“Alright, entry has been approved!” Tossing over three metal plates, the clerk waved them on. “Remember that your stay is only a day long here! Any longer, and you’ll need to pay one gold!”

“Many thanks!” Aziz yelled, along with Hans and Marie, before the three continued their flight into a border town of Liamar’s Divine Kingdom. There were a few others like them, who were also applying for short-term passes. Most of them were tourists…or rather, foodies like Marie and Aziz, who were looking forward to exploring the cuisine of the great god’s home.

“Just four years ago, we were killing each other and everything,” Hans murmured, as they flew above a small squad of humans hunting monsters. “Now? We’re touring a great god’s Divine Kingdom. With weapons too, to boot.”

His eyes were on a second squad of people. They were different from humans or beastfolk, however. Their skin was red, and even from afar, Aziz could tell that they wielded powers that weren’t derived from cultivation. These people were the creations of their master, the godkith.

“Reality has a roundabout way of making friends,” Marie replied. “Other impossible things happened so many times in history that it’s actually not that odd, from a macro point of view. For instance, did you know that the West used to be allies with the Southern Assembly thirty years ago?”

“Allies?” Hans’ eyelid twitched, and Aziz really couldn’t blame him for that. After all, the Western Holdings had dispatched an army to invade the Southern Assembly shortly after the Second Extermination ended. Then again, thirty years were actually quite long; many changes could occur in that time.

“What happened?” Aziz asked. “My edition of Orb: A History only covers up to three thousand years ago.”

“Right, I gave you the twenty-second edition, right?” Marie mused. “Well, it was the only one I had at that time, but the thirty-fifth edition was just released two months ago. I think Monocle Online is selling the second print run next Saturday, so you can try your luck online.”

“Hans, be a dear and help me order it,” Aziz said. “My reactions are too slow to compare with those…what do you call them again? Scalpers?”

“A scalper, yes.” Marie rubbed her chin as they passed by a small patrol of godkith, who waved them on after the three of them waved their metal plates at them. “Not sure where the term came from, though.”

“It’s a term made popular by an otherworlder from the Western Holdings,” Hans supplied. “Apparently, on Earth’s version of the Internet, there are people who specialise in buying popular things online and reselling them at marked-up prices.”

Aziz turned his gaze to Marie, who had proposed doing precisely that less than an hour ago, and hid a smile.

The marshal turned a humourless gaze onto him, and the colonel immediately regretted his lack of facial discipline. Making a few awkward coughs, he nudged Hans, who cottoned on a moment later.

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Clearing his throat, Aziz said, “The Internet that the North set up is derived from Earth’s own, right?”

“Yep, yep.” Hans nodded his head in rapid succession, “It was a brainchild of some Eastern researchers, who were then headhunted by Pinnacle Kolya himself. It’s quite rudimentary, but there are all kinds of amazing encounters possible.”

“Amazing encounters?” Aziz asked.

“Just three days ago, I received a text asking for help. Some scion of a great family needed thirty gold to bail himself out, and he promised to reward me with three hundred gold if I wired the money over,” Hans replied.

“There’s such a good thing?” the colonel asked. “Ten times…I’m tempted too.”

“I know, right? Three hundred gold in return…” Hans rubbed his hands together. “I could retire six months earlier from the military!”

“That sounds sketchy, though.” Marie sliced apart a cloud with a wave of qi, before turning to Hans. “Did he say where he was being imprisoned at? And the reason behind it?”

“Should I ask for details like these?” Hans looked at Marie.

“Of course,” she replied. “If you’re bailing out someone like a murderer and he goes on to kill a whole bunch of people, you’ll be partially responsible too. You should ask that person for details about his incarceration and pay his prison a visit before acting on it.”

“That’s rather good advice,” Aziz said. “Three hundred gold for a week’s travel or something; it’s rather worth it.”

“You have lots of off days anyway,” Marie added. “Might as well use them before they expire.”

“Off days expire?” Hans asked, his eyes wide.

“You didn’t know?” Marie replied. “And here I was wondering why on Orb no one was taking their offs and leaves other than Aziz. I figured that you guys were just being real hardworking, but clearly that isn’t the case, is it?”

The captain made a sad, gagging noise.

“There, there.” Aziz patted his back. “If it’s of any consolation to you, I too didn’t take more than fourteen days of leave and seven offs last year.”

Clearly, he had said something wrong, because Hans burst into tears after that sentence.

Marie, who was watching the colonel, laughed loudly and slapped his back twice. “You really know how to comfort someone, right? Cheer up, Hans. I can just retroactively give you lot your lost days back. I think y’all need it anyway.”

“Really?” Hans looked at Marie, his eyes shining with profound emotions.

“Really, really. I am the Chief of Air, after all. Who dares to gainsay me?” Marie replied. “Do you dare, Aziz?”

“I don’t dare!”

“See?”

“But there’ll be a lot of work waiting for us when we come back,” Hans replied. “We’ll never see the end of it.”

“Maybe we can have a retreat, then. A force-wide retreat for everyone,” Marie said. “We’ll all find a beach and make sandcastles. Have a barbecue, catch some fish…or not — I think we might end up catching monsters. But a force-wide retreat sounds fun.”

Aziz rolled his eyes. “Sure, if you don’t mind getting chewed out by Eventide when you come back. If the entire air force vanishes for a retreat together, his head is going to explode.”

“What do you suggest, then?”

“Oh, we just need to stagger it,” Aziz said. “We can start with Thunderbolt, and so on…”