“I haven’t asked in a while.”

“Hm?”

Duchess Talerria, looked at her husband, curious about his sudden question in bed.

Tonight, having finished his work early, he was able to have dinner with the family and go to bed at a reasonable hour.

She had been reading a book, but his interruption made her shut it.

“Umara’s boyfriend. You know more about him than I do. You only said that he’s at least genuine. I intend to meet him soon but until then I’d like to know if there has been any news about him.”

“Oh. Well, there was one interesting happening a few weeks ago at the ball.”

The Duchess went on and described the events surrounding John’s suspension. She talked all about John’s altercation with the noble children and then his verbal battle with the President.

Ikhor’s eyes widened with every word.

“He did what?!”

“You heard me. It was lucky that he didn’t do anything beyond throwing insults. Umara told me later that he could’ve killed that boy easily if he wanted to.”

“You believe that? That kid is a knight and as far as I know, rather talented.”

“I do. I guess I haven’t shown you his record yet, hm?”

The Duchess raised her Aerial, tapping it a few times before sending a message.

Ikhor opened his own to see the Black Spider Repository, specifically the bounty on John’s head. Below it was also an investigation report containing all the information the Duchess was able to find on him.

His eyes bulged even more, reading what seemed to be a small biography of the kid.

“A kill count in the triple digits? He’s a killer.”

“Don’t be so dramatic. He was basically forced and none of the people he killed were innocent. Most are from the Trenches. You forget about the human conflicts, distracted by the Scourge. At the very least I can tell you he’s not a bad person.”

“...You seem to stick up for him. Considering he’s a commoner, the very act of letting him date our daughter is beyond gracious.”

“I know, which is why I did nothing to protect him from the President’s ire. I let both of them take the pressure. If they can’t handle it, they have no right being together.”

“Well, it seems he handles himself just fine.”

Ikhor smirked, scrolling through the bounty a bit more before closing it, having seen everything he needed to.

He thought in silence for a while, his wife remaining silent beside him as he formulated his thoughts on the matter.

The smirk never left his face.

“What a ballsy kid. Not bad. If he can face the President, he’s got enough guts to date our daughter.”

“You approve?”

The Duchess’ eyebrows raised in curiosity, causing her husband to scoff.

“Talexia, neither of us like the state of the noble class as it is right now. As far as I’m concerned, this kid is a breath of fresh air. I’ll leave my first impressions for when I meet him, but for now he seems like quite the candidate. Although I have my misgivings about that awfully high kill count, I’m not naive. So long as he doesn't drag our daughter into his business, I have no issues.”

“Mm. I’ve already taken care of that.”

“As I figured. Make sure to invite him over for Christmas. Invite his family too.”

“He doesn’t have a family.”

“No?”

Ikhor was shocked once again, feeling great sympathy.

“How pitiful. My condolences to this poor child. What happened?”

“I’m not sure. There are no records of his family ever existing. I’ve never found a record of his own birth either. It’s like he appeared out of thin air. And from Umara’s vague words about how he’ll never see them again, I can only assume they died. Or maybe he came from an Outlander settlement.”

“That’s a bit of a stretch. If he did, how would he come so far by himself? And why would he leave his family all alone in the first place to make such a treacherous journey?”

“I have no idea. Either way, he’s shrouded in mysteries.”

“Hm. Well, I don’t see any major issue with it. Just invite him when they come back. Since he doesn’t have a family, he can spend the holiday with us.”

Ikhor waved and shifted into bed, obviously desiring sleep.

The Duchess went under the sheets with him, but still asked a question.

“Are you sure that’s okay? He’s Umara’s boyfriend. Spending the holiday here as if he were family may be more than the relationship warrants. Some might think that we endorse his candidacy.”

“Have some sympathy, dear. Can we not set aside petty politics for three days? Since when did you become so concerned about the greed and judgments of others?”

“Don’t accuse me like that.”

She sighed and relaxed into her pillow.

“But you have a point. I’ll have Umara give him the invitation.”

“Mm.”

Ikhor grunted, closing his eyes and falling into a snooze within mere seconds.

The Duchess chuckled, admiring her husband for a while before cuddling against his body and going to sleep with his warmth.

……

…

“I wonder what this hunting mission is about.”

