"Urg… My fucking head…"
Getting jolted awake by a throbbing pain throughout his entire body, Tom felt like his entire body was burning up while his head pounded worse than any hangover he had ever had. What little light that graced his eyes when he opened them was blinding, but after a few minutes of adaptation Tom could finally open his eyes as he still winced in pain.
(... So I guess I did survive in the end. I might, no, I definitely need to apologise to Lisa next time I see her… Oh fuck.)
Remembering the last thing he saw before he passed out, Tom remembered Lisa's panicked look when he collapsed, then he remembered that the adventurers who were with her had seen her real ears and he had failed to kill them.
Forcing himself awake and ignoring his body as it screamed out in pain, Tom forced open his eyes to find himself covered in bandages inside a simple inn room, the only thing inside the room other than him and the bed he laid in, and a wooden chair next to it was his M-909 rifle, still equipped with his bayonet and loaded with a magazine.
(Great… Now I just need to MOVE!)
As the adventurers were stupid enough to leave Tom with a weapon, he felt like he was forced to repay their idiocy with a bullet to the head so he forced himself to stand, reaching for his rifle when the door to his room swung open.
"Tom?"
Having just returned with a bowl of hot water, fresh rags and new bandages, Lisa froze in place as she saw Tom was not only awake, but out of his bed and standing despite being in no state to do so.
"Li… sa?"
Seeing Lisa not only unharmed but also no longer bothering to use the spell which hid her long ears Tom was stuck with confusion, but as he stared at her bright green eyes well up with tears he tried to console her, only he never got that far as Lisa acted first.
"GET THE FUCK BACK IN BED NOW!"
"... Yes ma'am."
"... So you thought we would sell out the people who saved this entire region from gobs? Lisa, has he always been such a moron?"
Despite it being pretty early in the morning, Lisa's shout had woken up the entire building and Tom's room was soon filled with adventurers who took the fact that he had woken up and immediately chosen violence surprisingly well.
"I'll admit that most of us are lowlives, but as adventurers we know not to bite the hand that feeds us. Besides, none of us would be able to do anything to the mini boss here even if we tried, we've all heard how deadly she is by now."
"Yeah, so there's no need to worry about that boss, even if the city guard tried to pull something we've already made it clear that it'll only end up badly for them so don't worry about anything. Just focus on your recovery for now."
After a bit more commiseration from the various adventures they showed a surprising amount of tact and slowly filled out of the room until just Tom and Lisa were left in a somewhat uncomfortable silence that Tom didn't quite know how to break.
"... So… Um…. It's good that you don't need to disguise yourself anymore."
Nevertheless he tried-
"Shut your feed hole."
-and spectacularly failed.
"... Yes ma'am."
Knowing when not to fight a losing battle, Tom shut up and laid in silence as Lisa started swapping out his bandages, it was only when the bowl of water she was using to disinfect Tom's wounds was stained a deep red that Lisa finally spoke up.
"... I was really worried, you know?"
"Right, I'm sorry that I put you in dan-"
"N-not about that…"
With Lisa turning surprisingly meek as she corrected Tom but soon fell silent without elaborating, Tom finally turned his head to look at her.
Although that only seemed to confuse Tom even further.
"... Why are you crying? You're sa-"
"I was worried about you okay!? Not about myself or my safety, I was worried about you Tom! When you emerged from the mine with wounds all over your body you looked like you were about to die!"
Unable to restrain her emotions anymore, Lisa's demeanour collapsed as tears started falling from her face.
"I thought I saw you die! Even up until the last second all you were concerned about was me! Do you have any idea how that made me feel?"
"Erm… That-"
"Is dying really not that big of a deal for you!? Are you just ready to up and abandon me the first chance you get!? PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE!"
Breaking out in full on uncontrolled sobs, Lisa fell apart entirely as the memory of Tom falling over 'dead' repeated over and over inside her head. Too stunned to even respond to what was happening, Tom didn't even know what to say as he had never experienced anything being worried about him.
For all of Tom's old life he had been alone, always easily replaceable with no one caring if he lived or died. The moment he had opened his new eyes Tom was sure no one had mourned his death, it was a futile and meaningless death he had been sent into by people who didn't see him as more than an ID code in a spreadsheet, and although his new patron had picked him specifically, Tom was sure that his next death would be just like the first one.
"... I can't stand being alone again, so please don't leave me."
As she had gotten her emotions somewhat back under control, Lisa muttered those words as silently as a passing breeze. Although it sounded like a request, her words were more of a prayer as Lisa's life had been filled with nothing but loss and betrayal so far, no matter how hard she seemed to hold onto the people she cared about, they always seemed to slip away between her fingers.
And now that she had started caring about Tom, Lisa feared hopelessly that he was the next one to pass through her fingers and disappear forever.
Hearing Lisa's words Tom suddenly remembered something, a figure clad in what seemed to be an ever present haze stood before him as his heart filled with an immense sadness, even if he tried to, Tom couldn't remember anything about the figure, and even when he desperately attempted to keep the figure in his mind it still slipped away in a matter of seconds.
(... Fuck.)
Briefly annoyed at the sudden memory forcing its way into his head before disappearing, Tom correctly realised that there were more pressing matters at the moment, so he rose up from the bed and quickly embraced Lisa in a hug to calm her down. Of course, Tom had no idea if this tactic of his would even work, as he couldn't remember if he had ever hugged someone before or even been hugged in his previous life.
"Don't worry, I might be a monumental fuck up with no sense of self preservation, but if there's one thing I'm good at, its killing people…"
Holding onto Lisa like she was going to disappear at any moment, Tom was in too much pain from his injuries to notice that Lisa was doing exactly the same as he continued talking.
