"... You want to join us ?"
"You can't, you just can't, being a Pontifica Cohorts require you to be a upstanding member of society, something a fallen like you can never be."
"Don't be like that, anyone who wish to help should be given the chance to"
Well this is going about as well as I would belive it to go.
"Why ?"
?
"Why do you wish to join the Pontifica Cohorts... Depending what you say I would give you a recommendation."
? Wait, shouldn't it be Andoain saying something like that ? Why do you want to help me all of a sudden ?
"My goal ? Well, I want to get stronger. If I can get stronger, strong enough that people would stop treating me like I was a burden, maybe I could live a little bit more normaly..."
Not a lie, nor the full truth. I hope it's enough to at least convince Andoain.
"... Not being a burden huh..."
"See ? I told you not all fallen are bad Cassius."
"... Shut up."
... Well I can't guess what their relationship is, but they seems to be good friend. While Andoain look like the typical saint, with light gray hair, a bright and beautiful halo, Cassius seems more like what you would expect from a millitary officer, with black hair and blue eyes. He seems a little aloof right now but he mainly seems alert. Like if he was getting ready to use his weapon at any moment.
"... Follow us kid."
? Just like that ? I thought they would, you know, try to ask me where I come from, anything really.
"*whisper* He may seem like a grumpy guy, but Cassius is very kind hearted. He just recently lost someone dear to him by a fallen, as for the context, that's classifed."
"I can hear you just fine Andoain, so you should come here instead of talking with the kid."
"Yes, captain."
?
Oh, this was never mentionned but I guess it do makes sense.
Andoain wasn't always one of the captain of the Pontifica Cohorts. He must have gotten his rank somewhere.
Sadly it also means something pretty sad.
... Cassius is probably going to die in the next few years.
Or, more hopefully for him, he just retired or better ! Promoted.
Hopefully.
... Yeah I'm not even beliving myself.
This is the kind of world where every cool NPC in game dies for the feels.
FrostNova, Ace, and others.
Sometime it feel like Hypergryph would be loaded on cash just by releasing a flash back event where you could get Ace as a playable unit.
Regardless, this is going way to well.
"Once we're there we will test your capabilty, and with my recommandation you will be put in our squad as a trainee. Considering that there aren't a lot of people on our squad because of a couple of things that happenend recently, we needed to get mutiple trainee so it will be just fine."
Well, it's closer to what I would guess. Even tho it's without any background check.
Shouldn't it be harder to get inside the military of a nation ? Well what do I know...
"Alright."
After a while, we arrived at our destination.
Altought it seem to be another marble white building in the city.
Well, it sure is big tho, there also seems to be a lot of people comming and going from there.
... I can feel the stares burning into me...
Seems like a fallen entering in a military building with decently ranked soldiers must be weird for anyone else.
None of it is supposed to be my problem... Well it kind of is, but oh well.
"We will go in the back for the test. I hope you know how to use this weapon of yours."
Taking a 13 years old into battle... If this was my old world people would be disgusted.
In here, 13 years old is just a good enough age to take trainee so that they can be taught what they need to know and do in the military.
Some even start younger.
Well, mainly Kazdel and their 8 years old mercenary.
"... I can at least hold my own decently, this shouldn't be that much of a problem."
"You say that now, but the entry test is really hard."
Is it ?
...
Doesn't seem to really be the case.
"You will have to shoot all of those target down. One bullet for each of them, your time limits will be... 1 minute. Should be good enough."
3 Targets. For someone without an auto aiming that would be difficult under a minute, considering that they are 300 meters away.
? Oh yeah, this building is much bigger than I thought.
Mainly because of this place I'm in.
It's an underground shooting range.
I would have thought that we would do it outside, considering that it's 300 meters, yet it fit in this underground area. Somehow.
"You will start in... 3, 2, 1... Start !"
*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*
Well, wasn't that hard !
Not really since it took me 10 seconds to shoot those.
Praise be the aimbots ! (Dont report me to the admin please. I'm just a friendly hacker ...)
"..."
This shut up nicely a lot of people.
Yeah didn't talk about them before but well, the sight of a fallen using their Patron gun is apperently pretty rare, go figure when they usually get rejected by them.
There were a couple dozen people in the range looking at me bizarrely right before, mostly babbling that I couldn't make even a single shot.
Someone even betted that I couldn't aim correctly a single target.
Instead what happend was, well.
"Bullseye, 3 times in a row, with a time of 9.8 seconds. Well, you definitely broke the record of for the new recruits. You're not that bad after all..."
? Because me shoot gun, me good ?
What's that 180 you're doing Mr Captain ?
"You'll be given your affectation during the next week. For now I will give you a dormitary room."
? Just like that ? No written exam, physical test or anything like that ?
This is way too easy... I was thinking more among the line of : "You'll have to have the physical test, written exam and an interview with a captain to do, then we'll finnaly give you a chance in probation in a squad, if you do good we'll add you in for real."
Oh god, is this the famous good luck of the isekai protagonist ?
Will I also get a harem ? Will I be dense as a rock ? Well, more like a black hole for some... Hopefully no for either, one person in my life is enough thank you very mutch !
