“Honestly you’re the worst.” Junia stared dreadfully down at Marcus.

Junia, Rufus, and Marcus were now sitting around the campfire in the middle of the camp. Hours before they were able to get Viran to calm down and get some rest, but the problems regarding Viran still lingered in Marcus’ head.

“We were there to get Marianne, not to save the kid. That kid is definitely some son of a Noble or some rich tycoon! Why else would there be that many Knights protecting the one kid? That “research” team is already bad enough for us. We can’t let ourselves stand out right now.”

Marcus’ voice begins to grow more stubborn.

“Should we really stick our necks out for some we didn’t know? Even then I was against saving Marianne but that shitty old man forced us to!”

“I get that but… You shouldn’t have left him alone in the forest, that’s far too cruel of a thing to do.” Rufus refutes Marcus.

A short silence descends among the trio. It was clear they were both judging Marcus’ decision yet Marcus wouldn’t change his mind. He was persistent that he had made the right call then.

“You don’t understand, we were directly on the edge of the forest and I made an easy trail for him to pick up that leads outside of the forest. Yet somehow he lost track of it.” He says with his hands folded, his eyes stare towards the tent Viran stayed in. “I just have a bad feeling about the kid. Why would those Knights act that way towards him, afterall they were his bodyguards im sure of it? I feel like having him here would just get us involved in something unnecessary.”

Marcus thought deeply about what he saw before, especially Viran. He clearly saw everything about Viran. The raw emotion he used, the man he killed, the spell he utilized, and the crazy bloodlust that he emanated. Marcus, however, chose not to disclose what he had witnessed. He already could tell what the others would say about Viran, and just by that Viran’s place in the camp was immovable. Contrary to Marcus’ logical and emotionless thinking, Junia and Rufus could not stand to kick Viran out of the forest and escorting him out was not an option as well.

To this Rufus and Junia look apologetic in the face of Marcus. Afterall he had his reservations towards Viran because he cared about their wellbeing, and what he said wasn’t wrong in any right as well. Junia whips her long auburn hair over his shoulder and merely grunts to acknowledge Marcus as Rufus does the same.

“Sorry, Marcus. We know you mean right, as usual.” Rufus apologetically says as he scratches the grizzly brown hair covering his forearm.

Marcus merely gives a thin smile in response and nods. Contrary to his mostly icy and stiff appearance he was internally distressed with their arguments, he himself didn’t think of himself as a good person for trying to simply get rid of Viran… In the end his own efforts were made worthless by Viran somehow still making his way to their camp, whether this was accidental or purposefully it still didn’t bode well for their camp.

“Well first we need to discuss the possibilities of us being found-” Marcus’ voice suddenly trailed off as a small creature with a face full of baby fat ran directly in front of Viran’s tent, her hands slowly going forward, about to fold the tent flaps.

Just as Marcus is about to call out to her the small child is shaken backwards when a head quickly pops out of the tent. His eyes were no longer frenzied with anxiety and emotion and were instead calm, his entire body especially seemed to be cleaned completely of the filth that had accumulated over hours. Viran’s eyes seemingly pierce through the entirety of the little girl as he analyzed her only to ignore her existence only a couple seconds later.

“Let me see Marianne.” Viran demanded with his eyes glaring at Marcus.

“Tch. Kids really are the worst.”

Junia glares back at Viran and seeing this Rufus quickly tries to intervene.

“Ah, Kid, we’re your elders so asking us nicer would be best for the time being.” Rufus said as he waved towards Viran only for the back of his head to be smacked by Junia.

“Who the hell are you calling an elder!” Junia roared.

Ignoring the little girl that had begun laughing at the scene, Viran continued to glare hatefully towards Marcus’ icy stare back. He began to get cold feet at the hostility shown towards him, but Viran knew he needed to be upfront with them. He didn’t know who they were or what they did with Marianne, and Viran wasn’t planning on playing nice with people he knew nothing about.

“...The old man isn’t done with the treatment yet. You still need to wait.” Marcus took his glare off of Viran and took a sip of water much to the surprise of Rufus and Junia. The Marcus they knew wouldn’t usually relent to someone so demanding that easily.

“Jules is going to take longer?” The small girl said sorrowfully.

“I see.” Viran said afterward, ignoring the girl’s entire existence.

He himself wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but Viran had grown to become anxious and hostile around people his own age. After all his one and only friend had attempted to kill him and the other kids his age avoided him like the plague.

‘At least the adults had tact…’ Viran thought, remembering his past experiences.

Remembering everything that had happened previously was like opening an old wound for Viran, and he quickly shut off all thoughts about it. Just as he is about to go back inside the tent he can feel his stomach lurch as it growls for food. Viran had just realized he hadn’t eaten for almost two days…

“Hungry?” Rufus asked.

