Darius was silent for a while as he digested her life's story and compared it to his own experiences, forming a wry smile.

"What an interesting world we live in." Darius commented cryptically.

Deia ignored his weird comment and turned to face him. "What about you, any tragic backstory to lighten the mood?"

Darius chuckled lightly. "Sure, fair is fair. Well, unlike you, I had a pretty quaint beginning…"

Darius then regaled her with his history pertaining to his family and women in general. Deia listened quietly, her face displaying a strange emotion throughout.

When Darius was done, she glanced at him skeptically. "Oi, did you do something evil in your previous life or what? Maybe you killed a Goddess?"

Darius opened his arms in an 'I don't know' gesture. "I have been wondering myself, but your guess is as good as mine. I know it's not entirely common or normal, but it also is not that rare if we leave out the large conspiracy."

Deia scratched her chest. "So you hate women because of what you went through?"

Darius shook his head. "Everyone seems to think that, but that's not exactly true. I just learned from a very young age that anyone is capable of evil, regardless of age, sex, or race."

"Doesn't your own story prove that? Men driven by their innate desires can - and have - easily ruined the lives of many girls out there."

"Just like there are many women out there who have ruined the lives of unsuspecting young men through false allegations or manipulating them in different ways due to their sexual desires."

Darius shrugged. "It goes both ways."

Deia hummed with interest. "Oh? How magnanimous of you, Lord Stone. We of the plebeian denomination are thankful for your understanding."

Darius simply gazed at Deia with a strange look. "You really should do something about your constant sarcastic mockery. I can understand why you do it after hearing what you said, but you have to understand that there is nothing here that can push you to that end."

Deia's playful smile faded away as she watched Darius silently for more than a minute.

"What makes you so sure of that? What makes ME so sure of that?"

Darius was left unable to retort easily. Deia saw this and sighed. "I've come to understand something. You're someone who dislikes women whereas I dislike men. We both have our reasons, and the fact that we can even cooperate like this is a miracle."

Deia's tone became distant at this point as she turned to face the other side, showing her bare backside. "But remember that even though we are cooperating, some barriers can't be crossed. You should know why."

Darius sighed and also turned to face the other side. He didn't reply to Deia as he understood what she meant, and deep down, felt the same. It was clear that they were both somewhat attracted to the other, but…

Each one was carrying an enormous amount of emotional baggage, with the lessons life had taught them practically guaranteeing that even if they somehow got together, it would only be logical for their relationship to end one day, as neither one should be fully able to trust their partners, simply because of the sex they were born as.

They were quite similar in a way, but also different. Darius didn't mind enjoying the other sex, yet he did so purely for the carnal pleasure without any emotions attached, whereas Deia wished to remain pure.

Both of their dispositions meant that they were both single and neither one had any plans to ever marry. They knew that if they let themselves be caught up in what was beginning to spark between them, there was only a dead-end awaiting them.

...........

Darius woke up the next day due to the sun hitting his eyelids. As someone who naturally slept with the curtains closed in a well air-conditioned room, having the raw sun beat down on him was enough to cut his sleep short.

Still, Darius felt well-rested enough that despite being a mite bit groggy, he still pushed himself up to his two feet and checked around. When he saw that Deia was already up and seated beside him, he shook his head.

He then wore his now dry clothes, just as Deia had already been dressed as she sat there, gazing to the sea. Once he was done preparing, Deia turned to him and smiled lightly.

"Finally up, eh? I was getting worried I would have to wake the sleeping beauty with a kiss, heh heh." She snickered.

Darius simply responded with a soft smile and offered her a hand, bringing her to her feet. Deia patted her bum and placed one arm akimbo as she gazed at Darius.

"So, what do we do now?"

Darius swung his head in the direction of the jungle. "First off, we should secure external food to allow us to stretch out the preserved ones. I can see some wild bananas and coconuts there, enough to last us until we get sick of them really."

Darius began walking over, inspecting the tall trees that looked hard to climb. "If we can subsist on these for the entire five days and hold down our disgust, it should allow us to increase our survival chances by 50% at the least."

"After all, we wouldn't have to appear in the populated areas for any extra supplies, making it that much harder for the time the mercs to find us while greatly reducing the chances of us getting cornered."

Darius rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I estimate that by day 5, we could head out to sea and send out an SOS using the sub as we head towards the Central Country. By all means, we'd be picked up by the coast guard and escorted back."

Deia nodded. "Sounds like a plan. So then, how do we get those luscious fruits down from way up there?"

Darius sighed and passed a hand through his hair. "The bananas aren't tough since the trees aren't too tall. The two of us working together should be able to get a few down."

Darius then frowned deeply. "Unfortunately those coconuts are so high up that the two of us cannot possibly reach them unless we could either levitate or regress into monkeys."

Deia agreed. "Seems like there's only one way, and that's to get them down remotely. A few stones might knock one or two down... does the sub happen to have an ax onboard that we could use to cut the entire thing down?"