Chapter 57: Illusion
Edited by Bunny, Deathbricks, ArchmageNaoki, Arthur300000
"Winter is coming, and so is the magic resistant flu. The Beastkin Kingdom FDA recommended elderly and pregnant women to be vaccinated early-" I listened to the truck's radio as my platoon left the mansion in high spirits. Some of them are singing and whistling in the back compartment. Cocoa is leaning on me while sleeping and rubbing her tummy. This's a peaceful time.
Me? I'm quietly counting my gems on the shotgun seat. There were so many transactions happening recently that made it hard to keep track of my money. Maybe I should make an account book like what Cocoa did.
Let's see, excluding the unique monster bounty of one million gems which I have yet to cash in. I got 250,000 gems from its corpse alone. Considering that I also got its core and skin, it was quite a good deal thanks to Skynet and Cocoa who helped me bargain.
However, that sum was deducted by the three sets of boots, gloves, jackets commission fee, and for Cocoa's storage device which was very expensive. Oh, there is also the non-disclosure agreement fee. Then including the money that I got from selling all other monster corpses, I should have about ... 240,000 gems. Hmm, this should be right because the spreadsheet told me.
I checked the four pinky sized diamonds that I got from the merchant guild master against the gem dictionary’s database. It told me that each of these diamonds’ value is hovering around 60,000 gems, so it's fine, I guess. However, it would be troublesome if I tried to buy a midnight snack with one of these.
There is also a bag that I got from saving the caravan at the Fort Greyjaw. It's a bit heavier than the diamond bag, but as I open it, I saw only bean sized dull crystals in it. According to the gems dictionary, they are only worth ten gems each. Hmm, it's about hundred of them, I guess. So, this bag is perfect for meals and snacks.
There are also assorted gems that were left from the selling my handcrafted sword to a pervert. According to my storage device menu, there are three emeralds, four sapphires, three amethyst, one ruby, one white pebble, and one black pebble which summed up is worth about 8,500 gems. Excluding two pebbles, each of these gemstones cost at least 200 gems. So, these gemstones are for shopping, huh? Hmm, let's not forget about a bit over 500 gems on Cocoa.
With everything considered, now I have a one million gems bounty I can turn in and about 250,000 gems, 250,603 gems to be exact. Not a bad sum, I might say. It's less than what I gave my dad, but it's still a significant amount of money for me. I put them away and decided to use it sensibly, that means this money is reserved for life necessities, snacks, and panties.
"Whoa! Look at those girls’ uniforms!" Mr. I-Like-Moderate-Boobs suddenly yelled as soon as we got near Alphatrick City, and my male subordinates began their uproar at the scene of high school Beastkins walking orderly along the road. The front guy is holding a big red flag and yelling something at the smallest girl who stopped walking and waved at us. It seems like they are having some kind of field trip or something.
[Alphatrick is the largest educational city of Beastkin Kingdom, they have all kinds of schools ranging from kindergarten and all the way up to university.] Skynet narrated.
Those blazer uniforms look nice. If Cocoa and my sister wore that, it would be wonderful. Wait, I could make it Cocoa's working uniform, right? I hope I can buy these kinds of uniforms online.
"Documents please." As we arrived at the gate of the city, a dogkin in a security uniform greeted us. From what I saw, these gate guards are supposed to be wearing a military uniform. It seems that because there are so many children here, the officers have to wear something less threatening.
"We are Commander Kuro's platoon from Fort Greyjaws." My driver reported. I handed over the documents that I got from Mr.Bear.
"Our commanders have been expecting you." The guard saluted and let us through. He must be one of my sibling’s subordinates, huh?
"Turn left and park over there." Five minutes later, we arrived at the place my brother told me to be. Pristia, my sister is there alone though, but she waved at me vigorously. She is embarrassing me though. Her waving came with too much enthusiasm to the point that I'm afraid that her arm might fall off.
"WAIII~ KURO! Thank god you’re okay~" She throws her body against mine and hugged me tightly as I climbed out from the front seat. Ahh, I missed her scent and the feeling of her embrace. Yet, it is embarrassing to have my sister rubbing her cheek against mine in front of my platoon. However, her overly zealous greeting was stopped as her eyes met with Cocoa's.
