"---so Reimund opened his doors for me and both clothed and fed me"

"that sound unreal, at least it's not the usual n.o.ble we hear of"

"well in all fairness form the lords I have meet it's been 50/50"

"oh really, what's the bad example?"

"the lord of Mirefield"

Vanessa gave a frown when she hear the name Mirefield, before she gave a sigh

"yeah that's a pretty bad example"

"you meet him before?"

"once when the mission started"

"...well then I have some good news"

"what?"

"he's dead"

"...really?"

"yep killed him myself"

"you did what now!?"

"I killed him, made him go splat"

Vanessa gave a sigh and the rest of the squad looked at Mars with serious expression on their faces, Mars picked up on the serious mood and gave a smile to try and lighten the mood, after some time Vanessa spoke up

"don't worry Mars, now that you're a part of our squad we will do our best to protect you"

"well I appreciate the thought, but I don't think Destra will do anything about it"

"...why not?"

"because I'm an apostle"

Vanessa and the rest of the squad stopped moving and looked at Mars in pure shock before Nicole spoke up

"y-you're kidding right?"

"nope"

Mars reached into his clothes and pulled out the 13 pointed silver star he always wore around his neck and showed it of with a expression that said 'pretty cool right?' sending the rest of the squad into a daze as they stared at the silver star, befitting of the role as captain Vanessa was the first one to snap out of her daze and looked at Mars with a complicated look on her face before she slowly said

"...I now doubt anything you do will ever surprise me"

Mars gave a childish grin

"oh really, how about this..."

Mars raised his hand and transformed it, looking at the long claws Vanessa became stunned again that is until Hans stammered

"h-half d-d-d-dragon!"

as soon as Vanessa heard Hans she snapped out of her daze and still wearing her armor suit she went down on one knee and lowered her head, the others quickly followed her and also kneeled down completely stunning Mars in the process, before he had a change to recover Vanessa spoke with a exited voice

"are you here to save the general?"

"the general?"

Vanessa looked up and stared at Mars with her jet black eyes

"the flaming rose!"

"...wait a second"

Mars organized his toughs for a moment and quickly remembered hearing about the flaming rose a couple of times before, but as far as he knew she was

"dead... didn't she die?"

"what..?"

Mars and Vanessa stared at each other for a moment before she spoke out slowly

"you don't know about it?"

"it?"

"the rebellion..."

"I know it happened"

"...I see"

Vanessa got up again and looked at Mars with a disappointed look on her face and wordlessly turned and began walking back to the camp leaving the rest of the squad

"what was that about?"

Hans gave a sigh and shock his head

"if you don't know about it then there's no point in telling you about it"

"...I see"

Mars followed the squad back to camp in silence, the happiness form the easy victory seemed to have all but evaporated

'this feels... like I'm at fault?'

Mars found himself feeling a little guilty about showing off

"what's.... wrong?"

"...it's nothing... I think"

"okay..?"

eventually the group made it back to the camp and Vanessa went to report to the general meanwhile Mars moved his field bed over to squad 7's tent, he placed it in a comer next to the entrance and ignoring the rest of the squad he laid down and stared into the ceiling for some time until Victoria jumped up and laid down on his chest, looking down on Mars with her big round blue eyes for a while her horns eventually flashed

"are... you okay?"

Mars showed a smile and began petting Victoria on the head while he stared into the ceiling

"...I'm fine, thank you Victoria"

Mars enjoyed the feeling of Victoria's soft ears for some time until someone called out to him from the side

"...hey"

Mars looked over and saw Nicole, realizing this was the first time he had looked at her properly Mars inspected her, she was a head shorter than him with short brown hair and brown eyes, she had somewhat tanned skin and a overall petty frame, she seemed more like a neighborhood teenage girl then a battle hardened soldier

"yes?"

"can you help me with lifting something, the captain said you were strong"

"sure"

Mars carefully lifted the sleeping Victoria off his chest and got up before he laid her back down on the field bed again, before he turned back to Nicole and followed her over to the armor stand

"this plate here"

"okay..."

Mars grabbed the armor plate and lifted it out its frame

"that's good, hold it there..."

Nicole grabbed a formation marker and began adjusting the formation runes under the armor plate Mars had lifted off, some minutes pa.s.sed before she gave a sigh

"...that should do it"

"should I put it back now?"

"yeah, thanks for the help"

Mars put the armor plate back in place and helped Nicole tighten the bolts that kept the armor plate in place

"is there anything else you need help with?"

"hmm... no I think that was all"

"okay"

Mars turned and was about to walk back to his field bed when Nicole called out to him

"um... Mars"

"what is it?"

"...could you help me with something else?"

"...sure why not"

"okay, this way"

Nicole let the way out of the tent with Mars following after her and they eventually reached the cooking tent were Nicole walked inside with Mars following after her, the inside was busy with cooks working but Nicole agilely moved past the busy cooks without b.u.mping into any of them until she reached what looked like the main chef and poked him on the shoulder

"oh it's you Nicole... you want the usual?"

"yeah you got some?"

the chef gave a wide smile

"just got some in with yesterday's caravan"

"great!"

the head chef walked out the cooking tent with Mars and Nicole following after him

"now where did they put it..."

they now stood inside a storage tent next door to the cooking tent where a ma.s.sive amount of boxes was stacked and filled most of the tent

"oh there it is"

the chef took out a box about 50 by 50 centimeters and handed it to Nicole

"here you are Nicole"

"thanks"

"sure thing, give your captain my regards"

Nicole then handed the box to Mars that took it and found it was lighter than he expected

"let's go Mars"

"okay?"

Mars followed after Nicole out of the storage tent and out to where all the benches was lined up, Nicole stopped and looked around the crowd

"now where is she... there she is, can you see her?"

"who?"

"the captain"

"oh... there she is"

Mars found it rather easy to spot Vanessa in the crowd with her jet black hair and eyes

"now here is where it gets difficult Mars, first you walk up to her and place the box on the table then you say 'I got this for you' then you slide to box across the table to her. Got it?"

"....yeah"

Nicole showed a slime and patted Mars on the shoulder

"then go"

"okay"

Mars walked off though the crowd and eventually arrived at where Vanessa was sitting, she had the whole bench for herself and was sitting and looking into a cup with water, over all she looked rather depressed, Mars sat down across from her which woke her from her daze

"what are you doing here M--"

"I got this for you"

Mars slid the box across the table to Vanessa that looked a little confused, but after staring at Mars for a moment she opened the box and soon a smile formed on her face as she looked into the box, just as Mars was about to ask 'what's in the box' she looked up at him with a intense look on her face

"this... are you sure I can have this?"

"...yeah that's why I got it for you?"

Vanessa gave a wide smile and reached into the box and took out... a bar of chocolate before she imitatively bit into it with relish on her face and closed her eyes as she chewed before she sighed

"so good..."

and bit into the bar of chocolate again with a blissful look on her face, Mars looked at her with a blank look on her face

'I guess it's true... chocolate is happiness in solid form'