Iter Per Astra: Volume 2 - Fearless Commando

Astral 13 - The Meeting

Joseph and Rosalina headed towards the stairs at the back when they heard the jeeps pull up in front of the building.

"Oh no!" Rosalina exclaimed.

"Shh." He said as he placed his hand in front of Rosalina's mouth and made a sign with his other hand for her to not say another word.

"Stay quiet and follow my lead." He whispered. "We go up and find what we need first."

Rosalina nodded as quickly but silently reached the top of the staircase to the second floor.

Joseph sneaked a view of the bandits entering the building from atop the staircase, two entered first and were a little concerned about the mess that Rosalina had made earlier but they seemed to not mind as they turned around, did some signals with their hands for the other bandits to enter. As they were far away, he couldn't hear what they were talking about.

He was shocked when he saw the other bandits enter with a prisoner, her arms tied behind her back, and he was more shocked when he recognized the person they captured.

"Melody!" He said to himself.

"No," Rosalina said.

"Alright, lady." Said one of the bandits, not noticing that Joseph and Rosalina were on the upper levels of the building. "Tell us what you are doing here?"

"I was here exploring the old buildings," Melody said in a distressed tone. "But then I saw these things that looked like some precious rocks from the people that lived here, I would have never thought that they would explode like that."

"You must have been deep into the city to find these "rocks", which I know that you must have known that they were grenades."

"B-but why would you think that?"

"Your outfit, aren't those outfits worn by the maids of the Coryzen Royal Navy higher-ups?"

Melody remained silent. "Fine, you win, these are the outfits worn by CRN maids, but I assure you that I was just here to explore the city, you have no idea how much I love exploring structures like there."

"Uh huh sure." The captain answered expressionlessly. "But tell me what you are doing here?"

Melody slowly leaned forward.

The captain understood that this meant that it must be some sort of secret, so he gave her his ear.

Melody then whispered. "You should keep your guard up." She said as she swung her left leg up and pushed the captain into the ground, all while she laughed.

"You think I will talk?" Melody answered. "You don't know a thing about having prisoners don't you."

Two of the other bandits started laughing at the captain who was Interrogating Melody.

"Rrrr, shut your mouths!!" He shouted. "I won't have you disrespect me again! Do you understand? Now get on out of here, and make sure there is no one else out there before our clients arrive."

"Y-yes sir." They said as they headed outside.

"Now tell me, young lady." The head bandit said as he poured himself a cup of coffee from a bottle. "Did you come alone?"

"Again. You think I will talk just because you say so." Melody answered.

"Ooh... So, you are trained then." He said as sipped his coffee. "So that means you are not alone."

Melody remained silent and only shook her head in disappointment.

"CRN maids are highly trained, not only would we die before giving any information about our masters, but we are incredibly hard to interrogate and capture."