Tools of War, and Cassandra... Again

Del grabbed the M240 from his back and he asked Pidma how to operate the gun. As far as he could tell, the operating might be not so different from MG-42. Still, asking Pidma would be the best idea.

"Pidma, how to operate this weapon?" Del asked.

"Talking with your spirit, again?" Cole asked.

"Yup," Del nodded.

[First of all, there's a safety button on the machine gun itself. You can press it to go safe or full auto. The operating mechanism isn't that far different from an MG-42 so you won't have any difficulty with it]

Del put the gun on safety, pulled the bolt backward and he lifted the feed cover. As usual, he loaded the 7.62x51 NATO into the machine gun. He then closed the feed tray and aimed at any target on the grassland.

Since there wasn't any target on the grassland, he just shot at the air. He pressed the safety button of his M240 and he pulled the trigger. A stream of bullets flew to the sky. Del just felt comforted by the sound of chugging machine gun. It was just satisfying.

"Ah, shooting at the sky, huh? It is not like there's an airship up above anyway," Cole commented.

"Airship?" Del asked. It was the first time he heard that term.

"Yup, airship. It's a giant flying fortress in the sky. You need flying troops just to deal damage to them. It fires cannonballs in our direction. You can think of it as a flying battleship, but bigger," Cole explained.

Thinking about it, was it really possible to make a flying battleship in that world? That was an engineering marvel, wasn't it? Even a flying battleship was not available on Earth. The most that he could find on Earth was a destroyer carrying missiles or an aircraft carrier.

"Do both sides have airships?" Del asked.

"Well, yes. If you are asking about the conflict between Reian and Elbanian, then yes, both sides have airships. Though, I have to say that Reian had a much better airship in comparison to the Elbanian. Too bad though, in air-to-air combat, your sophisticated technology wouldn't matter if the opponent outnumbered you ten to one," Cole commented.

"So basically, the Reian was slaughtered?" Del asked.

"If you are talking about the casualties, I'd say that Elbanian suffers much more than Reian, but in terms of who was victorious, Elbanian was victorious. Why? It's rather hard to fight twenty humans at once," Cole explained.

"What made the Elbanian retreat then if they won the war?" Del asked.

"Well, truthfully, I think it's because of the disarray of the previous mascots, or should I say, heroes?" Cole took a breath the continue, "Basically, without their symbol, Elbanian tended to fall into a civil disarray."

Del just replied with a nod. If this was true, then the unity between one hero to another was important then. Basically, the heroes were just a mascot for the Elbanian to make the public supported their expensive war against the demon.

Still, there was one question in Del's mind, "Were the previous heroes capable of killing the demonic lord?"

"Haha, demonic lord? What kind of joke is that? Trust me, you humans are sometimes overestimating those people," Cole coughed, "Anyway, the current king of Reian is Sirius IV. He is quite strong, but not as strong as you previously expected."

Cole's answer only created more questions for Del, "Huh? Can you explain more?"

"Alright, let me start from the beginning. Do you think thirty-ish people can hold an entire country on their own? If you say yes, I'd assume your brain is damaged. No, the heroes are definitely stronger than the strong demons, but spreading their power isn't exactly an option," Cole explained.

He then further explained that Elbanian wasn't as weak as Del expected previously. The Elbanian was a country with a huge amount of "expendable" forces. They usually ordered their soldiers to invade Reian using the morale boost that came from the heroes who were evidently stronger than average humans.

With that, the average Elbanian believed that they could win the war by using the power of the heroes even though the fact clearly said otherwise. Basically, the heroes were just a tool in warfare and they weren't that special.

Del only thought of them as special troops that could be deployed to the front line to boost the morale of the soldiers that were fighting the demons nonstop. As expected, the king was indeed just using the heroes as his own tool.

"So, they have been played like a damn fiddle?" Del asked.

"More or less," Del said.

Del nodded, "I see…"

Del put his machine gun on his back again and he walked back to his home. He wanted to do another guild quest, but he felt that the amount of money that he had was more than enough for now. Still, if there was one thing that was missing from him was the sense of having a real family.

Like it or not, Del was still attached to Anna in one way or another. Hell, they were even born together with Del coming out a little bit sooner than Anna. Separating both of them forcefully wasn't something that both of them liked.

Del stepped inside the front lawn of his house. However, there was someone at the front door of his house. That person was none other than the person that had opened him inside and out. That person was holding a backpack on his back. The person was a black-haired woman, waiting for someone to open the door for her.

"Cassandra, what are you doing in here?" Del asked.

Cassandra replied in human language, "I heard that you just moved in so I come for a visit, is there anything wrong?"

"Nah, Nah, everything is fine," Del said.

"Cole, how did the research go?" Cassandra asked.

Del gulped in anxiety. If Cole gave the wrong answer, it meant a long battle with Cassandra again.

"Yup, it's going very smooth thanks to my friend right here," Cole said.

Del sighed in relief, "Do you want to come inside?" He opened the door.

"Sure." Cassandra entered the house.

Del was… unsure about Cassandra. With how she was willing to treat him even after both of them had tried to kill each other, she seemed to be a rather responsible person. Still, there was the fact that Cassandra tried to kill Del without any hesitation.

"So… Cassandra, no hard feelings?" Del asked.

"Hard feelings? Nah, I have forgotten about that," Cassandra said.

"I understand. Anyway, what are you doing here? I don't say that you can't stay, but I just want to know your intention," Del said.

"My intention? I just want to visit, but if you don't mind me staying, I won't refuse either."

"Well, I doubt I have enough bed," Del said.

"I can sleep on the floor if you want to, or I can take care of myself by doing my own bounty hunting. I'm on the final stage of my research anyway, I just need to compile the research down and create the formula," Cassandra said.

"I see, well, technically, you can do your own bounty hunting. I think it will be more effective if we work as a team," Del said.

"Fair enough. I think I won't take the reward from you either," Cassandra said.

Cassandra would be one extra firepower to be entirely honest. There was also one perk of having Cassandra on his side. It meant that he didn't have to worry too much about torso injury since Cassandra was there to help him.

Cole could probably easily treat an injury to the extremities of the bodies such as the hands, the legs, and minor scratches. However, if one of his lungs was penetrated by an arrow, Del really doubted whether Cole was able to treat that or not. After all, internal bleeding could easily kill him.

Still, he had enough confidence that a 9x19 wouldn't be able to kill him since he was positive that he was stronger than Alberto. Still, it was better to be safe than to be sorry so he preferred to take an easier quest.

"Still, I have one demand, I want you to treat my injury if I got injured," Del said.

"Fair point, I think not doing any surgery will make me rusty," Cassandra commented.

"I'm glad to hear that," Del said.

"Anyway, do you need anything from me?" Cassandra said.

"Not right now, but I think I will want to be taught how to use healing magic," Del said.

Cassandra replied with a smile, "Sure, I think I can teach you one spell or two. Still, I want to ask you, have you ever learned basic human anatomy?"

"I think I have learned some of them in school and when I was volunteering to be the infirmary assistance," Del commented.

"Oh, so you have done some medical background work, pretty impressive, if I have to say," Cassandra commented.

"Thanks," Del smiled.

With Cassandra here, the total member of his group became four people in total. Wolfie was also included in that team since he served as a good scout. He also had access to intensive medical care with Cassandra's existence. Well, life was good.