his gear as he would need to leave a bit earlier for his duties as the liaison.

“Morning.” He greeted them before going into the heart of the matter. “I have some … hypothetical questions to ask about something related to this skirmish.”

Tom stopped trying to fassen the last strap of his gear and turned to give him a look that said ‘not again’. Kate on the other hand looked a lot more excited by the prospect of something interesting happening, this was understandable given that all she would do even in a battlefield was sit in the back and heal.

“What did you do this time?” Tom complained, forgetting all about his gear and taking a seat next to Kate while motioning him to take the one on the opposite side of the table.

“Oh, hush you!” Kate said while giving him a gentle flick to the shoulder. “I never see anything interesting.”

She wasn’t wrong either, even harming a healer in their little war carried a hefty criminal punishment let alone killing one. They were just too rare and too useful so they were protected.

“Now this is all hypothetical” Ajax repeated to try and cover any lie regulations there may be “but what would happen should one side discover another natural resource, one of maybe even greater value than the one being fought over mean.”

“Great, just fucking great.” Tom already threw both hands up in the air.

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‘It depends on its importance.” Kate was more calm and explained. “But seeing as how both of the barons serve different visconts, if the resource was important enough a whole other skirmish would be set up with much larger armies.”

“If this one had not yet ended both armies would receive reinforcements and the skirmish would be extended. Skirmishes between viscounts usually last upward of a year. “

Even Kate started to look a little bothered at the admission. After all, an entire year of just sitting back in a tent and healing wounded fighters while living in this camp was not something she would be looking forward to. Ajax just nodded and processed what they were saying.

“Alright, and what if, hypothetically of course, one side knew about the resource and didn’t report it.” Ajax started but was quickly interrupted.

“Oh no, you are not going to be sitting on this. It could land you in so much trouble.” Tom instantly spoke up.

“Let me finish.” Ajax said with a mild tone. “What if one side knew about the resource, didn’t share its existence and also recruited a bigger than normal army for the skirmish. Not only that but they still lost the fight, what would happen then?”

Tom and Kate both froze as soon as Ajax finished speaking. They turned to each other but didn’t speak a word. It was like they were communicating with their eyes only but both changed from their relatively relaxed pictures to being on edge.

“If there was proof that something like this had happened, then the winning side would be able to keep the resource as a bonus, but if there is no proof the other side can re-challenge over it.” Tom said after a long pause.

“With this being the case I think we -” Tom continued but stopped after Kate gave his arm a squeeze.

“You need to get going, I’ll find out everything else there is and we’ll both take today to think on this. Clearly it isn’t something that has to be handled immediately so we can take our time.” Kate said while helping him secure the last latch.

Tom just nodded and started heading for the exit while deep in thought. While it may seem that because of its importance that something should be done right away about the situation, even if they were to lose the skirmish they could rechallenge since they already knew where the more important resource was. Not only that, but since a conscript found it they could use this to their advantage to forgo another battle over it if they just kept quiet about the discovery and just gathered a bit of evidence.

“Now since you are only conscripted and not part of the guard unit we have a few choices in how we handle this.” Kate explained once Tom was gone. “First of all you can’t tell any of us anything about any resource.”

Ajax looked a bit troubled at that statement but Kate picked up on his worry and quickly followed it up. “Should you hypothetically find one of course.” a noughty smile spreading across her face showing off only one of her more pronounced canines.

“Next, as a hunter and the spy who managed to plant the bug I don’t think anyone would find it suspicious that you would take a recording device, should you happen upon some evidence that needs to be recorded in the future.” She continued and Ajax nodded, happy that his forethought to make everything a hypothetical was covering their asses.

With that the discussion was closed. Kate would rather not risk a slip of the tongue limiting their options. She was well aware of the skills that would be used in the investigation of this matter and they wouldn’t be able to get away with a lie there, luckily the questions they could ask were limited as well so as to not abuse their power. Questions like did you suspect anything were excluded and she made sure Ajax knew the rules as well.

Ajax was not happy just quite yet though so he thought of how else he could ask the other questions he had. He realized that he could give Kate a bit more knowledge without actually telling her anything and went to rifle through his pack. Once he grabbed one of the water skins he filled up yesterday he grabbed a bowl and served Fluffy.

“What is with the mana infused in that water, where did you ge-” Kate stared at the bowl Fluffy was sipping from with wide eyes but managed to cut her question off once she realized the implications. “Actually, never mind. Did you happen to grab any more of it? It would be a great supplement besides the cores to make sure she grows up well.”

“I have a few more water skins.” Ajax admitted but then moved on to what he really wanted to know. “What would happen if a human was to eat or drink something that was so heavily infused with mana?”

Kate frowned at the question. “It depends. If a humanoid that didn’t have access to their mana was to do so they would die from mana overload.”

“If their humanoid did have access to their mana however it is a bit more complicated.” She tapped the table thinking of the best way to explain this. “ There are multiple factors that we would need to take into consideration.”

“First of all, unlike mana creatures and monsters humans don’t have and can’t form a core. This means that any massive spike of natural mana would kill them from exposure. However low amounts of exposure from something like mana infused water could help the regeneration of mana should their pool be depleted.”