Chapter 5: Rescue and Reorganization

Carolina Blighted Zone

Fifteen minutes after sending his email back home, the pilot of the Huey that Bordraab is in notices a bunch of burned out vehicles on the ground. “Sir, I think I see the FOB that was set up as well as the command post. Want me to set down?” He calls over his radio.

The Cobra that was with them loops back around. “I see a resupply point that appears to be intact.” The pilot says. “Could be a good idea to resupply as well.” Bordraab nods. “Agreed. Set us down.” The helicopters come back around and settle down in place, a ring popping up around the intact supply point inside the FOB. The Cobra starts to get resupplied and Phoenix hops out. “I see a jet over there!” She says. Bordraab nods to her. “Go get it. We should take any equipment we can back on out of the line and back to DC.”

The infantry starts getting off the helicopters and heads out into the command post, both to look for survivors and for any equipment they could salvage. Bordraab walks over to the main command vehicle, a burned out wreck where he knows that Nifka was at. He takes a look inside and brings up his menu to check the inventory. A bunch of burned out circuitry in there, no fuel, no ammo. He blinks as he sees a knife in there. It was Nifka’s knife. He takes it into his inventory and spawns it into his hand, looking over the blade and handle. It was burnt and slightly warped from the heat, the HP of the knife down to almost nothing.

“Sir! I got some combat reports over here.” Calls out Kenichi over the radio. Bordraab puts the knife in his inventory and goes over to Kenichi who offers the inventory transfer. He accepts it and looks at the descriptions. “Battle recording, engagement 03. Battle recording, engagement 05.” He nods. “These may come in handy.” He says. Kenichi nods, then turns to search for more equipment.

“I’ve got the remains of maps of the Blight.” Silver calls out.

“Found ammo over here!” Calls out Bardock. “Everyone come over and resupply. We’ll put the remainder in Huey four.”

“Sir, got some towed arty here. M102 batteries” Calls out Spacer. “Two intact pieces. I think we can put them under the two choppers we’re not using. They’ll come in real handy until we can replace what we had to leave behind.”

“See to it, Spacer.” Bordraab calls out. “Consult with the pilots about the maximum weight they can lift.” The Tabby nods and goes to it.

“Hey LT! The Phantom over here is good to go. Fully fueled and everything.” Calls out Phoenix. “Full HP too, the Endarkened left this FOB operational for some reason.”

Bordraab pokes his head around the wreck and nods. “Alright, get it up in the air. You’re cap over us. Engage only as necessary.” He recognizes it as the backup aircraft he would have used. He hasn’t let them know that he is good at all vehicles, a leftover of his time in Battlefield and a lifetime of playing flight simulators. He can fly fighters and fighter bombers, but helicopters are what he has problems with though he has worked on it in recent years. He likes to think of himself as a jack of all trades vehicle man.

A pilot comes walking over in a green flight suit with a patch for a cobra. A male human with no Saiyan tail. “Good to meet you face to face, sir. I’m ‘Snake.’” He says, offering a hand. Bordraab shakes it and smiles. “Bordraab. Nice flying out there.” He says. Snake scratches the back of his head. “Well, thanks. I tried.”

“Where’s your gunner?” Bordraab asks.

Snake motions back to where he had landed. “He’s staying in the Cobra to make sure we get fully resupplied. Where are we going sir?”

Bordraab scritches his chin, his goatee starting to grow back though he has a day’s worth of unshaven growth on his jawline he’d need to clean up if he wants to have ONLY a goatee. Now he gets a good, solid look at the Cobra. It had a few battle scars on it, testament to the air fighting it had done with a few gryphons. “After we finish here, we’re heading straight back to DC. I don’t think our guild plots are safe anymore. Speaking of which, do you know any industrialists?” The pilot blinks and shakes his head. “Damn.” He clicks on his radio. “Anyone know any industrialists?” He calls. A bunch of negatives come back to him. Figures, combat specialists rarely get to know those who actually make their weapons.

After a few more minutes, Bordraab is starting to get antsy. “Alright everyone, let’s load up and get outta here before They come back.” He says. Everyone starts heading for the helicopters and loads up. Soon enough they are airborne, with gunners on each helicopter’s machine guns. Two helicopters were holding towed batteries under them as they fly. That’s when he gets the message.

