As they get into the gravity car that apparently isn't a rental, but owned by Alice, Sen decides to curtail any teasing by Lynna to learn about something that is worrying him.
"Are you ok Jennifer?"
She'd seen her parents killed in front of her, and that had only happened after they had betrayed the group. Even if they were only trying to get a good life for themselves and Jennifer, Sen doesn't want to imagine what she's going through.
Jennifer's smile cracks, and turns to a mixture of grief and rage.
"I'm ok… But I'm going to get back at Alliance." Her voice doesn't inspire any confidence in the being ok part.
Sen nods, he can understand the need for revenge. He'd ended up killing the person who had imprisoned him, and while it hadn't made him feel any better about what had happened, people like that simply shouldn't be allowed to continue tormenting people.
The group goes a bit silent, before Lynna ends up cracking under the pressure and finally going to tease Sen.
"So have fun last night?" Her smile is like that of a cheshire cat.
Sen shrinks a little. "I… Don't even remember most of last night."
Alice looks to him with a forlorn expression. "You don't remember? But we.."
She's cut off by Xue smacking the back of her head. "Nothing happened. You ended up passing out pretty early."
Alice pouts. Lynna continues to make insinuations about the things he may have done during the car ride, but eventually Sen is saved by the gravity car arriving at the top of a parking garage structure. They end up parking on the top of it, which is apparently designated for gravity vehicles.
They all pile out of the car, and it's time for one of Sen's least favorite pastimes, shopping. Even when he's the one being shopped for, he's not a fan of it. The clothing he's shoved into fits him much better than what he normally bothers to wear, and the only clothes he's interested in are the clothes he'll be wearing while hunting.
For hunting, he settles on a jacket made from the leather of a C ranked monster, which supposedly will stop blows under that rank, and reduce the damage of C rated blows. The pants are weaved from some plant fibers that, while not as tough as the jacket, won't be pierced by any casual blow. His shirt is nothing special, just a plain t-shirt, but it's softer than anything Sen has worn before.
"Should we start collecting monster materials? It could save us a lot of money having the leather and letting them make clothing out of it."
Alice shakes her head. "I'm not lacking money. Once we reach A rank we shall need to collect materials though, A rank gear is very hard to find and most A level alloys require certain monster materials to be included in the metal to facilitate the smithing process. Anything beneath that, money will solve."
Sen nods, but feels a little guilty relying on Alice for everything. Everyone is being supported by her, and it rankles. At least in his past life, he'd been supported because he was working for her, even if she'd wanted more than that. This life, his parents only have a job due to the benevolence of her family.
There's nothing he can do about it unless he wants to start renting his own place, but that would simply slow down his grinding, and he doubts the girls would want to move out of the penthouse.
As they walk to get some coffee drinks to take a short break, Sen senses something odd with the sense for the wind he's unconsciously using at this point. The man in front of them is tightly holding a knife inside of his jacket. Sen is instantly put on guard as the man's eyes flick to the group.
The second the man goes to take his knife out of his jacket, going to stab at Alice, Sen steps forward, knocking his hand off course, and swings in with a hook towards the man's jaw. The hook connects, and the man instantly drops. Sen is worried he may have killed him, until he hears a groan from the man lying on the ground. Apparently he isn't as high a rank as Sen is.
Sen goes to restrain him until the police force get there, when he picks up two more people coming from behind. Sen wants to let out a sigh, but doesn't have the time. Why did he have to leave his sword back at the apartment?
He's able to knock down both of them just as they draw their knives from their pockets, and the group is giving him funny looks. They've grouped up facing outwards, but haven't been able to pick up who the attackers are.
With Sen sensing no one else nearby trying to hide a weapon for a surprise attack, Sen drags the two people over to the first he's knocked out, and piles them together, holding on to one of their knives to use as a threat.
It isn't long until the police arrive, and they leave without much fanfare, simply taking away the men after questioning them with a small array that shows if the speaker is truthful. The men who attacked them refuse to say anything, and they're dragged away.
"Does this happen often?"
Alice shrugs. "It hasn't happened in a while. My parents do have quite a few enemies."
Sen looks to her. It seems he'll be acting as a bodyguard in both of his lives. He makes a mental note to bring around a small dagger for the future, as his large sword takes too long to draw when suddenly attacked.
"How did you know what was going to happen?" Julie asks.
"There wasn't any light in the tunnels, I had to sense where things were with the wind. It's become pretty much second nature to me at this point."
Lynna looks at him. "So you can basically sense everything around you? What kind of underwear is Xue wearing?"
Sen glares at her. He can probably find out if he pays more attention to it, but he's not going to, even if he's tempted to now. He's also not going to say that he can.
"I don't know."
Lynna gives him a stare saying she doesn't believe him. Sen feigns innocence, and eventually she stops looking at him. The group goes back to getting their coffee drinks, Sen getting a spicy tea, and they enjoy them for a while before getting back to shopping.
This time they're looking for casual clothes, and Sen is forced into more outfits than he'd owned in both of his lives put together. Eventually, the girls get tired of playing dress up doll with him, and he shambles his way back outside. The clothes will be delivered for them, which he's thankful for. There's no way he could carry the pile that had been bought.
He pulls up the holographic screen on his bracelet, and looks at the pitiful number of credits he has. He'd insisted he be the one to pay for everything, and he's almost completely cleaned out now. Even with the credits he'd had on his tablet being transferred to his bracelet he's practically broke. He's surprised that he was able to get the credits from his tablet at all, but isn't going to complain. It's a good thing that they're going hunting the next day.
Once they get back, Sen sees the girls still haven't stopped their habit of watching dramas, and Sen ends up reading up on all of the novels he hadn't been able to read while he was trapped in the cave with no signal.
