Arc#4 Chapter 52: Squad One's Captain (Patreon)

Reivan fell asleep in the infirmary-like chamber but when he woke up, he was in his room with a brand new pair of glasses on the bedside counter. They were significantly better than what Clover wore, so he was quite happy about the arrangement. Maybe he would break his wand or rip up some of his clothes next time. That way, the Tower would reimburse him with something better.

He just had to avoid getting caught. Which, due to all the Ascendants running around, was highly unlikely.

Thankfully, he was still wearing his battle robes so it seemed nobody was manhandling his delicate body while he slept. But that made him realize that someone must have done so before the assessment — after all, someone donned the battle robes on him. And he definitely didn't do it himself. As far as he knew, he also didn't have the type of sleeping habits where he swapped his pajamas out with combat garb.

'Meh. It's not my body anyway...'

In any case, Reivan took a bath and changed into more comfortable clothes, only to lay back down on the bed to think about what happened.

For example, how he was shouldered with the responsibility of being a squad’s vice-captain.

'Damn.'

But when he really thought about it, he couldn't really blame anybody but himself. It really was because he'd been showing off a little too much. Or rather, he failed to anticipate how easy it was to be impressive. Before coming to the Tower, he'd expected to meet with extremely talented young sorcerers from respectable mage clans that would make Clover Salwyn look like a fucking child. He'd even mistakenly estimated Clover Salwyn as somewhat close to average before taking his identity.

Boy, was that a mistake. Reivan had truly overestimated the children from the mage clans and underestimated Clover Salwyn a little too much. Perhaps it was time to turn his performance down a notch. Or two. Hell, maybe three.

As he sat there and drowned in his own musings, Reivan’s stomach suddenly announced its complaints, urging him to stand up and get some food. He found his formal robe hanging on a rack near the door, so he slipped his arms through it and headed straight for the Mess Hall.

Only to pause as he stepped foot outside.

“Huh…?” Reivan unconsciously frowned and looked around, adjusting his glasses.

The hallway outside his room was gone, replaced by a circular chamber that seemed like a lounge of some kind, filled with sofas, bookshelves, and other pieces of furniture. There was a smaller teleportation pad in the middle too, which meant the other five doors spaced out along the wall weren’t exits.

With a glance behind him, he noted that instead of Room #99, the door to his private quarters now had a plaque with his full name on it. A short circuit around the circular lounge revealed that the other rooms were for the other four people in his squad — with an additional room marked with the name “Mira Serandina”, who, he assumed, was the second year meant to be their squad's captain.

‘Judging by the name, it’s a woman. Aldimir’s going to have a field day…’

Reivan debated knocking on Aldimir’s door but decided against it, heading to the pad by himself. Luckily, it seemed his key still gave him access to the Mess Hall for first years, since he faced no problems teleporting. When he next opened his eyes, the familiar hall greeted him. And surprisingly, Aldimir was already there, sharing a table with Alini and a few other young women — which came as no surprise to Reivan. Honestly, that guy had to ease up at some point.

Noticing him as well, Aldimir waved him over with a smile. “Hey! Over here, vice-captain!”

Reivan bit his lip and debated whether to cast a hex of some kind but managed to hold down the urge. Since he’d been called over anyway, he may as well join them.

“Morning, everyone.” Reivan greeted as he sat down on an empty seat, grabbing the plate so he could punch in his order.

“Sir, vice-captain, sir.” Aldimir suddenly stood up and saluted with a serious expression. “With all due respect, it’s five in the afternoon, sir!”

“Oh…” Reivan pulled out his pocket watch and confirmed that it was, in fact, five in the afternoon. It seemed he’d slept quite a bit. He nodded in acceptance but still grimaced. “Also, stop calling me that.”

“But sir! You’re the vice-captain!”

Everyone at the table giggled at his antics and he seemed to think that was enough fooling around, so he sat back down with a satisfied grin. “You guys should have seen Clover last night. He just went to town on those… uh, I don’t know what they’re called. The dead guys?”

“I asked Elder Bernadine and they’re called zombies.” Alini volunteered a bit reluctantly. “It’s a borrowed word from Aizen since we don’t have an equivalent one in Arkhanian.”

“Huh. Neat. Zombies, huh? Weird word.” Aldimir muttered the new addition to his vocabulary repeatedly before suddenly tilting his head. “Wait, why does Aizen have a word for zombies? Do they have zombies over there? I thought they only had knights. And trains. And, like, a giant mountain the size of an entire province.”

