"... You sure are a crybaby Mari, it is definitely different from my first impression of you."
"S-shut up!"
Separating herself from Tom as her entire face bloomed bright red, Mari attempted (and failed) to regain a bit of her dignity by faking a cough as she quickly wiped her eyes.
"... I hope we can come to a mutual understanding and form a great cooperative relationship."
Bowing with her face still red, Mari tried to end the encounter on a somewhat neutral note when Tom spoke up, having just remembered something.
"Oh yeah, There are about 20 dead massive boars south of the village that I killed a bit ago. They're just going to rot if left alone… You can do whatever you want with them."
Although Tom wasn't really that sure about the specifics, he knew monster parts were valuable. Apparently their bones, hide and internal organs were infused with mana and could be used for everything from armour to medicine.
"Understood!"
Watching Mari suddenly peak up and run off, Tom figured the corpse held some kind of value.
(... If nothing else, they're remarkably alike when it comes to how they forget everything and run off.)
Quickly checking with his neural uplink, Tom centred himself as he requested a little something for Lisa who was still hiding nearby.
(Can I get an IVAS headset… The cheapest everything between version 3.32 and 8.3.)
REQUEST_CONFIRMED:NOW_SEACHING.
STANDBY.
A IVAS, or integrated visual augmentation system was a mixed reality headset program the USIE investigated for a while, but turned out to be an evolutionary dead-end in modern drone warfare.
Still, it had plenty of uses outside combat.
QURREY_COMPLEATE;_IVAS_V.5.59
STATUS:_AVALIBLECOST:_800_POINTSCONFIRM_PURCHASE_Y/N?
(Yes please.)
As Tom had earned plenty of points killing massive boars earlier, he had no qualms about spending just 800 on a tool which could really help Lisa out. The headset appeared to be little more than a slightly fancy set of ski goggles with a strong black tint, but if one examined it a bit closer you would notice the small cameras spread out over its frame in addition to holes for microphones and the single cable connection near the back that could link the system up with everything from radio systems to a powered exoskeleton.
"Lisa!? You wanna try something neat?"
Speaking up knowing that Lisa was in earshot, Tom waited around for about a minute before Lisa appeared.
"This better be really fucking neat the way you just sprung Mari on me."
Understandably Lisa was still quite pissed at Tom for surprising her with a person who had caused her significant pain out of nowhere, but perhaps because Mari had realised her mistakes or because she couldn't stay mad at Tom for longer than half an hour she gave him a chance.
"I figured it was about time you learned how to control the drones I've planted nearby, the specific slang term is a WoF certification."
"WoF?"
Lisa had learned a bit about drone warfare from the books Tom had made her read, but she had never come across that acronym before.
"Warheads on foreheads, as in the ability to kill an unaware opponent with a direct hit from an inert drone."
"That sounds dope."
From the interest Lisa had taken in Tom's firearms he had already expected that kind of response as she took an interest in any and everything lethal from Tom's world.
(... Wait, she also asked me a shitton of questions about the radio… And the USIE rations when she started eating with me. I guess she finds everything about my world interesting?)
Dense as he was, Tom missed the point entirely as he started explaining and showing Lisa how to wear and use the IVAS headset.
"HIII! W-WHAT THE FUCK!?"
As the headset booted up, it displayed a logo from the subcontractor of the army who had designed it on its augmented reality headset, making Lisa jump backwards as she felt like a random group of coloured letters had just tried to attack her.
"The headset displays images on the glass surface between you and what is outside it."
Having caught Lisa when she jumped backwards, Tom waved a hand in front of Lisa to break the illusion of the headset in an attempt to calm her down.
"Urg… Please don't do that."
Unfortunately this only made Lisa dizzy as some people got when they first tried VR or AR, so Tom sat her down instead and let her get used to the simple animation it displayed before doing anything else.
"... This is really strange."
After a few minutes, Lisa started getting used to the headset as she stretched out her hand and placed it in her line of sight.
"Yeah it is one of the reasons why it was never adopted formally, it's much easier to just beam information straight into a soldier's head with a neural implant."
"That doesn't sound healthy."
While Lisa could see the advantage of just having information transferred into one's head instead of this strange headset, it sounded somewhat unnatural.
"Yeah, that's because it isn't, unless it is some stupidly expensive implant like the one in my head, those things wear out your head and slowly turn it into mush."
Tom was extremely familiar with the feeling of implant-based neural decay, while the inside of the skull didn't have that much in the way of pain receptors, symptoms instead manifested as headaches, dizziness and loss of motor control.
(Of course, USIE hospital services could fix all of these ailments, for a 'small fee' of course.)
Just thinking about one of the many ways the USIE turned their own soldiers and mercenaries into indentured slaves pissed Tom off, so he took a deep breath to clear his mind before continuing to explain things to Lisa.
"It's because it isn't, therefore you're using this thing right now instead of a cheap implant."
"Understood… I think I've gotten used to this now, how do I use it?"
