I ended up in quite a peculiar situation… I am standing in my dungeon with Bandy in front of me and all the other xp gathering groups that are currently in town towards the edge of the room, along with Katie and Zoey.

Bandy was causing problems again, and everyone decided they have had enough, so when she challenged me to a fight, everyone encouraged me to accept, so here we are…

“Alright, how do you want to do this? We need to set agreeable terms to winning and losing.”

Bandy: “There are plenty of people here that can use healing magic, so I say we go full out! I wouldn’t want you to try to weasel out of this with some technicality.”

“I know I am going to regret this but fine… We want to prove abilities not equipment, so we will both use gear of equal quality, and since your magic abilities are limited, I will refrain from using magic myself.”

Bandy: “I don’t need a handicap!”

“Just tell me what kind of equipment you need…”

Bandy: “A pair of short-swords and leather armor is all I need.”

“I will wear leather armor as well, but I will go with a single sword and a buckler.”

Bandy: “Your loss.”

There are plenty of items like the in the dungeon’s inventory, so I use [Menu] to equip us both in the gear.

Bandy: “Last chance to change your mind.”

Zoey: “Knock her on her ass Boss!”

Bandy waves the two short-swords around a few times to get their feel down, and I unsheathe my own sword testing its balance as well. I then raise my arm equipped with the buckler to defend myself.

“Zoey, count down from three, and then say start. Then we go on start, agreed?”

Bandy: “Let’s do this!”

Zoey: “Three…”

…

Zoey: “Two…”

…

Zoey: “One…”

…

Zoey: “Start!”

○○○○○○

After the meeting with the Elders, Angela had a strange request to speak privately with Two-Twelve. I would have thought nothing of it except she has been acting rather strangely since our visit to his dungeon yesterday.

Desiree insists that this is something that Angela needs to do, and it isn’t like I have to worry about Two-Twelve stealing one of my women, so I allow it, but I am starting to wonder if Two-Twelve is a bit sneakier than I thought, and placed some ultimate command on them, as they start acting strangely every time they come in contact with him or his dungeon.

Desiree finds my line of thinking comical and assures me that I am highly mistaken on Angela’s intentions. Even if they were lying to me, any information Angela could give Two-Twelve would hardy become a problem for me, but for some reason I can’t help feel a bit apprehensive about this.

When Angela returns to us in a happy mood however, I can’t help feeling a bit relieved. There is still plenty of daylight left, so we leave from the neutral zone heading for Merretta.

If the traitors are trying to involve themselves to see to it that this civil war is drawn out as long as possible, then the border would be the best bet, so we arrive in the most contested area between Merretta and Southern Merretta.

The city we arrive in is in disarray as you can practically see the imaginary line that separates Merretta and Southern Merretta right thought the middle of town. Neighbor vs Neighbor, cousin vs cousin, brother vs brother, the entire town is filled to the brim with soldiers from either side looking to pounce at the first side of aggression from the other side.

The businesses of the town are covered in passive aggressive warnings barring one side or the other from entering the establishment. Even a simple stone throw while calling out one of the side’s name would likely set everyone else off.

That means if the traitors are involved they have a vested interest in this current stalemate, or the city would already be in total anarchy. Once the fighting breaks out the city will quickly be claimed by one or the other of the two sides, and the war will progress, so if the traitors are trying to drag out the war it would make sense they want everyone to remain on edge without setting them off.

If that is the case I could easily end this stalemate and that should draw out the traitors, if they really are here, as they try to get things back under control to maintain the status quo. Now the only question is which side do we give the advantage too?

Everything should point to taking Lucille’s side and assisting the Merretta side, but even though Two-Twelve is not a fan of Laura’s he seems to be siding with her during this civil war. He was the one that stuck by her allowing her to become a temporary Elder, and now taking this side of the civil war, maybe there is more reconditioning done to him then we first realized.

There is also the option to just instigate the fight then step off to the side, when/if the traitors try to stop it we can deal with them then.

Desiree: “What if the traitors are not involved? We could be aggravating a war for nothing.”

“Regardless if we interfere or not this battle will take place eventually anyway, so if we can have the chance to benefit from it, there is no reason not to do so.”

Angela: “Two-Twelve might not feel the same way.”

“He has his task and we have ours.”