With a small nod from Viran Rufus excitedly went to work cutting off pieces of a roasted animal. The animal was obviously not a tame animal and was instead a beast with large fangs and teeth that had already been pulled out. Viran had heard of animal parts being the most used in alchemy, runes, and general practices of magic very often to the point where bones and hides were often sought after. Not to mention the gourmets that cherished the specific tastes of different beasts, though correctly cooking such monstrous beings took skill to even take them down and to prepare the ingredients.

Viran didn’t want to accept the bowl, as he was still wary of them, but his stomach won over his mind and he firmly gripped the bowl of meat. The bowl and utensil he had been given were handmade and poor quality compared to what he usually used, but that didn’t matter to Viran. After taking the bowl from Rufus Viran began to take large strides back to the tent. To this Marcus scoffed, Junia narrowed her eyes, and Rufus gave a grim smile all the while the small girl stood there trying to find the words to say. Despite all of that Viran ignored them all and closed the tent behind him and ate in peace.

“Hmph, brat.” Junia said simply, to which Marcus acknowledged.

“Tha-that was my tent…” The small girl said nervously. The sun had already disappeared long ago and she had been waiting for Viran to leave so she could finally sleep…

“It’s fine. We have a spare tent for the boy.” The sudden voice from behind the group revealed a man in his late thirties with grey hair already developing in patches on his short brown hair.

“Jules!” The little girl said excitedly.

The little girl ran excitedly to Jules and gave him a loving hug much to the chagrin of Junia. Her glare was frightening enough that Rufus made sure to pinch her only for him to receive a smack in response.

“I was wondering why you weren’t asleep yet, Elena.” Jules said as he patted her shining silver hair.

“That boy has been sleeping in there for hours. Who is he?” Elena asked with her head cocked to the side.

“Well I have been busy tending to Marianne for awhile now, so I can’t say I know anything about the boy.”

“Marianne? The one with the pretty hair?”

“Yes, that is the one. Now Rufus over there will put up your tent now, how about you go give him a hand?” Jules says while looking at the grinning Rufus.

“Ok!” Rufus and Elena both say in unison.

“Tch, and you say I act like a child.” Junia mutters with a sneer as Rufus and Elena walk away to a cart they had stationed nearby.

Jules walks by Marcus and Junia and sits down where Rufus had been previously, a large sigh finally exits. His legs were spread out onto the as he stretched his limbs and neck.

“How is she?” Marcus whispered while Junia listened intently, also interested in the subject.

“It’s hard to say… She’ll live but it’s difficult to say how alive she’ll be. Her magic circuit is completely fried and it's unknown whether or not she will retain some of her other abilities, her-” Jules pauses for a moment to choose the correct words. “She is a Kieller, so naturally her innate gift of sight was damaged harshly when she was younger, this is without even mentioning the scars and damage to her own body, and it’s likely she may lose her innate gift completely and be blind to the entire world.”

The faces of them all turned grim at the prospect. In the magic civilization that was the Empire, they have gone through immense revolutions concerning healing magic and scientific understanding of the human body, yet the mages that were able to bring back a blind person’s sight were too far and few between. The cost of it alone would be too costly for the average Knight like Marianne.

“Is she awake yet?” Junia asked as she stroked the fire with a stick.

“No… It’s hard to say when she will wake up. If I had the right tools and ingredients I would be able to… But our situation is stiff.” Jules said with a long expression.

“...That’s why I didn’t want to save her. I get that you feel somewhat responsible for these Kiellers but doing this is putting us in considerable risk. Those Knights began murdering each other with the kid and Marianne about to die next. Not many people come through these parts… But it won’t be long until they investigate what happened here. Now we have some Noble son sticking with us and a wounded Knight, we don’t need this kind of attention on us considering everything we had just gone through to stay discreet. If that Knight dies everything we had gone through would’ve been pretty much wasted.” Marcus reprimanded Jules with Junia staying out of it.

“I know… I know. You had no reason to accept my plea even after saving us all in that situation with Baron Oros, yet you still did. You have my thanks and I hope you understand I cannot sit idly by while someone from the Kieller bloodline is in danger, I have too many sins to repay them for.” Jules said with emotion and compassion. In regards to that emotion Marcus sighs and drops it all much to the relief of Junia.

“!” Jules' calm face breaks and a frightened expression releases as he hurriedly stands up.

Not far from where they were sitting, the frightful screech of a young woman was heard. A pained scream filled with years of agony and torment that had finally released itself at last. The once sometimes awkward and exceedingly kind voice of Marianne now screamed in a way that scared off nearby beasts and animals alike.

Viran drops the bowl onto the floor as he runs through the tent, to Marianne.