They stare at each other for a while then my sister looked like she just decided something important. She held me under her right arm by my waist and grabbed Cocoa's waist with the other in the same fashion. Then she inhaled loudly and ran. Cocoa attempted a futile struggle, but her strength couldn’t compete with my sister. I also have to re-evaluate her strength though. Ordinary people wouldn't be able to carry Cocoa and me in heavy armor and run nimbly like this. Did she use some kind of muscle reinforcement spell?
"Aunos, Kuro is back! And look at what I got along the way. She isn't wearing a school uniform. I can keep her, right? Right?" My sister kicked the door open and entered a room that was filled with monitors and high-tech devices. She seems to catch on to the situation quickly. Maybe it was because our hooded jackets matched, but her joke felt a bit off...
"I sent the Bravo team over there. Delta team, hold on for a minute. Over." My brother seems to be busy, and he looks visibly worn out. He still looked up and smiled at me, but his smile stopped when he saw what my sister had in her left arm. "Welcome back Kuro. And Pristia, how many times do I have to tell you that abducting other people’s daughters is illegal." He said while holding his head. He must be really exhausted to fail to notice our matching jackets.
"Hello, Aunos. Cocoa, the girl holding you is Pristia, my sister and that is Aunos, my brother. This girl is Cocoa, my maid." I introduced them as I slipped out of my sister's grasp. Yup, this should be right. My social skills seem to be leveling up nicely. However, my brother groaned and mumbled: "Not you too, Kuro." What's wrong with him?
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I had to explain Cocoa's situation to him and show him her contract to calm him down. He apologized to me and said that during the time that I was missing, my sister caused a lot of trouble. I look at her, but she is busy feeding Cocoa some pudding while whistling nonchalantly.
"By the way, did you tell mom and dad yet?" ... His statement brought me back to reality. I didn't think that far yet. The memories from my past life were surfacing in my mind again. I think it was about the time when I was in elementary school. That time I wanted to have a hamster, so I asked my friend to buy one for me. I got one with brown spots that I liked, but when my father came to pick me up, he didn't approve of it and forced me to leave the hamster at the school. I'm sorry, Mr. Hamilton. Since then, everyone at my school treated me as a cruel man who left a helpless animal to die.
"No, not yet..." I answered with a tiny voice. I'm still too naive, huh? I thought I could have her sleep in my room, but what if they don't want to have Cocoa in their house? What should I do? Maybe I could rent-
"Then, I suggest you to tell mom first. Just show mom Cocoa's picture. That should be no problem." My brother suggested and impudently patted my head. But he is right, this time I will take care of Cocoa properly.
"Commander! This is Bravo team, we arrived at the scene, but they have reinforcements! Requesting assistance ASAP!" A voice came from one of the strange contraptions.
"Hah, so that's what they are after, huh? Sophia is too far away, and Pristia is ..." He looked at my sister happily holding Cocoa in her arms. Then he pressed a button. "Hold on. I will go there myself." My brother got up and stumbled to the door. I stopped him by pulling his shirt back.
"Let me go. Just point me where." I stare at him firmly.
"Oh... right. Kuro is a reliable girl." He patted my head again, but I let it go because he looked exhausted. "Here is the location. A group of bandits is raiding a research facility. Protect everyone and stop the bandits. Lethal force is permitted." He pointed at the map on the wall.
I left Cocoa at the base to help my brother. My sister looked torn between Cocoa and me, so I told her to make sure that my brother got some sleep after Cocoa learned how to manage the command centre which my sister agreed to. I then walked back to my platoon and cast a spell on my platoon which used a tenth of my Magicka pool.
It's the only way I could think of to improve my platoon’s capabilities. Because buying expensive equipment for them is too much, I relied on an experimental spell. The spell came from 'Courage', 'Rally', and 'Call to arms', the three spells of the Skyrim's illusion magic branch were combined together and a bit of help from Skynet to increase its intensity. It has effects which cause people under its influence to be stronger, tougher, braver, and more skillful in combat. The result is a bit too much though. My platoon has turned from a wimpy mess into a fanatic army. Even I was intimidated by them...
