The five sit together for breakfast. With all of them eating, and briming with motivation for their next steps, the room seems much livelier than the night before. Maybe it’s also because everyone wants to keep up high spirits for the others, even if those terrible events will continue to plague their minds for a long time.

“Guys, if we’re gonna ask him to train us, we have to do so soon, since his recovery won’t take much longer. He said himself he’ll be completely recovered in about 3 days, but that was before he fought, so probably it will be a few more days.” The others nod to Lex in agreement. “Well, then how are we going to go about asking him?”

Mhmm. Lark signals her to wait for an answer as he struggles to empty his overfilled mouth, until he’s finally able to speak, even if it is with chewing sound in between. “So.. I thought you would - mhm- take care of that.”

“What? Why would I have to come up with something?”

Gulp. “You were the one who managed to convince him to help us somehow. And you’re the one who always brings him his food. Really, you’re the only one of us who even talks to him.”

“And the only one who thinks about him so much, too.”, Elaine adds.

She blushes a little. “Am not. You make me sound like I’m the only person who capable to communicate with a monster. I did tell you why he’s actually pretty human yesterday, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, and you’re the only one who thinks that way!”, Kaze comments. “I mean really, you’re points about how the way he lived could have him turned into who he is are valid and all. But who the hell witnesses him literally blowing childrens’ bodies, who threw themselves to the ground in front of him, dropping their weapons, mind you, into smithereens, without showing any emotions, and then concludes that he’s human through that?!”

Lark bursts out in laughter. “He’s got a point, you know?”

Kaze reciprocates it by a small smile, then faces Lex again. “Are you some kind of psycho yourself? Or do you just want to think the tall, jacked, all-so-special chosen one has to have a heart of gold you just need to get out?”

“I-It’s nothing like that, you idiot!” As Lex becomes even more flustered, Elaine and Kaze can’t contain themselves anymore and start laughing as well.

“Oh, I’m sure it’s not!”, Lark adds, barely managing to get a straight sentence out.

“Stop teasing me you idiots!”

While the three have their fun with Lex, Marc quietly gets up and starts washing his dishes. Lark takes a glance at him, and after seeing him not-so-amused, he calms down again. “Okay, but seriously. You’ve got the most experience as well as the highest success handling him.” The other two quiet down as well as they hear him talking seriously. “So we won’t really be of much help finding a way to convince him. It might be helpful if you explained to us how exactly you got him to help us out in the first place.”

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“Yeah, okay. So, when I first told him about the village being attacked, he started laughing hysterically.”

“Look, you even managed to make him laugh. Go, Lex!”, Elaine interrupts her and starts chuckling to herself, until Lark gives her a serious gaze.

“What kind of sick bastard laughs at something like that?”, Marc adds.

“I don’t know, it wasn’t really normal laughter, and he said some strange stuff… anyway, let’s skip that for now. He quieted down again, and refused to help out. One thing came to another, and we kind of got into an argument where I called him a monster and said some other pretty mean stuff.”

“Oh, even a lover’s quarrel!”, Elaine interupts her again, laughing.

Lark glares at her. “Seriously, stop. This is important.” Elaine hangs her head disappointedly. In a whisper, he adds “I won’t be able to contain myself if you keep this up”, and both chuckle a bit.

“So, ANYWAY, in the end I basically just told him that, if he won’t do it for us, he should do it for himself, so that he has people to keep him fed. And surprisingly, that was all it took for me to convince him to help out, and he immedieately started racing towards the village ahead of me.”

Marc sits back down at the table. “So basically, we really just need an incentive that makes him feel it’s worth training us for. Anyone got any ideas?”

Elaine raises her hand slowly, already cracking into a smile before speaking. “I might have an Id-”.

“Don’t.”, Lark stops her.

“Sorry.”, she apologizes in a tiny voice. “But it might actually work..”

“If you think prostitution is a good idea, go try it out yourself.” While having said that in a serious tone, Marc has to chuckle to himself right after, followed by everybody else.

Lark is the first one to settle down again. “Okay, so we’ve got a last resort now. But since I’m guessing no one here plans to actually try that, maybe we should come up with something else.”

“Wouldn’t food and accomodation like right now be enough?”, Kaze wonders.

“Do you think that’s enough for the chosen one? You do know he lived like a royal before this, don’t you?”

“I know, but think about it. If he doesn’t want to fulfill requests like the one from our village, then do you really believe he wants to return to the king, where he has to do this all the time? Compared to that, living without having to take care of your food or accomodation, and just having to train a few people in exchange, seems like a pretty good deal to me.”

Lex nods in agreement. “To be honest, I haven’t really seen him do much besides training. I don’t know why the royal family states that he doesn’t, but he’s a total training freak. He even told me he didn’t know what else to do.”

“So, you’re saying it would basically allow him to do what he wants all day, and therefore he’ll accept the deal?”. Both Lex and Kaze nod in agreement. “Well, great, then that’s that. Shouldn’t be too hard to keep one more person fed with the river nearby.” He turns to Lex. “I think I’d be best for you to just ask him right away when you bring him breakfast, there’s no point in stalling.”

“What? You too?”

“Yeah, me too! As if I’m gonna ask him, he’d probably knock me out before I even finish the suggestion!”

“But…”

“Why do you refuse to talk to him all of a sudden?”

“I told you I called him a monster and said mean stuff, it just doesn’t feel right to apologize and then ask for something right away.”

“Then don’t. He doesn’t really seem like the kind of guy who cares about apologies. He probably didn’t even feel insulted in the first place.”

Lex hangs her head. Ughhh.

Lark gets up and slaps her shoulder. “Come on, you got this! Now get up, I don’t want to have to wait for an answer.”

She turns around to look at him. “But you wouldn’t even be able to train in your current state.”

Lark is baffled. “You’re… right. I was so focused on what to do next that I forgot I need to get back to health first.” He scratches the back of his head, and lets out a flustered “Huh.”

“Well, I want to know what he says too, so go!”, Elaine adds.

Lex gets up from her chair. “Fine, but you can do my dishes.”. She picks up a wooden tray with bread and dried fish on top of it, then heads for the door. “And his, too, when I come back!”