Part 4

The trip to the Western Keep turned out to be a lot more difficult than predicted. As they entered the sealed room, they found the missing treasure stolen by Astos and it was guarded by hosts of wraiths and mummies. Most likely the last remnants of the native population that followed the last of Astos's orders. As much as they made it difficult to collect the treasure, especially poor Kelin and Lewyn who kept getting temporarily paralysed by mummies' attack, they still managed to get off with a very large loot. Loot that elves promised to grant the Warriors as their thanks for saving the Prince. They even found a nice Power Staff for Mari and Falchion for Rosch. Those weapons should come in handy in fighting to come. On the other hand, the trip to Marsh Cave wasn't as lucrative. Other than a silver amulet and more gil, all they found was more enemies to fight. At least, Lewyn was happy. With his fighting style emphasizing speed and power over defence, there is very little he could do to increase his defence. Magical amulets that raised defence were one of those rare items that could help him so he gladly replaced the copper one for this one. As they finally returned back to Elfheim, the coronation preparations were in full swing. Party, exhausted from all the travel went to the Lightning Mare Inn and slept for a full day in comfy beds.

As promised, the party was allowed to keep all the treasures they have found in the Western Keep. While surprised at this, they were really happy as now they could improve their equipment and their skills magic. Only Rosch realized the true reason behind the elves' decision. Last time they were improving their skills, they spent almost of their money on getting the magic books for level 3 books. Now that they had 8 times that amount, they could easily splurge on level 4 books, new equipment and supplies and still have money saved for later. As for the elves, the best place to spend money was currently Elfheim which meant that most of the money they picked up at the Western Keep would still end up at the hands of the elves. Killing two birds with one stone as it were. The party gets prepared for the journey ahead and the elves get most of their money back through various means of sale. A pretty good deal from the money side. Of course, Rosch wouldn't mention this to others. After all, why ruin something that benefits everyone. That's why he wemt and got himself Focara for another of his level 3 spells as well as Haste, Blizzara and Confuse for level 4 spells. As for Mari, she got herself Poisona, Fear and Vox for her level 4 spells. If she was the weakest member in the terms of attack power, she might as well specialize in other ways. They also got restocked in medicine supplies in cases that either Mari or Rosch couldn't help with. With all the weapons and armour that they have collected over their journey as well as those they have outgrown out of, they even managed to get some of the money back. The only old weapon that was still in the wagon was the rapier that Kelin started the journey with. When he asked, he simply said he had a plan for it. As the shopping spree ended, they returned back to the inn to prepare for tomorrow's coronation themselves.

The next day the celebrations were carried out all through out the city as royal coronation was being carried out in the castle. Receiving his royal scepter and the crown, the newly appointed Elf King Van'er Radaker prepared a speech to his subjects. In he addressed the current situation in the world and expressed his gratitude for the Warriors of Light for saving his life and allowing him to help the elves navigate through this crisis. As he promised to continue the fair and just rule like his father before, he also reminded everyone that these were unprecedented time asking everyone for a sacrifice so that they could survive the upcoming times and enter a new golden era. After his speech had ended, the crowd erupted in excitement. After that, the last stop of the official coronation business was at the Graves of the Heroes in the middle of the town. Here, elves honoured the three Heroes that saved Elfheim once upon the time. Elf named Link and humans named Erdrick and Teol have been granted a rare treat of getting their grave stones put in the centre of the town as a way to honour their service and sacrifice. After a prayer made by the elven archbishop, the official part of the coronation had ended and festivities continued.

