Upon hearing Nova's sweet voice, Sergeant Harris immediately pulled himself together and said. "Captain, this man claims to be your neighbor and is here to deliver something to you."

"Oh? My neighbor?" Nova narrowed her eyes as she continued to watch Vicente's eyes.

Since she had become an adult, she had been confronted with all kinds of strategies of men who tried to approach her. But this was the first time one had lied on this level.

Nova could just say that Vicente had lied and kicked the person out. But seeing the unusual magical form on his face and the courage he had to face her even after lying, she couldn't help but be interested.

"So, 'my neighbor,' can you give me what I asked you for?" She said as she walked towards the exit of the post, causing Vicente and the soldier to follow her.

"By the way, you are dismissed, Sergeant Harris."

"But..."

The man stopped, watching the two walk on without looking back as Vicente picked up the hairpin he had stolen from Nova the previous afternoon.

After ordering his men to begin investigating Defiant Tyranny's numbers, Vicente had set his sights on this woman.

As a member of the force that threatened him, she was certainly someone of interest to him!

He had sent one of his men to follow her, and when he heard from his man that she had gone to a restaurant with friends the previous afternoon, he had robbed her when he had the chance.

"Where did you get that?" She looked over and saw the hairpin in the hand of this black-haired young man whom she thought she had lost the day before.

"I found it yesterday afternoon in the bathroom of a restaurant," Vicente said, already outside the army post.

When she heard that, she stopped and looked him straight in the face. "Is that so? Thank you. What's your name?"

"Vicente Fuller. But you can call me Vice." He stated, admiring the beauty of Nova's eyes.

Vicente had a mental experience beyond his years. But the hormones in his body were those of a young man in his prime. Being with this woman, he couldn't help but feel different.

Eve was a beauty like Nova, but besides not having the unusual quirks one would not find on Earth, Vice had met Eve at a different time in his life.

Seeing such a woman every day, he did not look at her with perverted thoughts and resisted her charms. But Nova's case was different. He couldn't help but look at her with interest.

People from the Polaris Realm would have their bodies fully formed and ready to reproduce after the Awakening as long as they had no unusual problems or diseases.

Vicente, for example, no longer had any signs in his appearance that said he was just a teenager a few months ago. To anyone who saw him, he was a fully formed adult, and the most someone like Nova could say was that he was quite young.

But without sensing Vicente's magic level, Nova had no way of knowing that he was a 14-year-old 'brat' and treated him like someone her own age.

"So what do you want, Vicente? You could have given it to me in the restaurant, couldn't you? You must have seen me. Otherwise, you wouldn't know who it belonged to." She pressed him.

There was always the possibility that a soldier like her would attract more than love interests. This could be an enemy of the army.

But Vice smiled as he raised his hands. "I really saw you. But why should I have done that when you were surrounded by friends? I thought it best to have a chance to talk to you alone, Captain."

Nova could sense Vicente's interest in her, but he seemed a little different, unlike the other men she knew. He was sincere in his interest but didn't seem to act 'submissive' in front of her.

"And now? What do you want? You got what you wanted, didn't you?" She asked him.

"My goal was not to talk to you alone, Captain. What would I gain by talking to you in person? I know many would be happy just to see you acknowledge their existence, but I have no reason to be satisfied with that.

Forget your friends for one night, and let's get to know each other. We can have dinner at The Jazz Boar tonight."

Seeing how Vicente spoke as if there was no way she could refuse him, Nova grinned and showed him her perfect teeth.

"And why would I do that? Do I have to have dinner with you just because you gave me something back?" She asked with an interested tone.

"You can refuse if you want. But do you have better plans? I sincerely doubt it." Vicente stepped forward and approached Nova.

She looked at him, noticing his clothes, especially a bulge at his waist. "Do you carry a weapon, Vicente?"

"Always, Captain."

"Aren't you afraid that I will consider this movement a threat to my person?"

"Only if the Captain feels threatened by a stolen kiss."

She laughed at that and took a step back. "You're interesting."

She walked in front of Vicente in a good mood. "Actually, you can call me Nova. Don't take that as a yes, though. I'll consider giving you a chance to have dinner with me."

Vice smiled, two dimples forming on his cheeks. "I know where to find you. Here's my address." He flipped out a small business card with his address in the center of town.

"Do you think I'll come to you?"

"I can come to your house, but I don't know where you live, Nova."

She laughed and said nothing more.

Leaving Vicente behind on the sidewalk of the army post, she soon made her way to her morning work, thinking about this guy.

'What an interesting guy... Maybe a dinner with him wouldn't be so bad.' She thought. What worse could happen?

As she thought this, Vicente watched her from behind and saw how her hips swayed.

Vicente whistled in interest, but even as his masculine side screamed with desire, his rational side kept him in check as he thought about his plans.

'We will speak again soon, Nova Bain.' Seeing her disappear in front of him, he glanced at the barracks behind him, where several men were glaring at him.

Clenching his fists, Vicente made his way to his estate.

...

In the blink of an eye, 3 days had passed since Vicente and Nova's relaxed meeting at the royal army post.

In those days, the two had only seen each other once, when Vicente 'accidentally' crossed her path while she was patrolling an area of Millfall. But nothing had happened except that they had exchanged a few words and flirted.

Meanwhile, Vicente had invited Nova to his house, this time using Nina's birthday to lure her away.

Nova was a virgin whom many local men wanted. She would not go to the house of a stranger she had only spoken to twice. But the birthday of a girl under 10 was different from a date when she had to worry about Vicente's intentions.

But once again, Nova had said nothing to Vicente.

His time was running out to deliver his defense, but Vicente didn't believe that defending himself would help him much, so he hadn't tried to contact Nova with his identity as Cesar.

But in those days, his men had gathered the information he needed about the Defiant Tyranny!

With the data on the number of those men and their strength, he and his group of Acolytes, Rory, and some Senior Apprentices were gathering now.

Six people were in a windowless room on the second floor of this family's operations headquarters.

Vicente sat beside one of his men, discussing the Defiant Tyranny group.

"Boss, our enemies had 4 battalions in addition to their headquarters before the attack on our post days ago. Now they have 3, which is composed of nearly 100 men, a little over half of them Apprentices and the rest Acolytes". A Senior Apprentice presented this information to Vicente while standing and looking at his leader.

Another man added. "But the headquarters of the Defiant Tyranny has 21 more men, all Acolytes. The strongest is the leader and his right and left hands. They are between levels 4 and 5.

The rest of the men in the headquarters are level 3 and 4 Acolytes. Few men from this force are part of the battalions.

They also have a network of local criminals whose number and strength we couldn't determine. But they are small bandits. I believe there are no powerful people among them to worry us.

Rory asked. "And how are their men distributed among their five posts?"

Defiant Tyranny had a total of five posts in Millfall. The headquarters was in a brothel, while the others were in their territory, where these battalions were based or from where their personnel ran the group's business.

"The average strength of the other posts was supposed to be slightly higher than that of the group that attacked us. But with the loss of that battalion, things might be a little different now. Maybe some of the men at the headquarters are acting to keep control of those posts, so it's hard to say. For sure, there are fewer people at those posts."

Hearing this, Vicente immediately decided what he was going to do. "We're going to raid the best-protected post in this group."