A portal opened in the 'hub of portal' of Horizon.

The first ones to come out were the sisters, followed by Amelia, Karteira, and finally, Orion.

"I don't know why, but returning here is like returning home."

Said Drania, holding her sister's hand, who chose to remain silent.

"Come with me, you have to take a shower right? I'll also prepare food while you do."

"Thank you."

"YAY!"

Amelia, Dramia, and Drania all returned in the home, leaving Karteira and Orion together.

"Welcome back?"

Karteira said because no one ever spoke those words until now.

Orion smiled, and with his gentle tone.

"You too, welcome back. Let's go inside, I'm tired."

With a nod and a smile, she walked right next to him until they entered the house.

Immediately turning left, Orion entered the living room, and without even removing his coat, he slumped his tired body on one of the sofa.

Karteira chuckled and sat next to him.

"You really are that tired?"

Her tail was resting on her right shoulder, which was usual when she was also taking a break.

"It's like a repetition of last time, when I fought you. I just hope... that Remnant will not... bother me... this... time."

And he quickly fell asleep.

'Eh? Did he really fall asleep?'

She looked at him, and quickly realized that he was really tired.

'He said that his magic reserve was almost dry. No wonder he his tired. I had completely forgotten.'

Staring at him, Karteira was lost on what to do. Her thoughts became erratic.

'I am his lover, right? I can do the same things as Amelia, right? I can...'

Her tail swayed off of her shoulder, and stretched toward Orion's left shoulder.

After a quick and gentle push, Karteira gently caught his sliding body and placed his head on her thighs.

To say that she was embarrassed was an understatement. She was so red she could be compared to a tomato.

Orion was completely spent, and fast asleep. This was also a display of how much trust he gave to his 'lovers'.

'Amelia said that I had to find a way to pierce his heart, and learn more about him.'

She didn't said it like that, but for Karteira, it was the same.

Gently, she caressed his hair just like he usually did to them. A gentle caress that would not bother the sleeping Orion.

-

"I wanted to be happy."

-

'Happiness.'

'Can I really work toward it?'

-

"For him, I was ready to do anything."

-

'Love.'

'Can I really have such rights?'

The momeries of her talk with herself returned, as she touched her hairclip.

Time passed while she was slowly accepting the fact that she was currently working toward her happiness, and building the new emotion of love she had in her.

Before long, Amelia entered the living room to say that she was done cooking.

"Karteira, Orion, I'm done coo- oh?"

"Shh! Not so loud."

With a quiet voice, Karteira told her to also spoke quietly.

"Don't worry, I'm awake. Food's ready, right?"

But Orion awakened at some point. He removed his head from Karteira's lap, who looked really disappointed to let him go.

After standing up, he stretched his arms behind him, before giving a hand to Karteira.

"Thank you, I rested well. Let's go eat."

She grabbed his hand, changing her mood at the same time.

All of this while Amelia was watching.

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'She's fast. I turn my eyes a second, and she's already making a move on him.'

"Alright you two, today's an omelet with plenty of vegetables. The sisters are already waiting on you."

From the room behind Amelia, Orion heard Drania speak.

"Yes! If you don't come, I'll even eat your share!"

Before hearing Dramia reprimand her sister.

"You can't do that. What kind of manner do you have?"

"It's a joke. A joke to motivate them to come. You really are stuck-up sometimes."

"Stuck-up?! Wha-"

As they began to bicker, Orion closed his eyes and smiled.

'Since when did this house became so animated?'

While holding Karteira's hand, he walked toward the entrance, and also grabbed Amelia's hand.

"We have to go before these two get louder."

With both girls by his sides, he walked in the dining room.

~

While Orion and everyone began to eat, and because he forgot to calibrate Horizon's time not to be on the same plane as Triazils, Florian was about to finish explaining what had happened near Albriar.

"At that point, we were all holding our breath, before Orion rushed to him. He kicked the side of Julian, and stepped on him to keep him in place, and fired three arrows, one in his heart, one below the chest, and one in his right lung."

"After the last arrow, Julian finally perished, and evaporated to dust."

Kamala, who listened to both his, and Orion's group feats, was reminded of the battle against Ivan.

"Just like Ivan. The corrupted Apostles usually disintegrate to nothing once you break their cores it seems."

"Yes. And I also have to speak about another matter. Something that Orion and I came to notice."

...

The conversation about Elliot and the Remnant of Corruption was retold to Kamala.

"Are you serious? If what you two came up with is true, then we are in a dire situation. No wonder everything is turning weird since the dragon's rampage event."

She quickly realized that she would have to explain her story to Florian if he was to question why she said that.

But Florian wasn't that disrespectful. He knew that something happened in her life, but chose to not pry upon it. Instead, he made another link.

"Bandir. But there's something I don't understand."

Surprised that he did not even made insinuation about her, she quickly regained her neutrality.

"What could it be? I don't have the same intelligence as you, so there are things I can't get immediately."

He stared at her as if he said something wrong.