An official banquet was held in the castle grounds where the new king could meet up with the important dignitaries to be congratulated upon. Among these people were the entire royal family of Cornelia, two members of the Pravoka City Council and the dwarven ambassadors. Of course, the Warriors of Light were invited to this too and they spread around to talk to other guests. Mari actually brought Wolt along to this party. To say he was shocked at this was an understatement. However, Mari wanted to repay the young elf for his actions so she invited him to this banquet. While clearly awkward at the party as they both felt inadequate for it, they had a good time. Some say they even saw them kiss each other. As for Lewyn, he was being kept busy by the dwarven delegation and other elves. It seemed he had some business with them. Meanwhile, Kelin and Rosch were trying to woo over Princess Sarah. Last time they were in Cornelia castle, they discovered the werewolves and their fates, something that sadly became more common place, so they agreed it wasn't a good time for anything. That night, however, it was a fair play between them and they each told the stories of their journey so far. During these stories, Kelin had showed her the key that they received from the elves, which prompted Sarah's father, king Franz, to butt in. "May I see that key?" he asked Kelin. Kelin was a bit surprised at this, but decided to show him. As it turned out, king Franz had recognized the marking on the key and informed both Kelin and Rosch that there were sealed rooms in the Cornelia castle with things that were supposedly meant to go to the Warriors of Light, but no one knew how to open those doors. That piqued their interests, but before they could more answers, king Franz had called upon the dwarven ambassador because there was more to it than just Warriors.

Icanor Stormhowl, one of the official dwarven ambassadors to the kingdom of Elfheim was enjoying his stay at the official banquet. He was among those conversing to Lewyn about important events when he was called to join the conversation. Icanor wasn't too happy about being pulled away, but obliged. He was surprised to see it was Cornelia's king that called him to his talk with other two Warriors of Light. As he was caught up on what was said previously, king Franz finally revealed why he had asked for Icanor. According to the legends, among the treasures hidden in the sealed rooms are some lost technologies from Calatia that the dwarves had developed there. This piqued an interest in Icanor who was curious about the history of the kingdom. He asked how much did he know about this, but sadly all he got were legends. King Franz asked if he could arrange someone to follow the party and the royal family back to Cornelia in order to investigate these legends. Since the coronation was now over, Icanor had no longer any plans in mind so he wanted to investigate this legend together with others to either verify it or confirm it was false.

As the evening continued and party was in full swing, the heroes got nicely surprised when it was revealed that there was a sealed room with treasures waiting for them. In the excitement of Prince's awakening and the party leaving for an expedition, this information got lost until then. However, even if they did inspect it 2 months ago, the party wouldn't have been impressed by it as the room contained chests with gil, a mythril hammer and bronze gloves. Gil was helpful fur future shopping and the hammer was great for Mari who started to prefer hammers over the Power Staff that she was currently using. As for the gloves, no one wanted to use them as everyone had better equipment so they ended up being sold in the armour shop in the castle town.

Several days later, Sea Queen was finally back at the ocean with a very unique mission. Escorting the Crown Petone, with the royal delegation on it, back to Southport. The trip should have been another easy one like the last time so in the complete trust she had in the Warriors of Light Princess spent the trip on the Sea Queen, something that Rosch and Kelin tried to use to their advantage to no avail. Unfortunately, the luck for the Warriors had run out as a pirate vessel attacked the ship just a day away from the southern coast. Despite their best effort at repelling them, two pirates had managed to come onboard and that was the last thing they ever did. Mari's new hammer had a nice baptism-by-fire as a single hit was enough to kill the pirate while Kelin provided some fish food by slicing the second pirate in half. The pirate ship quickly sunk after that. While no one was hurt, the Warriors weren't too happy that pirates had managed to reached to their ship while a member of the royal family was onboard so they all spent more time on the lookout until they reached Southport.