“Yo Bor, I left like you said and got to DC. Ten minutes later the guild bases were attacked by enemy air power. Everything’s destroyed and I don’t think anyone, even the other industrial guys, got out of there. It was a big time air strike and the bases are crawling with bad guys. When you come back, go around the guild zones and come into the city.”

“Pilot! When you get close enough, bypass the guild areas and keep the helicopters low to the ground. There’s enemy air annihilating our guild bases right now.” He says immediately after reading the message.

“Roger that sir.” The pilot calls back. Bardock looks at him from the seat across from him. “Got a message?” He asks, obviously wanting information. Bordraab grins. “Yeah, I have a friend who’s an industrialist. Just before the last battle I sent him a message to get out of the base and back to DC. He left immediately. He just sent me that message.”

“Sweet.” Bardock says, smiling. “That means we can at least stay equipped at our level.”

Bordraab nods. “Yup, once he gets set up again, he can easily keep us supplied. The trick will be getting him set up. He says the guild zones are crawling with Endarkened. That means They have a spawn area within easy range of DC.”

Bardock nods. “The guys leveling outside the city are in for a rough time of it.”

“Coming out of terrain following.” The pilot calls out as the helicopter starts rising up in the air. “We have left the Blight now. Enemy air power should be greatly reduced. We are also not following the line of advance from the guild areas. We’ll be heading to the beach and following it north to DC.”

The course they were following did seem to be changing. Bordraab leans back and relaxes as they keep on going. The sound of jet engines overhead is no surprise to him, though the loudness of it was. The F4 flies by next to the formation of helicopters, letting everyone see she was up and in the sky. Now she was pulling up into the clouds and blue sky. A blue sky he never thought he’d see again.

An announcement comes onto the screen, sprawling across the upper side of the HUD in large letters.

Player Nation of United Kingdom Destroyed

Bordraab is a bit confused. The UK was destroyed? “What’s that announcement all about?” Asks Miu.

“That’s an announcement?” Bardock asks. Bordraab gets it. “That means all the player sections in the UK are wiped out and most of its player population has been killed, I bet.”

“How many people do you think were there?” Silver radios over.

“Couple thousand probably.” Bardock says. “I had a few friends who were playing the game over there. Hope it was quick.” Bardock sighs and looks down. So many dead. Course, so many probably died in the fighting here. They really need to get back to DC and get reorganized.

Player Nation of Japan Destroyed

Outside Alaria, Fantasy Faction Territory

Player Nation of Russia Destroyed

“There’s another one.” Akeno says, her face looking like she’s just about ready to burst into tears again.

“Now now, calm down.” Rias says. She and her group are outside of city limits, heading towards the guild zones. They had gotten word that after the massive attack, the Endarkened had left the guild zones for the fantasy faction. No one had been there and the people who were watching had hidden. The guild zones here are a lot closer to town than the ones in the human lands and the lower level players had almost all been in town. The few who weren’t hid. The guess was that the Endarkened thought all the players in this town had moved to another town. It was something Rias intended to take advantage of.

“Remember what we’re doing Akeno.” Rias says, putting an arm around her. “With Them gone from the guild zones, we’re going to go out there and see what we can salvage. Anything to make us better equipped.”

Akeno nods, still sniffing and struggling not to cry.

“I’m hoping for a proper blacksmith’s anvil!” Elias says, putting on a strong face, flexing his right bicep and putting his open left palm across it. “Then I can make us some good shit to use.”

“I’m hoping to find a guild made katana. If I only get that, I’ll be happy.” Miya says, her hand resting on the hilt of her blade as they walk. Rias just does her best to console her friend and keep her from bawling. The Fall had hit Akeno worse than all the others in the group. She had REALLY wanted to go fight, despite what she had said and now that she knows it would have meant her own death, the thoughts of what could have been plague her as bad as any person who had a near death experience.

“How long is it going to take us to get there?” Elias asks, looking around.

“An hour, give or take.” Miya says, for the second time in ten minutes. “Please don’t ask again, I’ll begin to think you’re slow.” She nudges him. In reality, Miya was a teacher and Elias is starting to remind her too much of her students. She has taken care to hide the fact that she’s a teacher from the others, as well as hiding her age.

“Yeah yeah…why did they put them so far outside of town?” Elias responds, linking his fingers behind his head and leaning back his head onto his hands. “And why haven’t we seen any bots out here?”

“Good question.” Rias says. “Here’s another one, why did the Endarkened abandon the guild plots? I heard they could use them to respawn by blighting them, just like how a player guild can use them for respawn by building an altar on the guild grounds.”

