A heavy silence lingered in the air as Lesh regarded the old man, a flicker of genuine surprise in his usually impassive eyes. "That's a rather formidable ability, really quite interesting." he stated, his voice a low murmur, "but why would your own family go to such lengths? To not only confine you so but to try and kill you in such a prolonged way?" The thought of kin turning so viciously on another was no what surprised him but rather it was the manner he had chosen to use.
The old man sighed, a sound like rustling dry leaves as he slowly shook his head, a gesture of weary resignation. "I was a man of considerable wealth; I admittedly still am but no one uses that kind of money anymore. Before the world fractured my worth was measured in more than mere than money so if I were to be declared dead by 'natural causes,' as they so hoped, my entire fortune and legacy would be theirs for the taking." A sardonic twist played on his lips, hinting at a past betrayal that still stung, even after all this time.
Lesh's jaw tightened. He had witnessed humanity's ugly side countless times, even before the cataclysm forced its true nature to the surface. "Human greed," he murmured, his tone laced with a profound disappointment that verged on disgust. "It truly knows no bounds, does it? I suppose the world crumbling just proved an outlet and way for there true selves to come to light."
The somber mood was soon broken though before they could speak further. "Hey! Hate to interrupt your meeting," a cheerful voice chirped, "but I've finished learning about the girls' classes and honestly, they're real surprising! I think they're going to be an amazing asset to us if we can use them correctly!" Alice practically bounced into the room, her eyes gleaming with an infectious excitement that shattered the dark mood.
The old man offered a small, knowing smile. "I will be taking my leave now and leave you young ones to it, just remember to not take too long or make too much noise." He said, a smile playing on his lips as he tried to tease them as he made his exit leaving Alice shouting denials well Lesh rubbed his eyes muttering about perverted old men as his attention shifted to the whirlwind of optimism before him.
"So, what's got you so excited?" Lesh asked calmly, a small curve on his lips as he watched her once more almost vibrate with anticipation.
Alice practically clapped her hands together. "Well, the first one is a crafting class called a Tri-Crafter! Imagine it! She can cook, farm and she can handle any and all forms of tailoring work! From delicate seamstress tasks to robust leatherwork unfortunately nothing metal or heavy though. Isn't that just incredible? It all ties together so perfectly! She farms her food or grows her fiber items for the clothing and then transforms them by cooking what she grows or processing the other stuff to make so many new and magnificent outfits!" Her voice swelled with possibilities, her mind already racing with visions of new cloths for their journeys along with various costumes she could try.
he leaned back with a thoughtful expression on his face. "I see. Well, I can definitely understand why that would excite you so much. It's undoubtedly a significant help overall, a foundational skill set for any thriving community." He began to formulate a plan in his mind. "I'll ask Elena to take her under her wing and help her with the farming aspect, but what of the others?" he asked.
Alice began to giggle more now seemingly in pure delight. "The rest are even more amazing!" Her excitement seemed to swell. Lesh though remained quiet, a patiently observing her well making a small, encouraging motion with his hand for her to continue.
"The others are fighting classes!" she burst out, unable to contain herself. "One is a Necromancer! Or Spiritmancer? It was a bit confusing to me but, but she explained that she can bring bodies back almost like zombies puppets and see these various spirit-like creatures but tries to ignore them as early on a few tried to eat her when they realized she could see them and as time went by and she got stronger she stopped seeing the weaker ones as if there strength matched her growth, oh but she did get a good companion one inside her blade as they seemed to also get stronger. She calls them 'things that exist out of sight and have always existed,' almost like ghosts, but with more… substance! Isn't that even more awesome? I mean, she could be a one-woman fighting force for us using invisible attackers if she ever manages to gain control over them!" Alice practically jumped with joy, envisioning hordes of the undead and spirit creatures serving their cause.
Lesh's brow furrowed, his tactical mind immediately identifying a crucial discrepancy. "Oh, that is definitely an extremely strong class with potential to be incredibly powerful. But it does make me question why she hasn't fully embraced her class. But if the others are fighting classes, how is it that they were captured though? Especially if one had a class as strong as that and from your reaction I imagine the others are equally as strong?" The question hung heavy, puncturing Alice's balloon of happiness.
