“Well, that should be enough for the night!” Liron quickly tried to recover as he stretched his back. He looked around and then looked down at Colt to say, “Father-in-Law sounds stiff; from now on, call me Pops. I’ve wanted to be called that since way back then.”

“Got it…Pops.” Colt found it weird but also kind of endearing at the same time. He was left with a mix of complicated emotions.

The Marquis rubbed his well-defined chin after wiping the manly sweat of the soul off his eyes. He looked at Colt and tried kicking him away as he attempted kicking Colt away.

“Go now, I have said what I needed to say. Go back to Mina’s side; she might frown if she finds you nowhere in sight.”

Colt yawned and complied with the request of the Marquis for him to leave. He left as he gave the Marquis a respectful bow. The Marquis watched Colt return inside. The young man had a broad and defined back…he felt like he could leave Mina in his hands.

“It appears the Marquis is acting all sentimental. Is the “Serpent’s” steel heart beginning to waver?”

Liron turned around and saw Neun with a dashing smile. It was a strange and familiar sight. The cheeky view of this bastard smiling had been burnt down to his mind since long ago. The Marquis recovered himself as he saw Neun.

“Shut up, would you? I need to accept him. She’s my daughter’s husband!” Liron argued as he looked up at the nearby tree, “Come down from the tree, would you? I can hear you giggling like little girls.”

A couple of meters away from Liron and Neun, a tree shook, and Gilbert and Shickly descended. The two bore smiles as they were fascinated by the sight they were shown.

“You did well, Liron.” Shickly said with a smile.

“I agree; I feared you’d boot the young man; thankfully, you didn’t. He is a good person with a strong heart. He even saved my life this one time.” Gilbert added.

Liron wanted to argue, but they were correct. It was hard for him to do what he did, but all of it was genuine. He sighed as he just turned to Shickly and ask, “So, why are you wearing armor again? I thought we’d be drinking tonight?”

“Arte, that one genius of a brat Colt brought rescued from the Slavers had been showing signs of interest on Hylda. He’d been challenging me to a duel every night, and I respond in kind.” Shickly explained.

Taking an interest in the matter, Gilbert raised his brows, “Hoooh, to continue fighting even after all those fights, he’s a respectable young man, I see. If you pick him up, he’ll grow to become a good warrior.”

“He’s a Mana user, so I don’t think that’s possible,” Shickly answered.

Everyone was befuddled as Gilbert tried confirming, “Is he a Healing Element user? If so, then he’d truly be quite the dangerous adversary if he grows to learn in manipulating it.”

“That’s the weirdest thing, you see. He’s someone with Mana but has yet to manifest any elemental affinity. He’s not showing signs of Healing Element or aura, but he’s still quite phenomenal… it’s quite interesting, really. I might just pull him to my army; he can become a good General.” Shickly didn’t really care about anything about the army.

The only reason he had yet to resign was that there was still unrest, and he’s still relatively young at the age of 48.

“Master, Sir Liron, and bastard, let us leave. I had talked to Beta and said he’ll carry us to the Raging Mountains.”

The four of them then promptly disappear from the back garden. Their speed was jaw-dropping, but they didn’t cause any sounds as they moved.

As the four of them moved, Gilbert’s mind was preoccupied as he needed to clear something with Neun.

“Neun, you piece of shit, why do they get honorifics and I don’t?”

“Shut it, you bastard, you haven’t paid me for when I assisted you in killing that dragon, and you buying that hill and house with my own reward money.”

“You said I could keep it! Liron and Shickly gave me theirs!”

“I was humoring you; I didn’t want to look like the bad guy when Master and Sir Liron was offering theirs! I wasn’t actually going to give it away! Do you really think I like to lose money!? If you were short on money, you could’ve asked Tristan for the bloody money, he’s a King! He would be willing to give them to you!”

Neun roared, and as soon as they left the City without so much as alerting anyone. Not the assassins of the Family nor the guards were alerted.

They stood in the middle of a vast expanse of land outside the City. Liron looked at Gilbert and Shickly to confirm something, “Did your wives approved of this? I don’t want Alpyie and Faerith to kill me later. If those two ever combined their strength even I would not be able to last against them... especially Faerith, that woman is a monster.”

“Hey, you’re talking about my wife… though I can’t say that I don’t agree, but still — only I can remark about that.”

Neun listened and decided to add to his report to Faerith later, ‘Sorry Master.’ He already knew what kind of hardships Shickly would have… he didn’t want to do it, but Neun also didn’t want to deal with the Faerith.

‘I’ll take an arrow or a sword for you, my Master, but… I cannot fight against the Madam.’ These four people grown men were afraid of Faerith, and they had reasons for it, and as for Alpyie… she’s just as worst; thus, Gilbert had kept his mouth shut.

The other three were catching up while Neun went ahead and brought out a green pendant.

The pendant glowed, and a bird with Rainbowed Feathers shot up to the skies. It wanted to let out a screech but controlled itself as it was asked to be silent until its cries could not be heard in the City.

The Phoenix was big; its wings alone spanned for about sixty meters in total. It was also beautiful, too beautiful to be real, in fact.

Beta was a Phoenix and was one of the three Soul Partners that Neun had. It was a purebred Phoenix that ruled over the South; in terms of overall power, it was the weakest.

Beta descended from above and looked over at the four old men, “It appears the four of you had gathered up again. I haven’t seen in a long time.”

Neun, Shickly, Gilbert, and Liron nodded their heads as they said hello to an old friend. Beta lowered its head as she let the four fogies board its back.

However, just before Gilbert was about to get on, Beta raised its head.

“Hey, what’s the deal?” Gilbert was understandably annoyed.

“I demand an apology, you bastard!” Neun looked down from above the back of the Phoenix.

“I did nothing wrong!” Gilbert stubbornly responded.

“…Beta, fly.”

“Okayyy.” It didn’t even question the orders as this already happened on multiple occasions.

Gilbert stood there firmly for a few seconds, but as he saw Beta flying away, he began running like hell to catch up. As he ran, he screamed, “Hey, why aren't you two saying anything? Dammit allll, I apologizeeeee!”

As such, the moon continued to watch over them with a pleasant light.

Seyer_Jad

[Author's Note: Yay, I'm back and I just want to say that I hope this chapter didn't feel out of place as the four's friendship didn't feel forced. That's all,]