Tension hung in the air as both rifles were pointed towards them. Athena knew when a Londrian soldier had their weapons out like that they meant business with little room for negotiation if they had chosen to threaten a fellow member of the army. She slowly raised her right hand up while trying to support Leona with the other arm.

“Wait… calm down, what do you two think you’re doing?!”

“By the orders of our captain, we are to apprehend both of you for the contraband of prohibited coins and goods. Any resistance shall be met with death!”

Seeing how they were adamant in taking them without asking any questions, Athena began to delay as much as she could in order to buy her time to think of a plan to escape.

“Wait, listen to me! Why would we even be taken into custody now, of all times?! Oliver can’t just issue an order out of blue like that!”

“Athena.” Leona whispered to her with a dead serious look in her eyes. “I’ll make a wall in front of us, we need to take them out quickly.”

Without looking at her, the lieutenant replied as best as she could while trying to not prompt the soldiers to shoot them.

“You can’t be serious?! They are soldiers from Londria even if- no, you don’t mean the minister…”

“You get it too don’t you? He must be behind this as well.”

“Dammit it all.”

The soldier in front named Mark noticed them exchanging a few words and decided to raised his voice.

“Hey! I said raise your hands!” He pointed his rifle at Athena. “I won’t say it again, raise your hands or-”

“Frost Rampart!”

Leona shouted from the top of her lungs as she released the charged mana from her fingertips creating a conal burst of ice spikes, unlike the wall she made when back in the mine, this one was a more desperate measure in order to deflect possible bullets that could be shot their way and therefore was significantly shorter, only being able to cover their body profile behind it.

“Dammit!”

The driver yelled as he accidentally shot at the ice wall.

“Get it together! Go around that way!”

Mark shouted orders at his squadmate and went around his right side of the wall. Leona knew that spell would only buy them a couple of seconds and began to pre-cast another spell in her right hand.

“Winds of time, release thy might-”

Meanwhile, the lieutenant took her derringer out of the holster and quickly checked if the ammunition was loaded properly. With the shell in place, she flicked the gun upwards in order to lock it and ready it to fire.

The driver was going around Athena’s side with another round chambered in his rifle. Both soldiers went around at the same time and each found their foe already prepared for a fight.

“-Wind Blast!”

“Gah!”

Leona timed to release the spell the moment the man ran around the wall which sent him flying backwards with a powerful gust of wind aimed at his chest. First he hit his back against the snow before the rifle was flung from its sling across his chest with the force of the impact as he spun in the air until he lost momentum and skid face first against the root of a tree.

On the other side, Athena used her left hand to redirect the rifle’s barrel to the side, causing the soldier to shoot against the snow and used the derringer to hit him right in the temple before kicking the back of his left leg, making him fall backwards as she tossed his rifle away and pointed the derringer right against his face.

“Don’t move or I’ll blow your head right off with it.”

The driver had his left eye closed with a string of blood coming off from where she hit him and upon seeing the gun’s barrel pointed at him, he simply raised his hands.

“I was just following orders, lieutenant.”

She sighed before turning her head slightly to the side but without taking her eyes off him.

“How’s on your end Leo?”

“Huh…” After a brief pause to inspect the unconscious soldier, she replied to her friend. “I probably cracked a few of his ribs but otherwise he’s in good health. Just need to drag him inside the pod.”

“I’ll be with you in a moment.” She answered before kicking the rifle further away from the soldier she was about to question. “So, do you know exactly who is behind this?”

“I can’t say for sure, Mark was the only one who got the message, not me.”

“From who?”

“Oliver himself! He said the captain had ordered to take you two as prisoners for contraband.”

In Athena's eyes, he didn’t seem to be lying which proved to be more of an annoyance than imagined. She didn’t want to believe her childhood friend was betraying her but the possibility was there and the timing couldn’t be better.

“Dammit.” She cursed under her breath and called for Leona’s help. “Can you get a few meters of rope? It should be near the pod’s hatch on the right side when entering.”

“Leave it to me.”

Leona replied as she was preparing to drag an unconscious Mark with her. Upon strengthening her arms and legs with wind magic, she grabbed the soldier by the shoulder pads and began dragging him backwards through the snow.

‘Something doesn’t make sense…’ The tactician thought for herself. ‘If I were to target outsiders solely for the purpose of keeping knowledge within the confines of the kingdom, wouldn’t it have made more sense to capture us when we were in the city? Or perhaps I’m missing a piece of the puzzle here?’

