"good job"

the girls showed a mix of bashful and proud emotions after receiving simple praise from Mars and gathered around him

"did I also... do a... good job?"

"yeah you did a good job too Victoria"

Mars kneeled down and petted Victoria on the head meanwhile Chloe walked over to one of the spider corpses with her sword drawn, this caused Elsa some confusion so she asked

"what are you doing Chloe?"

"getting the core... they are useful for Mars"

"useful? is he going to make magic formations with them?"

Mars suddenly realized he never told Elsa he was a living G.o.d and pulled her to the side

"er... here the thing Elsa I'm not mortal"

Elsa widened her eyes slightly as she looked at Mars, but she remained silent waiting for him to continue, Mars scratched his head and asked her

"have you ever heard of living G.o.ds?"

"no... it that what you are?"

"yeah basically, although I'm too young to be called a proper living G.o.d"

"too young... how old are you then?"

"...5 months"

"you don't seem like a 5 month old baby though?"

"that's because I have memories from my past life"

"I see... this is a lot to take in, but..."

"but?"

"are you still the Mars I know?"

"yeah"

Elsa gave a small nod and walked forwards before she embraced Mars in a hug

"what's wrong Elsa?"

"nothing I just wanted to make sure"

Elsa let go of Mars and pulled out a dagger and asked

"so magic beast cores are useful for you?"

"yeah they help me grow stronger"

"I see then let's collect them quickly"

Elsa went off to collect the cores Mars gave a soft sigh as he watched her walk away and suddenly saw Chloe stomping over with a angry face

"what's wrong Chloe?"

Chloe didn't answer she just walked up to him and... hugged him before she whispered

"stupid you never hugged me"

"I see"

Mars put his arms around Chloe and hugged her back and for a time it was as if only the two of them existed in the wide forest until Chloe pulled away and Mars let her go, he also saw a glint of her bright red ears but decided not to tease her about it, suddenly Mars felt a cold sensation from his back and turned around to see Varvei with her arms spared out and a wide smile on her face

'good grief...'

Mars surrendered and also gave Varvei a hug before he joined the others in looking for cores, in the end he managed to receive a total of 24 cores which he put into his backpack

"let's go"

"Mars wait... we have more guests"

Mars looked over at Chloe and saw she was holding the metal cube only this time it shone in a blue light, Mars gave a sigh and sat down on the spot and waited, the girls gathered around with Victoria was the first to claim a spot on his legs with Varvei on his left and Chloe sitting with her back resting against his and Elsa on his right side, soon Mars also began hearing the guests approach, the sounds of leather boots softly treading and bowstrings being drawn sounded out around him

'this is a rather big group... 12 in total'

Mars gave a smile as he petted Victoria on the head and soon a single elf appeared in front of the group, he had short blonde hair and green eyes and carried a sword in his hand but there was no sign of hostility on his slightly handsome face as he looked at Mars with a smile

"long time no see Alvin"

"yeah it's been a long time Mars"

Mars looked around and counted to be sure before he gave a nod

"moving up in the world, now you command 11 people"

"yeah it's been the standard patrol size since we got invaded"

"I see... good for you"

"so is there anything you want Mars?"

"I'm here to help, anyway I can"

"I see... personally I would be happy to welcome it but I'm not sure what the elders think"

at this point Mars heard a sigh form his back before Chloe stood up and faced Alvin

"hey Alvin"

Alvin's face stiffened slightly before he gave a small bow

"princess Chloe"

Chloe gave a sigh at the whole 'princess' part but still continued speaking

"you know how I was a.s.signed a secret mission by the elders?"

"yeah, what about it?"

"well the mission was to invite Mars for a chat"

"I-I see... well in that case..."

Alvin gave a hand signal and the 11 other elvers showed themselves from the shadows of the forest

"let me escort you to Green river"

"captain!"

one of the elvers spoke out in protest

"we can't just escort some unknown outsiders to Green river!"

Alvin looked at the elf and gave a sigh before he put on a stern face

"did you not hear what Chloe just said?"

"with all due respect, she could be lying or perhaps that human is threatening her!"

"human? wait Mars is not a hu---"

before Alvin had a change to finish his sentence had Mars appeared in front of the elf that was speaking out against Chloe and grabbed him by the neck and lifted him into the air

"call me human one more time and I will end you"

"you!"

one of the nearby elvers took unkindly to Mars threatening one of the other elvers and drew her sword before she slashed at Mars, only to have a set of claws block her sword

"well aren't you lively"

Mars threw aside the elver he was holding by the neck and planted a lightning fast punch to her stomach making her kneel over

"get the human!"

"I'm telling you I'm not human!"

the distribute developed into a full on brawl between Mars and the remaining 10 elvers but less then 2 minutes later the forest was quiet again, well except for the groans of pain from the elvers Mars sat down on one of the more lively elvers and looked at Alvin with a grin on his face

"does this remind you of something Alvin?"

"....a bit, anyway could you get off Dexter"

"he tried to spit at me, i think he deserves to be sat on for some time"

"...please?"

"fine"

Mars got off the elver that apparently was called Dexter and brushed the dirt off his pants

"anyways... what do you know about the invaders?"

Alvin stroked his chin

"only that they made a beachhead in the southern peninsular and they seemed to have started building a fort"

"have you tried a diplomatic approach?"

"that's... sorry I don't know, I'm not high enough in the chain of command to know"

"I see... well then let's get going"

"yeah... squad, breaks over let's move... now!"

the wounded (mostly in their pride of course) elvers picked themselves off the ground and followed after Alvin while sending hateful looks at Mars, Mars as always ignored them and carried a calm smile on his face as he walked together with the girls

Later that day in the evening the group stopped to make camp, Mars found the looks he was getting a little annoying so he grew out some horns to convince the elvers he wasn't human which caused their looks to soften a little, everything would have been perfect if he had not beaten them so badly earlier

'well whatever...'

Mars sat down his backpack and pulled out his bedroll while he looked over at Chloe, she was speaking with some of the other elvers that sent glances in Mars' direction they were clearly still weary of him

'ignore it, ignore it...'

Mars sat down on his bedroll and pulled some dried meat out of his backpack and munched on it while he looked around, while he was eating Elsa came over and sat down next to him, she was silent for some time until Mars held out some dried meat and asked her

"want some?"

"...sure"

Elsa took some of the dried meat and begun eating it mean while she grabbed Mars' hand

"say why did you beat up the elvers earlier?"

"hmm... for nostalgia's sake"

"nostalgia? did you beat up a group of elvers before?"

"yeah when I first came to this forest I beat up a group of elvers that included Chloe and Alvin"

"...were they trying to kill you?"

"yeah... I remember Chloe's eyes they were dead like she was looking at some kind of filth"

"and so you beat her up?"

"...no she ran I sent Victoria after her"

"that must have been scary"

"yeah but they are friends now though"

"I see..."

Elsa leaned her head on Mars' shoulder and looked over at Chloe with a little envy in her eyes