Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

Chapter 165: He couldn't be...! (Fay/Peter PoV)

"So, what will it be?" Fay asked, tearing her eyes away from the camp for but the moment to cast a judging glance at the captive woman.

'I don't like her…' she thought on the inside.

But there was some value to what this girl could do right now. As such, Fay's personal animosity mattered not. Not when Peter was out there, risking his own skin for the case he was only affiliated with through Fay, who sat back down in safety herself.

Fay's animosity was purely personal. After all, the girl in front of her was the first one to talk with Peter since the two of them got together!

And as silly as it could be, Fay simply felt… jealous.

She felt possessive in front of the first actual human that had the body parts necessary to potentially steal Peter away.

As unlikely as it was to happen, though, Fay had no other choice but to put those thoughts aside, aligning with the most pragmatic approach to the question of the captives.

"What could I even do…?" the woman asked, pushing her bound hands against her stomach as she lowered her face and looked away.

"I need you to…" Fay turned her eyes towards the forest, to the one area Peter judged to be more or less suitable for his designs. Yet, by moving her eyes towards the spot determined to be the future camp for the hostages, she noticed something else with the very corners of her eyes.

Fay snapped her head, locking on the small flash she saw and gritting her teeth.

'So fast,' she thought, a curse unveiling silently on her lips as her knees caved in.

Controlling her drop with slight movements of her hips, Fay fell right back into her nest, gracefully embracing the gun as she looked through the powerful scope.

Between her abnormally keen senses and the benefit of the ocular tool, she could see the tiny flash of light for what it really was.

The shine of a torch reflected off a polished plate.

And given both the place and the circumstances, Fay could now tell for sure.

"Tsk," clicking her tongue, Fay changed the angle of the gun a bit, pointing it back towards the camp. After assessing the situation for a short moment, she steadily breathed in and pulled the trigger, as if not to know when the weapon would actually fire.

One shot, followed by complete silence from the hill. Alternatively, if the first shot found no target, then followed by a barrage on any threat close enough for Peter to see it.

'He still has some time,' Fay thought, straining her eyes to recognize Peter's figure amidst the dense crowd busy fulfilling whatever deal Peter made.

The distance from that flash to the camp was still relatively great, giving Peter more or less twenty…

'No,' Fay gulped her saliva as she looked back towards the flash. 'Accounting for how quickly they arrived, fifteen minutes tops.'

The girl bit her lips, watching with frustration how seemingly no change appeared within the camp. However, before long…

A small part of the forest defenders detached from the main congregation of the units, heading off, through the camp, to its other end at the point furthest away from the forest.

'He couldn't be…' Fay bit down on her lips, as the reality of what was happening before her eyes started to dawn on her.

Because Peter… With a force of maybe a hundred or two, was setting out to challenge the enemy reinforcements! And while the entire army couldn't arrive anywhere as fast…

'Should I fire three shots?' Fay asked herself, biting her lips hard in frustration.

Yet, a single look back to the camp only caused the girl's expression to sour.

'Yeah, there's no way they will all retreat that quickly.'

One person could easily traverse from the camp to the forest in half that time, even when accounting for all the muddy dirt and corpses littering the path. But two entire armies? While maintaining some sort of agreed-upon balance?

'Is that why?' Fay asked herself, instantly torn by the choice of what she was supposed to do.

Go to Peter? And deprive him of the only accurate support he could count on? Or stay on the hill, and risk being unable to do anything if the shiny cavalry bearing the flag of the empire would prove to be too much for him?

'Curse it all!'

Gritting her teeth to the point they started to painfully move in her gums, Fay sharply pulled the gun to the side before taking aim and raising it a bit.

"Come on now, I know you can reach them," Fay whispered to the lock of her weapon, taking her sweet time to aim the shot.

Contrary to her bombardment of the human camp, she could barely see the target. Even through the scope, she could only see the general movement rather than individual riders.

The light of the torches reflecting off their shiny armor was the one thing that allowed Fay to notice them from so far away. And as they traveled on a relatively straight road that led up to the plain…

Fay raised her gun more and more, all the way to the point where she actually climbed up on her knees and raised the whole thing from the ground.

From the settled-down position, she could raise the gun as far up as she felt she had to. And once everything just felt right… Fay pressed the trigger.

******

*Whoosh!*

This was the one sound I wasn't yet familiar with.

I could tell its source right away, for it was too critical, too mechanical to be of anything sourced in this world. And the number of people in possession of my tools was extremely limited.

Furthermore, no sound of explosion followed nor was the sky lit by the momentary explosion of light.

'A far shot?' I thought, tracing my eyes the imaginary path of the bullet I constructed from just the noise the round made, a great courtesy of my improved wisdom and intelligence that just proved yet again how little I understood its limits.

Still, Fay shot the gun, well after giving me the warning shot back at the camp when we were ironing out the details of the deal Claudy…

And speaking off…

I turned my eyes to the side, where surrounded by twenty of his elites the mercenary acting leader silently followed me into battle.

'I know this is a bad idea… but frankly, I don't have any other way to prove it,' I thought, gritting my teeth as I held back a curse. 'And if I showcase its might on them,' I patted the shottie hanging from the strap on my neck, 'they will never agree to surrender.'

I gathered the saliva in my mouth before swallowing it down…

Only for the noise of another bullet to swish through the air. And then another. And another…

'Wait, what is she doing?' I thought, startled, turning my head towards the line of the trees out across the camp and in the distance.

Obviously, from so far away, I couldn't even see the hill where she was nested. And thanks to the rail-powered drive, the neugarand was free of a muzzle flash.

There was no explosion involved when it came to ejecting the bullet, after all.

And before I could for a single thought, another round came flying by. This time, however, it erupted close enough for me to hear the distant, weak echo of the explosion.

'She's going all in,' I thought, turning my eyes to the direction she was shooting at.

And still far away… but I could now see not the explosions themselves, but the slight, bright hue they cast on the clouds far off in the distance.

'And that means it's not going to be an easy fight,' I thought, gulping my saliva down only to raise my hand, ordering my small unit to a halt.

The battle with the mercenaries was put on hold. Mindful of the threat to my back and lacking just this one last push to force the mercs to surrender, I decided to catch two birds with one stone. After all, what could be a better reason to surrender than witnessing the might of my shottie?

But again, firing it at the mercenaries would kill any chances of any sort of deal. That's why, the threat that I've already believed to be some sort of reinforcements, turned out to be the best target for me to practice on.

'As long as we slaughter them all, the high charges of the mercenaries will know the terror of the neu-firearms,' I thought, gritting my teeth as I decided to hold my ground barely a few steps away from the camp.

Given the ongoing barrage, there was no point in shortening the distance the reinforcements had to go through under the constant fire. Every step they had to make was one more second Fay could use to shower them with the condensation rounds.

"We will take them on here," I announced out loud before casting a sour look at Claudy and his escorts. "And for the sake of your safety, please, stand aside," I requested out loud while raising my shootie and resting it on my arm. "I don't want our terms to go away because of some stray arrow or something."

Claudy was here to witness the power of my gun. And with other high-ranking officers of his army present, I could give them all this one last push to follow through with the plan I've revealed to them.

And that's why, as hated as it would make me among Fay's kin, I had no other choice but to make sure they would survive the ordeal safely, no matter the cost.

After all, Claudy's cooperation was my ticket to quite possibly ending this war with hardly any further bloodshed! Hardly any bloodshed…

I heaved a heavy sigh before bringing the gun down to my hands and getting ready.

'Beyond the one I'm about to partake in just a moment, that is.'