Apparently, it was an hour after they had all landed that Roxy stumbled upon Beatrice, who was on the brink of death from using Spells carelessly — facing Predicaments. Fortunately, with Roxy’s physique and Gift, they were able to make it out, though heavily scathed.
Hilda then learned about how the two banded together and began rescuing the people nearby, though Beatrice referred to it as gathering more "hands" to help them with the miscellaneous stuff.
It was only after their group had expanded by a considerable amount that they stumbled upon Ross and his group. Apparently, the two groups hit it off at the start, but soon grew apart and eventually disbanded. Hilda was aware of this story, but not the reason for the separation.
When she asked, Roxy gave her a surprising revelation:
"Haaa... because that guy psychopath." Roxy shook her head. "I managed to overhear Ross talking with that Rat about plans to use the people as bait in case something ever happens, like an attack or some sort."
Hilda quirked an eyebrow. "So, you only resorted to kicking him und his entire group out of yours?"
"I wanted to do more. But at the time, that guy had control over three Predicaments, and it all happened at night, which I learned to be a very bad thing when it came to facing Predicaments.
"So, if I had confronted him about it, and even caused him to become aggressive, the casualties would’ve been tremendous, even if we did take him out in the end.
"So, I just made some reason up and kicked him out, assuming that he was going to take his people to that warehouse by the water. I doubt anything major was going to happen at that place for him to cast them aside," Roxy explained.
Hilda hummed at that and fell into thought. From a selfish point of view, having Ross’ mentality would definitely ensure one’s survival — it was also a realistic mentality, albeit obviously immoral.
If she had to criticise anything, it would be that Ross had decided to share his plans with others, or even talk about such a plan in a place where people could overhear him.
’He seems like an intelligent person, so he should’ve been aware of those mistakes.’ Hilda tapped her finger against her chin. ’At the time, he had three Predicaments under his control with the help of his Relic, but he never specified the cost for using it...’
Considering Relics drew on something of the user—Purpose—could it be that whatever it drew on affected his intelligence or critical thinking?
’Interesing...’ Hilda mused.
...
It had now been several hours since Hilda had arrived at Fort Risban and the sky had begun to turn orange. While the people she had knocked unconscious were still asleep, she doubted she had more than forty-five minutes left to get what she came for.
Hilda stretched her back with a look of reluctance.
’What a shame, I had begun to enjoy my time here as well~...’
Unfortunately, unless she wanted to be caught, she needed to make her move now. After all, she couldn’t go back on her oath now, could she? She also had a pretty Dame to meet at the end of the exam.
’Und also that attack...’
Hilda checked the [Minor Intel] again. Not once, since her time here, had the Predicaments been attacked, nor had she got any Quests about rescuing Nadia. It was clear that they hadn’t attacked yet, and it was that reason that made Hilda... rather uneasy.
She hadn’t met any Predicaments that would willingly attack humans situated just at the edge of the sea, since it would be the equivalent of fighting on our turf. But that only applied to Predicaments, who fought purely on instinct.
’Back when the LRM went to war with the Western Duke of Europe, its Generals would constantly send armies to invade the camps situated near the sea, specifically in the dead of night, when the Predicaments would be amped.’
Having met a surviving veteran of these invasions, she was told that despite the many casualties, those who survived came back stronger because of the boost to their Strength of Heart — which was one of the few reasons why they won that war.
Hilda, realising that she had fallen into another one of her dazes, shook herself awake. ’No matter, if the one attacking is a General, I’ll just need to do my best to hold it off before the Land Reclamation Military arrives.’
Though she doubted she would come out unscathed, or alive, even if she succeeded. Not like she wasn’t expecting that to happen one day.
After a few minutes of walking, she stopped by a corner. Then, when she was sure no one was around to see her, she snapped the wooden handle of the hammer she was holding into two.
Once she did that, she hid the snapped hammer behind her back and walked around the corner she was hiding behind. Then, she approached a door guarded by two men.
"Oh, Miss Hilda, did you need something from storage?" One asked.
Hilda feigned a sheepish expression and held out the snapped hammer from behind her back. "Ehe... I... need to get a new hammer."
"What... happened to it?" The other guard asked.
"Well, I guess I just imbued too much Vitality into it, you know?" Hilda giggled. "I’m sure you two intelligent gentlemen are aware that when you force too much Vitality into something, it has a risk of breaking, right? I mean, you guys have seen me work, haven’t you?"
The two glanced at each other with uncertainty. They didn’t know much about Vitality beyond what the guidebook stated, so they weren’t sure whether to trust Hilda or not.
But considering that they had indeed seen Hilda work around the entirety of the weathered fortress and noticed the thick amount of Vitality she always kept around her hammer... maybe what she was saying was true.
In an attempt not to make Hilda think less of them, they said:
"Y-yeah, we knew that..."
"E-exactly, uhm, you can head on in. But you can only grab a hammer, alright?"
Hilda nodded as she passed over the broken hammer. "That’s indeed what I came here for~..."
When she entered inventory, she was met with the familiar sight of boxes and sacks placed together in separate piles. But compared to when she first entered storage, everything was even more orderly and neater.
Hilda was impressed. ’Miss Rutherford had done an excellent job with organising everything~...’
Having seen Roxy leave inventory a little while ago, she knew this was a ripe time to start rummaging through storage.
’The eyes are definitely in this room...’
She was certain of this for two reasons. The first being the separate reason why she had been going around and helping with repairs. Although it was so she could be with everyone, it was also for the purpose of being able to inspect every nook and cranny of the place under the pretence of "repairs".
By doing that, she managed to look through every room more closely than she did during the tour. Every room, besides storage. It was a bit tedious, but it allowed her to narrow down the search.
As for the second reason, it all came from the mouths of the people she became acquainted with here.
Apparently, after Elias stole their eyes, Roxy had designated a new area for their eyes to be stored. But strangely, no one knew where besides her and Beatrice.
However, they did know that the eyes were stored in multiple sacks as a way to correct their mistake after what Elias did. So, if anyone wanted to take all the eyes, they would either need to carry them all out or repeatedly return to inventory to remove them one by one.
But by then, they would’ve already been captured under suspicion. This new way of storing their eyes made the process of stealing them far more tedious and risky.
Fortunately, Hilda had a certain mystical entity to help her with that.
After gently pushing aside boxes and opening sacks, she finally came across a pile of what she had been looking for. The eyes.
’Finally found them...’
Once she opened every one of them and checked that they were what she was looking for, she summoned the System.
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