+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

  Nomosian Countryside

  November 16, 1538 CE

  Hans briefly checked his current stats.

  Not even that good of progress.

  Hans sighed. While Adelyn successfully received her ‘PAS: Angel of Justice’ skill in the past few days, he on the other hand had to settle with improving ‘Act: One Shot, One Kill’ into Tier II. While he had no special new skill for now, he was now at least riding with their assault force with a better attack skill.

  Instead of his shots causing ‘sixfold’ damage when activated, it would now cause ‘eightfold’ damage. Which was, to Hans’ mind, something decent, perhaps? He already tried it once with his submachine gun and pistol. It seemed that when he activated it, his gun would stop quick firing and charge for two seconds.

  His gun would then glow purple. Once fired, the bullet would almost look like some sort of railgun shot that, indeed, also glowed purple. This meant that whatever magic he was using was probably close to Shadow Magic type. The direct reverse of Alizée’s magic type. It was certainly impressive when he tried it on one of the monsters he and Adelyn fought to pad their levels.

  But he wasn’t exactly sure if it would work on whatever demons were ahead of them.

  “We’re now here,” Adelyn suddenly said on the comms. That snapped Hans out of his mental mumbling. “She already dismounted her horse. We’re going to enter on foot too.”

  “Negative,” Hans replied, as he drove his Wanderfalke faster on the road. “I’ll conduct a quick recce around the town. Can’t be too sure nowadays.”

  “Clear copy. But don’t come inside the town rocking your mech. No need for disruptions. We’re just gathering intel from the locals.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  Hans soon moved his mech to the left while Adelyn’s Wanderadler moved forward. Driving headfirst through the wheatfields, Hans sped up on the dirt and mud. His turret moved left and right as he drove, circling the town multiple times over for a few minutes. He even scouted the road that led southward briefly, before pulling back when there was nothing but merchant caravans moving toward the town.

  When he finished his quick recon, Hans drove back to the north end of the town, right on the road where Adelyn parked her mech. He also saw the first elements of Captain Strobel’s cavalry finally arriving, all of them riding straight to the town. Certainly, when he opened his hatch and jumped down on the road, the civilians who were watching them were stupefied.

  But, with his pistol and submachine gun in hand, Hans ignored it and walked forward. They needed to ask a lot of questions from the locals.

  +++

  The stores on the town’s square sure were a slightly bustling place. It seemed that the town had a local armory and gunsmith shop. Alongside a shop that sold potions and other magical trinkets. Hans and Adelyn were now interviewing one of the butchers of the town. The man was still cutting up meat as the two asked question after question, with Adelyn taking notes on her notepad.

  “So you’re saying the hunters reported some strange sightings?” Hans asked. “Were any of them attacked, injured, or any of the above.”

  “No,” the butcher boredly replied as he placed a large piece of pork chop from the wild boar that he was working on. He placed his chopping knife on the side, as he shook his head. “Look, if they had been attacked, the town would have sounded the alarm.”

  Adelyn nodded and jotted that down. She thankfully smiled at the butcher.

  “We appreciate your cooperation, sir,” Adelyn said. She handed the man one Imperial Mark. The butcher’s eyes widened and almost rejected it. But Adelyn gave it to him fully. “You’re working the good work, sir. Just take it.”

  “A-are you sure, Miss? This is almost a day’s worth of money for normal laborers.”

  “Yep,” she smiled even wider. “I gave all the other folks I questioned with money. And I like being fair.”

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  “Thanks then,” the man replied, his eyes finally turning away from that bored apathy to a slightly jovial one. “If you’d like to buy meat, come here. Or if you have more questions.”

  “We’ll be taking note of that,” Adelyn turned back to Hans. “Let’s go.”

  The two then walked away, mostly a bit empty-handed. Only one thing was confirmed. There were no demonic sightings nearby.

  “Well…that was certainly something,” Hans said. “Guess we’re continuing driving forward. At this rate, we’d have to go ahead of Fort Sagrada.”

  “It’d certainly be an interesting place to check,” Adelyn said. She then whiffed something that smelled nice. On their side, right on the street stalls, were what appeared to be grilled barbeque again. Hans tried resisting the small, looking away. But she already pulled his arm before he could even run. “Let’s buy some for ourselves. And for Alizée too!”

  “You already wasted so many Imperial Marks today!”

  “Yeah? So what? We fought for that money. Let’s enjoy it more!”

  +++

  They were now outside of the town. Hans and Alizée were sitting on top of Adelyn’s mech, both of them snacking on the food that Adelyn bought. They were to watch something that, in Hans’ opinion, was incredibly stupid. But it seemed that it wasn’t just them that had been attracted to it.

  Even some of Captain Strobel’s men had joined in. The soldiers were even making bets with their money.

  “Alright!” the Viceroy started. “I’m ready.”

  “Well, then let’s start then!” Adelyn grinned, as she readied her rifle. Aimed straight at the woman, Adelyn dumped her magazine on her. Due to her [ACT: WRATH OF THE LAW III], each bullet that came out of her gun was akin to that of a slightly powerful fireball. They watched as the Viceroy was almost overwhelmed by Adelyn’s attacks.

