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Nero Walker, Book 3 Ch.26 (141)
🕑 Added 2024-03-28 22:30:01 +0000 UTCCaptain Angelton stood by the front doors of the building they were assigned. With his arms crossed, he watched the elites filing in, then being separated based on their unit designations.
While the support troops were being ushered toward the lobby for reassignment, the combat troops bunched up around their team leaders. Near the lobby counter in the main entryway, Blackwood and the other dispatch sergeants were working with one of logistics officers from Gate 22 command to keep everything organized. He could hear them loudly warning the recruits to treat their temporary accommodations with respect, and to be ready for muster by 26:00.
Running his well trained eyes over the troops, he evaluated their combat readiness and potential. Each of the elites looked tired, but not overly so. Well, except for a few particularly weak recruits who were currently leaning against a wall waiting for Sergeant Wesker to pick an apartment for their team to take over.
Glancing over at Vikander and Walker, he could see that they both were ready to pass out. While Walker was at least managing to remain upright, Vikander was barely keeping her eyes open. She had needed to be carried for most of the journey, and she was still looked pretty pale from the experience. Surprisingly, Verena had handled the long march better than he’d expected him to. Perhaps the old scientist wasn’t such a lost cause after all?
Shaking off his thoughts concerning their weakest team, he mentally checked the time. Nodding to himself, he decided that his sergeants could handle getting everyone fed and bunked without him.
After sending a quick ping to inform his staff of intentions, he headed off toward the mountain gate command center to report in. Hopefully, his teams’ orders were waiting for him, he wasn’t really in the mood for a meeting. After all, he’d be able to kill a lot more kobalds after a few hours of sleep and a good meal.
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Nero’s mind was having trouble processing what was happening. It seemed they’d taken over an apartment building or maybe a hotel. But the weirdest part about it was that the sergeants were treating it like an Airbnb or something. It was disturbing to see armed, chainmail clad warriors walking around what he would normally consider a pretty nice lobby.
From the outside, the building had looked like a massive wooden cube with a slanted clay roof. There must have been 10 floors, each with windows complete with little planting boxes attached at the bottom. White shutters and the occasional rounded balcony gave the building a very Germanic or European vibe. Had the walls been made of stone, the building wouldn’t have looked out of place in any number of romantic comedies set in Paris or some other fancy city.
The interior had a large entryway, a nice marble floor, and pedestals proudly displaying arrangements of flowers that he didn’t recognize. The ceiling had recessed essence lighting and what he’d come to consider standard hand-made crown molding. The rich wood walls made the place look like a hotel lobby. There was even a front desk with a large mural depicting a beautiful meadow hanging on the wall behind it.
Before he could really come to terms with what he was seeing, Sergeant Wesker waved the team over and they headed up a ridiculously large stairway to the third floor. After proceeding through an immaculately maintained hallway, which included a resplendently carpeted floor, the sergeant led them into a large apartment.
The common room was huge, and filled with art and bookshelves, along with couches and small terrace. ‘Did we get one of the better room assignments, or are they all like this?’ he couldn’t help but wonder.
Nero’s attention turned to the sergeant, who was giving them a brief update on their situation.
“We might only be here for a day at most. If you want, there will be food in the lobby, but I’d recommend using this time to get some sleep. In 9 hours we will muster outside and receive our orders. While I don’t know exactly what we’ll be doing, I can make a guess. From what I’ve read in the general updates section of the Thought-hub, our initial goal is to contain the kobalds within the mountain. So be prepared to do some climbing. Until then, pick a spot, and get some sleep,” he finished his speech quickly, obviously not interested in going into any details.
Nero stood there, in still in the front foyer, watching everyone break up and start looking for a place to sleep. He felt like they were intruding into someone’s home, and it was vaguely offensive to see them all just treat the situation as completely normal.
Nero’s eyes widened as he watched Nick casually walk up to the small wet-bar and pour himself a drink. While dropping a few cubes of ice into a glass, the man had the gall to pick up a picture frame and examine the apartment’s owners. Nero couldn’t believe it.
His jaw actually dropped when he saw Nick offer up a smile and a small toast to the picture, before setting it down where he found it and walking off like he owned the place.
Rose was already passed out, face-down on one of the couches. But, he had no idea where Cathleen and Wesker had gone. The place had so many doors and hallways that he figured they could be anywhere by now.
Deciding to just embrace the madness, he boldly walked into the common room and started looking around. Heading over to one of the hallways, he saw a few rooms off to the side and figured that there was probably a bedroom around there somewhere.
The first door led to some kind of study. It was nice, but the couch didn’t look very comfortable. Moving on, he opened another door to see Cathleen stripping out of her combat leathers, looking at him curiously, as if she were wondering if he needed something. Nero’s face went blank, and he just slowly backed away and closed the door.
‘A world without shame is a lot less fun than I thought it would be. If there is no feeling of ‘being bad’, then all the excitement is sucked out of the experience. Is this how plastic surgeons back home feel about nudity? That must suck,’ he thought to himself.
Putting the matter aside, he tried another door and finally found an empty bedroom.
It looked like a smaller kids room, complete with a pile of clothes in the corner. Doing a double take, Nero tilted his head in confusion. ‘What’s the point of throwing your clothes in the corner, but still taking the time to fold them?’ he wondered.
Everything about the room vaguely reminded him of a teenage boy’s bedroom, but the details were all wrong. There were posters hanging on the walls of attractive women, but they were all action shots of them either fighting, or standing proudly in front of equipment of some kind. They didn’t look like something a snot-nosed brat might use to … you know. If anything, they looked like female empowerment posters.