We spend the next few hours going around the city to find out as much information as we can, in hopes to find the most pivotal place to strike, which will cause the this battle to get underway, and bring the traitors out of hiding, if they are here.

We finally find just the information we are looking for in the form of a resupply wagon from the Merretta capital. The bad news is that it is not due to arrive till mid-morning tomorrow some time, so we have no other reason to remain here for the rest of the day, but before teleporting back to my castle Angela stops me.

Angela: “Master, please wait…”

“Was there something else you wished to do before returning to the castle?”

Angela: “Not exactly, but I just thought we have spent so much time in the castle lately, it is kind of nice to get out for a change.”

“And whose fault is that?!”

Angela bites her lip and blushes a bit and says. “But seeing how much you were enjoying it, I just couldn’t help myself…”

“Alright, we have till morning, what is it you would like to do then?”

Angela: “I just thought that renting a room at an inn would give us a bit of new scenery…”

Desiree: “Unbelievable… Even I have my limits! This place is practically a war zone. Do you know how dangerous it would be for us to stay the night in such a place?”

Angela: “Master would be able to keep us from any harm, but don’t you think the mystery of it makes it all the more exciting?!”

“With the possibility of traitors here in the city somewhere, staying the night wouldn’t be worth the risk. We haven’t exactly been making our presence known, but we haven’t been hiding it either, and the last thing I need is being caught by a traitor with my pants down.”

Angela: “Then we should hurry home then!”

Desiree: “This girl…”

“I have no complaints if that is what you want, but tomorrow might be a trying day, so we must get some sleep tonight.”

Angela bites her lip again while thinking out loud. “Four hours of sleep should be sufficient, and if we leave right away, that gives us at least six hours! I would rather we had at least eight dedicated hours, but two hours of sleep might be cutting it close…”

Desiree: “You really have no shame…”

Angela then grabs my arm with a smile. “Please Master, we need to hurry!”

Desiree and I both sigh before we return to the castle. After a very pleasurable, but long night, we return to the small city on the edge of Merretta the next morning just after the sun has begun to rise. We arrived a little later then I had anticipated, because a bath was required, and Angela saw to it that it ended up taking a fair amount of time longer then was necessary.

It did however seem to put both of my lecherous companions in a good mood this morning, so they are in good spirits, and we quickly search out information to make sure the supply caravan has yet to arrive.

We are indeed still a few hours early which Angela complains about, but we had plans to hit it long before it reaches town, so we set out of the city in hopes to find the caravan and start some commotion. After teleporting a few times we find what I assume has to be the caravan, but there seems to be a bit of a problem.

What is supposed to be a simple supply caravan is a fully outfitted, fully militarized caravan. It appears they are not going to take any chances in allowing this caravan to be intercepted, but then again, they weren’t expecting me.

“Depending on which detachment these soldiers are from, will determine if you two will be any use in this fight. To be on the safe side I want you two to remain back here, and allow me to deal with them myself. Only after the soldiers are dealt with will we hi-jack the caravan and use it to jumpstart this war, so we can hopefully draw out the traitors.”

Angela: “But there are so many of them.”

Desiree: “One soldier or one hundred, it doesn’t make a difference when it is Master in which they have to deal with.”

Angela: “But we can help!”

“Your training was cut somewhat short after we evolved Desiree, so the odds are you will just get in the way.”

Angela: “I’m sorry Master…” –She says hanging her head.-

Desiree: “I hardly feel Master thinks the last few months have been a waste, so I wouldn’t fret too bad if I were you.”

I don’t make a habit of taking my entourage anywhere with me, much less everywhere, so this experience is rather new to me. I felt the need to train them, so they didn’t die in an assassination attempt, but even I don’t know the reason I have continued to bring them along with me everywhere else as well, and yet it seems to come naturally from my lips as I say.

“That may be, but if you wish to continue to stay by my side as I travel, then I suggest we resume your training, and in doing so you will have to take it much more seriously.”

Angela: “Of course Master!”

“Alright, then you two wait here, and I will signal to you when it is clear.”

The soldiers are only normal soldiers making my worry for the girls unneeded, but I find myself making it an overly showy affair. I’m no stranger to using my battle prowess to impress women, but for Desiree or Angela that seems somewhat pointless as they are already mine, and yet here I am trying to impress them none the less…

I stand there over the corpses of the soldiers and call out to the women with a sense of accomplishment far outweighing the circumstances, and I even find myself puffing out my chest when Angela and Desiree come to my side praising me.