After a short reception at the castle, everyone was escorted to the castle's basement where the two sealed rooms were. Unfortunately, the first room had proved less useful that the one at the elven one. While they were good weapon pieces, they were either worse than the party was currently using or in the case of the mythril knife, no one at all. Seeing the disappointment in the eyes of the party, king Franz had an idea. Since they wouldn't use the weapons, how about they sell them to the castle so he can equip the royal knights with them. He always did feel bad not providing more rewards for the people that saved his daughter. The party was more than happy to accept this. Then they went to the second room. Now, even before opening all the chests there, they clearly noticed one was very different from others so while the party was opening others ones, the king went ahead and opened the unique one, thinking that one was the one associated with the legends. When he opened it, he felt a slight disappointment as all he saw were cases of some black powder and the notes that came with them. That was, until the ambassador realized what they were. "Impossible! I thought this was just mere myth!" Surprised at this, the king asked if he knew what this was. "Of course I do. This is the nitro powder! But I thought all about it was lost when Calatia fell. Oh, right. I should explain. According to the refugees who escaped back then, the royal chief alchemist by the name of Padraig Kromar was developing a high explosive powder that was to be used in mining purposes. However, since he was among the killed when the dark elves had invaded the castle, no one could verify these claims. So the myth persisted to this day without anything to confirm it. To think the rumours of it being sealed at the royal castle were true, just not one everyone thought it was. Do you know how this reached Cornelia?" The king had no answers, but he assumed it must have been one of the refugees that escaped to Cornelia. "Shame. Whoever did this deserves a stone monument to them back home. Look, they even preserved Padraig's notes. Now this is most excellent. You should call upon your alchemists. I think some tests are in order." The king agreed. They finally checked back on the party who were disappointed with their haul. Just an iron armour that Kelin was already wearing and no one else could and some supplies for the road. The king promised to buy out the armour too. Then he asked what the party was planning now. Kelin piped up. "All this talk about the sealed had reminded us of something. We might be recalling wrong, but there might be more of these rooms back at the Chaos Shrine so we will have a quick look." The king understood so he and Icanor had left the party alone and went to summon his alchemists.

At this point the party was used to traveling to familiar location so they arrived to the Chaos Shrine in their record time and rarely interrupted by their old enemies, the Red Sky goblins. The shrine was in the same condition as they had left it last time, eerie, dark and full of bats. Not wishing to stay there for too long they went to business and went for those rooms. It seemed someone knew they would have checked the rooms as gargoyles waited in ambush as party entered each of the sealed rooms. Too bad the gargoyles weren't informed by their cousins from the Marsh Cave about how well it went for them. The fights ended as soon as they started with barely a scratch on any of the Warriors. Most enemies were becoming just a nuisance for everyone as even Mari started to finish them quickly. At least these nuisances actually guarded something good for once. Chests held two very beautiful swords, the Rune Blade and Werebuster. Initially Rosch picked up Rune Blade before he realized what the weapon was. It was only after he and Mari started feeling sickly they did analyse the sword. It seemed this blade was quite effective against spellcasters so they offered it to Kelin who refused. Unlike Rosch who often switched weapons and used the Crystal's ability to quickly master them, he preferred to stick to one weapon as long as he could. He still had his old rapier after all and only recently switched to his broadsword. In the end the Rune Blade ended up in the wagon waiting for the chance to be used. The second sword, the Werebuster, fared much better. Rosch took it as his new personal blade thinking it was just another good sword. But after a quick inspection, he realized that this sword had a lot of magical silver in both its blade and guard. It seemed that this sword was made for cursed beings such as werewolves. At this point there were a lot of encounters with them and each time the party took their time to at least give them a proper burial. Though it saddened them that they had to keep fighting against them, at this point they could do nothing else so their only solace was in the fact that at least their suffering would have been ended faster with this sword.

With sombre faces the party returned to Cornelia where they had received a new mission. While they were away, the alchemists had a grand time testing out the formulas left behind by Padraig. As it turned out, the formulas were true so now Cornelia's alchemists could recreate nitro powder. The only slight problem arose when one of the alchemists had tested out the powder in the cases and revealed that the powder was still usable. A slight panic swept across the castle as they realized that the entire time in the castle's basement there was a powerful explosive in a sealed room that no one could access and that no one knew much about. It is said that many castle attendants and even the king were sighted in the cathedral that day praying to the Goddess and giving gratitude that no one had accidentally detonated that explosive. But anyway, back to the mission. While the king ordered a brand new building for alchemists and for the storage of the nitro powder to be made, Icanor had suggested a possible solution where to use this newly-discovered powder. One of the clans was undertaking a major dig that could change the future of Aldean Sea. Once he heard what this dig was, the king was very delighted about this and requested for the party once they had returned back. Their new mission: to sail from Southport to Westport and then over land escort the nitro powder to the Dwarfheim for its use in a very special project. While the project was being kept in secret to them, the danger of the nitro powder was not. The party was surprised at this proposition, but in the end they accepted it. They had no further purpose in Cornelia, Pravoka or Elfheim and the only place currently reporting problems was the Free Duchy of Melmond which they had to trek through dwarven lands anyway. At this Icanor thanked them, gave several official letters to Sead in order to get easier passage through Dwarfheim and then left the castle. His break in Cornelia was over and now he had to return back to his official duties in Elfheim with a nice surprise. As part of his cooperation with other nations, King Franz had refused to keep a major technology such as nitro powder in his hands only. Not only was the party granted the copied notes in order to get them to the dwarves, he used Icanor's return to send those same notes to the elves as well as planning to send them to Pravoka soon. If they are going to survive the upcoming times, the cooperation that Calatia once had must exist once more and these notes are but a first step towards that.

