Chapter 59

(Kaede)

"Still sulking? What do you see in this one?" The Volraden asked the Orc(?) as their wagon bumped and bobbed along the long open and very boring road.

"Now now." Ever the calm voice, the Orc(?) admonished the driver. "She's likely too young to have been involved in the Warrior Bunny's old ways." He looked back at her, "How old are you?"

"Just past sixteen summers." Kaede replied after taking a moment to realize she'd been asked a question.

The Orc(?) looked to the Volralden, "See? She likely knows nothing of the clan wars and constant infighting the Warrior clans did." He looked back to Kaede again, "Did your mother tell you anything at all?"

"I don't remember my mother, or father." Kaede said, sticking to her 'cover story'. "I've heard a little, but mostly before someone spits to the side after saying it."

The other two sighed, "A shame." The big wolf-man said. "The Warrior Bunnies were an incredibly proud people. Excellent fighters, strong, fast, and ahem good looking."

The Orc(?) didn't disagree, but did give his fellow a raised eyebrow. "They used to occupy a large part of the continent here, but as strong as they are, they are still rabbits."

"I've heard all the insults." Kaede shrugged. And yes, Nanami's notes had all the insults. Some of them were pretty graphic too, like, 'I'm going to read this silently up on the roof so none of the children have even a chance to hear them' kind of graphic.

"Because of that, they constantly fought for territory. This left them vulnerable to an outside threat." He continued.

"See, no one messed with them. They were brutal to each other, and none of the other races wanted to be next on the list for bothering them. So, they were left to fight among themselves, and welcomed... cautiously when the occasional one showed up in other territories." The Volralden picked up.

"Except the Empire..." Kaede put the bits together easily enough, having already been told the 'broad strokes' of all this.

"Yes. The land that your once proud race used to occupy is now farmland. Fertilized by the blood of your ancestors." The Orc(?) sighed. "It was nearly the end for them all."

"That doesn't match what I've heard about the Empire..." Kaede said.

The two of them laughed grimly, "True. But, during the initial invasion from the Empire, there was an effort to unify the Bunny clans. It worked, but was too late." The Orc(?) said, "Under a single banner, the Warrior Bunnies fought back, but in the end, even unification under a single Queen wasn't enough."

Even as detached as she was from this world, Kaede was really starting to hate the Empire. This was a common story in Orario, where a larger Familia would simply stomp another flat just because they had something they wanted. It had nearly happened to the Hestia Familia twice alone, and Freya had risen to power in much the same way.

But those conflicts were small, contained. This was... tens of thousands of lives, wiped out because negotiation looked like it would be too difficult.

The distaste must have showed on her face, "Aha, seems you do have some fight in you." The Volralden laughed, "But it's not the end of the story. Not yet."

"It's what we're fighting for, after all." The Orc(?) said, "You see... That Queen did her best, as did the warriors she'd united. But in the end, even though they lost, she discarded her pride for the sake of her people."

Being an Honorary Amazon, Kaede understood the Warrior's Pride. "She surrendered?"

"She surrendered herself. In the hopes the Empire wouldn't wipe them out, she offered herself into slavery." The Orc(?) shook his head, "The Empire betrayed them all the same, but, in that long pause between the Queen laying down her weapons, and the Empire enslaving or executing any they had captured, many escaped. The race survives, though at a tiny fraction of what it once was."

"And the Queen?" Kaede asked.

"We will stop the story there I think." The Orc(?) replied with a friendly yet hideous smile, "Look alert, there's a patrol heading this way."

Kaede, as the 'hired muscle' (though the Orc(?) seemed very strong by this world's standards, and she knew the Volralden were also as strong as they were scary looking) sat in the middle of the sheet covering all the barrels while watching behind them for any signs of ambush. She only 'took notice' of the patrol when they called out to them.

"Ho! Wagon!" One said.

Two knights in the Empire Standard of full armour, flanked the wagon, getting to either side of the bored workhorses that were pulling it.

"Good afternoon." The Orc(?) greeted with hardly a snort from his piggy nose.

"A Mongrel, a one handed Wolf, and a scrawny Rabbit." The other said with a smirk, his full, yet mostly open faced helmet doing nothing to hide the look of distaste.

