8/17 - Anti-army camp - afternoon

I was lying down on the couch, everyone was working hard and doing whatever it was that needed doing. Today the army went over to another camp that Cade and I tackled last night. As you could imagine they came back with no clue as to who was taking out the bandit camps. We've been doing this for a week now, fighting bandits and taking names without anyone being none the wiser. This as a result made me feel pretty damn good.

"You seem pretty happy."

Marie hopped over from the back of the couch. I decided to ignore her.

"Come on, don't be like that Proxy. Look, I know it's boring around here but I just want you to learn to not act recklessly. . .You know, when I was your age I was a pretty fun-loving kid myself."

She could've fooled me on that, but it seemed like she wasn't joking. Interested, I gave a glance

"I used to pull pranks all the time on people, including my father and brother."

"Really, you did?"

"Yeah, though, my father would yell my head off. Every time he did, I would sulk in my room. But the best pranks I pulled were on my brother."

"What were they?"

She puffed her chest with pride.

"Well, there were pranks where I would put a ling-lum in his soup."

"A bug?"

"Yup scared him for weeks on end."

"Wow, I never knew Alex was scared of bugs. What else, you gotta tell me."

“You don’t even know the half of it. . .”

She went off on the numerous different things she did for pranks. Most of them consisted of messing with his food and using bugs. Personally, I never did a small scale prank before so I never knew they could be funny.

"Man, you were a different person when you were a kid."

I couldn't fathom how she became so went from a pretty awesome kid to an uptight chick.

"Yeah, those were easier times, " she lamented.

"How so?"

"For one I actually lived in a home rather than the inside of some ruins."

"That makes sense. So why don't you and Alex live at home anymore?"

Marie went dead silent for a moment. I think I had stepped on a landmine.

"Marie, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry about me Proxy. Overall, you should just get comfortable while you're on suspension."

"Like what?"

"Like some push-ups for instance. You need to give your muscles a work out if you want them to ever grow bigger."

"My muscles are big enough!"

"Really, then do thirty push-ups right now while I sit on you."

"No, that'll hurt my back!"

"Guess you're not man enough for that, huh?" she mocked me with a sardonic smile. Damn it, she just had to go there?

"Fine! Get on my back, I'll show you what I'm made of! I'll get to 100 hundred without breaking a sweat!"

"If you do break a sweat that's an extra chore," Marie stated with glee.

"You're evil!"

"How can you say that? I just want you to live up to what you say is all."

I think I made a miscalculation. She didn't get overly uptight and ditched the playful side, she just became a closeted sadist.

8/18 - Anti-bandit camp - Midnight

It was midnight again, everyone was asleep and I was ready to go out. This time I wasn't going over to Cade's, I was heading over to the kingdom to meet him there. However, Richard was aware of my late-night escapades, so he forced himself to tag along with me.

"You ready,” I quietly asked him as we were creeping through the camp.

"Yeah, I am."

We both snuck out of the camp with no one none the wiser, especially Nunnalé, who I thought would notice. I did the usual and dragged the bike until we were out of range of the camp. We drove out towards the kingdom, reaching it would take no more than 30 minutes.

"What are we doing again, you never really gave me the details," Richard nervously questioned. "You'll see soon."

"Got me a bit worried here, we're not going to go out and fight monsters on our own again?"

"No. . .we're not."

That was a pretty sore topic for me as of this current time.

"Hey, why don't you ever want to talk to me about it, Proxy? You're pretty tight-lipped about it, you don't even brag about beating that monster," Richard raised his concern.

"It's nothing, nothing at all."

It was terrible how powerless I was during that day. If it wasn't for Nunnalé I would've been dead, and so would Richard. It pisses me off so much and it terrifies me at the same time.

"It's probably because you got your goggles stolen from you. You had to go get some blood from that monster to cure me, and doing so got your goggles stolen and both you Nunnalé badly hurt in the end. I'm sorry for being so useless."

Damnit, don't say that, it just makes the wound hurt even more.

"Let's just forget about it, Richard. The reason I don't bring it up is so I don't pour salt on that poor monster's wound. Honestly, when me and Nunnalé got done with that thing it was a sorry sight. And don't worry about my goggles, I'll get them back eventually. For now, let's just have some good old fun!"

"Y-yeah, let's have some fun. Proxy."

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for protecting Nunnalé. She told me you took a head wound for her, and ever since I've been meaning to, but you've been keeping yourself busy with fighting, so I decided to do it right now. Thanks for also saving me, I'll pay you back someday, I swear."

“No need, we’re buddies, we have the other’s back.”

One part of me was glad that he was thankful, but there was another part that was just pissed off. But I'm glad that Richard left the subject now, he doesn't need to bother himself with the nitty-gritty details of how I feel. Because I'm not gonna feel those feelings ever again. I'm gonna grow stronger and then. . .Well, I'll just be stronger.

"We're here," I said.

The kingdom was up ahead, I could also see someone on the road with their own bike out. I hit the brakes before ramming into them. It was Cade who was riding a camouflaged bike.

"Sup," I greeted him

"Sup. Who's that?"

"This is my buddy: Richard."

Richard gave a simple wave gesture.

"So you're the guy he's spoken about? It's nice to meet a friend of Proxy."

"Thank you, and I'm sorry if he inconvenienced you guys," Richard apologetically said as if I was a child causing trouble in class.

"Hey, I'm well behaved!"

"Nah, he's cool. But we have to hurry, wasting time out here could cost us."

"Gotcha!"

We hid our bikes from view in the same spot Marie and I always hide ours whenever we come to the kingdom. Sneaking in wasn't the most pleasant but we certainly made it work. We used the sewer system to get inside the kingdom by opening a grate above us. We ended up in an open space alleyway surrounded by houses and buildings.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Richard announced with his fingers clamping on his nose.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine," Cade assured.

"Yeah, it's not all that bad, we can take a bath afterward," I told him.

"If you say so, but why did we sneak in from the sewer system to just end up in an alleyway?" "Isn't that obvious buddy?"

Cade went over to a little chest on the side of a house and opened it up. He brought out two buckets of black oil.

"We're going to have a little fun!"