“Pff.” Reivan barely held back his laughter, shaking his head. “No, they don’t have any zombies, as far as I remember.”

“I don’t think so either.” Another girl cut in. “I’ve been there before. My Father took us there on business once.”

A different young woman clapped her hands, a big smile on my face. “Ah, me too! Starwater City was so nice!”

Reivan enjoyed the novel experience of eating as he listened to foreigners’ stories about their visits to his own country, feeling oddly happy from all the praise they showered the kingdom with. He also came to know that some of the people he was sitting with right now were very wealthy, considering how they mentioned Starwater City and a few other stores he knew without complaining about the price.

‘Or maybe they don’t know it's expensive because their parents pay for them…?’

In any case, he finished his meal in quite a pleasant mood.

“Hey, Clover, you came out later than we did. Did she come out of her room?” Aldimir asked after they’d all finished their meals and the other people they were eating with left. "Our captain, I mean. With the pretty name."

“I don’t know.” Reivan shrugged. “I didn’t hang around in the common room for that long. Wait, you haven’t seen her either?”

“I don’t think she’s there at all…” Alini trailed off, hugging a small bear on her lap — which was apparently the big bear that was nearly unstoppable last night, just in an energy-saving form. It was nuzzling up to her and resting its chin on her mountains, the lucky bastard. “Maybe she’s out and won’t be back until later?”

“Huh.” Reivan licked his lips and adjusted his new glasses again, unused to them. “Where’s Kantor? And Sister Inaria?”

“Oh, Aria must be in the archives.” Alini tapped her chin thoughtfully. “She mentioned wanting to learn a wider range of spells.”

“Kantor’s got a visitor,” Aldimir said with a grin. “Pretty girl. I think she’s his girlfriend or something.”

“It was his sister…” Alini corrected in a quiet voice.

“What? Really?”

“They looked alike, so…”

“Excellent.” Aldimir snapped his fingers. “You think he’d be okay with introducing me?”

“Give it a rest, Aldim.” Reivan sighed and stood up. “I’m actually gonna head off to the archives too. I’ve wanted to go from the very start.”

‘Not that I’ll find anything important. I only have access to the lower floor, after all.’

Still, any information was better than no information. He may as well steal it now so he wouldn’t need to steal it later.

“Sounds boring. Good luck." Aldimir shrugged and turned to their other squadmate. "Allie, you wanna go hang out in the city with me? Or maybe we could explore the Upper City!”

“A-Allie…?” Alini parroted the unexpected nickname she received. “I-I don’t know… I heard it’s expensive, and I don’t have a lot of money on me.”

“Money? What do you need money for when you’re going there with a man? I’ll pay for everything. Don’t worry about it.”

‘This guy spouts some good advice sometimes but he doesn’t follow them…’

“Don’t bother her too much, Aldim.” Reivan shook his head in exasperation and left them alone, heading for the pad.

“Oh yeah? Is that the order of our esteemed vice-captain?”

“Yes, it is. Why don't you jump off the Upper City while you're there too.”

Aldimir chuckled. “Alright, alright. Offer still stands though, Allie. Just say the word, I’ll show you a good time.”

Reivan didn’t get to hear the rest, since the light of teleportation filled his vision as soon as his feet touched down on the purple stone platform.

════════════════════════════════

Reivan had a lot of fantasies about what the archives would look like, but he was disappointed when he discovered that it looked like a fairly ordinary library.

Except there were numerous floating wisps of gentle blue light instead of lamps or light bulbs, collectively illuminating every corner of the place. There were also golems roaming around, carrying stacks of thick tomes here and there. Also, like most floors in the Spirit Tower, it was shaped like a circle, with the teleportation pad right in the middle.

‘Okay, never mind. It’s not like a normal library at all.’

Reivan looked around, noticing that there weren’t only first years there. In fact, the first years were heavily outnumbered, the floor dominated by what he assumed were second years. This was because the first level of the Bronze Archives was filled with spells at around the level of power that first and second years needed — according to what Elder Bernadine told them at orientation, that is.

It didn't take long for him to single out Inaria because of her distinct red hair, but he let her be seeing as she was absorbed in reading something, her face screwed up in focus. Instead, he browsed the nearest bookshelf with disinterest. Just by entering the archives, he’d already completed his objective. Because now, he could recreate an exact replica of the entire floor through [Glimpse of Eternity].

