They all began to travel around, but something was bothering Vanoth.

‘Something is definitely wrong here.’

Then his eyes widened.

‘It’s been three weeks! That little girl! She tricked me. But next time, it will be different.’

He was determined this time. Today was the day they were going back home. He approached Celia, but he found himself promising to travel for another two days as soon as he tried to persuade her.

‘…’

“Celia, Celia!”

Victor came next to him.

“Today, you’ll meet the other two members.”

“Ooh.”

Her eyes sparkled.

“What do they look like?”

“One of them is a green granny, and the other is an elf that serious in every situation.”

Celia was impatient. She was having the times of her life for the last three weeks. At first, she was just trying to use them for her own interests, but now she really liked to travel with them and didn’t want to separate from them. After all, they were her first and only friends. The hour was getting late, and they entered an inn. It was crowded and loud. Victor took a look around and spotted three people drinking.

“There they are! But who is she?”

Elaine and Algor were sitting with a woman. The group approached them.

“What’s up people!”

Victor shouted.

“Finally, you are late.”

“Dude, you are serious as always. Try to smile sometimes.”

Then he introduced Celia to them. Aaron was looking at the woman next to them. Her ice-blue eyes captivated his attention. When their eyes met, Aaron felt like he was about to freeze to death, but, on the contrary, her smile was warm. Aaron reached his hand towards her and introduced himself without realizing it.

“I’m Naomi. Nice to meet you too.”

To Aaron, it was love at first sight. And so like that, the group of eight completed. They formed a team and traveled around together. The two-day promise turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and months turned into years. They traveled around for almost 1.5 years, and now they were back in the Mohan Empire because of Aaron and Naomi’s sudden marriage decision.

“Wow, I still can’t believe they married. I never expected Aaron to settle down.”

Victor was walking down the street with Celia in the middle of the night. Her cheeks were red for some reason.

“Yes, you know, a year ago, I would never expect to be here and never imagine that I would have friends. Thank you so much for that.”

Victor scratched the back of his head and checked her out with the corner of his eyes. His heart began to accelerate.

“N-no problem.”

They reached Celia’s house and saw Vanoth waiting in front of the door with his hands behind his back.

“Thanks for walking with me.”

She tucked her hair behind her ear. The moonlight reflected on her beautiful face, causing Victor’s heart to skip a beat. Then she stopped and turned toward him.

“Close your eyes!”

She suddenly yelled.

“W-why?”

Victor took a step back because her face was too close.

“Do it!”

She puffed her cheeks. Victor did as she told and closed his eyes. Vanoth opened his mouth to say something, but he stopped. His jaw almost dropped to the ground, and he stood there like he was petrified. Victor felt the warmth of Celia’s lips on his. Celia stole a kiss and rushed inside the house while chuckling. Victor stood there for a while, trying to calm himself down. A stupidly happy expression was visible on his face, and when he was about to walk back, his eyes met with Vanoth’s. Vanoth’s face was completely red.

“Y-you…”

Vanoth began to run towards Victor.

“AAAAH! You mother%&#@...”

“Hahahahaha”

Unlike him, Victor was laughing, and he began to run away from Vanoth. That night, Vanoth chased him around the whole city. At first, Vanoth was against their relationship, but he accepted it reluctantly after Idarin’s constant pressure. Idarin was 49 years old at that time, and Vanoth was 53. They were in the same team in their twenties and traveled together for almost five years. So it wouldn’t be wrong to say that they were good friends.

At the end of that year, Victor and Celia married. One of the main reasons Vanoth allowed them to marry was that he knew how strong Victor was. Although he didn’t want to admit it for the last two years, he had witnessed his power from the front row. Idarin and Vanoth were drinking in an inn.

“Come on, stop looking that sad. It was bound to happen at some point anyway.”

Idarin said to drunk-looking Vanoth.

“She is still *hic* too young *hic*.”

He quickly finished the bottle in his hand.

“And now, she is pregnant *hic*.”

Idarin patted his back.

“Don’t worry. She is in good hands.”

He grabbed Vanoth and helped him walk back to his house.

“That *hic* that fucker… How can he *hic* dodge everything *hic*?”

Idarin smiled.