I can't even keep up with a single person, how do you expect me to be with more ?
Well, let's just shut up and go with the flow, for now at least.
We'll see how this goes.
"Was this a good idea ?"
"... He is their kid after all, it would be a shame to let him go somewhere else. The formalities will be handled by me so ignore them for him."
"What should I tell them to justify such action ? Giving someone preferential treatement isn't something we can do without consequences."
"Tell them the truth, he was someone we wanted to recruit for a while, who just happen to come in contact with us."
"Sir, did you rile him up with the fallen comment purposefully ?"
"... Yes."
"Why ?"
"He should quickly get used to them, while I can rationalize that such thing can't be helped, and that a child's sins are but misguided action, most people won't see it that way. Riling him in such a manner allowed me to see if he can handle such comment without acting rashly."
"... Does it mean that you are letting 'it' go ?"
"... This is this and that is that."
"I see, such a shame... Where should we set him in ?"
"I wonder... Well, lets set him with you, Andoain, for now. You have my trust, you should be able to handle that kid, I hope."
"Very well. I shall see it done."
"Let's hope Ava's kid is just like her... Allowing us to get someone like her would be a great asset. The simple fact that he can handle shooting that gun is a miracle in and of itself. The fact he can even use it as a Fallen is proof enough. If he even have his father arts, well..."
"Wouldn't he be the strongest of the Pontifca Cohorts ?"
"They once were that strong, so we can only hope."
Well then, let's hope this dorm is a decent room.
Can't be worse than the street, so that's a plus.
...
Well this is new ?
"Hello ! I will be your room mate during our training ! Hope we get along well !"
Too... Much... Ennergy...
Like a radiant sun...
"My name is Aurelia ! Hope we get along !"
Urgh, too much light... It seem like I'll go blind in no time...
Well this could be worse...
Wait.
A girl.
In a dorm with me ?
A boy ?
... What the hell were they thinking ?
Is this truly a harem isekai ?
I really don't want it to be !
Well let's just hope that it's not.
Still, why do that ?
"Since the women's dorm were the only one available, they asked around if anyone was kind enough to allow a boy in one of them. I proposed my room, and since nearly no one else proposed themselves, you ended up with me ! Normally the dorms aren't coed."
This makes more sense at least. Still, the harem skill that is the lucky pervert seems to be active.
I should be careful from now on.
"Thank you for proposing yourself, I'll try to make myself scarce."
"Don't worry too much ! This kind of thing isn't a problem, don't worry !"
"Is there a shower here ? I could really take one..."
Wait, I don't have a change of clothes since all of my spare are still in my hideout.
"It will be a communal one, the one for men is on the floor below us."
"Alright, I'll go get my stuff, take a shower and come back."
Let's go grab it, take a shower and settle down for a while..."
Well then, it's been what... 2 Days since I came here ? it's been a challenge at first...
Most people don't see me eye to eye because of my status, (Still have to wear a hood to hide the horns...) but other than that it's been pretty good. Since it's just me waiting to get rerouted towards a corp, it's been kind of boring... Not alowed to just wander around the building I've just been kept in the room, fidling with my gun...
Did you know guns have a tendency to get dirty extremely quickly ? Well now you know ! It's been a pleasure to have to clean it from top to bottom every time I shoot a single bullet...
Speaking of shooting, I tested a little bit with the aiming thing. It's doesn't only work with guns, but with pretty much anything.
Thanks to that I'm capable to throw the paper ball perfectly in the trash can even with the requirement of having 4 rebound till it enters it.
Yes, I've been that bored.
But it seems like my time of waiting is finnaly comming to a close !
"It's seems to be for you, Dante."
? What ? Dante ? Of course it's my own name. Yes I do know of DMC, and of the divine comedy for that matter, but like you can guess, it's not a thing here.
A letter, well I thought they would have just told me directly but this is more formal.
It reads : "Dante, as you have been accepted in our order as a trainee, you will be under the guidance of Andaoin in the squad of Cassius. As of today you are now a part of the Pontifica Cohorts, with every consequences that comes along with the title. Present yourself infront of your new tutor the same day you receive this letter."
Well those are pleasent news.
I should probably get going, don't want to be late for the first day of well, doing anything really !
...
After a while, I managed to find Andoain, after asking around a whole hour.
"For some reason, I guessed that I would be under you."
"It's mainly because I told the captain to give you a chance that we are in this situation, you should thank him."
"Probably, but what are we supposed to do ?"
"Training. As a new arrival, you will follow me in a very easy mission so that you can learn the ropes, afterwards we will train your body so that you can handle the recoil of your Patron gun better, then we'll see what art you can use, if any, as to allow you to wield a variety of option in combat."
Huh, not spetialisation ? Well, not gonna lie, being able to take the place of any combat unit is probably going to be very usefull. Execept medic, I doubt I have any kind of talent in healing...
"So, we're going on a mission today ?"
"Indeed. I hope you have everything you need on you right now."
"? What ?"
"We are leaving right now."
? Wait what ?
Without any kind of explanation ? Any kind of description of where we're going ? Or what we're doing ? Anything ?!
"Let's go, Dante."
"A-alright then, let's go I guess."
This is going to be one hell of a mission...