Chapter 148: It was Just Some Cleaning Up “Guard…” Nina’s voice was stern, though her tone was more inquisitive in nature. “What are you doing?” “There were a few worms, hostile worms, that had snuck aboard this vessel on this man’s ship.” The man in question, Benjamin, couldn't say anything in response, as he was still being crushed by my soul pressure; overall, he was very weak. [Star Mapping] was quite a powerful ability, and I had been using it the entire duration of my time here. Before I had even left Nina’s ship, I was keeping a rough track of everyone else I could notice across all the various ships. Of course, my control and sight were far from perfect; multitasking and actually tracking everyone's actions was a bit much for me, but I could keep a vague eye on them until they began acting actually suspicious. Still, it gave me an idea of where everyone belonged. So, once this bastard showed up, I refocused on his ship. Wow, there were quite a few very suspicious people with weapons at the ready. Were they wearing the classic, embarrassing team uniform? No, that would be a little stupid in this situation, but I could feel the slight hostile intent when I sent my soul pressure over to verify. I mean, it was to be expected. (“ Very, and yes, I will help you confirm, despite you already doing a successful job, they are from Dominous Hood ”) You knew ahead of time? (“ Of course it wasn’t, and don’t complain; you would’ve figured it out anyway ”) The fact I did means I really can’t complain, bloody stars. My light constructs formed outside and phased through the viewing glass windows of the ship. This is harder than I thought. (“ Pushing your new abilities, why not just deal with the problem? ”) Well, capturing them is probably the better solution, so blowing up the ship wouldn’t be a good idea. (“ Doesn’t the ship have an auto-repair function? It should be able to handle a few spikes penetrating its shell ”) Eh, as you said, pushing my abilities. Good opportunity. (“ Taking everyone’s safety into account here ”) Espr sarcastically replied. Everyone here should be at least well-trained, since we were about to go on a raid to an enemy facility, not to mention there would’ve easily been at least one leak. It easily was a hotspot for potential danger; anyone who decided to ignore all that… eh… I couldn’t really give a shit? But, I was trying to do Nina a favour and cause as little disruption as possible. Nina asked again, “Guard?” I replied, “Sorry, this is just taking a little longer than I expected.” “Is everything okay?” Susan asked. She looked over to Benjamin, who had been completely frozen in place. She didn’t seem to mind the idiot being shut up, but everything else seemed to be concerning her. “Oh yeah. Just give me about a minute.” My light had infiltrated the ship and formed into many numerous pins of light. “I am about to finish up the job.” While I was having this discussion, my blades stabbed into my targets and tore their weapons apart. “Sigh, I wonder if I could’ve gained some sort of truth detection ability.” “Guard, what is happening, exactly?” “Oh, this dude has Dominous Hood idiots on his ship, like, not hidden on his ship; I mean, fully prepared to fight.” “Ergh—!” Benjamin tried to yell, but he wasn’t able to move his mouth. Nina sighed, “Sure, I will trust you on this.” Nina activated her skills, and chains appeared and wrapped around Benjamin, and she threw a small box that covered his mouth in a mask to stop him from making noises. I said, “Oh, I didn’t know you could do that.” She replied, “Didn’t know you could freeze people in place.” I let go of the man and tripped and fell onto the ground. I examined the ship and did a once-over after everyone had been pinned to the ground. “Nina, can you get people to check out ship-EFGA?” “Will be done in a moment,” Nina called out. “Nathen, can you imprison Benjamin for a moment? It appears he brought unwanted company.” From my helmet, I could see she had messaged her crew and sent another message to a few other people she was working with about an immediate check on the dude’s ship. That was easy. I managed to solve the issue before something blew up this time. (“ Less fun in the end ”) Realistically, I have had enough fun, and if I really want to enjoy myself, we got the raid anyway. Then another man walked up; by Nina’s expression, this seemed to be the big man. “What is happening?” By the tone of his voice, he wasn’t having fun. “As stated, it appears Benjamin brought our foes along with