"I would never throw anyone out into the streets when they need my help. Hospitality is a key tenet of our merciful lady of the Hunt and I've been her faithful servant since the day I was born."
"Wait, what? I thought belief in the Hunt was a demihuman religion"
Getting genuinely caught off guard by the fruit seller's words, Tom lowered his pistol as he felt a tiny spark of divine mana in her when she voiced her faith, it was clear the lady in front of him was telling the truth.
"Well, it wasn't like that when I was a child, but we can talk more about that inside, over a warm meal."
Glancing at Lisa and the beastkin children, Tom finally holstered his pistol and accepted the middle-aged lady's offer.
"Mom, wh- Oh, we have guests, I'll get the extra plates."
Suddenly surprised by quite unusual guests, the fruit seller's daughter instantly adjusted as she showed the same kind of warm smile her mother had.
"Please do, Janna sweetheart."
While her daughter went to collect extra plates for the sudden guests, the fruit seller lady turned to Tom and introduced herself.
"Greetings, living saint of the Hunt, my name is Amalia, I live here together with my daughter Janna."
Amalia and Janna's home was small, but homely and cosy. The ground floor consisted of a small combined kitchen and living room with a small attached bathroom, upstairs was two small bedrooms where Janna and Amalia slept while a small basement served as a pantry and general storeroom.
"My name is Tom, this is my disciple Lisa and these are the beastkin we saved from the local slave merchant."
Although it was cramped with 16 people around the table, Amalia and Tom somehow managed to get the freed slaves seated so they could get some food in them while the adults talked.
"Slavery is such a dreadful occupation, I'm glad you managed to free these kids from such a foul fate. Glad that pig got what he deserved."
"The nobles and rich fucks that participate in that kind of filth are truly abhorrent."
Seeing both Janna and her mother's opinion of slavers, Tom formed a slight smile as he felt he was getting praised for the work he was doing for once.
"The problem is the response to my attack. A lot of soldiers have surrounded the entire city to keep us from escaping, so we need to hide and keep out of sight until they leave."
Explaining their current dilemma, Tom promised the two ladies that they wouldn't need to feed them or the freed slaves doing their stay and that they wouldn't create any trouble and stay mostly in the basement.
(To get the blockade lifted I need to make it seem like we've already left the town…)
Needless to say, getting spotted at any point before the blockade was raised would be a death sentence for all parties involved.
After getting the freed slaves fed, Tom moved them to the basement to explain the current circumstances.
"We'll need to hide out here for a few days until the blockade of the city lifts, to be honest this isn't what I wanted to do, but I have planned for it and we will easily make it through this… The only issue is that it will be really boring."
"Boring?"
Not understanding where Tom was going with things, one of the beastkin spoke up as she turned one of her large ears to the side and leaned her head in an apparent effort to focus her brain power.
"Yeah, boring. We will need to be quiet for a few days, that means no unnecessary talking and no moving about… If a single guard spots us, we're all going to die, horribly."
Imparting exactly how crucial it would be for the beastkin to remain quiet for the foreseeable future, Tom saw an entire sea of ears part and flatten out in anxiety.
"Don't worry too much, I know you people are though."
Before Tom's hand could find its place on top of the closest beastkin, Lisa whisked them away.
"I'll deal with this, so stop talking."
Not wanting to witness Tom go in circles for hours and unintentionally traumatise the beastkin, Lisa dragged the beastkin into the basement and out of sight, leaving Tom behind with Amalia and her daughter. Quickly hiding his plate carrier and pistol with a leather poncho, Tom gestured to the table.
"Let's talk then. I have a few questions."
"Alright dear."
Sensing the seriousness in Tom's voice, Amalia sat down across from him and gestured for her daughter to get all 3 of them some tea.
"I was under the impression that the Hunt was a faith of the demihumans?"
"Well, that might be the case today… I think I was 7 or 8 years old when they came to this town and burned down the church dedicated to our fair lady."
"They?"
"Some kind of knight order. From there acts of dedication to our ruthless lady became illegal and people who resisted were hunted down until no one was left."
(So a religious purge? This place did feel like a totally foreign world, but good to see things haven't really changed all that much.)
From further conversations with Amalia, Tom figured out that a change of kings had made the kingdom purge all worship of the Hunt and several other religious practices, that seemed to be the point where the discrimination and slavery of demihumans started.
(So my target might be an old fart… Or not.)
Briefly considering that his current target might be an old man who was in charge of the original purge, Tom was diswaded by the fact that he didn't burn down this town's church with its faithful inside.
That would have been much closer to USIE operational doctrine.
(... So the influence pushing against my boss could have been here for much longer than just a few years.)
While it was normal for religions to wax and wane over time, Tom figured it was a possibility that a dedicated push to purge the Hunt might be something else connected to his prime directive of 'fixing' the world. Still, higher level decisions like who to target and when was the role of Tom's boss, he was fine being 'just' the tool to exact her directives.
(Getting to kill slavers, lowlifes and corrupt merchants is great. But this still isn't all sunshine and rainbows.)
"Are you sure that you're okay hiding me and the slaves here?"
Changing topic suddenly, Tom waited for Amalia to repeat herself before he interrupted her.
"Of cour-"
"I killed a lot of low-life slave guards earlier today, but also a lot of guards."
Figuring out what Tom was talking about, Amalia fell silent and glanced at her daughter before answering.
"It's fine."
