In the middle of the night, two people met up on an opening within the shallow parts of the forest.
One is a hooded person and the other is a male who looks to be younger than his age suggests.
"I'm glad your here. I thought I'd have to sneak on the outpost to find you."
"Good evening to you too, Grunt!" The hooded person said with a roll of her eyes.
"Right...."
A little bit of silence later, Grunt decided to speak to their group's informant.
"Okay Bridgette, I have a question. Do you have any knowledge of some large factions out there being interested on this forest?"
The hooded girl tilts her head. "That's a strangely specific question. Why do you ask?"
Grunt explained to her about the events inside the forest, then their discovery of a new advance settlement that seems to contend with the Golden Wall City. Her eyes widened at this new info.
"So, do you have any knowledge. Anything that you know about the faction behind it?"
She frowns. "Sorry. I don't know anything about that."
Then she remembers something.
"Oh right. The bastard decided to start an expedition now. The slimy bastard and some of their gangs are leading the expedition."
Grunt nodded at it. "Thank you. I will tell that to my group."
Then they stare at each other again, their mind seems to be thinking of something.
"... So, you really don't want to join us?" Grunt spoke, breaking the standoff.
She frowns. "You know that I still have unfinished business there."
He looks at her in pain, and seems to have resurfaced some bad memory within him. There is also worry beneath his expression.
"Don't look at me like that! I know you tried, but that bastard is just too strong!" She said with a humph.
"Yes. I am sorry." He scratches the back of his head.
"There is no need. I'll deal with this alone." She turned her back. "Anyway, stay alive for a bit more. After I get her back, I will definitely join you all!"
With that, she leaves the area, leaving him alone on this forest.
He frowns for a bit, before shaking his head. Then he walks away from this area.
~~o~~
The same time as the talk between Grunt and Bridgette, Neil is on his room, talking to his robotic units who are exploring the forest.
He wanted periodic reports for those group of people. So he will leave some Alientech Scouts to follow them. He will get to know them first before trying to say his original plan.
His plan is to invite those people to his place. He felt bad just leaving them there while he is here, eating meals and having water like it's nothing.
He have to make sure they won't betray him first. It's literally survival 101.
He also ordered some of his units to look for that outpost and report it to him. He wanted to investigate it too and see whether the group of four is telling the truth.
He sighs after he is done telling them their new roles. Then he turned to the two fairy-like beauties. They are busy eating a bunch of pizzas again like there is no tomorrow.
"Uh... are you not going to sleep?" He is honestly curious about that.
They now have their own bodies, and they look so human. So he thinks the same limitation applies to them.
"Itsh fwine Yusher... we dun nweed to sweep!"
He felt like laughing, seeing Odette talking while her mouth filled with pizza. Her cheeks looks like that of a chipmunk. He tries to hold it in, though his face looks like a mix of confusion and mirth.
"O-okay. Please try not to eat too much. It might make you fat."
After he said that without thinking too much about it, he turned to his bed and lies on it. He didn't notice the two girls freezing and their hands becoming slack that it almost make the slice of pizza to fall as they try to possess what he meant by it.
They don't know why, but they felt threatened by that word somehow. It's like something that is so serious and they should pay attention to it somehow.
Odette looks at the pizza slice in her hands, then felt fearful, before her eyes narrowed in indignation.
"I don't need to think about that! I am a System!"
"... But, I think I should limit myself for up to three boxes... yes, it's three boxes only!"
She seems to be convincing herself somehow, and Dinah is nodding her head quickly even with her cold expression. It looks so comical.
Without minding the two girls struggling on some sort of dilemma, Neil decided to sleep.
~~o~~
Early in the morning, he wakes up and is surprised to find the two girls sleeping on the ground without any regards to their appearance. There are pizza boxes everywhere.
He looks at them, his evaluation of them dropping. They might be world shaking beauties, but they are acting like children. They even sleep with their bodies spread like the world didn't even matter to them.
'Oh god... if it's any other guys, they would have been jumped on and something untoward will happen to them!' He sighs.
He decided to deal with this right now. He called the homunculi waiting outside and tell them to create a bed frame. He can't just leave these girls lying on the ground like that.
