One week later.....

"Hng..."

Tears fell like pearls from the emerald green eyes.

"Why? Just why does it have to be me?"

Ann's voice was hoarse from crying. The tears on the edge of her eyes glided down as she fluttered her eyelids.

"Is this Ok?"

"Why is she crying?"

"Should we help?"

The people around watched the scene without being able to interfere or utter a word. They whispered for a while but soon scattered away after one look from Raeden.

*sniff* *sniff*

"Even my parents didn't make me cry so much?" Ann complained, wiping the tears on her face with the back of her hand holding a small knife.

It was night time and everybody had gathered in groups to prepare dinner. Naturally, the Nero mercenaries were huddled together in a circle in front of a small fire, with each member on a different duty.

Having camped fifteen miles away from the border city of Velven, Therren, the group was preparing their meals at the end of a long day.

"Just why am I the one on onion duty again!?" Ann exclaimed, peeling the onion in her hand.

No matter what world or universe it was, the only thing that could make even the strongest and unbeatable beings shed tears was none other than a vegetable, an onion.

"Because you suck at everything else"

Noah stated the obvious and threw an onion into the basket near Ann's feet containing the unpeeled onions.

"Stop making a big deal out of it"

Ever since the start of the journey, Ann had been mostly assigned to prepare the ingredients for dinner rather than be part of the actual cooking. Although she had volunteered to prepare the meal, the twins had strongly opposed the idea and sent her back with a basket of onions to peel.

"I can't believe you couldn't even take this much. Here, have another one" Oliver grinned and tossed another onion into the pile, earning a glare from Ann in return.

"Everyone is doing something. So stop whining and start peeling"

"You guys are so mean! Waah.."

Ann turned to Eugene sitting opposite to her and whined. Since Eugene was the primary cook, she wanted him to take her side.

"Eugene... They are doing this on purpose" Ann sobbed, as tears continued to trickle down her cheeks.

"Haah...." Eugene sighed and caved in, unable to avoid her pleading gaze.

"Fine"

For the past thirty minutes, the number of onions that had been peeled was not more than five. If he did not interfere now, they would be starving instead of having dinner tonight.

"Jade. You peel the onions"

"What? Why?" Jade rebutted.

"Too slow"

Ann walked up to Jade and dropped the onion basket on his hands, before dusting off her hands. She noticed Raeden sitting in the corner with a bag of potatoes and decided to join him.

"Then I'll do the potatoes"

"No!"

Eugene screamed and stopped Ann from taking another step.

"Ahem. Just...just go and fetch some water"

He passed a pitcher to Ann and whispered to Jade sitting next to him.

"It's better to keep her away from the food. Remember last time when the potato stew turned into molten lava"

"You're right. Save my tongue"

Jade turned pale recalling the dinner the previous night which was made by Ann after she convinced everyone regarding the cooking lessons she took from Mel.

"I was standing right there near the pot. I don't know how she managed to mix everything together"

Eugene felt his fur standstill just by thinking about it.

"It still surprises me how she finished everything without a sweat"

"She has a tongue of steel" Jade shook his head.

"I second that"

"If you guys are done whispering to each other. The soup is on me."

Ann came up from behind Eugene and Jade and whispered.

""Gaah!""

Startled, the two split up and held their beating hearts.

"I have a special recipe which I would like to try"

Ann winked and walked off towards the nearby stream to fetch water.

"Did she just say soup?" Jade asked, his face drained of color.

"No, wait!"

Eugene stood up realizing his mistake.

But Ann was long gone. Now there was no way out of the soup she was about to cook.

"She's gone, you idiots"

Noah threw a small onion at Eugene pissed at the disaster he brought upon them.







"Hmm Mmm Hmm...."

I hummed as I made my way to the small stream near our camp, pitcher in hand to get water.

The recipe I got from Danny is finally coming to use.

My cooking skills have considerably improved over the years, thanks to Mel and Bea's efforts.

I am qualified enough to make something edible. And I have a lot of rats to test them on.

It has been a week since we started on our journey and fortunately, there haven't been any troubles until now. It was all thanks to Raeden and Chief Gallahan's skilled leadership.

Tomorrow by lunch we will cross the border and reach Orion. The battlefield of the male leads.

"Two years huh" I smiled and looked at the sky.

The moons were shining brightly, lighting up the area enough to walk without a lamp.

Beautiful as always.

Soon there will be the night of the full moons. Which means that my twenty-first birthday day will be upon us.

