"How long are you going to stare at the Portal, Van?"

"...Mister Gil."

​​

Gil has been walking around the Encampment to see if there was anything he could do so spend his time. Nisha has been doing her thing and talking with the other female Prisoners back on Rick's side. While Cynthia, well… it was the usual time for her and her husband to have fun.

Surprisingly, as weird as it was, Gil was the closest one in the group towards the murderous couple. They have been getting into heated debates about why murder is bad and about the outside world for a few days now.

While Van-- well, Van has been doing nothing but to stare at the Portal for a few days now.

"You're not planning to escape, are you?" Gil said, letting out a short sigh as he stood beside Van.

"..."

"W… wait, are you!? Don't even try it. As soon as the tip of your nose passes through that Portal, your head would shoot right--"

"Mister Gil, don't you find it weird?"

Before Gil could start another one of his long speeches, Van interrupted him.

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"No one is entering the Portal," Van said, his eyes not leaving the Portal for even a second.

"Well, we never really enter the Portal. Even when I was working as a guard, I haven't even seen anyone enter the Pit."

"No, I meant Prisoners," Van let out a sigh as he shook his head, "Boss said there should be a batch every other week, but we've been here for more than two weeks already."

Hearing Van's words, Gil could not help but slowly raised his eyebrows as he looked towards the Portal.

"You… you're right," he muttered, "I wonder if something is going on outside. Maybe they're just busy with something?"

Boss' information was right. They usually just round them up in a normal prison for a few days, deciding whether or not the perpetrator should be thrown into the Pit.

If only he could take a peek and say hello to his old comrades, but he knew they would probably stab him straight in the eye before he could even say his greetings. With how he looked now, they would probably mistake him as a Prisoner.

He had reservations even before when he still had his uniform, and now that he was wearing nothing but a commoner's clothing, they would surely kill him.

That was the only reason why he hasn't even taken as much as a peek outside.

"Haa…" Gil once again let out a sigh, "You know what I miss the most from the outside world?

...The food. Here it's always meat, meat, dried jerky, and meat. We don't even know what animal or monster they're from. There's not even a single green in sight."

"..."

"Ack! I can't believe there would be a day that I am actually craving vegetables!" Gil shook his head in frustration as the deep sound of his stomach rumbling whispered into Van's ears, "What about you, Van? Do you miss anything outside?"

"..." Van could not help but blink a couple of times as he looked at Gil, why did their topic suddenly turn into food?

Although… he does have a point. He did miss Andrea's cooking, but…

"There's this Chinese restaurant I usually go to with my friends," Van let out a small breath as a small smile slightly crept onto his face, "They had these dumplings there that when you bite on it, the soup inside will just burst inside your mouth… and then the meat will just start melting on your tongue…

...It was nice."

"!!!"

Van quickly backed away as saliva started to trail from Gil's opened mouth. "Ack!" Gil once again groaned in frustration, "Now I am really hungry! Meal time isn't until 3 hours from now… Agh, why did you even talk about food!?"

"...You're the one who started it."

"Aren't you hungry?"

"...I don't get hungry."

"Heh? Ack, I wish I had a stomach like yours," Gil tried to calm down his roaring stomach, "I get hungry with just the thought of my favorite food."

"Try eating only once every 3 days, then I am sure you will also be able to--"

"I was just joking, joking!" Gil quickly waved his hand as he walked away, leaving Van by himself once again to search for something to do.

"..."

And as soon as he was gone, Van went back to watching the Portal. Gil, on the other hand, was trying his best to get the thought of food off of his mind. If only he was the one tasked to prepare the meals.

Those people are surely putting food in their pockets right now and eating before it's even time. But then again, their food is rationed and it would be unfair to the people if he becomes the one in charge of food and will eat every hour…

"Haaa…" Gil once again let out a long and deep sigh as conflicting thoughts of food and morality mix inside his mind. "Guess I should just clean my sword for now," he quietly muttered to himself as he proceeded to walk towards the lake. He thought that he might as well since he was heading in the lake's direction anyway.

It would surely also help to get the thought of food off of his mind, at least until it was mealtime.