him.” Nathen asked, “Do you have evidence?” He clearly didn’t want a scene to happen, today of all days, but hey, it was going to happen. I mean, Espr, this upcoming conversation could be at least a little bit fun? (“ Now you are just making things up ”) “Nathen, I don’t make unjustified claims; I already have my men going to his ship to deal with. Now I just need him imprisoned while we sort out the situation and figure out if there are any other rats on board these ships.” “Nina, we are supposed to have an order for this.” Nathen said, “We cannot disturb the peace right now.” Nina responded, “This isn’t meant to be a party; this is supposed to be the final day before we go to war.” “I have to agree, Nathen,” Another man walked up, wearing full set of armour besides his helmet; his voice clearly wasn’t happy. “This isn’t supposed to be a time just for peace; while we are allowed to enjoy ourselves for a moment, the goal isn’t to have fun, it is the final stages before we fight, so we should be especially cautious of those who wish to thwart this.” I sent a message to Nina. “Who’s this?” She replied to my message, saying this was the actual captain of this ship, Frodulf. The three of them got into a quick argument. Well, Nina and Frodulf argued with Nathen, who apparently was in charge of security. Who has clearly done a pretty shit job, so congratulations to him, I guess; someone assigned the wrong person. …Once this is done, I will check up with Lila. I haven’t found any other intruders yet. Anyone who is actually being sneaky. There are few people that feel anger or have hostile intentions, but those can be easily directed at others they don’t like. Plus anyone hiding in plain sight would be hiding their emotions. (“ Didn’t you attack the previous lot because they had hostile intent? ”) They also had weapons and bombs ready to be used, so my reasoning was very justified. After a while, Nathen finally dragged Benjamin away. Once that was done, I could see that Nina and Frodulf were ready to start talking. Before they did, I asked, “Nina, do you require me to deal with the ship as well?” “No, stay by my side in case anything else happens.” She ordered. Susan, who had been staring at all this going down, asked, “So, who is this guard of yours?” “Someone I trust.” I felt Nina’s genuine words; they were nearly heartfelt. “To an extent.” “Extent?” Susan asked worriedly. Frodulf sighed, “Nina?” It nearly felt like he was ready to criticise her even though he didn’t want to. “I trust her with my safety; I don’t completely trust her to not annoy me.” “Oh, in that way.” Frodulf nodded. “Good to see it is someone close then.” I feel like I am being insulted. I hate it that you are likely right. Frodulf and Nina started their actual talk, and I stood back and soaked in the conversation. Since it was between two important people, I was thinking I could learn something useful. Might as well keep an eye out for any other interlopers. The two of them did talk about some important things. Nina first gave the details on how we apprehended Benjamin and how her men were currently raiding his ship. Frodulf apparently held enough trust in Nina that he was fine with her being light in the details on how she actually discovered the betrayal, but judging by the look in his eye, he seemed to think it was for best to save that for later after the work had been completed. Once that reporting was done, they proceeded to exchange quick pleasantries. I had stepped back to not being in their way, and so did Susan, who decided as well it was best to let those two have their discussion. Nothing yet… Hmm… that being the only group of intruders doesn’t seem right. Well… they could be the only group of violent intruders. While I was listening to their conversation and continuing my spying efforts, my current neighbour said hello, “Sorry for not introducing myself earlier. I am Susan.” “It is alright; I’m just a guard for today.” “Nonsense.” Susan rolled her eyes. “We are all–most of us–here today are ready for combat.” “That’s fair, but we are in different stations,” I said. I was trying to deflect this conversation a little bit; I don’t know, I just wasn’t feeling as chatty at the moment. “Don’t worry about it. Are you fine? But what did you do to Benjamin earlier? I didn’t feel any mana?” “Oh, that?” I nearly wanted to giggle, “A little party trick.” I rethought my previous decision and decided answering a few questions wouldn’t be too bad. Let’s see if I can have some fun with this while I wait.