How Not To Summon a Modern Private Military Company in Another World-Chapter 54

The door handle turned under Lyris’s hand.

Locked.

Not barred. Not chained. Just a clean, firm lock that didn’t give.

Ragna hit the panel beside the bed with her palm, not the red button, the black one Ward had pointed at.

A soft click. A light blinked once.

The thump hit again, closer. The window latch rattled. The hum in the wall didn’t change, but the floor gave a faint vibration like a truck rolling past outside.

Mira pressed her ear to the door. "It’s moving along the lane."

Ragna muttered, "So open it."

Lyris leaned close to the seam of the door and spoke toward the corridor. "Post."

No answer at first. Then boots, quick and steady, stopped outside their unit.

A voice through the door. "Guests, stay inside."

Ragna stepped forward. "What is that?"

"Routine movement," the guard said. "Stand by."

Another thump. This time it wasn’t just vibration. It came with a short burst of wind that pushed against the building, like air being forced down a narrow street.

Mira’s eyes went to the window. "That’s not a truck."

The calm voice in the wall spoke again, Atlas language, faster this time. Not shouting. More like a station announcement.

Ragna pointed at the wall. "What did it say?"

Lyris shook her head. "No idea."

The guard spoke again, sharper. "Do not open the door. Do not approach the window."

That made Ragna move toward the window anyway.

Lyris caught her wrist. Hard.

Ragna looked at her, ears pinned. "I’m not a prisoner."

Lyris didn’t let go. "You don’t know what you’re walking into."

Ragna’s jaw worked. Then she stopped fighting the grip, just stood there, listening.

Mira took a half-step back from the door. "If it was an attack, alarms would be louder."

"Or their alarms are quiet," Ragna said.

Another thump. Then a long rolling sound like air tearing across metal.

Rotor wash.

Lyris had never heard it before, but her body recognized it anyway: something big beating the air.

The window shook again. Dust lifted off the floor near the vent. The curtain tugged inward.

Ragna whispered, almost irritated now. "That’s a flying thing."

Mira’s voice was tight. "A helicopter."

The guard outside said, "Aircraft landing. Stay down."

Lyris released Ragna and moved to the bunk, crouching low under the window line. Mira followed without being told. Ragna hesitated, then dropped too, knees cracking as she crouched. Her tail tucked tight against her leg.

The thump-thump-thump grew louder, then held steady, hovering. The entire building vibrated. The air pressure changed in the room, like a storm sitting on the roof.

Ragna covered one ear. "It’s landing right outside."

Mira peered at the floor, watching the shadows under the door flicker with the moving light outside. "If it lands near the guest wing, it’s either medical..."

"Or security," Lyris said.

The rotor noise shifted again. The pitch dropped, then steadied, then dropped more. The vibration eased a fraction. The wind faded from a shove into a steady push.

Then, like someone shutting a giant door, the noise cut in stages. Thump. Thump. Thump. Silence, broken only by the base hum and distant engine idle.

Ragna lifted her head slowly. "That was... right there."

Mira stood first, careful. She didn’t rush the window. She went to the door, hand near the seam again.

A knock came from outside, firm and controlled.

The guard’s voice. "Open. Slow."

The lock clicked. The handle turned from the outside this time, like the guard had a key.

Lyris opened it halfway.

Two soldiers stood in the corridor. One was the same guard from earlier. The other wore a headset and had a tablet in his hand. Both had rifles slung, muzzles down, posture tight.

The headset soldier looked at them. "All good. We had an inbound. You three okay?"

Ragna leaned around Lyris. "What inbound?"

"Medical evac," the soldier said. "Aldo resident. Complications. We’re moving her to the main ward."

Mira’s face tightened. "The missing arm woman?"

The headset soldier blinked like he didn’t expect them to know. "Yeah. She crashed. Shock. Blood loss. We stabilized, but she dipped again."

Lyris opened the door wider. "Did she live?"

"Still breathing," the soldier said. "That’s why we flew. Ground would be too slow."

Ragna stepped into the corridor without thinking.

The guard shifted, blocking the hall with his body. Not aggressive, just firm.

