"...What now?"
Barricading themselves inside an abandoned building, Lisa was busy sucking air against one of the windows as Tom assessed the situation.
"Call for QRF or CAS is what I would like to say… But we're up shit creek without a paddle and straight out of luck."
As he assessed the current situation he and Lisa had landed themselves in, a few things happened in quick succession, first of all Tom finally noticed the presence closing in on them from behind just a bit too late.
"W-wait!"
Luckily the other illegal squatter didn't bear any ill intentions towards Lisa and Tom as he raised both his hands above his head in a panic when Tom swung around to end him. The other squatter in question wasn't human, his longer than normal ears, grey hair, purple eyes and ashen black skin immediately reminded Tom of one of the slaves he freed from the Rover slave hub, so in the end he didn't fire.
"Y-you saved my little sister, I-I'm here to return the favour!"
(I knew I saw some sort of resemblance… Still, that doesn't mean shit.)
Glancing at Lisa (who had already hidden her slightly glowing eyes and long ears) Tom got a small nod in return and lowered his weapon.
"Okay then, let's say I believe you for the moment… What's your name kiddo? And how did you manage to sneak up on me?"
(It's clear Lisa doesn't thrust this guy, so I shouldn't either…)
Remembering how Lisa was treated by this demi's supposed little sister and how uncomfortable it was for her, Tom started to weigh his options when a massive burst of mana swept across the town.
"W-wha…"
Unable to comprehend what just happened, Tom turned to Lisa as she started silently crying before collapsing to her knees. Hurrying over to her, Tom tried to get her attention but it quickly became apparent that she wasn't all there as whatever that burst of mana was, it had shocked her to her core.
(Shit… No choice then.)
"You Buddy, name, now!"
Realising he had just lost half of his fighting force for the moment, Tom made a quick decision.
"It's Nick! My sister-"
"Don't care, how can you get us out of here."
With Lisa out of it for the moment, he needed to get her somewhere safe.
"There's a fairy circle a bit outside town, we can use that to travel. That's how I got to this town in the first place."
"... Okay, then we do that. Put this on."
Handing Nick one of his spare gas masks, Tom fitted Lisa with another one before lifting her up preparing to move as he put his own mask on.
"... How many?"
Finally getting to sit down after the catastrophic defeat he had just endured, the captain was busy rubbing his eyes when he spoke out to his subordinate.
"That's…"
The clear lack of emotion in the captain's voice made James freeze for a moment as he realised he was consumed by a mix of anger, frustration, loss and deep sorrow.
"I said: how many James, just fucking tell me."
Struggling to keep a calm and clear head, the captain had a hard time not blaming his superior for this current fiasco, he had repeatedly argued that diplomacy would be better suited for the new aspect of the Hunt and in return he was harshly reprimanded and eventually forced to carry out the surprise attack which had just failed spectacularly.
"The current tally is 41 dead and 96 wounded, but with our lack of ability to effectively treat most of the injured the number of dead will only increase…"
This was a grim prognosis, in a single battle against two opponents the gryphon knights had lost half of their forces, even if they replaced all their wounded and dead with members of the support and supply detachments it would take at least a year for the company to regain their numbers and strength.
While the initial clash had been bad as their targets had seen through their surprise attack, what followed afterwards was worse.
(I knew there was something off about that guy the first time we met… But this was just straight up inhumane.)
After getting out of the town, Tom had started using heavy amounts of tear gas to deter a pursuit. The knights not experienced with the horrors of chemical warfare charged straight into the heavy white fog where many of them choked to death along with their mounts while the arguably more unlucky ones took to the sky where they were shot before crashing back down where they choked to death.
Forced into such a catastrophic loss, the captain felt a mix of shame, anger and sorrow. So many promising young men and women he was supposed to protect, teach and nurture were now dead or disabled for life; their minds fractured and lungs barely working after being severely burned by the gas.
And that was the lucky ones who even managed to survive.
"FUCK!"
Shouting out in anger, the captain smashed the table next to him with his fist in a fit of rage before he addressed James again.
"Contact his majesty and inform him of our failure… Then request he withdraws the suppression unit from their spat with the Ivory trade federation to deal with this shitshow."
"... Roger."
Just hearing the suppression unit brought up in conversation brought a bad taste to James' mouth, but he still agreed with his Captain's assessment.
If there was anyone who could deal with their current issue it was that blond haired, smug sociopath who led the unit.
-
"AAAAAAAAAARH!!!"
Waking up with a scream, Lisa rushed to her feet where she was immediately caught by Tom who attempted to calm her down.
"It's okay, we escaped!"
Holding onto Lisa as she continued to squirm, Tom did his best to calm her down and eventually succeeded.
"I… I…"
"It's okay, you're safe… I got out."
Seemingly those words finally seemed to pull the fog away from Lisa's mind, but instead of returning to normal tears started running down her face.
"So I'm safe?... What's even the point? She told me to forget about her and live my life."
"Lisa talk to me, I can't help you if I don't understand what is happening."
Getting her to look at him directly, Tom didn't want his evident worry to leak onto his face, but it still did and that's what finally made Lisa talk, if only briefly.