  But her barrier, purple in color, held on. It only lasted around five seconds until Adelyn’s magazine was emptied. And as the smoke and fire dissipated—the Viceroy remained standing. Gasps came from many of the soldiers who bet for Adelyn’s win. On the other hand, the ones who courageously thought that the Angel of Justice could be beaten by some Viceroy seemed to immediately demand their winning money in glee.

  “Impossible,” Adelyn said. “How’d you even do that? That entire magazine cost me nearly one hundred AP!”

  The Viceroy shrugged.

  “Well, your attacks were powerful,” she admitted. “Quite frankly, I’d compare it to the attacks of a tier three battlemage.”

  Adelyn’s voice became more curious, and then instead of utter shock at her defeat—her eyes shone.

  “Really?!” Adelyn shouted, almost girlishly.

  “Yes!” the Viceroy nodded. “It is pretty impressive. Not to mention, the way your gun can fire continuously. It’s hard to keep up when eight bullets rain down on me every second. Each of these seems to be capable of sapping thirty AP off my AP capacity. Scary.”

  “So you’re saying I have a chance if I study magic more?” Adelyn asked. “Alright, I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Hans on the other hand was still slackjawed at the whole display. And a tad bit concerned.

  That same woman…got herself absolutely demolished by the Calamity of Injustice and Recklessness.

  Then again, he imagined that the Calamity of Desire was slightly more powerful. Considering she took the equivalent of a beating that not even the best Flandrian or Lorathian main battle tank could take. Hans sighed. He was in deep trouble again. But at the same time, there was a nice silver lining this time around.

  They had a specialized shadow mage with them. Not to mention, there was a chance that Alizée could manifest her ideal again for the fight. It was why the girl insisted on tagging along even when they could have left her in La Veridad under the care of the Viceroy’s staff. Not even Hans’ and Adelyn’s demands of keeping her there worked.

  Because Alizée seemed to have mastered the art of crying to get her demands met.

  “Lady Adelyn is still so cool!” Alizée shouted as she clapped with a wide smile. Hans on the other hand stared at the girl with perplexity.

  You cried like it was the end of the world when we were about to go on an expedition. He sighed. Now, you’re treating it like a fun road trip again.

  He truly didn’t understand children.

  “Damn…” Captain Strobel muttered. “She’s strong. Way too strong. Now, the next question is. Why is the rest of her kind still not fighting demons?”

  Hans laughed at that.

  “Look, the only one stepping up in the fight seems to be the damned retired ones,” Hans said. “I bet those morons are under orders not to engage. Maybe the Empress is truly a prissy lady and she wants her creme de la creme only protecting her and her cronies.”

  “That’s a possibility,” Captain Strobel nodded. “But it doesn’t make sense either.”

  “I’d say it makes sense. Sure, she might have a ‘good and kind nature’, but maybe that’s propaganda,” Hans cynically shrugged. “If she wanted, she’d have intervened by now. But she didn’t. Maybe if she started a full-on mobilization of the Imperial Army, we’d have progress. But no, she’s just sitting there, on her throne, doing nothing.”

  “That’s what I’m worried about,” Captain Strobel said. “The Viceroy reminds me of the Empress back then.”

  “Huh?”

  “Yeah,” Captain Strobel nodded. “Now, of course, unlike that pink-haired lunatic, the Empress has no good magic. And she’s considered pretty weak. But that lady always went to battle with her army against the Republic. Personally.”

  “Hmm…”

  “You know, it’s a bit of a rare thing. The last Emperor was known to be a jackass who ruled from the Imperial Capital without even stepping out of his palace. Her daughter was different. But now she’s the same?”

  “Well, maybe she got spooked by demons,” Hans countered. “That’s a reasonable possibility. I mean, heck. I'm even spooked by demons. Look at the Viceroy. She looks like she’ll faint whenever she talks about them.”

  “Yeah, well…maybe, yeah. That would compel her to run and not get anywhere close to fighting demons,” Captain Strobel nodded. “But…to do nothing? It’s too much of a shift. Too much. And too fishy. Look at how many cities are destroyed. How many people are dead? Lieutenant, the cost of this war is mounting. Both in the former lands of the Republic and the Imperial Core itself. It’s not just Ygeia, Nomos, and Asfaleia that are getting pounded.”

  “Yeah…” Hans frowned, as he watched Adelyn and the Viceroy continue to the second round of their ‘test duel’. Gunfire and magicks from the two began flashing again, as he and Captain Strobel continued discussing the fight ahead. “I heard that Exousia, Eleos, Anesi, and Armonia were hit too. Especially Exousia.”

  “Soon, they’ll be hitting Armonia hard. That’s the Principality where the Virtus people originally started their Empire, and where the Imperial Capital is seated,” Captain Strobel shook his head. “She can’t possibly not act. Eventually, it’ll bring the Empire to its knees.”

  “...Hmm. What if it’s already on its knees then?” Hans asked.

  “Fully blocked it!” the Viceroy taunted, as she breathed in deeply. “So that’s the best that your weapon can do?”

  “...You know what?! I give up!” Adelyn shouted back. “I guess I really need to get better.”

  Captain Strobel then turned back to Hans away from the little ‘duel’.

  “In that case, all the more reason for her not to give up. Thus, why isn’t she doing anything? I tell you what—we might need to go to Armonia eventually.”

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