Hello there, I hope you are having a wonderful day!
Just passing here to give a quick message:
I'm doing this novel more for fun and to better my writing, so if you want to help me, you could consider buying me a coffee and giving me your feedback.
Here is the link (remove the spaces):
https:// ko-fi.com/ kyle_kingsmaker
With this said, have a wonderful read! 🍷😎
-----------------
After Hai's words echoed around, everyone stood still and the captain's group looked at him, some with calmness, others with irritation, but in the end, they all turned to look at their captain.
"…" Hearing his logic, the captain couldn't deny that his own question was stupid and that no matter what the other party says, everyone would still doubt and this would bring them to square one again.
Briefly looking back at his squad and the HUVs, he pondered a bit before coming to a decision.
"Mr. Armageddon, could you and your companions please come with us back to our colony?" The captain asked while gesturing with his hand, extending it forward.
Hai, still not very pleased about the earlier events, coldly looked at the captain at a distance and then shifted his gaze to the squad behind him.
Noticing that they were all tensed and ready to draw their weapons, he turned back and looked at everyone.
Taking out his phone, he swiftly delivered instructions through the group chat.
[Hansome Prick:] Jia, take Kryn, Bing Qing, Hong Li-Wei, my aunt, and that lizard with you. You all go back and notify Akame about what happened, just in case we arrive later.
[Junior Maid]: Yes, young master.
Elena's eyes twitched when she saw the group chat and how Jia called him.
Chang Hua turned to look at her nephew and he nodded back to her.
Slightly sighing to herself, she walked back to the fortress while still maintaining her barrier up.
Seeing the bombshell of a woman walking away, the captain turned to look at Hai with a questioning gaze behind his mask but didn't voice anything for now.
After everyone quietly moved back into the fortress, Hai gestured for Elena and Stella to come closer to him before turning back to the captain.
"I see that there is still some nervousness between us, Captain. I and my two companions wouldn't mind accompanying you as guests." Hai commented with a calm tone, not bothered by how the squad before him put their hands on the handle of their guns.
Seeing the man before him acting this way, the captain felt a headache just hearing his speech.
He was dealing with a sly bastard.
By accepting Hai's offer, Hai and co. would instantly become "guests" and so, not suspects per se, as they are right now.
While he doesn't intend to do anything extreme or immoral, he only wants to have a talk and if the need comes to be, interrogate them about the monster stampede that happened.
So, he doesn't have much of a problem in accepting his proposal, however…
"Captain, permission to-" A soldier from his squad quickly said while putting a hand on a pistol strapped on his leg.
"Denied." The captain flat-out refused whatever his underling was intending to pull there and looked back to Hai.
"Mr. Armageddon, I hope you don't take offense for this." He tried to not irk the possible mage before him.
"Captain, in the brief period we met I can say that you are a reasonable person, and I like this kind of person, so I will also be reasonable and give you one piece of advice." Hai's voice suddenly turned a few degrees colder. "I'm still pretty… displeased, to put it in a milder way, about your "stunt" back there. While you have indeed killed the monsters and eliminated the threat, as you said, the stampede wasn't directed or close to your colony and you weren't the ones being targeted. Few people would have liked to be shoot, sadly, I'm not one of them. I have no problem accompanying you as a guest, but please be mindful and do not force my hand."
After Hai finished his speech, the captain closed his eyes and released a sigh.
"Yes, thank you for your comprehension, Mr. Armageddon. I wish to escort you and your companions back to our colony as guests. If you could, please follow us." He said and glared at the soldier from before as he had his hand twitching to grab his gun.
Noticing that there were a few soldiers who looked displeased by his words, Hai raised his hand.
"I would gladly cooperate with you. Also, to the ones thinking about doing anything foolish…" He took out a few things from his storage ring. "First, take this. You will need this to even think of doing something." He willed his magic and made the objects float toward the soldiers who seemed displeased by him.
As the soldiers watched the objects slowly closing in, the one from before, the one who wanted to pull out his pistol, extended his hand and grabbed the object.
Then, he narrowed his eyes and looked closely.
'!!!'
Quickly grabbing his pistol, he took it out without a word.
The captain meanwhile narrowed his eyes and prepared to move in case of emergency.
The soldier, however, didn't shoot, but instead turned around the pistol and looked below the handle.
'!'
"Since when…?" A dumb whisper left his mouth as he stared at his gun without the magazine on.
What Hai had given the soldiers were gun magazines.
The ones he took from them.
"Now, we should be able to peacefully follow our journey." Hai nonchalantly commented before calmly walking toward the captain, being followed by Elena and Stella, whose gaze had turned cold and calculative, the same as the first time Hai meet her.
"…" Looking at some of his soldiers holding magazines and dumbly looking at their guns without ammo, the captain bitterly smiled before ordering them to go back to the HUVs.
Escorting them to the vehicles, he opened the door and gestured for them to go in.
"After you, ladies." Hai motioned for Elena and Stella to enter first.
After they entered, he turned to the captain and the latter got confused by his action.
"I believe you would like to keep a close eye on me." Hai added in a nonchalant manner.
Understanding his words, the captain nodded and closed the door.
Then, he and Hai got on another vehicle, both of them on the backseats and they finally departed from there.
And as the HUVs accelerated toward the distance, they didn't see as that the ice fortress vanished without a trace.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
*FUUUUUU*
'Seems like there will be a snowstorm…' Hai noted inwardly while looking outside the vehicle and observing the weather constantly worsening.
