The massive great frog fell to the earth in a headless, honor-less, heap. It had been dethroned as the king of this waste. Its sagging form no longer holding any more threat to this world. In moments its’ subjects would suffer similar fates, following it into whatever brackish hell awaited these monsters.

  Not even their corpses would remain as testament to their inhabitance, consumed by their attacker’s loot circles and turned into fuel for their growth. Already Aria was working to set up some form of looting circle that Ozzy was sure put any of the ones he’d seen so far to shame.

  As he watched Aria work off in the distance, he felt a slight breeze rustle the top of his hair. It was only in that moment he noticed the arms clasped gently around his chest, a subtle softness resting on his shoulders and pressing against his neck.

  Ozzy turned, looking expectantly for his favorite tier 2 core user. She was looking off into the distance, eyes focused on Aria and her work. Realizing she wasn’t paying attention him Ozzy turned back to watch Aria as well. This was one of those moments of close comfort that only existed between stress and exhaustion and he would be remiss to break it.

  The seconds stretched as Ozzy let himself enjoy the moment. It cemented within him a need to understand their relationship. Up until this point, they’d basically only done normal ally stuff save for a rather fortunate night Ozzy had rather unfortunately spent unconscious. They’d only had one actual conversation. More if you counted the time she interrogated him at the edge slinger district or her and the circle’s conversation of him when it came to his age, two conversations he wasn’t really interested in including in the tally.

  Through it all however, there had been attraction. Ozzy saw her as the kind of warrior people sang songs about. That being said, he wasn’t exactly sure what she saw in him. Scruffy little fighter with a penchant for diving into things without knowing how to swim? Hopefully not. He’d have to ask her sometime, maybe sometime when he wasn’t so comfortably nestled against her.

  ***

  By the time Aria was done and the massive great frog was dissolving into a plume of mana mist the size of the statue of liberty Trinidad had realized she’d been holding Ozzy hostage. To Ozzy’s great surprise and joy however she didn’t let him go before awkwardly putting a professional level of distance between them.

  “You alright if we sit down?” Trinidad asked, though she was already moving as she spoke, probably having taken his having stayed as consent.

  With all of the grace of the superhuman warrior that she was Trinidad slipped into a cross legged sitting position with some weird yoga like movements, holding Ozzy tight as she set him gently into the space just between her legs. Then leaning forward she rested an arm on his right shoulder and placed her chin on top of his head before sighing contentedly.

  “Now I miss my wife.” Arlan grunted, obliterating the carefully constructed moment Ozzy and Trinidad had been sharing.

  Together, the pair slowly panned their gazes to look at the grumpy old man. Who was staring at them with a mixture of envy and annoyance.

  “You’re married?” Ozzy asked, sounding a little more surprised than he had meant to.

  Arlan scoffed, clearly catching the tone of surprise. “Of course I’m married lover boy, I told you I have kids. You don’t have to sound so surprised either, I’m incredibly charming when I’m not having to go on rescue missions for suspiciously young new circle members.”

  “In my defense it’s been a very long and strange trip. I’d love it if you could get past the age thing though, you bringing it up every chance you get makes it kind of hard to want to work with you guys.” Ozzy said, shrugging at the old man.

  “I would love to, truly, but the two of you touching every chance you get is just making it oh so wonderfully challenging.” He whined, glaring at the two of them.

  “Fine, fine, we can-” Ozzy began to get up only for the lazy arm Trinidad had draped over his shoulder to become dangerously rigid.

  “Aria gave me permission.” Trinidad said, possessively pulling Ozzy further into her embrace.

  Groaning, Arlan turned and threw his hands up in surrender. “Whatever, it’s not like she and I are equals on a council or something.” He grumbled.

  “What did Aria say?” Ozzy asked curiously, ignoring Arlan. “Like what did you ask her?”

  “She actually was the one who approached me.” Trinidad admitted. “She said you’d be houseless once Lucy realized you could be a threat and that you’d need a soft landing somewhere.” She paused, leaning in to whisper in his ear. “And I can be very soft.” The words flowed directly into Ozzy’s ear and he felt himself go bright red. Though the effect was matched on her own face, she was clearly stepping out of her area of expertise.

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  “Gah!” Arlan shouted, turning about on his heel as he whirled to face them. “Do you have any idea how good tier 3 hearing is? You couldn’t wait till I was inside?”

  Chuckling, Trinidad gave Ozzy a little bit of space in respect of the old mans moaning and groaning. Leaning back instead of resting on Ozzy, her hands moving behind her to keep her propped up. “You’ll have to get used to it Arlan, once we return to Myreluck we’ll be official after all.” She said dreamily, prompting several confused and concerned thoughts to crop up in Ozzy’s head.

  “Wait, what do you mean by official?” Ozzy asked, looking over his shoulder at Trinidad.

  A brilliant, sweet, well-meaning smile crossed Trinidad’s face and she opened her mouth to speak like she had the greatest news in the world to share with him. Ozzy got a sinking feeling.

  “In exchange for joining Aria, she promised me you as compensation. That way you won’t go houseless!” Trinidad said, shifting her balance as she lifted a hand to boop Ozzy on the nose.

