The Emperor-in-Waiting was staring at him in disbelief.

„How did you...?“

Aidan only sighed in response. It was just his damn luck – the spell was probably defective or it malfunctioned right at the moment when Aidan was passing through. Or there was no spell at all, and somebody had lied to the boy.

Either way they needed to hurry. Maybe Aidan still had a slim chance to be killed off.

He was of course being too optimistic. On their way to the exit they encountered only a couple of savages, and Adnan Minn's superior skills were more than enough to easily deal with them. Other than that, they didn't see anybody, not even the generals that came here together with Aidan. This seemed a bit odd but since he didn't see any familiar corpses lying around he assumed everyone was fine. 

By RPG standards the mission could be deemed a success – the key prisoner was rescued and seemingly no lives were lost in the process. 

„General Minn,“ he saw somebody waive at him. He squinted and recognized the tall general in the distance. Now that he wasn't dead, he really needed to inconspicuously find out the guy's name.

He made his way towards his fellow „best fighter“ and motioned for the blonde monarch to follow him.

„Oh thank Heavens, you found the Emperor-in-Waiting!“ the general exclaimed as soon as he saw the boy. „I was starting to worry that our intel was wrong – I swear, we looked up and down the whole fort and couldn't find him.“

„Where is everybody?“ Aidan asked. 

The handsome general frowned.

„Most of the guys are now busy collecting the loot – the fort has been captured. I think, we'd rather depart immediately without waiting for them. It's not safe here for the young Emperor. The savages might send reinforcements.“

„Did we have any casualties?“ Aidan asked.

„No, everyone's alive.“

„We took the fort with just ten people? That's impressive,“ Aidan remarked. 

„That surprised me too. But, as you know, savages are not particularly good fighters and they usually rely on their magic. Something happened today that suddenly drained all spiritual sources around the fort. So they were basically defenseless,“ the general explained.

Maybe it wasn't Aidan who was OP but rather these savages were nerfed? Interesting.

The way back went much faster as they were now riding the looted horses and not waddling through the woods on foot.

Soon Aidan was back in his room enjoying a warm bath, attentively prepared for him by an unknown benefactor. He would have preferred a shower but in this medieval setting he was glad he even got a possibility to wash himself.

While he was putting on Adnan's heavy combat attire and trying to figure out why would someone need three layers of clothing when one was perfectly fine, somebody knocked on the door.

„Enter,“ Aidan said, putting on his belt and hoping he didn't mess up too much.

His gloomy soldier came in. 

„Are you done with your bath, General? Can I take the water away?“ he asked.

„You prepared this for me? Thank you! It must have been quite an ordeal,“ Aidan almost teared up from gratitude. He wasn't used to people doing nice things for him out of nowhere. And here it was especially unexpected.

The soldier didn't respond. Instead he handed him a bottle of what seemed like red wine.

To say Aidan was over the moon would be a definite understatement. He quickly opened the bottle and took a sip. The wine was sour but strong. And that was the only thing that mattered to Aidan at the moment. He literally felt like kissing the soldier on the mouth right then and there.

„You're such a good friend!“ he said out loud.

The soldier gave him a weird look.

Too soon? Too much?

„A pal. Good pal. Buddy,“ Aidan corrected himself. „In any case I owe you one.“

„You don't owe me anything, General. It's my duty to take care of your needs.“

„Thank you,“ Aidan felt a bit bad. Like he was taking advantage of this nice fellow. „I'll help you with the water.“

„No need,“ the soldier shook his head. „I know my duties.“

Well then, suit yourself. Aidan was not going to insist. He finally got some booze and was looking forward to getting hammered as soon as possible.

After the soldier was finally done, Aidan could breathe out and relax. The good times were about to start.

He didn't manage to even take two sips when he heard another knock at the door. Aidan was annoyed but he didn't want to be rude to the nice soldier guy who was doing all this manual labor on his behalf, so he unwillingly said: „Come in.“

This time it wasn't just the soldier, though. Next to him was a young disheveled man, wearing all too familiar skimpy outfit. 

Aidan gave them both a confused look.

„General Kear wants to respectfully share his loot with you. He remarks, it's just for the night – as soon as we return to the capital all the captured slaves, as you know, will become the property of the Regent,“ the soldier explained, his expression unreadable.

Aidan was speechless for a while. Was this General Kear offering him a sex slave like it was nothing? What an asshole. He had to remember to stay away from that guy in the future.

Before he managed to say „Get the hell out of here“, the soldier was already gone, and Aidan was alone in the room with the slave.