The day has passed in Edward’s usual routine. He woke up early, patrolled in the morning, trained by himself in the sword during the afternoon, and talked with Layla in the meantime.

But the evening… The evening was different this time.

Ed was standing before a long, lit-up structure. A cacophony of muffled sounds came from the inside. The glass double doors in a steel frame slid open before him. He stepped inside, carefully placing one foot after the other and looked around. There were a lot of shapes moving in the dim lighting, and his ears were being assaulted by numerous conversations, sounds of clinging glass, and something falling on the ground every once in a while.

Edward focused for a moment, he closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, a tinge of gold shined in his iris. Suddenly the faint lighting became as clear as daylight. That’s a new trick he learned as a result of better controlling his aura. There were many more things he could try to learn now that he has taken the first step. He had to teach himself to focus the aura into specific muscles in the body, enhancing a specific movement more than an overall enhancement. There was also the technique of infusing his aura into different objects, like Tarquin did with his wooden sword in the duel against Edward. But all of that would come with time. His progress could already be considered rather insane, so he wasn’t going to act impatient.

Anyways, now that the surroundings became clearer, Ed could easily make out all of the soldiers present in the room. Some were standing, with drinks in their hands. Some were sitting down at the tables, engaged in what must’ve been a fascinating discussion, considering they didn’t even stop for a moment to take a sip of their beers. Others were leaning against the wall or the bar in the middle, and there were even some outliers staring in the distance through the window, hopefully lost in their thoughts rather than at the bottom of their bottles.

Edward started moving deeper inside, dodging the unpredictable drunken soldiers coming from all sides. That could make for a decent training in and of itself, but it’s probably not the reason Marcus called him here. When he neared the circular bar in the very center of the pub, he suddenly got grabbed from behind by his shoulder.

“Hey man! I’m glad you came.” The familiar voice stopped Edward from throwing the person overhead by the arm.

“Hey Marcus! Don’t walk up on me from behind, that’s dangerous!” Ed screamed to the man, trying to get past all the noise.

“Oh, how rowdy! Sounds like a challenge!” The man smiled wide. “And don’t scream, just focus on your hearing.”

The young warrior followed his friend’s advice, and after a while managed to separate Marcus’s voice from all the bustle around him.

“Oh wow! Is that another application of aura?”

“Nah, everybody learns this eventually after spending some time in places like this.”

“Oh…”

“Alright let’s get you a drink, and then I’ll bring you to the others.”

Marcus waved over the bartender, who signaled with a nod that he’d come right over.

“Hey… will I even be able to get drunk? Because of, you know…” Edward leaned against the bar, looking at Marcus doubtfully.

“Eh, I can’t get drunk either. At least not easily. The overall enhancement to our bodies makes that difficult. But we gotta fit in, you get it? It’s also about the atmosphere…”

“Yeah I get it…” Ed turned towards the bar, hearing the bartender approach.

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“What will it be?” The man supported his large body with one arm against the table.

“Two root beers for me and my friend.” Marcus looked out from behind Edward, answering for him.

“Two each or just two?”

“Erm… two each of course!” The light reflected from the youth’s white teeth, although not quite as much as from the bald bartender’s head.

They waited as the man disappeared, bending under the bar, and appearing holding four brown glass bottles soon after. He brought out a terminal, letting Marcus scan his phone. All expenses went to their military tab, which in their case was always paid for and pretty much unlimited. Their organization also provided them with some modest disposable income, although over here they didn’t have much to spend it on.

Marcus handed two bottles to Edward, then grabbed the other two and led the way into the crowd.

“Come on buddy! Follow me.”

Ed squeezed between the tables and the people, using his superior instincts to avoid any accidents. They walked over to the very corner of the room, where in a private section, stood some poker, pool and card tables.

They approached one of the poker tables, where a group of rugged looking men already sat, laughing loudly.

“Hey guys! Thanks for waiting, ready for the next round?!” Marcus placed one of the bottles next to his chair, sat down, and opened the other using the edge of the table. The escaping gas made a satisfying hissing sound, as if inviting the holder to take a sip.

After getting comfortable in his seat, Marcus started casually pointing towards the other people present at the table.

“So… This is John, you’ve already met briefly… “ John nodded respectfully towards Ed.

“...and that there are Callum and Pork.”

The lanky Callum nodded upwards in a ‘what’s up’ type of gesture, and the slightly overweight Pork only said one thing.

“Before you ask, yes I like pork…” After which the man started simply dealing the cards.

A corner of Edward’s mouth rose slightly at the sight of this unusual greeting. He assumed the man didn’t have it easy in the military with this nickname, but he was clearly already used to it.

Following his friend’s lead, Edward sat down on the empty seat, and tried to open his bottle in a similar fashion, using the table’s edge. Failing miserably on the first time, he quickly tried to cover his failure, but used too much force the second time.

The bottlecap flew out under the pressure. Ed reacted immediately, snatching it from midair, before it managed to hit anything. But the fast movement itself caused a gust of wind to travel over the table, making everyone turn towards him.

Edward coughed slightly, dropping the cap next to the bottle.

After a moment of silence, loud laughter erupted in the group.

“Alright, how about we start, Callum can you deal the cards?” Marcus’s boisterous voice broke through the noise.

“Yes sir.” The thin man started gathering the cards, bending over the table to get the ones furthest away.

“Hey! Don’t ‘yessir’ me during a game!”

“Sure, sir.” Callum separated the deck into two stacks. He intertwined them together, and started shuffling the deck.

Marcus rolled his eyes, taking a big swing from the bottle.

“So, the usual?” The soldier held the ready deck in his hand.

“Yeah, the usual.” John confirmed, and the rest of the group nodded.

“Texas Hold’em then…”

The game was just for fun this time, so none of them was betting real money, and the pool of chips was separated evenly.

Callum was the dealer, which meant that John and Marcus sitting on his left were the small and big blind respectively.

When Edward’s turn came, the bet was up to eight euros. He bent the edge of his cards, checking them once again. A queen of spades, and a queen of hearts. A good pair.

“I call.”

The rounds continued, and after the flop the bet rose to 32.

The group continued with the game, laughing at each other's stupid jokes, and telling the best stories they had in store from their lives.

As the fun continued, Ed found himself forgetting about the daily responsibilities, and before he knew it, he was already opening his second bottle.