Van and Luna rushed to each other and embraced. He was terrified for her safety, it would be an understatement to say that he didn’t have a mini heart attack from watching the shriekers tear into the barrier that protected his beloved.

The same could be said for Luna, who was terrified watching from the safety of the tree fort Van fighting for his life on the ridge below.

The both of them would have never thought that such a crazy situation could have happened to them. But for all that, they were just glad to be with each other once more…

Yassan and Yesi also quickly moved toward each other but stopped short of hugging. Their awkward family relationship prevented them from showing open affection to each other, something that Yesi just realized was partially her fault. Instead, they greeted each other amicably, just glad that the other was okay, and quickly fell back into their ranger roles.

While they were awkwardly doing that, Van pulled Isa and Gwen in for the hug as well. Kella kept her distance, she didn’t do open displays of affection herself. But looked kindly upon it, feeling like they deserved this considering everything that happened.

After a while, they finally broke apart, and the group began to try and discuss what to do next.

The commander meanwhile, was going over the battle report with one of her sergeants.

“We have bad news, commander.” the sergeant said. “We’ve lost eleven soldiers, mostly when the shriekers attacked the archers, and three wounded, two heavily so. Our scouts also reported that there is no bandit activity in the area. This place is completely abandoned.”

The commander looked concerned, feeling like something wasn’t right here when another soldier came rushing up yelling her name.

“Commander! Commander! Emergency report from the fort!” the soldier exclaimed, carrying a large pack on her back that helped amplify the pulse signal radius, allowing for communication over large areas.

The commander’s heart froze, her instincts telling her that something bad was happening right now. Van, Luna, and the others turned to look over at the commotion happening, wondering what was up.

Slowly, the commander picked up the phone-like apparatus that was connected to the pack that the soldier was carrying and answered the call.

“Com-ader!” a voice crackled through. “W- uDe- TACK! Kers! anDits! REd Hair!”

“Karmine…” the commander growled, now realizing what must have happened. “Have you gone insane!?” mostly to herself.

“What's going on?” Van asked, overhearing some of what was said and looking worried.

The commander tried to school her face. “It seems we have some… unexpected guests… back at the fort, the bandits that I thought we were going to face here are actually over there…” she shook her head. “It doesn’t matter…” and turned to start shouting orders for the troop to quickly form up and leave to aid in the fort's defense, once she was finished she turned back to the group.

“Now that you and your wife are safe, I suggest you and the rangers go the long way around to the other fort where they will be of help.” the commander said after ordering her girls about. She gave each one last look, her eyes lingering on Van. “For what it was worth, you were of great help, we probably wouldn’t have been able to reduce the number of casualties if it weren’t for you sacrificing your summons like you did to hold down the shriekers… I give you my thanks…” giving him a small bow.

“No need for that! I’m just glad I was of some help! I honestly did it all for my wife, no need to thank me…” Van said, a little embarrassed by the praise and feeling like it was misplaced since he really did do it just for his wife.

“Still… I owe you my thanks…” she said, then gave a look towards Luna. “You should be lucky to have such a strong male that loves you.” She then turned to leave.

“W-wait!” Van called after her, making the commander stop in her place. “Maybe we can be of help to you?” he asked, though now that he said it out loud he wasn’t so sure. Especially because the other girls were now looking at him a little surprised.

The commander paused to give it some thought but then shook her head. “I appreciate the offer. But. this is not something for civilians to do, not to mention you are nobles… if you die, then your death could be put on my mistress’s feet. Greatly inconveniencing her and tarnishing her name. I cannot allow that…” her loyalty to duchess Rosalyn showing through. “She sent me here to deal with the growing bandit problem. If I cannot even do this much then I would have failed her, and the trust she put in me.”

She gave Van one last look. “You also have a duty to safely get out of this forest alive and well. For your house's sake…” and with that she turned away, ordering her troops and moving them in formation out of the clearing.

Van and the rest of the group could only watch as the soldiers left them behind to head towards battle once more.

Once the last of them left, Van turned to Yesi, feeling a little lost. “What do we do now?” he asked.