“Who knows. But we only have four days left, so let’s not end this with injuries like last time, okay?”

Umara tilted back her head and looked up at me.

The cramped bed meant she had to lay against my chest, her body between my legs with little room to move.

I sat against the wall at the head of the bed, looking down at her serious face with a smile.

“I’ll be fine. This time I’m completely covered. Even if we encountered that gorilla again I would be able to kill it by myself.”

“I believe it. But it’s not always the strong ones we have to worry about.”

“I know. Everything is strong against me. But I’ve got too many tools that help keep me safe, including the support of my squad. If I get hurt despite so much being in my favor, then either we’d be screwed regardless or I’m just that much of a dumbass.”

“Well, I’ll admit that you’re at least kind of smart. Just a little.”

She turned and pushed herself against me, making me grin.

“Just a little?”

“A teenie, tiny bit.”

“A numerically infinitesimal amount.”

“You and your weird words.”

She smiled before kissing me.

We ended up staying like that for a few minutes. But then, both of us heard the door click.

“John-”

*SLAM*

Right as Feiden’s voice came through, he slammed the door on himself. Umara and I glanced over.

I suppose he wasn’t expecting to see Umara straddling me in his own room.

I chuckled and spoke.

“Come on in.”

“...Are you sure?”

“Just come in!”

I rolled my eyes as he opened the door again, Umara going back to laying against me.

He seemed a bit awkward looking at us.

“We report in 10 minutes.”

“Alright. Hey, you should go get ready.”

“Mm.”

Umara nodded as I pat her leg, swinging her legs over the bed.

After she left and shut the door behind her, Feiden mumbled.

“You two get closer every time I see you.”

“I sure hope so. What about you? How’s Mira?”

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“She’s good. We aren’t as close as you are with Umara, but I’m trying.”

“Eh, don’t put too much pressure on yourself. If she’s the one then things will work out. Don’t worry about what-ifs.”

“Right.”

He smiled before digging through his chest, putting on some clothes and prepping his gear.

I did the same. A hunt could last an entire day and I needed to prepare accordingly.

Before long the two of us were walking to the briefing center. We met up with the rest of our squad along the way.

And when we arrived, I saw the Puppet Master standing outside the door.

He glanced at us.

“The rest of you head in. John, stick around for a second.”

“...”

The other looked at me before entering the room. Once the door closed behind them, the Puppet Master sighed.

“They went over my head. You’re being paired up with another Elite squad, and all of them are nobles. I wanted your squad to go alone with the other soldiers, but the Major General rejected my suggestions and made his specific choices.”

“They ignored you, which never happens, I’m guessing?”

“There have been very few instances, but yes, something like this has never happened.”

“I’ll keep my head on a swivel then.”

“Mm. I’ll trust in your rational judgment.”

I hummed as he left those words, walking into the room.

After seating with the rest of my squad, I saw the other Elites we would be fighting with.

Three out of their five looked at me with disguised hostility. It was nothing I couldn’t feel with my Aura, so their malice was clear.

My face remained neutral throughout the briefing.

Our objective was to hunt a Scourge Scout. These Scouts were beasts dedicated to getting a read on targets and handing data back to the Scourge. Their appearance was usually followed by an attack or siege.

We needed to kill them, which wouldn’t be easy. They were slippery and usually escorted by powerful beasts. The officer gave us some images of the beasts and what we should expect.

The Scout was a lanky bipedal entity with one massive cyclops eye and four tiny eyes around it. It could see things at a distance and could easily detect enemies no matter where it was. Normal stealth didn’t work against it. Its observational abilities were top notch.

But it had little to no offensive power. Its scarily long fingers were similar to a monkey’s, allowing it to swing between trees. And when it ran, its short legs combined with the sweeping range of its arms made it surprisingly fast even on flat terrain.

It was a creepy son of a bitch, but otherwise didn’t pose much of a threat. Its escorts would always protect it but that was expected. Get rid of them and it was a chicken on a chopping block.

However, there were varying levels of these scouts. High level ones, while not holding greater offensive power, were much more sly, intelligent, and had a few tricks up their sleeves.

The different levels could be determined by the amount of little eyes around their singular large eye. Each little eye denominated its Authority.

The higher the Authority, the stronger the escorts. And apparently, anything with strictly a single eye was to be avoided at all costs. If we saw a scout like that, running for our lives was the goal.