Kaede knew the shields and livery on their armour. These two weren't from Italica, but from the Empire capital proper. It certainly explained the attitude.

"We are those things." The Mongrel said humbly, "We were lucky to get a job, transporting this to Italica. The wine seller there is waiting for us."

The two soldiers were starting a slow orbit of the wagon. To most, the full armour, war horses, spear sword and shield would be intimidating. But of course, 'legitimate' workers had no need to fear the display.

"Wine huh?" One asked as he got around to the back, flipping over the blanket covering the cargo.

Of course, it didn't get very far, since Kaede was sitting on the next row of barrels, only allowing the soldier to see the two real wine casks in the back. She made a point to look suitably bored and immovable while the soldier looked at the branded logo on top of the barrel, then at her with undisguised greed.

"You have a permit of course?" The one in front of the wagon asked, "Can't be shipping cargo without proper papers."

The Mongrel looked properly repentant and abashed, "We weren't given a permit for selling. We weren't going to sell the wine, just deliver it for payment."

Hands went to spears, but didn't move them from their little stirrup braces, "And you need a permit to transport too."

It was quite clear what the play here was. "Suppose that means you'll have to pay a toll for transporting without proper papers." The one near the rear said, "Normally we'd confiscate the cargo, but we could let you pass if you could pay a percent now."

The way the guard was looking at Kaede was... dirty. It probably didn't help that she was wearing 'Amazon Armour' either. Aisha's lessons to the Orario Warrior Bunny kicked in and she switched boredom for confidence.

"Since you aren't taking the wine, and you're probably going back to Italica after you've done your work on the roads..." She made a point of undoing her belt and letting her weapons fall to the wagon bed, then leaned forward a little. She wasn't the most busty in the Manor, but she had been growing and the Armour and lack of her usual binding certainly showed it. "Why don't you two take turns working up a thirst before your return trip?"

That got four pairs of raised eyebrows, and Kaede could see she needed to dial the confidence back a tiny bit and replace it with a bit of market place barter.

"We get to get paid, the wine gets to where it's going, and everyone ends their day happy." She finished. She leaned back, but rolled her legs a little so she was crouched down on the barrel, standing on the balls of her feet, giving the one in front of her a little bit of a show, but also getting her face out of the sun so he wouldn't see her blushing.

"I think..." The one in front of her started, "That's fair." He said after a moment, then he looked over her shoulder, "I'll warm her up for you."

Kaede had also guessed correctly who outranked who of the pair. It was by luck, but she was a rabbit from Orario. With grace, she stepped off the barrels and onto the back of the horse behind the soldier.

And then heaved him off with the Special Region's first ever off the horse Suplex.

With a tremendous crash and rattle of armour, the soldier was slammed to the hard packed dirt, folding up like a lawn chair and startling the horse. This of course prompted the horse to kick the thing that just hit it in the back of the legs, and for a moment Kaede had to fight to stay on the horse without crushing it with her legs.

At the front of the wagon, the long arm of the Volralden reached out and took hold of the solder's spear, just behind the point. With only one arm, even as strong as he was, he would likely have lost that battle, but with a grunt the Mongrel jumped off the driver's bench of the wagon and hit the soldier with what was probably over a 100kg cannon ball. Not a nimble attack by any means, the soldier let go of his spear and managed to get a hand to his sword...

But was then buried under the sturdy body of the Mongrel, as well as the horse as the three of them fell to the ground.

By the time the dust settled, the two soldiers were well and truly dead, and the Volralden had suffered a minor cut along his thick palm from the spear. Kaede's luchador act had broken the neck of the soldier, and even if it hadn't, his face had been destroyed by his warhorse getting spooked. The one up front didn't even manage to get his sword drawn before the Mongrel had used the edge of the soldier's shield to crush his helmet.

"Not bad kiddo." The Wolf-man complimented, "But now we have a problem."

Kaede looked at the two bodies, trying really hard to keep her composure, and said, "Just toss them both into the bush he was going to take me behind."

The Mongrel grunted, "Yes. We'll lash their horses to our wagon as well. Strip them of arms. We can use them later."

Kaede looked at the two corpses, then said, "I'll work with the horses."

Having just seen someone half their size heave a fully armoured knight backwards off a horse, the two simply agreed with her and went about stripping the soldiers. "We must hurry. We have a time table to keep." The Mongrel said, "But good work."