She was lost in thought. With all the information she had there wasn’t enough evidence to understand why those soldiers would attack them only after taking them outside the capital. One possibility that crossed her mind was to use them as hostages for monetary gain, but then that was quickly dismissed as it wouldn’t end well for foot soldiers to attempt such a risky strategy.

‘From what that other soldier said it was an order from high in the chain of command, so that can only leave me with-’ That was the point when she had an epiphany. ‘Oliver must be betraying us. After all that story he told us could be just a mere fabrication in order to throw us off guard. But then, what is his real reason?’

Regardless, it was useless to think too hard about it. Without a trustworthy source of information she would be left in the darkness just as much as she would with those bits and pieces of clues.

After a bit of exertion, she managed to leave the soldier beside the vehicle before she had to crank the hatch open, thanks to her increased strength from the wind spell it was a reasonably easy endeavor.

“Hup.” She dragged the man up the vehicle’s ramp and left him on the metal floor before she went to look for the rope Athena asked her. “Rope, rope… ah, there it is.”

She found a length of coiled rope hung on a hook, it was thick enough to not easily break under tension, but also heavy enough for her to rely on the magic reinforcement in order to carry.

After clumsily making her way back to Athena, she placed the whole coiled rope on the snow beside her. The lieutenant simply couldn’t help but giggle a bit.

“I know I’ve said rope, but it wasn’t necessary for you to bring the whole thing, just a bit to tie him up was enough.”

Leona’s eyes widened a bit.

“Oh. I honestly don’t know why I thought you’d need everything to be frank, my apologies.”

“Haha, no it’s fine.”

She turned the soldier around and forced his arms behind his back with her left knee.

“Hey Lieutenant? Is this really necessary?” He asked while trying to not have his face against the bitter cold snow. “I mean I’d rather not go against you, Captain Oliver has been doing some shady stuff with the minister-”

“You can remain quiet if you don’t want me to knock you out.” She holstered her derringer and grabbed one end of the rope and began tying the man’s arms behind his back. “While I personally prefer to get a helping hand, I’m not too sure about those who can switch sides easily like wearing a different change of clothes.”

“I’m… sorry Lieutenant.”

She finished tying him and went to grab the rifle she had kicked out of his reach before grabbing the rope again and motioning to the tactician with her chin.

“Come on Leo, let’s go.”

Despite her slim appearance, Athena was able to drag the man and the whole length of rope with her to the pod without much trouble. Once they entered the pod and closed the hatch, Athena made sure none of the soldiers could get their hands on tools while they were in there by tying both their hands and feet.

After making the necessary preparations, Athena sat on the driver’s seat with Leona right beside her.

“Do you know how to drive this?”

The tactician asked.

“You bet I know.” She reached for the vehicle’s brakes and released it, allowing the pod to move. “You can sit down here by me, I tossed in the remaining fuel we had so we are ready to depart.”

“Listen Athena.” Leona sat down on the passenger’s seat and occasionally glanced back at the two tied up soldiers as she asked. “Are you able to confront Oliver? I have no solid evidence but if I’m right, he may be responsible for more than just this betrayal.”

“I… I want to say I am. But I’m honestly not so sure about it myself when you ask about it.” Her grip on the steering wheel tightened. She bit the underside of her lips before taking a deep breath. “I honestly thought he and I shared something in common when we were in the army. We’d always seek to do our best for the sake of another, but after what happened today, I’m not so sure this is the same Oliver I knew.”

“I don’t need you to promise me, but I ask you from the bottom of my heart, no matter what happens, you must do what is right.”

The sudden serious tone made Athena glance at her with a slightly raised brow as she thought Leona was merely trying to say sappy things but once their eyes met she understood the tactician was being serious.

“I… understand.”

“I say this not for myself, but those two that came with me here. If something were to happen to either of them- I wouldn’t know what to do.” She gripped her pendant. “They are the reason I could keep fighting for what I believe to be right and it was thanks to them that I’ve made this far. I hope I can trust you as much as I do them.”

“Very well. For the honor of the house Kaiser, I shall do my utmost to aid you. In turn I hope you can help me from straying from the right path. Leo.”

She extended her hand to the tactician, who firmly shook her hand.

“I’ll hold you on that.”