I watched with no small amount of amusement as Leona almost immediately took over as the medical lead almost the minute we arrived at the gate where the Huntsman had entered. She wasn’t exactly the best educated compared to the doctors on Remnant – something she was doing her best to rectify with a desire that surprised me quite a bit – but she had more practical experience than most along with better toys than anything a town like Thornbell had.

  Thankfully there wasn’t a whole lot she or anyone else needed to do.

  Besides a few scrapes that would have been taken care of by his Aura over the next day or two once it was restored from shattering and some bruises, the Huntsman was lucky enough to have avoided any major injuries bar one bullet wound that had caught him on the meatier part of his shoulder. Thanks to Leona that would be healed up in a week at most.

  As I was giving him a look over I realized I didn’t actually know the man. Not exactly a surprise considering I didn’t go out of my way to meet all the huntsmen in town and mostly knew the ones I did either because they went to the same bar Sean and Dann had introduced us to or because they came to me for one reason or another like Jason had.

  Sean seemed to know him though, going by the concerned way he was looking the guy over despite trying to look like he was unconcerned.

  “Looks like ye got yerself inna pickle, Cedric. Hou did a handful o bandits get the drop on ye? It shoud have taken twice thon amount tae make ye break a sweat.”

  The middle aged Huntsman, Cedric apparently, tiredly flipped Sean off. “That's because there was more than twice that amount. More than ten times that amount actually. I took a turn down a game trail and damn near walked into the middle of their camp. Only made it back to my bike because of my Semblance and they still nearly got me.”

  I could see everyone besides me and Leona freeze at Cedric’s words. The two of us shared a glance but I could only shrug helplessly at her inquiring look. I had no idea if more than thirty bandits was a lot or not.

  Going by the muttered curses though, I was willing to bet that the number was pretty unusual.

  The two of us stayed quiet as the others talked. Unlike with the Varden, neither one of us were in a position to really get involved with how the town was going to react to the bandit presence. We could obviously offer to help, but that didn’t mean we could just take over the discussion and start dictating terms. Especially when most of the people here knew we weren’t licensed Huntsmen.

  The concerning thing was that the idea of just giving the bandits what they asked for if it wasn’t too outrageous started getting floated around and no one was really shooting it down. Which was…worrying, for a lot of reasons.

  In the meantime Leona finished patching Cedric up and he got dragged off by some of the more senior ranked guys to talk to the guys in charge of the town, leaving the two of us behind with Jason while the rest of the crowd slowly dispersed to go back to what they were doing.

  “You two look pretty clueless. Not a lot of bandits where you’re from?” Jason commented once we were mostly alone.

  “There were a few where I grew up but they were only ever a concern to small groups on the road, never something that a town like this would consider a threat.” Leona responded. “I don’t know about mistress Alexandria, though.”

  “You mean there’s things about her you don’t know, Fangirl?!” Jason said with mock shock, using the nickname he had come up with for Leona after couldn’t come up with a cover story about why she called me mistress beyond her respect for me. We couldn’t exactly explain it was because she was my apprentice when the main thing I had taught her beyond medical knowledge – that she was now working on expanding on her own, and was probably better at than me by now – was magical in nature and we were trying to keep any hints of that under a low profile.

  Naturally, Jason assumed it was something along the lines of a celebrity crush or something similar on Leona’s end that I just put up with, and while the nickname did annoy her, we planned to just ignore it until we left.

  “Well? How about it, Alex? Any roving bands of criminals you fought off to add to Fangirl’s list of your exploits? Though I can kinda guess not from the looks you were giving each other.”

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  I nodded his way. “Not really. A few dangerous animals and a…criminal or two I suppose. But nothing the local Huntsmen ever got too worried about. Not the point they were considering something like that.”

  That was about the best way I could describe the Hollows that popped up in Karakura from time to time and eventually the Arrancar. They weren’t really the same situations, but it was close enough to the truth I wasn’t going to get hung up over the details.

  “Yeah, I hear ya.” Jason muttered. “And honestly no one here is thrilled to consider it either. But a dedicated group of thirty bandits is more than we can handle.”

  I was a bit confused. “If they were decent fighters and all had Aura, sure. But Thornbell should have at least that many active Huntsmen, right? Between the walls, defenses, and them the bandits shouldn’t be able to threaten the town itself. At best they could stop anyone from leaving on foot, but you could reach out to a neighboring town or even Vale by bullhead or CCT and have more Huntsmen come drive them off. So why the talk of just giving them what they want?”

  Jason was shaking his head before I finished. “First off, we can’t afford to hire the amount of Huntemen it would take to drive them off without issue. Even if we could, it would be obvious and they would just move on. Meaning we waste a bunch of Lien and they just come back in a month.”

  “Second, yeah we might theoretically have similar numbers, but that doesn’t consider more than half of our guys are mostly retired, green, or not here. Just because we found out about the bandits doesn’t mean we can have everyone hide out here or the Grimm will overrun the smaller homesteads in the area.”

