Vincent had met many girls in his lifetime.

Even those who didn't like him at the start would become his close friends.

He had a way of worming his way into a girl's heart, and the process just felt very natural to him. Because of this, he didn't really mind if the girl was young, old, single, or married.

For him, being affectionate to the fairer sex was as normal as breathing.

But for some reason, he was finding it hard to read the two ladies, who were now seated beside Zion and eating the grilled fish that had just been cooked.

However, before they ate the fish, they asked a pretty unusual question.

"Who cooked this?"

Vincent answered that he was the one who cooked it, which made the two girls breathe a sigh of relief.

Their reaction was something that he didn't expect, which made him wonder if there would've been a problem if the one who cooked it was Zion.

'Is he a bad cook or something along those lines?' Vincent thought as he looked at the teenage boy, who was also eating the fish that he finished grilling. 'I'll ask the girls later.'

As the young man ate, he made sure to observe Erica and Sherry, who had decided to also camp alongside them.

However, when he volunteered to help them build their tents, the two girls only said that there was no need for such a thing because they would be sleeping with Zion.

Vincent, who was no longer ignorant of such things, suddenly had a thought.

'Are they perhaps his girlfriends?' Vincent mused. 'But Zion's reaction makes me think that they're not.'

The young man had already developed something similar to a sixth sense when it came to people who have a significant other.

Even someone who didn't have Vincent's expertise would notice the subtle signs of affection every time these people talked, touched, or even looked into each other's eyes.

When Thirteen talked to these two girls, he could tell that they were very close to each other.

But there were no signs of him showing them the kind of affection meant for lovers.

The two girls, on the other hand, were showing the teenage boy some affection. However, this affection wasn't that of a lover.

'A family,' Vincent thought.

That was the thing that he could see when he looked at the three of them together.

He could sense the absolute trust the three had for each other, which made him smile.

After lunch, Thirteen decided to go to the Ashford Clan's storage house to get a table and some chairs.

Of course, he had them in his Dimensional Storage, but people would become suspicious if he suddenly pulled them out of nowhere.

The camping gear was a different story since people could store them inside storage rings.

Tables, chairs, and other simple furniture were too bulky to put into a storage space. Wanderers had limited area in their storage rings to begin with, so it would feel like a waste to put impractical things inside of it.

After getting some tables and chairs, the four teenagers went shopping for the food that they would eat for dinner and breakfast the next day.

If Thirteen was alone or even with Erica and Sherry, he could just take out the food reserves inside his Dimensional Storage.

But Vincent was someone whom he had just met, so he wasn't too keen on showing some of his secrets to the handsome young man, whom he was starting to think of as his former Host.

The Supervisor, who had made things difficult for Thirteen earlier, found himself being bossed around by the teenage boy.

Thirteen didn't hesitate to ask him to get a large portable cooler powered by Beast Cores, which acted like a refrigerator.

Since the opening of the Dragon and Phoenix Tournament was still two weeks away, Thirteen would be spending a lot of time within the territory of the Ashford Clan.

During this time, he would discreetly summon his Parade of a Hundred Demons and allow them to scout the different battlefields and sabotage any traps that they happen to come across.

"This sunset reminds me of the time of my First Wandering," Vincent said as he watched the sun slowly disappear over the horizon. "When I was sent to Solterra, there were three other people with me, so being with you guys made me feel nostalgic."

They were all standing on top of a hill, admiring the last rays of light that were turning the clouds in the sky into the color of purple and orange.

"What happened to your friends?" Sherry asked.

A bitter smile appeared on Vincent's face as he remained silent.

After seeing the bitter smile on his face, Sherry knew that this was a question that she shouldn't have asked.

"Oh, they're not dead," Vincent replied after seeing the apologetic look on the young lady's face. "It's just that… we drifted apart after their sisters and mothers fell in love with me."

Vincent sighed, wearing a wistful "it's not my fault that I am drop-dead handsome, you know?" expression on his face.

Erica looked at Vincent weirdly before lightly patting Thirteen's shoulder.

"Don't grow up to become a scum like him, okay?" Erica said. "If you do, I'll roast you into an open fire."

"Sister Erica is right," Sherry said as she held Thirteen's hand. "Don't be like him when you grow up."

Thirteen nodded. "Understood."

Vincent suddenly felt as if he was being cast aside as some weirdo in the group. However, due to his positive approach to life, he just laughed it off.

This wasn't the first time that the ladies had treated him like scum. But what happened in the end?

All of them still became friends with him, and the majority of them became his friends with benefits!

"Let's head back before it gets too dark to see the way," Thirteen said before holding Erica's and Sherry's hands.

The three then walked hand in hand down the hill, making Vincent look at them with a smile.

'Must be nice to have unconditional love and trust,' Vincent thought before following the trio down the hill.

Although he loved many ladies and was loved by them in return, for some reason, he felt empty.

It was as if he was missing something or someone very important to him.

However, whenever he looked at Thirteen's face, he felt as if that someone was the teenage boy in front of him.

He was like the missing piece of the puzzle inside Vincent's heart, and he hoped that one day, that puzzle would finally fall in place, making him complete.

—------

(E/N: The author has the most perfect excuse to create an all-gender, all-creature, indiscriminate harem for Thirteen but he just won't.)