Leand spat on the ground, shuddering. He took another sniff of a small metal cylinder.

Lyla rolled her eyes, “Jeez Leand, even the potions were better than this. Just admit you have an addiction.”

“I can quit whenever I want.” Leand stated confidently. “Also, a little Selara Vitara never hurt anyone.”

“Sure buddy.” Lyla said, “Speaking of addiction, you wanna smoke? I got a sparker right here.” She held it toward him.

“Hey, hey! Cut that out. You know how I am about fire! Put that shit away, jeez.”

She shoved it back in her pocket. “Just wanted a smoking buddy. Guess not.”

Leand blinked. “The hell are we just doing out here? I mean, we’d be better off at the castle.”

“We’re protecting the princess, remember?” She reminded him.

Leand groaned “Also, I hate the fact that we’re the ones being ordered around here. These idiots won’t listen to anything I say to them.”

A stupid smile spread on his face. “Maybe they need to keep their guard up.”

“Leand, don’t-”

He flung his hand. A jet of superheating and cooling air compressed, then expanded rapidly.

Bang!

Every guard jumped to action, the Corporal barked orders to the soldiers. The horses neighed in fear.

“My fucking eardrums!” Lyla shouted at him, clutching her ears. “You’re a piece of shit, Leand!”

Leand responded by taking another snort. “Now imagine if you were one of those poor bastards down there. You’d probably be waiting for some goblins to slice you up into little pieces.”

She punched him in the stomach.

“You pull that shit again, I will fucking end you!”

Leand clutched his stomach, It didn’t really hurt that much, but he hadn’t expected Lyla to attack him. “Okay, okay!”

“Hey!”

A girl walked over, accompanied by a few guards, she wore slippers and a nightgown.

Zalina Boneh.

She got up to Leand face and snapped her fingers. Leand twitched. The last person who did that to him, was his girlfriend, and she walked away with a broken hand. It took quite some restraint not to do the same thing with her.

“Hey, you stupid inbred donkey! I was sleeping!” She yelled at him. “The monsters could hear!”

He waved his hand. “Don’t worry your highness, no one will attack if they see us.”

She looked at him, then at Lyla.

“We’ll chop them right up.” Lyla said.

She grunted, then stomped back to her carriage.

“What a little bitch.” Leand muttered once she was out of earshot. “Never got her arse beat when she was a kid it seems.”

“I wouldn’t speak lightly of the princess of Keywark.” Lyla said sternly.

Leand coughed. “She isn’t even a real princess. I’m pretty sure even you know that.”

“Yeah, well, it doesn’t really matter.” Lyla said. “They’ve held executions for ill-speakers such as you.”

Leand wipe his nose and laughed. “You’re so funny Lyla. You know they wouldn’t lay a finger on us.”

“Man, they’d punish anyone for not calling her a princess except us. Tell you what, every time you accidentally call her ‘princess’, you owe me one silver, but, if I accidentally call her that, I’ll owe you a chestful.”

“Bullshit.”

“No, no, I’m a man of my word.”

“Obviously no one knows she isn’t one. I wonder what happened to the original family.” Lyla questioned.

She pondered for a moment. “Wait- does Corvin know?”

He chuckled again. “Of course he does! Even Oberion knows, but something tells me he wouldn’t be as eager to speak up.” His face curled into anger. “The king made me clean the stables last week. He coulda got one of his peasants to do it, but nope, he wanted me to do it. Hope that fat fucker eats one steak too many and gets a heart attack. He probably has a mage to deal with that shit anyways.”

“What’s up with Corvin?” Lyla asked. “He seems… Different.”

Leand took another snort. “Shit, I'm out. What?”

“Corvin.” Lyla said again. “He’s acting strange.”

Leand wiped his nose on his shirt, then looked down and realized, that in fact, his shirt was now coated in dark powder.

“Covin’s fighting some demons, or maybe the urge to break C.B’s neck.” He remarked.

Lyla nodded. “Corvin’s got a lot to lose, I don’t think he would do that.”

Leand chuckled, you don’t know what the dude’s capable of. “He got divorced a few years ago, from what I heard.”

Lyla grimaced. “How did it end? Did he, you know…?”