Standing back up like a newly born fawn with her legs shaking like they were paid to do it, Tom realised she was far from ready and made whatever Lisa was currently seeing flip 180 degrees, making Lisa fall on her ass as he had expected.
"No you're not, let's take it slow."
"I… Urg!- fucking hate you Tom…"
Although Lisa very much wanted to punch Tom in the face, she found it hard to just stand up without puking. As annoying as he was with it, Tom made his point clear, so Lisa spent the rest of the day slowly getting used to the headset.
"You're still a massive piece of shit for just bringing her to me like that."
Eating a protein bar from her USIE ration as she was preparing for bed, Lisa was finally ready to talk about the day's events in greater detail.
"Yeah I realise my mistake… I'm sorry about that."
Scrutinising Tom's face as he said those words, Lisa sighed deeply as she realised something.
"I sense a 'but' coming."
"... But, you can see that she's sorry for what she did, right?"
Although Lisa expected Tom to try and build back a bridge between herself and Mari, she hadn't expected him to take that particular angle.
"I guess."
"I know that you really don't like her, I wouldn't either in your position, but she is showing regret and is seeking your forgiveness… Furthermore, although I don't really want to use this angle, I'll need to work together with Mari to free your mother. You being hostile to her will be detrimental."
Instead of sparing Lisa's feelings and shielding her from the world, Tom believed it would be better for her if she learned how to work together with people she detested.
"I see…"
While she had realised this on some level, Lisa was forced to face the fact that her attitude would be detrimental to her own goals.
In a sense, she was holding herself back.
"I'll do my best to bear her, as long as she minds her own spacing."
"Your best is enough."
Placing his hand on top of Lisa's head, Tom ruffled her hair until he felt he couldn't get away with more and got up on his feet.
"I'll go tell Mari to keep her distance for the moment, get some sleep."
"Fine…"
As Lisa didn't feel the effort to get up and kick Tom in the shin for overstepping she reluctantly went to sleep as he left for the village elder's home yet again.
While the sun had set about an hour ago, what little light remained proved enough for Tom as he navigated mostly by the Albatross' night sensors showing him where to go.
"I'm here to talk with Mari!"
Instead of entering the village elder's home, Tom knocked and called out for Mari who quickly appeared with a cup of tea in her hand wearing far more casual clothes instead of the hide armour she had been wearing for travelling.
"G-Good evening, what can I help with?"
Clearly having not expected Tom at this hour, Lisa had some brief problems getting into business mode as she worried what Tom wanted at this hour.
"I'm here to talk with you regarding Lisa."
"... Is that so…"
For some reason, Mari expected bad news as her entire demeanour dropped before Tom corrected her thinking.
"It's not all bad news I promise, come to the training ground and we'll talk."
"Okay, just give me a second!"
With the promise of hope, Mari regained most of her demeanour and quickly left to get something, returning after a few minutes wearing a coat with an extra cup of tea in her hand.
"Let's go."
As the pair walked in silence towards the training ground, orbs of light slowly started appearing in the air around Mari to illuminate their path.
"That's a pretty neat spell."
"Yeah, it is pretty great to not worry about lanterns or lamps."
Holding out a finger as she came to a stop, Mari floated one of the orbs of light onto her finger before she blew it away.
"The only issue is that you can accidentally set things on fire if you're not careful, so we still need lanterns for children who are not that responsible."
"Would you classify Lisa as one of those irresponsible children?"
Figuring how Mari viewed her baby cousin was one of Tom's current objectives so when she brought something up he used it readily to steer the idle smalltalk.
"... I'm not sure to be honest, for so long I was so afraid of losing her that I started viewing her as a newborn, or some kind of fragile pottery."
"And what about now?"
"That's what I'm not sure about."
Reaching the training ground, Tom and Mari found a fallen tree and sat down.
"Here."
"Thanks."
After Mari handed Tom her additional cup of tea, she took a sip of her own before continuing her previous thought.
"I didn't want to admit it, but I honestly don't know a lot about Lisa."
"Well, I can tell you about the Lisa I know… She's stubborn, holds a grudge and is an overall brat."
"That-"
"Of course, she's much more than that, because she's stubborn, she's dedicated to bettering herself, because she holds a grudge, she has the instinct for when to strike and when to back off."
Explaining his reasons to stop Mari from attacking him, Tom took a sip of the tea he had gotten from her before as Mari continued.
"And what's good about being a brat exactly?"
"Well, she absorbs knowledge like a sponge like all brats… Speaking of, I have a somewhat serious proposal."
Remembering that he had one huge blindspot as a person not originally of this world, Tom wanted to make sure Lisa wouldn't inherit this blindspot from his teachings.
"... Sure, as long as it is about Lisa."
"If she's okay with it, I want you to teach her magic, and not the kind that creates small spheres of light, the kind that's created to kill people. Also, hold on to this for the moment"
Handing Mari a radio, Tom figured that their shared love of Lisa would at least keep this elver from stabbing him in the back anytime soon.