“Are you sure?”, asked a strange person in a hoodie.

“Of course, I am.”, replied another strange person in a hoodie.

“I’ve sent Slav to confront them, they should get the message.”

The person glanced behind them and continued,” Oh don’t look at me like that, She’s fine. Probably.”

“Whatever you say Ban.”, replied the person sadly. He left Ban behind and went back to their camp.

Just when he reached there, he saw Slav waiting for him. She rushed towards him, smiling.

“I succeeded!”, she said while not being able to contain her excitement.

The man placed his hand on her hand and spoke, “Good work.”. You could see a slight smile on his face.

“What did I tell you Dit?”, said Ban who joined them soon after.

“My student would do better than fine.”, she continued.

“What happened exactly?”, asked Dit.

“I warned them to go away and wounded their leader.”, said Slav while smiling.

“Their leader? Do you mean Knight Dave.”, spoke a person from some distance.

Slav shrugged.

“It’s alright, you can go join your friends. Nice job.”, spoke Dit. Slav obeyed his orders and went away.

“Why did you make her go away? I wanted to ask her more questions.”

“The principal of a burned orphanage is going to question us?”, interrupted Ban, in a mocking tone. The principal’s face turned bright red. Ban laughed and continued,” Are you going to do something about it?”.

The principal didn’t do anything about it, he turned his face and scurried off.

“Thought so!”, said Ban as loud as possible. Making sure her words were heard by him.

“Why is he even here?”

“No idea.”

“Maybe he thinks us of as comrades. Maybe we should kill him?”, asked Dit.

“No, not now. He’s fun to mess around with.”, replied Ban smirking.

Nearby, Slav entered a shed. She was way too happy to hear what was going on behind her.

“Look who decided to join us.”, spoke a man who also had a slave collar on his neck.

“Ogre.”, replied Ogre.

“Not you... you...”

“Leave him be, Median. You know he doesn’t know how to speak any other word except his own name.”, spoke Slav, interrupting what Median was going to say.

“If it even is his name.”

“Ogre!”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Median looked over at Slav and asked, “Were you successful?”

“Of course, I was! I mean, I am the strongest here after all.”, she exclaimed proudly.

Median scoffed and replied,” I’m sure Ogre’s stronger than you and...”. He stopped and looked at his slave collar and continued, “If I didn’t have this on my neck, I’d probably beat you too.”

“I’m sure you would.”, said Slav smiling.

“Ogre is strong.”, she added.

“Ogre?”

“Yes, you. Ogre.”

She jumped over on his shoulders and touched his slave collar.

“Maybe if you didn’t have this on, you’d be where you belong...”

“We all would!”, replied Median, angry.

“Ogre?”

“Yes, even you Ogre!”

Slav jumped down from Ogre’s shoulders and patted him. Median collected his cool and spoke, “You’d probably be a high ogre. Ruling your clan or whatever ogres do.”

“But no, we’re all stuck here.”, he added.

“I’m not stuck here! I’d always be here to support Ban and Dit!”, exclaimed Slav. Median glanced over to her slave collar and sighed before speaking.

“Whatever you say. I guess this is better than mining whatever those others mine in the caves.”

“I’m sure if they proved themselves to Ban and Dit, they’d be here with us.”, added Slav. Median looked at her and decided that it wasn’t worth talking about anymore.

Back at Dave’s camp.

“Are you alright?”, asked Orph.

“I will be fine, I’ve had worse wounds in the past.”, replied Dave, trying to smile and hide his pain.

“That girl... She’s skilled. This is going to be harder than I thought. Now I know why he was so eager to allow me to come here.”, he added.

“Who?”, asked Orph.

Dave looked at him for a few seconds and spoke, "Can you please call Cess here?”

Orph looked at him for a few seconds before nodding.

He went to where Cess was and asked her to join Dave. Which she did while running as fast as she could.

“What happened, sir? Is there anything wrong? Maybe you’d like me to chase after that girl who wounded you?”, she asked.

“Oh. Nothing like that.”, replied Dave.

“Then why have you called for me?”

Dave was dumbfounded and started thinking of a reason, an excuse, anything. He didn’t think this far or through.

He finally ended his silence and spoke, "How was your day?”

Cess didn’t reply, she only looked at him in silence.