The next day dawns, this time Sen in one of the multitude of guest rooms, and Sen is greeted by a table already set for breakfast. It clearly wasn't cooked up by any of the girls judging by the large spread. He sits down, and has some of the hashbrowns and scallion pancakes after saying hello to Alice.
"My parents shall be coming over to meet you today before we go hunting."
Sen turns pale. He's going to be meeting two A rank hunters, who know their daughter likes him, but he currently has a different woman as his girlfriend. He's mentally panicking a bit as he nods.
"I'm excited to meet some A rank hunters."
Alice pouts. "You should be saying you're nervous to meet your in-laws."
Sen's look of loss is interrupted by Xue entering the kitchen with a glare at Alice. She sits down next to Sen, who had very pointedly sat across from Alice, feeling uncomfortable even sharing a table with his lady.
Sen ends up looking at the hologram from his bracelet, trying to figure out the major differences between the UFoH and the Allied Worlds. The rest of the girls file from their rooms after each other, each of them grabbing whatever looks appetizing to them from the vast variety in the middle of the massive dining room.
Everyone has mostly finished up when the door opens, and a short man with a very lean look, blond hair and blue eyes comes in, along with a woman taller than him sporting light brown hair and eyes.
"These are my parents, Leo and Isabella. Mother, Father, this is Damien, though in this life he's Sen."
"An honor to meet you." Sen gives a short bow.
"So you're that dense idiot."
Sen gets the feeling that Isabella doesn't think too well of him. She looks him up and down.
"You don't seem to be too useless though. We'll have to spar sometime."
Sen gives a nod. He has no clue how swordsmanship had evolved outside of Alpha. None of the people he's fought in the fifth dimension are more than simply competent with their weapons, and Alice still uses the same style she used in her past life.
The swordsmanship on Alpha hasn't evolved much from what it used to be, as they never found the fifth dimension, and so see swordsmanship as nothing but sport. That will change in the future, but for now he'll continue to use his swordsmanship from another life.
Alice's father looks him over, giving him a very hard look that Sen finds intensely uncomfortable. He simply hopes that they're not too informed of the current situation. His hopes are soon dashed.
"Is my daughter not good enough for you?"
Sen withers. It's not that she's not good enough, if anything, it's the opposite, but he's in a relationship. Even if he isn't, he still has a hard time accepting anything that involves his lady and him. Eventually, he decides to go with that.
"If anything, she's too good for me sir."
Alice looks at him, a terribly hurt expression on her face, and Sen realizes that his comment has practically placed her in the same position he'd put her in in his past life. She'd been wanting for him to be beside her, not to stand above him. Alice quickly makes her way out of the room, and Sen also excuses himself, going into the bathroom and leaning back against the wall as he sits down.
It seems all he's done for his lady in both lives is to disappoint her. She'd been the one to save his life, and all he's doing is crushing her hopes. What can he do though? He's as unwilling to hurt Xue as he is to hurt his lady.
He simply sits there at a loss until Lynna comes and knocks on the door for him.
"Sen…" She trails off before seemingly changing topics. "We need to go hunting, get ready."
Sen listens to her footsteps trail off, and slowly sits up, hopping in the shower in the hopes that it will wash away some of his troubles. His hopes are dashed, even more lost by the end of the shower than he was at the beginning. Even the ridiculously nice shower is unable to wash away problems of the heart.
By the time he gets out and dressed, everyone else has gotten their hunting clothing on, and ready to go. Sen notes Alice's red eyes, looking at her in guilt, but unable to say anything. He looks away to see Xue has a similar worried expression on her face. Apparently their dislike of each other has faded with the time spent together. His supposed death likely affected their relationship as well. The walk to the gravity car is silent. Sen closes his eyes and simply sees with the wind to try and blank out some of his mind once they sit down.
For once, neither Alice nor Xue try to cling to him during the car ride, and Sen keeps his eyes closed for much of it, not wanting to see the expressions on the girls. As they arrive at the hunting ground, a sprawling plain with grass up to Sen's chest, they all exit the car and draw their weapons. Lynna and Julie look a bit annoyed, the grass only a hand's length taller than the two. Julie and Lynna had been the only ones to talk during the car ride, but even with the awkward mood, everyone syncs up for the fights to come.
The group advances, and the first monster is spotted by Sen in the grass with his sense for the air. Sen rushes forward into a small clearing, and is surprised by the fact that the first to follow up is Jennifer. The both of them slam their swords into the sheep looking monster that, like all monsters, has very sharp teeth.
Both of their swords barely cut into it, the blows slowed by the impressively tough fluffy fur. Sen grimaces as the rest of the group catches up, and the group takes turns grabbing its attention for the others to strike at it.
The monster is very small for a C tier, but is impressively fast with swinging around its curling horns. Sen repeatedly slams his sword into it, but even empowered by Weight of the Mountain and body strengthening, it barely cuts in. The monster is spending a lot of time focused on Julie's images, but it's damn hard to hurt. It doesn't take long for Sen to notice that all the girls are stabbing rather than slashing, and when he goes to copy them, his blade has much less trouble getting past the pseudo-wool. He instantly tries to get his head back on straight. He needs to focus for the hunt.
They're wounding it at a good pace, but Jennifer seems to want blood, and uses the skill that creates an image of an icicle over her sword before slamming it home into the monster's neck. As she rips it out, blood starts to pour quickly out of the sheep thing. It only takes a few more moments for it to bleed it out, and the group goes to hunt for the next one after removing its crystal.
The rest of the day is filled with hunting that Sen feels is terribly therapeutic. Eventually, they head back to the gravity car, and set it up for sleeping, everyone passing out quite quickly once they've cleaned and eaten.