Returning to the camp went pretty much as Asan had imagined. Stilet, upon seeing the strike team, immediately frowned, and when he saw just one bag, cold fury could be seen in his eyes. He immediately opened the gates, and as soon as the strike team entered within the fort's walls, the man flew at them like an arrow.
"What the hell is this?! Is this all you found?!" Stilet spat angrily.
Paul looked as calm as the rest of the strike team members.
Before approaching the fort, a plan was discussed on how exactly to act in this situation. Laszlo had already feigned lowering his head and was examining the ground as if it had suddenly become the most interesting and beautiful thing in the world. Alice pretended to click her tongue and reached into her pocket, no longer pretending. Bridgite nervously stroked her left hand, and Asan didn't know whether she was pretending to be nervous or was actually nervous. Crane glared sideways at the Stiletto. Asan was slightly worried that a fight might start, but everything should have been fine. Asan, however, was destined for a special role—being himself. When he was first told about this, he was surprised and asked what Paul meant by it.
Quiet and inconspicuous.
Indeed, Asan couldn't find a better description for himself.
"Yep, this is all we found."
"There are too many creatures in the city, we barely managed to escape" Paul said briefly, blatantly lying to Stilet's face.
The latter, judging by his look, naturally didn't believe him. He quickly drew a short military knife from under his leather armor and pointed it at Paul.
"Are you planning to piss in my ears, pup? Speak up, where did you hide all the loot?"
Paul silently looked at him for some time. Asan noticed how his jaw muscles started moving. He was chewing on his own jaw again, apparently nervous. However, upon seeing Alice's angry look, he doubted that it was just nervousness. Asan himself wanted to roast this ball of flesh on sticks with his dark magic. Out of the corner of his eye, Asan also saw the Geographer standing there, for some reason looking directly at him.
Turning his attention to him, he met cold, gray eyes that instantly lost interest in him and switched, as he supposed, to Paul and Stilet.
"I'm not pissing in your ear. If you're unhappy about something, go and try to get something out of there yourself, surrounded by monsters" Paul snarled in response.
Paul was rarely nasty; usually, he was neutral or good-natured. He could only look at Stilet with pity, who recoiled slightly from such a sharp reply, and his blade wavered.
"Tsk, give me this bag and get lost!" Stilet said, clearly backing down, trying to snatch the food sack from Paul, but no such luck. Paul comically recoiled from him and held out his palm in front of the man.
"Nope. Seventy-five percent yours, twenty-five ours. We'll be dividing the loot now" Paul said, clearly getting even more annoyed with the blob.
The Stilet's face turned red with anger, and he gripped his knife tighter when suddenly Kirill's voice stopped him. Kirill had approached them and placed his hand on the Stilet's shoulder. After whispering something in the Stilet's ear, the Stilet's face returned to normal, and he scratched his cap.
"Fine, let's distribute your crap" he snorted, and he and Paul moved aside.
Now Asan was free, but he didn't intend to do anything. To be more precise, he had no plans for the rest of the day. He noticed that there were many more people in the camp than there had been in the morning, about as many as when they first arrived at the fort. He became curious about the morning prayers and went to ask the first person he saw what they were about.
It turned out that these were prayers for the fort to be as strong as possible and so on and so forth.
Asan found it disgusting to listen to such speech, but it was even worse to look into the eyes of such a person. When the man recounted his prayer to him, blind faith could be seen in his eyes, which was hard to shake. How exactly was Geographer planning to shake such a wall? And if one thought about it, where was your god looking when many people were simply torn apart by crowds of Ronnie? The image of a group of people in Janschwalde-Ost surrounded by creatures reappeared in his eyes.
Would he help them now that he was strong enough to deal with several creatures at once? He… didn't know the answer to this question. On one hand, his kindness, which had grown over time since being in the camp, screamed at him that he would go and save them.
But, on the other hand, his personality, his essence whispered to him quietly that he would run away again, unable to help people in any way. Simply because he didn't need to. Why risk his life for strangers?
