The sight of Timothy’s grimacing face, half covered by one hand made me cringe a little, and only then I fully realized what I had just said.

“What an excellent way to make an appropriate first impression”, I sarcastically thought.

“Sorry: We’re all a bit on edge, you with having to face another unknown, which I’m sure you’re growing tired of, and us just having been through a grueling gauntlet of fighting that ended with us three against four [Demons], without mentioning that defeating them wasn’t the end of our worries.

So, again, I apologize, so why don’t we all… take a step back, and try this once again?”

Some of the [Humans] behind him didn’t seem too happy with my attitude, especially since, in their mind, IO was the cause of the situation, which I made worse, and now I’m only trying to resolve it as part of a premeditated and convoluted plan to make myself look better.

Man, sometimes I forget how convenient my emotion-reading [Aura] is, but then I get in these kinds of situations, which happens too often for my liking, and I can’t thank enough whatever made the [System] give it to me.

There was a lot of personal effort and struggles, but I decided that it was a bit too on the nose as far as powers went for someone who always struggles to imagine themselves in somebody else’s shoes.

Thankfully, Timothy was a downright gentlemanly chap and motioned for the others to stand down, who did, albeit most did so reluctantly.

“Understandable: As you said, the [Demonic] presence has become such that most of us are constantly on edge, and it doesn’t help that many among their rank have either [Abilities] or [Spells] that make them go unnoticed, though mimicry, invisibility, or a combination of both.

On that note, this situation is particularly stressful because, besides the [High Priestess of the [Demi-Goddess of water], we can’t [Identify] either you and your… ‘girlfriend’?”

Completely reasonable, as far as doubts go, but why did he have to ask that last part so unsurely, only to look pleased with himself when Sheeno nodded at him?

“I’m affiliated with [Nobility], and have my ways to make my [Status] hidden to the casual preview, while Darwin… Well, besides being hard to read even when caught unaware, he crafted himself a trinket that makes it pretty much impossible”, my mate replied, which earned us wildly different looks.

I only needed to feel the greed to know what most were thinking.

“Ok, to be fair: I also got super invested in getting something with [Obfuscation], so I can see the appeal. What I don’t get is how they are so okay to openly look like a pack of ravenous wolves, presented with a juicy steak.”

Anyway, Timothy noticed it too, and with a quick glare around made them easily back off, probably unknowingly showing off the sort of authority he had over the other [Humans].

“That all sounds reasonable. Unfortunately, without having a way to confirm it, I’m forced to call one of my superiors that can, so that they can check the truthfulness of your story”, probably seeing our faces growing annoyed, he quickly continued, “but don’t worry, I personally know her, and not only should she be on her way already, but she’s also known for often forgoing protocol, and let things go as long as they work both fast and safe for everybody involved”.

At the ‘her’, the heavily freckled redhead to his side got a hint of a grin on her face, which she quickly followed with a subtle elbowing to his side, to which he rolled his eyes, uncaring of the few chuckles that it got from the rest of the… battalion?

Man, I suck at this: I really should have looked at the proper terminology before getting here, but it’s not like I really had the free time to do so.

And I probably won’t either in the near future.

After another couple of uncomfortable minutes spent waiting in my own head, while an unsettling amount of people were staring/glaring at us, a mostly green blur became visible on the horizon. That is, until it clearly veered toward us, quickly transforming from a blur into an attractively exotic woman, although a bit on the thin side for my tastes.

Even without [Gaze of the Abyss] I could tell that she stood firmly ‘above average’ on the power scale, so I refrained from inspecting her too much, beyond getting her name and [Job], just to be on the safe side and that she was really who would say to be.

That brief mention of shapeshifters definitely didn’t help my paranoia, no sir.

Once she got to a respectable distance from us, she jumped off what I could only describe as a carpet of moss, roots, and flowers, that somehow moved at incredible speed by growing towards the intended direction, while quickly rotting off the pieces that it left behind. Only then she assume a more professional pace in approaching us, taking the time to see if she could breach our defenses with her version of [Inspect], and I took note of how she did manage to barely punch through Sheeno’s, getting her name and [Class], but you wouldn’t have noticed any of it you were merely looking at both of their poker faces, as good as they were.

“Bullshit magical/aura perception for the win!”

Then she turned to the English man with a raised eyebrow.

“Report: What’s the problem, [Captain] Eggings?”

“Ma’am, three unknown individuals made contact within the site that previously housed a [Dungeon] on the praecipe of [Outbreak], with a flying vehicle waiting nearby. Not having the capabilities, nor authority, to confirm their identities, I called for a certified officer to do so in my stead, and you were the only one that I was sure of… ma’am”, he was quick to respond, bringing a fist to his chest and slightly bowing when acknowledging that he was being spoken to, and allowed to respond.

Seeing the forced professionality, I magnanimously decided to ignore his couple of slip-ups, something that many in his company didn’t, to his obvious frustration.

His superior thankfully did, but she couldn’t hide the mirth and -was that fondness?- that I could feel coming from her.

“At ease, Eggings, these three are expected allies, as they probably stated already, and the vehicle is also known to us”, the woman explained placidly, and many sagged in relief at her words, although some, which I decided to keep track of, didn’t look particularly pleased with the news. “And you”, she started, this time directly talking to us, “my name is Evelynn Lush, [Colonel] of the [United Army] of [Nexus], and while these weren’t the conditions nor the situation, I would have liked to welcome you in, I will still try my best to introduce you all to the higher-ups and bring you up to speed on how you can help us”.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

While speaking to us the rest started forming an organized group away from us, where they were joined by those that had gone off to stop our transportation where it was and seemed to be waiting as a united group to move on.

