PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

It was a relatively common sight for Silvia who constantly had to enter Desmond’s office to deliver documents or to receive orders but the ice girl still found the lack of decorum of her best friend and her lieutenant very annoying.

Her only consolation was that while Claire was too absorbed in her intimate moment, at least Desmond wasn’t shameless enough to pretend not to notice Silvia’s entrance.

Grabbing Claire around the waist, Desmond lifted her effortlessly before setting her aside to greet his secretary, while Claire on the other hand was caught off guard letting out a small moan of surprise and arousal before she realized Silvia’s presence leaving Claire with an embarrassed expression and a blushing face.

“Anything to report Cadet Trevstone?” Desmond asked keeping a poker expression.

Annoyed but not daring to express her anger, Silvia replied: “Some files came from intelligence, it seems that it is information to be delivered to all officers of lieutenant rank and above.”

Having said her piece, Silvia took a couple of steps forward as her icy blue eyes locked on the still flushed Claire before she placed a huge sealed packet of files on Desmond’s desk.

“If you’ll excuse me, Lieutenant, I’d like to retire early to take care of my sister.” With her voice slightly covered in frost, Silvia made a quite usual request.

Desmond didn’t mind Silvia’s somewhat disrespectful tone of voice, he knew that she didn’t like people like him and while she respected him as a lieutenant; the truth was that she didn’t respect him as a man something he understood.

.....

Regarding Silvia’s request, Desmond agreed without much trouble, Desmond being the kind of person he is, he had already done quite a lot of background research on the people in his squad and knew a bit about the circumstances of each of them.

While most of the members of his squad had fairly simple backgrounds and histories, both Silvia’s and Morales’ histories were a bit more complicated.

Silvia’s sister was named Mara after her mother who had died during the dark year in the same incident that left Silvia’s sister a paraplegic, as for the father of both girls there is no record of him so Desmond assumed that the man never took care of the girls.

To some extent, it was already a miracle that Silvia managed to keep her sister safe during the dark year and that she managed to take care of her until now, so from what Desmond had investigated, the people of this town were quite fond of the pair of sisters and showed goodwill towards them whenever possible so the girls didn’t have to suffer too much injustice; although Silvia always tried to work as much as possible so as not to feel indebted to those who showed them kindness.

In a way, Silvia was like Desmond, someone who would do anything to keep her loved one safe, with the difference that Desmond had no other emotional attachments besides Claire and Sasha while Silvia was quite fond of this town.

Details aside, although the salary that Silvia receives as a member of an Esper unit was quite significant, she still tried to spend as much time as she could with her sister, not always wanting to leave her in the hands of the nurse she hired to take care of her.

Watching the door close after Silvia walked out the door, Desmond now focused on the huge stack of files over his desk wanting to take a look at it.

With Desmond now focused on work, Claire knew it was time for her to leave so she gave him a quick peck on the cheek: “I’ll see you at the restaurant later, I’ll see if I can get Sasha out of her lab to join us.”

Having said her piece, Claire left Desmond alone with a mountain of files to read. “I certainly don’t enjoy this part of the job”

Hours passed and Desmond had a rough idea of ??the total contents of the files, it was an ambitious project by the government of country F and the military to convert certain satellite cities into strategic defensive fortresses to repel both attacks from mutated beasts and threats from other countries.

The project was extremely ambitious, and from what Desmond had seen, the government was planning to burn through an astronomical amount of funding and commit a vast amount of human resources to accomplish it.

The reason these files even got into Desmond’s hands in the first place was that Green Seed Town was one of the satellite towns mentioned in the project list.

Due to its geographical location, Green Seed Town was both a defensive bastion to repel military incursions from the not at all quiet Country C whose ambitions were no secret at the same time that the town was right at a bottleneck with the mountainous and forested regions of the southeast thus preventing the passage of the beast tides of the area.

Originally Green Seed Town was intended to be a larger defensive stronghold due to its strategic importance but due to lack of funds and personnel in recent years, the government of Country F had not been able to do anything about it.

To some extent, country F could already consider itself lucky that country C had not seized the opportunity so far and that the beast tides have not been so intense in recent years, but country F knew that it could not depend on luck forever.

The strange thing was that Desmond did not seem at all surprised by the content of the documents, the truth was that Desmond had already foreseen such a move and although it was impossible for him to anticipate all the aspects and details; Desmond had prepared some measures beforehand with the funds obtained from looting the gangs in Kars City.

“What do you think?” Desmond asked out loud even though there was no one in the room with him, oddly though Desmond didn’t get an answer he still managed to notice the small flicker in his shadow as he spoke.

“If you’re going to follow me around the least you could do is offer some small talk.” Desmond continued speaking now looking directly into his shadow.

From anyone’s point of view, it would seem that Desmond had gone insane from talking to his own shadow but surprisingly he actually got an answer this time: “My job is to protect you and follow your every command, giving my opinion would be nothing more than an insult to the master’s intellect”

Listening to the response of the female voice that emerged from his shadow, Desmond sighed before replying: “In that case, I order you to give me your opinion.”

“It seems to me that the master will be in trouble once this project gets going, the number of resources and manpower that will come to this place will be massive, this place will stop being just a satellite town and instead become one of the largest cities in the country in a couple of years; although the vast majority of the presence in this place will be military. Whatever the case may be, there will be many who wish to enjoy the various spillovers of wealth that such a project will cause, not to mention that anyone who manages to get their hands on the businesses and lands of this place will make the military their main clients; with a whole city full of soldiers the advantages are not few “Now that the voice had received the order from her master, she explained her opinion in detail, pointing out her point of view.

“So you think those people will end up stretching their greedy hands in my direction due to me taking advantage of the recent downturn in the local economy as well as increased insecurity to buy a huge amount of businesses and property in the city after Even if I use untraceable funds to acquire the properties and the property titles point to someone else, it will be difficult for the people I bribe to carry out everything to keep their mouths shut” Desmond continued the explanation of the female voice that came from his shadow.

To which the voice-only replied: “That’s right, master.”

Interestingly, instead of being worried, Desmond was smiling brightly as he said, “Isn’t that the reason I have you and the others?”

After a brief silence, the same female voice answered again, this time with a hint of cruelty in her voice: “That’s right, anyone who dares to covet what belongs to our master must die.”

Not wanting to comment on the murderous intent just exposed, Desmond rose from his seat as his shadow seemed to spread strangely, forming a tendril of darkness that took the coat off the rack before passing it to Desmond.

“You are always so considerate Revna if only you won’t spend all your time in my shadow,” Desmond commented as he pulled on his jacket and gazed out the window at the snowy landscape.

“Since the master took us under his wings two months ago, you have given us so much, not only took us out of the hell we were in but also built a heaven for all of us. We are not stupid and we have seen the enormous amount of resources that you have spent on us to fulfill your word and give us the power that we so desired. I Revna Von Mussel have sworn my loyalty to you not out of necessity but my own free will and you have been too kind to a group of broken women and for that, you will always have our eternal thanks and loyalty. ” Strangely enough, the female voice who turned out to be Revna began speaking on her own expressing her loyalty, gratitude, and adoration.

“As always, you misunderstand my intentions. I’ve never been kind,” Desmond replied bitterly only to be quickly interrupted by Revna.

“With all due respect but I do not agree, you have been our master since we decided to wear these necklaces and since then we have lost any power to resist your will. Still, you kept your word... no, you gave us even more than you promised, I know you took us in for a reason but you have no real reason or obligation to treat us well; you are too kind to us. That is why you have the right to use us as you wish, no, we want to be used by you, we want to be useful to you, to repay this kindness”