"Kiddo, stick to the road and use the NR-sensor." The captain ordered the one driving and the latter nodded before tapping some buttons on a floating holographic screen that appeared beside him.
'Hum… All this showy technology never fails to amaze me.' Even after all the time he spent in this world, he always liked the visual effects of the technology here and never grew tired of seeing them.
This is also one of the reasons why he sometimes observed Hong Li-Wei's work.
"There will be a blizzard soon, but we should arrive at the colony before it gets too strong." The captain commented before touching the back of the driver's seat.
There, another holographic panel appeared, one displaying a list of things.
The captain scrolled down the list before eventually tapping on one option.
The panel closed and the back of the driver's seat opened showing a white mug there.
Then, a black maroon liquid fell from inside the mug before the platform holding it extended forward, toward the captain.
He grabbed it and an opening at his mouth's height opened on his helmet.
"Want one?" He asked looking at Hai.
"No, thanks." However, he refused and leaned back on the seat.
"This is surprisingly comfortable." Hai commented while noticing that the seat was indeed softer than what he would imagine a military vehicle's one being.
"Oh, that, huh? Yeah, originally it wasn't soft and instead, it was hard as a rock, so we put on a more comfortable one, after all, we couldn't risk getting any problems on our hips due to a hard seat, could we?" The captain responded with a chuckle and even the driver contained one of his own.
Hai also made the air surrounding him become "lighter", thus giving the impression that he too, shared their mood.
However, inwardly he was a bit different.
'So they have connections and the means of getting such things, and not mentioning their authority to change and maintain things in something like a military vehicle…' Hai kept making notes and analyzing things in a passive manner while hearing some small talks between the captain and the driver.
There were only them in this vehicle and the other ones were following close behind.
"Now then, I believe we have had enough of roundabout topics, so why we don't go to the main point, Mr. Armageddon? Also, is that really your name? I still can't help but find it peculiar." The captain put his mug back in the compartment at the back of the driver's seat and turned to Hai.
The latter adjusted his position and also looked back to the other party.
"Well, I supposed we could finish this before arriving there. Also, yes, this is my name. Don't mind the peculiarity, I'm going through my edgy phase, this is just one of the symptoms." Hai replied with a lighter tone compared to when they were talking before.
*CHUCKLE*
Hearing this, the captain couldn't help but chuckle at the small joke.
"Ah, very well then. Seeing that you're being so cooperative, I believe that this will be fast." He grabbed a cylinder-like device and pressed a small button on one of its ends. Then, a flat and blue holographic screen appeared.
Briefly scanning the screen, Hai noticed that this was just big used as a notepad and had some questions in it.
"Alright, let's start from the protocol, just to follow the rules." He used his finger to roll the screen down. "Ok, what's your na… nevermind, let's skip this one. Let's see…" He kept scrolling down and ignoring most of them, already knowing that the man beside him wouldn't answer or would just dodge the question.
"Aha! Mr. Armageddon, could you tell us how you got entangled with the monster stampede?" He lowered the device to his knees and looked back to Hai.
"As I said, you could say that I'm a monster hunter. I was hunting with my companions when an inexplicable event happened and next thing I knew, monsters were coming." Hai shamelessly answered with a half-truth without batting an eye.
"I see…" The captain muttered while using his finger as a pen and writing down something on the notepad.
He wasn't fully convinced by Hai's words, but he also didn't think that he was lying about everything.
"Next is… Oh, here it is: have you entered the territory of an alpha or stolen something from the territory of one?" He asked this one with narrowed eyes behind his mask.
Alpha is a term used to refer to a monster that commands a pack or group of monsters from the same or other species. There are two types of alphas: the ones that have a pack/ group and the ones that are strong enough to be considered equivalent to a whole pack/ group.
The worst part about the alphas is that they have a certain level of intellect that is at least on pair with a human's teenager, which in turn, makes them beings to be feared.
They generally have a territory and are extremely aggressive to anyone who goes too deep into their territory.
The captain's question about if Hai stole something from an alpha's territory is a preventive measure because an alpha sometimes might go after the one who trespassed its territory, especially if they took something important out of there.
Knowing his worries, Hai shook his head.
"No, I didn't. I and my group just wandered free areas." Of course, he didn't know if the areas they wandered were actually the territory of an alpha or not, but he doesn't feel the need to say this.
Writing on his notepad again, the captain proceeded to ask a few more questions before eventually finishing the protocol and putting the notepad away.
And like this, the journey continued peacefully until they finally arrived at the colony.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
--------------------------
A/N: So, what do you guys think about this chapter?
Comment what you thought about this chapter. If you liked it or not, I want to read your opinions and interact more with you guys.
Another thing: Please give your feedbacks. I want to know what you guys think, if there are things that could be better or if I could have done something in a simpler manner. If you could also leave a review, that would help me to understand what you think about the novel in general, so it would be really helpful.
Also, join our Discord community, there you can interact with other readers or with me in case you have questions or ideas about/ for the novel.
Discord server: https://discord.gg/NZV2EtdJY8
(The link is also on the novel's synopsis).
...….
Power Stones' rewards:
100 Power Stones = 1 bonus chapter;
200 power stones = 2 bonus chapters;
500 power stones = 3 bonus chapters.
...….
That is all for today, thank you all for reading! 🍷😎