Yesi gave it some thought, looking behind her at the tree fort. “The barrier doesn’t seem to be shot… so we should stay the night here and leave first thing in the morning. We have a lot of time to make up, and the sooner we leave the better… we don’t know when those bandits may come back…” looking worried and concerned, wondering what in the world was on the bandit's minds.

After that, the group began to talk amongst themselves about what plans to make for the future and the best methods to safely travel through the forest without getting caught by the bandits or any monsters that may get in their way. After a while, Van couldn’t help but ask a question of Yesi that had been making its home in his mind.

“Yesi…” Van began to ask.

“Hm?” Yesi responded, looking over at him after they had settled into the tree fort and put away some of their stuff.

“Do you know a… Karmine? The commander mentioned the name when she heard the fort was under attack. Could it be the name of the leader that commands the bandits?”

Yesi gave it some thought, slowly shaking her head. “I’m sorry, but I actually don’t know what’s going on around here to accurately tell you. It’s been a few years since we last traveled through Gleam forest. The most I know is that a group of bandits have made their home here and started to extort any travelers and adventures that come through here. Though… this is the first time, or at least from what I heard, that they went out of their way to kill and attack so many people… they usually just try to make money out of each passerby…”

“And now they are attacking a whole fort…” Van said, a little lost on what the hells was going on.

Yesi nodded, though she did look a little frustrated, no doubt still furious about all the rangers that died under her command. “All I know is if I see any of those bandits again… they're going to pay…”

After that, the two remained silent, lost in their own thoughts of what the future might entail. Hoping that it won’t get any worse from here…

--- the fort ---

“Boss! Boss! No sign of him! But we did get the documents you asked for.” one of the bandits said, handing over a stack of papers filled with important information about the resources that could be found in the Gleam forest and where to find them. As well as hidden resource caches that they have yet to find.

“Hmm…” Karmine mumbled to herself, wondering where the male was… she had everything nicely planned out too… while the fort commander left to deal with the shriekers at the ranger’s recluse, she would do a snatch and grab over here. She had sent letters all over the forest to call over her outlying bandits to converge on this fort. Bringing in fifty, plus a couple dozen shriekers as well, the last they had…

They then had an insider open the gate and they ran right in. they of course made sure not to kill everyone. Karmine hated wasteful death after all… but those who fought back did die, while everyone else was tied up…

“Keep searching! That male has to be here somewhere… until then, keep looking and bring me more documents and maps! And burn the granary and stables, I don’t want them getting any ideas of chasing after us once we leave.” Karmine yelled.

“But boss? Why not just stay? We have the freaking fort!” one of the underlings said.

Karmine rolled her eyes. “Because we can’t keep it. The fort commander will be back with her troops, and even if we can beat them and keep this fort. It would only be a matter of time before reinforcements come to kick us out or kill us all with even greater numbers… and because someone decided to kill a bunch of rangers…” now giving a side-eyed glare to one of her bandit leaders, who quickly made sure to look like she was doing something important right then and there.

“They probably would have the best trackers the ranger guild has to offer… meaning after this we will have to lay low for a few years if we want to come back… if even that… but that means nothing if we can get the male… if we can find him, we will never have to work a day in our life!” she said out loud, hoping to rile up her bandits to search harder.

“Boss! Boss! I found him!” one of her underlings yelled.

Karmine looked over at the male presented and sighed. “That ain’t him you idiot, that's probably the fort’s prostitute, or maybe just a passing traveler, send him back and keep looking.”

The male in question looked slightly offended but was dragged away anyway.

A few hours after that, they were still looking for the male in question, but he could not be found…

“For fucks sake! How difficult is it to find one single male!” Karmine exclaimed. She sighed and turned to one of her leaders. “Gather the girls up, we're leaving. Have everything lootable packed up and ready to go in fifteen. That fort bitch is probably a few hours away now and I want to be long gone by then.” she then noticed the pulse tower, and burn that down too, don’t want them reestablishing communications anytime soon…”

The bandit did as told and started ordering a few of the others to start a fire on the tower as Karmine began to think about what went wrong.