(Kodori)

Shinkage was... less than pleased about my plan. Justifiably so. But out of the three possible options we had, that being, 'step in and wipe them out', 'tell the JSDF and have them wipe them out', or 'tell no one and have them wipe each other out', well, this was a forth.

This of course meant I had some time to kill before the plan could happen, and it also meant both Shinkage and I would be alone until it was set in motion.

It wasn't a question of trust between us. There was no question there. It was more of a... would the plan survive first contact with the enemy just long enough for it all to work and still get the job done.

So, I settled in for a nap in the little cave under the gnarled tree, and hoped Shinkage was able to run back in time, AND get people to pay attention to her.

(Shinkage)

Shinkage wasn't prone to getting lost. She'd met some people who were absolutely hopeless with maps and remembering directions. However, she was not on that list.

But, since she had taken a nap, she was thankful the only direction she had to go was 'down stream'.

The terrain, all loose river stones that were either worn smooth, or gravelly and uneven, slowed her down a little, and she was quietly lamenting her lack of wings. But she wasn't about to let such a little thing like rough terrain slow her down.

She did however pick up a few small round stones, and just because no one was here to comment on her success or failure, she tried skipping stones, personally, for the first time ever.

Her next hurdle to overcome came at the hidden 'nose' of the secret tunnel. She was just a tiny bit too short to grab the handholds that led up into the secret smuggler's tunnel into Italica.

But, instead of say, giving up and simply walking into town through the gate at the Bridge proper, she took one last look around and just rolled a chest sized boulder over to the entrance. Such a feat of strength was trivial for her, but she was glad no one had seen her trying to reach for even the lowest handholds like some kind of child reaching for the cookie jar.

Her third trial came at the end of the tunnel, under the stairs of the empty home in the slums of Italica. This time it was neither her skill or height that was to her detriment. No, this time it was the sliding stairs that were at the top of the ladder.

She climbed up the ladder, put her hand on the handle that had been carved into the underside of the step, and tried to move it. It moved maybe enough to get one of her fingers through, enough to see the feeble daylight creeping in from the back alley windows inside the house.

Then from inside, there was the shuffle of feet and a rather loud, "Oi! No de'liv'rees today! Wot you doin' down there?"

There was the sound of another pair of feet on the wood plank floor, and Shinkage sighed inwardly. "I'm running messages." She replied (honestly too!). "Unbar the way."

"Oh? Wot's the paws'word?" The voice asked.

Shinkage met the eyes of the man as his eyes tried to peer into the tiny gap, "Let me through or I'll electrocute you."

"Wot?" He asked, then wondered why it was suddenly so bright down there.

"Boring conversation anyway." Shinkage sighed as she pulled herself up through the ruin of the stairway hatch. The man, and the owner of the other pair of feet she had heard, looked like they'd stood too close to a Tesla Coil, with their rough clothing smoking in places. The walls around the hatch were covered in burnt spots, bits of splintered wood and a smattering of cracked plaster. She then pointed at the one she'd been talking to, "That'll teach you."

Aside from someone putting a stump in front of the (formerly) sliding staircase hatch, and the two human thugs, nothing had really changed in here, so either these two were gang members who had used the melted window to get in like she and Kodori had, or, they'd just missed each other yesterday.

It wouldn't matter in a few hours anyhow, so long as things went even remotely to plan.

Her first stop would be to see Mikoto. Due to the oversight of not bringing more communication beads, so they could exclude people from calls, like Kaede who was probably travelling with the enemy right now, she had to talk in person.

The nice lady running the front desk where the Orario merchants had been staying until this morning, looked rather haggard. Orario citizens could party just as hard (if less destructively) as the adventurers, and the last Huzzah for the trip looked to have been quite epic.

"We're closed for today dear." The lady said kindy, even if she looked like she wanted to still be in bed. "Shouldn't you be with your parents? They'll be upset once they see the state of your clothing, but you shouldn't hide from them."

Shinkage had almost forgotten her 'cover' here in this world, but since the room was clear of everyone but her and the nice lady, she said, "I'm looking for my friend in the back stall."