"Stay in your lane," he said.

Ragna stopped on the spot, muscles coiled. "I just want to see."

The guard looked to the headset soldier.

The headset soldier glanced at the tablet, then back at them. He made a quick decision.

"Two minutes," he said. "You can look from the end of the hall. No closer. Follow instructions. No sudden moves."

Lyris nodded. "Understood."

They moved as a group, escorted down the corridor. The base felt different at night. Same order, but quieter. Less chatter. More radio noise. More boots.

At the end of the hall, a door stood open to the outside lane. Cold air pushed in. Bright white floodlights turned the street into a hard-edged scene: paved road, low fences, and beyond them, the landing zone.

The helicopter sat there like a crouched animal, rotors still. Soldiers moved around it in a practiced flow. A rear ramp was down. Medics in dark uniforms were already halfway down the ramp with a stretcher.

Lyris stared at the machine without blinking. She’d seen it in daylight. At night, under harsh lights, it looked more real. More heavy. More like something that belonged to a world that didn’t have gods deciding who lived.

Mira’s eyes locked on the stretcher.

Two medics ran, not panicked, fast and controlled. The stretcher bounced once on the asphalt. The woman on it was wrapped in blankets, straps over chest and legs. A clear tube ran to her face. A bag hung from a medic’s shoulder.

Ragna whispered, "They’re carrying her like a king."

Mira shot her a look. "They’re trying to keep her alive."

They watched the medics push the stretcher toward a vehicle parked close: a boxy transport with lights inside and doors open. The medics lifted and slid her in. Another medic climbed with her. The doors shut.

The vehicle rolled out, slow for five seconds, then faster once it cleared the lane.

The helicopter crew didn’t linger. Soldiers climbed the ramp. The ramp rose. Lights flashed once. Rotor blades began turning again.

The headset soldier beside them said, "That’s why the announcement hit your wall panel. Guest wing gets notified when an aircraft comes in low. We don’t want people walking outside into rotor wash."

Ragna stared at the helicopter as it spun up. "If that wind hits a person—"

"It can knock you down," the soldier said. "Or worse. That’s why we told you to stay inside."

Lyris didn’t take her eyes off the crew moving with quiet urgency. "You do this often."

"Often enough," he said.

Mira’s voice dropped. "So Aldo isn’t safe yet."

The headset soldier didn’t lie. "It’s safer. Not safe. Safer means we can respond. Safe means we don’t need to."

The helicopter lifted. Dust and loose grit whipped off the lane again. The three of them stayed back as instructed, hands visible, posture controlled. The rotor wash slapped the fence and rattled it, then the machine rose above the lights and slipped into the dark.

When the noise faded, the base hum returned like it never left.

Ragna exhaled through her nose. "Your people move like a hive."

Mira hugged her arms. "It worked."

Lyris looked at the headset soldier. "Is she going to live?"

He didn’t give comfort he couldn’t guarantee. "We’ll know in an hour. Our docs are good."

Ragna turned away from the landing zone. "Can we go back now?"

The guard nodded. "Back inside."

They walked the corridor in silence. The guest wing felt smaller after seeing the medevac. Less like a strange hotel, more like part of a machine that didn’t stop for guests. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Back in the room, Mira shut the door softly. Ragna didn’t lock it this time. She went straight to the window and stared at the empty lane.

Lyris watched her reflection in the glass again. Plain clothes. Clean hair. No weapons.

Ragna said, "They said ’routine movement.’ Like dragging someone out of death is routine."

Mira sat on the bunk, elbows on knees. "In a war, it becomes routine."

Ragna’s ears flicked back. "So we’re really in it."

Lyris stepped closer to the table and picked up the paper with the drawings again. She didn’t read it. She just held it like it mattered.

Mira looked up at her. "You’re thinking about the capital."

Lyris didn’t deny it. "If the guild board hears Aldo survived, they’ll take credit. If they hear Aldo turned into this, they’ll call it heresy."

Ragna snorted. "They’ll call it whatever gets them paid."