‘I just wished it let me recreate the entire tower and all its floors…’

Unfortunately, he learned, his ability was heavily reliant on his own knowledge and experiences.

For example, in one of the most memorable visions it showed him, the kingdom was completely overrun with hordes of monsters and everything went horribly, horribly wrong. But back then, Reivan was ignorant of just how obsessively Aizen and its past kings prepared for such a possibility. There were layers upon layers of defenses and enchantments in the capital, and some of those enchantments even spanned the entire nation. None of that appeared in the nightmare he was shown. And it wasn’t because [Glimpse of Eternity] intentionally left it out to fuck with him, but rather, because Reivan didn’t know — and hence, the ability also couldn’t replicate it.

There were a bunch of other mistakes caused by his ignorance. Like how his mother managed to fight off a Transcendent at all — she had already told him that even if she broke through her limits, she still wouldn’t last a second against one in the same way a mortal wouldn't last a second against an Ascendant. But the Reivan of that time thought his mother could do it, so his ability thought so too.

None of the Twelve Helms showed up in the dream either. Because Reivan didn’t even know about them at the time. He didn't even know there was a Twelve Helms at all.

Such was the ability’s limitation.

And so, to replicate the archives in a fragment of eternity, he had to at least enter it once. Physically reading every book in real life wasn’t required, strangely enough. It was a fact that was surprisingly easy to confirm, since all he had to do was see a physical book in order for [Glimpse of Eternity] to replicate its contents. Karuna, the fairy living rent-free inside his head and [Glimpse of Eternity]’s previous wielder, was also surprised by the discovery. Admittedly, she never tried to use it the way he did — though, that may be partly due to the fact that there weren’t any books in her world.

‘I should make sure…’

Reivan pretended to be rubbing dirt from his eyes as he activated his most troublesome ability.

{ [Glimpse of Eternity] has been activated. }

He was immediately met by a world of pure white, but he wasted no time in willing a replica of the archives into creation. The surroundings morphed rapidly, distorting into the place his real body was in.

Reivan glanced at where his real body was before strolling over to the opposite side of the expansive library. He picked out a random book, flipped to a random page, and pointed at a random line. He then closed it shut and memorized the title and where the book was placed in addition to everything else.

Done with his business on that side, he deactivated his ability and opened his eyes in the real world once again. Such smoothness was something he could only achieve because he’d been using his ability a lot these past few years. It was all paying off, and he was steadily starting to think that he’d mastered it to some extent. A dangerous assumption, he realized. He'd have to fix that.

‘Alright, let’s see if it works as I intended.’

Reivan turned around and glided across the hall, his purple robes billowing out behind him. Nothing made him feel like a wizard cosplayer than wearing such a thick and flowing robe while walking around a library filled with robe-wearing people too. What was it about robes, anyway? Why did mages seem to prefer them, he wondered. There were literally hundreds of types of clothes, so why robes?

Honestly, it would have been somewhat funny if they wore animal suits or something. He wasn't sure he could ever take a wizard seriously if they walked around in one though.

As his idle thoughts ran rampant, he eventually reached the same shelf he’d gone to in his dream. He spotted the book at the same spot as the dream. Its title and the author credited on the cover were the exact same as well. Smiling, he flipped to the page and, as expected, the word he’d seen in the dream was right there.

‘Yep. Broken. This shit's broken for stealing information.’

Reivan closed the book and held back a snicker. His next target was the upper floors. Once he was done, he could go back home any time with his chest puffed out in pride — not that he would, seeing as he could still do a lot more by staying.

He really wanted to though. He really really wanted to go home and get married. Probably have a crap ton of kids too. Like, maybe a dozen. Or two dozens? Hell, he'd keep 'em coming. Let it be known that he was a man of vigor and willpower.

‘Right. Let’s do our best here for a little more… For my future kids, I guess. Shit, I'm not looking forward to thinking of names for them all...’

Reivan put the book back where it came from as his mind was filled with thoughts of tiny Elsaminas and Helens clinging to him and asking him to lift them up. He quickly cut off such thoughts upon realizing that he may not have the willpower to stop himself from smiling if he kept going.

‘Hm… Considering Clover’s personality, I should probably come back here every once in a while and pretend to read.’