She frowned, opened her mouth (likely to ask what she meant) then perked up and said, "Oh! You're here for the nice lady who helped with cleanup last night." She nodded to herself, "Yes, those folk from another world or whatever none-sense... Unless she's slipped out a window, she's upstairs."

A moment later, Shinkage was tapping on the only closed door on the floor, "Mikoto." She called out.

There was the barest noise of movement, a mumbled word, and a little tingle of magic washing over Shinkage's skin. Then the door opened to reveal Mikoto, her pirate outfit looking a little ruffled from what ever she had been doing the night before. "Shinkage-san. I was about to step out for food. What are you doing here?"

"With our limit on the crystals, we couldn't tell you from there. So Kodori sent me back to tell you..."

The two of them, following directions from a map left in Mikoto's care, went to the Italica JSDF forward base.

The two guards there, once Mikoto had given them the pre-approved 'we have official business' code phrase, were let in an directed to the radio room.

"Don't look so nervous." Shinkage said as one of the guards led them through the modernized 'old fashioned' fancy house the JSDF were using for their Italica forward base.

"Some of these things seem familiar, yet..." And like that she shook off her trepidation, "If we have time I will ask questions."

The soldier, while keeping a professional pace, spoke over his shoulder, "And we'd be happy to answer those questions. We have people on staff for that kind of thing too."

"Oh?" Mikoto asked.

"No offence Ma'am. Most of the natives here don't understand much past their day to day jobs. It's not quite a teaching role, but very close, just so the locals can understand things." He sighed (professionally), "Some people see us as the local police, instead of visitors from another world."

"Better than invaders." Shinkage deadpanned.

"oof... Well that's true." He paused and tapped on a door marked 'Comms' "Two operatives coming in!"

"Hm, we've been promoted it seems." Shinkage mumbled.

Inside the room was, by Mikoto's standards, the most complicated thing she'd ever seen. Dials, knobs, buttons, little blinking lights, antenna, little stands with microphones... Oh, and a very small pine tree with a couple of glass ornaments in a pot by the only window in the room.

So while Mikoto looked like a deer in the headlights at all the shiny stuff, Shinkage spoke to the only other person in the room aside from their guide. "We need to speak with either Yoji Itami, or the Base Commander at Alnus."

The radio jockey, a tall woman who oddly enough wasn't Japanese but an Irish red-head, replied with, "Oh! You're the face of the team from this Orario place, yeah?" She looked at the dumbstruck Mikoto, "Hmm, suppose all the fancy looking equipment would make anyone wonder."

"She's here for identification." Shinkage said, "Since the rest of our team was supposed to be incognito."

"Well, we did notice Ryuu-san." The Radio lady said, "I wanted to ask for her autograph, but well, I'm stuck in here."

"She already has a small fanclub." The soldier at the door said.

Shinkage wondered if she should tell Ryuu or not, just to try and make her blush, but put the thought aside until later. "Ahem."

"Right." The nice lady at the radio said, "Lemme just..." She flicked a couple of old fashioned switches turned a dial or two, then clicked the big button at the bottom of one of the microphone mini-stands, "This is Italica Forward. Repeat, this is Italica Forward. Alnus One, do you copy. Over."

There was a pause, then a nearly static free reply of, "This is Alnus One. Signal is clear. Over."

"Special Visitor Asset team has a message for either Prince Itami or Papa. Over."

Before the reply came, the Radio Op leaned down with the microphone in hand for Shinkage.

"Ready to receive initial message. Over."

Helpfully, the lady clicked the 'on' button, and Shinkage said, "We have found your prize, and are requesting a special mobilization." She repeated Kodori's words, "Under a very tight time limit." A pause, "Oh right. Over."

"Message is being relayed Italica Forward. Wait one."

Back from her 'ALL THE BUTTONS' overload, Mikoto clued back in, "The way you speak, almost like code?"

"You don't communicate well when you have people talking over each other. So we end each message with 'over', as if to say 'over to you'." The redhead explained, "The simple terms like 'Italica Forward' are to tell the guy on the other end exactly who's calling. I mean, imagine you're walking down a street, and you hear a voice from someplace. Unless you know the speaker well enough, it's just another voice."

"Hm." Mikoto nodded, "I see more and more of where she got her methods from."

"It works, so she didn't need to fix it." Shinkage shrugged.

