I nervously played with the new gold ring on my finger while everyone gave me and Luna knowing looks. Luna was acting almost as shy as I was, but her tail was smoothly wagging back and forth behind her while the two of us ate a breakfast feast the day after our wedding. The moment our wedding was over, Luna had dragged me through camp to the tent Celeste set aside for us to consummate our marriage. Just the thought of last night made my blush return. We had finally done it. Even with the sound-dampening magic device Luna had turned on, everyone knew we had done things together last night. The tradition was so expected that, rather than a wedding dinner in this culture, it was a next-day breakfast instead... The couple wasn't expected to finish up until the next morning.

  We're married now... Luna is now my wife. Every now and then, the thought would return, and I would feel so giddy inside. After last night, I feel so much closer to her. Any lingering doubts over our marriage had been washed away by the night we spent together. I turned to look at the gold ring sparkling on Luna's ring finger that matched mine. The golden band sat under her telepathy ring, the ring I had given to her as a token of our affection during our engagement. The two rings looked so pretty on her finger, and I felt a wave of possessive pride wash through me while looking at them.

  "So Miss Luna Miller. How did you enjoy last night?" Aria asked mischievously.

  Luna's blush intensified, but her smile widened when she responded. ("Helena is a very capable lover.")

  I choked on the bit of food I had in my mouth and started coughing to the amusement of my friends. Luna looked away from me coyly, but her tail picked up a bit of speed as it moved back and forth behind her. Thankfully, someone came to rescue me from the embarrassing moment.

  "I apologize for not having a better idea of the cuisine of your homeland, but I thought that a twist on the recipe you showed me might be welcome," Alto said as he placed a monstrosity on the table in front of me.

  I looked at the breakfast pizza he had created and felt very conflicting thoughts about it. It looked like a normal pizza, but it was covered in eggs, bacon, sliced sausage, and some kind of red sauce. I suppose I've seen experimental pizza before, but nothing I would have ever tried. I couldn't help but let out a giggle at the idea of it, though. Alto's take on the 'food of my homeland' was a nice gesture, even if it was kind of odd. I gave him a glance before taking a slice and transferring it to my plate. I gave it a few sniffs before taking a bite. It was actually pretty good, if strange.

  Rather than use the usual tomato sauce, he had substituted it for a spicier red sauce with a similar consistency to the sorta marinara he had used before. The bacon on it was cooked to my preferences, very slightly chewy, and I just realized it was quite coincidental that breakfast here was so similar to the one I had at home. I had never seen a pig or a hog here, so I did wonder a little where the bacon came from, but I didn't really want to question it either. Some things are better left unknown.

  When I looked up from the slice of pizza, I saw Alto nervously looking at me, and it made me smile. "This isn't anything like any pizza I've ever had before, but it does taste surprisingly good. I like the sauce you used in place of the other one."

  Alto puffed up a little at the praise. "I wasn't sure what kind of food a wedding breakfast would be for you, but I thought that this might work since you said it was your favorite food. I'm happy to hear that you like it, even if it is a bit non-traditional," he said with an awkward chuckle.

  I laughed. "Where I came from, we usually had a wedding dinner rather than a wedding breakfast, and wedding dinners would usually be things like steak or something along those lines. Breakfast is really similar in my homeland though, eggs and bacon, so this is already pretty familiar. I've never had a breakfast pizza, but it's pretty good. Better than the crab pizza everyone else seems to like," I said with another laugh.

  Alto tilted his head. "Oh, should I cook a steak for you then?" he asked.

  I shook my head, "No, I'm happy with this. Thank you, though. I appreciate the thought. Maybe another time."

  The catkin turned to Luna. "Would Miss Luna like anything else in particular?"

  Luna tapped her lip and turned to me. ("Tell him that I'd like a steak, if you aren't interested.")

  Chuckling, I relayed the message and Alto nodded with a smile. "Of course, I'll be happy to bring you a steak. Rare?" he asked. She nodded, and he was off.

  When I turned back to look at Luna, she leaned forward and kissed me right on the lips. I was a bit shocked, since she usually wasn't very affectionate in public, but maybe things were a bit different now that we were actually married. I returned the kiss, and she leaned against me with her eyes closed for a moment before going back to her breakfast. I couldn't help but blush at all the smirks my friends were giving me after that.

  Milana leaned over from the table next to us. "I don't know if I've ever said anything, but I think the two of you have always looked really cute together. I've never seen two women love each other as much as the two of you clearly do. Congratulations on your marriage."

  I smiled back at Milana. "Thank you. I'm really happy with how things have turned out." I reached over and squeezed Luna's left hand as she continued to eat.

  Aria grinned before leaning in. "So, I heard that Celeste was going to let you keep that huge bed I saw her soldiers put in that tent. How are you gonna carry that around?"

  I blushed again as I pictured the bed. It had been huge, large enough to comfortably lie in even while transformed into an umber hound. Not that I did that last night. "I asked her about it, and she said she would give me another storage ring to carry the bed with me as a wedding gift. It seems like quite the expensive gift, but Celeste assured me that she didn't mind, and they are a lot easier to find than the telepathy amulets she had tracked down. Especially with her access to uh, current materials available in the dungeon."