Her vibrant energy seemed to drain away instantly, replaced by an unsettling gravity as she slumped slightly, her gaze falling to the floor. "I knew you would ask that, even though I wish you wouldn't," she said, her voice dropping to a serious, almost sorrowful tone. "I asked as well, or rather I dug into it and made them tell me… It seems that guy who screwed with Rebecca? Well he was responsible for helping to break them… He fucked with their minds to weaken them before causing them to break mentally. Even now only some are willing to admit that they still feel profound levels of trauma from what he did well the rest either seem to be denying it or doing their best to flat out reject it. After they got captured, he would be allowed to do whatever he wanted with them first which actually increased the level of control and conditioning over them, I couldn't get much more out of them, just that after the first 'session' most couldn't even reject his orders let alone fight back against them. Some of them where badly messed up by him. The spiritmancer girl? She said most of those girls who apparently left with the other group where in such a bad state because they were part of what he called his 'favorite' group alongside her but they broke and she didn't, apparently he took that as a challenge to try and, for lack of better wording… ruin her like he did them." All the effervescence had vanished, replaced by an extreme seriousness laced with deep sadness and a lot of wrath. The joy of discovery had turned to the grim reality of their suffering.
Lesh didn't remotely like hearing any of that. The visceral, unholy anger that had simmered from the previous night slowly reignited within him as a cold fire spreading through his veins before a grim, predatory grin spread on his face. He felt a dark satisfaction and perverse gladness that he hadn't killed the vile rat responsible; death would have been far too kind, far too quick an escape for such depravity. He wasn't sure how much of the anger was his own and how much was bled over form what John would feel on such a matter but he didn't much care, rather his thoughts turned to retribution, a silent, chilling promise that the bastard would be kept alive to pay in flesh for his actions.
He met Alice's own burning gaze, his expression hardening further "Let's just focus back on the others for now now. You still have a few more girls to tell me about. Once you describe their abilities, maybe we can figure out a way to help them all step by step to recover. John may hate it, but I will still make sure they are utilized to help us for the future, even if we are forced to use there conditioning to our own advantage. If they start recovering along the way then good but my priority is to use them for our benefit and to further the benefits and ease John will have, If that means I must feed their darkness to achieve that goal I will do so without a second of hesitation." He spoke calmly, his words like chips of ice as they revealed a ruthless pragmatism that startled even Alice. Her eyes widened momentarily as she involuntarily took a step back.
"Isn't that a bit much?" she stammered, trying to appeal to his empathy, her madness temporarily subsiding. "They clearly went through so much already."
Lesh's cold gaze met hers, "Honestly I don't care. If they are useful for the end goal and can adequately serve a good use for John that's all that truly matters regardless of what will be taken from them or what I will need to do to achieve those goals. That isn't to say I wont aid them, I will try to help them where I can and make an attempt to help them recover but make no mistake: my primary objective for them will be to integrate them as a special force going forward as a means to aid John." He told her with a glaring, unyielding look. She was clearly upset about it but with a deep breath slowly seemed to accept it well muttering how she would be talking to John about expelling unpleasant individuals.
"Now, what are the last girls?" he asked once more, intent on completing his tactical assessment and figuring out the best use for each of their unique, potentially vital, assets.
Alice took a visible, calming deep breath, trying to recenter herself after Lesh's stark declaration. She reminded herself that this cold calculation wasn't John's compassion but something far more unyielding and necessary in their brutal world. "One is a Techno-engineer," she began, finding her voice again. "Well technically not a full-on combat class it has the potential to be one, she can work with and communicate with any form or type of technology and she's also amazing with any kind of basic machinery. She found it useless though, since no one really had a use for it because a lot of machines and stuff are just scrap now and basic engineering things such as engines and generators are controlled by large groups." Alice paused, a shiver running down her spine, bracing herself to explain the final girl's class.
"The last girl," she continued, her voice dropping to a near whisper, laden with genuine fear, "is honestly someone that scares me a bit. I actually wish you had left her behind or that we could just get rid of her entirely. I mean, I could do it rather easily, just a small cut along the throat or something simple and we would be free of her. Things would be much better and safer that way." Alice's plea intensified, her tone grave with hints of madness utterly unlike her usual vibrant self. All her words seemed to do though was peak his curiosity well noting the count coming up short, yet all of that only helped to piqued his curiosity, finding this to be rather interesting.