  “She what.” Ozzy asked incredulously, feeling a wellspring of conflicting emotions beginning to well up inside of him.

  Arlan, helpful as ever, laughed. The bastard laughed at him. Giggling like a schoolgirl as he saw Ozzy’s face. “She didn’t tell you?” He asked, and when he got no response from Ozzy, continued laughed even harder.

  “What’s wrong?” Trinidad asked, twisting Ozzy in her lap so that he could face her. “I thought you’d be excited?” She asked, a nearly unnoticeable quiver entering her voice.

  “I don’t know, he looked like—“ Arlan began.

  “Alright let’s all shut up!” Ozzy said loudly, unwilling to let Arlan finish. Yet when he felt Trinidad flinch, he had to sigh inwardly. He really hated dealing with people and their weird ass culture here.

  ***

  “What do you mean what did I do?” Aria asked, her frustration of having her actions questioned clear in her voice.

  “I mean why are you promising me as payment to someone?” Ozzy asked angrily. “Not that I don’t like you Trini,” he clarified for maybe the fourth time, “but why Aria, why are you going around and using me like I’m some form of currency?”

  “You’re valuable.” She said simply, and off to the side behind her Arlan shrugged in agreement. “Not to mention she asked for you. I offered her money first.”

  Turning slowly to face Trinidad, Ozzy felt a dull headache begin to form just behind his eyes. “So you did ask for me?” Ozzy asked her, Trinidad looking away in shame. “God, I really hate this place and all of its rules.”

  “It’s perfectly normal here.” Arlan tried to explain, “I was actually given to my wife’s mother in exchange for an alchemy tome. She was of course already married and had made the deal to pawn me off for one of her daughters.” The old man explained, speaking wistfully as if he was looking back on his fondest memories.

  Everyone glared at Arlan.

  “Thank you for sharing as always Arlan, but how does making it sound like we sell people into marriages help our case at all!” Aria said, getting gradually louder as she finished nearly shouting at the old man.

  “I for one think it’s very helpful to know I’m being sold Aria. Not to mention being sold by someone who doesn’t even have the right to sell me!” Ozzy said.

  “She doesn’t?” Trinidad asked worriedly, quickly shutting her mouth but letting the group know exactly where her concerns were.

  Ignoring Trinidad, Ozzy continued. “Did you read our contract? You’re bound to me as normal members of the circle but it’s nowhere close to a two-way street. I’m a free agent.” Ozzy declared, crossing his arms in finality.

  “He’s not wrong.” Arlan confirmed, swapping sides again.

  “ARLAN.” Aria shouted, bits of mana burning around her as she glared at him. The old man took a single step back.

  “Well then what—” Trinidad began.

  “We can talk about your reward being mostly the same in a few minutes.” Ozzy said, doing his best to placate her.

  He and Trinidad were still seated together on the floor. Their position not having changed much save for Trinidad having opened up her posture a little more, giving him more space as he argued with Aria. Though as he confirmed he was still at least partially onboard with the initial terms of the reward she moved in a little closer, offering her presence as silent support.

  “What’s the problem then?” Aria asked angrily. “She’s happy, you’re happy, we swap the labels around and then everything’s fine?”

  “You’re in breach of contract. That’s the problem.” Ozzy stated. “You’re overstepping the terms agreed upon by Remulas and I. You need to remember that I’m not your subordinate.” Ozzy said, doing his best to sound firm but reasonable.

  For a moment Aria looked like she would protest and force the matter. As she looked back at Arlan for backup however the old man shook his head, letting his position be known. Aria slumped, her shoulders drooping as she facepalmed.

  “Alright, you’ve got me.” She admitted, opening up her stance like she was giving Ozzy the opportunity to hit her. “What do you want?”

  Ozzy frowned. “I don’t want anything. So long as we all stick to the contract and don’t screw one another I’m happy.” He said, letting his will be known.

  In truth Ozzy definitely would have loved to have gotten something out of this little misunderstanding, he loved loot. Plus he was sure that if anyone had some stuff worth rooting through it was Aria, but he also felt like she’d been straight with him so far. Sure, this place was weird as hell and put medieval social structures to shame when it came to their convoluted and outdated practices but he didn’t think she was doing anything she didn’t think would have benefited him.

  So he let it slide. If it happened again he’d address it then. Which was when he’d go past Aria and get Fauga and Remulas involved. It never paid to negotiate with a meddling middleman after all.

  “That’s it? You don’t want to rework the contract or enough resources to tier up?” Aria asked half in confusion and half in relief.

  “Remulas has been nothing but kind and generous with me. I want to let him know I appreciate it. Beyond that I don’t think you were trying to actually do wrong by me. My world just has a bit of complicated history when it comes to selling people so I might have gotten a little defensive there…” Ozzy admitted.

  Aria stared at him, her brow knitting in confusion for several seconds before she took a deep breath and exhaled, letting her emotions and suspicions out with the breath as she stood up a little straighter.

  “In that case I have something I had originally planned to give you. It was part of the reason I chose great frogs as out target in the first place.” Aria said and produced a gleaming completely symmetrical shard. “This, is a siege breaker shard.”

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