*Bang!*

Suddenly, the door to the briefing room was thrown open, everyone turning to the officer who came panting.

“Sir! We just got a report of the Scout’s location from Patrol 3! If we want to strike, now is the time!”

“Good. Everyone gear up! Straight to the gates! Go!”

Everyone jumped from their seats, the briefing coming to a premature close.

We all ran out, having already prepared, and boarded two vehicles by the gates.

Both of them were APC’s, enough to fit 10 men each. It was also shockingly fast.

After the back hatch closed with a click, the APCs sped off through the gates and into the distance.

“We arrive in 15 minutes! Be ready for immediate combat!”

The driver yelled, the truck rocking with the terrain.

After settling for a few minutes, I looked across from the side of the interior where my squad sat.

The other squad was directly across from us, the two sides entering something of a stare off.

I recognized three of them, Elites I had previously worked with. In that squad, there were four knights and a single warlock. I was the only one of two summoners in the Elites, so I couldn’t be surprised when I never saw any.

I didn’t recognize two of them though, probably some nobles who came late to the game.

Nobody said anything as we drove, but inwardly, I made telepathic contact with Umara.

(Hey.)

(Hey!)

She twitched a bit when she felt my Aura. By now we had gotten far more comfortable with this, so the process was close to seamless.

The two of us kept looking forward though. We had decided to make it a habit of pretending as if nothing changed whenever we engaged in telepathy. It took some practice, but both of us had pretty good poker faces.

(This other squad. Keep an eye on them. The Puppet Master warned me and the situation is a bit fishy.)

(Are they going to give you trouble?)

(It’s possible. I can already taste how much they don’t like me. They’re hiding it, but the malice is there.)

(I understand. Keep your telepathy active just in case I need to warn you.)

(Alright.)

I smiled a bit. Umara and I had also been practicing long term telepathy. And I had figured out a rather ingenious way to keep my telepathy active indefinitely.

With my Spark, I could allocate brainpower toward maintaining the connection. It was difficult at first, but the Spark was a second mind, so I was able to train it and make the ability run itself.

Of course, it took the entire concentration of my Spark since it was controlling my Aura, but it wasn’t a bad trade off. I still had the rest of my mind, which was more than enough.

So I handed off the telepathy to my Spark, using the rest of my mind to focus on the task before us.

“Scout spotted!”

The driver suddenly shouted, the APC coming to a screeching halt.

The back hatch then flew open. All the knights jumped out first, then the warlocks and myself.

We assessed our surroundings. We had arrived at the top of a long hill that sloped down into a valley.

The valley was filled with tall rock formations, monoliths that seemed to sprout out of the ground like trees. Each monolith was at least as tall as a four story building and separated by an average of 150 yards.

The valley was a beautiful geological formation. The monolithic rocks were covered in huge vines that seemed to grow all kinds of immature fruits, but other than the vines there wasn’t anything else besides grass and the occasional flower.

After taking several seconds to admire the valley, I shifted my focus to the other APC that was giving chase.

The Scout was making its way down our hill and into the valley among the rock formations. Around it was its escorts, about 25 spiked wolf beasts as fast as they were deadly.

The other APC managed to roll down the hill and deploy its knights and warlocks, all of the soldiers rushing toward the scout but being blocked by the wolves. The Scout continued to flee, its uncanny movements throwing it several yards at a time.

From the hilltop, I suddenly rushed to a nearby ledge and laid down, taking out my Springfield equipped with a ladder iron sight.

I took a deep breath, calming myself even as it continued to run further and further away. It would soon go beyond my effective range, but I didn’t panic.

I ticked the ladder up, increasing the zero distance before getting a steady aim.

My sight trailed its figure, waiting until it reached my zero distance and estimating its average movement speed.

It was lanky and erratic, the furthest thing from an easy shot. The only thing harder than this was picking off a flying bird.

But the intuition of a human was a rather amazing thing. We understood the world around us inherently. It was necessary for survival.

So despite needing to make several adjustments as the Scout ran across varying levels of terrain, shifting up and down as it ran across the occasional boulder, I still managed to find a sweet spot.

And I fired.

*BOOM*

The rifle exploded, the recoil pushing into my shoulder but my body remaining still as if it never even moved.

