“This boy will win us battles and war!”

“The boy will bring us glory and riches!”

“The half-breed is strong... “

“Put him at the frontlines. I expect results”

“Median... Median, Are you here, Median?”

“Yes, mother.”

“Oh, Median... I hope you will be able to see a sky full of stars one day.”

Median opened his eyes, “This dream...”, he rubbed his eyes and saw the starry skies. He smiled before realizing what had happened a few minutes ago. “Ogre?”, he asked as he got up and realized that he was sleeping on him.

“Ogre? I’m sorry I didn’t realize...”, he rubbed his eyes again, “Are you alright?”, he asked as he saw the cliff, they both fell from. “That’s quite a height...”, he laughed, “Thanks for protecting me... I wouldn’t have survived otherwise.”

He looked back to an Ogre not replying, “Ogre?”, he asked again. “Are you alright?”, he repeated. The dread had started to fill up in him, “OGRE!”, he screamed, but no matter what he did, Ogre wouldn’t reply. Median dropped down near Ogre’s body as he looked at him with dread, “Please...”, he put his hand on Ogre as the memories of the time they spent together came back to haunt him.

“I-I’m... sorry...”, he cried as tears started to drop from his eyes. “I’m sorry...”, he sobbed as much as he could.

“The boy... he wasn’t here when you got here?”, asked Dave.

“No, sir knight. We were only able to find...”, replied a royal guard.

Dave sighed as he looked at Ogre’s body, “It’s alright.”, he went near the body and paid his respects.

“Prepare for all the bodies to get proper respect!”, he commanded. He looked at Orph and Eric, “We’ll go to their camp after that.”

Cess hadn’t joined Dave and the others below, instead she chose to stay near Slav. She sat throughout the fight alone, humped together with Doug.

“I hope you don’t bite...”, said Cess while looking at Doug who whimpered in return.

“Are you alright?”, she asked. Slav nodded.

“The person who just...”, added Cess.

“I know...”, Slav looked Cess in the eyes, “She wasn’t... Ban.”

Cess looked back with sadness in her eyes as she patted Slav’s head.

“I was happy...”, she cried and hugged Doug, “I was...”, she looked at Cess again. Cess didn’t know how to reply to that, but she kept patting her head.

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“Are you going to kill me too?”, she asked.

“No!”, Cess replied as fast as she could and sighed, “What made you think that?”

“You killed them both!”, she screamed before looking at the ground and murmured, “I killed Dit...”

Cess hugged Slav with all her force, “It’s not your fault!”, she replied. Slav cried and hugged Cess back as she patted her back.

They both made their way to Dave and the others, who had finished taking care of the bodies and paid them due respect.

“She’s going to lead us there.”, said Cess while patting Slav.

Dave smiled as he kneeled down to Slav, “Are you sure?”, he asked. Slav nodded.

“Alright. Take your time.”, he replied while still smiling. Slav was still sad about what had happened but she led the party to the base, slowly but surely. None of the others told her to hurry up, but they waited patiently.

“Where did Median and Ogre go?”, asked Slav, stopping in the middle of the journey. As she looked towards Dave, waiting for an answer while he hesitated.

“They-They...”, he pondered as he looked towards Cess. “They went on a journey.”, said Cess.

“Journey?”, Slav started to walk again, “Journey together?”, she looked at Cess.

Cess smiled, “Yes, maybe... one day you’ll be able to meet them again.”

“Oh.”, said Slav while making a sad face. “Median did always say that he wanted to be free...”, she added pouting. “Maybe... but why did he not take me too?”, she cried.

“Don’t worry.”, said Orph as he went near Slav. “They’ll come for you.”, he added as he looked down on Slav. “Don’t... cry, their journey can only be done by people old enough!”, he exclaimed while trying his best to hold a smile.

Slav looked at him and didn’t reply anymore. It wasn’t clear if she understood what he meant but for the time being she chose to keep quiet. Orph looked towards Cess and Dave and nodded. Dave whispered a thank you to them both.

Soon they climbed the mountain from the hidden cave entrance. Cess couldn’t help but mutter, “So this is where it was... I don’t know if I would’ve ever found it.”

“Only the people allowed will be allowed to enter.”, Slav replied while looking at Cess.

“You heard that?”, Cess replied in shock and smiled, “You have nice hearing.”

“Thanks...”, murmured Slav.

They soon reached the summit of the mountain, where they found a camp and a cave.

“Were there any other people except those two without a slave collar?”, asked Dave.

Slav nodded a no.

Dave ordered the royal guards to spread around and search the area and asked the knight cadets to closely follow him, as he went inside the cave. There was a body lying on the ground with some people sitting at a distance.

“Orph?”, asked John as he walked towards the party.

“John!”, Orph ran towards him and almost hugged him before stopping and coughing, looking at the principal’s body, “He’s dead?”

John laughed, “Someone else did it for me.”, he smiled. “I never thought I’d see you again.”, he added.

“You thought wrong.”, smiled Orph.

“I don’t mean to interrupt this happy reunion.”, said Dave, while looking at John. “Are they all there?”, he added while pointing to the others at the cave.

John nodded, “We received freedom from the slave collars just a while ago... some of us chose to run away, some of us chose to stay here.”

“I’m glad you stayed.”, said Orph.

“I’m glad too...”, John stopped and looked at the ground, “It was a risk... but I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”, he smiled sadly.

“So... you’re John.”, asked Eric, “Orph talked a lot about you.”, he faintly smiled.

“Oh! And who might you be?”, asked John in return.

“Eric...”

“Eric! Nice to meet you.”, John looked at Orph, “Looks like you finally made friends!”, he smiled.

Orph growled and looked away.

“What are these?”, asked Cess while pointing towards the shiny rocks on the cave walls.

“Magic stones.”, Dave replied with a serious look. “They’re banned in the kingdom... all magic items are.”, he added.

“Then what do we do about that?”

“I don’t know.”, sighed Dave, “I will report it back to the kingdom and they can take it from there.”

“It looks like you’re not a fan of the ban.”, asked Orph while smirking.

Dave sighed and didn’t reply.

“Excuse me.”, John looked at Dave, “What’s going to happen now?”

Dave smiled and looked around everyone in the cave, “Now? Now we go home!”, his smile gave way to a small laughter. He knew this journey of his life was over but this was far from over. All he could do now was look into the future.