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   Seraing was putting away his notebooks into the table’s drawer, making the last adjustments in his office. He looked up in his room.

   There were two big windows, and the sun was peeking into the room with its early morning lights, but it only saw tidiness and some kind of emptiness here. Seraing didn’t have any personal stuff in his office: just a few cabinets, where he put some books; a big desk, two chairs in front of them and one on the other side. There was a board behind him on the wall with the Social Club’s most important rules… and that was really it. Oh, he had a nice rug as well in the room. Actually, he wanted to have a sofa and some other chairs, but he never got them in the end.

   Only his tablet remained from his personal belongings, it was lying in front of him on the table. In the last two years, since he decided to establish this Social Club, he worked really hard to get to this point. They were not far away from his residence and the Magnetic Field Center; they had offices for every single ex-Judge who called themselves Helpers now; they had resting rooms and owned a cafeteria, that was run by one of his Helpers – she was the one who gave Seraing all the candies and snacks in the past too; she was good in making breakfast and many kinds of beverages and juices. So their facility was finally set on track: everything worked smoothly.

   Seraing looked down at his tablet and smiled. He opened his emails, to just see the last messages he had.

   In the end, they couldn’t talk that much with Jibran in these two years. Jibran, not long after the drunk-call, got his first shot of the extract that had helped him to grow limbs. His messages were very rare, sometimes extremely short – in those times when he was bedridden, only Mr Jones kept Seraing updated on the doctor’s situation. Just in the last couple of months, he started to come back – and his change of confidence was shining through his words.

   Mr Jones was a more frequent texting partner. Despite how he said, he was too old for texts, they talked almost every day and sometimes quite long. They had many things in common – and helping people was definitely the core of their soul. Mr Jones helped him through how to establish this new facility, and how to structure a working place, that can benefit all his subordinates in the long run. He was the reason why their Social Club wasn’t just a bunch of people going around and helping people, but actually an agency that had rules and fully paid members. At least, fully paid by those honourable things like food, necessities or favours. They didn’t use money anymore. There was no point.

   He had one email that he sent to Jibran a few days ago, and he frequently went back to check if he got an answer. Jibran in these days didn’t disappear anymore as often, but now he wasn’t replying. Maybe Seraing was a bit too short. He felt so curious about what he was thinking. Should he clarify things in another email, perhaps?

   He was about to sit down when he heard someone clicking with his tongue in his doorway. He looked up, and smiled at the tall man, leaning to the stile, clad in white uniform with golden epaulettes, crossing his arms in front of his chest, and shooting a sharp look at him.

 “Admiral.” Seraing nodded.

 “You’re still calling me Admiral… I told you to call me by my name.” The man murmured. His tone was not the usual overconfident, overdramatic and self-indulgent one that he used in public, but lower and more direct. He was speaking to him like a friend or comrade now, not a boss. Seraing’s smile was unchanging.

 “I apologise.” He said earnestly. “I’m not comfortable calling others by their names. I know there is no need to be formal with you since we are close. But I just can’t. There is only one person I feel comfortable with using his name or nicknames for him.”

 “Don’t tell me it’s your Colonel.” The Admiral said with a slight sarcasm in his voice. “You haven’t seen him in a while, can’t you just move on?”

Seraing frowned with honest confusion.

 “My Colonel?” He asked back emphasising the adjective. “Admiral, I think you misunderstood some things. My partner is not the Colonel, it’s Dr Ji.”

   Now the Admiral seemed to be confused, as he was still staring at him as if he wanted to catch him lying.

 “I don’t get it. Why him? I thought you were with Lu Feng.”

How did he even come up with this?

 “Are there some rumours that I don’t know about?” He asked, a little bit frightened. The Admiral deeply sighed, and scratched the skin between his eyebrows.

 “I’m not even sure anymore. I heard that you were the Arbiter’s lover, but maybe some people wanted to do you dirty then. For some reason, that doctor had never occurred to me as your partner. You didn’t seem to be close with him. It doesn’t make much sense. And you still haven’t seen him in a while.”

 “We were quite secretive about our relationship.” He felt a bit awkward explaining this, but it was right at least. “I’m sorry. Does any love make any sense?”

 “Here we go your philosophic mumbo-jumbo again. Hah… Okay, I get it. I figured now. Well…” The Admiral suddenly stopped, and looked at his communicator before he lifted his head again. “Our guests have arrived. Are you sure, you want to do this?”

   Seraing smiled, and put away his tablet, slowly walking to the Admiral, who turned aside, and soon they were walking together side by side on the corridor.

 “I am,” Seraing answered in the meantime. His steps became faster. “I think this is the best opportunity. Someone needs to take them to the destination anyway.”

 “It doesn’t have to be you.” The Admiral answered in an instant. “It can be any soldier.”

 “I know it could be, but I want to do it.”

 “Seraing.” The Admiral suddenly stopped, before Seraing would’ve opened the main door of the building. The older man put his hand on the knob, and forced him to look at his face. There was no one in the building yet, since the day was just about to start.

   The Admiral looked deeply into Seraing’s eyes. He was a fine man. He had great features, deep blue eyes, defined eyebrows, sharp lines and he looked very attractive and charismatic. His hair was always slicked back, and his attire was also impeccable, kind of like the Colonel’s. Seraing always thought, this should be some kind of hidden etiquette for these powerful people like the Admiral and the Colonel to have certain vainness about their appearance… but now, knowing the assumption that the Admiral told him earlier, Seraing suddenly thought about it, what if the Admiral kept this look to attract and seduce him specifically?

