With an hour left until sunrise, Daiden awoke to his morning routine. He jogged through the desert dunes and practiced his weapon switches from the ring. After a tough hour, he returned to change into a clean set of clothes and packed the rest into his spatial storage. With a fresh face, he stretched a little and waved hello to the rest of the group.

“Good morning!” said Daiden, cheerily. He interacted with Skunk and the rest, and blushed at the sight of Lina still. Amidst casual conversation, the group lowered their tents and prepared for their departure.

“It looks like we’re all set to leave!” confirmed Skunk. He noticed his group instinctively shift to his side, with Daiden on the other. “How about we distribute the loot? As agreed, Daiden will be given seventy percent in shares and the right to first pick.”

Slide blurted a strained grunt, but held from breaking into words. He stayed behind the rest. Carla and Lina encouragingly pointed to the items in front of them, content in their expressions.

Daiden inspected the items one after the other. He knocked on the Sand King’s exoskeleton first, then the greatsword. His eyes slowly moved towards the two Sand Cores, one from the Monarch, and the other from its mount. He brushed past the remains of the mount and whistled at the sight of a large, rusted key. Daiden touched the surface, scratching the rust a little to feel the cuts and engravings. His fingers retreated, tickled by a strange aeter emission. With a cough, he straightened his knees and checked the items once more.

“Would’ve been helpful to have Kir with me here…” complained Daiden, with a non-expression. He hummed for a moment, and decided, “Skunk, your group can have the mount’s exoskeleton and the Sand King’s greatsword. Fair?”

“You want to give us the greatsword?” asked Skunk, taken aback. “I can guess that it was forged from brown iron, aeter-touched brown iron. It can be sold for a lot of bloodstones, or modified to function as a longsword as well.”

Daiden smiled. “Ah, thank you for your kindness. But I meant thirty percent in quality as well. You lot deserve at least this much.”

At the response, Lina jumped to the front and gleefully hugged Daiden, laughing out loud. “I knew it! I knew it! You’re such a sweetheart, Daiden Lost…” Her words trailed into a whisper, and she angled her face to kiss him on his cheek. She gently retreated to gaze into his eyes, at a breath’s distance, and then pulled away with another laugh.

Daiden felt his heart pound against his chest in a frenzy. His face reddened from the experience. “Ah, um…ah, thank you.” He lowered his head in embarrassment.

Skunk and the others laughed, Slide as well. The Nis pressed Daiden’s shoulders to stir him awake from his dizziness. “Thank you, my friend.”

Daiden eased from the tension and smiled back at the group. He separated his items from the pile and tapped them into his spatial ring. A little later, they departed towards Multana City. Daiden allowed the group to hunt the odd, remaining Sand Spiders, enjoying the desert landscape without concern. In that moment, Lina hopped back from her comrades to join Daiden.

“Tell me something, Ser Lost…” said Lina. “Do you like someone at the moment?”

“I am not a Ser, I’m not anything really,” corrected Daiden, immediately. He touched his chest and pictured the face of the woman that had stopped him from entering Lina’s tent the previous night. He pictured Laella. “To be honest, I don’t know what I feel. I guess I do like someone right now.”

“That’s quite the predicament!” said Lina, in a pout. “I like you. I like you a lot. You’re a trainee, and you’re odd. You’re strong! Like very strong! I like strong men.”

Daiden laughed at Lina’s description of him. “I’m sure you’re used to having strong men around you all the time. I mean, there’s Skunk and Slide as well.”

“They’re different…well, how can I say this?” said Lina, cocking her head to one side. “They’re honest. You, you’re much darker.”

Nausea. Daiden experienced it bubble from the words, in his stomach at first. He shook from the discomfort and eyed the woman by his side.

“What do you mean?” asked Daiden, finally.

“I don’t know!” admitted Lina, with a shrug. “But that’s probably what makes you so…attractive. You’re very incongruent, perhaps even unknowingly, trying to be something you’re not.”

Daiden recalled Rollo saying something similar as well.

“It doesn’t bother me though,” said Lina. “I hope it doesn’t bother that person you like, too.”

“Will you be in Multana City for a while?” asked Daiden, hurrying away from the last comment.

“Maybe not, maybe not,” said Lina. “I’m sure we’ll meet again. I have a feeling that God Ehedus might enjoy the thought of us, together.”

Lina wrapped her arms around her chest and squirmed, wearing a weird expression. Daiden watched his eccentric friend and smiled, then laughed.

***

With a hum, Rollo collapsed onto a pile of leaves underneath a large tree. He slowly turned to face the stars and sighed with a sense of accomplishment. His ears perked at the chatter around him, mostly soldiers from the Godvildian Military, assembled to push back on an orc invasion near Baran Village.

“Are we done already?” asked a soldier, near Roland.

“Not entirely,” explained another. “The scouts left early this morning to map the orc settlements in a ten-kilometre radius from Baran Village. We’ll be expected to clear them out by the end of this month.”

“Sounds like we have a long road ahead of us!” complained the soldier.

“Get used to it.”

Rollo sighed again, towards the end of the conversation. He cozied into the leaves some more, enjoying the experience of being a nobody. His mind waned from his duties as Duke and Prince. It bothered him on certain days, not so much otherwise.

“Oh, how I wander…” sang Rollo, in thought. “Friends all around me, the brightness from the stars…”

Rollo returned to his feet and fetched a couple of utensils. He started a fire, skinned the game from his comrades, and worked through the spices. His hands moved with a smile, across ingredients and in experimentation. He often enjoyed the sight of the others, wet in their mouths from the smells, from the sounds of a bubbling broth. A new hobby. Rollo remembered excitedly volunteering for it during the assignment of roles for the Orc Repulsion Quest, to assume the responsibilities of a chef.

“They’ll never complain,” the Captain said at first, encouragingly. “You just need to make sure we don’t fall sick from the food.”

Rollo embraced the challenge, nonetheless. He bided his time through the nights, as the soldiers chewed and swallowed in silence. He would then alter the amount of salt, the herbs, the proportion of meat to vegetables, even the temperature. Rollo sacrificed his portions for more experimentation, until the silence roused to rowdiness, with the soldiers battling for seconds and thirds.

“All in a few days’ time!” whispered Rollo, proudly, while stirring the pot. He slowly trailed into thought. “I think Daiden and Laella would enjoy this.”

Later in the night, when the soldiers slept, Rollo returned to the leaves and opened his Mioveroldian Page. He swiped to a communication from his baron, Noah.

“My Prince,

I’ve completed our transaction with Skunk and his group. As expected, they intervened and helped Ser Daiden overcome the Sand King. They’re on their way to Multana City now. I’ve asked our scouts to keep a close eye for more information.

I trust that you’re well-fed and happy.

- Noah”

With a smile, Rollo dispersed his Mioveroldian Page and returned to gazing at the stars.