“Nope, from what I heard, she left without saying goodbye, or anything.”

“Ouch. Did she take his money?”

“Nope, again she left without anything.”

“I have to ask, what level is Corvin?” asked Lyla

Leand stopped walking. The wagons in front of him still creaked on.

“I dunno. Last time I actually saw his raw score was during the Sparparty in March. It was 97 raw, and 119 with buffs I think.”

“Damn.”

“Yeah I know. Son of a bitch doubled my score during Slayday.” He raised his hands. “I’m not saying I could’ve beat him, but I'm just saying my game was off, that’s all.”

“Well, would he do it?” Lyla asked.

“What?”

“Kill the king?”

Leand cleared his throat. “I honestly don’t know. One time when he was drunk, he told me that he was going to “Wipe the castle from the face of the land.” or something.”

“That’s kinda scary, can he even do that?”

“Leand shrugged, I don’t know. Some Aldarians are pretty strong. Like, compared to them, we’re pretty low on the leaderboard. What was the name of that guy? I heard about some guy rising the ranks really fast, he can control lightning i'm pretty sure. Probably won’t get far though. Rising stars get shot down really fast by the pros.”

“Also, I swear I’m not making this up, but one time someone accidently shot an arrow at him-”

“Accidently?”

“I dunno, maybe he had some rivals or some shit. Anyways, the arrow didn’t even piece his skin.”

“I wouldn’t wanna be his enemy.” Lyla shuddered.

Leand flipped his hand, “Don’t worry, he isn’t into SVS. I’m not sure who he had beef with- Well, actually, it depends. A lot of people are jealous of him, I think there was a guy at the school who challenged him to a fight. Someone told me a story about it.”

“What happened?”

"I don’t know the exact details of the battle, but from what I heard, he wiped the floor with the kid who challenged him.”

He stroked his chin for a moment. “I think his name was Khan, or Konnor-”

“How do you know so much?” Lyla questioned. “

“Wait, I forgot. He does have beef with Oberion.”

“But he doesn’t count, does he?” Lyla asked.

Leand smirked. “Oberion isn’t full blooded for sure, but something tells me he's got some summoned in him. I think he's sixth generation or something. “I think his great-great-great grandfather is still alive.”

“Do they know each other?” Lyla asked.

“Hell no!” Leand scoffed. “Second gens don’t get along well with their parents. He’s six gens down there! Also he probably doesn’t even know who his G-g-g-g-f is.”

Leand had an entertained look on his face. “Oh yeah, on top of that, I'm pretty sure that at this point, his G-g-g-g-f probably started another family, or two.”

Lyla had a shocked look on her face. “Holy fuck.”

“Yeah, no wonder he’s pissed all the time. He knows he’s probably got dozens of brothers and sisters.”

“Or maybe, he might have… become a Rogue Razor.”

Rogue Razors was what you got when someone with a nearly 10,000 year lifespan chipped away too much. It was said that R.Rs would become possessed by the malice of Divilamu.

“Rogue Razor” was basically just a fancy way of saying that a summoned went batshit insane and killed themselves. Most people didn’t make the joke because of its nature, but Leand would be damned if there was a more goofy term.

Rogue Razors were completely mentally-fucked individuals who would claim that Divilamu was talking to them or some crazy shit.

“Maybe he felt guilty.” Lyla said.

“Ohh nooo, I have so much money and fame, what to do, what to do? Hmmm how about I stab myself?” Leand said in a sing-songy voice.

“I’m serious.” Lyla said. “Also, not funny.”

Leand shook his head. “I’ve slept with so many women, even the fat ones. Not a single shred of guild, no sir.”

Lyla rolled her eyes. “Gross, didn’t need to know that. Also I was talking about the Rogue Razor thing, is it true?”

Leand coughed. “It’s totally real, I hope you can go to sleep at night.”

“Shut up.”

“Hang on, I gotta piss real bad.” Leand said.

“Go away, I don't wanna see you.” She jerked her thumb, “Go to those bushes, and make it quick, cause I'm not waiting.”

“Fine.”

Leand stumbled through the bushes, cursing as the spikes scraped against his legs. After he was done, he buckled his belt. But right as he turned around, he heard something.

Thump.

He whirled around. “Who's there?”