Elias sighs gustily and looks down. “Yeah, good for us though. Aint the guild lands we’re goin to the ones that belonged to the Knights of the Blood Oath?” This gets Akeno to raise her head. “It…did?” She asks. Rias nods. “It did, so cheer up, will you?” She says cheerfully to her. Akeno nods her head and wipes her nose. “I’ll try.” She says.

An hour later the group comes into a clearing and looks upon what could only be the aftermath of a serious battle. “Oh my…” Miya says, staring at the burnt out buildings. Even Elias is silent for once. It’s a bit too much for Akeno, she sinks to her knees and starts crying at the sight of the burned buildings. Not one was still standing.

“Come on, let’s go look around.” Rias says, leading the group forward. Akeno doesn’t move, but Rias figures she won’t get into trouble there as she grieves. To be honest, she felt like crying too but knows that if she did, the group would suffer. She was the team leader after all! It may just be an empty title, but she will act the part.

At the outskirts of town the group splits up. Rias heads for what she believes was the guild headquarters building, the only stone building in town, though it is plenty wrecked. Miya heads for a large wooden structure with Elias, thinking it to be an armory. Elias is hoping it had an anvil or a smithy in there too.

Rias pokes her head into the shattered wall of the building and looks around. Nothing in there, not even a single piece of salvageable wood. It was the guild headquarters but the main room is nothing to brag about anymore. She walks inside, looking around, casting a shield spell on herself so she could survive any collapse. Seeing a doorway, she heads towards it.

Miya looks inside a large structure and sees it was indeed an armory, but there are no surviving weapons. She sighs, going inside and looking around at all the shattered weapons. She kneels down and picks up a broken katana and looks it over. It would have been great if it was intact, but she can’t use this. Elias looks at it and then around her. “What a mess. They didn’t leave anything for us, did they?” He asks, heading back. “Wait, they did!” He says, slapping his hand on an anvil. “They tried messin’ this thing up, but the baby held tough!” He looks triumphant and taps his finger to it, bringing up the menu. “Huh? Steal?” He asks, seeing the ‘pick up’ button was replaced with ‘steal from the guild Knights of the Blood Oath.’

Rias comes into the next room and looks around. This was the main room, no doubt. Torn banners, broken swords, and a body. She gasps as the relevance of seeing a body hits her and she rushes over. The body was a dragoness with green highlights that look a lot like the Northern Lights. As she touches the woman, she sees the health bar. She has about a hundred hitpoints left, but she’s alive! “Oh my God.” Rias whispers, then immediately starts to work with a healing spell. After it is cast and the healing starts, Rias stands up and yells out loud, “Guys, I found one alive!” The others come running in a few minutes later, including Akeno. She had cried herself out and had gone after her friends. Lucky she did, she wouldn’t have heard Rias’ call if she had stayed put.

With all of them there, Rias looks down at the dragoness. “She’s a surviving guild member.” She says. “A beta tester who survived the battle!”

“Calm down, Rias.” Miya says, “We do not know if she is a beta tester or one of the normal players they recruited before the battle.”

Rias huffs a little bit and looks a bit downcast, but doesn’t say anything. She perks up a bit when a groan from the sleeping woman draws all their attention. Rias kneels down and rests a hand lightly on the dragoness’ shoulder. The woman opens her eyes, the green orbs flicking around and then up to her. “Who…” She starts but breaks off, noticing her health bar. “You’ve healed me…” She says, sitting up.

“Yeah I did. You were the only one I found here though. What’s your name? And are there other survivors?” Rias asks in a soft tone.

“Aurora.” The dragoness says, “And no, I was the only one to make it back. The beasts followed me here. I had to use a feign death spell. It drained me down to near death and put me in a coma. I suppose it worked.”

Rias nods. “Were you a beta tester at the battle?”

“Unable to resist, huh?” Miya asks, facepalming.

Aurora seems to take it well. “Yes, I was. I was in the mage line, primarily a healer. When I ran out of MP I was told to go to the back. When the retreat was sounded I ran back here fast as I could. I dared not fly, there were gryphons in the air and a fate worse than death awaits a dragoness caught by a dark gryphon. I saw some of them captured during the fighting. They were dragged off screaming into the sky and the gryphons went somewhere with them.” She says, shuddering. “A friend of mine was taken. She still lives, but she doesn’t answer my messages. Many were captured instead of killed and dragged off nearly dead. Men, women, it did not matter.”

