Pete was sitting in his chair and enjoying his drink immensely after spending several days on the road. Though they weren't technically supposed to drink while on a mission, his superior turned a blind eye since they wouldn't actually be fighting anyone that night, as long as he didn't get dead drunk and was back by sundown. One of the men with him then spoke up and asked,
"So what kind of demihumans you think we're going to get this time? I'm personally hoping for some rabbitmen so there's no fighting and the trip back is more enjoyable." Pete smiled at the thought, imagining a rabbitman female under him begging him to stop as he continuously pounded her. He then said,
"The best thing about rabbitmen is how they never fight back, they just cry and blubber as they beg you to stop, they're the perfect ones for those that want a submissive woman. It's a nice bonus that all rabbitmen are so good looking." The men around him agreed, as they all started imagining what would happen if they did get a rabbitman female for the night. Their thoughts were disrupted however, when someone bumped Pete's arm and caused him to spill some of his drink on himself. He turned towards the one responsible, pissed that someone ruined his night, and saw a big muscular man with his hair spiked up all over his head. He stood and said angrily,
"You spilled my drink!" The man looked at him with hazy eyes, and slurred,
"Mm slorrry, iz has jush a little tooo mush." Pete made a face of disgust at the man, and kicked him to the floor. As the drunk stumbled back onto his butt, Pete said,
"Fucking drunk! Here we are trying to relax for the first time in days, and you made me spill my drink, what do you have to say for yourself?!" The man struggled to right himself as he yelled at him, and said to him,
"Iz says iz shorry." Pete grew even angrier, and kicked him again in the face, before directing another kick at his gut. He then rained down a storm of kicks on the drunk, not caring in the least about the injuries he was causing. As a soldier of the Empire, if someone messed with him it was like declaring war on the Empire itself. It was for this reason no one bothered trying to stop him, as he beat the drunk so badly that he would undoubtedly die if he was a normal citizen and not an adventurer. At least that was what he thought until he felt some pressure coming off off two people, a maid with silver hair and a petite girl with red eyes. He stopped beating the drunk and pointed at him while asking the girls,
"Is this dumbass with you?" The petite girl looked as if she was about to lunge at him anytime, but the maid placed a hand in front of her and held her back. She then said,
"That is indeed our master, I will apologize for his unsightly behavior." Pete grinned at the maids words and appraised her body as he walked up to her before grabbing her chin and asking,
"Why don't you and this other girl show me how 'sincere' you both are privately? Then you could display your sincerity to the rest of the guys with me after." The men with him started laughing, while the rest of the onlookers had a look of interest at the situation. Before anyone could answer however, one of the men with him said,
"As much as I'd love to receive their apology, we're short on time sir,
It's already almost sunset." Pete then turned around abruptly, and said,
"Y-yes it's time to go back, next time ladies." He then swiftly led the men back to the rest of their squadron, wondering where the intense amount of killing intent he briefly felt came from. He felt it only for the briefest of seconds, but it almost made him collapse. Pete wasn't sure what monster he angered, but he didn't want to push his luck as the protection of being an Imperial soldier would only go so far. Thankfully he was returning to his squadron of one hundred men, a force strong enough that no one would be stupid enough to challenge them, or so he thought.
The moment the door to the inn closed however, an intense killing intent filled the entire building, but did not leak out from it. As it wasn't directed at the other customers they weren't as effected, but everyone present was still being suffocated in the pressure. The "drunk" Alex stood, clarity in his eyes that wasn't there a moment before, before turning to Grayfia and Yue while saying,
"Return without me, I'm going "hunting" and might be gone for a couple days." Neither girl asked questions, as they both felt the rage radiating off of Alex's body. They swiftly left, and Alex started following the soldier he placed the tracking spell on. Since Alex had no stealth capabilities whatsoever, he pretended to be drunk while attaching the tracker to one of the men when he accidentally bumped one. What he never expected was that the one man he bumped into would react the way he did, even going so far as trying to beat him so badly. For the sake of finding the person he was after Alex didn't react to beating, and simply swore to get even later, until the man tried to use the situation as an excuse to bed Grayfia and Yue. Now the soldier's fate was sealed, and Alex wasn't going to be kind enough to send him to the same place as the others. Him, or the other soldiers in their squadron. Once they outlived their usefulness, an entire squadron of soldiers from the Empire was going to disappear.
For the next several days Alex followed the soldiers at a distance, waiting for them to find the one he was after. It was only after three days of this that there was luck, as they came across a group of a hundred rabbitmen that had traveled out of the Sea of Trees. The reason they couldn't enter the Sea of Trees itself was that only demihumans were able to travel those lands without getting lost, so when the Empire wanted to gather more slaves they needed to either force one to be their guide, or simply travel outside the forest edge and hope they got lucky. The problem with the first option was that the guide could easily lead them to a trap, meaning it was very rarely used.
As the soldiers surrounded the scared rabbitmen, Alex watched from the sky and noticed that in the sea of purple hair signature to the rabbitmen, there was one head that was gray-blue instead. This was all the confirmation he needed, before he flew down and landed in front of the frightened crowd of rabbits, and a familiar looking face.
"Remember me?"