⛏⛏⛏
POV: Richard
Weeks have passed since I scouted Steve's platoon to investigate the ominous lab that is little ways away from the village, it isn't THAT close to us, but you never know what they could pull, could they be secretly playing a part in the great war? Are they just neutral? And what is the meaning of all this strange activity!?!? These questions I contemplate as I'm doing my patrol on the village walls, the only way I can get answers is from the group I sent out! It's been a week though, I know scouting positions take some time, but I'm worried about what the people at the lab are capable of, they could be harmless sure, but with activity like collecting Creepers, you never know.
Besides the mysterious lab, I need to keep up with one of our newest residents Takeo, he may seem well and all, he even helped our village in more ways than one, but every time I see or hear from him, he's almost always doing some kind of suspicious activity, and the fact that he lives near the outskirts of the village isn't helping anything either! Activity such as bringing an enderman to live in the village, AND interacting with a skeleton who is sneaking into this village illegally? Sure they look human and all, heck way different from when I saw monsters around here, but I'm not 100% sure if they're still trustworthy, What next!?!?
While I was pacing, I saw one of my guards Mike running up to report something to me.
"Chief!" Mike called
"What is it?" I replied
"It's Takeo Sir, he brought someone new to the village!" Mike said
"Oh, good grief!!!" I sighed heavily
"BUT!" Mike said, "This one is a human!"
I turned to him in disbelief, after all the monsters I've seen Takeo encounter within the village, I know for sure that this one will probably NOT be human! Now I promised Takeo I wouldn't tell anyone about the skeleton girl, so I won't bring that up to Mike, instead I'll just send him off and investigate Takeo's base later.
⛏⛏⛏
After I finished my patrol, I walked over to where Takeo's base is located. I gotta admit, I like how he's improved his place! I didn't see any strange activity around his base, but I DID notice something, a small building? I investigated, and I knew it wasn't supposed to be secretive because I can see it connected to the road, there wasn't anything wrong with the building either because I see windows and other decorations around the small structure, was it a new house? A new store? Or maybe some kind of coverup? I'm going in!!!
As I enter the building while on high alert, I hear a bell going off when I open the door, but not an alarm kind, it's more of a small one, once the bell ringed I see a girl showing up behind a counter, or what I first thought was a girl judging by her height, but judging by the way she was dressed, and some of her other... proportions, I guess she was old enough to be here by herself.
"Welcome in!" She greeted me warmly "I'm Silvia, how can I help you?"
"Just looking" I casually responded
I look around the building and I notice a variety of... unique clothing, I guess this really is just a new shop, but I wish I was told about it when someone wanted to build a new business around here! Maybe this newcomer really IS clean, I guess Takeo brings people in need other than just monsters, but you don't just make stuff like this in a day, it was clear she's been living here for AT LEAST a week, but I probably should act as a customer for now just in case.
I decided to just grab something and go, "How much for this?" I said pointing to a black leather jacket.
"oooh," She lit up "This is something that would definitely suit you!" She said as I tried it on in front of a mirror "You should also get this scarf with the jacket, it would complete your look!"
Wow, I can't believe I'm already getting an upsell here... But I kinda guess the scarf compliments the leather jacket... Oh, all right fine! I will get both items, this is going to cost me a ton isn't it?
"Thanks for shopping! Have a nice day!" She said
"umm Thanks, I will just wear this out..." I replied as I exited the small shop
Jeez, I ended up spending more money than I was expecting... Well, actually I wasn't planning on spending money AT ALL! But hey, at least I know this entire operation was safe, but still, there was something kind of suspicious about that girl that Takeo brought in, I feel like she isn't completely human... Oh whatever, there was no harm done here, and I wasn't able to make a big scene about it--
"Woah, hey chief! Nice outfit" One of the soldiers said to me
"Oh yeah, I like it!"
"I didn't know you were into that kind of stuff!"
"Nice outfit!"
"I didn't recognize you there!"
"I need an outfit like this!"
I was starting to attract a large crowd of people who were amazed by the new outfit I bought, I guess I never really change up my wardrobe that much...
"Where did you get this?" People in the crowd kept asking me.
I pointed to the shop near Takeo's base "Over at that small shop over there!"
The next thing I know, people start lining up outside the girl's clothing shop, eager to get their hands on the merchandise there. It was mostly just the younger citizens, but I saw a bunch of adults there too, I guess business really is booming for her, I guess I was wrong about this place!
⛏⛏⛏
I head back to my office, getting back to work feeling pretty content, I completely forgot about my worries for the time being! But of course, that's when shortly after, I see someone barging into the room, it was one of my guards Roy.
"Chief! Steve's platoon has returned!" Roy called out to me
"That's good to hear," I started "But does that news mean to barge into my office without knocking?"
"Sorry chief! But the entire platoon, t-they're all in the infirmary!" Roy reported
I stood up instantly "Take me to them!" I commanded
⛏⛏⛏
As I entered the infirmary, I approach the platoon of 7 people, and it was true, everyone including Steve, all had injuries! I noticed Steve was probably the least injured, 4 of my soldiers were still unconscious. I walked up to Steve and tried to get some information about the situation.
"What happened?!?!?" I asked
"T-The scientists..." Steve replied
"Tell me everything!" I commanded
"We started out watching the lab from afar, but no one was doing anything when we got there, we saw no sign of creepers or anything, we just saw scientists standing around doing nothing but watching about." Steve started
"Hmm, strange, were they onto you guys?" I asked
"Before we knew it, we were jumped, the scientists weren't top-class warriors, but they fought with heavy brutality, and to make it worse we were heavily outnumbered, there were more people than we thought!" Steve continued "We left with our lives, any room for error would've meant we would get killed, or captured for answers!"
"They instantly considered you a threat..." I concluded
"We weren't able to get much information about the lab..." Steve said
"It's fine, just rest for now... I'm going to send a message to the neighboring villages to see what they have on the lab, if things continue to escalate, we will probably have to go into battle and shut the lab down!" I explained as I exited the infirmary "Good work everyone!"
'... hmm what a nice new outfit Richard had...' Steve thought as he stared at me as I left the building
⛏⛏⛏
I instantly got to work about sending messages to the neighboring villages, I don't want to start a war instantly, I just need to make sure the other villages know about the strange way these scientists were acting.
It took me a while to write the letters, but after a few hours of work, I got my messengers to start sending my messages to the neighboring villages.
I proceeded to sit there for a while at my desk, and just pondered the information I had received... this is bad news... VERY bad news...
I better keep things tame for now, Takeo was no longer one of my concerns at the moment, even IF you argue that they were just being territorial, they wouldn't be so brutal about it, their behavior IMPLIES that they are up to something bad that they want to hide, but my next big step is getting as much information I can get from the other villages, I won't be calm until they message me back!
⛏⛏⛏