PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Not allowing Sasha to give any kind of excuse, Claire replied with a mischievous expression, “I just had to tell her you will not pamper her for a week if she didn’t get out of the lab.”

Watching as Claire and Desmond teased her, Sasha pursed her lips adorably before complaining, “I’ve been making a lot of progress in my research, I already have a lot of ideas for making better potions with cheap materials, and I’m in the middle of finding a way to improve the alchemical grenade”

Taking Sasha a little more seriously, whose talent in alchemy could put any self-proclaimed genius to shame, Desmond asked, “Have you really made progress in incorporating other types of mana into potions to create a synergy that enhances the effects? I still find it quite impressive that you will manage to apply the interaction theory of the elements in the alchemy book I gave you.”

As always Sasha became quite energetic when alchemy was mentioned: “The truth is that there were already potions with a similar logic in my teacher’s notes like those fire and ice potions you consumed, but since my teacher was more focused on unorthodox research related to the alteration and improvement of materials, she did not advance much in that particular area of ????research so the notes you brought me were very helpful in giving me many ideas”

The conversation about alchemy lasted a few minutes until the food arrived at the hands of Kira and Yulei who waited on Desmond’s table with a little extra attention that did not go unnoticed.

Being all the girls in beautiful, there was more than one man who had set eyes on them and there was no lack of people in the army who tried to go overboard with the girls but all those people suffered quite a bit for it.

Hence it was proven that the background of the girls working in was not at all ordinary, although many people thought that it was just a group of girls with esper abilities trying to make an honest living; which was not so unusual given that the girls tended to group to resist harassment by men.

Of course, there was no lack of officers who tried to use their status to pressure the girls but they were all strongly repressed by Desmond who was said to have taken a liking to the girls in even though none of them seemed to favor him; causing many people to curse Lieutenant Desmond for being too much of a womanizer not being satisfied with the two beauties he already has with him.

.....

Even now, people believed that the girls in only treated Desmond a little better because he had helped them a lot, no one ever thought that the owner of the restaurant was Desmond; much less than the girls in could also be considered his property in some way.

After all, Desmond had used the name of one of the girls for all the paperwork related to the restaurant and the funds used were always untraceable so no one would think that Desmond was behind this small but cozy restaurant, much less think that this restaurant was only meant to serve as a cover for the girls in

In this way, the group of beautiful girls who moved to the city was quickly accepted by the population without causing any suspicion about the origin of the girls or their background.

Without many people noticing or thinking about it, the girls’ presence in the city quickly became commonplace, making it seem like they always belonged here; the fact that the girls were beautiful and the food in the restaurant was delicious certainly helped.

On the other hand, the brief time that the town’s attention was drawn to the emergence of a restaurant as peculiar as served as a good distraction that helped make the rest of Desmond’s purchases and acquisitions in town to go unnoticed.

Soon some small businesses of various kinds sprang up around the city where the owners of these businesses turned out to be all girls who had just come of age in the orphanage had to leave the orphanage and become independent.

This caught the attention of some people but not enough to cause a stir, most of the owners of these businesses simply said that they received the investment from a friendly businessman who liked to do small businesses although many people thought that the girls had gotten some rich boyfriend and they were just trying to hide it.

Little did most know that it was Desmond who approached the girls, in exchange for a fairly generous investment the girls acted as front men for Desmond in acquiring the properties, to a certain extent one could say that the girls got a lot of money and a place to work for free; all they had to do was stay tuned for any interesting news they heard out there; the girls find it strange but they didn’t think too much about it and unknowingly became Desmond’s eyes and ears in the city.

Coincidentally, all the businesses set up by the girls were the most popular type of business and soon had a large influx of customers, mainly from the army.

With all of the above, Desmond, Sasha, and Claire still visited the restaurant with some regularity, mainly because Sasha and Claire liked to spend some time chatting with the girls at the restaurant even when they were unaware of Desmond’s relationship with .

The food, as usual, was quite appetizing and homey putting a lazy satisfied expression on the trio’s face, it was a pity that laziness only lasted a couple of minutes before the sound of an alarm rocked the town.

Desmond jumped out of his seat with perfectly controlled speed before grabbing his coat and military cap and immediately exiting the building after giving Claire and Sasha a brief word, not before giving the girls a discreet signal that basically said, “Stay on hold”

The reason Desmond left in such a hurry was that he knew exactly what the alarm that had gone off a few moments ago was for and the main problem associated with it.

The alarm signaled a beast tide attack, something that almost everyone had heard at some point in his life, the problem was that this alarm never sounded in winter.

It was more than just not being alert, it could be said that in the winter the army tended to let its guard down quite a bit with most of the active personnel in intensive training and half of their senior officers on leave.

In other words, this was the time of the year when the army was most vulnerable, it was too much of a coincidence, no, it was more accurate to say that this was not a coincidence at all; this was definitely a coordinated attack by mutated humanoid beasts.

That alone was enough for Desmond to raise his guard completely and not dare to take this attack lightly, he knew that any mistake could cost the lives of thousands, and no matter how much Desmond did not feel like a true military man faithful to his country; Desmond still had a strong sense of responsibility for the lives in his charge.

Desmond did not even bother to walk through the snowy streets and directly moved across the rooftops at full speed surprising more than one person on the way, if not for the fact that he was wearing a lieutenant’s uniform many people would have been scared to death for his presence.

Along the way Desmond was already running all sorts of scenarios in his mind and had come to certain conclusions, Desmond took a quick detour home and grabbed all the contents of a sturdy-looking metal cabinet in Sasha’s lab before leaving again to the military barracks.

Due to his unorthodox method of moving Desmond was still one of the first officers on the scene, the HQ was in a bit of a mess with a large number of foot soldiers panicking without their commanding officers present to control them.

Desmond clicked his tongue at this sight, this was worse than he expected, the problem was not only the lack of commanding officers but also the lack of training on the part of the infantry; it was due to the army’s aggressive recruiting strategy that its ranks were filled with too many rookies who were not good at reacting under stress.

That problem was originally meant to be fixed during intensive infantry training this winter but the mutated beast’s attack came before this made much headway.

It is unknown if this was also within the calculations of the humanoid mutant beasts or it was just a coincidence that arose due to the attack being planned during a period when this vulnerability aligned with the vulnerability in the chain of command combined with the attitude army pleaser in the winter.

Whatever the case this was bad and Desmond knew it, since Desmond knew it there was no way he wouldn’t do anything about it, stepping forward Desmond took a deep breath concentrating a small amount of mana into his lungs and throat before screaming at the top of your lungs: “Attention”

His shout was like the roar of an enraged lion reverberating throughout the central courtyard of the headquarters, completely stunning the infantry who had previously been running like headless ants.

Originally Desmond planned to defuse the situation on his own, gaining some prestige along the way which would pave the way for him in the future, but as soon as a certain individual entered the picture Desmond immediately switched to plan B.

“Commander Rundert on the scene, come to attention.” Without any change in his expression as if that had been his intention all along, Desmond redirected the attention of the infantry in the direction of Commander Rundert who had just arrived.

Quite impressed and pleased at the way Desmond handled things for him saving him time and effort, Rundert nodded his thanks in Desmond’s direction before beginning to give orders up the chain of command to coordinate the defense of the city.

Little did the commander know that while Desmond had to step back to give him the full attention, Desmond was also starting to come up with a plan C that wasn’t necessarily related to defending the city; Desmond certainly hadn’t forgotten that it was Commander Rundert who had delivered the killing blow in Katya’s premonition.