Rias shudders herself. Why would bots do such a thing? What was happening right now to those people? Questions for some other time. “Come on, they left the guild zone for some reason. We need to leave.”

“First, you have an intact anvil that I could use. Can I have it?” Elias asks. Miya pops him on the back of his head. “Geeze, do you have NO tact?” She asks, sticking a finger up at Elias’ face, about an inch from his nose. Elias smiles nervously and raises up both hands in surrender. “You need to learn when you should say something and when you shouldn’t!” She says and starts to scold him more when Aurora speaks up.

“If you take up the oath me and the others took up before battle, you can have it and I will go with you.” Aurora says, getting shakily to her feet.

“What oath?” Ask Rias and Akeno at the same time.

“That the fight is not over until everyone is out of the game world safely.” Aurora answers. “That is why our guild is named the Knights of the Blood Oath.”

Rias nods. “I will take that oath. I swear that I will not stop fighting until everyone is out.” Elias, Miya and Akeno all do the same.

Aurora smiles for the first time. “Good. Then you’re knights now.” She says, inviting them to the guild, surprising them all. “Being the last member, I assumed control of the guild.” She says in response to their questioning looks. “You…Rias right? You saved me, and you are the party leader. Now you are the person in charge of the Knights of the Blood Oath. I’m no leader myself, I wouldn’t be able to lead the guild. Besides, I owe you my life so this is a small price to pay.”

Rias is left speechless. Akeno speaks up for her though, saying, “Wait, woah woah. Leading a party is one thing, but leading a guild?! Rias, are you sure you’re up for this?”

Rias looks at her friend, then at the others. Miya nods when Rias looks her way and Elias has that stupid toothy grin of his plastered on his face and gives a thumbs up. Drawing in a breath, Rias agrees to lead the Knights of the Blood Oath.

Outside Washington, D.C., United States of America (Virtual)

Bordraab had spent the last several hours reading the RL news about the battle that was fought.

The Fall of the Betas is by far the worse calamity to ever happen to the citizens of the United States. So far, 175,000 deaths have been reported from the player base in the last 24 hours with the death toll rising more and more as families report the passing of loved ones. It is safe to say that the entire population of Beta players from Terra Nova has been annihilated. How much longer until the rest of the player base follows the into oblivion is unknown right now. Official estimates are that the players may last another two weeks, perhaps three.

He turns it off at that point. He should have known better than to read an article titled ‘The Lost Generation: The Terror of Terra Nova.’ Course the article was several hours old by now and hadn’t taken into account the deaths in the other nations. Try as he might, there are no articles about it yet. With no broadcasts going out the news organizations had to get news as it trickled in.

“Well, seems the news has written us off.” He says to Bardock. Bardock smirks at that, chewing on a toothpick. “I haven’t ever put much stock in those damned fools. FOX, CNN, MSNBC, they’re all the same; Got a side and stickin’ to it. Every other opinion that contradicts their own is ‘wrong’ and ‘foolish’ and the ones who have them are ‘traitors’ and ‘idiots.’ It’s funny to watch them argue with each other too, name calling worse than my teachers woulda let me do in middle school.” He shrugs, leaning back. “We’re alive. We’re still kickin’. Let the Endarkened shiver in fear of us for a little bit.”

Bordraab grins at that one. “So, when we get back, we’ll have some recruiting to do.” He says. “I’ve decided we’re going to patrol the area between the old guild zones and the city. Try to keep it safe and let the newbies level up some. How does the name ‘DeMilitarized Zone Peacekeepers’ sound to you as a guild name?” He asks.

“What’s wrong with 1^st MEU?” Bardock asks and spits out his toothpick. Silver was paying attention now, his ears perked up and his eyes upon Bordraab.

“Well, the 1^st MEU died out in the field with everyone else, victims of arrogance, pride, greed, and blind ambition. I don’t want us to be like that. A fresh start is what we need.” Bordraab says, managing to keep a straight face even though he feels like not meeting the sergeant’s gaze.

“City in sight.” Comes the call over the intercom. Finally, after what seemed to be hours of flying, Bordraab is very happy to see the familiar sight of Washington, D.C. Flying over the low level fields, he sees several low level players look up at them in confusion. No doubt they had listened to the news and thought all the beta testers were dead. Still, they continue with their leveling, oblivious to the fact that there were serious Endarkened forces less than an hour away by vehicle.