"Italica Forward!" The Commander's voice snapped over the radio, "Did I hear that right? Over!"

All four of them cringed. The commander was in a bad mood. With a clear 'you deal with him' look, the radio lady just clicked the microphone on for Shinkage.

"This is Shinkage, part of the special team."

Before she could continue, "Where is your Face?"

Shinkage nudged the microphone up towards Mikoto, "I am here. Shinkage brings new information past my last report." Pause, "Over?"

The Comm's lady gave Mikoto a silent thumbs up and a smile, then moved it back to Shinkage, "Fine, report."

Knowing now that the commander should have been told everything important since their last conference call over the crystals, Shinkage didn't waste any of the commander's time with a re-cap. "We have found what is almost certainly a black powder, and primitive firearms production site." The next part was VERY important, "We have come up with a plan for minimal casualties, but require your cooperation. Over."

"How 'certain' is 'certain'? Over."

"Eyes on everything but the sulphur. Over."

"Let's hear it then. Over." His voice had softened considerably. Obviously someone who respected results.

"In roughly an hour..."

Ten minutes later, with a few pauses for clarification, the Commander and a couple of people he'd paused the call to bring in (one of them being Itami), the plan had been laid out. Sixty seconds after that, the nice radio jockey had gotten everyone JSDF in Italica patched in on the comms.

Then Mikoto left the room with a quiet, "I will ask for compensation for this." Then, "Give me to a count of ten, ah, and may I borrow that bandana?"

A slow ten-count later...

Italica was thrown into high alert. Every JSDF was suddenly looking for a scruffy looking bandit wearing a bandana. Apparently, they'd escaped questioning from Lady Miyu's little castle, and were heading north.

While this was of course news to Lady Miyu and her Maids. Kaine understood exactly what was going on, since the 'escaped bandit' was VERY dead already after being questioned by the ever cheerful Medusa Aurea.

Anyone citizen who asked either the JSDF, local soldiers, or the handful of Rose-order knights, got the (oddly informative) reply of, 'we found someone who has been undermining the JSDF, and are chasing them north'.

This of course sent anyone who knew of that base north of Italica very discreetly running. Within about a half hour of the initial 'panic' (with Mikoto pretending to be the one they were all chasing of course), all of Zorzal's agents in Italica went to ground.

Except, of course, because of the interrogation of the bandit left by Kodori at Miyu's little castle, all those safe houses were compromised, and several more 'suspicious people' were rounded up.

In the slums of the Capital, the handful of JSDF there, after setting up their 'local assets' (the militia that worked in tandem with the Emperor's soldiers, as well as Maki and Ryuu), started patrolling the slums and talking openly about how they'd captured 'one of the people responsible for collapsing a local mine' a little while ago'. Everyone seemed to have 'suddenly' heard of it too, from Misery (the Angel-folk Madam who oversaw the prostitutes) to the soup kitchen ladies who offered a meal to the poor.

The 'local assets', now put in key exit points around the slums, would later capture a few more people leaving in a 'gawdawful' hurry after hearing the sudden rumours.

(Kodori)

Due to the 'radio silence' over the crystals, since we didn't know if Kaede was able to talk, and a suddenly noisy bit of glass around her neck would be hard to explain to whomever she might be with... Well, I was just sort of stuck waiting.

But I trusted them. I knew, as much as it might make her grumble, Shinkage would get the message through. I knew Mikoto would convince the JSDF to listen to her. And I knew the JSDF wanted to use as light a hand as possible.

All I had to do was wait a little while, then start the show. I just had to play my part properly, and hope people bought the act.

So, I gave myself one last look. Down at the tattered and slashed maid uniform, at the dried blood that had been put over various bits of now-exposed skin, and finished counting down the three hours I'd given Shinkage to get the message through, and hopefully get everything mobilized.

If it didn't work... Well, I'd end up going to plan B...

I stumbled towards the little down without even trying for stealth. No, I was hurt, I was out of breath, and I was making an all or nothing effort to get to where I was going. I was of course spotted by a sentry about a hundred metres from the edge of town.

"Halt!" He called, "Who-"

"We've been found!" I gasped out, almost falling when I made a forty or so degree turn towards the voice, "I tried to silence one of our people, but the maids took them in!"