"Chances are pretty good I killed someone you know."
"That would be great, actually."
Speaking up for the first time, Janna was clearly angry at someone in specific when she spoke out.
"Janna."
Hearing the pain in her daughter's voice, Amalia tried to de-escalate but it didn't seem to catch.
"I said what I said, mom. And I mean it."
Not willing to discuss the subject any further, Janna restated her point to make it clear before she got up from her chair and returned to her room with a huff.
"Sorry about that."
"No worries."
Over the next few days, the beastkin, Lisa, Tom, Amalia and Janna got used to living together as the encirclement and lockdown of Delth continued. In this time, Tom and Lisa made trips to their old safehouse and back a few times to collect USIE self heating rations they had left behind and fed them to the beastkin, but on the fifth day their supplies were understandably starting to run low.
"And resupplying here is out of the question?"
"Yeah, even after I've confirmed that there are no more of those 'drones' flying around we can't risk it. I've confirmed they can trace it, so on the off chance they're monitoring this area we'll be fucked so I can't risk it… At least not for another day or two."
Although he knew it was very risky to resupply inside a town, Tom was also forced to face the reality of the situation as they were starting to run out of food for the beastkin and themselves, even after starting to restrict their daily intake.
"If you're starting to run low on food I can always cook some extra for you dear's."
Having overheard Tom and Lisa's conversation, Amalia interjected and offered her help.
"We can't ask you to do that, you're already risking your life by letting us stay here. If they found our, both you and your daughter is-"
"Yes, I know that. We both do."
Showing a warm smile, Amalia placed one hand on Lisa's shoulder, and the other one on Tom's.
"But you are guests in my home, all of you. I can't claim to offer any kind of hospitality to those in need if I allow guests to starve inside my house."
Feeling like he was a child at his grandma's trying to say no to seconds all of a sudden, Tom was forced to admit there was no reason for holding out against Amalia's offer, after all, if they were discovered there was no way her or her daughter would walk away from this.
"Thanks, I'll…- Contact, 10 seconds."
Flying up and out of his seat immediately, Amalia didn't even get time to react before Tom and Lisa had disappeared into the basement and there was a knock at her front door.
Figuring out what Tom had meant by the word contact, Amalia took a deep breath and pushed in the chair Tom had been sitting at before she put on a sweet smile.
"Coming!"
"What are we dealing with?"
"A pair of guards, I don't think they are here for us."
Quietly informing Lisa about the current threat as he was busy attaching a silencer to his pistol, Tom gestured for Lisa and the beastkin to be quiet as the guests upstairs had been seated and started to talk.
"Captain, William, what's this about?"
Addressing the newly appointed guard captain and an old childhood friend turned guard, Amalia did her best not to appear nervous about the fugitives she was hiding in the basement.
"... Actually, we need to talk to Janna, is that okay?"
Knowing it was a sore spot before he brought it up, William was already sweating slightly as he expected another outburst.
"I can carry on the message."
Although she felt her blood pressure spike, Amalia didn't want to start shouting, right now she wanted to avoid escalating the situation at any point.
"Very well… Dexter has passed on. He died doing the attack the other day."
"I see, pass on my condolences."
From Amalia's cold voice and general lack of care visible on her face, it was clear to everyone present that Amalia didn't care much for Dexter who had passed away.
Still, the newly elected guard captain had to press the issue.
"You've just been told your son-in-law passed away, aren't you going to even ask about the funeral?"
"... Very well, when is the funeral? I need to know when to celebrate."
"DO YOU MOCK US!?"
Perhaps from the lack of sleep over the past few days where they had done little other than pulling bodies out from rubble, the guard captain blew up at Amalia and smashed both his hands down on the table and made most of the house shake with his voice.
(Hold.)
Signalling to Lisa who was ready to charge, Tom chambered a round in his pistol as he accessed his neural uplink.
(Prepare to close account 0210 and execute manoeuvre #02 on my command.)
COMMAND_ACKNOWLEDGED.
STANDING_BY_FOR_FINAL_CONFIRMATION.
"What the hell is going on down here?"
Having heard the shouting, Janna came downstairs and was already pissed because someone was apparently shouting at her mom.
"Dexter has passed."
Seeing that things were already falling apart, William chose to just get to the point.
"... When? And how?"
Initially confused by those words, tears welled up in Janna's eyes as she asked about the details.
"He died doing that attack a few days ago… He was inside the south guard station when it exploded. We dug out his corpse and confirmed it was him last night."
Hearing that her husband had passed away, Janna collapsed to the floor as a maddining amount of conflicting emotions ran through her head.
"... G-good… I hope he suffered."
Although she was sad to hear of Dexter's passing, anger, hate and relief won over those notions of empathy.
"What the fuck is wrong with you pe!-"
"Thanks for informing us, but we want nothing to do with this, leave now."
Stopping the guard captain from shouting at her daughter, Amalia stepped out in between the two and put on a firm voice.
"My daughter has suffered plenty because of that 'man', so we aren't really that concerned about his passing. Now leave."
Seeing there was nothing more worth discussing, both sides fell silent as they continued to stare at each other, although the guard captain was considering having the two women arrested for disrespecting him and his authority he never got to act on it as the house was suddenly rocked by the sound of somewhat close explosions.
"WHAT IS IT NOW!?"
Suddenly having more important things to do, the guards left in a hurry as Amalia, Lisa and Tom finally breathed a sigh of relief.