"Cesar!" Nova shouted as she woke up, looking around and realizing that this was not where she had passed out hours ago.
Seeing and hearing the reaction of this beautiful blue-haired woman, one of the doctors on duty rushed over and said. "Captain Bain, you're back at Millfall base. Do you remember what happened the night before?"
Hearing this and looking at the doctor, Nova understood where she was and remembered that Cesar's group had appeared at the last moment and rescued her and her temporary ally.
"Yes, I was on a mission to arrest or eliminate Cesar Mazzanti." She said, indicating to the doctor that she understood her situation.
Confirming that she knew where she was and what had happened the night before, the doctor saw that none of Nova's neurological functions had been affected. "Very well, you should go to the Commander's office. He asked you to go there as soon as you wake up.
Oh, don't worry about your body or your magic. You were only unconscious due to mana exhaustion and some minor injuries. You can return to your duties after a day's rest."
With that, she realized that even though she had been taken unconscious by Cesar's people, they hadn't done anything to her.
'Why didn't they kill me?' She asked herself.
From her point of view, since she was the only survivor, the best thing for Cesar's group was that she did not return to Millfall and that everything against him was just a theory. If she didn't return, no one could prove anything against him, and he could eventually get away with the crimes he committed the night before!
Come to think of it, if she had been in his place, she would have chosen this option and cleared up this loose end for her own benefit.
But that hadn't happened, and she couldn't help but think about that as she made her way to her boss' office.
Arriving there, she greeted the Commander as she was supposed to before the powerful man looked at her seriously and began his interrogation in search of the truth.
"Nova Bain, what happened last night? Your group disappeared, and we still haven't heard from the others in your group, but still, we found you on your doorstep this morning." He said as he sat in his chair.
Nova understood what Cesar's people had done, and in her mind, she was grateful that they hadn't made the decision she would have made in his place.
"Only I came back?" She muttered as she looked at the ground, imagining everyone else who had seen the basilisk the night before had died.
"No, Marcus Symons has also returned." The Commander declared. "He arrived in town just before the soldiers found you on your doorstep. The young master of the Symons family told his family that Cesar Mazzanti had wreaked havoc on his family and the local forces the night before."
Hearing this, Nova felt terrible, for Marcus had seen virtually nothing of what had happened the night before, having chickened out and fled before the first deaths from Cesar's gunfire.
Feeling indebted to the man who had possibly saved her life twice, she clenched her fists and denied the young master Symons' words. "That is not true. Last night, Cesar fled Millfall and headed for The Rocky Gorge.
When we found him, we still didn't know his goal other than to escape us. But later that night, our whole group would understand that he wanted to use the magical creatures in that area to evade our pursuit."
She looked at her leader and lied for the first time in her life. "But Cesar himself did not kill any of our men."
"Oh?" The Commander wasn't suspicious of Nova because it made sense. As impressive as he was, Cesar was only a Senior Apprentice.
In a situation like the night before, he had to use some kind of strategy, like using the strength of others to stop his enemies.
"What exactly happened?" He asked.
Thinking that there were no other witnesses to contradict what she had in mind, Nova said. "When we found Cesar, he fired his weapons at our group to buy time and maybe weaken us.
But he wasn't very successful and had to continue with his dangerous plan. But just as we were about to surround him after the initial distraction, he got into a confrontation with beasts and brought them towards us.
In this situation, we couldn't deal with him and had to take care of the 2nd stage creatures.
But little did we know that there was a 3rd stage basilisk in the area that would eventually show up to kill and hunt down several of us."
The Commander became more serious after hearing about the basilisk, a powerful creature rumored to have been sighted in the area.
"A basilisk?" He clenched his fists, feeling that it was a danger to Millfall to have such a creature so close.
As much as the army was meant to maintain the king's lands and enforce his laws, the basic principle of this organization was to protect the human kingdom from non-human magical beings!
Why did society accept groups that levied taxes and decided the rules they had to follow? It was simply because society as a whole needed protectors.
Maybe these protectors weren't so good at protecting society from other members of the same society. Still, they were needed to ensure that beings like beasts didn't victimize their people.
Thus, at the beginning of this civilization, groups that would become royal families, sects, and powerful clans arose as organizations for the security of human societies.
In the case of the royal army of the Seidel kingdom, even today, one of its purposes was to guarantee the security of the king's cities!
Knowing this, the Commander couldn't help but be concerned when one of his soldiers reported the sighting of such a powerful and vile creature so close to Millfall.
Nova explained. "Yes, it commanded the other beasts in the area and started a big hunt against us humans.
I don't know what happened to Cesar, but I almost died trying to escape them. Luckily, I could kill the last of the beasts chasing me before I used a life-saving item to get into Millfall."
Hearing that and worried about the basilisk threat, the Commander didn't doubt Nova.
"So that's what happened." He muttered before standing up and ordering Nova and the person outside the office. "Inform the rest of the barracks. Everyone is to return from their positions, including those investigating what happened at The Rocky Gorge.
Let's get ready to face the threat of this 3rd stage basilisk!"
