After sending a message to Vittoria to report what had happened, Aldric remained on full alert, wary of the possibility that the escaped goblin might circle back for a sneak attack.
But it quickly became clear that the goblin didn't care at all about his fallen comrade. The moment things went south, he fled cleanly and without hesitation.
Only when Vittoria finally arrived, fully armed and ready for battle did Aldric let out a quiet sigh of relief. Using the edge of a shield as a makeshift aid, he quickly treated his wounds.
Whether it was thanks to his [Lesser Regeneration] talent or his impressively high 42 points in Medicine, he could already feel the itching sensation of healing setting in on his hands and legs during the walk back, a sure sign that the wounds were closing.
Fortunately, due to the current tense atmosphere in Port Anthony, the streets were nearly empty. Carrying the unconscious captive over her shoulder, the female warrior followed Aldric's lead as they weaved through remote alleys, successfully avoiding patrols.
The few pedestrians they happened to run into took one look at them, sensed the danger, and wisely averted their eyes, pretending they hadn't seen anything at all.
"You're taking him back to your place? What about that Shadow Assassin? Aren't you afraid he'll notice our cooperation?" Vittoria, asked while patting the unconscious Liam on the back.
"Don't worry," Aldric replied. "This guy's absolutely reliable. Besides, we're short on manpower in our warband. With him and Angus we'll just need six more to reach the minimum number."
He sighed, half-jokingly thinking that if this sort of thing happened twice more, just by picking up strays, he'd have enough people to form a proper warband.
"You two know each other?" Vittoria asked curiously.
"Not exactly," Aldric answered with a small, confident smile. "But I know the unit he trained under. The political commissar oversees those squads, and I can handle the situation."
After separating from Vittoria, Aldric returned alone to his quarters which were beginning to feel more and more like a recovery ward. Looking at the wounded Colin lying there, he couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
Under the Assassin's puzzled stare, Aldric opened the window. A shield suddenly flew up from outside thrown by Vittoria and Aldric caught it effortlessly, setting it down against the wall.
"Hey, hey, that shield looks awfully familiar…" the Shadow Assassin muttered, wincing as the movement made his fractured ribs ache.
Aldric ignored him. From outside came Vittoria's shout, followed by a thud as an armored man was literally thrown through the window!
Luckily, the [Damaged Pendant] provided extra strength today, otherwise, he might not have been able to catch this fully armored soldier without being knocked over.
Along with the captive came a text message from Vittoria:
"Carpenter found two players. I'm going to check them out."
Setting the prisoner down beside the wall and the shield, Aldric dusted off his hands and glanced around the room. It was getting crowded, far too crowded. He was beginning to think it was time to claim his territory.
The Witcher apprentice couldn't help but imagine what his own domain might look like one day, though that didn't stop him from using a traditional method to wake the unconscious Liam, a method so rough that even the Shadow Assassin covered his face, not daring to comment.
Pain jolted Liam awake. Disoriented, he opened his eyes just in time to hear a cold, commanding voice beside his ear:
"Soldier! Attention! Report your rank and number!"
The man who had been lying limp on the ground moments earlier shot up like he'd been electrocuted. His eyes focused straight ahead as he snapped into a perfect salute.
"Reporting, Commissar! Private First Class Liam Lee, serial number 217003963340990999! Awaiting orders, sir!"
"At ease," Aldric said, gesturing with one hand. "As of today, you are officially drafted into my warband as a new member."
"Yes, sir!" Liam responded reflexively. Only after lowering his hand did he finally come to his senses and realized he had no idea what was happening.
Next to him, the Shadow Assassin Colin looked just as bewildered, his face practically spelling out the three classic questions of confusion: Who am I? Where am I? What's going on?
"Uh, Commissar," Liam said hesitantly, "I was discharged due to injuries."
"You've been re-enlisted," Aldric replied flatly. Before Liam could even think of arguing, Aldric's next sentence crushed any will to resist.
"I've heard about you, the shame of Netherfall Unit. Your father once helped me out. Lipton Bane was my instructor's supervisor back at the academy. From now on, you report to me. The name's Aldric Xund."
Hearing his identification number, Aldric had already deduced the man's background.
The serial number 217003 meant Liam enlisted in March 2170.
The 96334 referred to the Netherfall Orbital Assault Corps Training Camp.
099 was the special unit code — all recruits who entered the camp through unofficial or discretionary channels were placed in that company.
Back then, Aldric himself had been part of Company 099 during his orbital drop training. And the final 999 in Liam's number indicated that he was the last recruit of that batch in 2170.
That "999" had once been famous in its own way — everyone in the military system had heard of him. His father, John Lee, had nearly erased him from the family register. If not for his grandfather's intervention, the man would've been cut off completely. The old man had only said one sentence in his defense:
"The Lee family doesn't lack real soldiers. We shed blood and sweat so that our descendants can live freely and chase what they want."
That one sentence silenced the entire military hierarchy even Commissar Lipton himself went personally to apologize to the elder.
And Liam, upon hearing Aldric's name, immediately realized the terrifying truth about the man standing before him.
216805963340990000.
That was Aldric's own training camp serial number, a number carved into trophies, medals, and archives all over the Netherfall Unit training base. Every time Liam had been punished with cleaning duty in the memorial hall, he'd seen that number countless times.
The meaning of that number 0000 was clear. It was the mark of the strongest recruit in the history of the training camp: Recruit Zero.
Because it was always the goblin who communicated with Antoine, from the theft at the Lord's Mansion until he went out with the goblin to ambush the shadow assassin's possible accomplices, Liam didn't know that this Witcher apprentice was the Cerysian mentioned by the NPCs.
When he'd first seen Aldric, he'd been stunned, the target was a player? And not just any player, but one from the same Loess Branch as him.
That was why Liam hadn't attacked immediately. He had been weighing whether to cooperate with the NPCs to complete his quest and get the reward, or to betray them mid-fight, killing the goblin on the spot and revealing himself dramatically, maybe with a handsome head tilt and a smug grin.
But reality had other plans. Everything happened too fast. The entire fight went off-script — Aldric not only easily repelled the goblin who had advanced to the bounty hunter class, but also stylishly took him down with a combo before he could even betray him?
And now… he'd been drafted again?
Liam shivered involuntarily.
(End of Chapter)