The voice belonged to a Leonid. Tall and muscular, armed with a bow and wood axe, he looked more like a hunter than a guard. At the word 'maids' it was clear he knew exactly who I was talking about. He came over to me, putting his bow around his chest and getting an arm around me, "We have to warn the others! Come on."

"Sorry." I said, "When I saw I couldn't do the job, I fled."

"You made the right choice." He grunted, then raised his voice to a roar that matched his ancestry, "ALARM! ALARM! WE'VE BEEN FOUND!"

That got everyone's attention.

"Rest as best you can." He said to me, "But if you can't run with the rest of us..."

"I did my job." I replied with a smile, the dried blood on my face cracking a little, "I just need... to catch my breath." He leaned me up against the wall of a stone hut.

Panic... Panic will do a lot to a person. Now I just had to hope that panic spread a little, and no one asked too many questions.

Maybe ten minutes later, if that, I saw I had misjudged things just a little. From what Ryuu and Maki had told me, I figured these people to be hard core resistance. But I didn't think they'd be this hard core. While I stayed slumped against the wall, watching but unmoving, the hundred or so people here started to dismantle the place.

Crates were hastily packed with various things. Wagons were brought around and loaded. People (all adults, no children or elderly I noted) ran about to get basically everything that wasn't nailed down put away. They were ready it seemed, to vanish at the drop of a hat.

I expected this. To operate under the noses of the JSDF and Empire, you had to be either crazy, or very well prepared. With how Ryuu told things, the second option was far more likely.

What I didn't expect, was as soon as those dozen or so wagons were loaded up with stuff, that some of the people stayed behind.

And started rolling out artillery. Yes, actual primitive artillery. The twenty or so people who stayed behind, had gone back into the largest of the patchwork buildings, and started rolling out old fashioned privateer cannons. With an inner diameter about the size of my fist, I guessed them to be around ten centimetres or so... Maybe a two kilo ball? It would ruin anyone's day if they weren't behind something really solid.

But that wasn't all. The cannons, four in all, had been mounted on mini-wagons, and those wagons had an armoured front. This went past the 'playing with gunpowder' stage right into 1700's naval combat. Not only would those wagons help bleed off the recoil, it looked like they were being set up on the only cobble stone platform in the entire town.

Not only that! Each of them had a primitive single shot hammer rifle. Not being a gun person, I didn't know the actual name. But it wasn't a matchlock, with an external wick to light the powder inside the barrel. No, these had an actual trigger/hammer mechanism. Pipe rifle or not, it was impressive.

Other things struck me as odd, even as I 'struggled' to my feet and started to hobble towards the cannons a mere fifteen minutes total after the initial alarm had been sounded. They didn't take everything. It would have been impossible of course. But there was absolutely no hesitation in leaving things behind. This included people. Not a single person spared me a look until I started moving again.

But, since they had left people behind, and I wanted to keep the slaughter of people down to a minimum...

"Little sister!" The same leonid greeted me, "Guess you're doing us one last service."

Someone else, another cat-folk, came over and offered me a rifle, "Do you know how to use a riffle?"

I shook my head, my ears twitching as I heard the far off sound of a helicopter getting closer. "I've only ever seen the green men use theirs. It seems... simple enough?"

He retracted his arm, "Whoa, I better sho-"

And I punched him. Not hard of course. But it was right in the solar plexus. With a breathy 'hurrrrrrrrrrf' he folded up and with a half turn I kicked the Leonid in the gut as well. He let out a more growly 'hurrrrrrrrrrf' but went down all the same, clear betrayal in his eyes.

Of course, I was now in the middle of eighteen people with primitive rifles and cannon...

(Kaede)

Her eyes went wide, her ears perked up so straight they might have popped right off her head, when she heard the loud BOOM echo down the shallow canyon the three of them had just entered.

Disguised by many small rockfalls from the cliffs above, the path they were on was well disguised. And only the careful navigation by the Volralden driver had kept the wagon wheels from getting stuck in the rocky terrain.

Two more thumping BOOMs echoed down the narrow path, "What..." Kaede started, then turned her head south sharply.

"Seems they're just testing the new... acquisitions." The Mongrel said, "What do you hear?"