Now seemed as good a time as any, so he asked a few nearby seniors about spells to learn as a first-year, and they all suggested defensive spells — which was incredibly ominous since it meant that he would be attacked a lot. He certainly hoped not. Though, when was the last time his hopes actually ended up being fulfilled? Probably more lately than he thought, but still. What's strange was that even when he mentioned that he already knew the Resonance Bulwark spell, they all still recommended defensive spells without telling him a specific reason why.

Reivan chose to follow their advice, dedicating the next few hours to reading up on a particularly tricky shield spell that sent the sorcerer back depending on the force it blocked. He thought it would be pretty useful because spells that sent the attacker back could be resisted while this one couldn’t — because the sorcerer was doing it to themself.

‘It defends and helps create space. A good spell.’

It wouldn’t be too useful against anything too powerful though. The knockback effect only activated if the shield wasn’t completely destroyed, after all. But it wouldn’t be a bad spell to add to “Clover Salwyn’s” repertoire. He would just have to be careful about using the spell if there happened to be a cliff nearby — which happened a lot more than he was comfortable with.

“I wish we could at least take these books to our rooms…” he muttered under his breath, annoyed that books couldn’t be taken out of the archives.

“Hm? Oh, there’s a copy of that book in every first-year common room. Just read it there.”

Reivan’s shoulders jumped and he turned around to see a woman he didn’t know. “Uh… Is that so? Thank you.”

“No problem.” She smiled, her somewhat sleepy eyes squinting in delight. “I’m happy to help. Oh, and I’m sorry I overslept.”

"Overslept?" Reivan’s head unconsciously inclined to the side at the sudden shift in topic. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, I didn’t explain clearly… Let’s start over.” The woman laughed sheepishly, stepping back and seemingly taking a moment to arrange her thoughts. “My name’s Mira. I’m your squad captain.”

“Oh…”

“Yes… Are you okay?”

“Ah.” Reivan snapped out of it and nodded. Somehow, there was something about how she talked that lulled him into a daze. “I’m, uh… I’m Clover Salwyn, ma’am.”

Captain Mira raised her brows before she covered her mouth and giggled. “Yes, I know. Aria over there was the one that pointed me toward you.”

He looked to where she pointed and saw Inaria with her arms in the pockets of her robes as she leaned against the wall, her crimson eyes hinting at them to hurry.

“Uhm, Clover, was it? Can I call you that?” Mira asked with a slight hesitance, pushing a stray strand of dark brown hair behind her ear. “Or is that too informal?”

“No, Clover’s fine. And you don’t need to be so careful around me.”

“You’re older than me, though. Is that okay?”

“Oh, yes…” Reivan paused, remembering that Clover had to retake the exam multiple times. He should have been in his third year by now, so he would be older than a second-year who got into the tower on their first try. “I’m fine with it.”

“Okay! That’s a relief. Let’s just speak casually then.” Mira looked visibly relieved as her smile returned. “Oh, and I don't like being called captain this and captain that. Just call me Mira, okay?”

“I don’t really think that’s okay…You’re the captain, after all.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine! I said so. Captain’s orders.” Mira giggled and pointed toward the pad. “This is a bit hard for me to say since I overslept and all that. But would you mind helping me gather all the squad members? I should have woken up before all of you and waited in the common room… but I have this condition where I fall asleep right after waking up sometimes.”

“Uh, right… That might be a bit hard to do right now.” Reivan scratched his head and resisted the urge to make scathing retort about what she'd just said. “I think Kantor got dragged away somewhere by a visitor. Two others, Alini and Aldimir, might have gone out to the city to have fun.”

“Oh, no. They headed out to the city?”

“Yes, Captain Mira.”

“How nice. I wanna play in the city too.” Mira sighed before shrugging. “Well, there’s nothing we can do, now. I’ll just brief you guys later.”

“Huh?” Reivan frowned in confusion. “You looked for me and Inaria. Shouldn’t we at least look for the other too?”

“We should.”

“Then…”

“But the city’s so big, you know? It’ll be a lot of work looking for them down there. Right?”

“I mean, that’s true, but shouldn’t we still at least try?”

“No, no, it’ll be fine.” Mira shook her head with a smile. “They’re bound to come back later right? I’ll stake out in the common room and wait there. That’ll be more efficient, don’t you think?”

“But—”

“Also, they might return while we’re out there looking for them. Then we’d just end up missing each other.”

Reivan stopped, licking his lips in contemplation. Eventually, he was forced to admit that she had a point. “Okay.”