Despite the crew protests, especially first mate's, the nitro powder was loaded onto the Sea Queen and, with the occasional look of worry on the ship crew's faces, the ship set sail for Westport. The journey passed okay with only a few sharks trying to get onboard. The crew had a nice meal thanks to them. They were really happy when Westport was in sight. It meant that they could no longer worry about that exploding and passed the worry on Sead whose task is now to take it and the party to Mount Duergar for the delivery. As the wagon travelled across the land, while occasionally defending from monster attacks, the party went on to talk to Sead more. They have spent so much time with him, and yet, other than occasional stories during evenings, they knew very little about him. The party felt apologetic about this, but Sead assured them that they didn't need to. As a merchant by trade, his experiences had rarely any connection to what party was doing and, by his own admission, he was no one special. Just a trader who worked his whole life until the monster attack had made him lose most of the money. He was really grateful to the party who hired as not only was he able to get out of debt and received proper medical care, but he was also able to travel the world again as these missions were taking them everywhere. As a part of his gratitude, Sead told them everything they should know about the dwarves.

Dwarfheim was not a united country in vane of Cornelia and Elfheim. It was split among different clans who each controlled their own land and only answered to the Dwarf King who was elected among each of the clan's representatives after the predecessor's death. All of the dwarven cities and towns were underground as they preferred a solid ceiling over an open sky. The capital of Brethlia was where all of the clans met for a yearly conference to discuss political matters, solve crises and incidents and to elect the king should the need arise. Once elected, the king had to denounce his clan and to swear an oath of loyalty to all dwarves to prove that he had everyone's interest in mind, not just his clan's. There are historical cases where the king or queen were removed due to clear favouritism towards their own clansmen. However, they were not going towards Brethlia. The party's mission was towards Mount Duergar and its namesake town where Vukman tribe ruled. According to the report that Icanor had left to the party, there was a major construction in the works there that could use the nitro powder. While they weren't happy on not being informed on what this project was, they didn't have a choice in the matter. Sead told them it was the pride of a dwarf. After all, Icanor wasn't member of the Vukman clan after all. So to see him being this helpful to another clan was surprising to other dwarves. Sead then continued with more important information. While technically speaking the same language as other races, dwarves have developed their own accent and dialect they use in their lands. When asked where his own was, he explained: "Unfortunately, it seems the first thing you lose when you interact with other races is your accent and dialect. Simply put, it is easier to interact with others this way, especially when there are more users than the ones of your dialect." The party had first-hand experience with this when they had encountered dwarven patrols on their way. Using the papers that Icanor had provided for them, they had no problem passing through the dwarven lands. They also had an interesting experience with how dwarves travel long distances. Due to their size and stature, dwarves can't ride normal horses other races and instead uses other animals such as ponies, mules and donkeys. The dwarven equivalent of human horse riders are the boar riders and cavarly.

