"What is written on the envelope?"
"It's a message from Raven, she arrived in the capital and ended up being detained by her superior because of her sudden appearance. After telling her superior what happened, she remained in confinement for the last few hours waiting for Dean to be located and detained as well."
"Can't say I'm surprised by this, after all it's her word against Dean's if he's still in the realm. It is also very likely that Dean's superiors have also already made their preparations to discredit or confuse everything that has happened here."
"I can't say that wasn't one of my fears either, but in the Raven letter it says Dean was alkalized just like the base was too. She was outside the forest and there wasn't much inside the base besides a lab that was used in experiments involving magic beasts, bunch of bastard thieves I'm going to kill that son of a bitch, those were Raven's words about the mission earnings report."
"Probably the faction led by the Sunshine family must have looted most of the items to increase their political and economic power. At least the base wasn't looted by a neighboring kingdom, but there's also good news in the letter."
"We are not being blamed for the 'theft' since the mission has been completed, at most he can say that he left us behind or that we did not contribute anything to the mission."
"You're right about there being nothing reported that we were tricked by Dean as he's not stupid enough to destroy his military career just to hurt us. But we also won't get the credit for discovering the base as we don't hear many earnings from it and according to the report we weren't at all helpful, especially you who barely served to carry Dean's luggage when he used the magic tool to track down the magical beast and the secret base."
Motherfucker, I may not be able to get revenge on him now, but in the future that will change. I'm sure I'll get revenge on him in the future, the arrogant ass probably won't remember me but that doesn't change the fact that I'm going to make him suffer in the future.
"You don't look very angry; did you hear me right?"
"I don't need to get mad when I can't do anything to fuck that idiot."
"That was more mature than Raven said it was going to do."
"What she will do?"
"In the letter she said that she has already given orders for Dean's mansion in the capital to be completely demolished, that may be all she has written about her plan to retaliate, but I doubt she hasn't already come up with other ways to get revenge."
"Did she really write that in the letter?"
"Yes, but she obviously did not use direct words and the contents of this letter will not be read by anyone else."
Ana's aura covered the letter turning it to dust, she actually waited until this moment to do this. So dramatic.
"Was there anything else interesting in the letter?"
"Yes, our orders to return to the capital have been issued, we have until tomorrow morning to report back to the central intelligence headquarters. There we will find out where we will be transferred to, it was nice working with you Ulric, you were very helpful."
"I also liked the last few months; you may not be the best leader I have ever served but the distance between you is the worst is much greater than for the best."
"What a loving compliment, you almost made me cry."
"Glad I could improve your day; I'm going to go unmarried because I feel like I won't be able to do it for a long time after tomorrow."
"I'm going to train because I have no idea about my future, it wouldn't be smart not to prepare for the worst-case scenario."
"See you tomorrow."
I left the room alone and went to the workshop to prepare a lightning bomb since this is the only complete piece of equipment I'm missing, maybe it's even good to make some more bombs to take with me, but unfortunately this is dangerous for several reasons.
I can't carry too many of them or leave them behind on the bases or the mount I'm currently using. Just a moment of bad luck and not only can I get hurt but my teammates can get hurt too, but maybe one more electric bomb isn't too risky.
She was very useful against the magical beast that was too strong for me to face head on, the bombs from the other elements wouldn't be so useful in a situation like this, and as I'll probably be present on a team that will face enemies stronger than me, it would be nice to have more ingredients ready to create more ray bombs like carrying two of them at a time.
After spending some time in the workshop, I went to fix my armor which suffered a lot during the great days, even doing the maintenance of it the surface layer of the leather of the boot was seriously damaged. If a situation like this happens again, I will have to get a new pair of boots and that will be a headache, as it is very difficult for a craftsman to replicate them and without the runes to link them to the rest of the set the power defense of my armor will decrease.
Maybe I should start saving money to buy new armor since my weapons are still in good shape. It didn't take long for me to start resting after training a bit as when I thought about not doing constructive walking all day it made me feel like a lazy idiot, and remembering that Ana must be training now didn't help me to stay in my room rested.
When the new day arrived and the sun began to illuminate the sky Ana and I were already using the matrix to arrive in the capital very early. When we got there, none of us had anything to do other than go to our destination to find out where we would be transferred, after introducing ourselves we were sent to a small empty room that had space for ten people to sit easily.
Even the common rooms in the capital are quite large, we usually use a room two thirds the size of this one. When I looked at Ana, she didn't seem to be in the mood to talk, I think she's nervous about finding out where she's going to be transferred to.
We were waiting in the room for a few hours, when it was a little less than two hours before lunch, the door to the room opened. To the surprise of both of us the person who entered the room was Raven.
What is she doing here?
"Did you miss me?"
Neither Ana nor I had the ability to react to Raven's prank before it continued.
"What a rude pair of soldiers, you should pay her boss off when she enters the room. Didn't anyone teach you military protocol?"
"It seems my destiny hasn't changed yet I will be part of the team led by Raven."
"It's your bad luck to have a crazy, boring leader like her. Do you know where I'm going to be transferred or are you here to get the boy?"
"I'll pretend I didn't hear you call me crazy and boring, little girl. You two are under my command now, as you can see there have been a lot of changes because of that son of a bitch I won't name because I got direct orders not to swear at him in public again."
"What kind of insult did you use to order you not to swear at him in public anymore?"
"It wasn't the intensity of the insult, it was the fact that I did it in front of certain important figures and others who are sensitive to this kind of language, but let's not waste time with that we have to go find the rest of the team some of them already must have arrived."
She swore at Dean in front of her superiors wouldn't be that much of a problem since they must be having similar thoughts to her, we've all been screwed by Dean. But for her to be ordered not to swear in public she must have spoken profanity in front of a powerful noble or an important clergy figure, it could even be someone in the royal family, but I don't think Raven is capable of having a slide of that type in front of one of the princes or princesses.
"What do you mean we? Why am I in your unit?"
I think Ana is not happy with her transfer, but I think it could be worse.
"Conform to your fate, if I hadn't helped you would be in the shit right now Ana. Between the three of us you and the one with the least support from the military, if I hadn't protected you, you would now be going to one of the forts to be a shield of flesh patrolling the walls until the war starts, your chances of advancing through the military hierarchy would be delayed for a whole two decades."
"Was it that bad? Is it because I am the person with the least political support? I may not be a Memphis, but I have their support."
"You have low-level support from the Memphis, the brat on your side is a single apprentice heir to Grimalkin Forceti, even though she has two daughters neither of which have yet awakened her core, so he is basically her son in the eyes of the Forceti family. And there's also one other little detail, my superior has the last name Forceti too so it's easy for you to see who would take the blame here."
"The mistress has two daughters?!"
"Didn't you know that? What kind of student heir doesn't know that his mistress has a daughter?"
"I didn't even know she was married! How am I supposed to find out she's already a mother?"
"She is not married, Ulric. You don't have to be married to have children, but I understand how a virgin like you might not know how the interaction between men and women works."
"Don't be so depressed, Ana. I may have helped you but I don't do charity if I want you on my team and because you are strong enough to be part of my team."
"Ulric, don't be so surprised at strong women not being married and having children, this is quite common because the stronger we get the harder it is to give birth to a healthy child, and very difficult and expensive for a warrior or core mage getting pregnant levels above these is basically impossible. And just to finish this matter here, I have a five-year-old son, I even said goodbye to him a few minutes ago so it took me a while to get here."
"We don't have time to waste anymore here, follow me."