Duke and Vivian happily continued on to their journey towards the place Duke promised he would take Vivian to.
Duke was quite content during the walk...
But there was only one problem.
"So you came from Kath, huh... It must've been hard for you to grow up lacking enough food to survive"
"N-Not at all miss Vivian! It's all thanks to you and sir Duke's wise decisions that made life for us Villagers much much easier!"
That's right, Vivian and Bran were the only ones talking, making Duke feel left out!
[Sheesh, you guys could at least include me a bit more in your conversations. It's like I'm not even here! Huh...] Duke, begrudgingly stared towards Bran.
"Hm? What is it, milord?" Noticing Duke's piercing stares, Bran guiltlessly answered, blissfully unaware of Duke's jealous thoughts...
"Hmm? What's wrong Duke?" Vivian also stared back at Duke, wondering what was wrong with him.
"You became awfully quiet... Are you alright?" Vivian worryingly asked.
"Ah! That's right, milord does seem a bit meek today. What's wrong milord, i-is everything alright?!" Bran began panicking as he patted Duke everywhere to check if anything was wrong.
Duke and Bran had become quite close over the past few days, and so Bran felt nothing wrong from carelessly touching his liege. And also since Duke was quite lenient with his close friends.
*Sigh* Duke's jealousy dissipated as he saw the two innocent and genuinely concerned friends, worrying over him.
"Huh... It's nothing" Duke answered the two concerned souls.
"Ah! I get what's wrong, you're probably really hungry right now because of all this walking, right? Huh, Bran and I worried for nothing... If only Duke can be as resilient to hunger as you are sir Bran" Vivian sighed, thinking she correctly realized what had been bothering Duke.
[K-Kuh!] Vivian's words struck a massive blow to Duke's already almost non-existent pride. Duke felt wronged by Vivian's judgemental conjecture.
[Is this how you see me Vivian-chan~? Huhu... I'm not always thinking of food you know!] Duke cried to himself.
"N-Not at all milady! Sir Duke has proven quite resistant to hunger, you know! Even during our siege against the bandits, sir Duke strictly refrained from overindulging in food as we rationed the few rations we had!" Bran overzealously praised Duke in front of Vivian. As expected of one of Duke's crazed fans.
[Uhum~ that's right! Preach it Bran!] Duke proudly nodded to the side, content with Bran's praises.
"Yes, milord even earned the nickname Dragon Belly! Due to his belly's constant roar-like grumbling! It was as if a Dragon itself was contained inside milord!" Bran's eyes genuinely twinkled in admiration.
"Pfftt! Hahaha, Dragon Belly?! What the hell! Hahaha" Vivian burst out laughing as question marks began appearing on Bran.
"D-Did you have to tell her that?!" Duke's flushed red in embarrassment.
"What's wrong milord? What's so funny milady?"
*Sigh* Sadly, Duke just could stay angry at his oblivious friend whose face was releasing question marks everywhere.
"Is something funny?" Bran continued to be confused while Vivian continued giggling at Bran's denseness.
As the three continued to walk, seeing Bran make Vivian laugh gave Duke a complicated feeling.
On one hand, he got to see Vivian laugh. While on the other hand, it was another man making her happy... [Plus! On my expense too!] Duke grumbled to himself.
[Huu... it's your win today sir Bran. Tsk tsk tsk Touche!] Duke helplessly thought to himself.
*Ting* But then, a smart idea came to Duke.
Smelling the ocean breeze, and feeling that the shoreline where Duke was going to take Vivian to was nearby.
Duke suddenly picked up Vivian with both his hands as he quickly carried her out of the thin forest they were walking through.
"E-Eh?! Duke? Why are you suddenly picking me up?" Vivian asked, slightly flushed from Duke's show of sudden gusto.
"We took too long to reach this place, we might not reach home in time for dinner! Gehehe" Duke smoothly carried Vivian like a princess into the sunset.
"M-Milord! Milady! Wait for me~!" Bran also ran after them.
[Gehehe! See that Bran?! You might've won the battle, but today's war is my WIN! HO HO HO~] Duke happily thought to himself, although it was really only him who thought there was a competition in the first place.
Vivian tightly clung onto Duke, his once chubby and soft body now showed signs of hardening and muscle growth.
[Was Duke always this strong?] Vivian asked herself as she closed her eyes and rested her head onto Duke's shoulder.
Although tense at first, as this was probably the first time a person she considered part of the other gender was holding onto her so tightly, Vivian slowly managed to finally relax her self.
Vivian felt the wind on her hair while the boy who had trouble even climbing a small hill was now a man who quickly dashed through the thin forest.
Duke had changed, Vivian thought to herself.
[And being carried like this doesn't feel too bad...] Vivian thought to herself.
Duke took Vivian and Bran through a thin forest that led to a shoreline just outside of Maine's grand yet crumbling outer wall, as the Wall Repairs had yet to reach the walls on the shorelines of Maine.
On this shoreline was a small storage room and 3-5 workers manning the secret facility Duke made along with Galleo.
"What's all this?" Vivian asked Duke as she went down from his arms.
"Hehe, remember when Galleo and I talked about this Evaporation thingy last month?" Duke explained to Vivian.
"Yeah, what about it?" Vivian asked, skeptical of Duke's claims that this facility he's going to show her would produce money as Duke had claimed.
"So~ I thought to myself: If Galleo could remove water from the cup, and leave only sugar behind... Then I thought: Hey! Sugar and Salt are pretty similar in texture right?! And sea water's pretty salty right?! What if we can get salt from seawater!" Duke roughly explained to Vivian.
"Yeah? And?" Vivian continued to be skeptical, but she let Duke take her hand as he guided her to one of the dugout holes on to the beach.
Normally, at this point after all this tedious walking, Vivian would've already lashed out at Duke for wasting her time. But this time she was weirdly patient...
[O-Ofcourse this isn't because he h-held my hand or anything!] Vivian continued to blush due to her hand being held by Duke
She thought to herself: [No no no... What the hell am I imagining?! This is just normal things friends do, right? Y-Yeah, there's no meaning behind this... I mean anyone can hold hands haha ha...]
Vivian tried hard to justify to herself the reason behind her loudly beating heart.
Continuously trying to calm it down.
But her heart palpitated even stronger when she saw Duke scoop out a handful of white sand.
"Hehe, it turned out I was right... The sea did have salt!" Duke proudly proclaimed.
And as Vivian tasted the sand the Duke had scooped out, she couldn't help releasing a victorious smile.
Standing there on the beach next to the chubby man next to her, Vivian couldn't help but think to herself:
[I'm standing on a footnote in history...]