Adams and Dean were inside of a coffee shop in the commercial district between the dorm and the academy alongside Orion and Andre. From the outside, it looked just like a meeting between a supervisor and his squad, however, the meeting was much more than that.
"Thank you for coming, sir," Dean said.
"No problem, so, what circumstances that require me to be part in that you have to call me today?" Adams asked.
"We found a witness, Orion and I found a witness," Dean said.
"Huh?" Adams still didn't get it.
"I found out that Mick paid his servants to hide his deed alongside kidnapping their beloved ones or straightly blackmailing them," Dean said.
"Evidence?" Adams wanted to make sure.
Dean gave Adams his phone and he played the recording and attached earphones to the phone Adams listened to the recording carefully. Orion was wondering what actually happened in the recording with all of the threats and recording.
Adams then put the phone away. For him, the recording was inadmissible due to how it was gathered. Still, it was like opening a can of worms. Now, they became much more aware of the situation.
"It's inadmissible, and it will be likely to backfire to you, Dean," Adams gave Dean the phone back. "Still, it's quite interesting and the fact that you offer her help is quite surprising."
"I feel bad for her," Dean answered.
"Lone wolf rescue mission, eh? I'll pretend that we don't hear a thing, and I advise Orion and Andre to do the same. Dean, look, I'm not trying to discredit you, but something out of the book is better to be done alone if possible," Adams said.
It was the expected response from Adams, and it was not like Dean trusted the tactical ability of those three. Adams was in the C-rank alongside Orion, Andre was out of the question. Dean trusted his rifle more than his magic, after all. Dean accepted the decision, but he needed help.
"Say, will you give me a witness protection for Hannah?" Dean asked.
"That's tricky. Hannah has to be the one that applied for it. Still, I have a plan, Hannah should apply when you rescue her boy, sounds simple, right? If it fails, at the very least, you only have a grieving mother to deal with," Adams gave the idea with a cynical tone on his mouth.
"Sir, you sound cynical," Dean said.
"Well, it is what it is, right, Dean?" Adams asked.
"Yes, sir. I understand," Dean said.
Orion and Andre were equally had little idea on what Dean would do, but they hoped that it somehow involved them. Something about friends were they would do anything to help. Orion and Andre weren't any exceptions.
Orion was exceptionally talented in magic, but he had done his part. Dean decided that Andre would be the one that helped him in the next step. The next step would be recon on the target. For that, Andre might be able to tag along.
"Andre, can you do something for me?" Dean asked.
"Anything for a friend, bro," Andre said.
"Do a basic recon on that address. Take the fast train so you can get back here in under one day," Dean said.
"You want me to go to Illinois? Dean, you are aware that I will need a car there. I need some money, at least, 80$ to rent a car and other equipment. Is that ok?" Andre asked.
"Do you even know the route to get there?" Dean asked.
"No, but I know that Google knows," Andre said.
"From here, take a train to Salem, then, rent a car. From there, I want you to get some information. I want the rough estimate of the house, the amount of personnel entering and getting out, the response time of local law reinforcement, the threat level that I'll face, and possible entrance point," Dean said.
Andre was overwhelmed by the request as he took note. Adams was impressed by the oddly specific request that Dean gave. It was not every day he saw someone who actually had the tactical ability to that extent in the age of magic like this. It was impressive.
What bothered Adams now was the skillset that Andre had. It was not like Andre was talented in recon. However, he knew that Andre was a perfect getaway driver if he needed to. The boy's speed demon. He even drove the LATV like it was a sports car. So, yeah, he was a good driver and he could escape any hairy situation.
"Got it, I'll do it this Saturday, is that fine with you?" Andre asked.
"Any time is a good time, brother," Dean replied.
"Alright, I appreciate it," Andre answered.
"Thanks, man," Dean added.
"I am not responsible for this operation you are about to pull, alright? I will pretend I never hear about that, and I will pretend I am against it if I got convicted of it, sounds good for you?" Adams asked.
"Good enough for me, sir," Dean answered.
"And Dean, good luck, I'll take my leave, you three will get promoted next week, right?" Adams asked.
"Yeah, thanks for this last ten weeks, sir," Dean said.
"The pleasure is mine," Adams said.
Adams, Orion, and Andre left Dean alone in the coffee shop as he got the second cup to enjoy. The scenery from the window of the coffee shop was quite soothing as several vehicles went past the shop. It was quite a popular place among students as well. For example, people used this place for dating.
Dean hadn't found any girl yet, not in these ten weeks. The last ten weeks had been spent patrolling, training, or tracking. The girl was on the bottom of his bucket list at the point and it wasn't like he had a lot of female friends yet.
Well, except for one person.
'How's your investigation?' Myra suddenly appeared again in front of him, this time, she was holding a cup of coffee in her hand.
'Not as smooth as expected, but it's still moving in the right direction. Anything you can provide for me?' Dean asked the demon lord.
Myra then answered, 'Hmm, I don't know. It's not like you've done any combat. The most that you did was putting down some drunk people to the ground, and that was it," Myra answered.
'Well, if you are concerned whether I will kill someone or not, I'll say I'd," Dean answered.
'Good to hear, then, if I may ask, why don't we go to the ruins so you can kill several people along the way?' Myra asked, regarding one of the strongest memories in Dean's mind that was still relevant enough for her.
Ruins. It was a place where you can get free weapons, free equipment, free armors, and so on as long as you had the means to survive. Even though Dean was an orphan, his scavenging hunt in the ruins had practically turned him to be self-dependent to the point that his economic power was actually strong enough to match some of the high-end families on the mainland.
With the help of UNPREDET, his asset was large enough to sustain two high-end families for the rest of their life to be precise. His bank account was never big, but if it included the asset in his bunker, his asset was quite huge. He did what he had to do to survive, and it resulted in his current condition.
'Maybe later, I doubt two days in the weekend will be enough for me to go scavenging hunt in there again. Besides, it's not like what I have is not enough,' Dean answered.
'Hmm, I also see you have much better equipment than the one you brought here, why didn't you bring the better equipment here?" Myra asked.
'It's too hard to conceal. Besides, I don't see anyone had tried too hard to kill me. Mick's plan was delicate, but not exactly ambitious. He didn't assassinate me with a nuke, did he?' Dean commented on his own assassination attempt.
'Nuke? The thing that destroys my lower kind?' Myra asked.
'More or less, have you ever been nuked before?' Dean asked, jokingly.
'I haven't, but anyway, I have a new task for you, take a look,' Myra said.
[Blue Moon]
Sarah's sad, why don't you approach her?
[Calm Sarah Down] [0/1]
Rewards: +200 XP | +2 Skill Points
Dean did notice a sad girl in the corner. She was the daughter of the Peacekeeper, Sarah. She was just drinking coffee in the dark corner as tears were running down her eyes. It was one of the darkest corners in that shop and rarely did people sit down there.
'What are you trying to achieve by approaching my boss' daughter?' Dean asked.
'Discount? Perhaps? Why don't you try? One more friend from the 2nd year won't hurt, will it?' Myra asked as he disappeared.