And so, as soon as he arrived in the lake, he unsheathed his sword. He slowly kneeled on the ground beside the body of water and slowly started patting his sword with water. Afterward, he used his clothes to pat it dry, careful not to miss a spot.

He then pricked a leaf from one of the foliage that littered everywhere in the forest, crumpling it until it produced oil. The sound of the lake, and the waving of the trees as the wind embraced them completely soothed Gil's mind.

With the orchestra of nature playing around him, Gil proceeded to dab the oiled leaves onto his sword, not too much as it'll drown the sword. His breaths rhythmically hummed with each tap as his mind wandered to his sword and only his sword.

After a few seconds, he then once again wiped it with his clothes, carefully spreading the oil on the surface of the sword to make sure it was even.

"...Hopefully, it won't leave a mark or rust," he then whispered as he gently placed his sword to the side and leaned it on a tree.

He took a satisfied look as the bright rays of the sun completely showered his sword, causing it to gleam as if it was thanking him for cleaning it.

"...You're welcome," Gil muttered before taking off his clothes and proceeding to wash his arms and face from the dirt and oil that covered them. Washing his face with the cold water slightly made him shiver, he pulled back his red hair before letting out a long and unfettered sigh.

He had been here for more than two weeks now… was no one seriously going to come for him? He knew that he didn't have that many friends in the Guard, but still… to not even check on him was cold. He spent years training with them, and they abandoned him just like this.

They even allowed a kid to be thrown here with him, a boy who didn't know any better. Just… what has he been fighting for and who has he been serving all this time? He thought. He was supposed to be on the side of Justice, and yet that very same justice abandoned him.

"!!!"

His solemn thoughts were then disrupted as he heard the loud rustling of leaves behind him.

"Are you a ghost!? I am not scared of you!" He quickly raised his voice as he rushed to pick up his sword. "Come--"

He then paused with his words as he saw a long hair waving behind a tree. Long… hair? Didn't the ghost that Van described had long hair as well!?

And so, with that sudden thought crawling like spiders inside his mind, Gil abandoned every notion of fighting back, picking up his clothes before rushing away.

However, before he could take 10 steps, the owner of the long hair revealed himself.

"Y… you?"

***

"Oh, where's your personal guard?"

Back in front of the Portal, Nisha's teasing chuckle slowly entered Van's ears as she approached him.

"...He's probably just out there looking for food."

"...Again?" Nisha shook her head before letting out a small sigh, "Anyway, anything interesting happening on your side?"

"...No."

"Why are you just staring at the Portal anyway? Why are you not doing anything else? I haven't even seen you train your Skills."

"I am."

"...What?"

"It's… nothing."

The truth is, changing his speed has almost become an instinct to him. Although his [Time Perception] skill was still deactivating whenever he gets distracted by pain or anything similar. The only thing that he still has not trained even until now was his [Air Step] Skill.

His level had also jumped from absorbing the Souls he got from the Prisoners here. Although it wasn't as much as they had a lower level than most of the Souls he previously received, it was still enough to take him from level 27 to 33.

He knew he was getting complacent, but the thought of escaping had been plaguing his mind ever since Boss opened it up to him. He knew it was a weakness, but his friends are still out there.

Andrea, Victoria, Harvey… even Beatrice. He… missed all of them. He could not help but imagine if he wasn't thrown in this place. Would he still be by their side? Would he be… spending more time with Victoria?

"Van!"

"Hm?"

His thoughts were disrupted by Nisha's sudden call, he was going to ask what it was-- but he didn't have to.

A huge shadow has bathed almost half of the Encampment, a part of the sky completely darkened, covered by what seemed to be smoke rising up from the forest.

"That's…" The smoke was coming from the direction of the lake.

"Could it be… Mister Gil?" Van quickly got up from the log he was sitting on as he looked at the flickering embers that were slowly floating in the darkened sky.

"What!? Let's g--"

Before Nisha could even take a single step, a golden blur trailed on the side of her eyes. She looked back, only to see that Van was no longer behind her.

"Tch…" Nisha could not help but click her tongue, "Cynthia, make yourself useful!" She then screamed loud enough for Cynthia and her husband to hear inside their house before rushing towards the lake.

"Damn it, Gil… Why is someone like you walking so leisurely alone in a place like this!"