  Aria whistled. "That's crazy. Are you sure it makes sense to use up all of the space on a bed, though? That bed looked larger than four fully set up tents and bedrolls."

  I nodded hesitantly. "She said that the new one would be plenty large enough to cover everything in my current ring, plus the bed and my armor. It feels like a bit too much, if I'm honest."

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  "What are you going to do with the other ring?" Aria asked with a hint of greed in her eye.

  Chuckling, I glanced at Maxwell. "I was thinking of giving it to Maxwell, since he carries most of the dead animal guts around."

  Maxwell shrugged. "I would appreciate that, but I already have my expensive bag. Maybe Luna would like it more?" he asked.

  She smiled and shrugged. ("My fingers are getting a bit cumbersome as it is,") she said while holding up her right hand. She did have a lot of rings now. A fifth ring seemed maybe a bit much.

  Aria laughed. "Well, if she decides against it, or if Celeste gifts both of you rings, I'll happily take it instead!" The worst part is that I wouldn't put it past Celeste to do something like that.

  "I'll keep that in mind," I said with a chuckle.

  "Did your new staff come back from the crafters yet?" Piper asked Luna.

  Luna shook her head. ("No, they told me the lightning shards were a bit difficult to work with, so it would take a bit of extra time. They were confident that it would be finished up today, though. They uh, they joked that they would be sure to finish it up today as a wedding present.")

  Aria leaned back in her chair. "So are we going back into the dungeon anytime soon? We haven't been in there the last few days, and it sounded like Celeste wasn't interested in us going any farther than the third floor."

  Maxwell shrugged. "I don't think she wants us to risk going any deeper. With all the new construction people that came with the dragon princes, it looks like our job in the dungeon might be finished soon."

  "So what's next after this, then?" I asked.

  "It depends on what we want to do from here. We could go back to Ironcastle and work through the dungeon there. It's a bit safer since it's been well explored down to the bottom, or we could go somewhere else and try to clear a new dungeon. I don't really know."

  Piper glanced around at all of us before frowning. "Do... we need to clear dungeons anymore at this point? After we get paid for this job, plus some of the stuff Celeste said she would let us keep, we'll have a lot of money. Now that we've paid off our debts and gathered a good amount of money to live on... do we really have any reason to continue risking our lives at all?"

  Maxwell met her eyes and frowned. "I... hadn't really thought about that. Since we left home, we've been trying to keep up with everything... the debt, feeding ourselves... now that it's not necessary for a while, what should we do?"

  There was a quiet lull at the table before Luna spoke up. ("I like to explore. One of the reasons I was so willing to delve dungeons and hunt monsters was all the new things we could see. Even if we don't really need the money, I would still like to do that. Maybe we could pace ourselves better, not take on the most dangerous jobs possible, but I still want to see more of the world and the inside of dungeons.")

  Piper glanced at Luna's neck with a frown before looking down at her food. "There's also Luna's throat. Celeste might do something about it eventually, but maybe we should still save for it, or go looking for a strong enough healer ourselves."

  Maxwell nodded while everyone else at the table looked uncomfortable.

  I finished a bite of my food before setting down my fork and sighing. "There's something else... I've been wondering about the odd dungeon activity and the other strange things happening. I think it has something to do with whatever happened to me. I'm not going to push anyone to look into it if you guys don't want to, but I'm still curious about what brought me here and why."

  "Do you want to... go back?" Iris asked worriedly.

  There was a long silence while I collected my thoughts, but eventually I shook my head. "No, or well, not exactly. I don't want to go back if it means leaving Luna and all the rest of you behind. I did just get married. But at the same time... If something was able to bring me here, why wouldn't something be able to send me back there? What if all of us could go to my home and I could show you where I came from?"

  The comment garnered a lot of surprised looks. It didn't seem like any of them had considered this before. Luna's eyes were wide and her mouth hung open. I laughed a bit at her expression and she quickly looked away with a nervous chuckle.

  Piper glanced at Luna with a bit of a smirk. "You did just say that you like to explore. What would be more interesting than exploring an entirely different world?"

  I shushed her and looked around. ("Not so loud with that... I'm still keeping it a secret.")

  Aria leaned forward with a huge grin. "That sounds like a good excuse to keep going to me. I'll be honest, I was a little worried when you guys sounded like you wanted to retire early. I want to get stronger, not lie around now that we have a little bit of money."

  ("If we want to know more about the odd things happening in the dungeons and other parts of the region, our best hope might be to ask for a private meeting with Bellatrix and see if she's found any patterns. From what Celeste has told me about her, she seems to be fixated on all of the odd things that have been happening,") Luna said.

  "Would a dragon princess even meet with us?" Iris asked.

  Luna glanced at me for a moment before nodding. ("I think that Celeste would be willing to ask her for us. Bellatrix might be interested in firsthand accounts of some of the strange things we've learned. I don't know how much we can trust her, but Celeste seems to believe she's trustworthy.")

  Maxwell grinned. "I believe we have a goal in mind then."

  Hello! Not much to say about this one. More of a cool down chapter as well as a conversation of where the characters want to take things from here. I hope you enjoyed it, thanks for reading!

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