Mira clapped her hands together and laughed. “Right? It’s better to just wait for them. Let’s go, okay? I’ll show you where the book is and you can tell me a little more about yourself.”

Reivan nodded, letting himself be led astray by this woman who the Tower entrusted with their squad.

‘...Something tells me she’s just lazy, but she does make a good point.’

Reivan found himself mysteriously carried along with her pace. Actually, now that he had the time to think, he realized how unnaturally relaxing her voice was. It was to the point where he suspected funny business.

As such, he decided to take a peek at her through [Supreme Insight].

════ ⋆★★★⋆ ════

Name: Mira Serandina

Species: Human

Realm: Mortal

Age: 19

Sex: Female

Might: 51

Extra Skills

[Spirit Bond: Boop]

[Spirit Bond: Fawks]

Elemental Affinities

[Light]

[Fire]

Favor

(Goodwill) 50 / 100

Threat Level

S+

════ ⋆★★★⋆ ════ 

'Huh. I guess she just has a relaxing voice. I thought for sure I’d see my first siren. Or maybe a succubus.’

Reivan was slightly surprised by how high her Might was despite how delicate the arms peeking out of her robes looked, but it wouldn’t be the first time he saw something similar — Saintess Frey looked like a sheltered girl but could destroy a house with a single wave of her hand.

What really attracted his attention was how many spirit bonds she had.

‘Two… One here… Hm. Did she already have a bond before she came here?’

If that was the case, the girl was a walking rarity. As a captain though, she made him very anxious. He didn’t know what the Tower was thinking, making her a captain and making him a vice-captain when sociability was his most notable weakness. But then again, it didn’t really matter. Because if everything went well, he’d be out of here before it mattered too much.

“Aria~!” Mira suddenly hugged Inaria tightly, nuzzling her face against the younger woman. “Let’s go hang out in the common room.”

Inaria’s brows furrowed. “What? I thought we were going to gather so you could brief us? Aren't you supposed to be the captain?”

“Those plans are canceled. The others deserted and the three of us are all that’s left.”

“No, they didn’t.” Reivan cut in before their captain confused Inaria even more. “We just don’t know where they are. They could be anywhere in the city.”

“Uh-huh…” The redhead glanced at Mira and seemingly came to a conclusion of her own. “And this one said that it’s better to wait in the common room? Because it’s more efficient or something like that.”

He nodded. “That’s exactly what she said.”

“Oh no, my vice-captain betrayed me.” Mira giggled unrepentantly, hooking her arm around Inaria. “C’mon. Let’s go, Aria. I wanna catch up with you.”

Inaria, surprisingly, smiled as she let herself get pulled along. “You never change…”

Reivan followed a step behind them, realizing that they knew each other outside the tower. “You two seem close.”

“Uh-huh!” Mira looked back and nodded. “Aria here used to run away from home a lot, and she’d end up hiding at our hous—”

“Mira!” Inaria covered her mouth, mild annoyance on her face. In a reversal of roles, she started pulling Mira toward the teleportation pad, vanishing with her in a flash of light.

Reivan didn’t step into the pad yet, giving Inaria a moment to tell her childhood friend off.

‘Hm. She never told me about her… Not that it would’ve come up.’

The Inaria he knew spent more time complaining about her family and asking him to take her away than telling him about her childhood, so it was a given that he didn’t know every little thing about her. But judging from their interactions, it didn’t seem like her childhood was as lonely as he thought.

‘Good for her.’

A smile tugged on Reivan’s lips as he stepped into the pad, also disappearing into a flash of light.

════════════════════════════════

Unexpectedly, when the three of them returned to the common room, the other three members of their squad were there too.

Kantor was back from wherever he came from and the pair Reivan left in the Mess Hall hung out in the common room instead of burning money down in the city — or up in the city.

“See, vice-captain?” Mira turned toward Reivan with a smile that made her look smug, sleepy, and cute all at the same time. “It all worked out.”

“For now.” Reivan sighed, picking one of the chairs to park his ass on. “So? You were going to brief us, captain?”

“I was, but isn’t that kind of boring? I’ve just realized that I don’t know most of you and most of you don’t know me. Let’s spend some time to get to know each other! We need to get along since we’re going to be squadmates for a long time!”

“Wow.” Aldimir leaned toward Reivan and whispered. “I like her.”

“You like anything with tits.”

“Hey. That offends me. I also like flat ones.”

"Flat tits are still tits, idiot."

