+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

Central Asfaleia

Astelia City

May 15, 1539 CE

"So you're the Grey Knight?"

"I prefer 'Lieutenant Hoffman', sir."

An old, greying man looked down at Hans with his steely eyes. He was, unlike General Kohler beside him, a Virtus man, and he seemed like he was in his late fifties. The military officer had his eyes narrowed, before nodding.

"I see," he hardened his gaze. "Those are the eyes of a man who saw death itself."

"...Sir?"

"Sir?" Adelyn asked as well beside Hans.

"Nothing," the Virtus general shook his head, before bowing at Hans. "I thank you, Sir Hans, for your efforts at saving this principality. Nothing more."

"Erm…that was Captain Wittenstein's efforts, I'm afraid—"

"She has explained to me in depth your contribution during the battle when I congratulated her. There's no need to be so humble. You, good sir, are a fine soldier fit to walk beside our divine angels."

"...That kind of praise is something I can't easily accept, sir."

Hans felt Adelyn shoving his side, with a tiny smile on her face.

"Just accept it, Hans," she giggled. "Anyhow, he's the guy we'll be working with to liberate the rest of this Principality. I hope you two will get along well."

"I've already worked with my fair share of generals, so I guess…I can," Hans nodded. "I'll do my best, Captain."

"You're very popular in the Imperial Army, young lad. Should you join our Army, both of you will be promoted to a great rank. Just like Colonel Strobel."

"Colonel Strobel?" Hans asked.

General Kohler grinned behind the Virtus general.

"Why? His promotion has been long overdue. It simply didn't happen immediately. Otherwise, your friend has gained enough merit already that he'll likely be promoted further soon."

"I…see. But, sorry, I follow Captain Wittenstein's lead. If she's a soldier of my homeland, then so am I. That's what she chose, no?"

Adelyn looked at Hans with a fair bit of shock, before nodding, a proud smile on her face.

"Well, I expected you'd do the same. They wanted to make me remove my flag patch and join the Imperial Army formally, but I couldn't. Maybe once the war ends, I guess…"

"That kind of pride for your homeland is something admirable, but it might stifle both of your chances of gaining a better title from your honors once the war ends," the Virtus general said. "Besides, I've been informed that you both have no means of returning home. In other words, you both have no choice but to renounce your origin and become a part of the Empire eventually."

"But we're not there yet," Hans said. "We still have a war to fight."

"I see. Then let's fight that war," the Virtus general nodded. "Now, have you been informed of the situation, Sir Hans?"

I'm still not used to that. Why am I being called like that? I'm just a Lieutenant…

"Yes. I've been told that half of Asfaleia is still not under our control…"

+++

"Cowardice and Avarice, huh…"

"Indeed. Both of them seem to be operating in conjunction on the eastern parts of Asfaleia, attacking our supply lines with the rest of the Imperial Core," Adelyn said, as the two walked through the hallways of the Asfaleian Army headquarters.

She turned to eye him.

"I've trained for this. I think my control at summoning my ideal at will has grown, so I'll be able to do the heavy lifting soon."

Damned coma. My progress has been stifled by it.

"I have a lot to work on then to catch up…" Hans sighed. "I might have to do a few demon and monster elimination work to up my AP and levels a bit…"

"Have you checked your status screen? I'm sure you've contributed enough in the battle anyway to have a lot of rewards from it…"

"I haven't. I'll check on it later once I'm in a better headspace to decide what options I should take."

"I see…"

She looked down at the floor. Hans, awkwardly, spoke up.

"Actually…about earlier. Adelyn, you…kinda said a lot, and I haven't given you—"

She placed her finger on his lips to silence him, before shaking her head.

"I can see that you're not ready yet," she said. "Please take your time. I'm sure it'll be so much better that way."

"...You're way too considerate," Hans pushed her hand away. "Anyway, I've been thinking hard about it, but I think I'm leaning towards one answer."

"Oh…is that so?" she smiled. "Dear, I'm also quite not used to this."

"Yeah, well…ugh…this is your damn fault," Hans facepalmed.

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"Got anything else to say?"

"Nothing."

"I see. Then how about a visit with the healer who fixed you up?"

"That's Emilia, no?"

"Indeed!"

"I'm starting to wonder why that girl can do anything. And isn't she supposed to be back in Nomos to administer it?"

"She can answer that herself," Adelyn pointed at the woman ahead of them.

It was the Viceroy herself, Emilia, and she just curtsied in front of Hans.

"My, I see that you're finally awake," she smiled. "You two look quite bright today!"

"Erm…well, thank you," Hans quickly said. "Adelyn here said that you healed me?"

"Indeed. I do apologize for the delayed return of your consciousness though. When Adelyn dragged you to me, you had severe bleeding inside your brain. I do wonder…do you feel that something's off?"

"...Well, my memories seem to be fine. And I don't have problems moving anything," Hans nodded. "I am probably fine."

"I see. Lady Adelyn, I would advise that you take close observations of your partner at all times for any negative symptoms. Otherwise, I would like to once again thank both of you," she bowed as well in front of Hans. "Now that Injustice is gone, my principality is saved."

"Umm…I should ask though…" Hans leaned forward. "Why are you still here?"

"Simple! I am helping Adelyn train herself to summon her ideal and improve her magic a bit more. After all, I will be entrusting the future to her once I take my leave."

Adelyn seemed shy beside Hans, and she nodded.

