“Yes, but cooking …” YunYun was still confused. In fact, the things Nick explained was not a common knowledge and he was putting Qi cultivation in a bit different light. In any other context she would have loved to hear more and discuss about it since she was cultivation maniac as well, but the cooking part was really confusing.

“Remember what I told you girls back in the emperor’s bedroom?” Nick smiled back at all of them, “Practice Qi all the time! While I am infusing Qi in this simple vegetable stew I am still performing my Qi technique and absorbing it from surroundings! I will never run out of it and can only increase its amount, therefore I can still practice my Qi manipulation, absorb Qi from the world and enrich the food that will benefit me greatly – all at the same time!”

He straightened up and threw a victorious glance around, “It’s a triple level training!”

Even though he was astounded himself after summarizing what he did until now out of a pure feeling, it did make him feel good. The girls looked at him with open mouths. This was something unheard of – how could he twist things like that? Even if all of it sounded so logical and simple, it can’t really be so, right?

“But there is one more thing and may be it is even the most important one.” Nick sighed, covered the pot with lid and sat on the only free spot between them.

‘I knew it! There is something more!’ YunYun’s eyes sparkled as if she caught a little thief and now will going to punish him.

“The people in this world have no clue on how to use spices!” Nick facepalmed, “They add some salt and may be pepper and think that the meal is tasty just because of that! It’s an insult to every potato and onion out there!”

YunYun looked at him stupefied and then angrily slapped him on head, “You are the potato, you are the onion!”

Other girls laughed and watched this ‘lovers quarrel’ with a sweetness filling their hearts. After all the stress and horror during the last two months, they finally could relax, simply chat and have other emotions than fear and despair.

When the door opened and the panting Steven ran in, there was a plethora of these other emotions. Conny jumped in his arms crying and laughing loudly at the same time. They didn’t care about the presence of others, but kissed, hugged, sobbed and whispered to each other until Clayton finally came in.

He patted Steven’s shoulder, “It’s fine now. She is safe. But we have to get moving.”

Steven nodded while still not letting his love go.

“Nah, let’s eat first. Twenty minutes or half an hour won’t change anything.” Nick got up and took the lid from the pot, “May be even we will be slower if we go on empty stomachs.”

The girls were already salivating and now the two newcomers realized that the four have not been sitting around while waiting.

“Alright, let’s eat first.” Clayton agreed, “We can have a short briefing after that. We haven’t really agreed on any specific plans to follow from now on.”

Nick poured the stew for all of them and for a while there was only munching and slurping sounds filling the small hut.

“Oh god! How I missed this!” Suddenly Kate looked up to the ceiling with tears in her eyes. Then she turned towards YunYun and said with some envy in her voice, “You don’t even realize how lucky you are!”

The latter was digging in her bowl when she heard it and understood the implication while blushing.

“Oh right, Kate told me all about it.” Clayton smiled, “Congratulations, Nick!”

Nick’s face instantly turned in to a similar dark red color, but he pretended not to hear anything despite almost choking on a piece of carrot.

“What are they talking about?” Steven asked Conny in confusion.

But she giggled and pointed with a spoon at the two beet like faces, “They got engaged back in the tower.”

The other two girls giggled as well while Nick only could sigh and shake his head.

“Don’t you dare to laugh!” YunYun got a bit angry. She was a bit embarrassed of the fact as a young maiden, but not ashamed at all of her fiance or her new status, “You haven’t even seen the engagement present he gave me, it’s the most beautiful …”

“YunYun, please don’t.” Nick suddenly got serious and interrupted her, “You will have enough time to show off, I’m just afraid that as soon as that thing sees the light someone might die.”

He guessed correctly that YunYun was about to swing her new Katana around the little hut.

“Alright.” She suddenly gently smiled and continued to eat the stew as if nothing happened.

The other five were staring at them with mixed emotions. So? Where is it? The most beautiful engagement gift? And why would anyone die?

Only Steven couldn’t wrap his head around the news. Nick got engaged? In two days he hasn’t seen him? With a complete stranger? Is that even the same Nick he had known for years?

But since no one explained anything, he would just ask Nick later when they were alone. The most important thing was that he was back with the woman he dearly loved and it was, in fact, all thanks to the blushed boy who sat across the room.

“Nick, thank you!” Steven broke the silence and seriously said.

“No need.” Nick answered with full mouth, “All I did was just my part in our plan.”

“No! Nick without you …” Steven got agitated, but Nick guessed how his friend felt.