Phoenix comes in low, passing alongside the helicopters and then banking off to the right to head towards the airport. That was where all the non aligned pilots could park their aircraft, not that any would be on sale for a long time yet. The helicopters follow her, coming into the airport on a straight line, landing next to the hangar the Phantom taxies over to, the Hueys carrying the towed artillery landing first, the others around them. Bordraab and the others dismount and head towards the hangar.

“Alright, first thing I want is for everyone to get some chow in them and a full night’s sleep. Rest of the day is for R and R.” He says to Bardock and Silver as they walk beside him. “Silver, make sure everyone gets the word.” Silver nods and heads off to tell the men. “Bardock. If we’re gonna pull this new guild off, we’ll need a chain of command. Since everyone already says I’m the leader of this group, I’ll form it. That’ll make me a General by the game rules. I’ll need a commander for the ground forces.”

Bardock is nodding along and walks with Bordraab a few steps before he realizes what he’s being told. “Oh, God. An officer? Me? Please sir, anything but that!” He says in mock distress.

“Yup, an officer. What I’m thinking is that you’ll be the guy in charge of the ground forces.” Bordraab says, patting him on the shoulder and stopping their movement about ten feet outside the hangar Phoenix had brought her aircraft into. “You’ll do fine.” He then looks over at where Silver is coming back. “Silver! Can you do me a solid and go get Phoenix away from her Phantom and over here?” He asks loudly. Silver nods and heads on over to the hangar and to get the pilot.

“Captain Bardock.” Bardock says, trying the title out and rubbing his head. He never wanted an officer’s billet but here it is.

“Yup, and as we get more people, your rank will go up accordingly. As it stands now though, we don’t need a rank higher than a ‘captain’ to signify upper command and ‘sergeant’ to show those in charge of the various squads.

“Sounds good. Can I assign the ranks under me?”

“Sure can. I’d like you to keep Silver on as a sergeant though. He’s got a good head on his shoulders.”

Bardock nods. “I don’t have a problem with that. He’ll make a good Lieutenant when we get more people. Right now, we’ll need to merge the platoons…”

“Hey! You can’t be here!” Comes a call from off to their right. The three men look over and see a german shepherd trying to get past. Immediately Bordraab starts that way, Bardock and Silver following a few steps behind. “Oh, lemme through. I’m a part of the guild too.” Kthla says.

“Yeah right. And I’m a monkey’s uncle.” Kenichi says.

“Then I guess we’ll call you ‘Bobo the shit flinger’ from now on.” Bordraab says. “That’s Kthla, our lead industrialist.”

Kenichi steps back, his expression not changing one bit. “Sorry.” He says simply. Kthla smirks at him and walks over to Bordraab.

“Good to see you Bor. I thought you wouldn’t make it for a while there, what with all the news was sayin.” He says, slapping Bordraab on the shoulder.

Bordraab shrugs. “Yeah, we barely made it out. Tell me, any ideas on where to set up? We can’t stay on the airfield all day.”

Kthla scratches his chin a bit, thinking about it. “Hmm, there IS a small place nearby, on the other side of town. The beta guilds never took it because they thought it was too far from the good hunting grounds. It’s close to the city and has decent resources.”

Bordraab nods. “Safe from attack?” He asks.

“Should be, it’s on the opposite side of the city, backed up against the ocean.”

Player Nation of China Destroyed

Another nation fallen. Bordraab winces. “I’ll get on it right away.” Kthla says. “Come over in about thirty minutes and I’ll have a basic structure setup. Any particulars you want right now?”

“Yeah, we’ll need small arms production, an airfield and a headquarters buiding that can track a battle over the entire area of the city and out into the old guild areas. Other than that, typical loadout.” Bordraab says to him, grinning.

Kthla rubs the back of his head. “That’ll take some doing. Space will be at a premium. Why the small arms place though?” He asks, nodding to Silver and Phoenix as they come up.

“Soon the Endarkened are going to come running in here to wipe us out. All the low level players will need weapons they can use beyond the low level crap peddled out by the NPC stores. If you can get up a good amount of level 10 weapons and put them in the stores along with ammo, they’ll be properly armed. Some shoulder fired rockets will also be great since this will be city fighting.” Bordraab hasn’t noticed that practically the entire force has closed up a bit around them as they stand out on the tarmac.