 “You’re a smart person.” The man spoke, his voice got even deeper and he took one step closer to Seraing. Seraing stepped backwards… the Admiral was taller than him and now it almost felt like he was towering above him. Upon seeing his reaction, the Admiral took his step back, and something flashed in his eyes. “Yet I’m uncertain if you know what my intentions are. I feel like you do, but you never directly rejected me. So I guess I just want a clean closure.”

   Seraing sighed deeply, and closed his eyes for a moment before he finally put an end to this topic.

 “I’m sorry. I understood your intentions. But I love Dr Ji. I can’t accept your approach. I apologise that I wasn’t clear enough or if I made you hope for something that would never happen. I should’ve told you directly a long time ago. I just didn’t want to have a bad relationship with you over this.”

 “Even if you told me… even if I had a hunch, I would’ve still hoped that you would change your mind eventually.” The Admiral’s smile seemed unhappy and maybe a slight disappointment was showing in it too. “I learned many things thanks to you. You’re an incredible person. Alright, I’m not going to lie, my heart is a bit broken now. But it was clear to me that I can’t win against your special person. After a few tries, I was aware that you reserve yourself emotionally. I just misunderstood the person whom you like. I cannot be lucky in everything, sad, very sad.”

   Seraing was flattered enough to stay silent for a couple of moments. He did get these types of compliments a lot lately, but he didn’t care just for a few people’s opinions. And the Admiral was someone whom he cared for. He was a good company whenever they did something together. Seraing really took him as a friend.

 “Thank you, Admiral.” He said at last. “Same goes to you. I owe a lot to you, for your countless help with my Club, my work and with my favours that I had asked on behalf of others. I think you’re a very good leader, and the base is in the best hands, if you and the General are leading it.”

The Admiral smiled, but then he opened the door in front of Seraing.

 “Yes, yes, almost-Colonel-sir. I’m still butthurted, that you didn’t accept this nomination. No matter what, you could’ve just taken it.”

   Seraing only laughed, and both stepped out of the building. There was a very tiny yard for the Social Club – they wanted a patio in the backyard, so the front part was only a few meters to the gates. Outside of the fence however a transfer was waiting for them. A little crowd gathered around it, segregated into two smaller groups: one of them was a dozen foreign women, standing tightly together, hugging themselves, seemingly shaking by the morning cold. The building had blocked all the sunlight from the other side.

   The other group was the ex-Judges, the current Helpers, all standing in line. There were actually twenty-five of them, complemented by a few scientists and ex-soldiers, whom Seraing and his people were initially helping a lot, and coming up from their pit, they wanted to give back the help they got from them. 

   They were standing in a straight line, but Haoyu was upfront and the closest to the gates. As soon as Seraing stepped out, he also stepped closer and saluted. For that, all the other members had saluted as well. They all kept their Judge-uniform, with the glam and everything; they were all neat and good-looking, even those people, who usually didn’t spend much time to look flawless.

Haoyu’s eyes had reddened.

 “Captain…”

 “Don’t look at me like that. I’m not going to die.” Seraing sighed, and with a smile, he patted Haoyu’s shoulder. The younger man’s lips trembled, but he held back everything.

 “I know. I apologise.” He said in a shaky voice, and tried to calm himself with a few deep breaths. “I just… Will you tell me when you arrive?”

   He sounded much more like a little brother, who wants reassurance from his big brother. Seraing laughed.

 “Of course. But I’ve already told you this. Keep it together, Captain.”

   For the word, Haoyu shivered, but his face got a little bush as well, and finally, he smiled. That was a much better way to turn away from him; Seraing walked over to the soldiers and the group of women.

 “I apologise for the long wait.” He said with a faint smile, straightening his back and bowing his head towards the young ladies. “My name is Seraing. I will escort you to your destination. If you have any questions or need something, please, ask me.”

   The ladies were a bit surprised and curious; they all looked at him with excitement, despite they were clearly uncomfortable in the morning weather. They were all very pretty: Seraing rarely saw women from the Garden of Eden, so it was always very hard for him not to look at pretty women a bit longer. Long hair, with every kind of colour, waves, curls, braids, ponytails… thin and curvy bodies, in fine, soft clothes, not in military uniform, as he usually saw their own women.

   They all came from the Underground City Base. They were all fertile women, who applied to be transferred to the Northern Base, and some of them already found their home here – either because they followed their soldier-lovers or just liked this place. This group, however…

 “Hey, hey, almost-Colonel-sir, you’re staring too much. Are you telling me, that my three years worth of flirting did not affect you at all, but after one look at these beautiful ladies you have a change of heart?”

   Seraing felt a bit of warmness in his face; he did really take his time to look at the young women, and they were giggling, as they understood the Admiral’s word. Their gazes swept up and down on Seraing with a different kind of interest now. He sighed and closed his eyes for a second.

 “Admiral, your flirtation wasn’t really impressive. You can only blame yourself.”

 “Look at you, you little…”

 “It’s time to go.” Seraing clapped his hands, and started to wave around the women to make them walk towards the transfer. “We don’t get anything if our beautiful ladies freeze to death before they settle down.”

   The ladies got into the vehicle and one of the soldiers went after them, it was only Seraing now, who had to get up. He turned on his heels before he did that.

   The Admiral stood closer to him, hands in his pockets, in a careless and calm posture. Right behind him stood Seraing’s Helpers; all of them looked in their direction. Haoyu cried already.

   Seraing once again bowed his head, and then got on the transfer. He was the driver, so he sat in his seat at the front and closed the doors. He was more used to driving armored vehicles but buses were built the same, so it was not that difficult for him. He didn’t look at his people anymore; his eyes were on the road. It is going to be a long journey, but he never felt more excited – maybe in his entire life.

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