And I watched as blood flew, the bullet tearing the Scout’s arm off.

I smirked as Umara gawked behind me.

“Holy shit. That was an amazing shot.”

“I agree.”

I chuckled. Umara probably understood my guns better than anyone by now. We had talked about them extensively.

So she also knew how hard of a shot that was. If I was correct, the distance to the Scout was about 280 yards when I fired, a bit more than the zero of 250 yards that I set for myself.

But it didn’t kill it. The Scout, although injured and bleeding, still continued to run. But at the very least, it wouldn’t get far. I wouldn’t be surprised if it collapsed from blood loss eventually.

Killing it would be easy once they got rid of those wolves, which would only be a matter of time.

Vetsmon chuckled from behind.

“Alright, let’s go and help them. John and Umara, you can relax up here.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice.”

There was no way I was going to run up and down a hill if I didn’t have to.

Before Vetsmon ran down though, I looked to the other squad composed mostly of knights.

“Hey, you guys should go with them. There’s no reason there should be any casualties.”

“...”

They were silent, a few of them looking at me with frowns. I could clearly feel their growing hatred and annoyance, like I had ruined some plan of theirs.

Vetsmon, Feiden, and Tana also looked at them, expecting their cooperation. There was no reason they shouldn’t, and that put even more pressure on them.

But then, we all heard a shout.

“Board the APC! We’ll drive down there!”

“Oh.”

I scoffed a bit, all of us running back to the truck.

Right. Why should the knights have to run as well? Why don’t we all just drive down together? That’s obviously the smart thing to do.

It wasn’t like I was trying to separate myself from a threat to my life or anything. Thanks, driver.

I grumbled while boarding, the APC rolling down the hill as soon as the hatch closed.

Once we arrived though, I didn’t move from my seat.

The knights had no choice but to embark and join the battle. The other squad looked hesitant at first, but unless they wanted to get yelled at, they would have to go. They also wouldn’t attack me in front of everyone, especially my squad.

So I watched them leave with even more indignation. Some even waited outside for me and Umara, but we just stayed put.

I waved at them as they left.

“This is a job for knights. Have fun you all!”

“...”

They were silent as they left, leaving our sights.

I could hear the sounds of battle beyond, and it was nothing but a slaughter. Without having to worry about the scout, everyone could simply focus on the battle without taking any risks.

I had made this mission several levels easier with that single well placed shot.

“Well, I guess boring missions are good missions.”

Umara crossed her arms. I could tell she was eager to let some of her fancy magic loose, but she was staying by my side just in case.

I hugged her close, smiling as she automatically snuggled into my chest.

Inwardly though, I had the random thought that perhaps I should try and find a guitar. I used to play it on Earth all the time, so for moments like these, it would be good entertainment. Besides, chicks loved the guitar.

Maybe this world had one. Otherwise I’d have to get one custom ordered. Though I didn’t exactly know everything about a guitar’s design, I knew enough of the important details like the types of strings it used.

In my head I started to ponder, but as the battle continued outside, I had an odd feeling grow into an ominous one.

Using my Aura, I felt around but couldn’t sense the presence of anyone nearby.

But the threatening feeling within me kept growing until suddenly, it screamed at me.

My coat activated, bringing everything to a slow as I grabbed Umara, throwing our bodies out of the APC.

*BOOM*

It exploded behind us, a wave of Magika washing over our bodies and launching us several more feet.

I looked back, seeing a massive hole going from the front of the APC to the seats that we had just been sitting in.

It was like a laser had melted a hole through it, destroying the White Crystal powering it in the process of trying to kill us.

My mind instantly processed what had happened and started hypothesizing.

Was this the doing of those nobles? The other squad was still out there fighting, so did they hire a third party? Did they hire a Hunter? Perhaps a warlock or a knight with an enchanted bow?

But the strike was instantaneous. The only thing I could liken it to was a laser. There was no arrow, so if it were a warlock, they had to be incredibly powerful.

However, after thinking for a few seconds, I took a glance through the melted hole.

And in the distance beyond, on the side of a hill, there was a tall, uncannily gaunt entity staring at us.

And it had a single massive eye that covered its entire face, obvious even from a distance.

My hair stood on end, a single word running through my mind, something reiterated during our briefing several times.

Run.