“Because he can see.”

He answered, but Vanoth was already snoring. After both Aaron and Victor married, Idarin also wanted to walk on a path of a calm life and accepted Aaron’s father’s offer to become the academy’s headmaster. Those full of action days were over now. Celia was eight months pregnant, Vanoth and Salron were preparing to turn back their home, and Aaron’s children were born last week. But those peaceful days were about to come to an end. They wanted to gather at the academy to celebrate Idarin for becoming the headmaster.

“Woah, look at this place. It is huge.”

Celia’s eyes were shining.

“Our son will enroll here!”

Idarin appeared in front of them.

“Welcome, welcome!”

He was wearing formal clothes. Vanoth also came outside to meet them. But before he could say anything, a loud sound drew their attention. From the city center, next to the palace, black smoke rose.

“Something is wrong.”

Idarin said with a concerned look, and suddenly, wild animals began to rush to the streets one after another. They seemed wilder than usual, and they were attacking everything at sight.

“Stay close to me!”

It happened too fast. Nobody understood what was going on. In seconds the city was in chaos. Victor quickly summoned his katana and stood in front of Celia. He began to slay monsters one after another.

“The closest safest place should be inside the palace right now. We should get her there.”

Vanoth was right. The palace was heavily guarded. They didn’t know anything about who the enemy was or how many were there.

“Right, let’s go.”

Idarin took the lead and made way for them. The more they got closer to the palace, the more the number of monsters increased, and when they finally reached there, it was like a scene from hell. Victor saw Algor and Elaine struggling to keep the monsters away from the palace, and Aaron was inside the palace’s garden, slaying the monsters that somehow managed to enter. The number of monsters increased with each passing second and trying to protect Celia was getting harder. Since there were also civilians, Victor had to hold himself back and not act recklessly. They were getting closer to the palace, but something happened. Someone fell from the sky and shook the whole area as if an earthquake had occurred.

“Hahahaha!”

Arkul laughed like crazy.

“That is it, tore them apart. Tore everything apart!”

With his appearance, the monsters became even crazier. He was clearly the man in charge, but for Victor, his priority was to get Celia to a safe place. He tried to ignore him and kept moving towards the palace. Ignoring him was a mistake that he was going to regret forever. Arkul raised both his hands in the air.

“Blame yourself for this.”

The monsters began to glow red, and the unexpected thing happened. Victor, who can see the world in a different way than everyone else, the eyes that could see everything, didn’t foresee the explosion of the monsters. Simultaneously all of the monsters exploded. It happened too suddenly. None of them could predict it because the explosions weren’t involving mana. The whole city was covered in dust and smoke, and no one could see beyond the end of their noses. Victor reached his hand in panic where Celia was, but he didn’t feel anything. He felt like his heart had stopped for a second. With shaking hands, he quickly swung his katana to disperse the smoke. He searched around with a terrified expression, but it was still hard to see.

“C-Celia!”

Idarin flew in the air, reached above the smokes, and used the wind to disperse it completely. The scene that unfolded before them was terrifying. There were body parts everywhere. The houses’ walls were painted in blood. Victor stood where he was, and he felt as if thousands of swords had pierced his heart. The pain he felt was indescribable. He saw Celia lying on the ground. One of her arms was severed, and she was holding her belly with her other hand. She was covered in her own blood, yet she still smiled at Victor. The black clouds began to gather above the city. Victor couldn’t move. With crackling sounds, blue flashes of lightning slowly began to cover his body. Elaine quickly came next to Celia since she could use healing magic. She quickly leaned towards her with a frightened expression, but Celia grabbed her. She was trying to say something, but the only words that came out of her mouth were.

“My son.”

Elaine knew what she meant and put her hand on Celia’s belly with teary eyes. At that moment, fierce lightning bolts fell from the sky one after another, non-stop. They left a little crater behind wherever they hit. It was like a shower of lightning, and Victor was on his knees in the middle of it. He was screaming more loudly than he’d ever screamed in his life. Minutes had passed. In those minutes, no one was able to get close to Victor, not even Idarin. In the end, the rain of lightning stopped, but neither Victor nor Celia was in sight. The sudden war ended with countless casualties and the destruction of Sonio city.