Kthla nods, still thinking, and during his thinking he notices the artillery pieces sitting on the tarmac. “I can also put up mounts on the main building for those arty pieces.” He says. “It’ll allow them to put fire outside the city effectively.”

Bordraab nods. “Before I let you get to it, I have something that needs doing.” He looks to Silver. “Sarge, gather up everyone.” He says. Silver nods and looks around. “Alright everyone, get over here.” He says loudly. It wasn’t too loud though and Bordraab realizes that everyone had been standing back just far enough to overhear but far enough back to not seem like they were. They all come in.

“Alright guys. You know the score. You know what I mean to do. Any objections?” He asks. The men and women all look at him steadily. “Good, then I’ll form our guild.” He says, bringing up his menu and forming the initial party. Him, Kthla, Bardock, Spacer and Phoenix. Together with them, he forms the guild. It automatically assigns him as ‘General’ and there’s nothing he can do about it. “Alright.” He says, flicking to another option and sending off an invite to everyone present, disbanding the party shortly after. Everyone accepts and he dismisses the menu. “I’ll have official ranks and a unit patch in a few hours.” He says.

“Alright, that’s all there is right now.” Silver says, speaking up. “You’re all dismissed. Go find a place to stay at, get some food in you, sell anything you don’t want and we can’t use, and then get some sleep. We’ll have a place for you to report to tomorrow morning.” With that, the troops head off in small groups. Silver waves to Bordraab and heads off with them. As Bordraab waves back, Phoenix comes over. “If it’s alright, I would like to stay with you guys.” She says. “Me too.” Spacer says, looking at them all, ears flicking this way and that.

Bordraab smiles to her. “I’d like it if you do, Captain.” He says, making her blink at him. “What, me?” She asks, surprised.

“Do you see any other dedicated pilots who stayed around to see what she could do?” He asks. Phoenix turns and looks for Snake, but he had already left with the enlisted and went to find a place to lay his head.

 “Well, you’re all officers now. Bardock, you’re in charge of the ground pounders, which right now is our mechanized infantry. Phoenix, you’re in charge of our air wing, both the fixed wing and the helicopters. Spacer, you’re in charge of the support sections and our logistics. You’ll work pretty closely with Kthla, who is going to be in charge of industry. Think you can handle that?” He asks, looking between the two. A cat and a dog, but hey! They’ve got human players. Both of them nod. “Good, alright, now we all need to go get some rest and K has some work to do.” With that, the group breaks up.

Alaria, Fantasy Faction Territory

It had taken longer to get back than it had to go out, but finally Rias and her party make it back into town. She sighs and leans against a building. “I thought we’d never make it back!” She says, sinking down to sit on the ground. There had been regular spawns on the way back and the group had to fight to get back. Aurora looks around at the collection of buildings and smiles a little bit. “It’s been a long time since I was last here.” She says, holding out a hand to Rias. “Come, let’s head to the inn and get some sleep.”

“Sure, you guys go do that. I’m gonna rent out a store front here in town and start up workin!” Elias says. “Maybe tomorrow I’ll even have the place set up enough that we can live there while we build up the guild.”

Akeno smiles. “I’ll come help you.” She says. “It’ll give me something to do.” Elias nods and the pair walks into town to find that storefront that was available. Rias gets up with Aurora’s help and they head over to the Inn.

“I’m going to keep an eye on those two. Akeno is still in a delicate situation and Elias may try to take advantage of it.” She says, heading off at once in a trot to catch up with the pair of players.

“What will you do, Lady Rias?” Aurora asks. Rias blinks at that.

“’Lady’ Rias?” She asks, not sure if she likes the title.

“Yes, you are the Lady in charge of the Knights now, after all.” Aurora smiles at that. She is really glad the Knights are still a thing!

Rias groans at that. “Please please PLEASE don’t call me that!” She says. “I’m just ‘Rias’.”

“Alright…Rias.” Aurora says, seeming amused. “What are we going to do now?”

“Well, I’m thinking eat, then sleep, then figure it out in the morning.”

“A good plan. I shall accompany you.” Aurora leads the way, Rias moving quickly to catch up.

“Why do you talk like that?” She asks. “Like, formally and all that.”

Aurora shrugs. “My company is really formal when it comes to rank. Probably due to it being a Japanese company and a lot of workers here from there. I just got used to it.” The two continue to chat as they head to the inn. The innkeeper could get them a meal and they could then get some sleep.