"There are also things I don't understand. For exemple, I can't understand you completely. I can't understand someone like Orion, or what happened in the past. I am not a mathematical genius either."

And then, it came to him.

"Did you say that because you thought I had a bad opinion of you? If that was the case, I wouldn't have bothered speaking to you at all."

"Intelligence doesn't make use everything. Sometimes, we also make mistakes. That's why we have people around us to make those mistakes happen less."

"You could even say that our mistakes are usually worse."

With a questioning look, Kamala asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I'll compare you to me. How did you defend against the attacks on Hocride?"

Kamala had no reason to think, because she did it without much of a thought.

"I've defended the city myself."

Florian spoke right after that.

"I've defended using my army, while watching on top of the city's wall."

She understood the meaning. Kamala sacrificed herself in battle because she did not think much about a potential trap. There could have been many ways to avoid the final result, but she still chose to avoid her soldiers die in vain.

While Florian, him, chose to use his soldiers instantly, because he knew that they were made for that purpose.

"That choice did cost me forty six lives. Am I really a good person in your eyes? I could've easily went instead of them, and live Julian to Orion, but instead, I've left the city's defense to my people."

He had some regrets. Those were forty six people he knew well. He formed every single one of them. Some had families, some not, but they were still precious members of Albriar.

"I'm sorry. We never really spoke before, so I thought you were interested in something else. Mostly the money made from Hocride, if I had to guess."

"I don't trust others easily."

Florian shook his head, before removing his glasses to clean them.

"This is fine. I learned by watching Orion that being cautious about everything and everyone is important. Trust is something you build with time, and not suddenly. Just how you and I built trust with Orion, it will take time for us too."

He was in no rush. Both of them were quite different, and a lot of learning was necessary for them to come to trust each other.

'I'll have to see Eric too. I've kept it at arm's length for quite a few years now. It's not the time to act distant.'

Placing his glasses back on his nose, he returned to the main conversation.

"About Bandir."

"Yes. I forced a weird tangent in the conversation, let's return to that. You said you didn't understand something?"

"Did Kelvin ever drink the corrupted sludge? That's where I don't understand."

"I don't think he ever touched that."

"Than why did he act like that twenty years ago?"

Kamala thought for a moment.

"You said that the assimilation of the corruption was through the heirs of the Apostles right? What if he didn't need to drink the mixture, and had the corruption already encroached in his body from birth?"

Florian opened his eyes wide.

"Then it makes more sense. How did I miss that?"

But then his face suddenly looked terrified. He looked at Kamala.

"Do you know what that entails?"

Knowing Florian, she knew there was something deep hidden in those words. Without answering, she did her best, and thoughts on his words.

"!"

"Did you get it?"

Both realized that if the assimilation was able to be formed by birth alone, there was no way to know when it would activate in them. They could be corrupted at any time.

"Yes. Are we in danger?"

"Most certainly. We need to be careful. Knowing the corruption is inside of us, the situation keeps getting worse."

"Do we speak about that to Orion?"

Kamala was a little scared of telling him, because now, he would have a reason to kill them.

"I will. I trust this won't be enough for him to change his opinion on us."

Strongly believing that Orion was going to simply ignore this problem, because until it happened nothing actually changed, Florian prepared himself to tell him at one point.

"Isn't there a way to remove the corruption out of our blood?"

Hearing Kamala, he returned to reality.

"There isn't. The Remnant of Cleansing is the same as the Remnant of Corruption. There is nothing we can do... Or maybe not! I heard Orion was able to remove the corruption from uncorrupted people!"

A light of hope appeared in both of their eyes.

"Then we should see him later. This is important."

"Definitely."

Their conversation ended there. After calming themselves, they discussed a little more about their life, and what they had to do, before Florian returned to Albriar.

...

When he returned, the army was currently burning the dead bodies far from Albriar.

"Alright. Once this is done... I guess I'll go take over Juvern and Nobeli?"

This was something he didn't want to do, but as an Apostle, he had to at least maintain appearances.

The loser lost everything, the winner took everything. For Hocride, or Albriar, this would have happened anyway, so why shouldn't they do the same?

The difference was how they would do it. Florian was about to avoid bloodshed at all cost.

Once all the soldiers returned, dusk had fallen on the city.

"Alright everyone. Tonight, you rest well. Because tomorrow, we're going on a conquest. Doesn't that make your blood boil?"

Cheers were heard from a lot of soldiers. They were eager to settle the grudge they had by conquering a city or two.

"Let me be clear, no blood needs to be spilled. Citizens are in no way related to the army. If I see, or hear one of you was rough, or even killed a civilians, you will we killed on the spot, by me personally. Understood?"

"Yes, Lord Florian!"

They all spoke in unison. Their booming voices were almost loud enough to break windows.

"Tomorrow morning, I want you to stand in front of the north gate. Dismiss."

As Florian prepared for an easy mission, night fell on Triazils.

Two weeks later, two cities would join the alliance between Albriar, and Lahro, with not a single drop of blood being shed.