  “Third… third is that we can’t afford a fight. Even if we run them off and only lose about ten Huntsmen for it – Brothers forbid – the fighting would attract a Grimm horde they can just ignore, wait for us to get pummeled by, and then come around for round two or to pick through the remains.”

  I grimaced at that. The Grimm really made everything more complicated.

  An implacable, inexhaustible horde of monsters attracted to negative emotion had actually negated the normal defender’s advantage. The bandits could simply leave whenever they wanted and Thornbell would still have to drive the Grimm off.

  “Would they really do that though?” I asked. “Condemn a town to the Grimm like that?”

  Jason shrugged. “Depends. Most of the groups we’ve dealt with over the years haven’t but there is that major group in Minstral, the Branwen I think they're called, that do it. They’re a much bigger group though from what I’ve heard. If they were here they wouldn’t even bother hiding, they’d just overrun the town.”

  He gave the two of us a crooked smile. “Don’t worry about it too much. This isn’t the first time we’ve dealt with bandits, won’t be the last. Besides I heard from Chief you finally got that oversized bullhead of yours fixed up. You can just head out and avoid the whole mess. Though it wouldn't surprise me if Dann asks you to deliver a message somewhere if you can.”

  “You expect us to just leave?” Leona said with an affronted look on her face. “If this is such a big issue that the town could be ruined, we don’t mind helping out. I’m a fairly accomplished hea– medic, and my mistress’s skills speak for themself!”

  “Leona, you don’t even have an unlocked Aura!” Jason said, exasperatedly. “And even if Alex is a great shot, there’s a difference between dealing with the occasional Grimm and fighting for your life!”

  “Alright, why don’t we calm down a bit.” I decided to cut in. “We don’t know what the town is going to do about the bandits so there’s no point getting wound up right now. And the Horizon still needs to get stocked up before we can leave. So we’ll be hanging around for a bit if needed.” I said trying to placate both of them. Not sure how successful I was but at least they were content to just stare angrily at each other instead of screaming in the streets like they were about to. “Come on Leona, we have some things to take care of. Jason, keep us in the loop if you hear anything?”

  “I guess you’re right. I’ll send you a message if I hear anything. See you around Alex, Fangirl.”

  I watched him walk off for a second before turning to my apprentice.

  “Come on, if we’ve got a potential Grimm horde to deal with I want to make a few preparations. And something tells me time isn’t going to be on our side.”

  Leona just gave me a smile and a determined nod. Both of us knew a straightforward fight would end in our favor, it was the unexpected twist we failed to account for that would hurt the most. So we’d stack the deck in our favor as much as we could so if the bandits tried something clever, we had a few tricks up our sleeves.

  -o-

  The next day instead of getting a message like I expected, Sean and Dann had decided to drop by in person. And going by the looks on their faces – this wasn’t going to be a fun conversation.

  “Sean, Dann. Good morning, can I get you anything? Coffee, tea, water?” I greeted them and invited them inside. They had been inside the Horizon enough that I didn’t need to direct them to the small sitting area where Leona was already up and working on a personal project of hers.

  “Nothing for us, we don’t have time to stay long.” Dann said, interrupting Sean as the other man raised a hand to request something only to sadly lower it with a nod. “We voted on what to do about the bandits last night, and safe to say we aren’t going to give them anything if we can help it.” He gave the two of us a look. ”But a lot of us would feel better if the children and their caretakers were somewhere out of harm's way. We know it's a lot to ask last minute like this, but do you mind flying them to Vale?”

  Leona stopped and put down her project while I frowned at them. “I don’t mind, but we did offer to stay and help out, you know? Sending people away isn’t necessary.”

  Both Huntsmen shook their heads. “Canae have ye doin thon for us. Neither o ye are huntsmen an we canae have twa young girls fichtin our battles for us.” Sean said. “An besides, gin ye girls can put up thon kinda ficht, wha better tae make sure the wee ones are alricht?”

  “We can’t think of anyone more trustworthy than you two to make sure everyone is alright.” Dann added. “So if you’re sure you don’t mind…?”

  I sighed at their attitude but nodded. “Fine, we’ll take them. Have them pack up what they can carry with them and we’ll leave in a day or two.”

  “Aye, we’ll tell em. Just don’t go dragging yer feet outta concern for us. We’ll manage just fine.”

  True to their word, both huntsmen didn’t stay long - leaving almost immediately after our conversation. I escorted them out of the Horizon before giving them a wave good by and closing the door only to find Leona basically shadowing me.

  “Since you told me earlier we were ready to leave whenever, I assume you plan on staying and helping out?” She asked me with a smirk, one that I easily returned.

  “Yeah, if the bandits make a move before then we’ll jump in and help deal with them. If they don’t…” My smile turned sharper. “Well, I’m sure we can figure something out.”

  Happy New Y-- *looks at news* It's a New Year!