“You two over there!” Mira suddenly pointed at both of them. “Stop that or I’ll make you stand in the corner.”

Aldimir grinned. “We’re sorry, ma’am!”

“Ew, that makes me sound so old. I’m only nineteen!”

“Captain?”

“I don’t like that either.”

“Queen Mira!”

Mira's brows raised before she burst into a fit of giggles. She then cleared her throat and nodded in what she probably thought was a queenly manner. “That’ll do, minion. I’ll have fun sending you off to fight the zombie in the frontlines!”

Aldimir froze. “What? We're fighting those things again...?”

“Oh, too far? Sorry, it was a joke. I don’t like zombies either. Especially the big ones that come out accidentally sometimes.” Mira scratched her head sheepishly. “Okay, enough fooling around. Let’s start with introductions. I already know all your names because they gave me a sheaf of papers with all your dirty little details, but I wanna hear it from you.”

“She’s doing whatever she wants again…” Inaria muttered as if she’d had enough of their captain already.

Mira suddenly pointed at Inaria. “Let’s start with you, Aria! Introduce yourself to everyone!”

“I don’t want to.”

“Insubordination already. Then do you want me to do it for you?”

Inaria bit her lip, reluctantly standing up and scanning the room. “Fine. I’m… Inaria Netral. I’m eighteen years old. Thank you.”

“No, no, no…” Mira placed her hands on her waist and shook her head. “That’s no way to introduce yourself. At least tell us some hobbies or interests.”

Frowning, Inaria acquiesced. “My hobby is studying. My interests involve studying too. Thank you.”

Mira still wouldn’t let her off, it seemed “What about love? Do you have someone, Aria?”

“That’s…”

“Oh my, you do, don’t you? Your face’s all red like your hair!”

Inaria fought back a furious blush. “I-I do… We don’t see each other very much because of his work though…”

“A working man!” Mira exclaimed, a hand covering her mouth. “How nice. Do you love him?”

“I do…”

“How much? Have you smooched already? Huh, Aria? Did you smooch him real good?”

Inaria threw a fierce glance at Mira, and that finally seemed to be enough for their captain to let her sit back down.

“Goodness, how envious.” Mira giggled, sending her friend a teasing glance. “So even that little Aria is in love now. How nice!”

Inaria picked up a nearby pillow and threateningly held it up.

“There you have it boys, Aria’s unavailable!” The captain made an X with her arms, a grin on her face. “Anyway, it’s my turn to introduce myself!”

After clearing her throat, Mira placed both hands on her stomach and bowed politely, managing to look every bit like a rich young lady.

“This humble one is named Mira, surnamed Serandina. This year, it is my second year as a battlemage and it’s also my first time as a captain. I am bound to make many more mistakes, but I will do my utmost not to repeat them too much.”

“No, you should try not to repeat them at all.” Inaria retorted snappily.

Unexpectedly, Kantor seemed to recognize the name. “Serandina…? The restaurant?”

Mira’s eyes brightened as she nodded repeatedly. “Yes. You know it?”

“I eat there with my family on special occasions. The branch here in Vel Ayala, I mean. Not the main one up north.”

“Oh! Thank you for your patronage.” Mira bowed again, deeper and much more politely this time, like a picture-perfect waitress. “Tell them you know me and you’ll get a discount!”

“No way, I couldn’t…” Kantor coughed into his fist. “Are you sure, though?”

“Yep. All of you can eat there at a discount! I’ll tell them about you guys.”

“Wait a minute! I have a question!” Aldimir suddenly raised his hand. “Captain, are you a singer?”

“Singer? No, but I’ve always wanted to. Now, I only sing in the bath.”

“Bath… S-speaking of baths, wh-which part do you wash f—”

Reivan stopped him before he sexually harassed their captain. With everything he’d seen so far, perhaps the woman would even answer, despite jokingly. “He asked that because your voice sounds really good.”

Mira smiled shyly, patting down her dark brown hair. “I’ve been told that a lot. I don’t see why people think so, but I’m inclined to believe it when so many people keep praising me.”

“Sing for us!” Aldimir hollered. “Please sing for us, Queen Mira!”

“I dunno… Oh, but maybe I’ll do it over drinks.”

Reivan’s brows shot up, suddenly having a bad feeling. “Drinks…?”

“Yes! Drinks!”

Mira giggled with a big grin as large bottles of wine appeared in each of her hands.