The plan was simple, divide and conquer. Capture the male here, then intercept the tired, exhausted soldiers on their way back to capture the women. Kill two birds with one stone…

But that's not what happened… the male wasn’t here… so… if the male wasn’t here… that means the female may not be coming back with the fort commander… that means…

Karmine gave a low growl of annoyance. “Did they actually bring a male? A noble one at that, into battle? If so… that means they might be going the long way around after hearing the attack on the fort… there were a few rangers left after all… and they are real sticklers to the rules of protecting their charges… ah, damn it all! Can’t things go my way!”

She shook her head, trying to snap out of it. Turning around she began to yell orders and had her girls move out, leaving the rest of the shriekers behind as a little present for the fort commander upon her return to buy a little more time.

“No… this could actually be a blessing in disguise…” after corralling her bandits to leave. “This could mean that the targets are all alone with just a few rangers to protect them…” now giving it some more thought. “I can intercept them and capture them while they are vulnerable.” she then began to smile. “And this mess does give me a good excuse to get rid of the rest of my shriekers… bloody hate those things…”

Karmine began to look a bit happier now that she figured things out. “Yes… I'll capture them, present them to Karmila and then I’ll be free… I have enough money saved up to live well for the next few decades… Maybe I can even explore the world a little?” she chuckled. “Things might not have worked out so well today… but… there is always tomorrow…”

She then gave a few orders, changing their destination. The bandits looked a little confused, but did not question their leader who had never led them wrong before, and continued to march down into the forest with their ill-gotten gains…

---

Van was lying in bed with his most beloved, the two snuggled each other on the worn-out mattress. They were very glad to be back together again, though they were also a little nervous about tomorrow… they couldn’t help but be a little antsy about the future, everyone feeling like they should leave right now. But also knowing that traveling at night while tired would be far too dangerous… so they were forced to hole up in the tree fort until morning dawn.

“Hmm… I missed you…” Luna said as she hugged him dearly. She then gave a nice sniff as she lay on him. Then another sniff… her sleepy eyes now awaking as she gave a third sniff. She looked up at them. “Did you have sex with Yesi?” she asked.

Van blushed a little. “It couldn’t be helped…” he said, a little embarrassed. “We were both hit by a wave of Eros flower pollen…” he then began to explain everything that had happened since their separation.

“I see… well… Do you know what else can’t be helped?” Luna asked.

“Uhh… no? What else can’t be helped?” Van asked back.

“This!” Luna then kissed him passionately, pressing herself on him and reaching out to free his not-so-little friend.

“L-luna! There are others!” Van said between kisses.

“So? Just create a sound barrier with your magic. I know you can do it.” she then straddled him. “Now… let me get what I deserve…”

“W-wait! Me too!” Gwen said, surprising the both of them. “S-sorry! Didn’t mean to ears drop, was just passing through. I understand if you don’t want me to…” looking a little sad.

Luna shared a look with Van, then Luna nodded. Gwen gave a little squeal and moved into the room.

But just as they were going to begin again, Isa joined them. Then Kella…

“Well well well… look who’s popular…” Luna teased.

“I don’t think the bed can handle all five of us…” Van said worriedly.

Luna gave that some thought, then she got up and left, much to the confusion of everyone, and returned a few minutes later with Yesi. “You mean the six of us!” she said smugly.

“What’s going on here!?” Yesi asked, looking confused as to why she was dragged to Van’s and Luna’s room.

“No need to hide it… pretend lover…” Luna teased. “Come on… we are going to have… a lot of fun…”

Van thought Yesi was going to refuse. But surprisingly, she was acting very meek as she was dragged in. Perhaps she wanted this more than she admitted? Or perhaps she felt very put on the spot.

“I’m only doing this because your wife dragged me here. Understand? It’s not because I like you or anything. Got that!” Yesi said. “As pretend lovers you owe me this much…” giving him a look that dared him to question her.

Van just nodded along, knowing full well that at this point, things were out of his hand. And wanting some fun himself…

That night was filled with moans that were silenced by Van’s magic. And the group didn’t get much sleep… but they all woke up very satisfied the next morning…