'And they said they didn't need to sleep. I should've taken that with a grain of salt!' He thought with a shake of his head.
The homunculi maids quickly get to work. He didn't know where they got it, but they have a lot of cleaning utensils within them and they are using it to clean the room.
He didn't get to help them. These homunculi seems keen on letting him relax while they do all the work for themselves. He lets them be.
He is not someone who can't read the room. If they are so dedicated to doing something, then he should just let them. Trying to stop them felt like restricting them, and he is not that kind of person.
Though, not that he is looking at it, his interest has been piqued.
"Where did you get those things?" He asked while pointing at their brooms.
One of the homunculi stops and goes to him with a polite bow.
"Master. These tools were created by our own magic."
He is surprised to hear her say that.
"Magic?"
The homunculus nodded. "Yes, we are using magic."
He stares at her for a bit while his mind is wandering, confusion evident on his face.
'I thought they are mechanized units? How the hell they can use magic?'
As he thought of that, someone decided to answer his confusion.
"Homunculus are a magical construct created to help their Master. They are very versatile and can be used both on combat and housework."
"Woah!?" He jumps in fright, seeing Dinah standing there behind him
Even with her cold expression, she seems to look proud and her chest puffed. She will look so amazing if not for the fact that her beautiful arctic-colored hair looks frazzled and some pizza crumbs and sauces are sticking to her cheeks and some parts of her body.
"You look stupid." He can't help but blurt it out.
Like a thunder hitting her, she looks so shocked. Her earlier smug expression turning into shock, before going on all fours.
"User... said I am stupid..."
He panics. "Wait! I don't meant it like that!"
He tries to explain to her why she looks so inappropriate and have to think more about her appearance. In the middle of his explanation, Odette seems to have joined them for some reason and is listening to his words carefully.
"Do you understand?" He finished with that.
""Yes, User!"" Both of them nodded in unison.
He frowned at that. "You know, can't you just call me by my name? It sounds so awkward being called a user." He said while feeling troubled by it.
"Okay." Odette responded with Dinah nodding along with her.
Before he can tell them to wash their face first, he heard someone calling his phone. He gestured for them to not interrupt him before taking the call.
"Yes, what it is?"
["Squad E reporting. We have encountered multiple groups of people scavenging the forest for resources. Awaiting orders, Sir!"]
"Show me the feed."
["Roger"]
The robot scouts changed the call into the live feed of one of their perspectives, and he saw a lot of people marching on the forest. Surrounding them are a group of armed men.
The quality of clothes from those who are being surrounded are different from the armed men. The people they are surrounding seems to be down to earth. Their clothes looks like a riffraff of different rags patched together just to cover their bodies.
The armed men have a certain unity in their clothes. Most of them are wearing green, with some looking almost like those from the military while others are just simple t-shirts. They also look more healthy, unlike the people they are surrounding which looks malnourished and have no energy within them.
He can hear the people talking behind them. It's a person who looks like a typical bandit, with the green band tied to his bald head and he have a black eye patch to his left eye.
["Hughes will give you bonuses, so you better be quick here!"] He heard the man on the feed.
He narrowed his eyes at it. It is obvious that these people are being oppressed, though he is not sure whether it's human maliciousness or there is some sort of reason for it.
["Orders, sir?"]
He squinted his eyes before making a decision.
"Just follow them for now."
["Roger!"]
With that, the feed stayed on and he can his scouts slowly following them.
He would have helped them, but he don't have a reason to do it. He is not a hero, and he knows he won't become like that.
He wanted to see for himself first, and if they were truly innocent, he will try and rescue them.
Despite not having a reason, it's common decency to help people when you are capable of doing it. He's not going around and saving the world, but if he sees something like this, he wanted to at least try and help them.
It will haunt his consciousness if he becomes too cold and let them be to their sufferings. He is not raised like that.
"Report to me if something happens."
["Roger"]
After that, the video feed cuts off.
He looks at the outside with a serious expression.
"This world... is it truly that bad?" He asked to no one, feeling strange at the current state of this world.
He hopes it is not that worse. He didn't want to believe that people are dumb enough to be malicious to each other instead of cooperating to better their survival.
'They aren't that stupid, right?'
He really hopes so.