Though… He hadn't run away in the rain…
"What are you standing there thinking about? Has your manly side finally spoken up, huh? Asan?"
Suddenly, he heard Laszlo's voice and paid attention to him.
"What are you talking about?!" Asan asked, confused.
In turn, Laszlo smiled and pointed forward, where Alice was stretching. Her body contorted into different shapes, providing an incredible visual treat and causing a strange feeling in Asan's chest. The boy's cheeks turned slightly pink, and he averted his gaze from the girl's beautiful body, shifting his focus back to Laszlo, whose smile seemed like it could split his face in two.
"Go to hell, I'm thinking about something else, and you're showing me this" Asan said, waving him off.
"It's nothing like that, there's nothing wrong with it. When we entered the camp, many were eyeing Alice. The fact that she's a beauty is undeniable. And her butt... Wow... Even that Stilette keeps looking at her sideways when she bends over. Damn it, I wouldn't mind looking at that girl myself!" Laszlo was telling him, not very loudly. Probably worrying about surviving the night without being found dead by some beautiful maiden in the morning.
"Fuck, Laszlo, shut up already" Asan replied and tried to avoid his friend.
But Asan agreed with Laszlo's words. It would be a lie if he didn't agree on how beautiful the girl was.
Though mostly covered in all sorts of filth from blood to dirt, it was still quite beautiful. But thinking about such things was dangerous, especially near her, since there had already been a similar situation.
This happened shortly after several weeks of travel, when Laszlo started chatting with Alice. The girl quickly made it clear that she wasn't interested in any intimate connection by kicking him in the balls. A warrior woman, what more could be said.
So soon evening came, and the strike team gathered again in a separate circle, eating canned food provided by the old man. Suddenly, Col joined them— a man from their camp who loved to tell not-so-funny jokes.
"Col, please not today, we're tired" Asan grumbled, looking at the dark-haired man who was starting to show signs of balding.
He was 32 years old and, according to his own stories, he had been a businessman. But his wife, who was also standing nearby, quickly dispelled this nonsense by saying that he was just an ordinary construction worker. Asan didn't understand why he had lied, but soon figured something out.
Since the guy was still learning human emotions, and after being in the camp for about a month, he began to better understand people in general. Kol wanted to appear better in others' eyes through his lies, to stand out. As Asan understood, he was quite socially dependent, caring deeply about what others thought of him. This seemed strange to Asan, since in Janschwalde-Land, it was customary to say only what you really were. To put it simply, there was a basic code for guys and girls: if you didn't follow it, you were considered an asshole.
And things like boasting or lying about yourself could cost you both your teeth and your honor among the other dorm residents. Perhaps that's why Asan became less social with others so as not to let slip too much. Laszlo, on the other hand, became much more talkative because he believed that he could be respected for many of his deeds.
***
Thus, soon night gave way to a new day and another trip to town. For three whole days, the group returned to the fort with just one bag, while they hid the main loot in a basement at the edge of the city. This would have continued if one day Crane hadn't felt that they were being followed. On that day, the group decided to hide their things in a completely different place—a house that had been empty until then. To be more certain and to figure out who was following them, Crane suggested leaving Laszlo's knife behind in this house.
Upon returning to the camp, the usual procedure took place—Paul once again argued with Stilet about the gear, but even then Asan noticed the absence of several soldiers.
An hour later, soldiers entered the fort with bags, and on one of their belts was the painfully familiar knife. To Asan's surprise, there was no escalation of the situation, but Asan understood that now they would have to bring all their loot to the fort, otherwise they risked losing almost all the food they had gathered during the day. The war between Geographer and Nelson, who had not shown himself from the tower during the second phase, soon led to some people spreading rumors about a magical and wondrous place called the Alps. In the evening, one could hear many whispers about this.
Every time seeing the Geographer, Asan could not help but notice how there was a slight smile on his face, and his gaze was directed at a certain building—the Nelson Tower.
Ahsan was curious about what this war between the two leaders would turn into.