“Steven!” Nick stopped him, “You still don’t understand what happened. Without your discovery and analysis, we wouldn’t even have had a plan and there was no way for us to bring girls out randomly by hoping that no one would notice. Even Clayton as a Qi master wouldn’t been able to do that. You are belittling your part too much. In fact, all of this was possible mostly because of you, your hard work and may be even a bit of luck in the beginning. But your love towards Conny kept you going and you stared at the castle walls for days until you figured out the small gap in shifts that gave us the crucial minute we needed so badly. And your perseverance and concentration while you were giving the signals? You don’t even realize how valuable it was for us to have someone as methodical as you! And at the end we were only able to save YunYun only because of your will that was probably stronger than that of everyone else in this room combined!”

Looking at the shocked gazes of the girls Nick explained, “Do you think he was just lighting up some candles and that’s it? His heart was bleeding while longing for Conny every single second, but all he could do was stare at the castle walls. Do you think he didn’t see how I brought you down the tower? He was the only person in the capital who noticed my movements just because he was watching every brick on that damned tower closely. And imagine, after I came down the third time – he knew for sure that I brought down all three of them, but instead of running off to see the person he loves the most in this world, even more than his own life, he still kept showing signals, because, he gave his word! I can’t even imagine what pain he has been through.”

Nick got up to gather utensils, while Conny leapt in Steven’s arms loudly crying. Other girls had tears in their eyes as well listening to this heartbreaking side of events. Only YunYun looked at Nick with shining eyes – she knew that he could’ve carried her down any time – the way they got down wasn’t any slower than his speed alone. But with this little lie he made his friend not only keep his dignity, it definitely will give Steven more strength and confidence during the rest of the trip. In addition, or even may be more importantly, Steven’s value in Conny’s eyes rose so high it probably could never fall again. Until now she only missed him, but didn’t know what he had been through, but Nick, with a few sentences, not only told about it, but made her realized how much her husband loved her.

‘Only person who can love this deeply can understand feelings of others like that!’ YunYun watched Nick cleaning up while clenching her fists. This was her ‘fiance’ and this side of his was completely new to her.

“Clayton, and you.” Nick sighed and continued after a moment, “I know you’re not a boy like us, but please do not dare to think that you were some unimportant person as well. It might seem that running around the city and arranging few horses or boats might not be important, but your ability to pay attention to details allowed us to even have a proper clothing and you won’t believe it – I used every single piece! The wet ones I have on me now are the last black cloth that was left from all those you prepared! And that is only little part of it.”

Seeing how his elder friend waved him off, Nick sighed, “You guys did a great job, all I had to do was just climb around a little and float down the river.”

Silence filled the room after the last statement. Everyone knew he was trying to joke, but somehow it didn’t seem funny.

“But … but you did kill the emperor!” Beata stuttered breaking the silence.

“What?!” Steven was shocked. The girls had time to tell everything to Clayton, but this was big news to Steven.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but if he climbed naked on you with his ‘imperial highness’ raised in the sky with intention to rape, you would’ve killed him as well.” Nick snickered and sat down after finishing cleaning up.

“Hahaha!” This time no one could hold back their laughter. Even though it was a serious matter, previous tension was too much and everyone finally relaxed.

“Alright, let’s get to work.” After a while Nick got serious, “Clayton, you probably analyzed our situation and have some suggestions.”

“Indeed.” Clayton nodded, “But first, give me your estimate on how long do we have until the hell breaks loose in the whole country.”

“There are two possible scenarios.” Nick explained, “First, in a few days, may be even tomorrow the death of the emperor will be discovered and everyone in the world will look for the five princesses and maybe even Dash from the Lion mercenary group and his accomplices. The second, when the emperor’s death is found out nothing will happen for month, two or even a year.”

Looking at the confused faces around him, he continued, “There are obvious frictions between the upper echelons in empire that we don’t know of. Remember, Nazir also kind of pointed at it, albeit unobtrusively. When the dead body of the emperor is found, some people will proclaim that this time he has some super-long training session, may be even a year long or even some ten year long nonsense. Remember – we are talking about ‘immortal emperor Osman’ here! It is easy to explain to public he has secluded himself for a year or even a decade.”

“But!” Nick raised his index finger to accentuate the next part, “People will look for us in either case. Will it be few millions or a special investigation squad, we will find out only later.”

“Thus in either way we will have to go in to hiding and can not go home in any direct or obvious way.” Clayton said, saw Nick nodding in agreement and then continued, “Fine, in this case the following plan should be the best. We will go down the river on the boats I prepared.”

He took out a map and continued, “It goes down directly towards the south, but then turns south east and there is a big city where it enters the sea. We can decide on our next step there and the options would be – to cross the continent by land or go around southwards by the sea. There is no way we can take a step towards the north since it is the obvious route for anyone escaping the Nestri continent. In addition, I still have a phobia against the pirates from the northern archipelago.”