As they finally arrived to Mount Duergar, they were surprisingly warmly greeted by the dwarves. Even the clan head, Dworkin Vukman, was there to meet them. As the celebration in their honour had commenced, they finally found out why did the dwarves needed the nitro powder. Vukman clan ruled from the Mount Duergar in the north to the Cerulean Pass in the south. The Cerulean Pass is the only way for ships to pass from Aldean Sea to the Great Azure Ocean. It is also considered one of the most dangerous areas in the Aldean Sea as the small island chain, difficult currents and the large pirate activity around the area made almost no venture worth the risk. In order to remedy this and potentially increase the clan's standing, one of the miners, Nerrick, had an audacious idea. To mine out beneath the Emerald Peninsula and create an artificial channel in order to circumvent Cerulean Pass. While he managed to get the support of most of the clan and he even did most of the work already, the last step was the most problematic, making the ceiling of the artificial cave collapse so that the channel is created. That step could have easily end up in disaster at any point so the project came to the impasse. That was, until the news about the discovery of the nitro powder came to the clan. After the celebration had ended, the party tested for the night. The next morning Nerrick arrived to inspect this powder to see if it can do what is promised. Seeing the notes that Padraig had left behind as well as the results that Cornelian alchemists achieved while experimenting, he excitedly exclaimed: "The explosive force in this pouder wil hae muh canal open in noo time flat! Ah owe ye, kids!" After this he ordered every miner he had under him to carry it to the specific places in the artificial cavern. The entire day was spent preparing and rechecking everything. Once done, he got everyone out, prepared the powder to explode in the precise moment and then sealed the cavern so that the sea water doesn't flood the Mount Duergar. Everyone had nervously waited for this moment. All of a sudden, the entire mountain started shaking as the powder exploded in a chain reaction. While everyone in the mountain could only sense the events that were unfolding, those few dwarves who were sent to observe the situation got a front-row events to these events. As they felt the shaking of the earth, they could clearly see the ground in front of them collapsing as the water rushed forth to take it's place. It took several minutes for everything to settle down and as it ended, the dwarves were subjected to a beautiful sight. The channel, that most of their kind had considered ridiculous and impossible, has now been stretching in front of them.

Meanwhile, back at the mountain, after checking to see that the seal had hold up, the celebration had started again. Narrick, seeing his work complete, had proclaimed: "Ah canna wait tae see what lies oot there ayunt that canal!" As the celebrations proceeded, the dwarves wanted to honour the party so much in gifts as well as in permanent monuments. While they did accept the gifts, as they were granted new mythril armour pieces for Kelin, Rosch and Mari as well as more gil and a Wyrmslayer, quite a powerful sword, they refused the monuments with a very simple reasoning. There was someone more deserving of that honour. Hearing this, the dwarves had accepted the party's decision and from that day onward, they decided to honour this previously unknown hero in two ways. One, to break the proud tradition of the dwarves and construct a proper port town near the newly created Padraig Channel. Two, to construct a statue in his honour as well as those whose contributions and names have been lost to the history. There was one request made by Rosch. To place a large green flag on the entrance of the channel until the first ship passes through. The clan head was a bit puzzled by this so Rosch explained: "In this day and age, it's hard to be first at achieving something. Since this is a brand new channel that no one has used before, it would make the perfect sense honouring the first crew's bravery that is willing to venture to unknown, don't you think?" Everyone understood this sentiment and some even realized the subtext behind this. Since this was a project of a single clan, the news of the creation of this channel won't spread as fast as it would if this was the work of the entire country. And since the Warriors of Light had their own personal ship, they would have tried to be the first ones and put their names in the history books. Indeed, those people weren't surprised to see that the Warriors of Light only remained in the town for a single before they left. With promise of favourable hospitality all across Vukman clan's territory, the party was in high spirit as they rushed to Westport. It seemed the race against an invisible opponent was on.