Angela: “I love watching you fight! ♪

“That was hardly a difficult battle…”

Angela: “Maybe for you, but there were so many soldiers, and the way you handled them! ♪”

Desiree: “I did find the way you handled yourself to be quite alluring.”

“I find you both praising me after such a trivial battle to be a bit of an insult.”

Angela: “From lowly goblin to ancient dragon, it doesn’t matter to me, as long as I get to see you fight.”

“Well regardless, we have secured the caravan, now we just need to see to it that Southern Merretta is blamed for its disappearance, and wait to see if that draws out any of the traitors.”

Desiree: “But how exactly do we plan to do that?”

“While in the city I took the liberty of acquiring the location of a storehouse that belongs to allies of Southern Merretta. We will teleport the supplies for the caravan there, and then spread the rumor about the destruction of the caravan along with a rumor about seeing Southern Merretta soldiers hauling cargo into the storehouse. The rest is just waiting to see if someone steps forward to try to prevent a battle from breaking out.”

Angela: “If you say that is the best way I believe you, but I am still worried about instigating this conflict…”

“If you are not up for the task, you can wait for us back at the castle.”

Angela: “No, I want to see this through with you…”

“Good, now help me remove the supplies from the caravan so I can easily teleport them to the storehouse.”

After a short time we have teleported the supplies successfully, and I proceed to stage the corpses to look like they were attacked by other soldiers. We then return to the city and begin spreading the rumor of the attack and the sighting at the storehouse.

After the rumors are spread we take a position outside the storehouse, out of sight, in which we can observe what happens next. We don’t have to wait long before a few of the city guards start poking around the storehouse.

The city guards have tried to remain neutral between the conflicts, but the supplies were for the city itself, so how are they going to react once they uncover them? The owner of the storehouse must have caught wind of the rumor as well, because he hastily approaches and begins arguing with the guards.

Owner: “Malicious rumors I assure you, never before have I been so insulted!”

Guard: “If that is true, then this can easily be remedied by allowing us to have a look through your storage building.”

Owner: “And have you, accuse me, of stealing my own wares?! I don’t think so, and you can tell the Mayor, the Duke, or the bloody council for all I care, but you’re not stepping one foot inside of my building!”

“There you go ladies.” –I say in a hushed manor to Angela and Desiree.- “A legit businessman would have no issues showing his wares to the guards, because he would have detailed records of where they all came from.”

My suspicions are shared by the guards as they quickly say. “It sounds to me like you have something to hide, but that is alright, because we have orders to search your warehouse, by force, if necessary.”

The guards start to grab the man and he quickly panics throwing his hands up in the air and saying.

Owner: “Wait, wait…These horrible rumors about me are false, but this civil war has broken many of my supply lines, and a few of the other merchants became worried about having supplies that came from Southern Merretta, so I offered to buy them without papers, but I assure you none of which are stolen goods!”

Guard: “We will be the judges of that!”

One of the guards hold the man while they storm into the storage building and it isn’t long until the stolen supplies are discovered. The man pleads with them claiming there is some kind of mistake, while they shackle him.

Within the hour the entire city is in an uproar. The merchant was a clear supporter of Southern Merretta, and there was no way a simple merchant would have been able to take the caravan’s soldiers out, so it isn’t long before the accusations begin circulating about Southern Merretta’s involvement.

Things escalate so quickly it almost seems it is going too smoothly, and it isn’t long before the first signs of fighting begin to break out. By the time the sun starts to set the entire city has broken down as the guards can no longer keep up with the constant fights breaking out on the streets.

Angela: “Shouldn’t the traitors have moved by now…?”

“I truly did believe they at least played some part in maintaining the status quo within the city. Maybe things fell apart too quickly and by the time they could act it was already too late, or perhaps the fall of the city was always their intention and we only helped their plan along instead of drawing them out.”

Desiree: “You are overlooking what could be the most obvious answer. Maybe they were not involved at all, and we have been wasting our time here…”

Angela: “All of those lives that will be lost because what we did… And for nothing…”

“It was only a matter of time before someone set everyone off, we merely hastened it a bit, so I will hardly lose any sleep over this matter, but… As far as missions go, this couldn’t be considered anything else but failure, so we can only hope Two-Twelve and Madam Erin are faring better than we are.”