"There's no way I'm just going to keel over and die, and I'm not going to make the same mistake again.. It's just that… I've lived over 200 years fighting as a slave, I've lived as cannon fodder for so long that some habits are still sticking here in my second life… I'm really sorry about that, and I'll do better."
Having successfully calmed down Lisa (and himself) Tom separated from her as she had stopped crying and was now busy wiping away her tears.
"Yeah, you better fucking improve and do better… Otherwise I'll kick your ass!"
Seeing Lisa's face flush in embarrassment as she realised what she had just said, Tom couldn't help it as a smug smile grew on his face, quickly earning him another kick to the shin.
"... AW, fuck… Yes ma'am."
After Tom's and Lisa's heart to heart, she filled him in on what had happened after Tom destroyed the monster nest and collapsed.
First of all, Tom had passed out and spent a week unconscious where he had recovered at an astonishing pace from heavy internal trauma, over 50 severe lacerations, multiple severed tendons and a pair of ruptured eardrums. While Tom was unconscious, he and Lisa were transported back to the fortress city by the group of adventures he had hired, and when they all returned to town and people saw Lisa's real ears and realised she was a demi human all hell had broken loose. After finding out her true identity, serval adventures, thugs and lowlives had tried taking Lisa and were almost instantly put in the ground by her and the adventures who now treated her as their boss, this bloodbath within city limits had in turn attracted the attention of the city guard, and from there things had gotten even worse. Appalled at the violence happening within the city, the guards had tried to restrain Ruth and the other adventures for causing a ruckus, but this had backfired when her and the other adventures rallied together, tired of constant harassment and discontent from years of mistreatment they rose up in rebellion and toppled the local government which had been weakened for years by the isolation brought on by the monster nest.
"... Wait a second, we've taken over the government?"
"Technically yeah, but Ruth and the others were smart about it, there was no bloodshed as the adventures went directly to the city lord partitioned him to show some respect to the saviours of his city while making sure that every single person here knew who they had been saved from the monsters by."
"... Smart, there's no way the local government can go against us when the citizens see us as their saviours."
Having dealt with a lot of rebellions, uprisings and revolutions from both sides over the years, Tom recognized the adventurer's plan as quite smart, but it was still inherently flawed. It was quite good and nice that they had managed to temporarily stabilise the situation by talking over the local government, but what happened when the larger country learned about the uprising? Were they just going to sit back and let it happen?
Of course not.
(So even after dealing with the monster nest we're still on borrowed time… Good thing I regained consciousness before the state arrives to bring its disloyal citizens back into the fold...)
"We need to leave this area, and soon."
"What? Why?"
"Because I doubt the gov is just going to sit back and watch a city of this size rebel against them, even if this single fortress city doesn't matter that much, letting it go means more important strongholds might get ideas of independence, or at least lowering their tax contribution by resisting a little when the time is right."
Explaining how much of a powder keg they were sitting on, Tom tacitly implied that they should abandon the adventurer's who had saved Tom's and Lisa's life, as they had fought against the state their lives were now forfeit.
(There's no way the head honchos are just going to keep traitors alive after they've already caused trouble once. And in the eyes of everyone, we're the true ringleaders… An outsider and a demi huh? You couldn't wish for a more perfect group of scapegoats to punish in the name of justice and stability.)
"... That's not going to happen."
While Tom was already set on abandoning everyone who had practically saved his life, Lisa couldn't have landed further from him.
"Huh? Listen here Lisa, I've-"
"Yeah, I'm sure you have, but just listen to someone else's experience for once. You don't seem to realise it, or its significance for that matter, but the people of this city recognise you as a person sent by the gods. Even if you're sent by the god of the demi humans, her most noble and graceful lady of the hunt, that carries an immeasurable amount of weight."
Against Tom's better judgement, he and Lisa decided to remain put as he focused on recovering, judging by the remarkable speed Tom recovered by it would only be a few more days until he got back on his feet.
OBJECTIVE_STACK_PRIMARY:
FIX THE WORLD.
STATUS:_0.000000003103%_COMPLETE.
SECONDARY_OBJECTIVE(S)_UPDATED.
SECONDARY_OBJECTIVE_UPDATED:_DESTROY_THE_CORRUPTED_CREATURE_DEN_NEAR_NEW_DALE.
OBJECTIVE_COMPLETED:
OBJECTIVE_REWARD(S)_AWARDED:
SA_P_CLASS_WEAPON_UNLOCK.UAV_LA_CLASS_WEAPON_UNLOCK.UAV_SUPPORT_MODULE_UNLOCK.AR_CLASS_WEAPON_UNLOCK.
NEW_ACCOUNT_BALANCE=98.821_POINTS_AVALIBLE.
"... Well that makes sense, as I did kill quite a bit of gobs. But more importantly these new unlocks are nice to have."
With nothing better to do than getting pestered to rest by Lisa, Tom decided to check out his current balance of points as well as the new rewards he had unlocked.
(As for weapons I've unlocked pistols, assault rifles and loitering munitions… Then there's this UAV support module. If it is what I think it is, it is far more valuable than anything else I've ever been able to summon.)
UAV_SUPPORT_MODULE_SELECTED
PRICE:50.000_POINT(S)
UNLOCK?_(Y/N)
(Woah, that's quite expensive… but sure, what do I have to lose when I can already afford it?)
"Sure, let me unlock the UAV support modul-"
The second Tom confirmed his purchase he immediately felt light headed, and before he knew what had happened he fell back onto his pillow clonked out again.