For lack of anyone willing to platoon with the Prancing Pegasus Party, Leander had bitten the arrow and had offered them a spot in platoon 23.

He felt flustered. Offering two SS ranked adventurers a place in a C ranked platoon. Even more so since he knew that it was his fault for the low rank.

But it was a waste of potential to send the two off on quests that were rank D and down. Not that Alklair and Valerie had complained. But it was still a slight.

So, here Leander stood, with the platoon registration form in his hand and looking Alklair in the eyes, as uneasy as that made him.

"Valerie is the leader, ask her," the former guild master did not refuse him outright, but he had not agreed. Leander decided to ask again. He turned to look at Valerie and bowed low to her.

"Miss Valerie, please consider the offer of the Prancing Pegasus to become a part of platoon 23, consisting of the Try Hard Party and the Budding Lilies. Rank... C," Leander could feel a stone wedged in his throat. Now that he was saying it for the second time, it sounded even sillier.

"Thank you, guild master. Both Alklair and I would be happy to," Leander blinked. Wait, had she agreed?

"Uhm..." Leander shifted in his boots. Valerie giggled and Alklair let out a chuckle.

"To tell you the truth, we were getting a bit tired of walking dogs," Alklair admitted. Leander looked between the two for any signs of a prank being played on him, and grinned widely. He ran back to the rest of platoon 23, and pumped his fist high.

"They agreed," he shouted, and the other seven began to do something like a victory dance. With the girls being more reluctant to dance than the boys.

"Oh, my. Do you think we will act like them, in a couple of months?" Valerie inquired and Alklair sighed.

"Those five are infectious. I dare say that we will be as big of goofs as them. Just look at the Budding Lilies," Florifel had her legs over Alberta, who was on the floor and rapping something. Waving her hand and mimicking sunglasses with her other hand. Lilia was waving back and fort behind Alberta, and doing peace signs.

 Not that the boys were any better, considering that the two warriors were on the floor and doing impressive moves that required a lot of arm strength, and the other three were doing some weird circular dance, hands linked.

"I sometimes forget that they are just children," Alklair mused. They were, most of them, teenagers. The new instructor who worked for the guild, Tom, had given him the chewing up of the century because Alklair had not covered the expenses of the guild during the training period.

He had wanted to, but then had figured that this would teach them how to save money. Not that it was going to put their bodies under stress and rob them of their sleep.

"We all make mistakes," Valerie had a hand on his shoulder, and she gave him a light squeeze. "And you did serve your purpose. The guild is united now."

"Still undisciplined," Soed spoke behind them. Alklair blinked. He had forgotten about the receptionist. "But I think that, seeing as they could die at any moment, they need to live a little."

"A friend of mine used to say the same," Alklair spoke. Soed was hitting all the nostalgia feelings Alklair had for Asmodeos. By no fault of his own, Alklair knew. But he was doing it all the same. "But he ended up a rotten apple."

"How so?" Asmodeos asked. Alklair had never given him an explanation behind him cooling to the necromancer. He had kicked him out of the guild, out of their house, out of their city. And had refused to speak to him. Alklair had not even bothered to get Asmodeos an escort to the heart of the world.

Not that Asmodeos had needed it. Seeing as he went to the Face Changer the same day and got a new-look thanks to a spell applied on his body.

"He never followed the rules. Didn't think they were needed. He was wise, but a dreamer. And he expected everyone to live by his standards. Then, one day, he began to rise legions of the undead to do quests. People who had families who were mourning them. It was an insult and the guild nearly got burned to the ground because of it," Asmodeos blinked. That had been the problem the entire time?

"Why didn't you tell your friend that, once you saw him doing it? Surely, he would have stopped," Asmodeos wanted to know why he was never given a chance. Why Alklair had kept silent.

"I was afraid of him, by that point. His legions could have taken out the guild in an hour. And we were better, back then. So, I took a special medallion with a mana suppressor and gave it to him. I don't think he knows, even now, why he is weak now," Asmodeos's eyes narrowed. That medallion was precious to him. The last present of Alklair. And it had been just a chain?

Well, two can play that game. Alklair was going to pay, and Asmodeos was going to punish his past lover with kindness. Let the guilt eat at him until all Alklair could think about was to right his wrongs. To go to the heart of the world and find empty, icy, vastness.

"Do you miss him?" Asmodeos needed to know. He had asked himself that many times in the solitude of his home, whatever it was at the time. It had been five hundred years, give or take, but he was still asking himself that.

"He was my heart," both Asmodeos and Valerie's eyes softened at that. "But he is probably mad at me. And rightly so. Honestly, the medallion is the only thing that keeps Huergaz safe from his anger."

Asmodeos sighed. He was not a rabid animal. Not only that, but he would never lay a finger on his beloved Huergaz. The place that had welcomed him six hundred years ago and had been nothing but warm to him.

What the necromancer needed was for Alklair to see things his way. One mistake and lack of communication couldn't wash away of a hundred years worth of joined adventures and love, could it?