○○○○○○

“Ha!” –I exclaim as my sword is crashing down against Bandy’s short swords only to be parried.- “I will give it to you, you have come a long way, and without using my magic this is taking more time than I expected to, but you should clearly see now, that you are at the clear disadvantage.”

Bandy: “I don’t know, I haven’t gotten a scratch on me, so I am clearly the one winning here.” –She says then lunges forward with both of her short-swords coming from different angles, leaving me with little time to parry one of them with my sword and deflecting the other with the buckler on my arm.-

She already managed to deal a good blow against me like this, so she can’t fool me again. Instead of trying to block the blows I dodge out of the way while going on the offensive. As I dodge I sweep one of my legs around to trip her up, and although the sudden change startles her she quickly dodges as well gaining a bit of distance between us.

“Your reaction times are excellent, but you have been fighting too many non-sentient creatures. You can’t use the same attack over and over again, and hope for the same results.”

Bandy: “Thanks for the advice!” –She says charging back at me attempting the same type of attack.-

She is smart enough to know not to do the exact same thing right after warning her, so she must have some other sort of plan, but what exactly is it? I didn’t want her to get too discouraged by overpowering her to much so I have tried to match myself to her, but maybe I have been underestimating her a bit because if I don’t take this more seriously it may have the opposite effect.

Our levels are quite similar, but with her only having the skills she acquired from leveling up, and me acquiring almost every skill available to me from the dungeon, there is no contest in our abilities, but after giving up my magic and my gear for this fight, I am at the biggest disadvantage as I can possibly be at.

Without those things I am not exactly the best frontline fighter, so I decide it’s time to stop pulling my punches and whatever happens, happens… As Bandy closes the grap between us, it is the not knowing what she is going to do that makes me the most nervous, but the closer she gets the more it looks like she is going to continue to follow through with the same attack.

Her swords collide with my sword and the buckler I am wearing, as I easily deflect what I was sure had to be some kind of feint, but as I start to feel somewhat disappointed with her, I get a chill that runs down my spine as I push her back and dive to the side.

I quickly return to a combat ready position and point in which I was standing is now occupied by two short-swords that would have found their way into my back. Holding the short-swords is a second Bandy, which clicks her tongue.

Bandy: “It figures I couldn’t keep my special skill hidden from you, but as much as you were struggling before, how do you think you can manage against two of us!” –She says and then both her and the Bandy clone turn and lunge at me at the same time.-

Bandy’s special skill [Combat Double] works exactly how it sounds, by using half of her magic she is able to split herself in two. The Bandy clone has limited intelligence, and it functions much like a non-sentient being, but the link it shares with Bandy makes it just as dangerous.

The one drawback of it is its duration is quite low, but it is more than enough time for me to be in serious trouble if I don’t start taking things seriously. The advantage for me however is I don’t have to worry about hurting Bandy by taking out the double, so I can fight it without reservation.

I can’t dodge them both, but I manage to dodge the real Bandy while parrying or blocking the blows of the fake one. I then turn my attention to it and swing my sword as hard as I can. The body double tries to block the blow with its short-swords, but using all my strength it can’t stop my swing.

I quickly boast by saying. “Back to one…” but unfortunately the standard steel sword I am using can’t handle the blow either, so in the process of eliminating the second Bandy, I also rendered myself without a weapon.

Bandy looks on with awe as I annihilated the body double with a single blow causing it to disappear back into nothingness, but she quickly regains a combat stance as she says. “That may be, but now what are you going to do without a weapon?!”

Without me having a weapon Bandy throws caution to the wind, and lunges at me again with the full force of both of her short-swords. If I try to counterattack even with a grapple, her reaction time is quick enough that she will dodge out of the way before I make it very far so I let her follow through with the attack much past the point of what would be considered safe.

They are only standard steel short-swords, but Bandy puts enough force behind them that they easily pierce the leather armor I am wearing and one penetrates my lower gut, and the other breaks off in my shoulder.

She seems somewhat surprised as both of her weapons dig into my body, and I use that opportunity to punch her square in the jaw with a hand-to-hand skill technique causing her to cartwheel through the air, and falling to a heap on the floor.

As she starts to pull herself from the floor, I pull the broken shard of the one short-swords from my shoulder, and the other short-sword from my gut turning it back on her. “Now it seems you are the one that is unarmed, so shall we continue?”