“Pleasure to meet you, I’m Sheeno, from the [Heliokans]. We appreciate the swiftness of the resolution, [Colonel] Lush. And we’ll be ready to follow you as soon as we are done speaking with the [Captain] that transported us here, but you’re free to join us and come with us: I’m sure we could use the little time in between getting there and then back here to introduce ourselves better”, my mate was quick to take charge when the situation calmed down, and both me and Undine were perfectly fine with it.

While Undine might have some training in interacting with politically important people, she didn’t live and breathe it since infancy as Sheeno did. And the less is said about my political mind, the better.

“I’ve already handed off more pressing matter to be here as soon as I could, so I’ll happily escort you, just to make sure that there won’t be any further… unpleasantries”, the Elf continued, making it clear that she had noticed the few [Humans] that had, for some reason, remained hostile after the situation had been resolved.

“Fine by us”, Sheeno responded, after receiving some subtle nods from us.

“Then allow me”, Evelynn said cordially, slightly bowing and indicating for us to go ahead.

Which we did, and she started following us at a respectable distance.

“Did something happen? What am I missing?”

* * *

The not-pirate [Captain] was kind of rude on how he didn’t keep the fact that he was relieved that we were out of his hair -or is it ‘air’ in this case?- hidden.

If anything, he only tried to hurry things along so he could get us off his ship faster, but everybody else was either ignorant of it, or they were purposely ignoring it so that things would actually go faster. As soon as I thought about it, I knew that the second option was the correct one because none of these people were idiots.

…

Damn, even if instigated by the [Malayse], Sheeno and Undine’s words rang true: I keep acting like I’m some sort of know-it-all in a not-sarcastic way, and everybody else is wrong.

You actually do not do it as often anymore: You have gotten a lot better at respecting the opinions of others.

“Did I? I mean, look at what I did not too long ago: I blew up to a group of people that was already on edge, making the situation worse and possibly souring future collaboration!”

I never said that you were perfect: We both know that you have problems managing your emotion, especially anger.

“Wow, thanks”, I did my best attempt to telepathically send [Buddy] the best approximation of an unimpressed look, and I am pretty sure I did I bang job of it.

BUT!

And it is a pretty big ‘but’, despite your small stature-

“Hey!”

-but you are improving, you are making an effort.

You said it yourself not too long ago, and now you are just letting a bad moment ruin your mood and make you forget about the progress that you have made since you got [Transferred].

“I still think that’s a stupid term for effectively getting ‘isekai’ed-“

Darwin, this is one of those rare times when I am being honest and supportive, so help me [Gods] if you let your mind wander over stupid shit-

“Ok, ok, I get it!

You’re right.

…and thanks.”

You are welcome.

I don’t know how he did it, but I feel both better and worse than before, and I have to admit that it’s definitely an improvement overall, since it isn’t progressively getting worse. Getting into depressive spirals is kind of my thing, even if I’d like it to not be so.

So, anyway, while I was moving the furniture around my head the others kept a conversation going, mostly comprised of colloquialisms, but with some titbits about the state of the invasion mixed in.

From what I caught, the situation wasn’t good: [Demon] activity was at an all-time high, and prediction only showed that it would get worse; the [Veil] that stopped them coming en-masse had gotten worryingly thin at the center of the new territory that came along with us [Humans], making it almost a certainty that something sinister and unexpected going on in there; [Humans] are much better [Soldiers] than expected, but many show a remarkable disdain for following orders from other [Races], or generic individualistic tendencies.

Nothing too surprising there, although the racism was a sad affair and the possible hole in the [Veil] only felt like the premise for something worse. For that point, I was betting my ass that the [Demon Lord] was somehow involved if not the only culprit.

+1 [Acuity]

“I have mixed feeling about that- OH SHIT, my [Promotion]!”

Thinking about how weird it was that I was still getting random points when they were supposed to get mostly condensed into further [Lvl Ups], made me realize, embarrassingly enough, that I was stopped from getting any, and those that I was supposed to already have gotten, until I got this [Promotion] out of the way.

And, since I have a Unique [Class], I’m expecting big things and even bigger choices.

My excitement immediately plummeted when I kept thinking about it, mostly because I was the one that kept forgetting things and there was no chance that both Sheeno and Undine didn’t have my most recent milestone still fresh in their minds, especially the latter because she was the one supposed to start the process. So, that meant they weren’t bringing it up because it wasn’t something meant to do in public; either that or it was better that I had a more secure place to do it: if it was anything even remotely similar to how affixing my [Class] felt, then I needed a place to lie down and meditate on the changes that would come.

But these are just speculations, and I have a much better way to know about the truth.

“So, are waiting to get to a more secure location to do my [Promotion] in private?”

Ask. People kept telling me that all I had to do was ‘ask’, so here I was.

“Correct on both accounts. I hope the wait isn’t too frustrating”, the [High Priestess of Water] was quick to respond, showing that she was expecting the question and that I was arguably easy to read for someone who knew me.

I had inferred as much though. What I didn’t expect was the [Colonel]’s response.

“Didn’t expect for you to not have been [Promoted] already, with how dangerous you feel. Don’t worry though: My Speeder isn’t too far from here.”

First of all, ‘dangerous? I would have accepted ‘powerful’, but ‘dangerous!?

Second of all, what in tarnation is a Speeder?