To think that I would be in the middle of a forest during my twenty-first year in this world.

Hah..... Time sure flies.

I was twenty-one when my first life ended in Korea. So I'm kind of superstitious this year.

Well if it weren't for my survival skills, I wouldn't have lived past eighteen.

What a life I've had.

If I were to write a book. It would sell like crazy.

I would probably name it something like 'My insane survival story - way to ditch the male lead'

Anyway, after two years I'll be back in Orion. My mother nation.

First things first. I should find an information guild and place a request to track down the undesirables.

I need data on the male leads asap to ease my worries.

"There it is!"

I kneeled down on the edge of the stream and filled the pitcher.

The stream had a clear flow of crystal clear water with the moons reflecting on its surface.

I could see my reflection in the water like a mirror.

I removed the hairtie that held my hair together with a single tug. Bright blue hair fluttered down my shoulders.

The night breeze felt cold yet comfortable against my skin.

Although I hate to admit it, the journey was really tiring. Spending all day traveling on the back of a horse was not easy.

My butt hurt like crazy. I do get recharged by teasing Eugene occasionally but that was getting boring too.

I looked at my reflection on the water again. The silver nose ring shined, not much different from the stars in the sky.

With my hair down covering my ears, I really do resemble a fox.

Should I get a pair of ears too to complete the look?

Right then I noticed another reflection appear on the water opposite to mine. It was...

"Mr.Kalan"

Kalan was standing on the opposite side of the stream. He was quiet as usual.

"What are you doing here?"

I asked, looking up at him. Can't believe he sneaked up on me of all people.

Kalan and I have been traveling side by side during our travels and through that, I have hypothesized that he was a man of few words. We've had a few conversations along the way about general stuff but there was nothing beyond that.

I have also noticed that aside from Ezra, his subordinate, Kalan does not interact with others much.

Even the extrovert Chief Gallahan failed in his conquest to make Kalan talk.

I do sometimes get the feeling that he was hiding something. But don't we all have secrets?

"The same as you"

Kalan answered and pulled out a small bottle from his robes. He got down on his knee and started filling his bottle with water.

Ah. That got me off guard. I blinked my eyes to compose myself. For a second, I thought he was reading my mind.

I looked at the water again. Kalan's face was reflected clearly on its surface opposite to mine.

He was handsome in his own way.

Brown hair and brown eyes were common traits for the people in southern Orion. I was an idiot to think he was from Agrichia.

But that face.

I stared at his reflection.

I'm getting that weird feeling again.

"Is there something in the water?"

Kalan's calm voice brought me back to my senses.

"Oh? No. I was just spacing off"

I grabbed the pitcher and got to my feet. How long has he been watching me?

Suddenly Kalan jumped to my side of the stream and landed right in front of my face.

"Watch out"

I grabbed his collar with my free hand when he was about to lose his balance.

"Sorry. You were about to fall into the water"

Flustered by the proximity, I let go of his collar and took a step back. That was too close.

"Ah no... thank you"

Kalan apologized.

"I apologize for startling you. I shouldn't have done that without informing you"

"Ok then. Catch you later"

I said and started heading back to the camp. But after taking three steps, biting my lips I hesitated.

For some reason, Kalan looked like an abandoned puppy. Like he was left alone on the side of the road under heavy rain.

'Why am I like this?'

In the end, I turned around and walked up to him, my weakness to pitiful creatures getting the best of me.

"Would you like to have dinner with me?"

I asked, then immediately realized what I had said and corrected my words.

"Us. I meant. Would you like to have dinner with us? Us meaning the Nero mercenaries"

Kalan became stiff. He seemed to have not expected my sudden offer as he appeared quite taken aback.

He covered his mouth with his hand and turned to the side, muttering something under his breath.

Feeling embarrassed, I tried to do damage to control as much as possible.

"It's fine if you don't want to. I get that asking out of the blue was not nice on my part. You might want to eat with your people..."

"It would be my pleasure"

Kalan interrupted me and smiled.

Right then, the wind blew and ruffled my hair again.

"Ah..."

I tried to hold my hair away from my face. I should tie it together. But where is the hair tie?

I looked around near my foot. I think I must have dropped it somewhere near the water.

"Are you looking for something?" Kalan asked, standing beside me.

"No nothing"

I brushed it off since I can always rip off one from Oliver.

"Let's get going. I hope you like soup"

Together we walked back to the camp side by side.