She looks up at me angrily as she tries to get back to her feet, but she just sighs and collapses back to the ground while breathing heavily. I wait for a few seconds before relaxing myself, and quickly call Zoey over to cast a healing spell on Bandy, while I cast a healing spell on myself.

After Zoey heals Bandy up, I extend my hand to her and pull her back to her feet. “I have to apologize, I promised to use no magic, but skill techniques were a bit of a grey area, and I just felt there was no reason to continue to drag it out any longer. If you wish however, I will be willing to consider our fight as a draw.”

Bandy slaps my hand away as she gets to her feet. “Were you just toying with me the entire time?! My special skill allows me to make a complete copy of myself and my equipment, so you could have ended me the same way as that clone at any time, but no instead you beat me with a single punch! No magic, No weapon, you just let me attack you with all my might, only to completely ignore my attack, and bring me down with your bare hands…”

Zoey: “Boss told you it was pointless from the start…”

“This is the difference between a dungeon core and a normal person. You wanted to know why I haven’t allowed your group to take one of those commissions on one of the other dungeon cores, and here is your answer. I didn’t do it because I was toying with you, I was trying to prevent you from coming to harm.”

Bandy: “Yea a lot of good that did.” –She says rubbing her jaw which should have been completely healed by now.-

Zoey: “It was better than boss putting you out of commission by loping off a limb or two, trust me when I say this was much less painful.”

Bandy: “Whatever, you proved your point, you say jump and I say how high, that was the deal, so let’s get this over with already.”

“You’re a strong leader Bandy, but your lack of empathy and humility keeps everyone at arm’s length. If you were to treat the dungeon, or even just your own group for now, the way you treat yourself, then there is no telling how far your group could go. “

Zoey: “The reason Boss took out that copy of yours so quickly, was because with the two of you in sync, there would have been no way for him to win with the rules he set out. Now if your entire group was on the same page the way you were with your copy, you could have giving boss a run for his money even without the handicap.”

“What she means is instead of treating your group like they are holding your back, use your group to propel you and them forward, and maybe next time you come to me with commissions for troublesome dungeon cores, I won’t be so hesitant in letting you take one of them.”

I can’t tell if Bandy took anything of what was just said seriously, but I guess only time will tell, so I get started on summoning the last member of her group. I want to guarantee that the last member of her group is a mage, so human is the best bet for that as I summon humans by their class, but for all the humans I have summoned already that leaves me with quite a few options.

Basic classes like mage, magician, and sorcerer would all be simple, but I also have the option of spending a bit extra xp to summon an advanced class like a shaman or a thaumaturge, Chase and Suzie made do with the few healing spells they knew, but a thaumaturge would allow Chase to focus more on using attack magic, so I opt to spend the extra xp to summon a female human thaumaturge.

I equip her in a set of heavy robes in plenty of time before the light fades, but even still you can see her figure is quite voluptuous with wide hips, a narrow waist, and large breasts. Her face is quite mature with large green eyes, and dark brown hair, but it only adds to her sense of elegance.

Zoey: “Boss, is it too late for me to join Bandy’s group as well…?”

“I am not too sure Roxy would like that very much…”

Zoey: “Only because she didn’t ask first!”

“I highly doubt that… Alright, we have one group down, but we still need several more to go, so I will let Bandy’s group get more acquainted while I start filling in the missing spots.”

Next I begin working on Kit and Suzie’s group, I start off with two more random beastkin leaving everything up to chance including sex, and they end up with another male cat beastkin, and a female otter beastkin.

The cat beastkin man has little options for classes so I give him a simple warrior class, but the female otter has the option of becoming a mage, so I make her a sorceress. That leaves them lacking on the defensive side, so I spend a little extra on the last two making both a male and female human knight.

Next up is Bradford and Connie’s group which both of them are already heavy hitters, so they need both mages and defensive people, so after the first one results in a dog beastkin with little options other than warrior, I fill out the other three members of the group with humans making a male advanced Templar class, a female sword-maiden, and another female thaumaturge that although is still quite attractive, she doesn’t draw the attention as the one in Bandy’s group.

When it comes time for Poppy’s group however she stops me and says. “I don’t mean to cause trouble like Bandy did, but I was wondering if I could make a few selfish requests of my own…”

“What exactly did you have in mind?”

