章 24: Reflections (Lucia's part).
Lucia's brother lay there unconscious, after receiving kindness from a complete stranger.
'Seeing my brother, desperate, supplicating...Like never before in his whole life...'
'How useless can I be...Because of my ideas of helping traitors...Going to a supermarket for food we didn't need, helping people who didn't deserve it. ...That's why my brother is like this.'
'Even now, the only thing I can be thankful for is the kindness of a stranger, always depending on others...Always, completely depending on society.'
'Looking for boyfriends even if I know they're bastards, looking for friends I foolishly believe I can trust'
'The only thing I don't depend on, is my own pathetic ability.'
Viktor, after a few hours, upon awakening saw his sister, who he would swear hadn't moved an inch since she arrived on the scene, standing like a statue with her gaze averted downward.
"I didn't die."
"That's the important thing."
"Nothing lost today, we can't get back."
"What's a mere arm if we had the strength of a god!" "Just a wrong decision, nothing else happened here."
Viktor let out a flurry of comforting words, something never heard from him before.
Looking at her brother who was comforting her despite losing his arm, Lucia hugged him gently, crying as in her heart she decided.
'IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN...'
'I WILL NO LONGER BE THE USELESS CHILD WHO IS ONLY A BURDEN TO OTHERS."
'Now that he doesn't have an arm...'
"Because of him...Because of what I caused him. For all that I have to try harder!"
Her brother, who was usually energetic and apathetic, concentrating energetically on his own things and not paying any attention to anything else, was unusually calm and quiet.
'Of course...He needs rest.' thought Lucia.
***
In a field, with some abandoned houses behind them, a squad of soldiers was scouting the site.
"The group of civilians has been successfully assisted."
"The leader of their group was severely wounded... He used the medical system sir"
"We are scouting the surrounding area"
Marcus explained the situation being direct.
"We will be able to return immediately once we confirm the health of the group sir..."
"Yes, take care of yourself and if you can, recruit them or keep in contact. Another friendly hand is never a bad thing" A rough voice replied.
"I will do my best to do so."
"I take my leave sir."Marcus hung up the call.
"Ahem..." A soft cough sounded behind him.
After the man was quiet for a while, confirming that he had already cut off, a small soft cough sounded next to him.
" Sir Marcus...Thank you so much for all your help."
Lucia said, despite having expressed her gratitude along with her family multiple times.
"Please let me help you with your scouting."
"I am a level 6 fire mage...I think I can help you."
"That..." The group of relatively young men, looking between 35 and 25 years old, scratched their heads a bit uncomfortably at this beautiful young lady wanting to help them in their duty.
"That's good!" Smiled Marcus as he said smilingly.
He had an appearance of about 30 years old, a neat beard, and quite bushy, with hair that matched in volume with his beard, not at all matching the common standards of soldiers.
His brown hair and blue eyes made him look quite attractive to a young adult like Lucia.
She blushed a little, but without even thinking about the possibility of a relationship...she just found him attractive!
She also blushed in embarrassment about her current appearance. These soldiers looked like they already controlled a water fountain well, and clearly spared no expense on hygiene, being all neat and well dressed.
She on the other hand...
Her disheveled hair, dirty clothes and the fact that she had such a hard day and her face surely didn't look good.
She, who always dressed well, couldn't help but think about it.
However, her determination was greater and she wanted to take advantage of every little opportunity to be able to help and be stronger.
The group of soldiers looked surprised and looked at their leader in disbelief, not knowing why she wanted to participate in this...Patrolling an area wasn't the most fun thing to do.
"She's a level 6 mage, she could very well be part of a squad. "Marcus said, looking at his soldiers.
There were no objections and soon, the whole group scouted the area.
After watching for hours, which was very boring but peaceful, giving Lucia a peace that right now was a good thing for her current situation, the group finished scouting, deciding it was safe enough to rest for a moment.
Still, two of the men, the one with the shield and the mage, decided to stay. Lucia, Marcus and the assassin returned to the building.
When Marcus returned to the building, after greeting her parents, he went to check on his brother, who was now awake.
He was strangely in an upright position, sitting upright, with his back straight and eyes closed, looking focused.
"Are you all right, Sir Viktor," Marcus asked carefully.
"Yes. "Viktor replied calmly, opening his eyes.
"It's amazing that your family has achieved such power..."
"Does it have anything related to politics?" asked Marcus curiously.
"No."
"We just hunt a lot... "Viktor didn't give much information.
Lucia simply stood watching quietly.
"I see..."(Marcus)
"I simply asked because perhaps, if you had influence, you were able to use it to easily hunt the first monsters and then use that advantage..."(Marcus)
It seemed that Marcus wasn't that surprised, even though they had reached a relatively high level, even more than the average soldiers.
Well, if you thought about it, there was no reason to be surprised, not that it was something that impressive.
The soldiers still had certain protocols. They certainly leveled up easily in the beginning, when they still had weapons.
The average level of a soldier was something that right now a normal civilian would dream of possessing.
But not everyone had a high rank in the military. Only those with truly high ranks could take advantage of that to level up as quickly as possible and with less risk.
Although Marcus and his group looked pretty good, they were probably just ordinary soldiers, a little stronger than the current average soldier.
The family, although they were elite among common people, barely had enough to survive well in this new normal.
It was not so surprising that the average level of soldiers was not higher, because of the fact that they had missions and restrictions.
A soldier had to patrol certain areas, limiting oneself to this, and not killing anything if there was nothing there to kill.
They also had to deliver food and had little free time to hunt more.
With weapons it would not be a serious problem for a squad of zombies or average monsters, but in exchange for their relatively high safety when hunting, they would also have to follow orders.
A lone group of civilians might risk more, but in the end, they could hunt as much as they wanted, for as many areas as they wanted. Of course, hunting a lot meant a higher risk.
Especially if they got tired while hunting and tried to follow more...
But in the end, the advantage that the soldiers had was not so high, most of them did not participate in many killings when it was possible to use firearms, and now there were no more firearms.
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