"Everyone has checked in, nothing strange has happened since our arrival." Tia said as she sat down next to Cain.
"Good. We just have to wait for the bandits arrival and we can be done with the mission." Cain replied as he took another bite out of his steak.
Cain was seated at a small round table within the towns best tavern. It was late afternoon and the sun would be setting in the next hour or so, making his meal a late lunch or earlier dinner depending on who ask.
"Is it really okay for us to just wait for them? Shouldn't we be looking for them?" Tia asked. She had been picking at the skin on her fingernails for several minutes while staring out the window next to their table.
"Maybe." Cain shrugged. Tia didn't seem pleased by his response so stopped eating to explain his reasoning better.
"Look, we know they're coming here. If we go out looking for them it could take days before we even have a hint about where their base is. This way, we can catch a good number of them after only a day and question them for the rest." Cain explained.
"But by having them come here the town and it's people will be on danger if we have to fight them." Tia protested, still not confident in the plan.
"And what do you think would happen if we went out looking for them? They would come here as soon as we left and attack the town anyway. Then they would attack every town and collage nearby during the week we spend looking for them."
Tia was flustered by Cain's response. She was feeling anxious about the coming fight and wasn't able to think too clearly about anything other than the civilians who could get hurt.
Seeing that she didn't ask further questions, Cain continued to eat his food as silence descended upon the table for several minutes.
"I'm from a town just like this." Tia suddenly said, breaking the silence. "We had a group of bandits that would come and demand payment from us every few days. If we couldn't pay, they destroyed some homes or shops.
We had guards initially but after the bandits repeated attacks they had either died trying to do their job or they left the town.
One day, a few of the men from the town were sick of being taken advantage of. They took some of the equipment that was meant for the town guards and confronted the bandits when they showed up again.
The bandits killed all of the men who tried to fight back but not before they lost some of their own men. They demanded we pay them for the loss they suffered but when we couldn't produce enough Ven they burned half the town to the ground and killed dozens of people.
The military finally decided to do something and sent a squad to the destroyed town. I saw their Captain meet with the bandits from my half burned house.
The bandits handed something to the Captain and within a few minutes his squad left the town without doing anything about the bandits.
My father was one of the men who tried to fight the bandits and my mother died in the fire. I eventually ended up with my uncle a few villages away.
I couldn't believe that someone who was meant to protect us just left without doing a thing. I just wanted to make sure we weren't going to be like that Captain, a group of soldiers who took a bribe and went home without doing a thing."
Her eyes were watering and she had ripped the skin around her nails open enough that she was bleeding.
Cain was surprised that she was telling him all this but he wasn't too surprised to hear about her circumstances.
"Im from a small village." Cain began saying "We had some bandits harass us over the years as well, demanding money and resources. We didn't have someone from the military show up and then leave with a bribe like you...no, for us the military never showed up at all.
We sent so many requests but they never responded in any way. The bandits eventually stopped showing up after a few years but not before half the village had died because they couldn't afford to take care of themselves.
The only reason the bandits stopped coming was because they knew there was nothing left for them to take.
I would never allow something like that to happen to any town or village. You don't have to worry about our intentions with these bandits, we're going to do what we need to, nothing less."
Tia's lips curled into a sad smile "I hate how common stories like ours are. Every town and village has these problems but the military doesn't do anything to change that."
"I agree. So let us be the ones who do. The people that lead the military have always been nobles, who we know only look out for themselves.
But Infernum? Abilities were given at random and the majority of us aren't nobility. We're a group that's just as, if not more, powerful than the military and our orders are given to us by commoners who understand the people's needs.
We arrived here after only a few days had passed between attack and report and we've barely even established our chain of command, that's already leaps better than the military response time.
We just have to do better, that way stories like ours become far less common." Cain said with determination in his eyes.
The sad smile on Tia's face turned into a far happier one. Her eyes, rather than determination, were filled with admiration.
"Your face is a bit red, are you feeling alright?" Cain suddenly asked.
Tia quickly turned her face away and got up from her seat "Y-Yes I'm fine! I'm going to go check on the others." She said with a slightly panicked voice as she hurried out the room.
"Alright, if you so..." Cain shrugged and went back to eating his food.
The sun went down and another hour went by after that. Cain was standing outside the tavern practicing his ability on some pebbles lying around, anything to keep himself occupied while he waited.
"Captain!" An Officer shouted as he ran to Cain "They're here!"
Dropping the pebbles and picking up his hammers, Cain started walking to the place the Officer pointed "Its about time, I was getting really bored of just waiting around."
Most of the Infernai were already standing at this particular entrance to the town and Cain had to push passed his squad members to get to the front.
The entrance was well lit, just like the streets, by a series of crystals that were set up at even intervals.
The man was around 1.9 meters tall and had long brown hair that almost reached his shoulders in length. He was missing his left eye and had a large vertical scar running over that part of his face.
The woman was wearing a brown cloak that hid her entire body underneath, all except for her face that wasn't covered. She was roughly 1.65 meters tall and had long red hair that disappeared behind her back.
"You must be their leader." Cain said, point his hammer at the large man "And you must be the ability user." He moved the hammer and pointed it towards the girl "So, am I right?"
The girl smirked but didn't say anything, the large man took half a step forward and replied with a smirk on his face as well.
"Maybe. What's it to you, little soldier?"
"Oh you know, orders and all that. See, we've been told there's a bit of a bandit problem around here, you haven't heard of anything like that have you?" Cain said with an overly sarcastic tone.
The entire bandit group laughed, although some more nervously than others. The large man spoke again "I might have heard something like that." He said, generating more laughter from his group.
"So what are you gonna now that you've found us, little soldier?" The large man asked.
"Arrest you, of course." Cain replied with a smile.
There was a pause where everything was silent before the entire bandit group burst into hysterical laughter.
"You... You think you can arrest us!?" The large man said amidst his laughter as he wiped tears from his eyes.
"We have more people than you, little soldier! Not to mention an ability user." He gestured towards the woman "One ability user is worth at least ten normal people, haven't you heard?"
Cain smiled and this time it was the Infernai that laughed. "Yeah, I've heard. Why do you think we're so confident?"
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