The crew of the Sea Queen was surprised to see the Warriors returning as soon as they did. Even more surprising than that was the immediate order to sail to Melmond.  It seemed there was something so important to the party there so they had to be there as soon as possible. The first mate wanted to protest, knowing full well that Cerulean Pass had earned its reputation, but he was outvoted so he had to follow the orders. However, rather than going straight there, Rosch had ordered to follow the coast for a big surprise that the dwarves had in the wait. That surprise was revealed several sailing days later when they have reached Emerald Peninsula. The crew was quite surprised to see a proper channel as well as a camp of dwarves at the coast. No matter how they studied the map, they were sure they were one day of sail away from the Cerulean Pass. There was no additional wind to boost their speed so they couldn't understood how was this possible. Rosch, keeping the surprise for several more minutes, asked to those looking with spyglasses if they could see a big green flag flying in the dwarven camp. After hearing the affirmative answer, Rosch ordered a roll-call. As soon as all of the crew had assembled, he started his speech. "Gentlemen, for months now you have been serving on this vessel well. Despite the chance you were granted to leave, you all decided to trust in me not to abuse like other captains. I am grateful for that and, as promised, I have continued to issue your pay on regular base. Today, however, I am giving you one unique benefit. Today in front of us is the newly finished Padraig Channel. The dwarves of the Vukman clan have been very grateful for the powder we have carried to them and now they are returning us a favour. For your willingness to follow my orders despite the danger I am putting us today on the history books as the first crew to sail the newly opened up channel. You will be the first in history to usher a new era where sailing from the Great Azure Ocean to Aldean Sea will become safer and easier. As part of this historic chance, I hereby order the quartermaster to issue additional rations and rum for tonight!" At this the crew exploded in cheering their captain. Once they were mere slaves forced to serve the pirates as they pillaged across the sea. Today they were proud sailors of the ship that carried hope in the world." At this the crew cheered.

As the ship sailed through Padraig Channel safely with dwarven cheers, the ship stopped near the underwater shrine of Lifespring Grotto and moored down for the night. As the celebration was in full force, Lewyn had noticed that Kelin was nowhere to be seen. So he went outside and looked around, finding him on the bow looking at the moon.

Lewyn: "I hope our rowdiness isn't too much for you."

Kelin, realizing he wasn't alone, turned around and said: "Nah, just needed some fresh air."

Lewyn: "I hope you can share some of that then. Can I approach?

Kelin: "Sure. You don't even need to ask."

"Alright. So why are you here?"

"Thinking. To be frank, I don't know why Mari does this. It doesn't seem to help much."

"It must something big if you are trying to copy someone else."

"Not everyone is as easy-going as you. I need the change of scenery once in a while."

"So then what's on your mind? Wait, no. Let me guess, it's that letter?"

Kelin, pulling out the letter out of his pocket: "Unfortunately, you are correct. It has been months since I got it, and yet, it feels like it's only now that is sinking in."

"Let me guess, you were expelled from the knight order?"

"Heh, for someone who prefers his life as simple as possible, you can quite intuitive."

"What can I say, you made it quite easy. I think even have noticed you stopped mentioning them at all, especially in your introduction. So then, oh failed knight, what happened?"

"As we established before, we all heard the voice of the Goddess calling us to meet in Aberda Forest, right? Well, she was calling me all the way from the distant Melmond. When I told everyone I was starting to hear a voice calling me, they all dismissed that as just me being sick or something. However, something was telling me that voice was right so I took all of my money, left behind my armour and such and went on a journey to Cornelia. Unfortunately, I spent almost all of my money just getting there."

"Don't worry about that. It's not like we were any richer when we had met for the first time."

"I know. Anyway, this letter finally found me when the postman knew where to find me so I doubt anyone among the knights who knows my current fate. They all probably think I am a lunatic or something."

"Imagine how they will be surprised when they discover you are a hero meant to save the world."

"Yes. If they even allow either of us to explain ourselves."

"Oh, why not me? What did I do to them?"

"That depends on one thing."

"And that is?"

"Should I call you Your Highness or Your Majesty?"

"What do you mean? I know I am keeping the crown for myself, but-"

"Please don't, alright? You have made it impossible to pretend that I don't know the infamous Marciano clan with all your meetings and such."

"Oh, so you did hear of my clan?"

"Oh, yes. The Knights of Dusk still remember that time when one from your clan had seduced the Knight-Commander and made him join your clan. The "sexual freaks" and "musclebrain idiots" are probably the nicest descriptions the knights have described you. They even say the term pansexual was invented just so that you are separated from everyone else."

"Geez. You'd think we slaughtered the Knight-Commander with that level of grudge."