Mira’s gaze drifted to the wall panel. "That voice system. It warned us before it got dangerous. No runner. No bell. No shouting."

Ragna glanced at the shower door. "And hot water. And food. And flying wagons that carry bleeding villagers to healers."

She shook her head once, like she was trying to reset her thoughts.

"This place is wrong," she said. "But it’s also... fair. In its own way."

Mira’s mouth tightened. "Fair is not the word I’d use."

"What word then?" Ragna asked.

Mira looked down at her hands. "Consistent."

Lyris sat on the chair and rested her forearms on the table. "Consistency is power."

Ragna turned from the window. "You sound like a noble."

Lyris didn’t rise to it. "No. Nobles are consistent when it benefits them."

Mira let out a short breath. "What happens tomorrow?"

Lyris answered, "Orientation. Rules. Boundaries."

Ragna rolled her shoulders. "And then we start being their ’local partners.’"

Mira’s eyes narrowed. "Which means we start explaining the world to people who can level a forest without a mage circle."

Ragna’s lips pulled back in a grin. "Good. Maybe someone will finally listen."

A soft beep came from the wall panel. A different tone than the announcement. Mira flinched, then realized it wasn’t the alarm.

Lyris leaned toward it. The small light blinked. Then a voice came through, not loud, a person speaking in Atlas language. A few words. Then silence.

Ragna stared at it. "What was that?"

Mira got up and stepped to the panel. She looked at the buttons like they were traps, then pointed at the black one.

"We pressed this," she said. "So they can talk back."

Ragna’s ears perked. "Talk to the wall. Great."

Another beep. This time, a different voice. Ward’s voice, distorted through the speaker, but clear enough.

"Guest wing. You three up?"

Mira stared at the panel, then looked at Lyris like she wanted permission to answer.

Lyris nodded once.

Mira leaned in, speaking toward the panel like it was a listener. "Yes."

A pause. Then Ward again. "Med evac’s done. Don’t freak out. You’re fine."

Ragna stepped forward, speaking louder than needed. "We weren’t freaking out."

Ward’s voice came back. "Sure."

Another pause. "We got an update. Your Aldo woman’s stable. She’s in surgery. Docs say good odds."

Mira’s shoulders dropped a fraction. She didn’t smile. She just let the tension go from her neck.

Lyris said toward the panel, "Thank you."

Ward didn’t do speeches. "Get sleep. Tomorrow starts early."

The speaker clicked off.

Ragna stared at the wall panel, then at Mira. "You just talked to him without a runner."

Mira sat back down slowly. "Yes."

Ragna went to the bunk and lay down, but she didn’t close her eyes. "If the temples see this, they’ll call it divine."

Lyris lay back on the upper bunk, eyes on the ceiling. "Albert will call it infrastructure."

Mira’s voice was quiet. "And the guild will call it a problem."

Ragna’s tail flicked once. "Let them. I’m tired of watching villages die because someone didn’t feel like riding out."

Silence settled again. Not the silence of fear. The silence of people trying to rest while their head won’t stop moving.

Outside, the base kept breathing through vents and generators. Far away, a vehicle started, then faded. Somewhere else, a door slammed. A radio crackled, then went quiet.

Lyris listened until the sounds turned into a pattern she could predict.

Mira’s breathing slowed first again, though she kept shifting like sleep wouldn’t land clean.

Ragna stayed still, eyes open, staring at the dark.

Then the wall panel blinked once more. Not an alarm. Just a soft light pulsing, like it was waiting for the next message.

Ragna whispered, "Tomorrow they’ll put us on a schedule."

Lyris answered from above, voice low. "Good."

Ragna turned her head slightly. "Why ’good’?"

Lyris didn’t look down. "Because if we don’t move with them, we’ll be left behind. And if we’re left behind, Aldo happens again."

Ragna’s ears twitched. Mira didn’t respond, but her hand tightened on the blanket.

Outside the guest wing, boots moved past the lane light again. The base didn’t sleep. It rotated, checked, watched, and kept going.

Lyris closed her eyes, then opened them again when another distant thump rolled through the night, softer this time, farther away, like another aircraft landing on a different pad.