It was obvious he knew what a 'rabbit listening for something' looked like, and Kaede was indeed listening, "It sounds like a very large bird." Of course she had no idea what a helicopter was, but the sound was too distinct to ignore. Doing that in the dungeon invited tragedy, and the party commonly relied on her to listen for roaming monster spawns.

Then another noise echoed down the canyon, and this one she DID know, and the -WHUMPBANG- noise was followed by a crackling bright sparkle that for a split second was brighter than the sun.

But the Mongrel and the Volralden seemed to come to the same conclusion, "It's under attack!" They said together.

"I'll turn us around!" The wolfman said, urging the horses to carefully turn on the terrible terrain.

"No time. If they had any warning at all..." He took out a small dagger, a cruel curved thing no bigger than his palm, "Pick a horse. No point in delivering to a burning business!"

With a couple of sharp slashes, the (rather upset at the loud noises) horses were cut free of the wagon.

"Was this where we were going?" Kaede asked, "Where will you go now? I mean... the green men don't take prisoners..."

The Mongrel got his horse under control, "No, they do. But that's the problem." He got his horse pointed in the other direction, away from the canyon, "Child. You don't know much, so I'll give you a choice."

Kaede shook her head, "I'll... well, I won't stay here. But since it looks like I'm not getting paid either..."

"Smart." He said, "Feel free to sell the wine, if you make it to Italica."

The Volralden simply said, "See you around kiddo." And left, following behind the Mongrel at best speed over the broken terrain, then faster as the ground cleared up.

Kaede waited until they were out of earshot, then got off the back of the wagon and started running down the canyon, while overhead, the sound of the helicopter got closer.

(Kodori)

Well, now I knew how getting shot felt. 0/10, would not recommend. The weird quirk of 'adventurer toughness' meant that I felt the pain of the little iron(not lead) ball hitting me, but it didn't do more than sting a little.

It was probably because I was now sporting a nice cut across my right breast. That was the worst tweak I'd ever gotten, lemme tell you.

Sadly, it was much worse for the one standing behind me as I had dodged. Friendly fire isn't. And eight of the twenty I'd faced off against were down. Their rifles weren't very reliable, or accurate, and aside from four counts of 'friendly fire isn't', one had the barrel explode in front of their face, taking part of their head with it, while another might have loaded in the powder and ball backwards...

Oh, and one of the cannons exploded, the shrapnel from the brittle barrel ripped apart the kobold aiming it, and set the one lighting the fuse on fire.

The rest, well, I was gentle. Aisa would have even given me a headpat! The one who had been set on fire would pull through, though there was nothing I could do for the other seven of the eight casualties.

I was just giving the burn victim a couple of potion pills for the worst of it, when the Chinook took up a hovering position, and six ropes flopped over the sides.

All wearing gas masks, the six JSDF slid down the ropes while the door gunners kept watch over the area from above. With machine precision, the ground troops fanned out, took a good look, and aside from me, found no one standing.

When one of them relaxed a little and started towards me, I gave them my best 'maid bow' with what was left of my dress (though I'd 'repaired' the under layer with a little manacloth, just so I didn't expose myself).

"Pardon me if I don't take off the mask." It was Itami, "You're the one who dropped off the... informant, right?"

"I am." I nodded, "And I've a few more." I motioned to those around me, "I gave them a little something to help them sleep, and I would be... sad if they didn't wake up."

He nodded, "The little one with the dark eyes told us as much. That's fine, though we don't-"

"FREEZE! HANDS UP!" One of the JSDF shouted out in the local language.

I turned to look at the soldier, then followed his aim towards one of the two paths out of town that weren't by the river. Seeing who it was, I felt my heart hit my throat and I panicked.

"STOP!"

Everyone froze in place, and it felt like I had just swallowed a sea urchin. I started coughing, and everyone snapped back into motion again.

"I'm with her!" Kaede called out from the mouth of what looked to me a shallow canyon, her hands in the air (just like I'd taught her).

"What..." Itami shook his head, "Rifle down! Let her in!"

Given leave to approach, Kaede put her hands down, then covered her nose as she got closer.

Then there was a sharp crack! from beside my right leg. I looked down, and it was the cat-folk I'd hit first. "traitor..." He gasped out.

And Kaede tipped backwards, a surprised look on her face.

NOTES!

I rolled a d20 for that last one...

See you all in the next update. :)