"We can't hold out any longer! Please come as soon as possible!" The voice from my truck's loudspeaker suddenly rang as my two trucks were racing to get there. I don't know how my brother was patching the sound through, but this made my driver step on the acceleration pedal harder, and the engine began to whirl loudly. Didn’t he just run through a red light? Whoops, we almost hit a pedestrian. This is the drawback of the spell huh? It turned my driver’s driving style into that of a maniac. I almost peed myself right then and there.
"There they are!" I pointed at a chaotic incident of people firing spells at each other with some of them locked in the close combat. The eight Beastkin in guard uniforms seem to be on their last legs and would be overwhelmed any moment. These must be my brother’s subordinates. They are far from useless though. I don't know what my brother was doing with them, but these guys seem to have held off more than forty opponents for quite a while.
"Hang on! I will crash it through!" While I'm analyzing the situation, my driver said something unbelievable and slammed his foot down again. Dear mom and dad, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have cast that spell before testing it.
The car curved dangerously with loud screech then rammed into the closest bandit. His body mangled up, and his blood splashed all over the guard who was in close combat with him a moment ago. "FOR THE COMMANDER!!!" My driver yelled. What the heck, if he really wants to do something for me, hitting the brake would be nice.
The rest of the bandits began to notice us, but it seems to be too late for them. In those agonizingly long seconds, my car has run over several bandits and crippled even more of them until a huge ball of plasma was shot at us from nowhere. My driver tried to avoid it, but my truck lost its balance and rolled over. We escaped from the plasma ball by a hair’s breadth, but what surprised me is my subordinates that jumped out of the truck like a ninja. Even Mr. I-Like-Flat-Chests was turned into a Pigkin-Ninja and did a somersault on an inattentive bandit and stabbed another one nearby in the eye socket with his knife while he was landing.
As the truck rolled another round in a fraction of a second, I look at my driver who is the cause of this, but his seat was already empty. When did he leave!? As the car turned again, I saw him smashing a bandit’s head open with a crowbar. Yup, it's a crowbar, not a combat device. He told me that he doesn't have money to buy one, so he uses a crowbar and hopes that he could get through his opponent static wall with brute strength. Well, he did manage to though...
I thought there would be another roll, but with a crash, my truck hit something hard and suddenly ground to halt. My seatbelt pulled me back violently but my natural airbags on my chest dissipated most of the force, so I didn’t feel much pain. I unbuckled myself and kicked the door open.
I surveyed the area. It seems that my 20 recruits are overwhelming the group of 40 bandits easily. However, we were a bit too late. I saw a group of bandits coming out of the warehouse.
"What the!? No matter, we got what we came for. Retreat!" The man who looked like the bandit’s leader ordered. But, where would he go? Isn't he surrounded on all sides? However, a second later I found the answer. A space shuttle-like vehicle cruised in and hovered over his head. It deployed a rope for Mr. Bandit-Leader to grab, but the shuttle’s too high up for my spell to pierce its interference field effectively, so I took out my sniper rifle and leaned on my truck.
"HA HA HA! Farewell, stupid idiots! See you-" *BANG!* *crack-crack* *BANG!* *crack-crack* *BANG!* Like hell, I would let you go. You made me experience the scariest car ride of my life. Well, half of it was my fault though, but this guy needs divine punishment! *BANG!*
I planted five panties worth of bullets into that shuttle, and it fell like a brick. The guy who was just laughing a moment ago with the bandits that jumped up to grab the rope fell down. Some bandits were killed while some were injured. My platoon apprehended the survivors and let me approach the leader of the bandits.
"Don't come near me! You crazy bitch!" He tried to get up and fired a plasma ball spell at me. The spell was strong enough to overcome Skynet's interference field, but I brushed it away with my glove. Alright! The unique monster’s skin bounced the spell off perfectly.
"Hiiiii-!" He tried to crawl away, but I punched him in the face before he could. Haaa, what a satisfying impact. I let loose all my pent-up stress in that blow. No need to tell, he was knocked out instantly. As my platoon saw that, they yell a loud cry of victory.
On the later days, I heard rumors about a platoon that appeared in Alphatrick and wiped out an entire notorious bandit gang. People called them the demonic platoon. The unbelievable thing is those soldiers were impervious to all kinds of damage, and their three-meter tall leader is a monster who could fell a dragon from the sky with just a punch. I don’t know who they are though, but that was not my problem.