"...She said that General Ercole is doing well managing Nomos anyway, so she took some time off with me. That, and she helped me just a week ago at dispatching two lesser demons."

"I see…" Hans nodded. "I seem to have missed a lot in that case. Well, Lady Emilia, I believe you can return soon to your principality. They need you more there. It'll help cover Adelyn's remaining weaknesses."

"Good," she nodded. "But that's only until next week. After all, I still want to spend some more time with my good friend, isn't that right, Adelyn?"

"R-right!" Adelyn replied as Emilia took her hands. Emilia whispered something to Adelyn's ear, and Adelyn blushed before Emilia looked up at Hans.

"Now. I believe you still need to catch up with your friends. Would you permit me to take Adelyn for a while with me?"

"...Err, sure," Hans said, truly weirded out by all of this. "I'll go my way then."

The two waved at Hans, as he left the two on their devices. Now, he'd have to focus on truly getting back on track.

My upgrades, skills, and attributes.

He hoped he had something to show for himself.

+++

LVL: 30

Class: Mech Pilot (Vanguard)

Passive Skills: [PAS: CYCLE OF TRUTH I], [PAS: PROGRESS OF LIES I]

Active Skills: [ACT: LIARS DETECT LIARS I], [ACT: ONE SHOT, ONE KILL III], [ACT: DECEITFUL SABOTAGE II]

Mech Upgrades: [UPG: EYE OF PARANOIA I], [UPG: ARCANE AUTOFABRICATOR II], [UPG: ARCANE MAINTENANCE SYSTEM I], [UPG: TRACE THE DOTS III], [UPG: SMOOTH RESPONSE II]

Well…that should be good.

So far, his options had been limited. He reached level 30, which was enough to get one upgrade slot for his mech and another skill for himself. Considering his choices for his skills were just [ONE SHOT, ONE KILL III] and [DECEITFUL SABOTAGE III], he opted for the former.

That 12x single-shot damage boost for his guns was simply too hard not to pass on. That would practically mean his pistol or submachine gun when needed, could be fired like an anti-demon railgun. It would be fairly useful if he somehow ended up in a personal one versus one with a demon without his mech.

As for his upgrade, his choice was again between 'Trace the Dots III', and 'Smooth Response II'. Therefore, he had the option of upgrading his main offensive skill and defensive skills.

'Smooth Response III' by this point would have been awesome, as the activation cooldown was now down to ten minutes. It was a major departure from the extremely limited hours worth of cooldown back then.

Secondarily, it would have two blocking chances. The only problem was that activating it would now cost a hundred AP. It seemed that as he advanced its tiers and lowered its cooldown time, AP costs increased greatly.

But, unfortunately, 'Trace the Dots' simply was better for now. He finally had the Tier III munitions after all for his machine guns: Plasma and Cryofreeze. Each belt however cost a hundred and twenty AP, but damn it, that was a steal at this point! He had no choice but to pick it up immediately.

And so…

"That's that then," Hans smiled. "Maybe I should test it out soon—"

"Not so fast," a laughter interrupted him. Walking into the mess hall, was none other than Ebert. He walked straight to Hans' table, carrying with him a plate with pork chops and mushrooms in it. "Mind if I eat with you?"

"Sure," Hans replied, excited. "Apologies. Been knocked out for a while. You must have been swamped with work. How's the 1st Anti-Demon Unit doing?"

He placed his food on the table, before sitting.

"They're doing fine. Training and all. A lot of folks now have powerful skills, it seems on top of their new weapons for their muskets. Jonas' battlemages are especially getting more powerful with their skills and magic…"

"That so? That's neat to hear."

"Indeed. We've also dispatched around nine lesser demons while you were out. There are a lot of them trying to attack central Asfaleia after all. Oh, and you wouldn't believe this—we've been receiving a lot of land dragons too."

"So can we move much faster? As a whole?"

"Well, maybe around two-thirds of the unit, yes. I mostly prioritized the artillery. Now, they should be able to travel as fast as your mechs."

"...I can already see a lot of possibilities once we launch our offensive."

"Indeed."

Ebert nodded, as he took a slice and chewed it.

"Good stuff," he nodded further, while Hans dug into his remaining chicken soup broth. "You know, for a man who had his brain mushed, you sure look quite fine on the first day you woke up."

"They said I'm fine already," Hans said, as he lowered his bowl. "Seems like the Viceroy fixed everything in my head months ago. Consciousness just returned too slowly."

"...Hmm, well, I don't know enough about medical crap to comment. Still, glad you're back. Your lady's been devastated since that battle. She seems to be in good spirits now."

"Quite frankly, I'm still surprised she cares so much…"

Hans stopped. That was such an insensitive thing to say.

"Well…I guess I'm just a brick wall as she said."

Ebert laughed, pointing his fork at Hans.

"Nice of you to wake up about that too. You two had a good talk at least?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, if I have a piece of advice for you, you really shouldn't push her away too much nowadays. She's the closest person to you, and damn it—she's very strong nowadays. If you ask me, a pretty lady with such great strength, those are two things any soldier in a life-or-death situation can find great use in."

Hans frowned.

"Don't make it sound like I want her as a friend because of her combat use."

"But that's what'll get on your thick skull that only thinks about combat. As they say, speak in the language of whoever you're talking to. In your case, you're awful at understanding the finer things of life, so this explanation might work better on you."

"...Alright. I'll take note of that."

"Good," suddenly, he took out a bottle of alcohol and slammed it on the table. "Now, what's your opinion on having a little drink?"

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