"Well, when a wife swears a vengeance on a man that took her husband away from her, she will teach everyone to hate them as much as possible."

"So why don't you hate me then?"

"Never thought that part of teaching was anything but a bother. Seriously, for someone we are supposed to hate so much, we aren't even bothering to hunt and kill the members of your clan. So most knights don't even bother with this. I think only the knights who were trained by the wife when she took over still hate you."

"I see. Do you have any questions about me or my clan? Maybe to hear the actual truth from an actual clansman?"

"Yes. Is it true you marry amongst each other?"

"Oh, no. That was strictly banned by the clan."

"Really? Why?"

"Several family branches tried that. By the time the rule was made, their descendants were so sickly, so deformed and so weak that we gave them death as mercy."

"Oh. I didn't know that."

"And people still wonder when the descendants become dumber than their parents and the noble houses fall from grace. Maybe learn for once?"

"Don't look at me. I am a son of a blacksmith. I don't have noble blood as far as I know."

"Oh, is that why you have been trying to woo Princess Sarah?"

"That's not the only reason."

"I hope so. Because Rosch has an advantage on that front. Oh, I just realized why you kept your old rapier."

"Yeah, my father wanted me to follow in his footsteps. Sadly for him, one of the knights had seen potential in me so he recruited me into the knights. However, he didn't fail to influence me in many way though."

"Alright, so why the rapier?"

"One day, when it's time to make the best sword there is for me, I want it to have elements of the blades that served me before. So when it's that time, I will request that the guard be made out of metal from these blades."

"Oh, wow. That is actually very impressive."

"I know. But enough about me. There is a question that I want to know the answer to."

"That being?"

"Is it true that the word pansexual was invented just to have your clan be singled out?"

"Why the hell do you ask me that?"

"Because I heard that your clan, and this is nicest way to put it, "mate" with anything and everything out there. They even say you have ogre blood in you."

"Well, I don't know about my ancestors, but I do have some standards."

"I see. Are I, Rosch and Mari among your standards?"

"Of course, you are all beautiful. But you two have set your target on the princess so I doubt you would notice anyone else right now. Besides, I doubt you swing that way."

"I don't, but-"

"And there you go. Now, as for Mari, she is just too innocent and I really want to see the romance between her and that elf she saved to blossom. So I will stay away from her."

"So you have no interest in any of your companions?"

"None. While I do acknowledge love between equal partners can be a great boon in fighting, I just don't see any of us falling for each other. We are quite different people that would have almost no chance of meeting up any other way. Our circles don't match at all. I think Goddess wanted her team of chosen heroes to be different in both nature and skillset. Otherwise, imagine 4 of you doing this job. 4 of me doing this. Or, Goddess forbid, 4 of Maris doing this."

"Yes, it seems she chose correctly. At least for now. I do hope we will see this through."

"What's the worst that can happen? The world ending?"

"Only you can joke about that."

"If you all know how to remove that stupid pressure of yourself, then you too can take it much easier. Now, as for the earlier question."

"Yes?"

"It's Highness. While Calatia wasn't a hereditary monarchy, right now there are no pretenders from other countries who would want to take the crown. So now I have to find my older sister and see what she wants with this crown."

"You really think they will allow you to claim the throne just like that?"

"They already did. Right now the Calatian coast is used as the new pirate haven since we liberated Pravoka. Besides, Cerulean Pass was always a popular hunting grounds. Now that dwarves have opened that channel behind us, they have much bigger stakes now so they have to afford the support for the eventual claim of the kingdom."

"Do you even see yourself as a king though?"

"I don't know. Right now, I have a major mission to accomplish. I will see what I will do when this is done. Besides, it's not like I have anything to call home now."

"Oh. So the rumours are true then."

"Yep. Astos really didn't want to endanger his claim."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not right now."

"Alright. How about a toast then? After all, I hear some celebration is nearby so we can use it to honour the dead."

"Now you are talking my language. Let's go."

As Kelin put away the letter he held so tightly, he was walking back to cabin together with Lewyn with smiles on their faces. It seemed friendship was staring to properly blossom among the Warriors of Light.