Walking over to take a closer look at the one hanging above the desk, he saw that it was a poster of an arena fighter. In bold letters at the top it declared, ‘Level 20 championship, year Dorchester 1362’. There was a stat box showing her record and who she had fought. Another little box had information on her biography along with a description of her abilities. All of the information provided a beautiful background to the image of her standing proudly over a defeated opponent. She was dressed in tight combat leathers, her chin raised as if she were daring someone to face her, and she was holding a short spear and a small buckler in her hands. ‘Maybe this is a teen girl’s room?’ he thought.
Looking down at the desk, he saw a letter sitting there addressed to ‘The soldier using my room’.
His eyebrows rose a little in surprise, and he leaned over to read it.
To the soldier using my room,
Thank you for defending our walls. I hope you kill a lot of kobalds and can return safely to your family. If you need any of my weapons for a back-up, they’re in my closet. Please don’t take my spear though. I need it for my final exam, and I hate using the ones at the center.
I left some paper under this letter so you can write a letter back to me, and so you can leave a message for any of the other soldiers that are going to use my room.
My dad says the most important thing in a fight is to rely on your team-mates, so remember to do that. And don’t forget that they’re counting on you too. One day, I’ll pay back what you’ve done for me, I promise.
Fight hard, and don’t die,
Toby Hewitt
Nero stood there in stunned silence for at least 30 seconds before his brain eventually rebooted.
‘Alright, so it’s not the room of a teenage girl whose into strong role models,’ he thought to himself.
With fresh eyes, he took another look around the room and started to get a better sense of the owner. The young man was dedicated, hardworking, obsessed with powerful women, and completely unrecognizable as a typical teenager. This was the room of an idealized teenager who was dedicated to the greater good, raised in an environment of service, and focused intensely on his personal development. It was creepy.
Suppressing a shiver, he turned away from the desk and walked over to the bed. He really didn’t have the energy right now to write a motivational letter, let alone an inspirational note to the next poor soldier that was destined to use this room. For now, he’d just try and get some sleep, then hopefully get up early enough to still have some food.
Dropping his satchel at the foot of the bed, he started peeling off his combat leathers. When he was finally finished, he looked down at the pile and wondered how he could feel both clean and grimy at the same time. His cleaning spell just wasn’t cutting it, and he really wanted a shower and a laundromat. Realizing that he neither had the time, or the patience to deal with anything at the moment, he just hopped on the bed, clad only in his underwear.
Staring at the ceiling, he felt his entire body relax and melt into the mattress.
As his eyes closed, he apologized to himself for not taking the time to read the mission packet, use the Thought-hub to research kobalds, or any number of things that were vitally important to his immediate survival. He was just too tired, and he’d probably have time to deal with it in the morning… night… whenever the hell he got up.
Shooting up from the bed, he reached out for his sword on his hip.
After grasping at nothing for a few seconds, his mind started working and he looked over at the door to see Cathleen standing there amused.
“We’ve got two hours before muster. Food’s downstairs and the shower is at the end of the hall. I sent you a ping with information about kobalds. Read it while you eat,” she said, then simply turned around and closed the door behind her.
Blinking a few times to clear his head, Nero tried to process what the hell had just happened.
Laying back down on the bed, he stared at the ceiling and took stock of his condition. His identity said he was at 100%, and he surprisingly did feel fine. There was no lingering soreness, or joint pain. His mind felt clear, and he was wide awake. Doing the math, he had only slept like 6 or 7 hours at the most. Was that really all his body needed now?
Forcing himself to get up, he bent down and started getting dressed. The stiff leather didn’t feel right, and he hoped his constant use of the cleaning spell wasn’t causing it break down or something. Mentally adding it to the impressively long list of things he planned on getting answers to, he threw his satchel over his shoulder and headed off toward the door.
Food first, then studying, if there was time, he’d come back for a shower. ‘Need over greed,’ he told himself.
As he passed the desk, he saw the letter from Toby still sitting there.
Coming to a stop, he felt his shoulders sag and he sighed in annoyance. He just didn’t have it in him to not write something when the kid sounded so idealistic.
Sitting down at the desk, he set Toby’s letter aside and started writing his response. Not even thinking about it, he wrote in English.
Toby,
Thanks for letting me borrow your room. I didn’t wash the sheets, because I was too tired. But considering that I probably won’t be the last person to use your room, I doubt you care.
I didn’t take any of your weapons. I’ve already got my own, and I prefer magic anyway.
If you want some words of wisdom, here you go. Chicks dig independent guys with money. Don’t simp, or you’ll be friend-zoned faster than a… something really fast. Also, remember to stay in school and to not do drugs.
Nero
Lord Walker.
Nero looked at what he wrote, and shrugged. ‘Good enough,’ he thought. It was too bad he couldn’t think of a ‘faster than’ metaphor that was remotely PG enough to include in the letter. Looking at the crossed out ‘Nero’, he debated whether he should just rewrite the whole damned thing.
After deciding that he didn’t care, he put his letter under Toby’s, and started on his note to the next soldier who’d borrow the young man’s room.
Random Soldier,
I don’t know enough about the military or what’s going on. So, instead of words of wisdom, or secrets that will keep you alive, I’ll just leave a joke. Hopefully, it will at least be funny enough to bring a smile to your face before you are sent somewhere horrible.
What do you call a sword that isn’t yours?
Stolen. You shouldn’t steal, it’s bad. Don’t take the kid’s weapons, we already took his room.
Anyways, hope you don’t die,
Lord Walker
Nero looked down at what he’d written with a smile. ‘Perfect,’ he thought. Leaving the note right where it was, he got up and pushed the chair back under the desk.
After doing a few brief stretches, he opened the door and headed off to get some breakfast… or maybe dinner… either way it will probably be better than rations. Hopefully, there would still be some coffee, he had some studying to do.
Comments
HereForHFY
He's not the deepest of thinkers.
aaab1422
Of course he writes in English.
