PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

But the war was a cruel thing that destroyed and defiled the world’s inherent beauty in more ways than one. Even now, when nature is in her best clothes, humanity is too blinded by the war’s stress to appreciate. This was the case for everyone in Green Seed town except those who lived in the Astryd residence.

One day after the incident in the city of Verimar, an event that became news throughout Europe, Desmond’s group returned to the town to receive honors. In this new era, acts that before would have been considered terrorism and war crimes were now decorated and praised; Desmond found it ridiculous.

Eiden Astryd had taught his son many things, including the nature of war in the old world. Honor, pride, morale, little of that mattered in a battle no matter the time, Desmond knew, but over time, certain unspoken standards and guidelines shaped warfare; not that these were of any use now.

As Desmond told Silvia back then, in this world, especially in this age, only power matters, only results make sense; the winner gets it all, the loser gets nothing, that simple.

The incident in the city of Verimar reminded the world of that fact. The performance of Desmond and his team in the town of Verimar was a great warning to the enemies of country F.

64 first-grade lieutenants, 39 second-grade lieutenants, 10 espers of lieutenant colonel grade, and 3 of commander grade, without counting other high-ranking officials of the administrative type.

The number of official military personnel casualties almost reached 500; the word massacre seemed entirely appropriate. As if that were not enough, the civil administration of the city of Verimar was decimated entirely, a low blow that no one expected. According to the most conservative estimates, Country C had lost at least 5% of its military power in this incident, the loss of the three commanders being one of the main reasons.

On the other hand, the complete loss of the city’s administrative powers combined with the military losses had wholly crippled the town of Verimar’s functions as a military fort and beachhead in the invasion of southern Country F.

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This incident reminded the world of a rather essential and evident fact; in this new age, it was the Esper who determined whether a country was powerful or not. On the other hand, this incident also brought much attention to Desmond himself and his team.

God knows Desmond spent almost an entire week in meetings and reports, the definition of hell according to him. Not only did the military want every last detail of the operation in Verimar City, but they were also interested in Desmond’s true fighting power; after all, he had only killed three commanders.

Upon hearing the story, there were mixed reactions, with some feeling that Desmond was terrified of how he carried out the massacre. In contrast, others were disappointed to hear that he had not entirely defeated the three commanders.

Unsurprisingly, Desmond had relied on tactics, surprise attacks, and powerful firearms to kill the first commander. While the second died in rage when he recklessly and suicidally attacked. To top it all off, the last commander hadn’t even fought back as she lost her mind.

There was a lot of negative criticism directed at Commander Paulett, formerly known as the Gray Pillar, but Desmond found it quite laughable. Given Paulett’s age and her reaction, she was, in all likelihood, just a girl with a high affinity for mana which was promoted too quickly. Her collapse after seeing such atrocities in front of her was perfectly reasonable.

Six years had passed since the day that meteorite crossed over the earth, radiating energy, and five years since the dark age ended. Humanity was still taking its first steps towards recovery, and most military personnel in almost any country were newly recruited.

Desmond found it laughable because, of the people in the room making judgments, only a couple had any merit to their name to back them up. The rest were so similar to Paulett that it wasn’t even funny anymore.

In addition to Desmond, Silvia and Claire got a good chunk of the glory. Looking back at the two women, it was hard to believe they had the highest kill count during the operation. Because Claire, Silvia, and Morales were wiping out the reinforcements, trying to reach the headquarters, and then escaping the siege of the military forces in the city, their death toll was unbelievably high.

What amazed the officers in the briefing room was how Claire and Silvia combined their esper abilities with urban combat military tactics. It was worth noting that most of the soldiers shot down by the pair of beauties died under a hail of bullets rather than receiving any of their esper abilities.

However, when it was pointed out that it was Desmond who trained them, it all made sense. Desmond was quite famous for his skills with firearms and his obsession with explosives.

When it was time to report Roy Valentine’s appearance, the air in the meeting room changed; the god of thunder was quite famous. This part of the story was the one Desmond had to repeat the most times as many refused to believe it. Surprisingly, the story was relatively short, Desmond arguing that all he did was run through his miserable life until Valentine got tired of chasing him and left.

Leaving aside that being able to run from Roy Valentine was already impressive, the most ridiculous part was that the mercenary got bored of following him and left the place. Ironically, given Valentine’s bad reputation, the army was inclined to believe the story.

Days later, news that Valentine had broken yet another contract on a whim went viral. Reportedly, Valentine got bored of chasing Desmond on the day of the Verimar City incident, so he returned to the city. Seeing it so unprotected, he stole what was to be his payment before leaving.

Using his law of contradiction, Desmond had created an optical illusion over himself and carried out such a scam. Once again, Valentine’s infamy made everyone believe the story. Desmond even stole many things from the city of Verimar without anyone daring to stop him; no one wanted to die at the hands of Valentine’s wild demon.

It was an annoying and tedious process, but by the end of the week, Desmond was done with the reports and meetings. The only thing left to do was his reward, although the army at least had the decency to grant him a generous vacation.

That same night that he was finally released from his military duties, the first thing Desmond did was visit the Garden and eat all the delicious food that fit in his body. Poor Tania worked overtime that night.

Desmond’s next step was to get home to take a nice bath and relax. As if they understood something when Desmond went to the shower, Claire and Sasha blushed a little and went to their respective rooms.

Cecilia just watched quietly with a placid demeanor as she read an ancient history book. However, a more observant eye would note that she occasionally put her fingers to her lips, lips that were no longer painted red. As the only person left in the room, Cecilia watched Desmond gets out of the shower and immediately head to Claire’s room.

Watching as she turned away from Desmond’s back, Cecilia made a rather provocative and naive comment. “I wonder how it feels to make love? It must feel great as they can’t wait to do it daily. Now that I think about it, it’s rare. From what I understand, women get pregnant when they make love, but Claire and Sasha don’t have big bellies like pregnant women I’ve seen.”

Sitting in the room, without being seen by anyone, Cecilia lost all her air of maturity and serenity; the only thing left was a face full of childish confusion.

Cecilia’s protective and motherly nature could be quite deceiving; many would not believe how naive and immature she really was.

It was a shame that no one was around to see Cecilia’s sweet and cute side since, for once, Revna wasn’t home; she had taken the opportunity to spend time with the Garden girls.

While Cecilia had questions about the biology and nature of love exchange between men and women, Desmond was experiencing his own doubts.

There might not have been an explicit message, but Desmond was pretty sure that both Claire and Sasha had picked up the signals, so it was strange for Desmond when he didn’t find Claire in his room. The same thing happened when Desmond went looking for Sasha in his room.

Desmond simply surmised that both girls might not be in the mood for such things, which put him in an awkward position, but he understood that they were under no obligation to indulge his whims, so he didn’t overthink it. At the end of the day, Claire and Sasha were people, not machines or tools; they weren’t there for Desmond’s pleasure.

Lost in his thoughts, Desmond missed something quite obvious; Since Claire and Sasha weren’t in their respective rooms, where were they?