PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

This being the only reasonable or normal request on Desmond’s part, the three officers in charge had no problem accepting such a request, ultimately the esper crystals were a highly coveted resource and it was normal for an officer to request them.

“With that established, we close this meeting. Due to the nature of your request, Desmond Astryd will take some time to prepare the evaluations, so you will have to appear in this same barracks in two days to present said evaluations; The results will be delivered to you that same day and after passing all the evaluations you will receive the official appointment one day later. Do you have any questions?”

“No sir, I thank you for your time.” In reply Desmond made a standard military salute, giving the impression of someone eager to join the military.

“In that case, this meeting is over ... one last thing, besides Claire Lynwood, is there another reason why you want to join the army?” Once the meeting was over, the three officers headed for the exit, but one of them, the veteran, stopped midway, turned around, and asked a question that he had not yet been able to solve until now.

Without a hint of doubt or falsehood to be perceived Desmond replied: “My father always wanted me to be a soldier and I always wanted to make him proud”

An imperceptible glint passed through the veteran’s eyes after which he smiled and nodded in the direction of Desmond before retiring, seeing the reaction of the veteran Desmond he couldn’t help but laugh inside; It was more or less what he had expected.

During the entire meeting, the one who had asked the most relevant questions had been the old veteran, which by itself should not be strange except that in this place the military catch is supreme and in terms of rank the old veteran who is only a civil government employee should be well below two captains of the esper section, it could even be said that that kind of person should never have had a place in this meeting.

His mere presence was enough to make all the alerts in Desmond’s head sound like crazy, there were only a couple of situations where such a scenario should be possible and none of them was something Desmond wanted to see.

.....

Luckily it turned out to be what Desmond had hoped for from the beginning, in a world full of all sorts of abilities he expected it would be naive to think that the military recruits any idiot who walks through their door without doing at least one or two security checks; especially for someone as abnormal as Desmond.

As far as Desmond knew there were two main ways in which the military did this, they used an esper with the ability to read minds or one with the ability to detect lies, mainly the second; because mind-reading was much more complex than one might think.

The first time that the old veteran asked a question, Desmond felt something coming from the old man, it was not something coming from his five senses but from his sensitivity to mana, or should he call it sensitivity to energy because Desmond was sure that what fueled the abilities was very similar to mana, it wasn’t mana; in any case, Desmond managed to realize since then that the old veteran always activated some kind of ability expected after asking a question.

It was a shame that Desmond already had a countermeasure for such an ability, it was so simple it sounded stupid, but all one had to do to fool an ability like that was, to tell the truth ... at least part of it.

Desmond had not lied once since he had entered the room where the meeting took place, but that did not mean that he was telling the whole truth, it is as if someone asked you if you like pizza; the answer may be yes or no, but the reasons cannot be summed up in so few words and Desmond had applied logic like that during the meeting.

In a sense Desmond was lucky, these kinds of tricks only work when you are not suspected in the first place, Desmond’s attitude and background made it easier to trust him making the military more easily accept his answers as long as they were not lies; if only they knew everything Desmond had hidden from them.

Putting all those unnecessary thoughts aside, Desmond left the meeting room and found someone waiting for him outside; Desmond was concerned for a moment, but he relaxed when he saw that there it was Captain Sofia.

“Do you need anything Captain Evergrid?”

The mature beauty seemed uncomfortable from the way Desmond addressed her, but her gentle smile never left her face, she took just one step towards Desmond and exclaimed in a sullen tone.

“Sofia, call me Sofia or Miss Sofia, don’t call me captain when we’re alone, I never felt comfortable with the title.”

Somehow puzzled Desmond replied: “Okay, Miss Sofia, do you need anything?”

“I was wondering if you have a place to stay while you’re in the city, you’re not from here and I thought I could show you around the city a bit; the truth is that I have the weekend off so I thought I could meet the future youngest first lieutenant in the army ”

There was a flirtatious mature charm all over Sofia’s body and expressions as she spoke, but Desmond knew better, this girl despite the many possible implications of her words making her seemed like she was flirting with him ... actually she didn’t. In fact, Desmond was having a completely different vibe going from her, a friendly and... motherly vibe.

That maternal air made someone like Desmond who had lost his mother when he was young and had become a womanizer over the years very uncomfortable, every time he met a girl who gave off that vibe Desmond used to avoid them; The last thing Desmond wanted was to spend the night with someone who would remind him of his mother... he just didn’t have that kind of fetish.

But knowing that Captain Sofia was not flirting with him and it was simply her natural way of being, Desmond ended up accepting the proposal; at the end of the day it was good to have a place to spend the night and Desmond could try to get information from the captain.