Poppy: “Lynx and I have been through a lot together, and I just thought it would be nice for him to be able to group with a few more cat-folk.”

“I have been keeping the groups rather limited to humans and beastkin because they don’t draw any suspicion, but since Lynx is already in your group I guess it wouldn’t hurt to summon one or two more, but that doesn’t mean I will change the rules for how I expect them to be treated.”

Lynx: “Of course not Master, the odds of you summoning another male like myself, would be quite low indeed, but just having another cat-folk to talk too would be nice…”

“Well if that is the case, I might like to try something a bit different with your group this time. Poppy is really good with people and has managed to keep you guys out of trouble so far, and even though a cat-folk is still technically a beastkin, they are still regarded as a demi-humans because of Dailian’s treatment of the only other known cat-folk, so if you are up to it, how about we fill the rest of your group with a few more cat-folk and a few demi-humans, and see how that goes?”

Poppy: “I don’t really mind, but we will surely draw a lot of attention that way, and might have trouble gathering xp.”

“Your group has always performed exceptionally well, and even though you are not worried about your levels your group has always been right there alongside Bandy’s, so I am more worried about how you guys would feel if you started to fall behind.”

Lynx: “You don’t have to worry about that Master, we are happy to serve in whatever capacity we are capable of.”

Poppy: “He is right, and Lynx has been by far the best party member I could have asked for, so if you are willing to make at least one more of them a cat-folk, I would be up to having a few more unique party members as well.”

I start off with a female cat-folk, and even though mages are usually hard to come by she has the cat-folk mage class available just like Lynx did, so I select it, but I quickly find after summoning another male cat-folk that he has the same available classes as well. I hate to waste a mage, but I give him the cat-folk thief class instead.

Now for the two remaining members. I go through the list of sentient demi-humans available to me, and unable to make up my mind I just choose two at random, the first of which ends up as an avian. This avian has a much closer resemblance to Roc then he does to Dawn or Twilight, but even though he is larger than a human he seems much more streamlined then Roc, appearing to be some kind of hawk or falcon.

The last member I summon for Poppy’s group however gives me second thoughts. It sounded good on parchment at least, and it isn’t like I didn’t know what they looked like after fighting them in the corrupt dungeon in Shima, but seeing a Lamia woman among the rest of Poppy’s group puts her size into perspective a bit more.

Just by supporting her humanoid upper body she is easily as tall as the cat-folk or the avian, but that still leaves at least 20 ft of tail curled up underneath her. The ones I fought in Shima were of course non-sentient, so when Poppy quickly starts speaking with her I am quite surprised that, personality wise, she seems more human than I expected.

Even though I have my reservations it seems quite clear after only a few minutes of Poppy and the lamia speaking to one another, that Poppy is quite excited to get started with her new group. Unlike the cat-folk or the avian however the lamia doesn’t have a class, so there is also a worry that she will eventually obtain max level.

Iris and Aster’s group is next and they want a little more variety in their group as well, but they aren’t quite as brave requesting a pair of elves and a pair of dwarves to finish out their group.

Avila, Dreues, and Armand were the ones most worried about leading a group together, but in addition to a human martial artist, they request some sentient lizardmen to round out their group. After losing their party members in that fake dungeon to lizardmen you would think a lizardman would be the last thing they wanted to see, but they seem rather adamant about it.

Maybe it is only due to monsters starting off stronger than an entry level human, but I oblige them by summoning them a pair of high tier sentient lizardmen. I would have liked to summon them a pair of Golden Lizardmen like that of Zelios, but they would have cost the same amount as one of the sentient elder earth dragons at 1 million xp for the pair.

After everyone gets a chance to speak to one another for a while, we go through giving names to the newly summoned monsters, and I give them some equipment from either the dungeon inventory or summon it from scratch.

I still haven't spoken to any of the girls, or Ceres to see if they would be willing to assist me with their training, but we are going to take care of that first thing in the morning, so I let the humanoids head to Tobes, while asking Poppy’s group and the group with the lizardmen to remain in the dungeon at least for tonight.

I still have yet to receive a message back from Lucille as well, so it looks like I will have to pay her a visit afterwards as well. With all that weighing heavily on my mind I return back to the house and after spending a small amount of time with Belinda and Rory I retire for the evening.