"... That mana pulse came from my mom, she told me to forget about her…"
"So the rumours are true after all, miss Lisa you are-"
"What the fuck!? Who the fuck are you!?"
Only noticing Nick when he spoke up, Lisa screamed like a teenager her age could as she activated her camouflage spell and hid her ears as she moved behind Tom at a remarkable speed. With Lisa reacting as strongly as she did, Tom made his decision almost instantly as his eyes turned cold and he put a hand on his holstered pistol, undoing the bottom securing it with a single finger as he got ready to draw and fire.
"You heard her, talk about this to anyone and I bury you where nobody will ever find you."
"But, she-"
Seeing Nick was clearly not getting it, Tom cut his words short by drawing as he stepped forward and grabbed him by the shoulder before pressing his pistol to Nick's lower torso.
"You wanna die? If so, keep running your mouth about matters that don't concern you."
Making it very clear to Nick that he was about to die due to his own stupidity, Tom would expect fear, anger or even regret to show on the demi's face, but instead he got was confusion.
"You're an apostle of our benevolent lady of the Hunt, why would you even threaten to hurt me?"
"That's where you're wrong buddy, I'm a hired contract killer, same as my last life. I have absolutely no qualms about killing people, be it children, women, or grown-ass men not taking me seriously and given that the great lady of the Hunt hasn't bothered changing that aspect of me when she brought me here it is evidently a needed trait."
While Tom didn't have the slightest idea how the Hunt had ripped his soul out from the abyss and moved him to this new world, he was pretty sure they could've easily fixed any personality trait or quirk of his that they didn't like but they evidently hadn't, or they had, but either way Tom saw it as green light to act as he saw fit.
And right now he was about to create, then dispose of a dead body.
Although Nick hadn't been acting like he was the sharpest spoon in the drawer he did seem to understand what Tom was getting at as he broke out in a cold sweat as Tom was acting like some of the elders he had the misfortune of training under.
"O-okay sir! I've forgotten everything, so please-"
"Not good enough, I might as well kill you now… Lisa, get the entrenching tool from my pack."
Seeing Nick had well and truly folded, Tom gave into his bad habits and started busting his balls, true to his character, but as Lisa was already used to his antics she just sighed deeply instead of doing anything he said.
Of course, this didn't really calm down Nick at all as he didn't know Tom that well.
"I-I swear on my life and the great lady of the Hunt I've forgotten everything I've heard and seen, I will never tell anyone what I've seen and heard here!"
"... You can let him go now Tom."
Seeing Nick well and truly plead for his life, Lisa felt the anger she held for him evaporate as it was replaced by a tiny bit of pity. After all, she understood how it was getting bullied by Tom.
"Are you sure about that?"
"Positive, involving her name like that carries weight."
Even after hearing Lisa confirm, Tom took a few extra painfully long seconds where he did nothing but stare coldly into Nick's eyes, then he holstered his pistol, formed a smile on his face and clapped Nick on the shoulder.
"Okay then buddy, go get yourself cleaned up, we start moving in 15 minutes."
"S-sure..:"
Wiping the tears from his eyes with the cuff of his blouse, Nick hurriedly retreated out of Tom's personal space with his newfound freedom and gratitude for being alive.
"I'll head down to the stream and get cleaned up."
Practically running away from the entirety of the situation he had just experienced, Nick left Tom and Lisa alone, finally leading Lisa to realise they now where inside a lush, temperate forest, not far north in a monster infested wasteland where she had found herself last she checked.
"... So, what happened while I was out?"
Recounting the frankly absurd events of the last few hours in his mind, Tom seemed to space out for a few seconds then pulled himself together as he provided a quick summary.
"... The knights were attacking us, but Nick had arrived to pick us up so I went with him, killed a bunch of knights as we successfully escaped using all the spare gas grenades I had, then we travelled about an hour north where there were a bunch of strange runes carved into the nearby rocks. In the centre of those rocks were one of those fairy circles that we entered, then arrived here, approximately 900 kilometres south."
Although he had no idea how the seemingly normal 10 metre wide circle of mushrooms had served to teleport him, Lisa and Nick to the very southern tip of the Kingdom, Tom wasn't about to start questioning it now as it had helped them escape unharmed.
"I see, so in the end, no matter how many years I spend running north to get away from this place I end up back again…"
Realising she was almost back where she had started, Lisa felt it was almost poetic, but was far too busy being bitter about it.
"So… What do you want to do?"
"What?"
Caught by the whiplash of that question coming Tom out of nowhere, Lisa was about to come with some sort of excuse or half-assed answer when Tom spoke up again.
"What do you really want to do? Until I get the next command from my master we can overthrow the king, slaughter all the knights that ever went after you… Or we could free your mother."
Even after her mother had told Lisa to forget she existed and live happily, she knew she couldn't do that, so she answered honestly to Tom's suggestions.
"... Yes."
"Yes what?"
"Yes to everything. Let's overthrow the king for his crimes, slaughter every single one of those knights and free my mom from wherever she is being held."
Seeing Lisa's determination burn clearly in her eyes, Tom made up his mind.
"Okay then, but to do all that I'll need to step up your training."